Episode 39 – Bests & Worsts of 2015 (Part 2, Adult and Graphic Novels)
The Worst Bestsellers
Worst Bestsellers
4.5 • 609 Ratings
🗓️ 4 January 2016
⏱️ 83 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tune in to our Bests & Worsts of 2015 episodes to hear us discuss these titles and read excerpts from our favorites and least favorites! Please note:
- We counted things that we read in 2015, regardless of publication year.
- We didn’t count anything that we read specifically for this podcast, so our worst books are aside from those.
- For that reason, we picked top 5 favorites and only 1 least favorite–we have this whole podcast to talk about bad books, so for these episodes we’re choosing to focus on the positive!
- Some of our “worsts” are really just “least best.” Listen to the podcast to hear more detail!
Adult
Kait’s Top 5 Best
5.) Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & The Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright
3.) We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
2.) Collected Ghost Stories by M. R. James
1.) Annihilation (Southern Reach Trilogy) by Jeff VanderMeer
Kait’s Worst
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Renata’s Top 5 Best
5.) The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
4.) Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder & Pamela Smith Hill
3.) Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
2.) The Unspeakable: And Other Topics of Conversation by Meghan Daum
1.) Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
Renata’s Worst
I’m Not a Terrorist But I’ve Played One on TV by Maz Jobrani
Graphic Novels
Kait’s Top 5 Best
5.) Kaptara by Chip Zdarsky & Kagan McLeod
4.) The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
3.) Wytches by Scott Snyder & Jock
2.) The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North & Erica Henderson
1.) Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick & Valentine DeLandro
An excerpt from Bitch Planet (click to embiggen):
Kait’s Worst
Locke & Key by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
An excerpt from Locke & Key (click to embiggen):
Renata’s Top 5 Best
5.) All-New X-Factor by Peter David & Giuseppe Camuncoli
4.) Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
3.) The Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman & J. H. Williams III
2.) Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona
1.) The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North & Erica Henderson
An excerpt from The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (click to embiggen):
Renata’s Worst
Arrow by Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, & Mike Grell
An excerpt from Arrow (click to embiggen):
* Worst Bestsellers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
(But no pressure, we’re also happy if you get these items from your local library or independent bookstore.)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the worst bestsellers, where sometimes we actually read good stuff. |
| 0:16.5 | I'm Renata. |
| 0:17.4 | And I'm Kate. |
| 0:18.3 | And this is part two of our book year in review, where we'll talk about our best and worst of 2015 |
| 0:25.7 | in the categories of adult literature and comic slash graphic novels. |
| 0:31.7 | Yes, and that would be adult literature minus Hamilton, which if you missed the last episode, will make you very happy if you wish that |
| 0:40.2 | we were talking about Hamilton more. Right. Yeah, we've segregated our Hamilton content as much as |
| 0:45.2 | possible into the Hamilton episode. We can't make promises that it's not going to just creep back |
| 0:50.2 | in a little bit, but we'll do what we can. Also, if you somehow missed it two weeks ago, |
| 0:56.4 | we had part one of our best and worst of the year, and that's where we did our favorites and |
| 1:01.9 | least favorite of children's slash middle grade and young adult literature. So go back and catch up |
| 1:07.6 | on that if you're interested in that at all. And the same rules apply to |
| 1:11.8 | this as they did to part one. So these are books that we read outside the podcast. And also, |
| 1:19.9 | there are things that we read in the year 2015, not necessarily books that were published in |
| 1:25.1 | 2015. Also, although we are going to be ranking our top |
| 1:29.5 | five favorite or best and the number one worst, worst sometimes just means least favorite |
| 1:36.9 | in the case of books where we've read a lot of things that we like and, you know, something's |
| 1:43.0 | got to be at the bottom of the list right so uh you know |
| 1:46.3 | you might have looked at this list online been like I can't believe that was your worst and then |
| 1:50.7 | you'll listen to us talk about it and it's like oh we actually liked it fine it just happened to be |
| 1:55.1 | like the least best thing that we read outside of the podcast all. And I guess we'll go ahead and get started. |
| 2:03.2 | I'll start with my number five adult book, which was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, |
... |
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