Each of the past two years I’ve recapped all of the books, movies, TV shows, and theater I consumed during that particular year (here’s my 2013 write-up and 2014 write-up). The genesis for such a post is an article I wrote for The Writer magazine two years ago titled “Filling the Tanks” about how travel is the perfect time to read and catch up on all the media you may not have time for in your day-to-day life, and that such consumption of books and TV may reward your creative endeavors down the line in surprising ways.

On that note, here is a brief recap of my media and literary diet for 2015.

BOOKS

This year I read 19 books (six of them were plays). This is less than the 27 I read last year, but I’m still proud of that number. I find that I read much more when I travel; it becomes second nature to pull out a book when I’m in transit or taking public transportation, but I’m less likely to build reading time into my routine at home. However during this fall when I was living in Brooklyn and commuting to Manhattan, I’d have a good 45 minutes on the subway (often standing) and when I realized it was easy enough to read during that time, it made each trip so much more enjoyable. I got through a 500-page book in two weeks while essentially only reading during my commute.

Without further ado, here’s what I read in 2015, in chronological order.

	Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel) - 4.5 stars The future of humanity looks bleak in this post apocalyptic novel set in various locations around the globe following a flu epidemic that has killed off 95% of the population and resulted in widespread poverty. But year by year, hope begins to emerge from the chaos and destruction, as evidenced by a traveling theater troupe performing Shakespeare from town to town. Gradually it's revealed how certain threads of story are connected, and the whole puzzle of characters shifts into focus. It's like Love, Actually... if most of the world was dead and those still alive moved into the airport.
	Nobody Is Ever Missing (Catherine Lacey) - 1 star Oh boy. I hated this book so much that I gave it a negative review on Amazon, and until then I'd never reviewed any book on Amazon. (I felt terrible afterwards.) But I had to warn other readers from making the same mistake I did -- if I'd known this story was built on meandering, stream-of-consciousness run-on sentences centered around a female character who can't do anything for herself, then I would have passed on it. It was recommended by an author I most admire, Cheryl Strayed, but in this case I felt 'strayed' in the wrong direction. Not even the fact that the narrator works in soap operas and leaves her life to travel to New Zealand -- gee, who does that remind you of? -- could save the fact that this novel drags and drags under the weight of heavy, meaningless prose. I really wanted to like it but no dice.
	Yes Please (Amy Poehler) - 4 stars A thoroughly fun read. I found it less engaging than Tina Fey's Bossypants, but that's hardly a dig, as both Tina and Amy have set the bar so high for all of their projects. Amy's words of encouragement through her own hard-won lessons motivate readers to contemplate their own lives in a new light of self-acceptance and to forge ahead with creative pursuits. Her behind-the-scenes stories from SNL and Parks & Rec are fun, too.
	How to Be a Woman (Caitlin Moran) - 5 stars This is hands down my favorite non-fiction book that I read in 2015. Caitlin Moran has been described as "the Tina Fey of the UK" and I heartily concur. This is a feminist manifesto that should be required reading for both genders. She examines aspects of being a female -- where certain expectations or ideals originated, how they've been perpetuated over the decades, and why we should consider them in a new light. Things like physical appearance vs. how someone is perceived, pornography, periods, pubic hair, body acceptance, career advancement, relationships, weddings, births, abortion, why you should and should not have kids, and contemplating death / our limited time on earth / after-life or lack thereof. That's a LOT, and she does it with insight and raucous humor that left me laughing out loud on every page. When I read books I underline important passages and later snap a photo of those pages so that in the future I can more easily reference them (all saved in a folder called 'books' on my desktop). On average I photograph about 5 pages per book. Guess how many pages I photographed from "How to Be a Woman"? Sixty-one. Because Cailtin Moran is a genius and international treasure.
	The Interestings (Meg Wolitzer) - 3.5 stars This book is a saga of sorts -- it follows a core group of friends who meet at summer camp (they dub themselves 'The Interestings') and stay in touch through their college years, then their twenties, thirties, forties... all the way up to middle age. We follow as they hook up, get married, have kids, and (in the case of some members of this group) get famous or go to jail. It's not the most compelling read but it grew on me -- after awhile I found myself caring more and more about what would happen to these characters. Even now, nearly a year after reading it, their adventures and life stories come flooding back to me as I write this. 'The Interestings' left its imprint on me. And as someone who connected deeply with her childhood camp friends, I can understand why that bond is so strong.
	Wonder (R.J. Palacio) - 4 stars Have tissues on hand as you read this tender tale about a young boy named Auggie born with a terribly disfigured face. The story begins as he is about to attend public school for the first time as he enters the 5th grade -- an age where kids have a tendency to be more cruel than kind. We witness his own family dynamics as his parents tend to Auggie's needs at the expense of occasionally neglecting his older sister. Perspective shifts from chapter to chapter to provide insight into the other characters orbiting Auggie's world, as those around him wrestle with empathy and how to see beauty under the surface. I think this is required reading in some schools now, and I can see why -- its theme of anti-bullying is quite powerfully portrayed.
	The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Lost (Rachel Friedman) - 3.5 stars I rarely read travel memoirs -- I find them rather tedious or frustrating, perhaps because I inevitably compare them to my own similar story? -- but at the recommendation of a good friend I borrowed this one. And it is fantastic! Rachel details her impulse to put college on hold mid-way through getting her degree in the States in order to move to Ireland and bartend in a pub. Then she spends months working and traveling around Australia. And then more months traversing South America after that. She emerges with enough material to fill this book with tales of adventure (and misadventure) as she navigates other cultures during her time abroad while sorting out what to do with her life, and what really matters. But thankfully this isn't a self-important book. I enjoyed going along for the ride.
	What the Butler Saw (Joe Orton) - 3.5 stars I read a lot of plays this year, most of them hand-picked based on shows I missed when they ran in NYC or regional theaters -- since I won't likely have a chance to see them anytime soon, why not read them instead? A production of this Joe Orton play ran at the Taper in LA a year ago and I was so sorry to miss it on stage. Luckily, its wicked humor comes across well on the page, too -- I was laughing in fits at various points. It's a British farce about a psychiatrist who attempts to seduce a woman interviewing to be his secretary, but then his wife walks in so he has to make something up ... and then a series of mistaken identity ensues resulting in a raucous chain of events that tumbles forward like an avalanche of comedy.
	The Elephant Man (Bernard Pomerance) - 2.5 stars I couldn't afford to see the Bradley Cooper production on Broadway last year... and I sort of didn't want to? I'm repelled by obvious celebrity-driven commercial Broadway runs, regardless of the fact that Bradley Cooper has a widely-reported personal history with this play. But The Elephant Man is an "Important Piece of Theater" and I'm a sucker for those. Immediately, this play reminded me of the book Wonder detailed above, about a boy born with a terrible facial deformity. The play is about John Merrick, based on a real-life man whose extreme deformations made him the star attraction of a freak show. Interestingly, the stage notes call for no prosthetics for the actor playing John; he must convey the deformities through physical contortions and it's up to the audience to imagine the rest. An up-and-coming surgeon rescues John from the freak show and takes him in for observations; during this time, a woman named Mrs. Kendall becomes his caretaker and shows John a tenderness he's not before experienced. I can't say I loved reading the play or came away with any revelations, but I am glad to add it to my body of theater knowledge.
	The Farnsworth Invention (Aaron Sorkin) - 4 stars It's widely believed that Aaron Sorkin is one of the great writers of our time, and this play is absolutely evidence of that. His sharp dialogue and carefully laid plot make this historical footnote about the man who invented television -- Philo T. Farnsworth -- completely riveting. In a unique twist, it's narrated in part by the man who made it his mission to bring Farnsworth down: David Sarnoff, the president of RCA who desperately wanted to prove that his company owned the patent to television instead of Farnsworth. Through a series of lawsuits, Sarnoff and his Goliath legal team edged out a win, but today's textbooks in film school give credit back to Farnsworth for inventing the medium. What's remarkable about this play is that Sorkin takes very dry scientific information about a cathode ray tube and turns it into back-and-forth debates lively enough to give an audience whiplash. Also of note -- Sorkin's decision to have Sarnoff narrate mirrors the role of Alexander Hamilton's rival Aaron Burr (also the narrator) in the breakout musical Hamilton currently earning rave reviews in New York. (I can't resist a Hamilton reference!)
	M. Butterfly (David Henry Hwang) - 4.5 stars This play is outstanding and I almost don't want to see a future production because it came to life so beautifully in my head upon reading David Henry Hwang's text. (Scratch that, I'd see it in a heartbeat. Although I wish I had a time machine to see John Lithgow and B.D. Wong in the original production.) Rene is a diplomat working at the French embassy in China when he meets Song, a beautiful Chinese opera diva. The catch is that Song is really a man pretending to be a woman. They embark on a relationship that lasts 20 years before Rene finds out the truth -- that Song is really a man. Throughout this time, Song has been spying on Rene for the Chinese government, and in the aftermath Rene is convicted of treason and sent to prison based on suspicion that he leaked information to Song. If you're reading this without having seen or read the play, you might think it's nuts (pun intended) that a couple could be together for 20 years without one finding out about the other's true gender. But that is addressed in the play, and this line of Rene's is meaningful: "Did I not undress her because I knew, somewhere deep down, what I would find? Perhaps. Happiness is so rare that our mind can turn somersaults to protect it." This play is based on a true story.
	Six Characters in Search of an Author (Luigi Pirandello, adapted by Robert Brustein) - 3.5 stars I picked this up out of total curiosity with no idea of what it was about, and it turned out to be the most supernatural and haunting play I've ever encountered. It was written in Italy in 1921 and this version was translated in 1988 by Robert Brunstein, the former artistic director of ART in Cambridge, MA, based on a production they did. Here is the very strange and original premise: a group of actors are rehearsing a play with their director when six people wander onto stage out of nowhere. They claim to be characters from a play, all members of a family (father, mother, son, stepdaughter, boy, child)... and they are looking for direction on what to do next. They are midway through telling a story and aren't sure how to finish it. Cue many "WTF?!" moments as the original actors on stage are unsure how to proceed in light of this totally surreal turn of events. But they all overcome the strange circumstances and work together to play out the goals and actions described by the six characters. The finale results in multiple deaths among the characters, and the original group of actors and director end up confused as to whether what just happened was even real. It's playing at 'A Noise Within' in Pasadena this spring; I'd love to see it if I'm still in LA at that time.
	Love! Valor! Compassion! (Terrence McNally) - 3.5 stars A tight-knit group of eight gay men gather at a lake house north of New York City over three holiday weekends one summer (Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day). I'm going to quote a review because this line sums it up perfectly: "Infidelity, flirtations, soul-searching, AIDS, truth-telling, and skinny-dipping mix monumental questions about life and death with a wacky dress rehearsal for Swan Lake performed in drag." I spent the first few scenes referencing the list of characters at the front of the play because their names are rather generic (John, James, Arthur, Bobby, etc.) and it took me awhile to remember who was who. The play is poignant and entertaining, and it rounds out the handful of major plays from the 1990's dealing with AIDS and the subject of gay men in New York City (in addition to The Normal Heart and Angels in America parts 1 and 2).
	Some Luck (Jane Smiley) - 2.5 stars This saga follows the Langdon family from 1920 to 1953 as newlyweds Rosanna and Walter set down roots on a rural Iowa farm and birth five children over a decade and a half; then we watch their children grow up, marry, and become parents themselves. This is the first book in a trilogy that eventually works its way up to the 21st century in subsequent novels Early Warning and Golden Age. I had enough trouble working up interest to finish this novel, let alone continue the journey for another 50 years of family saga. Following the threads of story through each family member ranges from moderately compelling to downright dull. The only unique part I remember now, over six months after reading it, are portions of the story written through the eyes of baby Frank when he is just a few months old; it's done in a clever way. I wish I liked this book enough to recommend it but it wasn't worth my time.
	The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins) - 4 stars I think this Hitchcockian thriller was the most popular fiction book of 2015 so you've probably already heard about it. I was lucky to stumble upon it in Portugal at a book exchange at a hostel... score! And it's worth the hype -- many people compare it to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, and there are definite similarities, most notably an unstable central female figure. Basic premise: Rachel is a depressed, divorced alcoholic who takes the train into London each day and pretends to go to work (she has been fired from her job but doesn't want her roommate to find out). During her train journey she's developed a habit of looking out for a man and woman who live within sight of the train line just a few houses down the street from where Rachel used to live with her ex-husband. She makes up names and a backstory for them. And then one day Rachel witnesses what appears to be infidelity, and a short time later the woman in the relationship goes missing and ends up on the front pages of London newspapers. Even though Rachel is no more than a looky-loo, she becomes entangled in the mess following a drunken night in which she recalls bits and pieces of memory... she was in the neighborhood at the time the woman went missing. It's a great thriller and quick read. Also, I read most of this on a train for kicks and giggles.
	The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories (Marina Keegan) - 4 stars I first picked this book up at a bookstore on the Yale campus where Marina Keegan was a student when she wrote most of these essays. Keegan tragically died in a car accident a few days after her graduation from Yale; she left behind a number of both fiction and non-fiction pieces that hold their own against material produced by more seasoned authors many years her senior. Her essay of the same title ("The Opposite of Loneliness") was written for the Yale campus newspaper shortly before her death, exhorting her classmates to live every moment while remembering that they still have so much time left -- I remember when it went viral many years ago. While looking over it in the Yale bookstore I couldn't bring myself to pay full price for it, but I added it to my Amazon wish list... and then while I was in Iceland, I noticed a girl in my hostel dorm room was reading it. We chatted for awhile and it turned out she was done with it and happy to pass it off to me. I love when literary stars align! Over the next few days of my travels I devoured Keegan's essays and prose. Her untimely death is such a shame; she undoubtedly would have produced many more great works if given the chance.
	Americanah (Chinamanda Ngozi Adichie) - 5 stars This is the best piece of fiction that I read in 2015. It follows the life of a woman named Ifemelu -- growing up in Nigeria, falling in love with her high school sweetheart Obinze, moving to the States to pursue a college degree, breaking up with Obinze and dating American guys, starting a blog about race that becomes quite successful, and finally moving back to Nigeria in her early-30s (the word "Americanah" refers to a person who returns to Nigeria after time abroad). If that sounds like a lot of plot, you should know that this novel's power lies in the quieter moments of observation when author Ngozi Adichie does not mince words in slicing to the truth. Even when parsing the nuances of race relations, which ranks among the heaviest of heavy topics, she does so with a nimbleness that demonstrates her total understanding of a complex subject and her ability to elucidate this clarity for readers. This book is simultaneously accessible and dense with meaning. I took joy in reading every page, often pausing to turn over a sentence in my mind so I could better admire its truth. I just picked up another novel of hers (Half of a Yellow Sun) and can't wait to dig into it.
	Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) - 3.5 stars I was excited to read this historical soap opera because it contains elements I thought I'd like -- it sounds like a history lesson disguised in a sweeping love story, like the way parents might sneak kale into a more palatable food for their picky toddlers. And it's got time travel, a tricky device for any writer, so I was curious to see if I'd buy what Diana Gabaldon was selling. It's about a nurse named Claire in 1945 who is on vacation in Scotland with her husband when she finds herself mysteriously transported back in time to 1743. She tends to the wounds of a stranger named Jamie and after a series of events they end up getting married. What follows -- not only the 800+ pages of this novel, but the ensuing seven books (so far) in the series -- is the love story of Claire and Jamie as they face the surreal circumstances of navigating a love story through time travel. It's very sexy and Diana Gabaldon has written many steamy scenes. My plan was to read this before watching the Starz TV series based on the books, and I am now very eager to watch season 1. But I don't think I'll continue reading the books. The first one hooked my attention enough, but I had some feminist issues with it, in regards to a scene in which Jamie has to beat Claire in front of his clan -- I can accept this might happen within historical context, but it's followed by a love scene in which we (the readers) are supposed to feel like something sexy has just happened between them in the aftermath of the beating. I question the author's intentions in turning a violent act into what is essentially foreplay. Aside from that, I just can't see myself getting sucked into this series, though I very well might fall for the TV adaptation.
	Us (David Nicholls) - 1 star I've saved this for last because it's the only book on this list that I could not bring myself to finish because it was so damn boring. I tried to get into it for weeks over the summer but couldn't muster any enthusiasm. At the outset, I thought it was right up my alley -- a middle-aged couple on the brink of divorce decides to travel throughout Europe with their college-age son on one last summer family vacation before splitting up. Will this trip bring the couple back together? It's not compelling enough for me to care! This author also wrote the book One Day, which I very much enjoyed years ago, so I had expectations that this would be similarly engaging. Sadly I was mistaken, as David Nicholls commits the worst offense possible for a writer: he's written a boring story. (Ouch. I hate being harsh, but honesty is more important in my personal reviews here.)

And these books are on my reading list for 2016, all carefully selected based on recommendations I received over the past year:

The Giver by Lois Lowry, Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed, The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Quiet by Susan Cain, 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write by Sarah Ruhl, Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid (my old roommate!), The Martian by Andy Weir, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown, Moranthology by Caitlin Moran, It’s What I Do by Lynsey Addario, and Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari.

Plus I have four books from last year that are still on my list to read: Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido, The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, and The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri.

I try to limit buying hardcovers so some books I’m eager to read — like Brene Brown’s Rising Strong, or The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty by Vendetta Vida, or Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates — will have to wait until next year.

TV SHOWS

I watched the most recent seasons of Scandal, Nashville, Homeland, Downton Abbey, Newsroom, Empire, House of Cards, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Bloodline. I also watched all of Planet Earth because I hadn’t seen it before, and now that I’ve traveled to so many of the habitats profiled in each episode it’s especially neat to watch — that whole series is so well-produced; the footage is incredible.

Scandal has disappointed me much of the past two years and I’m not sure how much longer I’ll watch. For my money, Homeland is one of the best shows on TV. Bloodline is a slow burn but completely worth it for the pay-off in the second half of the season. Empire is a total trip to watch; I enjoyed every episode in its freshman season. House of Cards continues to raise the bar each season. And Kimmy Schmidt is just delightful.

On tap for 2016: Outlander, Transparent, Black Mirror, Orphan Black, Broadchurch, Catastrophe, Master of None. Oddly enough, most of these are the exact same shows I wanted to watch in 2015! There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

MOVIES

Too many to count. In the first three months of last year, I probably saw 15 movies, all of them contenders for last year’s Oscars, plus many of the nominated documentaries, as well as the animated and live action shorts. My favorites were Selma, The Imitation Game, Birdman, and Wild. (Unpopular opinion: I hated Whiplash.) Since last March, I think I’ve seen three movies (all comedies staring powerhouse funny ladies — Spy, Trainwreck, and Sisters). I have yet to watch a single Oscar contender for the 2016 awards, but that will change when I get to Los Angeles next week and binge all of the screeners waiting for me.

THEATER

I saw 54 theatrical events in 2015. Theater is a big priority for me and I’m on a lifelong quest to study the depths and expanse of this art form. Attending a variety of shows is an investment in my on-going education. Below is a list of the plays and musicals I saw in 2015; I’ll spare you a recap of each one, but you can read more about them here.

• 45 in NYC (17 on Broadway, 28 off-Broadway) — Airline Highway / Hand to God / Something Rotten / It Shoulda Been You / The Visit / Guards at the Taj / Nice Girl / The Flick / The Way We Get By / Significant Other / Fun Home / Curious Incident / An American in Paris / Gloria / 10 out of 12 / The King and I / The Weir / Of Good Stock / John / Informed Consent / Fool for Love / Ugly Lies the Bone / Empanada Loca / The Humans / Barbecue / Spring Awakening / The Christians / Eclipsed / Lost Girls / Before Your Very Eyes / Sylvia / Kill Floor / Hir / Songbird / Important Hats of the Twentieth Century / A View From the Bridge / Daddy Long Legs (live webcast) / Steve / Invisible Thread / Hamilton / Mother Courage / King Charles III / The Color Purple / Noises Off / Marjorie Prime
• 9 in LA — I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change / Gabriel Kahane’s The Ambassador / The Night Alive / The Other Place / Trevor / Anna Christie / Sight Unseen / I and You / Tuesdays @ 9

Once again, thank you for indulging me as I recount this year’s media and literary diet. What were YOUR favorite books of the year? How about TV shows, films, and plays or musicals?

NOTE: I used Amazon Affiliate links for the book titles; should you purchase one, I’d receive a tiny commission. For the record I have yet to earn a dime doing this but I’m legally obligated to say they’re affiliate links.