How Many Have You Read?

We're fast approaching yet another year end. And that means you know what, lists. Be prepared for lots of them. Best of music, best of movies, best of books and what not! Here's New York Times officially kickstarting 2015's best with their yearly 100 Notable Books ritual, and here I am with some of my top picks from that list, a list of list...

DELICIOUS FOODS. By James Hannaham. (Little, Brown, $26.) This ambitious, sweeping novel of American captivity and ­exploitation involves an addicted mother laboring on a commercial farm. 

THE FISHERMEN. By Chigozie Obioma. (Little, Brown, $26.) In its exploration of the murderous and the mysterious, the mind's terrors and a vibrant Africa, this debut novel is heir to Chinua Achebe. 

HERE. By Richard McGuire. (Pantheon, $35.) A corner of the living room of the author's childhood home in New Jersey is viewed over a period of eons in this graphic novel, which introduces a third dimension to the flat page. 

A LITTLE LIFE. By Hanya Yanagihara. ­(Doubleday, $30.) In Yanagihara's novel, four friends from college grapple with adulthood in New York.* 

THE MEURSAULT INVESTIGATION. ­By ­Kamel Daoud. Translated by John Cullen. (Other Press, paper, $14.95.) This rich and inventive Algerian novel imagines the ­story of the Arab murdered on the beach in Camus's "The Stranger."** 

DO NO HARM: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery. By Henry Marsh. (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's, $25.99.) A neurosurgeon's frank and absorbing account combines biography, descriptions of operations and considerations of policy. 

EMPIRE OF COTTON: A Global History. By Sven Beckert. (Knopf, $35.) A Harvard historian shows how every stage of the industrialization of cotton rested on ­violence. 

GUANTÁNAMO DIARY. By Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Edited by Larry Siems. (Little, Brown, $29.) A longtime captive has written the most profound and disturbing account yet of what it's like to be collateral damage in the war against terror.*** 

H IS FOR HAWK. By Helen Macdonald. (Grove, $26.) A breathtaking account of the raising and training of a young ­goshawk illuminates two complex natures: the ­author's and the bird's.

* Never have I cried so much when reading a novel. Probably living in New York City has given it an additional emotional heft I wouldn't have felt otherwise. A tour de force nonetheless!
** Albert Camus's The Stranger is my favourite novel of all time, so you can imagine why I would pick this one.
*** Currently reading, and keeping me awake at nights.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Owen Sheers's I SAW A MAN here, a fantastic genre-bending literary effort exploring loss, guilt and responsibility.

Get the list here: 100 Notable Books of 2015