Christmas Gift Guides 2015 - Music & Literature

2015 was a great year for music and literature. For literature, Harper Lee finally published another novel. Although not as culturally transcendent as her first novel, “Go Set a Watchmen” with mediocre reviews still flew off shelves. In music we had  indie-rock heroes Sleater-Kinney come out of hiatus and release a new album, as well as a hip-hop album which will sweep the Grammy’s and undoubtedly be put on future Best Albums of All Time lists.

Music

• Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly (hip-hop/rap)

• Vince Staples – Summertime ’06 (hip-hop/rap)

• Lupe Fiasco – Tetsuo & Youth (hip-hop/rap)

• Rae Sremmurd – SremmLife (hip-hop/rap)

• Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (hip-hop/rap)

• Future – DS2 (hip-hop/rap)

• Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment – (hip-hop/rap)

• A$AP Rocky – At.Long.Last.A$AP (hip-hop/rap)

• Logic – The Incredible True Story (hip-hop/rap)

• Earl Sweatshirt – I Don’t Like Shit: I Don’t Go Outside (hip-hop/rap)

• Freddie Gibbs – Shadow of a Doubt (hip-hop/rap)

• Roots Manuva – Bleeds (hip-hop/rap)

• Dr. Yen Lo – Days with Dr. Yen Lo (hip-hop/rap)

• Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love (indie/rock)

• Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell (indie/rock)

• Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit (indie/rock)

• The Tallest Man on Earth – Dark Bird Is Home

• Wilco – Star Wars (indie/rock)

• Bully – Feels Like (indie/rock)

• The Oh Hellos – Dear Wormwood (indie/rock)

• Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy (indie/rock)

• Screaming Females – Rose Mountain (indie/rock)

• Moving Mountains/Prawn – Split (indie/rock)

• Torres – Sprinter (indie/rock)

• Josh Ritter – Sermon on the Rocks (indie/rock)

• Foxing – Dealer (indie/rock)

• [Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp](http://Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp) (indie/rock)

• Julian Baker – Sprained Ankle (indie/rock)

• Adele – 25 (pop)

• Carly Rae Jepsen – E·MO·TION (pop)

• Grimes – Art Angels (pop/electronica)

• Madonna – Rebel Heart (pop)

• Tove Styrke – Kiddo (pop)

• Florence and the Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (pop)

• Marina and the Diamonds  – Froot (pop)

• One Direction – Made in the the A.M. (pop)

• Justin Bieber – Purpose (pop)

• Ashley Monroe – The Blade (country/pop)

• Kacey Musgraves – Pageant Material (country/pop)

Literature

• Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
• The Small Backs of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch
• Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert
• All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
• One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway by Asne Seierstad. Translated by Sarah Death
• Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Sellout by Paul Beatty
• The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf
• You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Deckle Edge
• Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert Putnam
• Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Jerry Kaplan
• Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family by Anne-Marie Slaughter
• 33 Days: A Memoir by Leon Werth
• Why Not Me? – Mindy Kaling