I’ve been a bit behind on mentioning the 2015 Tournament of Books. The contestants were announced last month. As usual, here’s the list with a three star rating system for those I've read: ☆ - not worthy, ☆☆ - good, ★★★ - great.

• Silence Once Begun by Jesse Ball ☆☆
• A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall by Will Chancellor ☆
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr ★★★
• Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
• An Untamed State by Roxane Gay ★★★
• Wittgenstein Jr by Lars Iyer
• A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
• Redeployment by Phil Klay
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel ☆☆
• The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell ★★★
• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng ☆☆
• Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill ★★★
• Adam by Ariel Schrag
• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters ☆
• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer ☆☆
• All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld ★★★

Thus far, my early favorite is, of course, The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. It's a fantastic book, similar in design to Cloud Atlas, but better. Both All the Light We Cannot See and Dept. of Speculation are distant runner's up. All the Light is great story, told in very short and easy to digest chapters, and Speculation is a funny, heartrending, strange, and ultimately redemptive story of marriage.