“Staff Favorites of 2015” lists The Day’s features staff’s favorite releases, programs, events and other moments in the arts and entertainment world. As we can’t possibly take in everything that’s been released or performed this year, we can only call these selections “favorites.” Here, staff writers note their favorite books from 2015.

“The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes”

Anna McPartlin

Mia “Rabbit” Hayes is out of time. The 40-year-old mother to 12 year-old Juliet, daughter to Jack and Molly, and much-loved sibling and friend, has entered a hospice to die of a relentless cancer. Told from the revolving points of view of all these indelible characters, the story of Rabbit’s final days is one of the most remarkably and beautifully nuanced novels you’ll ever read.

The description would seem to preclude the idea that the book is hilarious — but much of it is. Yes, it’s also crushingly sad — yet that’s somewhat tempered by love and tenderness and Rabbit’s heroic efforts to ensure Juliet’s future. She also wants to bid farewell to all in a personal way and, in her own mind, reconcile the lost love of her life — rock star Johnny Faye, who died too soon. I’ll never forget the majesty and nobility and still-beating heart of this book.

— Rick Koster 

“A Head Full of Ghosts”

Paul Tremblay

You’d better have a damned great idea if you’re going to enter the sort of thriller/supernatural territory originally carved out by “The Exorcist.” No prob, sayeth Tremblay — or at least that’s how confidently he comes across in this tense, creepy and successfully engineered novel.

First, Tremblay does a fine job putting his own scary twist on “demon possession” plot devices. Second, he places a troubled New England family and their young daughters, the older of whom, indeed, seems possessed, directly in the vicious world of reality television, the Internet, and the dizzying tsunami of social media. And just because Tremblay explores the “How does theology and the Good/Evil dichotomy work in contemporary society?” question doesn’t mean he can’t scare the hell out of you. Just a really, really well done book.

— Rick Koster 

“American Blood”

Ben Sanders

Ex-New York policeman Marshall Grande — not his real name — has been relocated to Sante Fe in a witness protection program after an undercover gig in a powerful mob family went decidedly south. He should lay low, but something about a missing local woman stirs his sense of justice and he decides to find her. Not a good idea.

His efforts attract the attention of some seriously pissed off folks who enlist an assassin called The Dallas Man to take care of the problem. Meanwhile, Marshall’s search leads to a drug-smuggling outfit of former Special Forces bad-asses whose propensities include sadistic violence for the fun of it. With dark but oft-hilarious dialogue and a significant human touch absent in many hard-boiled efforts, Sanders and “American Blood” are great fun.

— Rick Koster 

“My Sunshine Away”

M.O. Walsh

When the focus of the first-person protagonist’s inaugural teen crush is raped, it rips apart the middle-class Baton Rouge neighborhood and summer’s drowsy tranquility. As time passes, four suspects are revealed — including the narrator.

Walsh’s prose is lush and his characters are beautifully human. Yes, you’ll think of Pat Conroy and “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the humid majesty of Deep South literature, but this — part mystery, part coming-of-age saga — becomes a wrenching story of misguided choices.

— Rick Koster

 “The Buried Giant”

Kazuo Ishiguro

One of England’s greatest novelists, Kazuo Ishiguro, published his first novel in a decade with “The Buried Giant,” and it did not disappoint. The author of “Remains of the Day” and “Never Let Me Go” returns to his familiar theme of exploring the meaning of personal identity with this tale set in the mythical, post-Arthurian England, complete with an ancient, creaking Sir Gawain and a dragon.

At the heart of it is an aging couple who are losing the memory in a time when a mist of forgetfulness has spread across their land. They set out on a hazy quest for a lost son — and for their memory. Yet the quest is fraught, since they both fear they may recall some episode in their earlier life that would threaten their deep love and devotion for each other. Themes such as the effect of memory on interpersonal love are the sort of universal thread that make this fantasy ring true, the sort of material that has made Ishiguro a central novelist in the English language.

— Milton Moore 

“The Book of Strange New Things”

Michel Faber

People talk about novels sweeping them away to another world, but few books have done that as well as Michel Faber’s “The Book of Strange New Things.” A minister is sent from Earth to another planet, where he lives on a base run by a (maybe sinister) company and preaches to the planet’s enigmatic inhabitants. While it’s frustrating that Faber doesn’t answer all the questions you want him to, he makes you feel as if you are actually on this exotic planet, and what a surreal pleasure that is.

— Kristina Dorsey

“Between the World and Me”

Ta-Nehisi Coates

This is essential reading. Period.

— Kristina Dorsey 

“The Girl on the Train”

Paula Hawkins

After “Gone Girl,” it seems any thriller with a female protagonist gets tagged with the word “Girl” in the title. This novel moves with a headlong rush and an interesting premise: a young woman is an alcoholic and wakes up from a blackout injured and covered in blood and with no memory of what happened. Great beach-read material.

— Kristina Dorsey 

“Orhan’s Inheritance”

Aline Ohanesian

This engrossing novel delves into the Armenian genocide of a century ago. Ohanesian is skilled at conveying both the overarching, overwhelming history and the individual human tragedies. In “Orhan’s Inheritance,” Orhan searches for answers after his grandfather dies and leaves the family estate to someone Orhan has never heard of.

— Kristina Dorsey 

“I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend”

Martin Short

I’m a huge Martin Short fan, and this was one of the favorite reads of the year. This memoir is an intriguing peek into Short’s life and comic creations, but it’s also a moving love letter to his wife, Nancy, who died in 2010 at age 58 of ovarian cancer.

— Kristina Dorsey 

“M Train”

Patti Smith

Poet/songwriter/performer Patti Smith follows up her National Book Award-winning memoir, “Just Kids,” with a meditation on creativity, grief and solitude. Her exacting craft and sure voice make for powerful story-telling.

— Betty J. Cotter 

“My Struggle”

Karl Ove Knausgaard; translated by Don Bartlett

Although some find Knausgaard tedious, he is a genius at immersing the reader in his point of view. In the memoir cycle’s fourth volume, the 18-year-old narrator wrestles with insecurity in his love life and first job, teaching in northern Norway.

— Betty J. Cotter 

“The Hummingbird”

Stephen P. Kiernan

Although the ending is predictable, this novel about a grumpy academic and his beleaguered hospice nurse rings true throughout.

— Betty J. Cotter 

“The Lost Landscape: A Writer’s Coming of Age”

Joyce Carol Oates

The roots of Oates’s strange, violent fiction can be found in this account of a sensitive child growing up in rural New York state.

— Betty J. Cotter 

“The Secret Wisdom of the Earth”

Christopher Scotton

This many-layered novel, the story of a 15-year-old boy who relocates to a Kentucky mining town, features vivid characters and a striking sense of place.

— Betty J. Cotter

“The Crossing”

Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly has written dozens of Harry Bosch novels, but this is like a debut, if that’s possible. In “The Burning Room” Bosch walks out of the LAPD for the last time. In “The Crossing,” he reinvents himself as a PI, working for half-brother Mickey Haller (aka the Lincoln Lawyer.) The change in jobs gives both Connelly and Bosch a much-needed adrenaline boost, and the end result is one of Connelly’s best.

— Tim Cotter

“Last Words”

Michael Koryta

Michael Koryta is on a roll reminiscent of Harlan Coben in his prime. A master at using setting as a character, Koryta places the reader deep inside a cave for much of the book. Think really, really dark and claustrophobic. Once again, he draws complex characters and involved story lines that will keep you guessing as you turn the page.

— Tim Cotter

“The Promise”

Robert Crais

I’m going to break the rules here a bit and include a book I’m about to read. I’m doing that after getting this email from my well-read brother Jack: “My #1 for the year. Not only Scott and his dog Maggie but Elvis, Joe Pike and Jon Stone. Loved it.”

I’m confident I’m going to love it, too.

— Tim Cotter