2015 Year End Media Charts

Top Songs of 2015
Rank	Song	Artist	Plays
1	Weight of Love	The Black Keys	109
2	Kill v. Maim	Grimes	104
3	Thinking Out Loud	Ed Sheeran	101
4	Rule the World	Walk off the Earth	98
5	I'm a Ruin	Marina	97
6	The Sunshine of Your Youth	Cheerleader	97
7	Fourth of July	Sufjan Stevens	95
8	Shots	Imagine Dragons	91
9	Weekend	Priory	91
10	Shut Up and Dance	Walk the Moon	89
11	All of Me Wants All of You	Sufjan Stevens	88
12	Photograph	Ed Sheeran	85
13	Archie, Marry Me	Alvvays	85
14	The Scene Between	The Go! Team	84
15	Hero	Family of the Year	81
16	Uptown Funk	Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars	80
17	Daddy	Psy	80
18	Style	Taylor Swift	76
19	Can't Feel My Face	The Weeknd	74
20	I Love You, Honeybear	Father John Misty	73
21	The High Pass	Ozric Tentacles	73
22	Take Me to Church	Hozier	70
23	New Americana	Halsey	70
24	Yes I'm Changing	Tame Impala	70
25	Flesh Without Blood	Grimes	69
26	See You Again	Wiz Khalifa feat. Charlie Puth	65
27	Renegades	X Ambassadors	65
28	Waking Light	Beck	65
29	Angel in Blue Jeans	Train	64
30	The Only Thing	Sufjan Stevens	62
31	Number One	Tove Stryke	61
32	Happy Song	Bring Me the Horizon	61
33	Space Song	Beach House	57
34	Life of the Party	Shawn Mendes	56
35	Steal My Girl	One Direction	56
36	The Fall	Imagine Dragons	55
37	Blank Space	Taylor Swift	52
38	Stonemilker	Bjork	51
39	Go	The Chemical Brothers	51
40	Zenlike Creature	Ozric Tentacles	51
41	Savages	Marina	49
42	I Am	Awolnation	48
43	Should Have Known Better	Sufjan Stevens	47
44	Bad Blood	Taylor Swift	47
45	Somewhere Tonight	Beach House	47
46	Bulleproof Picasso	Train	46
47	Forget	Marina	46
48	I Bet My Life	Imagine Dragons	45
49	Morning	Beck	43
50	Change of the Guard	Kamasi Washington	42
2015
Top Albums
Rank	Album	Artist	Units (M)
1	Carrie & Lowell	Sufjan Stevens	6.5
2	Art Angels	Grimes	5.7
3	Morning Phase	Beck	4.3
4	Technicians of the Sacred	Ozric Tentacles	4.0
5	X	Ed Sheeran	3.9
6	The Epic	Kamasi Washington	3.6
7	Smoke + Mirrors	Imagine Dragons	3.6
8	1989	Taylor Swift	3.4
9	Froot	Marina	3.1
10	Vulnicura	Bjork	2.9
Top Books
Rank	Book	Author	Units (M)
1	A Little Life	Hanya Yanagihara	1.9
2	Elon Musk	Ashlee Vance	1.9
3	The 5 Love Languages	Gary Chapman	1.7
4	I Am Malala	Malala Yousafzai	1.6
5	The Martian	Andy Weir	1.5
6	All the Light We Cannot See	Anthony Doerr	1.5
7	The Hidden Life of Trees	Peter Wohlleben	1.2
8	Station Eleven	Emily St. John Mandel	1.0
9	Between the World and Me	Ta-Nehisi Coates	1.0
10	Radiance	Catherynne Valente	0.9
Top Movies
Rank	Movie		Units (M)
1	Inside Out		15.7
2	Mad Max: Fury Road		14.7
3	Birdman		13.6
4	Interstellar		13.3
5	Room		9.8
6	Ex Machina		9.6
7	Nightcrawler		9.6
8	Jurassic World		8.5
9	Trumbo		7.9
10	The Intern		7.8

All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr

In All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr orchestrates a heartbreaking story about the consequences of war. His poetic style successfully creates an atmosphere that is both dark and lucid at the same time. Few writers have the ability to make beautiful, nostalgic reflections about life in a time of war, but he's able to quite easily. 

At times it felt like he was trying a bit too hard to be profound, especially near the end, where every sentence seemed like a disjointed statement about the despair of the characters. It took the whole length of the novel for the two main characters to finally meet, and when they did it was only for about 20 pages. You have Werner, an intelligent German boy interested in radios, who feels totally out of place after he's forced to serve for the Nazis. And Marie-Laure, a blind French girl who lives with an uncle that candidly broadcasts important information across the English Channel to Britain. The focus on radio-waves alludes to the title of the novel; Marie-Laure can only perceive forms of light that are undetected by the eyes. 

If you're looking for adventure and action, this isn't the book to read. If you're looking for deep insights and descriptions, interesting character studies that jump through time, and an ending that wasn't written for Hollywood, then this is way up your alley. I was disappointed that Doerr chose to use some of the narrative from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and even went so far as to spoil the ending. He'd already gotten me interested in reading it, so why he did he have to synchronize its ending with his own? It took away from some of the impressiveness I'd had leading up the end, and may have affected my rating of the book. Granted, if I had already read 20,00 Leagues there wouldn't be any complaints from me, and probably would have made the book even better.