The Uninvited, Liz Jensen

In Jensen's new novel, The Uninvited, children across the world are committing horrifying murders of adults, while somehow sharing dreams and knowledge across continents. At the same time, protagonist Heskith, a pattern-spotting genius on the autistic spectrum, is tracking bizarre events of corporate sabotage.
Jensen's fantastic writing elevates her books- this was a chilling, thrilling, horrifying look at how the planet could try to shake off our civilization, and it left me reeling and looking into some of the ideas in her book. Her last book, The Rapture is still my favorite of hers, but each of her books stands strong and her unusual protagonists add so much depth to what could, in lesser hands, be a standard eco-disaster thriller/horror story.

This is Running For Your Life: Essays, Michelle Orange

A singularly talented voice.
Michelle Orange's propulsively readable essays take the reader across the globe, and through time, but always returning to define here and now.
Her writing offers insights both into pop culture, as in her beautiful and grateful piece on "The Uses of Nostalgia and Some thoughts on Ethan Hawke's Face", and into her own background, but always with a wider perspective. The melancholy and elegiacal "One Senior, Please", about her grandmother's fading days is both intensely personal and a wider view of how geriatric people are viewed and treated in our society, and Orange uses film to frame her experiences.
This is the kind of writing that makes one's hair stand on end.
Brilliant, thought-provoking, and memorable.

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation , Dan Fagin

This was a tour de force of narrative nonfiction, somehow going into medieval dye-making history at the same time as being as readable as a John Grisham courtroom drama and as gripping as any eco-thriller, with the additional impact of being a true story.
This was easily one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year, and one I've recommended to more people than I can remember.
A cautionary tale of pollution, company towns, and industry's toxic legacy, this wonderful book is a "must-read" for, well, everyone.

You Are One Of Them, Elliot Holt

This was the best novel I've read this year, easily.
When 2 young girls write to Yuri Andropov in 1982, neither could have known that their lives would be changed forever.
The narrator's haunting voice leads the reader through a tangle of betrayals and deceptions, through Cold War D.C. to modern Moscow, and offers no easy answers.
Powerful and memorable, this is an exceptional debut from a talented novelist.

Call The Shots, Don Calame

Wonderful, funny YA about making a low low low budget zombie movie.

Jersey Angel, Beth Ann Baumann

Young girl on Jersey Shore, lots of sex.

Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, Elizabeth Cline

Fantastic non-fiction examining the decline in quality of clothing, and the ethical and environmental damages wrought by disposable fashion. Really incisive, and although she was preaching to the choir here, I am newly resolved to stay away from poorly made garments, and will try even harder to buy American/Canadian/English or vintage clothing.

The Dog Stars, Peter Heller

Hauntingly beautiful post-apocalyptic adult fiction. Hig is a pilot who survived the flu that killed off most of the population, and he and his neighbor and his beloved dog Jasper have been fighting for survival for some time. When Hig falls apart, he sets out to find more people, and finds redemption and faith in humanity.

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

Excellent dark psychological thriller. Worst. Marriage. Ever.
Flynn's elegant style and endless twists make her one of the most interesting thriller writers around, and this (for me) tied with Dark Places as her best.

Seating Arrangements, by Maggie Shipstead

Set over the course of a 3 day WASPY New England island wedding, Seating Arrangements perectly depicts and skewers the faux-genteel world of the cashless pedigreed, where shabby rugs are a sign not of being in the red, but of being blue-blooded. Daphne, the bride, is pregnant- a disappointment to her parents to be sure, but marrying Greyson Duff makes up for her indescretion. Livia, her passionate and depressed younger sister, is reeling from being dumped by Teddy Fenn after making a very public scene, and their parents, Biddy and Winn, are dealing with their own choices in this story that spares no one.
Daphne's bridesmaids, temptress Agatha, silly Piper, and self-determined Donimique, and Greyson's groomsmen, his brothers Sterling and Francis only add more tension to the party, and sexual and social tensions escalate to an almost farcical level- almost, because the writing is so strong that the escalations feel inevitable, and even Winn's desperate attack on a gaudy neighbor's weathervane can be taken as a serious rejection of a world that has passed him and 'his kind' by.
Pitch-perfect, with memorable characters and Fitzgeraldian lyricism, Seating Arrangements is a book I will be recommending to many, many readers, and I will be eagerly anticipating Maggie Shipstead's next book!

Visit Sunny Chernobyl, by Andrew Blackwell

Excellent and interesting disaster tourism. Blackwell visits some of the world's most polluted areas, and tries to figure out what kind of legacy and meaning the idea  of "unspoiled nature" still has- given that it is ALL SPOILED, jesus christ, so let's look at the really bad things and see what beauty or meaning can be salvaged.
From the fishing in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to sightseeing in Alberta's oil sands to the foul sounding Yamuna River in India, he hits some amazing little-seen sights, and although his own personal heartbreak takes his writing off course, still a great read.

Broken Harbor, Tana French

Excellent 4th book in French's Dublin Murder Squad series. Set in a lonely, half-built "luxury estate" on the coast, Detective "Scorcher' Kennedy is faced with a gruesome crime in a place that has it's own harrowing memories for him.
So well done- the mix of psychological thriller and police procedural is brilliantly done, and her in-depth characterizations are wonderful.

In-Flight Entertainment, by Helen Simpson

Wonderful and heartfelt collection of short stories.
My favorite is the title story, but there were many stong ones among the 13 stories.
Each story is a snapshot of how removed we are in the western world from what is changing the planet, even as they soar above it. Turbulence ahead.

In Search of The Rose Notes, by Emily Arsenault

Wonderful thoughtful mystery. Charlotte and Nora were 11 when their teenage babysitter dissapeared, and they tried to 'solve' the case using seances and oujji boards and such, but as adults, when they get together again, they realize they knew more than they thought.

The Art of Creative Pruning, by Jake Hobson

Phenomenal and inspiring book. Breathtaking.

Pompeii, by Robert Harris

Wonderfully detailed historical fiction set in the days leading up to the eruption of Pompeii.

World War Z, by Max Brooks

Pretty much my favorite zombie book, and I read A LOT of zombie books.

Enlightened Polymer Clay: Artisan Jewelery Inspired By Nature, by Rie Nagumo

Beautiful and inspiring pieces. So many great ideas and techniques in this, this is one I'd like to own.

Enigma, by Robert Harris

Excellent tense thriller set at Bletchley Park during WWII.

Gilt, by Katherine Longshore

Great lusty bodice-y hist fic!
I loved this for it's vitality and the realness of the characters as written- I don't know enough about the Tudor period to have any idea how realistic some parts were (the maidens' midnight parties, for example), but the book was a blast to read, and actually left me really interested in finding out more.
I bet this might be an adult-crossover title, as it would be right at home next to Phillipa Gregory/Michelle Moran et al.