Saturday, December 31, 2016

Thoughts on 2016 Reading

Taken from a bookish perspective, 2016 was a good year. A very good year.

It was a year that saw the publication of books by Louise Erdrich, Ann Patchett, Maggie O’Farrell and Colson Whitehead. That’s all I need to say.  A year in which only one of these writers publishes a book is cause for celebration.  Novels from all four authors in a single year make me feel like a six-year-old on Christmas morning.

Yet 2016 was far from finished. There were new novels by Laura Lippman, Tessa Hadley, Helen Simonson, Ian Rankin, Alan Furst, Michael Connelly and Tana French. Plus, I was introduced to the works of Emma Cline, Megan Abbott and Noah Hawley.

Yes, I’m gushing, but in self-defense it was a year that warrants excess emotion (I’m talking about literary output only here).

The books I’d highlight are below, but first a preamble:
  1. These are all books published in 2016. I address books published prior to 2016 elsewhere.
  2. You can consider it a “best of 2016” if you wish. I think of this list as books that I enjoyed the most — some touched me deeply — and which I am most inclined to recommend.
  3. I do not respect genres. A good book is a good book.
  4. If a book doesn’t make my list, it doesn’t mean YOU won’t like it. Michael Chabon, Annie Proulx, Jonathan Safran Foer and the Smiths (Zadie and Al), all had books published in 2016. These are authors that I like and admire, but their books this past year left me wanting more.
  5. There is more fiction than non-fiction. That’s just how I read.
  6. The books are in alphabetical order by author’s last name. I respect these writers too much to try and tell you that someone’s book was better than another writer.
  7. There is no arbitrary number . . . the top 5 or top 10. I stopped when the books I liked ran out
Fiction
  • You Will Know Me, Megan Abbott
  • Hagseed, Margaret Atwood
  • The Girls, Emma Cline
  • The Wrong Side of Goodbye, Michael Connelly
  • LaRose, Louise Erdrich
  • The Trespasser, Tana  French
  • A Hero of France, Alan Furst
  • Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
  • The Past, Tessa Hadley
  • Before The Fall, Noah Hawley
  • The Nix, Nathan Hill
  • News of the World, Paulette Jiles
  • Wilde Lake, Laura Lippman
  • Coffin Road & Runaway, Peter May
  • This Must Be the Place, Maggie O’Farrell
  • Commonwealth, Ann Patchett
  • Rather Be The Devil, Ian Rankin
  • The Summer Before The War, Helen Simonson
  • My Name Is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout
  • Miss Jane, Brad Watson
  • The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
  • Another Brooklyn, Jacqueline Woodson

Non-Fiction
  • The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, Joshua Hammer
  • The League of Regrettable Superheroes, Jon Morris
  • The Word Detective, John Simpson
  • Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
  • The Caped Crusade, Batman and the Rise of the Nerd Culture, Glen Weldon
  • First Bite, How We Learn To Eat, Bee Wilson

Graphic Novels
  • Dark Night, A True Batman Story, Paul Dini & Eduardo Risso
  • March Book 3, John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell

Children’s
  • Thunder Boy Jr., Sherman Alexie & Yuyi Morales
  • I Am A Story, Dan Yaccarino
  • A Child of Books, Oliver Jeffers & Sam Winston

Books written prior to 2016 or How’d I Miss These The First Time Around?
  • About Grace, Anthony Doerr
  • Blood, Salt, Water & Still Midnight, Denise Mina
  • H Is For Hawk, Helen MacDonald (a damn fine book, read it)
  • The Indian Lawyer, & Killing Custer: The Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians, James Welch
  • Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels: My Brilliant FriendThe Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay & The Story of the Lost Child. (Take a month and read alll four books in one massive, joyous go.)
  • Rick Bass: I read several books by Bass, both fiction and non-fiction. I like his non-fiction the best, but wouldn’t hesitate to recommend his fiction, especially his short stories and novellas.
  • Craig Johnson: Thoroughly enjoy the Longmire series.  
  • I continue to recommend books by Bernard Cornwell, Jim Harrison, C.J. Box and Patrick O’Brian.

Classics
  • I begin every year with a book by Charles Dickens. He is the greatest writer in the English language. Sorry, Will.
  • Erdrich’s Love Medicine is a terrific book. No, it’s better than terrific.
  • Willa Cather remains one of my favorite authors. 
  • I was disapppointed in Brideshead Revisited and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. For Parade Magazine, Ann Patchett identified these two books as among the best 75 books in the past 75 years. Hate to disagree with Ann, but I’m not seeing it.
  • Sherri Tepper is a grandmaster of sciene fiction as far as I am concerned and Grass is an awesome book. This was my second reading, and only confirmed by affection for the author and this particular novel.

2016 Reading List

“You always read too many books . . . That can’t lead to any good.”

Classics
January – Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens
February — Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich
March — The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
April — Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
May — O Pioneers!, Willa Cather
June — The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
July —  Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner 
August — The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
September — Brideshead Revisted, Evelyn Waugh
October — Pal Joey, John O’Hara
November — A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
December — Grass, Sheri S. Tepper

January
1. First Bite, How We Learn To Eat, Bee Wilson
2. Batman Cover to Cover
3. Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens
4. Solo, The Deluxe Edition
5. Ronald Reagan, Jacob Weisberg
6. The Best of the West 4, ed. James & Denise Thomas
7. LaRose, Louise Erdrich
8. Moonrise, Ben Bova
9. The Past, Tessa Hadley
10. Girl Seven, Hanna Jameson
11. My Name Is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout
12. About Grace, Anthony Doerr
13. Minimum of Two, Tim Winton
14. Warriors of the Storm, Bernard Cornwell

February
15. Wilkie Collins, Peter Ackroyd
16. Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich
17. There But For The, Ali Smith
18. Quarry’s List, Max Allan Collins
19. This Census-Taker, China Miéville
20. Seeds, Richard Horan
21. A Killing In Comics, Max Allan Collins
22. The Road to Little Dribbling, Bill Bryson
23. My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante
24. Blood, Salt, Water, Denise Mina
25. Shylock Is My Name, Howard Jacobson
26. The Farm, Tom Rob Smith
27. The Noise of Time, Julian Barnes
28. The House of Twenty Thousand Books, Sasha Abramsky
29. The Doctor’s House, Ann Beattie
30. Milt Caniff, Rembrandt of the Comic Strip,
Rick Marschall and John Paul Adams
31. The Life of Elves, Muriel Barbery
32. Moonwar, Ben Bova

March
33. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
34. Runaway, Peter May
35. For A Little While, Rick Bass
36. Killing Custer, The Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians,
James Welch
37. The Indian Lawyer, James Welch
38. The Ancient Minstrel, Jim Harrison
39. Quarry’s Deal, Max Allan Collins
40. Coffin Road, Peter May
41. Ragnarok, The End of the Gods, A.S. Byatt
42. Off the Grid, C.J. Box
43. The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante
44. Quantum Night, Robert Sawyer
45. Blue at the Mizzen, Patrick O’Brian
46. Comic Wars, Dan Raviv
47. Patience, Daniel Clowes
48. Cut Me In, Ed McBain
49. Paris Stories, ed. Shuan Whiteside
50. David Boring, Daniel Clowes

April
51. Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
52. H Is For Hawk, Helen Macdonald
53. Schmidt Steps Back, Louis Begley
54. Return to Augie Hobble, Lane Smith
55. The Caped Crusade, Batman and the Rise of the Nerd Culture,
Glen Weldon
56. Return to Mars, Ben Bova
57. In Other Words, Jhumpa Lahiri
58. A Doubter’s Almanac, Ethan Canin
59. Another Man’s Moccasins, Craig Johnson
60. O Pioneers!, Willa Cather

May
61. Prayer, Philip Kerr
62. Gryphon, Charles Baxter
63. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Elena Ferrante
64. A Year to Remember, Jason King
65. Dodgers, Bill Beverly
66. Quarry’s Cut, Max Allan Collins
67. Art Spiegelman, Tom Forget
68. Wilde Lake, Laura Lippman
69. The Dark Horse, Craig Johnson
70. The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen
71. Rescue Missions, Frederick Busch
72. Night Heron, Adam Brookes
73. Stumptown, Vol. 2, Greg Rucka and Matt Southworth
74. The Sport of Kings, C.E. Morgan
75. Dead Man’s Float, Jim Harrison
76. The Sky, The Stars, The Wilderness, Rick Bass
77. 1921, Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg.
78. Thunder Boy Jr., Sherman Alexie & Yuyi Morales
79. The Blade Artist, Irvine Welsh

June
80. The League of Regrettable Superheroes, Jon Morris
81. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
82. Everybody’s Fool, Richard Russo
83. Peter Arno, Michael Maslin
84. A Relative Stranger, Charles Baxter
85. Workingman’s Dead, Buzz Poole
86. The Precipice, Ben Bova
87. Trinity, Matt Wagner
88. Commonwealth, Ann Patchett
89. Caleb’s Crossing, Geraldine Brooks
90. The Little Red Chairs, Edna O’Brien
91. Straight Flush, Ben Mezrich
92. Quarry’s Vote, Max Allan Collins
93. The Girls, Emma Cline
94. Still Midnight, Denise Mina
95. Vinegar Girl, Anne Tyler
96. Understanding Comics, The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud
97. Selected & New Poems, Jim Harrison

July
98. Adventures on the Wine Route, Kermit Lynch
99. Graphic Ink, The DC Comics Art of Darwyn Cooke
100. Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner 
101. Scene of the Crime: A Little Piece of Goodnight, Ed Brubaker
& Michael Lark
102. A Hero Of France, Alan Furst
103. Cousin Joseph, Jules Feiffer
104. Junkyard Dogs, Craig Johnson
105. The Summer Before The War, Helen Simonson
106. Parker: Slayground, Darwyn Cooke
107. Hell Is Empty, Craig Johnson
108. The Letter Writer, Dan Fesperman
109. Jupiter, Ben Bova
110. Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons, Gahan Wilson
111. When The Music’s Over, Peter Robinson
112. The View From The Cheap Seats, Neil Gaiman
113. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

August
114. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante
115. Smut, Alan Bennett
116. Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang
117. Charcoal Joe, Walter Mosley
118. Stray Bullets, David Lapham
119. The Cauliflower, Nicola Barker
120. Ninety-nine Stories of God, Joy Williams
121. The Three-Day Affair, Michael Kardos
122. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, Joshua Hammer
123. Heroes of the Frontier, Dave Eggers
124. You Will Know Me, Megan Abbott
125. Comic Art Propaganda, Fredrik Strömberg
126. Pimp, Ken Bruen & Jason Starr
127. How To Talk To Girls At Parties, Neil Gaiman, Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá
128. Jack Cole and Plastic Man, Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd
129. This Must Be The Place, Maggie O’Farrell
130. March Book Three, John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell
131. The 13 Clocks, James Thurber
132. The Hunting of the Snark, Lewis Carroll & Chris Riddell
133. What We Become, Arturo Pérez-Reverte

September
134. Brideshead Revisted, Evelyn Waugh
135. The Dead and Those About to Die, John C. McManus
136. The Children in the Woods, Frederick Busch
137. Eternity’s Wheel, Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves & Mallory Reaves
138. Better Dead, Max Allan Collins
139. Makoons, Louise Erdrich
140. Angel Catbird, Margaret Atwood & Johnnie Christmas
141. Dark Night, A True Batman Story, Paul Dini & Eduardo Risso 
142. The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead.
143. The Nightmare Stacks, Charles Stross.
144. Thirteen Confessions, David Corbett
145. A Great Reckoning, Louise Penny.
146. Ty Cobb, A Terrible Beauty, Charles Leerhsen.
147. The Mabinogion, trans. Sioned Davis.
146. The Táin, trans. Thomas Kinsella. 
147. Once Upon A River, Bonnie Jo Campbell

October
148. The Throwback Special, Chris Bachelder
149. Pal Joey, John O’Hara
150. Razor Girl, Carl Hiaasen
151. Parker, The Martini Edition, Richard Stark
adapted by Darwyn Cooke
152. A Charlie Brown Religion, Stephen J. Lind
153. A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James
154. As The Crow Flies, Craig Johnson
155. The Art of Hellboy, Mike Mignola
156. Imagine Me Gone, Adam Haslett
157. Before The Fall, Noah Hawley
158. The Best American Non-Required Reading, ed. Dave Eggers
159. News of the World, Paulette Jiles
160. Time Travel, James Gleick
161. A Serpent’s Tooth, Craig Johnson
162. The Nix, Nathan Hill

November
163. Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d, Alan Bradley
164. Sorrow Road, Julia Keller
165. Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood
166. The Trespasser, Tana French
167. Another Brooklyn, Jacqueline Woodson
168. Miss Jane, Brad Watson
169. A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
170. The Mothers, Brit Bennett
171. The O’Hara Reader, John O’Hara
172. The Wrong Side of Goodbye, Michael Connelly
173. Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
174. The Deer Pasture, Rick Bass
175. Autumn, Ali Smith
176. Nutshell, Ian McEwan
177. Barkskins, Annie Proulx
178. Wild to the Heart, Rick Bass

December
179. Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?, Brian Fies
180. Grass, Sheri S. Tepper
181. The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, Yann Martel
182. Zero K, Don DeLillo
183. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
184. A Gambler’s Anatomy, Jonathan Lethem
185. Night School, Lee Child
186. The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, P.D. James
187. The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye, Jonathan Lethem
188. The Flame Bearer, Bernard Cornwell
189. I Am A Story, Dan Yaccarino
190. A Child of Books, Oliver Jeffers & Sam Winston
191. Swing Time, Zadie Smith
192. Moonglow, Michael Chabon
193. Rather Be The Devil, Ian Rankin
194. The Word Detective, John Simpson
195. Here I Am, Jonathan Safran Foer
196. Quarry’s Choice, Max Allan Collins
197. Winter’s Bone, Daniel Woodrell
198. Murder Is My Business, Brett Halliday
199. The Undertaking, Thomas Lynch
200. Si Lewen’s Parade, ed. Art Spiegelman

Saturday, July 02, 2016

Summarizing my reading at the 2016 mid-point

We’re only midway through 2016 and already there are four books worthy of a “best of” list, and a five “notables.”

Those “best of” include novels by three of my favorite authors and one debut novel. Here’s the books:

LaRose by Louise Erdrich
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman
The Girls by Emma Cline

Erdrich, Patchett and Lippman are accomplished authors, who have written extraordinary books in the past, yet I believe that LaRose, Commonwealth and Wilde Lake represent the best books they have written. 

The Girls, the story of a Manson-like cult, is an extraordinary debut novel. It isn’t perfect, but it manages to be deliciously creepy.

As for those “notable” books, I recommend:

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
The Past by Tessa Hadley
The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan
Everybody’s Fool by Richard Russo
The Little Red Chairs by Edna O’Brien

Not to be missed, are Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, a quartet of delightful books. I’ve read three of the four: My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name and Those Who Love and Those Who Stay.

I discovered Denise Mina’s Alex Morrow series this year. I’ve read Blood, Salt and Water and the first book in the series, Still Midnight. It’s clear that Mina is going to provide me with many hours of pleasurable reading.

I also recommend Craig Johnson’s Longmire series. I am making my way through these books now. Like Mina, Johnson is a superb writer. Don’t overlook these books because they carry the stigma of the mystery genre. Some of our finest writers are working in genre fiction. Among those writers is Peter May. I read both Runaway and Coffin Road this year. He’s good. Very good.

Two older works of fiction that I especially liked: The Indian Lawyer by the late James Welch and a collection of novellas by Rick Bass, The Sky, The Stars, The  Wilderness.

I continue to read historical fiction by Bernard Cornwell, work my way through Ben Bova’s Grand Tour novels (science fiction) and devour the darkly comic noir fiction of Max Alan Collins. I’ve only a few Quarry novels left to read.

I read fewer works of non-fiction, but there were three “best of” published in that genre in 2016 (and one carry over from 2015):

H Is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald
First Bite, How We Learn To Eat by Bee Wilson
The Caped Crusade Batman and the Rise of the Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon
The League of Regrettable Superheroes by Jon Morris

H Is For Hawk is one of those books that you put in people’s hands and demand they read. It is difficult to convey how good it is without resorting to hyberole. Trust me on this one — read it.

The League of Regrettable Superheroes was the most entertaining book I’ve read this year. Unless you’re a comic book afficiando like me, you might not enjoy it, but then again it may connect with your inner nerd. (And, in complete transparency, I am also especially found of the book because I bought it at Shakespeare & Company, while on vacation in Paris.)

It was published a few years back, but I also recommend Killing Custer by James Welch. 

Two books of non-fiction I would avoid: The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson and Straight Flush by Ben Mezrich. Bryson is mean-spirited and Mezrich is lazy. To quote Ben Grimm, “Nuff Said.”