Best Books —
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
Chenneville by Paulette Jiles
The Wager by David Grann
Ann Patchett is an incredible writer, and owns a bookstore. What more do you need to know? This is her best book in years.
Lehane is the author of Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone. In Small Mercies he gives us a strong female protagonist. When the movie is made, someone is going to win an Oscar.
You may have never heard of Paulette Jiles. She lives in Texas, writes about Texas and writes about Texas just after the Civil War. In other words, Paulette writes westerns, which means the East Coast literary snobs regard her as a regional writer, not really worthy of your attention. Fortunately, Paulette chooses to ignore this. Her last three books, Map of the World, Simon the Fiddler and Chenneville are well worth your time.
The Wager is the outlier on this list. It’s non-fiction that reads like a novel. The sub-title says it all, “A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder”. Grann is also the author of Killers of the Flower Moon.
Lots of mysteries, thrillers and science fiction on this list — old and new.
In the mystery-thriller genre the Slow Horses series by Mick Herron is terrific. It is also a fine series on Apple TV starring Gary Oldman. It’s John LeCarre with a sense of humor.
I also recommend Michael Connelly, Don Winslow, S.A. Cosby and Ruth Ware. Among classics, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca exceeded expectations. And don’t sleep on Ross Macdonald and Raymond Chandler.
As for sci-fi, the sentient spiders in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time are incredibly creepy. Children of Time is the first in a trilogy. Another sci-fi trilogy worthy of attention is Hugh Howey’s Silo series. Yes, this is also a series on Apple TV. The first book is Wool.
Also recommended:
Historical fiction — Bernard Cornwell is simply the best. I absolutely love his Sharpe series as well as his Saxon series.
Classics — My Antonia by Willa Cather is a book I read annually. Anything by Dickens. East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Our Town by Thornton Wilder.
Non-Fiction — MCU, The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales and Gavin Edwards. The Rediscovery of America, Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk. Larry McMurtry, A Life by Tracy Daugherty.
Stories — Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty.
Finale — 108 books in 2023.
3,742 since I started this list in 1996.
