Friday, December 31, 2021

2021 Reading List

“The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is better than a spoon.”

Umberto Eco--

January

1.     The Martian, Andy Weir

2. Steve Canyon, 1949-1950, Milton Caniff

3. Tomorrow’s Kin, Nancy Kress

4. The Marvel Legacy of Jack Kirby, ed. Brian Overton

5. A Big Storm Knocked It Over^, Laurie Colwin

6. Music: A Fold-Out Graphic History, Nicolas O’Neill, 

Susan Hayes & Ruby Taylor

7. Altered Carbon, Richard K. Morgan

8. Sabrina, Nick Drnaso

9. The Man In The High Castle, Philip K. Dick

10. Brune Hogarth’s Lord of the Jungle, Brune Hogarth

11. Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object^, Laurie Colwin

12. Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin

13. The Unfinished Presidency, Jimmy Carter’s Journey

Beyond the White House, Douglas Brinkley

14. Crazy Blood, T. Jefferson Parker


February

15. Dead Lies Dreaming, Charles Stross

16. The Last Good Guy, T. Jefferson Parker

17. Skim Deep, Max Allan Collins

18. The Lone Pilgrim^, Laurie Colwin

19. Then She Vanished, T. Jefferson Parker.

20. The Dream Is Real, My Life on the Airwaves,

Bob Davis & Jeff Bollig

21. The Library of Graphic Novelists: Will Eisner,

Robert Greenberger

22. The Library of Graphic Novelists: Neil Gaiman,

Steven P. Olson

23. Family Happiness, Laurie Colwin

24. Godric^, Frederick Buechner

25. The Winter of Frankie Machine, Don Winslow

26. Three Hearts and Three Lions, Paul Anderson

27. Changing Planes, Ursula K. LeGuin

28. Satori, Don Winslow


March

29. Another Marvelous Thing, Laurie Colwin

30. How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan

31. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay^, 

        Michael Chabon

32. Brendan^, Frederick Buechner

33. My Ántonia^, Willa Cather

34. Echo House^, Ward Just

35. A Marvelous Life, The Amazing Story of Stan Lee, 

        Danny Fingeroth

36. The Ice Harvest, Scott Phillips

37. Not Dark Yet, Peter Robinson

38. Way Down on the High Lonely, Don Winslow

39. True Believer, The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, 

        Abraham Riesman


April

40. The Many-Colored Land^, Julian May

41. The Finisher, Peter Lovesey

42. Wild Minds, The Artists and Rivalries that Inspired 

        the Golden Age of Animation,  Reid Mitenbuler

43. Gahan Wilson’s America, Gahan Wilson

44. The Golden Torc^, Julian May

45. The Library of Graphic Novelists: Colleen Doran

        Aaron Rosenberg

46. California Fire and Life, Don Winslow

47. The Non-Born King^, Julian May

48. Dark Sky,  C.J. Box


May

49. Invisible Men, The Trailblazing Black Artists of 

        Comic Books, Ken Quattro

50. The Adversary, Julian May

51. Smoke, Joe Ide

52. The Night Always Comes, Willy Vlautin

53. Machers and Rockers, Rich Cohen

54. Win, Harlan Coben

55. The Big Bang, Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins

56. The Library of Graphic Novelists: Joe Sacco, 

        Monica Marshall

57. The Dead Hour, Denise Mina


June

58. Intervention^, Julian May

59. I Feel So Good, The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy,

Bob Riesman

60. Jack the Bodiless^, Julian May

61. The Secret to Superhuman Strength, Alison Bechdel

62. Diamond Mask^, Julian May

63. Magnificat^, Julian May

64. The House In France, Gully Wells


July

65. How Lucky, Will Leitch

66. Big Hair and Plastic Grass, Dan Epstein

67. Theories of Everything, Roz Chast

68. The Sweetness of Water, Nathan Harris

69. The Heathens, Ace Atkins

70. The Cover Wife, Dan Fesperman


August

71. Dream Girl, Laura Lippman

72. I Ain’t Studdin’ Ya, My American Blues Story, Bobby Rush

73. Blood Grove, Walter Mosley

74. The Night Gate, Peter May

75. The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, Richard Flanagan

76. Blacktop Wasteland, S.A. Cosby

77. The Lamplighters, Emma Stonex

78. Monsters, Barry Windsor Smith

79. Razorblade Tears, S.A. Cosby


September

80. Heavy Weather^, Bruce Sterling

81. In The Spirit of Crazy Horse, Peter Matthiessen

82. A Slow Fire Burning, Paula Hawkins

83. Matrix, Lauren Groff

84. Harlem Shuffle, Colson Whitehead

85. Black Smoke, African Americans and the United States of 

        Barbecue, Adrian Miller

86. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers


October

87. When Ghosts Come Home, Wiley Cash

88. The Speckled Beauty, A Dog and His People, Rick Bragg

89. Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead

90. The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles

91. Poet Warrior, Joy Harjo

92. Daughter of the Morning Star, Craig Johnson

93. Run, John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, L. Fury & Nate Powell.

94. Bewilderment, Richard Powers

95. Oh William!, Elizabeth Strout

96. Silverview, John Le Carré

97. All of the Marvels, Douglas Wolk


November

98. Billy Summers, Stephen King

99. Guarded By Dragons, Rick Gekoski

100. Crossroads, Jonathan Franzen

101. Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr

102. On Animals, Susan Orlean

103. The Dark Hours, Michael Connelly.

104. Better Off Dead, Lee & Andrew Child


December

105. The Judge’s List, John Grisham

106. The Magician, Colm Tóibín

107. Hell of a Book, Jason Mott.

108. The Madness of Crowds, Louise Penny

109. The Sentence, Louise Erdrich

110. Rizzio, Denise Mina

111. The Marvel Art of Joe Quesada, Joe Quesada

112. Savages, Don Winslow.


^ Re-read


“To be truthful, I always wanted to write about a dog with a story to tell. I think a lot of writers do, the ones who have a soul; the rest are cat people, I suppose.”

Rick Bragg

The Speckled Beauty

A Dog and His People



“(Sunday) Strips . . . show the Metropolis Marvel in a predicament familiar to longtime Superman readers: super-obesity.  (DC editor Mort) Weisinger, bald and overweight, was famously self-loathing about his appearance.  It’s no coincidence that, under his long tenure, the Superman characters presumed that the absolute worst, most repulsive fates any of them could suffer were getting fat or losing their hair. It was, in all seriousness, a bizarre recurring theme in Weisinger’s books.”

Mark Waid, in an introduction of The Atomic Age Superman

(featuring 13 Super Sunday Adventures, 1956 to 1959.



“To lend each other a hand when we’re falling . . . Perhaps that’s the only work that matters in the end.”

Brendan by Frederik Buechner


“You can’t get over things you do to other people as easily as you can get over things they do to you”

Louise Erdrich

The Sentence


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