Three new and five old! I can share your enthusiasm for Marune and the first volume of Galactic Empires, those being the ones I encountered in my youth (the Vance as an Amazing SF serial, the Aldiss in a similarly battered secondhand (or more) condition at some bookshop or library sale. Should look into the others…
My favorite reads this year:
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (reread) .
Desert Star by Michael Connelly
City On Fire by Don Winslow
Sin Killer quartet by Larry McMurtry
Every Cloak Rolled in Blood by James Lee Burke
Book ,of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (reread)
Heat 2 by Michael Mann
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Cinema Speculation by Quentin Taratino
The Furies by John Connelly
Patti, I could have added more titles, but it gets too unwieldy. The NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW puts out a list of 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR. Way too many!
Perhaps not the best I read, but certainly memorable:
Frank Gruber – Outlaw
“Victor Appleton” – Tom Swift Circling the Globe (in which Tom and his buddy Ned mow down hundreds of natives with machine guns)
Charles Birkin – Devil’s Spawn (early grand guignol from the “Creeps Library”
S. A Cosby – Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears
Paul Trembley – The Cabin at the End of the World
Chad Oliver – Another Kind
August Deleth – The Complete ARKHAM SAMPLER (all eight issues)
Grady Hendrix – The Final Girl Support Group
Bill Pronzini – Dago Red
Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Mexican Gothic
John Scalzi – The Kaiju Preservation Society
Darcy Little Badger – A Sanke Falls to Earth
Doug TenNapel – Ghostopolis
Joe R. Lansdale – Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers (the novel, not the graphic novel, which I haven’t got to yet)
Jerry, I love your List! I occasionally run across an old Tom Swift book from the early 20th Century. Exciting, but not politically correct. Like you, I enjoyed THE KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY with the tricky gender of the narrator.
I’ve read and enjoyed many from your list, Jerry.
I used Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia for my book group last night. Very enjoyable and – by far – the sexiest book cover I’ve seen in a long time. George, it’s headed your way in the Christmas box.
Jerry has the best list, i.e. the closest to my own. I loved the two Cosby books, though I read them in 2021. Also read the Scalzi and Pronzini. That STUPID THINGS book looks good.
I read over 850 short stories this year. Nearly half of my total books read are in short story volumes.
Favorite (non fiction, then short stories, mysteries, other fiction)s:
Lawrence Block, A Writer Prepares
Ann Hood, Fly Girl: A Memoir
Chris Offutt, My Father the Pornographer
David Milch, Life’s Work: A Memoir
Martin Edwards, The Life of Crime
Stanley Tucci,, Taste: My Life Through Food
Bill Geist, Lake of the Ozarks
Amy Bloom, In Love: A Memoir
Roddy Doyle, Without Children
Bill Pronzini, Dago Red
Edward D. Hoch, Constant Hearses
Chris Offutt, Out of the Woods
Dan CHaon, Stay Awake
Scithers & Schweitzer, eds., Another Round at the Spaceport Bar
Nick Petrie, The Runaway
Stephen Spotswood, Fortune Favors the Dead
Jeffrey Siger, One Last Chance
Brandon Webb & John David Martin, Cold Fear
Paula Munier, The Wedding Plot
Ramona Emerson, Shutter
Chris Offutt, The Killing Hills (favorite book of the year)
Shifty’s Boys
Michael Robotham, Good Girl, Bad Girl
Richard Osman, The Bullet That Missed
Hayley Scrivenor, Dirt Creek
Michael Connelly, Desert Star
Shelley Burr, Wake
Fredrick Backman, Anxious People
Nita Prose, The Maid
John Scalzi, The Kaiju Preservation Society
Stephen King, Billy Summers
Emma Straub, This Time Tomorrow
Jeff, I was on the bubble with Chris Offutt’s THE KILLING HILLS and SHIFTY’S BOYS. With a nudge I would have added them to the list. I have Block’s A WRITER PREPARES in my Read Real Soon stack. I enjoyed Hoch’s CONSTANT HEARSES, but I prefer Hoch’s major characters.
Too many books and not enough time …
How many hours do you spend reading books every day?
I just manage a few titles of my “old” SF collection and then of course the news from all over the world.
Wolf, I try to read a book a day. I can usually read a couple hundred pages in the morning and finish a book after I go to the Pool in the late afternoon. I rarely read at night anymore because I’m just too sleepy to concentrate. So Diane and I usually watch some TV before we go to bed.
Ah, some great looking books there. I didn’t get the Harris art volume for Christmas, so I’ll definitely be getting it for myself sometime soon. Need to reread the first volume as it has been a while.
I didn’t read as much sci fi as usual last year, and most of what I read was rereads. Which was good, it was fun revisiting Scalzi and Asimov and Heinlein. I do want to get to more sci fi this year that I haven’t previously read. I certainly have no shortage of classics and contemporary books in the house to pull from.
Carl, I know you love art books especially those with SF and fantasy images. The Harris volume is even better than the first volume! You’ll really appreciate it!
Three new and five old! I can share your enthusiasm for Marune and the first volume of Galactic Empires, those being the ones I encountered in my youth (the Vance as an Amazing SF serial, the Aldiss in a similarly battered secondhand (or more) condition at some bookshop or library sale. Should look into the others…
Todd, I try to reread some Jack Vance every year. GALACTIC EMPIRES collects some wonderful stories!
My favorite reads this year:
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (reread) .
Desert Star by Michael Connelly
City On Fire by Don Winslow
Sin Killer quartet by Larry McMurtry
Every Cloak Rolled in Blood by James Lee Burke
Book ,of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (reread)
Heat 2 by Michael Mann
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Cinema Speculation by Quentin Taratino
The Furies by John Connelly
Steve, my copy of Tarantino’s CINEMA SPECULATION hasn’t arrived yet. Clearly, you are a fan of the Connellys!
I struck out with your favorites. A very eclectic list as suits you.
Patti, I could have added more titles, but it gets too unwieldy. The NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW puts out a list of 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR. Way too many!
Perhaps not the best I read, but certainly memorable:
Frank Gruber – Outlaw
“Victor Appleton” – Tom Swift Circling the Globe (in which Tom and his buddy Ned mow down hundreds of natives with machine guns)
Charles Birkin – Devil’s Spawn (early grand guignol from the “Creeps Library”
S. A Cosby – Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears
Paul Trembley – The Cabin at the End of the World
Chad Oliver – Another Kind
August Deleth – The Complete ARKHAM SAMPLER (all eight issues)
Grady Hendrix – The Final Girl Support Group
Bill Pronzini – Dago Red
Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Mexican Gothic
John Scalzi – The Kaiju Preservation Society
Darcy Little Badger – A Sanke Falls to Earth
Doug TenNapel – Ghostopolis
Joe R. Lansdale – Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers (the novel, not the graphic novel, which I haven’t got to yet)
Jerry, I love your List! I occasionally run across an old Tom Swift book from the early 20th Century. Exciting, but not politically correct. Like you, I enjoyed THE KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY with the tricky gender of the narrator.
I’ve read and enjoyed many from your list, Jerry.
I used Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia for my book group last night. Very enjoyable and – by far – the sexiest book cover I’ve seen in a long time. George, it’s headed your way in the Christmas box.
Beth, sexy book covers always bring delight here!
Jerry has the best list, i.e. the closest to my own. I loved the two Cosby books, though I read them in 2021. Also read the Scalzi and Pronzini. That STUPID THINGS book looks good.
I read over 850 short stories this year. Nearly half of my total books read are in short story volumes.
Favorite (non fiction, then short stories, mysteries, other fiction)s:
Lawrence Block, A Writer Prepares
Ann Hood, Fly Girl: A Memoir
Chris Offutt, My Father the Pornographer
David Milch, Life’s Work: A Memoir
Martin Edwards, The Life of Crime
Stanley Tucci,, Taste: My Life Through Food
Bill Geist, Lake of the Ozarks
Amy Bloom, In Love: A Memoir
Roddy Doyle, Without Children
Bill Pronzini, Dago Red
Edward D. Hoch, Constant Hearses
Chris Offutt, Out of the Woods
Dan CHaon, Stay Awake
Scithers & Schweitzer, eds., Another Round at the Spaceport Bar
Nick Petrie, The Runaway
Stephen Spotswood, Fortune Favors the Dead
Jeffrey Siger, One Last Chance
Brandon Webb & John David Martin, Cold Fear
Paula Munier, The Wedding Plot
Ramona Emerson, Shutter
Chris Offutt, The Killing Hills (favorite book of the year)
Shifty’s Boys
Michael Robotham, Good Girl, Bad Girl
Richard Osman, The Bullet That Missed
Hayley Scrivenor, Dirt Creek
Michael Connelly, Desert Star
Shelley Burr, Wake
Fredrick Backman, Anxious People
Nita Prose, The Maid
John Scalzi, The Kaiju Preservation Society
Stephen King, Billy Summers
Emma Straub, This Time Tomorrow
Jeff, I was on the bubble with Chris Offutt’s THE KILLING HILLS and SHIFTY’S BOYS. With a nudge I would have added them to the list. I have Block’s A WRITER PREPARES in my Read Real Soon stack. I enjoyed Hoch’s CONSTANT HEARSES, but I prefer Hoch’s major characters.
Too many books and not enough time …
How many hours do you spend reading books every day?
I just manage a few titles of my “old” SF collection and then of course the news from all over the world.
Wolf, I try to read a book a day. I can usually read a couple hundred pages in the morning and finish a book after I go to the Pool in the late afternoon. I rarely read at night anymore because I’m just too sleepy to concentrate. So Diane and I usually watch some TV before we go to bed.
You must speed read. I manage about 30 pages an hour depending on the book/author. If I try to read faster all i get is the plot. I
Steve, after 65 years or so of reading every day, I am a speedy reader. I wish I was a speedy writer…
Ah, some great looking books there. I didn’t get the Harris art volume for Christmas, so I’ll definitely be getting it for myself sometime soon. Need to reread the first volume as it has been a while.
I didn’t read as much sci fi as usual last year, and most of what I read was rereads. Which was good, it was fun revisiting Scalzi and Asimov and Heinlein. I do want to get to more sci fi this year that I haven’t previously read. I certainly have no shortage of classics and contemporary books in the house to pull from.
Carl, I know you love art books especially those with SF and fantasy images. The Harris volume is even better than the first volume! You’ll really appreciate it!