Merry Christmas, yo.
Let me say it again: 2015 was a terrific reading year. I singled out 36 titles for my year-end lists originally and they were all tremendous. I'm sure they found their way to other people's year end lists and rightfully so. I had to trim it down to 20 books though, which were my very favorites. This is the Notable Reads list, which features books that didn't quite make my top ten, but were in the final running. The Best of the Rest, like Chris Leek so eloquently put last year. Some of you might find them better than Favorite Reads, which I will announce on December 29 or December 30.
Let me say it again: 2015 was a terrific reading year. I singled out 36 titles for my year-end lists originally and they were all tremendous. I'm sure they found their way to other people's year end lists and rightfully so. I had to trim it down to 20 books though, which were my very favorites. This is the Notable Reads list, which features books that didn't quite make my top ten, but were in the final running. The Best of the Rest, like Chris Leek so eloquently put last year. Some of you might find them better than Favorite Reads, which I will announce on December 29 or December 30.
Shout out to Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan (need to read the entire thing) and Andrez Bergen's Depth-Charging Ice Planet Goth, which were cut last after long arguments with myself.
NOTABLE READS OF 2015
A masterful and morals-free feat of storytelling.
Both incredibly endearing and enlightening to serious readers.
An intoxicating blend of uproarious, freewheeling satire, and self-depreciating humor.
A crime novel with an unparalleled sense of humor and creativity.
Uncompromising and obscenely intelligent horror stories.
Killer and Victim, by Chris Lambert
Ambitious, disorienting and adorably megalomaniacal.
Bad Citizen Corporation, by S.W Lauden
Both a love song to California noir and a daring modernization of the genre.
The Drop, by Dennis Lehane
Lehane seems bored of crime fiction, but crime fiction isn't bored of him. He still has his fastball.
My Work is Not Yet Done, by Thomas Ligotti
Terrifies the reader with his own inevitable fate.
How to Win at High School, by Owen Matthews
Demythologizes the self-made man through a narrative everybody understands and has lived through to a certain degree.
Ambitious, disorienting and adorably megalomaniacal.
Both a love song to California noir and a daring modernization of the genre.
Lehane seems bored of crime fiction, but crime fiction isn't bored of him. He still has his fastball.
Terrifies the reader with his own inevitable fate.
Demythologizes the self-made man through a narrative everybody understands and has lived through to a certain degree.
STAY TUNED FOR MY VERY FAVORITE READS OF 2015 NEXT WEEK!!!