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Picks of the Week

  • Benjamin Black: The Lemur: A Novel

    Benjamin Black: The Lemur: A Novel
    Anyone who thinks John Banville lacks a sense of humor clearly did not read his serial for the New York Times magazine, available in novella-ish format in July. The story has all the basic crime ingredients - blackmail, adultery, murder, betrayal, that sort of thing - but it is so, so clear how much fun Banville had writing this pseudonymous exercise, loading up sentences filled with bizarre but well-placed metaphors and gently (or not so gently!) lampooning his characters as he moves them around his narrative chess board.

  • Cassandra Clare: City of Bones

    Cassandra Clare: City of Bones
    I read this on the flight home from the LA Times Festival of Books and it really is about the perfect airport read: fantastic storytelling, characters whose adventures and melodramas wrap you in their spells and really ass-kicking action scenes involving demons and all manner of underworld types. Sure, Clare clearly owes a huge debt to Buffy and Harry Potter, but dammit, I want to find out what will happen next to Clary, Jace, Simon & co. - and that's exactly the button that's supposed to be pushed.

  • Ibi Kaslik: ANGEL RIOTS

    Ibi Kaslik: ANGEL RIOTS
    Reading this novel was like being transported back to the mid-1990s Montreal I knew during my college years. But it also affords an inside look at the ups and downs, the politics and the dramas, the hookups and breakups endemic to a rising rock band. It's clear, whether told from the vantage point of the young violin prodigy with a boy's name or her bandmate looking to redefine himself outside the orbit of his best friend (and leader) that Kaslik knows this world cold, and we're privileged to share in this knowledge.

  • Irene Nemirovsky: David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn, The Courilof Affair (Everyman's Library (Cloth))

    Irene Nemirovsky: David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn, The Courilof Affair (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
    I'd recommend this simply based off of the utter gobsmacking brilliance that is LE BAL, one of the most crystalline and shocking novellas I've ever read, but the other three works simply confirm Nemirovsky's literary brilliance. THE COURILOF AFFAIR is a wonderful surprise for mystery readers because it's her version of a spy novel, tackling the moral quandaries of terrorism for a so-called greater good by personalizing the narrator's deeds and misdeeds. In other words, Nemirovsky's entire backlist can't be translated fast enough for me.

  • Sarah Hall: Daughters of the North

    Sarah Hall: Daughters of the North
    Goddamn, Hall can write, and her chosen dystopian subject matter gives her the chance not only to show off her sentence-by-sentence chops but to demonstrate how few steps removed our current culture is from the apocalyptic fervor of her world, where the reproductive rights of women are trampled on so definitively it takes an army of women to try, however futile the exercise might be, to take some independence back. I can't think of enough good things to say about this except that it should be read, now and years to come.

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December 05, 2004

And yet more lists

Because of the sheer number of them, I've created a new category. Why not, after all?

David Montgomery surveyed over 50 people in the crime fiction world--writers, reviewers, knowledgeable fans--to give their Top 5 books of the year. He also collects some interesting stats from the contributions:

Most-cited book: Scott Phillips' Cottonwood -- 7 picks
Second most-cited book (tie): Ken Bruen's The Guards and T. Jefferson Parker's California Girl -- 6 picks each
Most-cited author: Ken Bruen -- 11 picks
Second most-cited author: T. Jefferson Parker -- 7 picks
Third most-cited author: Lee Child -- 6 picks
Most-cited debut book: J.A. Konrath's Whiskey Sour -- 3 picks
Most-cited unreleased book (tie): Kent Harrington's Red Jungle and Ray Banks' The Big Blind -- 2 picks each
Most-cited non-crime fiction book: Pete Dexter's Train -- 3 picks
Book I most wish I could have included: Laura Lippman's Every Secret Thing -- I read it last year, thus it wasn't eligible.

My own list is included as well, but considering I change my mind about every six seconds when it comes to this topic, take it for what it's worth.

Posted at 10:30 AM in Best of 2004 | | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Hooray for the weekend update

It's all about the "Best of" Lists this week, most of which, btw, can be found at this incredibly handy link. But for those who want to scour the papers like I do, let's go:

NYTBR: Want the 100 Notables list? Look right here. In full-length reviews, Sarah Vowell digs the Godfather sequel, Daniel Mendelsohn writes an insanely long treatment of Truman Capote, Jacqueline Carey jumps on the CASE HISTORIES bandwagon, and Laura Miller explains why book recommendations often lead to anxiety attacks.

Continue reading "Hooray for the weekend update" »

Posted at 10:00 AM in Best of 2004, Literary minded | | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)