Favorite Books of the Year

My ten favorite books of the year. 

I enjoyed all of the stories in Joe Hill's book, but I'm really picking this for "Pop Art," one of the strangest, saddest, most memorable pieces of fiction I read this year.

This is the first Sophie Hannah book I've read, and I'm looking forward to many more. A creepy, psychological thriller with a great premise.

Back in 1967, Deighton took some time off from writing cold war spy thrillers to write this semi-comic tale of three con artists. So much fun.

If you've ever seen a Law and Order (I'm speaking to all of you), then this police procedural will seem familiar, except that this was one of the very first, as the author follows the police as they track down a missing college girl. Riveting stuff, even though it now seems familiar.

Rendell writes a creepy, and surprisingly moving, psychological thriller, about a twisted mother-daughter relationship. Ruth Rendell has never really let me down.

Maybe this book is only for true Fleming fans (it's certainly not going to thrill fans of the Roger Moore films, for example), but reading this was both comforting and thrilling. Boyd nailed it. For one thing, he got the drinking right. Bond likes an occasional martini, but he is really a whiskey-and-soda man.

The blueprint for the movie, so it didn't really excite as I read it, but it's so good, and I can only imagine what it must have been like to be reading this book without knowing how it ends.

Best contemporary page-turner I've read in a couple of years. A solid, beautifully-written mystery about a woman with amnesia and the men who love her.

One of JDM's iciest thrillers. Immoral men at a weekend conference destroying lives around them. Unrelenting, and timely, even though it was published in 1962.

A perfect thriller by a true master.

Ten Favorite Books of the Year

My favorites of the books I read this year, not necessarily books that came out this year (or anywhere near this year) ...

10. Bonecrack (1971)

All of Francis' books are pretty much the same, just either good or bad. This was very good.

9. The Hunger Games (2008)

I could've put the trilogy here, since I read them all, but the first book, much as I liked the follow-ups, was the real barn-burner of the bunch. Let's hope the movie is half as good.

8. One Across, Two Down (1971)

Sometimes we don't need fuzzy characters or moral uplift. Sometimes it's uplifting to read about a degenerate plotting to kill his mother-in-law and his wife. Sometimes.

7. Full Dark, No Stars (2010)

Not King's best collection of novellas, but certainly his grisliest. It's nice to know that the old fella can still make your skin crawl.

6. Mad World (2010)

A rare non-fiction appearance. This is the fascinating true story of Evelyn Waugh and the family that inspired Brideshead Revisited.

5. A Good Man in Africa (1981)

Boyd's very funny first novel, with a protagonist worthy of Kingsley Amis at his best.

4. An Unsuitable Job For a Woman (1972)

I prefer Cordelia Gray to Dalgliesh somehow. My favorite of James' mysteries.

3. The Last One Left (1966)

MacDonald at his height, telling a multi-character tale of corruption and redemption.

11/22/63 (2011)

Simply a great page-turner, with some nice asides thrown in about history, America, and the passage of time.

1. Any Human Heart (2002)

It's hard to imagine a year in which this wouldn't be my favorite book. Maybe the year I read Lucky Jim, of course, or the year I read Brideshead Revisited. An epic and human tale.