The End of 2015 - Part 2

If you missed it, yesterday I summed up my reading stats and shared my favorite audiobooks, debuts and non-fiction works. Today I'm going to reveal my favorite crime novels of 2015 and my favorite overall reads of 2015, so let's not waste any time. As with yesterday's lists, these are in no particular order.

My favorite 2015 crime novels:

Hush Hush by Laura Lippman - This return of Tess Monaghan was just spectacular. Laura Lippman knows how to spin a good yarn, pull you into and make the hours just disappear.

Dry Bones by Craig Johnson - "Save Jen!" Walt, Vic and a dinosaur, what's not to love? This series remains in my all time favorite list and Dry Bones epitomizes why. The dialogue is exceptional, the sense of place is rich, the characters are dynamic and the plot is fascinating. Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones is tops this year!

The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young - If you missed yesterday's post then you won't know that I picked The Gates of Evangeline as one of my favorite debuts. And yes, I think it's good enough to make my overall favorites list as well. This was a book that kept me glued to the pages, and I look forward to what Hester Young does from here.

The Investigation by J.M. Lee - This translation from the original Korean is stunning. The story revolves around a central murder and then just builds in exquisite layer after layer from there. The Investigation is an appreciation of the arts in all forms. It's beautiful, inspirational, heart-wrenching and I very much hope that more of Lee's work makes it way to the U.S.

Woman With a Blue Pencil by Gordon McAlpine - It is quite rare for me to feel like I've happened on a truly unique story concept. And maybe this one has been done before, but I've not experienced it. The creative blending of plot lines made this one fascinating book. Its themes are especially poignant given our own political current events. This is a short one, but boy is it ever powerful.

House of the Rising Sun by James Lee Burke - Sadly it's been a little while since I've had a chance to pick up a James Lee Burke so my return with House of the Rising Sun was that much more delectable. I savored every beautiful word of this unparalleled tale of family, faith, betrayal and redemption.

The Promise by Robert Crais - Elvis Cole, Joe Pike, Maggie and Scott James. That's almost too much wonderfulness for one book. We waited awhile for this one and it was certainly worth it.

The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney - Berney stepped away from his series character Shake Bouchon and took on a darker tone for this standalone proving he has a wide range of talent when it comes to storytelling. The psychological elements of this novel were intense and effective. Even if Berney's next work is paranormal romance, you can rest assured I'll read it.

The Devil's Game by Sean Chercover - While I mentioned this book several times as I was reading it, I'm ashamed to say I never got my review finished. So if you haven't picked this one up yet, I hope you'll give it a go. The follow-up to The Trinity Game kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat. Daniel Byrne is a fascinating protagonist and I'm anxious to see where Chercover takes him next!

The Lake House by Kate Morton - In my interview with Kate Morton she told me that no one ever considers her a mystery writer. So here she is on my crime fiction list...officially a mystery writer. I guess I'm the late one to the Kate Morton party because this was my first experience reading her, and I was swept off my feet. She managed to surprise me (not easy) and envelope me in her grand fictional world...for almost 600 pages...and I never lost interest. Consider me now a Kate Morton evangelist!

So there you have my favorite crime novels and finally *drum roll* it's time for

My overall favorite reads of 2015:

Trigger Warnings by Neil Gaiman - This collection of short stories felt like the variety pack of chocolate candies. You know the commercial where the mom asks all the kids what they want and they all scream something different and she says, "I've got that!"? That's what Trigger Warnings is in literary form. Want poetry? He's got it. Want a crime story? He's got it. Want a love story? He's got that too. And of course the fantasy. Gaiman's talent is astounding and I'm embarrassed it took me as long as it did to discover it, but now that I have, there's no turning back!

Dry Bones by Craig Johnson - You can see above for my gushing, but I just can't resist repeating, "Save Jen!"

Woman With the Blue Pencil by Gordon McAlpine - Yep, another one you can reference from the first list.

House of the Rising Sun by James Lee Burke - I'm feeling like a broken record here.

The Investigation by J.M. Lee - Another one you can see above for my gushing...I'm a crime junkie through and through, even when I'm reading other stuff.

Mobile Library by David Whitehouse - Stop the presses, this one isn't repeated from the first list. This story was so delightful, packed with quirky and wonderful characters on a magical adventure. It still makes me smile even though I read it a year ago. If you missed it, find this one. So worth the read!

The Bassoon King by Rainn Wilson - This is a repeated title from yesterday's lists where I lauded Wilson in both the non-fiction and audiobook lists. He's written a smart, funny and inspirational memoir that you don't have to be a fan of The Office to completely adore. If you ARE a fan, you'll adore it as well, I'm sure.

Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell - Another repeat from yesterday, this one as a favorite debut and favorite non-fiction. Michell has just won my heart with his tale of Juan Salvador the penguin.

Wanted by Chris Hoke - I think I hit that groove in the record where I'm repeating myself again. Chris Hoke's book was on my lists for favorite non-fiction and favorite debuts as well. Wanted is masterfully written and so incredibly powerful. It's a book that will resonant with me for a very long time.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman - If Backman needs disciples, I'd like to sign up. Last year I shouted from the rooftops about A Man Called Ove, this year I'm equally enamored by Grandmother. I described this book recently as fantasy wrapped in reality and while that sounds a bit ridiculous, I think it sums up the Escher-esque complexity of this wonderful book. It stole my heart and there was no doubt at all that it would be on this list.

So, there you have it! That sums up the great reads of my year. Of course there are a stack of books I really wanted to get to and haven't yet--I'm not giving up yet, but there are also fabulous books for 2016 starting to hit my pile as well. 2015 was great and I have high hopes for 2016 as well. Please, let me know what topped your reading lists this year. I'm excited to know.

Happy reading and happy end to 2015. May your 2016 be full of exceptional reading material.

Trigger Warnings - Neil Gaiman

First line (of the Introduction): "There are things that upset us."

A good book is always fun to read--I can't imagine not experiencing that pleasure regularly. But even beyond those good books, there are select books that become precious gifts. The words tumble from the pages to envelop you in magic and a giddy joy, even if they are also intended to scare or challenge you. Reading feels like eating a rich dessert you're trying desperately to stretch as far as possible, savoring each and every morsel as if it's the first bite. Neil Gaiman's Trigger Warnings: Short Fictions and Disturbances is just such a book.

This collection of short stories may not all be new to many long-time Gaiman fans, but I'm in the midst of experiencing his work for the first time and the adventure is nothing short of exhilarating to me. As many of you know, my introduction to his work was courtesy of a friend's recommendation that I listen to The Graveyard Book on audio. I was immediately hooked, so when I was offered the opportunity to read Trigger Warnings, I couldn't resist it.

I spread the stories out over three sittings and during each, I regularly wanted to stop and read the words aloud to someone else--my pets are learning a lot about Neil Gaiman by the way--because it wasn't enough to hear them in my head, I wanted to hear them in actual sound waves as well. In the midst of a horror story there could be such elegant beauty. For example, in "Feminine Endings," the eerie story of a human statue, Gaiman writes, "In my country we smile in bursts, like the sun coming out and illuminating the fields and then retreating again behind the a cloud too soon. Smiles are valuable here, and rare." This creepy love story works exactly that way. The reader can't help but smile in bursts at the gorgeous turn of phrase, imagery, sound and then feel chills at the scary thread of the plot.

Chuckle-worthy humor finds its way into the most unusual places, making what could have been mundane explode with colorful laughter. Another horror short called "Click-Clack the Rattlebag" involves discussion between a small boy and his sister's new boyfriend, as told from the perspective of the elder. In the midst of talking about evil creatures like vampires and "Click-Clacks":

"'Coke is very bad for you,' said the boy. 'If you put a tooth in Coke, in the morning, it will be dissolved into nothing. That's how bad Coke is for you and why you must always clean your teeth, every night.'

I'd heard the Coke story as a boy, and had been told, as an adult, that it wasn't true, but was certain a lie which promoted dental hygiene was a good lie, and I let it pass."

Gaiman writes from male and female perspectives, first and third person perspectives. His characters are young and old, dead and alive. And regardless of the approach he takes, the dialogue is stunning, sharp and engaging. He breaks so-called "writing rules" like avoiding adverbs, using only "said" for dialogue and avoiding adverbs with "said." The result is vivid imagery and soul-grabbing stories:

"'Well,' he said, sagely, soberly, a small voice from the darkness beside me, 'once you're just bones and skin, they hang you up on a hook, and you rattle in the wind.'"
    --"Click-Clack the Rattlebag"

"'Then,' boomed Luthius Limn, decisively, 'we shall go through the wall.'"
    --"An Invocation of Incuriousity"

"'You are here to rescue yourself,' she corrected him. Her voice was almost a whisper, like the breeze that shook the dead blossoms."
    --"The Return of the Thin White Duke"

The poem selections bestrewn throughout the collection are almost hard to differentiate. Their physical composition (and sometimes meter) more than their content sets them apart. Imagery, story, and place abound in the poems as well as the shorts, one poem--"In Relig Odhráin"--even started out to be a short, but the meter worked its way in and the result is captivating. In his introduction, Gaiman refers to the poems as "bonuses." They are indeed.

While I loved reading each and every entry in this collection, and especially the Introduction--do NOT skip the introduction--among my favorites were three entries and each a favorite for different reasons.

"'And Weep, Like Alexander'" is a whimsical story of an uninventor.  I conjured Dr. Seuss as I giggled along to why we don't have jet-packs or flying cars or the Mockett Telepathic Translator. Then re-read and read aloud parts like,

"'It's all about unpicking probability threads from the fabric of creation. Which is a bit like unpicking a needle from a haystack. But they tend to be long and tangled, like spaghetti. So it's rather like having to unpick a strand of spaghetti from a haystack.'" 

And when the story ends with Obediah Polkinghorn envisioning his next uninvention, I couldn't help but start thinking about what I would want to uninvent.

"A Calendar of Tales" is made of up twelve tales, each named by the months of a year. January grabbed me immediately. While I'm a finicky science fiction reader, this short tale was everything I adore in the genre. The symbolism, the imagery, the energy of this story all made my heart speed up just a bit with enthusiasm and excitement.

Each month's tale has its own distinct flavor and color. There are pirates and ducks and the most wonderful igloo of books. There's science fiction and fantasy and adventure. It's kind of like the Hershey's Miniatures package of candy: whatever you want, it's in there. My heart fluttered as I read, "And then I crawled out, and I lay on my back on the ice and stared up at the unexpected colors of the shimmering Northern Lights, and listened to the cracks and snaps of the distant ice as an iceberg of fairy tales calved from a glacier of books on mythology."

Finally, the story that stood out to me above all others was "The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury."  This emotionally-charged tribute to the author, as well as literature in general, is brilliantly constructed to uncork a passion and exuberance in the reader, much the way a charismatic leader does in his/her followers. I silently--and then vocally--punched the words, accelerated pace, I orated the energy that pulsed from the words:

"He wrote a story about Poe, to stop Poe being forgotten, about a future where they burn books and they forget them, and in the story we are on Mars although we might as well be in Waukegan or Los Angeles, as critics, as those who would repress or forget books, as those who would take the words, all the words, dictionaries and radios full of words, as those people are walked through a house and murdered, one by one, by orangutan, by pit and pendulum, for the love of God, Montressor..."

And as the story calmly came to an end, I could think of nothing else but the fact that I would be honored, nay humbled, to be charged with remembering Neil Gaiman.

Trigger Warnings is a keeper collection. These are stories that can and should be explored and enjoyed over and over. They should be silently contemplated, read aloud and read to others. They should be coveted and shared. And they should above all be remembered.

I have often envied people discovering an author's work for the first time--the bliss that comes with reading their words and having them all be brand new. This time I'm the one experiencing that wonder and elation and I'm savoring every... single... morsel.

Trigger Warnings: Short Fictions and Disturbances is available from William Morrow tomorrow in hardcover (ISBN: 9780062330260). There is also an unabridged audio (ISBN: 9780062373687), narrated by Gaiman, from Harper Audio--I'm definitely going to seek this one out.

A Few Friday Tidbits

Good golly, the Friday before Christmas. If you're celebrating I hope you're more ready than I. I always start early planning and prep, but still somehow manage to end up behind as the big day approaches.

To give you a sense of the content for the final weeks of the year, I'll be posting mostly reviews next week to catch up a little and then I'll wrap up with my traditional favorites lists. I'll let you know what my favorite audiobooks were, my favorite debuts, my favorite book covers, my favorite first lines and my overall favorite books for 2014.

But I'd like to add a new element to the year end lists and that's YOUR favorite books of 2014 so I have a quick (and hopefully painless) form for you to submit your favorite titles. Then I'll include the outcomes in my final posts of the year:



Since it's Friday, we should take a look at some contests you can enter, right?

Book Riot has a chance for you to win a Kobo Aura ereader.
Friday Reads has a musical array of books you should check out.
Criminal Element has the Yule Be Sorry sweepstakes.
You can peruse through Read it Forward's various giveaways here.

I wanted to throw a couple more last minute book gift recommendations out for you. You know, if you're like me, you're still finishing up...*sigh*

First is a book I just think is stunning and would be loved by ANY Neil Gaiman fan.  The Art of Neil Gaiman by Haley Campbell is a book to soak in bit by beautiful bit. It's a full color collection of art, previously unseen materials, and an exploration of the creative genius. This is a book you keep for the ages, it really is. If you have a Gaiman fan on your gift list and he/she does not have this book, they will treasure it. But hey, if YOU'RE a Gaiman fan and you don't have this book, get yourself a copy.

The Art of Neil Gaiman (ISBN: 9780062248565) is available from Harper Design.

And let me just extend my Gaiman love a little further because I owe my discovery of his work to my good friend Rhonda who introduced me to The Graveyard Book. And when I saw the publication of graphic novel version earlier this year, I drooled. It's target audience is the young...but I think the young at heart qualify as well. There is also a full cast recording of the audiobook that came out this year. I listened to the audiobook narrated entirely by Gaiman and gosh was it beautiful. I still have to try the full cast version, though.

The Graveyard Book graphic novel (Vol I) (ISBN:  9780062194817) is available from HarperCollins. And the full cast audiobook (ISBN: 9780062364463) is also available from HarperCollins.

And finally, a little bookish fun I saw the other day and liked--plus is handy this time of year when all the colds and flus are raging--a book tissue box cover.

2013 Audiobook Favorites

Today's list of favorites is audiobooks. As I mentioned yesterday, I listened to fewer audiobooks this past year. Now that I'm not driving to work, my audiobook time has gone down a bit. So I'm going to limit my list a bit this year. As with my previous lists, these come from audios I listened to this year, they may not have been published this year. Given that, here are my seven favorite audiobooks of 2013:

Reconstructing Amelia (written by Kimberly McCreight; narrated by Khristine Hvam) Hvam sent chills up my spine as she sent me back to the brutal world of high school. The fact that I felt my heart being ripped apart by the evil children can do to one another speaks volumes for the performance Hvam put forth on this production. Harper Audio

Point and Shoot (written by Duane Swierczynski; narrated by Pete Larkin) This is the final book and audio in Swierczynski's trilogy and all three have been exceptional listening experiences. They are fun stories and Larkin simply has fun narrating them. His humor and energy mesh with Swierczynski's style and the listener reaps the rewards. Hachette Audio/AudioGo

Gun Machine (written by Warren Ellis; narrated by Reg E. Cathey) Cathey had a great book to work with here, but he wove his interpretation into the very fibers of the story. I was especially impressed with his range of character. Gritty, hardboiled and fun! Hachette Audio


Dare Me (written by Megan Abbott; narrated by Khristine Hvam) I haven't had an opportunity to review this one as I listened to it late this year, but Hvam is quite masterful with the high school world as she took the narration lead on this one as well but gave it its own unique sound. I didn't make the connection that she had narrated Reconstructing Amelia until looking back later. She nails the attitude, the energy and most especially the perspective of the novel. Hachette/AudioGo

The October List (written by Jeffery Deaver; narrated by January LaVoy) If my list would have been longer than 7, the eighth audio would have been Killer Instinct. It introduced me to January LaVoy and she knocked my socks off, but I had to choose The October List first because she was as important in the surprise of the plot twist for me as the writing itself.  She knew and understood the story and played it perfectly. Hachette Audio

The Goldfinch (written by Donna Tartt; narrated by David Pittu) I'm still finishing this one up, but have been transfixed for more than 20 hours already (the full audio is over 30) and have run the gamut of emotions. Pittu's easy transitions between the many dialects is stellar and I'm especially enamored by his portrayal of females. What a great listening experience this has been. Hachette Audio

The Graveyard Book (written and narrated by Neil Gaiman) Can I just say, "wow! This one blew me away!"? Is that sufficient? I felt like I was there in the graveyard with Bod. And Gaiman's sound made me feel safe there. I'm always skeptical of an author performing his/her own audiobooks, but this one was flat out amazing. So thankful I finally listened to it. Harper Audio


And that does it for the favorite audiobooks of 2013! How about you? What were your favorites?

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

First line: "There was a hand in the darkness and it held a knife."

I know I'm a little late coming to this story, but my good friend gifted me the audiobook this year and I had the joy of listening to it on my way to Murder and Mayhem in Muskego this year.

Nobody Owens is a very small boy when he crawls away from his home to the Graveyard. His journey is what ultimately saves his life because while Nobody is busy being a typical toddler, his family is being murdered by a knife-wielding villain named Jack.

Nobody, a.k.a. Bod, is raised by two spirits, Mr. and Mistress Owens, who inhabit the Graveyard, and he has a "guardian," Silas, who exists between the living and the dead but isn't really a part of either realm. His guardian brings him food and clothing, but otherwise, Bod lives in the Graveyard.

As he grows up he doesn't learn what ordinary children do, but his lessons are valuable nonetheless. And despite the passage of time, the threat of Jack still looms outside the Graveyard walls.

Not reading the printed book, I missed out on the illustrations, but the audio version is incredibly done. Gaiman narrates the story himself and brings out the murky atmosphere of the graveyard setting while counterbalancing that with the blithe disposition of a young boy who doesn't know any different. Bod's curiosities and growing pains are typical for any young boy, he just experiences them in a vastly unusual environment. And that makes for great discoveries on both Bod's part and the readers.

Gaiman's sound was haunting and luring and exactly what good story tellers, especially good ghost story tellers should sound like. It was the cadence and tone that draws the audience in, leaning closer and closer to make sure they don't miss a word.

The Graveyard Book is full of delicious characters readers simply cannot find among the living. And their perspective on the living is discerning. But they mimic the living as well, dividing themselves into the right and wrong sides of the tracks.

I finished The Graveyard Book and thought immediately that my niece and nephew had to read it. It's aimed at middle grade readers, but young and old alike can luxuriate in this tale. And it will stay with you for a very long time. I, personally, visualize the festive dance scene over and over while hearing Gaiman's melody, "step and turn, and walk and stay, now we dance the Macabre."

My friend who gifted me The Graveyard Book said that they listen to it each year at Halloween. I understand completely. This book is a keeper and a re-reader. If you haven't read it yet, enjoy!

The Graveyard Book is available on unabridged audio (ISBN: 978-0061551895) from Harper Audio. It is also available from Harper in hardcover (ISBN: 978-0060530921) and paperback (ISBN: 978-0060530945).

I owe a great big thank you to Rhonda. I owe you big one on this one, my friend!

For those who would like a little taste (well actually, it's long, but you can listen to as much as you like), here's a video of Gaiman reading from Chapter 1.