#10: Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

An aging metal star is haunted by ghosts, from his past and otherwise, in Joe Hill's chilling spook story Heart Shaped Box.

I actually started this book in 2008 but put it down three times, finally finishing it today.  I checked it out from the Farmland Public Library and, since it got where I would not read it at night, couldn't get it done in time before it was due.  The truth is I also put it down when it scared the bejeezus out of me, which was frequently. Despite its pop-culture trappings this is an old-school ghost story at heart, and therein the fright lies.  

Heart Shaped Box is the debut novel from Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King, and I'm not sure if that was supposed to be a secret at some point but a glance at his author photo and the jig's up.  He writes a bit like his dad, but I saw more of George R.R. Martin's writing there, especially The Armageddon Rag.

This is a genuinely frightening tale that I enjoyed, when I could bring myself to read it.  For fans of old school horror, from a new voice.

#9: A Cure for Night by Justin Peacock

A big-firm lawyer, after a scandal, takes a tumble to the Brooklyn Public Defenders office, where a housing project shooting has him facing his past as well as a dangerous present.

Justin Peacock's sturdy legal thriller A Cure for Night has a splash of speedy John Grisham plotting and a dash of Scott Turow's nuanced characterizations, but Peacock's own background as a lawyer in Brooklyn is all his, and seems to ring true to me.

The story heads along its expected routes up to a surprising ending that did tie everything up nicely. This was a solid, straightforward legal thriller with its feet on the ground, and certainly to be appealing to fans of the genre.

This is Peacock's first novel, and I would read another from him. I borrowed this from Morrison-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana, and read it over a couple of snowy days.

#8: Shooting Star by Robert Bloch

A literary agent and part-time private eye tries to help clear the name of a murdered cowboy star in Robert Bloch's Shooting Star, another in the admirable series of pulp reprints showcased by Hard Case Crime.

I thought Shooting Star was an enjoyable, if minor, work by Bloch (author of Psycho and more). The private eye was agreeably smart-alecky and Bloch seemed to have a good feel for Hollywood in the late 50s, the setting of this novel. There are plenty of smoldering dames and gat-wielding yeggs along the way as our tarnished protagonist gets mixed up in a "reefer" ring selling "tea" and "muggles."

I am a longtime fan of Hard Case Crime and found this to be an enjoyable outing. This one, I believe, is the first printed in that old-school "Ace Double" style, with another Bloch novel, Spiderweb, on the flip side. I will, I'm sure, start reading that one shortly.

I purchased this paperback with a Christmas gift card and chewed through it pretty quickly.

#7: The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly

One-time hotshot lawyer Mickey Haller tries to come back from an addiction problem when he inherits a slain friend's clients, including a big-time movie producer about to go on trial for double murder, in Michael Connelly's brisk legal thriller The Brass Verdict.

I find Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series, about a tarnished cop with his own code of ethics and a weighted past, to be one of the finest contemporary mystery series out there (with Walter Mosely's Easy Rawlins a close second). I have not read Connelly's off-series novels as closely, but picked this one up as Bosch has a supporting role.

Connelly writes in a clipped style that gives away his background in journalism, but writes fully-rounded characters.  I enjoyed this outing, even though Bosch had a tertiary part, and read it at a good clip.  I will probably seek out the other novel featuring Haller, The Lincoln Lawyer.

Connelly is one of my favorite mystery writers, and I think this is a solid read from him.  

I checked this out from the Farmland Public Library in Farmland, Indiana.

#6: Now Wait for Last Year by Philip K. Dick

A doctor sets his marital problems aside to help the Earth get out of an unwinnable galactic war in Philip K. Dick's mind-boggling Now Wait for Last Year.

I find The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep to be milestone science fiction novels, not just of Dick's work but of the genre, but the more I read of Dick the more I realize how deep his body of work goes. I finished 2008 reading Martian Time-Slip and found it to be one of Dick's finer works as well, and A Scanner Darkly remains a favorite.

Although Now Wait for Last Year treads a lot of Dick's familiar trails--everyday people caught up in huge events, time travel, drug abuse, paranoid government conspiracies, p-whipping shrews, odd robots and aliens--I found the writing to be denser and more downbeat than some of his funnier, freer works; and thus somehow more rewarding.

I read this in a very fine edition from the Library of America in their second volume of Dick's collected works. With biographical notes and comments from Jonathan Lethem (whom I am realizing, the more I read of Lethem, is a stylistic follower of Dick's), the Library of America volumes are worth picking up. I have been giving them as gifts in that way that you kind of want them for yourself. This one I checked out from the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#5: Steel-Jacket by Merle Constiner

Laconic gun hand helps a naive homesteader cross treacherous ground in Merle Constiner's easygoing oater Steel-Jacket.

I have come to Constiner's work lately after reading praise of him from other pulp fans. I enjoy his work, and found this one to be a cut above his usual fare. Typically Constiner has a lantern-jawed hero, a spitfire woman, and a wise older man who helps the hero, with everything snug tightly at the end.

Here, our cowpoke is more clever and funny than Constiner usually allows, giving the overall work a looser feel.

I picked this one up for a shiny quarter at an area flea market and enjoyed a quick read.

#4: Lunar Park by Brett Easton Ellis

Hallucinogenic hybrid of horror, family drama, and quasi-autobiography, Lunar Park features bad boy writer Brett Easton Ellis (author of the controversial American Psycho) deciding to settle down with his movie-star wife and his (previously unclaimed) son in suburbia, only to find their house haunted and their family life deteriorating.

Reviews of Lunar Park were polarized, with some critics hating it and some loving it. I fell in the latter category, but recognize that it might not be for all tastes. There are elements of tell-all, with real people and situations depicted; but there is also skin-crawling horror, with ghosts and demons and the like popping out of the woodwork. Fellow Brat Pack writer Jay McInerney appears, and is a real person; but Ellis' wife and son aren't. The fictional killer from American Psycho appears to be on the loose as well. But real emotions, of relations between fathers and sons, of failures and regret, all ring true.

And, most surprisingly, Ellis casts himself as a weaselly a-hole throughout. The idea of the "unreliable narrator" takes on real resonance here; especially late in the book, when the continuous horrors finally causes Ellis to split into two characters, one he calls "The Author." I enjoy this type of meta storytelling and thought it was well-crafted.

Overall Lunar Park is a confounding book, but--knowing little about Ellis and having not been exposed to his previous work--I could enjoy it on its own merits. Another early front-runner in my favorites column for 2009.

I read this on a very good audio book recorded by James Van Der Beek, given to me by a friend.

#3: Gun Work by David J. Schow

An Iraq war veteran helps an old war buddy rescue his girlfriend from a Mexico City kidnapping ring, only to find himself in the middle of a triple-cross that leaves him the prisoner of the sadistic kidnappers. How he sets out on a bloody trail of revenge is at the center of David J. Schow's Hard Case Crime entry Gun Work.

Most Hard Cast Crime novels are lost pulp classics repackaged with retro covers. Gun Work is a new novel from a contemporary novelist, but holds onto a lot of the hard-nosed appeal of the classics. Strangely, with its rough bromance, pro-military leanings, and fetish-like attention to weaponry, it reads like a very good Don Pendleton Executioner novel, the kind of which I tore through as a teen.

I borrowed this from my pal Michael, who is also trying to read 50 books this year, as seen in my sidebar.

#2: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

A crusading financial journalist has a fall from grace and finds himself writing the biography of an industrial magnate on a remote island.  The magnate's true motives are soon revealed, and the journalist ends up (with the help of the anti-social hacker of the title) looking into the decades-old unsolved murder of a teenage girl.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a bracing, original debut novel by Stieg Larsson, who I was sorry to learn passed away shortly after completing what is called "The Millennium Trilogy," of which this is the first volume.  Reading a lot of mysteries, I have recently come to appreciate the philosophical differences of the incredibly popular mystery novels of Sweden and Norway; though this one comes with a number of American-style shocks.  

I felt The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo compared very favorably with another Scandinavian bestseller, Jo Nesbo's The Redbreast, one of the best reads I enjoyed last year.  Larsson's novel is an early front-runner for my favorite novel of 2009.

I checked this one out from the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#1: A Member of the Family by Cesar Millan

Our new Westie puppy is a great joy in our lives and a cure for the Empty Nest Blues.  The part we had forgotten was that having a puppy was like having a real baby; you are up every two hours with it pooping and crying and it needs constant looking after and so on.  And, like a real baby, it helps if you read a manual or two.

Like many people I had seen the Dog Whisperer show and was interested in what Cesar Millan was doing with his training style.  With some Christmas money I went out and bought his new book, A Member of the Family, which takes a pet owner from the day you pick out a puppy until the day your old companion dies.

This book has a little good advice for every stage of raising a dog.  I also enjoyed Cesar Millan's personal story and asides about his family life.  There are case studies and other interesting breakout information throughout.  It is the kind of book you would probably want to loan to a friend with a new puppy, or stick up on a shelf for future reference.

Cesar Millan states that his style--being a pack leader and the Alpha--is not necessarily for everyone, but with my Westie and her big personality it suits us fine.

I read and enjoyed this at a good clip, and would recommend it to any pet owner.

2008 Wrap-Up

This time last year I fell under the sway of my pal The Mighty Caveman who coaxed me into one of those crazy internet things where all of a sudden, against all logic and reason, you are reading 50 books in one year.  Astoundingly, even to myself, I met that goal.

Loyal readers asked me if I was going to keep going.  I said no, as there were always more Nerd Extreme Sports to conquer.  I have done the 24 Hour Comics Challenge twice, the 24 Hour Zine Thing once, plus played many marathon gaming sessions at GenCon and other places.

But I have started reading some pretty interesting books, and decided I missed blogging on them.  So the gears started turning, and I returned to the blog-o-sphere.

My five favorite books from 2008 were STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND by Samuel R. Delany, THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION by Michael Chabon, THE REDBREAST by Jo Nesbo, THE WANDERING GHOST by Martin Limon, and THE WHEAT FIELD by Steve Thayer.  Though I also liked Michael Chabon's GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD, George Axelrod's BLACKMAILER, Naomi Novik's HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON, Robert B. Parker's RESOLUTION, and Sebastian Faulks' DEVIL MAY CARE.

It was the year I knuckled down and tackled Harry Potter, the year I discovered Samuel R. Delany and rediscovered Philip K. Dick, a year of morose Scandinavian mysteries and cold-blooded Hard Case Crime novels and a smattering of Ace Doubles.

If this is also your meat and potatoes, soldier on.  If not, feed your head in some other way; but keep reading.

You can catch me at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.