#5: The Square of Revenge by Pieter Aspe

The quirky, hard-drinking cops of Bruges are on a strange case that seems to point towards the Knights Templar in Pieter Aspe's enjoyable crime romp The Square of Revenge.

This is the first of Aspe's books to be translated into English, and he is apparently already a big hit in his native Belgium.  I can see him having a successful run here, between descriptions of life in a beautiful medieval city and an unusual crime story (that begins with crooks melting all the gold at a jewelry store and ends with kidnappers proposing a bonfire of priceless paintings).

The story wraps up on a somewhat serious note, involving deep family secrets, but the colorfully-drawn characters really carry the day.  I will look for more work from Aspe.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#4: The Intruder by Hakan Ostlundh

A photographer brings his family to a remote farm on the Swedish island of Gotland, hoping for a fresh start, but trouble finds them anyway in Hakan Ostlundh's The Intruder.

In winter, my mind turns to Scandinavian mysteries, and this one has all of the hallmarks; a little morose, with frightening violence, and a plot that focuses more on emotional drama than the crime at hand.

Here the photographer has quite a few secrets, both in his family history and in his marriage, as does the lead police detective, who is just coming back to the force after a serious injury.  He has been given a strange but rather mild case that starts with somebody trashing a vacation rental, but quickly escalates from there.

Ostlundh has written a solidly gloomy little thriller that I enjoyed more for its exploration of relationships than for the mystery.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond Indiana.

#3: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Three young men make a blood pact; later one becomes part of the VietCong, another is part of the South Vietnamese army, and the third--our protagonist--lives somewhere in between in Viet Thanh Nguyen's debut novel The Sympathizer.

This is a great debut novel, written on a broad, panoramic stage but full of wry human insights about relationships. 

The novel opens with the fall of VietNam in 1975, and two of the young men narrowly escaping to America on one of the last planes out (with the help of a shadowy friend from the CIA).  After our protagonist makes a memorable visit to a movie set as an advisor--think a coded version of "Apocalypse Now"--the seeds of a dramatic return begin to form in his friend.

Both are alienated from America in ways that are both funny and terrible, and volunteer for a suicidal mission to start a new rebellion against the Communists.  The latter part of the book details their misadventures, topped with a harrowing final coda.

The Sympathizer is just a really fine, literate novel showcasing an interesting part of world history, from a different perspective than what we might typically read in the States.  I will definitely look for Viet Thanh Nguyen's follow-up work.

I was given this book by my daughter for Christmas and read it quickly.  Recommended.

#2: The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson

Two soldiers and lovers--born with extraordinary, hidden powers--are part of a caravan attacked by a supernatural beast, and soon pledge to end its reign of terror in Kai Ashante Wilson's genre-bending fantasy The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps.

This brief plot summary does not do this slender volume justice, as it is packed with ideas; at one hand the novel has literary overtones--complete with footnotes--on the other it is a brawling adventure/fantasy, with undercurrents of far-future science fiction.  It is a crazy mind-meld of Gene Wolfe, Fritz Leiber, and Samuel R. Delany, with a soundtrack by NWA.  If any or all of these artists appeal to you, this is your next read.

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps is a very fresh slice of fantasy for those fans looking for contemporary takes on an old genre.  Recommended for fans.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana, and read it quickly.

#1: Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala

A young orphan in a war-torn African country is conscripted into a ragtag rebel group by a charismatic leader, and sees the horrors of war all too soon, in Uzodinma Iweala's Beasts of No Nation.

Iweala creates a fully-formed protagonist whose thoughts and fantasies are often at odds with an almost journalistic attention to the grim realities of battle.His novel is a worthwhile look at the issue of child soldiers, but its harrowing depictions of murder, rape, and child molesting make the novel not for all tastes.

This books kicks off my year of reading only authors of color and authors in translation, and was a good start.  I received this in paperback from my wife for Christmas and read it quickly over break.

Recommended to those interest in the subject and able to withstand strong subject matter.

Favorite Reads of 2015

After doing the 50 books a year reading challenge for a number of years now, I thought I would change it up this time and read only books by women authors.  This challenge initially came from my wife, who felt--rightfully so--that I wasn't reading enough women.

This turned out to be a great thing, as not only did it energize my reading--I exceeded 50 books this year, which I had not been able to do for a while--but it also forced me to find authors I might have passed over before, several of whom I enjoyed immensely and will look for more from.

I think it made me a better reader, and I hope a better writer.  It was such a good thing that in 2016 I am going to take on another challenge a friend put before me, which was to read only authors of color for one year.  I think I will expand this challenge a bit and also include authors in translation.  I'm curious to see what I will find in 2016.

But before that, here is a look back to 2015, and my favorite reads.  Instead of doing a Top Ten, as this was a special challenge I decided to make it an even dozen.  Curiously, there are three dystopian novels and three Eastern European stories.  I would consider five science fiction, two thrillers, and one lone western.  An interesting mix:

1.  Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

2.  Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

3.  The Ghost Network by Catie Disabato

4.  The Only Ones by Carola Dibbell

5.  Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell

6.  Innocence by Heda Margolius Kovaly

7.  Girl at War by Sara Novic

8.  When the Doves Disappeared by Sofi Oksanen

9.  Find Me by Laura Van Den Berg

10.  White Crocodile by KT Medina

11.  Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

12.  The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Happy Reading!

#54: The Only Ones by Carola Dibbell

In a broken, pandemic-ridden near-future New York, a hard-luck young woman volunteers for a cloning experiment, then ends up raising the results in Carola Dibbell's The Only Ones.

Dibbell's debut novel is a knockout chunk of sci-fi, what might happen if Brave New World had been narrated by an uneducated single mother.  And Dibbell's Inez is a vivid character with a unique voice, carrying the first-person narrative through an epic narrative that includes both world-breaking events as well as nuanced family relationships.

I found this to be a very rewarding read and was glad to finish my year of reading women with this novel.  Recommended for fans of both science fiction and literary fiction.

I purchased this at the Women and Children First bookstore in Chicago.  It is published by Ohio-based Two Dollar Radio, whose output I have enjoyed.

#53:The Unfinished Crime by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

An uptight young man, upon learning that a woman he is courting is separated and not divorced, reacts in a surprising fit of violence; then has an increasingly difficult time covering up his actions as well as controlling his new-found desires in Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's The Unfinished Crime.

A classic unreliable narrator in a noir that ratchets tighter and tighter, The Unfinished Crime is a tidy little thriller from an author whose work has been out of print for a long while.

This novel was part of an old-fashioned style mystery double, the other half of which I also read very quickly (and is reviewed below).  I consumed this in two days over Christmas break.

I have enjoyed what I have seen from Stark House Press and will recommend Holding's work to others.

#52: The Girl Who Had To Die by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

A fatalistic young woman brings a troubled young man to a weekend away visiting an affluent, debauched family with plenty of secrets in Elizabeth Sanxay Holding's The Girl Who Had To Die.

Holding writes with an especially feverish intensity and ratchets the suspense up almost from the first page. Although cloaked in the trappings of a family drama, this is a pretty tough noir featuring an unreliable narrator and an enigmatic ending.

This is my second novel by Holding after Lady Killer earlier this year and I feel she most reminds me of the great Cornell Woolrich, although Holding has, sadly, largely been out of print for a long time.  Stark House Press is trying to change that by bringing a lot of her work back, including this one I bought from them (a double with The Unfinished Crime).

Recommended for fans of classic noir.

#51: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden

An unconventional Jedi and a fallen Sith team up to try to end the Clone Wars in Christie Golden's Dark Disciple, a novel spun out of the Clone Wars animated series.

To me, as a person who saw the original Star Wars in theaters, there is something off-putting about the newer trilogy, which ends with evil triumphant at every turn, curiously downbeat storytelling that constantly leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.

But Golden does a nice job whipping up a rollicking adventure that includes appearances by popular characters, including Yoda and a young Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett.  Fans of the Clone Wars series will probably find this most rewarding, as I am only somewhat familiar with this storyline.

I listened to this on audiobook, on loan from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond Indiana, and consumed most of it on a long drive back and forth to Chicago.

I was pleasantly surprised that this was more than just a reading of the novel, but a fully-produced audio program that included sound effects and music.  Most importantly, an incredibly good narration by Marc Thompson, doing a lot of spot-on voice impressions, makes it recommended as an audiobook for Star Wars fans.

#50: I Smile Back by Amy Koppelman

A young wife and mother struggles with her identity, masking her problems with drugs and risky sex, in Amy Koppelman's downbeat portrayal of suburban life I Smile Back.

Koppelman creates a fully-realized central character, and finely-tuned but bleak sketch of the American Dream, for an overall rewarding literary fiction outing.

I became interested in this novel when I learned that it would be made into a film with Sarah Silverman, who to me seems to be a good choice for the self-destructive Laney.  I Smile Back was published by Two Dollar Radio, a small publishing house in nearby Columbus, Ohio, whose output I have enjoyed.

I purchased this novel from Two Dollar Radio and read it quickly, passing it on to other like-minded readers afterwards.

This was a great novel to enjoy in reaching my goal of reading fifty books by women in 2015.  I wanted to seek out new voices and stories told from different perspectives, and Koppelman's work was a good example of that goal.

#49: Wonders of the Invisible World by Patricia A McKillip

Wonders of the Invisible World is an imaginative collection of science fiction and fantasy from Patricia A. McKillip, largely dealing with the roles of women in interesting ways.

McKillip is a well-established fantasy author, though I had never explored her work until a friend recommended this collection of short stories.  I purchased for my beloved Kindle and dipped a toe into over a long period of time this year. 

Though similarly themed, the stories are all very finely wrought and thought-provoking throughout, and I enjoyed savoring them over time.

I have enjoyed reading only women authors this year as I am not sure I would have taken a chance on McKillip before.  I have already salted away a few of her paperbacks I have found here and there for future enjoyment.

Recommended for fans of fantasy.

#48: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

In the far-flung future, a vast empire--reminiscent of the Roman Empire--is in decline.  When a massive, thousand-year-old sentient ship learns why, her consciousness is downloaded into a single fragile human body, leading her on a methodical path of vengeance in Ann Leckie's sci-fi epic Ancillary Justice.

This novel garnered all the top sci-fi writing awards in one fell swoop, but came on my radar when a friend recommended it.  Despite what I think is a poor title--I've since recommended it to others, and they never remember what it's called--this is a fantastic bit of world-building as well as a cracking good adventure.

I have described this book as what might have happened if Samuel R. Delany wrote The Ship Who Sang or Anne McCaffrey wrote The Left Hand of Darkness.  If these name-checks strike a chord, Ancillary Justice is for you.

This is the first of a trilogy, and I am eager to read the rest.  I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.

#47: X by Sue Grafton

P.I. Kinsey Milhone reluctantly looks into the affairs of a murdered colleague, finding a coded list of women's names that leads to art thievery and murder in Sue Grafton's latest alphabet mystery X.

Grafton has written a long, admirable private eye series, and the latest is a very solid entry.

Longtime fans will see continued character growth (although I could have done without a lengthy subplot about Milhone's landlord's interest in water conservation) and several ties back to the last novel in the series.  New fans will find an interesting mystery that takes place in the pre-internet late 80s, when being a private eye meant typewriters, index cards, phone books, and a lot more old-fashioned legwork.

I listened to this on audiobook from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#46: White Crocodile by K.T. Medina

A young woman finds out that her ex-husband was killed clearing mines in the killing fields of Cambodia, and feels compelled to travel there to learn the truth, in K.T. Medina's absolutely crackling debut thriller White Crocodile.

Medina comes from a military background, including a stint in the Royal Engineers, and it is obvious she knows what she's talking about in the hair-raising scenes in the minefields.  But she can also write a riveting thriller, as the "White Crocodile" of the title--a killer stalking local women, but also what the locals call the minefield, named after a mythic beast--makes himself known.

White Crocodile is one of the best page-turners I've read in a while, and I found myself consuming the last hundred pages or so in a single fell swoop.  Recommended for thriller fans.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.

#45: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Four Londons stand in the same place in parallel worlds; Red London, filled with good magic; White London, filled with dark magic; the everyday world of Gray London; and the lost world of Black London.  When an emissary from Red London crosses into White London on a royal errand, he inadvertently gets involved in an intricate plot in V.E. Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic.

I thought the title was kind of poor, but the storytelling rollicking and cinematic, as our protagonist teams up with an impish young thief against a variety of magical and non-magical foes. 

A really solid high fantasy, with lots of adventure, and apparently the start of a new series (which I was happy to learn).  I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond Indiana and read it quickly. 

Recommended for fans of fantasy and adventure stories.

#44: The King's Dragon by Una McCormack

The Doctor and companions Amy and Rory decide to visit a medieval-era utopian town for a rest; instead, naturally, they find the town in the thrall of a despotic king and under threat by an alien armada in Una McCormack's The King's Dragon, a contemporary Doctor Who story.

Fans of the current series, especially the Matt Smith era, will find a lot to enjoy in this breezy, but action-packed adventure which adds to the Doctor Who lore.  It has the right pacing and tone for a current episode in the series, with social and political overtones, fun interplay between characters, and of course a large, robotic dragon.

I enjoyed McCormack's take on Doctor Who and would look for more of her writing.

I bought this at a goodbye price at the BBC America booth at GenCon this summer and read it over a weekend.

#43: You Are Never Weird On The Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day

Felicia Day writes about her rocky road from her chaotic, homeschooled upbringing to becoming an actress and "contextually famous" internet personality in You Are Never Weird On The Internet (Almost).

Day's book is bright and funny, but there are darker undertones to her writing, especially when she talks about her towering insecurities and crippling self-doubt.  But those struggling in trying to make it in the performing arts in any fashion will find a lot of takeaways in her story.

I listened to this on audiobook, and that might be the best way to hear her story, as her delivery really helps engage the reader.

I borrowed this from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#42: Innocence by Heda Margolius Kovály

In 1950s Prague, the death of a young boy at a movie theater reveals a series of shocking truths about the women who work there, resulting in more death and destruction, in Innocence by Heda Margolius Kovaly.

As well as being a fascinatingly bleak mystery, the story of the novel--lost to Communist oppression for a long while--is equally interesting.  Kovaly was inspired after translating the work of Raymond Chandler into Czech, and it shows.  Innocence is a tough, unrelenting noir with a shockingly downbeat ending.

But it paints a portrait, in grays and blacks, of a world few of us have been made privy to, and thus is rewarding on many levels.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.  Recommended.

#41: The Sunshine Crust Baking Factory by Stacy Wakefield

In the early 90s, a young woman comes to New York and finds drama and adventure in the squatting scene in Stacy Wakefield's The Sunshine Crust Baking Factory.

Wakefield was a squatter herself, previously writing a non-fiction account of that time period, and I would guess she based a lot of this novel on those experiences. 

At the foreground of this story is her relationship with two men, one who she gradually finds out is wrong for her and one she gradually finds out might be right for her, set against a background of zines, punk shows, and underground culture.

Although the storytelling is pretty straightforward, the setting is offbeat, so I would recommend this read to those of like-minded interests.

I checked this out from Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.

#40: EarthWorld by Jacqueline Rayner

The Doctor and his companions Fitz and Anji visit a future colony which has built an amusement park called EarthWorld, a Disney-like attraction that has a humorously skewed version of Earth history;  but when a murderous trio take over behind the scenes it becomes anything but funny in Jacqueline Rayner's Doctor Who novel EarthWorld.

This adventure features the Eighth Doctor, an unusual figure in the lengthy history of the original television series as he appeared in just one television adventure at the end of the original Doctor Who series and bridged the long gap before the start of the contemporary series, the lead character in countless novels, comics, and audio plays during that time.  Even at that, the casual Doctor Who fan probably doesn't know a lot about him.

This novel, re-released as part of the 50th Anniversary of the program, is some thirty-odd novels (!) into his adventures, and sent me to the internet to learn more about his companions and some of the backstory talked about.  Enjoyable, but probably mostly for hardcore Doctor Who fans.

I bought this at GenCon in Indianapolis and enjoyed learning more about this character.

#39: Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

A hip young New Yorker, on the verge of marrying into an affluent family, is drawn back to a terrible incident during high school by the appearance of a documentary film crew in Jessica Knoll's Luckiest Girl Alive.

Knoll seems to be another author taking a page from Gillian Flynn, penning a cold-blooded thriller whose protagonist seems to be pretty scheming and manipulative.  But as the story unpacks, the reader learns more about a horrific event that has never release its hold on the present.

A very solid read that perhaps wraps up a bit too neatly, but hits a lot of hard beats throughout.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.

#38: The Accidental by Ali Smith

A blended family, with cracks running through it, goes through tremendous changes when an uninvited houseguest appears during their summer holiday in British author Ali Smith's The Accidental.

Smith alternates several points of view in this interesting novel; the husband thinks the young woman who appears is his wife's friend, the wife thinks she is her husband's latest conquest, the son sees a potential girlfriend, and the daughter sees a dangerous confidant.  Who she really is remains enigmatic, but resonates through the family's summer and beyond.

I enjoyed Smith's voice and her shading of the different characters, overall finding this striking novel about tangled family lives interesting.  I think my enjoyment of this novel was magnified by listening to a very fine audiobook adaptation, read by multiple voices. 

I borrowed this from the Farmland Public Library in Farmland, Indiana and enjoyed it immensely.

#37: Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer

A young British man on the autism spectrum decides to take a medical course in order to understand death, after his father's passing; instead, he stumbles onto a murder that everyone else believes was natural causes in Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer.

Rubbernecker is a crackling good thriller which owes a debt to both The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as well as CSI.  Admittedly some of the plot's wheels creak a little bit as coincidences and happenstances fall into place, but as problems mount up for our flawed protagonist--including getting on the killer's radar--the book becomes a real page-turner towards the end.

I really enjoyed this thriller and will look for more of Bauer's books.

I borrowed this from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly. 

#36: The Hades Factor by Gayle Lynds and Robert Ludlum

Current scientist and former badass John Smith grows suspicious when his girlfriend dies suddenly of a mysterious ailment; and when he looks into it more closely, he (naturally) unearths a global conspiracy in The Hades Factor, the first in the Covert One series.

Robert Ludlum apparently sketched in this series of novels before his death, and the details were handed over to a handful of writers; this first one fell to Gayle Lynds, who has been a pretty solid thriller writer in her own right.

This is a fun but entirely undemanding read, one of those novels where the characters never stop at a Taco Bell to eat but have time to train a mountain lion as a pet.  Interestingly, it was written just before 9/11, in what seems to be a rosier time when a diabolical corporate businessman could be the villain in an international thriller.

The Covert One series has numbered quite a few adventures to date and has its appeal to the technothriller/medical thriller crowd, and would be recommended to those readers.

I listened to a solid audiobook version on loan from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.