Celebrating my favorite discoveries each year is always a good time, and like most of you, I like to share them. In no particular order, here's my top 10 reads of the year (not necessarily published in 2021).
| 1. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd Heartfelt, dramatic, adventurous. My wife turned me onto this book a few years back. So glad I got around to it. |  |
| 2. Something Rich and Strange - Ron Rash Rash is like a tamer Ketchum and a harsher Raymond Carver. This thing is packed with amazing lessons in storytelling. |  |
| 3. Where All Light Tends to Go - David Joy Crap hits the fan in this Appalachian noir tale with some great characters. |  |
| 4. Moon Lake - Joe R. Lansdale Lansdale through and through. No uncharted territory, just an old pair of comfortable shoes, as Joe might say. |  |
| 5. Pearl - Josh Malerman. It shouldn't work but did. Creepily. Some unsettling visualization in here. NEEDFUL THINGS meets CARRIE meets CHARLOTTE'S WEB and ANIMAL FARM. Every bit of it thrown in a blender and served with fried potatoes, eggs, and brimstone. |  |
| 6. Chasing the Boogeyman - Richard Chizmar What THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT did for cinema, this book may do for crime fiction. A pseudo crime bio turned murder mystery. |  |
| 7. Creature - Hunter Shea Heavy on real-life drama with something in the woods. Shea does a masterful job at filling the pages with the drama without it being boring, which is what could happen in other hands. |  |
| 8. Off Season - Jack Ketchum I was late to the game on this one. Brutal, excellent characterization in a believable savage story. |  |
| 9. In the Scrape - James Newman and Mark Steensland Feels like Appalachian noir like Rash or Joy. A lot of tension here and the perfect length. It went by fast. |  |
| 10. The Strange Thing We Become - Eric LaRocca I was sent this one for a blurb. Offering one was an easy decision. Some excellent transgressive stuff in here. If you're one of those who didn't like his novella THINGS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE SINCE WE LAST SPOKE because of the format, this book will make you a fan. This is where LaRocca's prose really shines. |  |
RSS Feed