Books that inspired me in 2024, by Josh Stallings

 Crime fiction spreads across all genres, here are some of my favorite reads of the last year.

Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake is a brilliant weave of spy novel, anthropology and a character study. Following a freelance spy/investigator as she infiltrates a rural French commune, it delves into a prehistoric cultural divide between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens, the deadly danger of mega farming, and the destructive nature of capitalism. 

“The whole internet is like a giant mirror. A swampy reflecting pool for the world. Viscous and unclean, mottled, distorting.” — Catchpenny: A novel by Charlie Huston

Charlie Huston’s Catchpenny is the story of a rock singer who sold his voice so he could slide in and out of mirrors. Too weird? Not in the hands of Huston. He ground this fantastical world with real humans dealing with real pain while fighting to save the world from dark magic destruction. 

Nemonte Nenquimo, Mitch Anderson’s We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People is the amazing life story following Nenquimo from a childhood where missionaries taught her to devalue her ancestors, her way of life and ultimately herself. In reclaiming the wisdom of the jungle she grew into a leader of a movement that brought together the tribes of the Amazon. It is a crime book, just not fiction.

I have also read a lot of Mario Vargas Llosa every writer should, he’s that good. He’s won the Nobel Prize in Literature, Miguel de Cervantes Prize, Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit, and a bunch more accolades. Normally this would lead me to believe he was a stuffy headache inducing author. Nope, he writes clean direct crime stories that break a million and one rules and never leave me bored. His ability to jump in and out of time and blend several conversations without ever causing confusion is miraculous. 

Here are the Mario Vargas Llosa novels I read this year, there is much to be learned from his work. My only regret is I can’t read them in the original Spanish.

The Discreet Hero

Who Killed Palomino Molero?

Death in the Andes: A Novel

The Storyteller: A Novel

Captain Pantoja and the Special Service

As an added bonus here’s some music that is inspiring me.

I write to all kinds of music, recently its been indigenous music from South and Central America.

Amazon Ensemble’s Enchanted takes me far from my office.

Nación Ekeko & Ayahuasca Icaros single Limpia is cool and trippy to type to. I’ve been enchanted by all of Nación Ekeko’s work.  

Giselle World’s Tribu mixes ambient and chants in a way that keeps me typing.

Jon Batiste’s Beethoven Blues while not indigenous music, is amazing to write to. Familiar enough melodies that they don’t pull me out, with complicated enough variations that they never bore the logical part of my brain.

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What I am reading now:

End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland by Haruki Murakami, new translation by Jay Rubin.

Happy Holidays to all. In these dark and deeply weird days I hope you find and share love, laugher and joy.