And the Winner Is

Awards for crime fiction from year to year ride a line between subjective merit and a popularity contest -- agree or disagree?. And what is your personal philosophy on awards -- their impact on readers (and you, if you've won any) and on subsequent award years?

Brenda Chapman chiming in. Happy New Year, all!

The Oxford Dictionary defines an award as: "a prize or other mark of recognition given in honor of an achievement". A neat and tidy action on the surface but one fraught with problems. How does one decide which achievement warrants recognition over another? Can an objective evaluation of a piece of writing ever be truly objective?

I love awards, don't get me wrong. Recognition is always welcome and gives a warm, fuzzy feeling. It's nice to have one's hard work get some love. An award signals to readers and those in the book industry that this book is good and worth purchasing or taking out of the library. It gives the author a boost in an industry that can be humbling and hard.

The downside though is that not all judging is the same, and how could it be? Everybody has different tastes and standards. I learned this while being on a panel of three judges for a short story contest. The best piece of writing was obvious to me as were second and third place. Imagine my shock when the other two judges didn't even have my winner in their top three. That's what we call an eye-opener.

Not to mention, deciding one book is the year's best in a specific category is false by its very definition. The judges do not have every book written that year -- publishers and authors could not possibly submit a book to every single contest. So naming one the year's best doesn't take into account all the books not judged.

I was also shocked to discover at book conferences I attended that some of these awards are determined a great deal by an author's popularity. To support this observation, I've been asked on several occasions to fill in a voting form even though I hadn't read a single book on the list. That was a second eye-opening moment. I've even been at a conference where I watched an author in contention 'work the room'. for votes. I'm not saying I blame them or that their book didn't deserve to win, but this doesn't further the idea of objectivity in judging.

I've been fortunate to have a book shortlisted seven or eight times although unfortunate enough never to win. I can't say that I've noticed any appreciable uptake in sales or recognition from making these lists, but I believe librarians and booksellers are aware. I recall someone telling me once about being considered for a speaking engagement at a particular event that unless I'd won an award not to even bother applying. I believe this gives too much credence to these awards, not all of which are executed equally. 

Now, I did have a nice surprise that kept growing over the past two weeks. My Cold Mourning audiobook made top ten lists around the world for most borrowed audiobook from public library systems in 2021. It placed second in Great Britain and first in Australia with the Butterfly Kills audiobook coming in seventh or eighth on the same lists. The most recent Publisher's Weekly post has Cold Mourning finishing third in 94 library systems ( 76,000 libraries and schools) for 2021 behind Barack Obama's A Promised Land and Delia Owen's Where the Crawdads Sing, both books I've read and admired. So while not an award exactly, an honour certainly.

I have a bit of news to start off the new year. Blind Date, first in the new Hunter and Tate Mystery Series, will be released March 1st, and the Kindle version is now available for pre-order on Amazon. I'm excited to release my latest work into the world!

Website: www.brendachapman.ca

Facebook & Instagram: BrendaChapmanAuthor

Twitter: brendaAchapman

How I Stopped Throwing Books by Josh Stallings

 

View from my desk

Q: When reading a book, how long do you give it to grab you before giving up?

A: There is a time and space for most any book. When I was much younger and considerably more touchy I would hurl books at my bedroom wall. 

“No good?” Erika would say without looking up from what she was reading. I would give logical (I thought) reasons for my dislike of the text.

Over the years I’ve come to see that I react to a book for multiple reasons.

1) Book just isn’t my cup of tea. 

My wife likes Caol Ila single malt, I like Topo Chico mineral water. Anything as subjective as taste can’t be declared good or bad, it’s personal. My first dram of Laphroaig tasted like Listerine, a few years later it became smoky heaven in a glass. Then thirty years ago I realized I had to give up drinking or embrace a short life full of handcuffs and regret.

2) A book isn’t my cuppa, at this moment.

 

Taste changes over time. A book I don’t like today, may be just the book I fall in love with tomorrow. So I may stop reading after one page. I try not to write the book off for all eternity. I remember my son Jared at 10 asking me “Why can’t I see The Wild Bunch?” He knew it was an important film to me. I explained “You’re too young, if you see it now you’ll steal the experience from yourself of seeing it the first time when you’re ready for it.”

“I am ready.” He said, but I held my ground. 

When he was 14 I took Jared to see a restored print at Grauman's Chinese Theater. He got it. We had a great chat about Sam Peckinpah’s film-making style and his views on honor. We loved Pike’s line, “When you side with a man, you stay with him! And if you can’t do that, you’re like some animal, you’re finished! We’re finished! All of us!”

3) I’m in editor mode, so everything sucks.

When I’m editing a manuscript my brain switches from dreamy creative into hyper critic. I’ve told friends, “Don’t give me your WIP right now, I’ll hate it. I’ll either think it’s better than anything I can write, or worse, in either case I won’t like it.” 

Edit mode makes me a better writer, but a bad reader.

4) I’m in first draft mode, where my needs are very specific. 

When I was writing early drafts of Young Americans I could only read books written before 1976, the year the book is set in. I needed to keep my perspective in that time. I read newspapers from 1976. I listened to Bowie and Donna Summer. So if you’d handed me a modern book to read I might have chucked it. 

I also need to stay away from powerful voices when writing. Powerful, is a completely personal thing, meaning voices that I lean towards, and can change my own voice. James Crumley is fantastic, but reading him will pull my work into his cadence. I love Tom Waites, but can’t listen to him or my work takes on a be-bop vibe. On the other hand Jamie Mason has one of my favorite voices, but she writes in a completely different style from me, so I can read her without fear of it pulling my voice off  course. I have loved John Steinbeck since I was a teenager, but I have no fear of it changing my voice. I stay away from Hemingway when writing.

SO… HOW LONG DO I GIVE A BOOK?

A page, a chapter, until I realize this isn’t the time for me and this book to meet up. I am aware I may never be at the right time and place to read some books. That doesn’t make them bad or poorly written. 

I’m trying to not define myself publicly or privately by what I don’t like. I’m trying to not yuck anyone else's yum.

“I like strawberry ice-cream.”

“Yeah, yummm. Chocolate's my favorite.”

or

“I love the Chief Inspector Gamache novels, Louise Penny is the greatest.”

“She’s fantastic. I’m reading Stephen Mack Jones' August Snow books right now, and I’m freakin loving them.”

I want to think in a less binary way about everything. Taste, like affectional orientation, or sexual identity is all on a spectrum, and they shift throughout our lifetimes.

What I don’t want to do is make any writer and by extension reader wrong or bad. Readers are my favorite people. They're deep thinkers. They're curious by nature. They travel freely around the universe gaining knowledge from all they discover. Taking cheap shots at other’s taste to prove how smart I am, won’t and it’s a waste of time that is better spent looking for points of intersection, sharing our common love of books. 

If you know me, then you know I sometimes fail to meet this ideal, but if you tell me you love a certain author and I say “Why? What about them do you like?” Don’t take this as criticism. I really am interested in how readers connect to books, what we enjoy and why. For a long time I only liked short concise books, other dyslexics may understand this. Neurodiversity isn’t just about writers, it’s also about readers. So, what makes you stop reading a book? More importantly, what is it that makes you fall in love with a book? 

*****

Shameless self-promotion

Tricky made onto DIVERSE VOICES BOOK REVIEW'S PICKS OF THE YEAR

On The Day I Die, by Catriona

Q: When reading a book (or watching a movie or TV series), how long do you give it to grab you before giving up? Is your tolerance level different in the different mediums? Has it changed from where it was ten or even twenty years ago? How much of this tendency has to do with your reader/viewer self and how much is due to the writer self?  Do you wish you were different in this regard, and if so, how?

Sliding into homebase footfirst here with a late post - I came back to work after the hols this morning and so today feels more like Monday than any Monday could. Sorry. The long wait for basic competence enters another year.

Funnily enough, it's a timely question. This was my Christmas reading:

(amazing what you can get tnrough when you knock off on the 17th of December and don't go back till Epiphany, eh?)

It's the usual mix of "How did I miss this"? - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Girls of Slender Means - hot new releases I only just managed to save till the holidays - Billy Summers, The Heron's Cry - and delicious treaty bankers - Big Little Lies (how did I manage to miss this, mind you?), Rachel's Holiday (ditto).

I didn't give up on any of them. I never do on the couch at Christmas, with fairylights and mince pies. So I think the thing that makes me give up on books is definitely me, the non-Christmas me, twinkle-less and eating celery.

And I do give up on a few. Maybe a handful a year. I give them fifty pages and if I'm still checking to see what page I'm on at p.50 - buh-bye. Why? Because on the day I die the bookshops and libraries are going be full of wonderful books I haven't read. It's a no-brainer.

There are exceptions. I gave up on a book after the first sentence recently. It had a grammatical error in it. I gave up on a book once because the first word was a typo. But usually, fifty pages.

There are some books I would give up on if they were my first time with an author I love, who might be past their peak but are so much part of life that I will read every word until there are no more. I don't think anyone would argue that the blessed Mary Higgins Clark's final novels were the equal of her earlier work, but I couldn't have cared less and I wouldn't have missed them for a pension.

I'm quite a sticker when it comes to films. I've only walked out of two in my life. I tried to watch both of them again on the telly and still hated them, by the way. Eraserhead and The Prince of Tides. I could never tell you what my favourite film is but my least favourite is one of those two. And I watched the second Sex and the City. I'm no slouch when it comes to knuckling my way through dross and piffle.

Neil - husband and frequent fellow pictures go-er - has a simple test for a film. He asks himself if he'd rather have the twelve dollars back. He's been asking himself since it was "Would I rather have the  three pounds back" and the answer is hardly ever yes. He reckoned even Yellow Earth was worth it, back in 1984. Yellow Earth is Neil's Prince of Tides. He says he's made of sterner stuff than me because he stuck it out through all four hours. It's eighty-nine minutes long.

Happy New Year and may you have twelve months full of great books, wonderful films, and I haven't even talked about telly because this post is late and I need to get it up. But did you know all of The Repair Shop is on Amazon Prime now?

Cx

p.s. And now for the sales pitch: SCOT MIST is now out on Kindle (1st Feb, hardback) and SCOT FREE (book 1 in the series) is $1.99 for the month to get new readers started. Click here

Should I stay...or should I go? by Cathy Ace

Q: When reading a book (or watching a movie or TV series), how long do you give it to grab you before giving up? Is your tolerance level different in the different mediums? Has it changed from where it was ten or even twenty years ago? How much of this tendency has to do with your reader/viewer self and how much is due to the writer self?  Do you wish you were different in this regard, and if so, how?

A: First of all, this is my chance to wish everyone good health and great happiness for 2022…so I send my best wishes to you and yours!

As for the question, it’s an interesting and complex one, and I’ve given it a good, long think…

As many of you who are regular readers will know, I use this blog as something of a confessional, so here’s today’s admission: I make up my mind about most things quite quickly. To be fair to myself, I’ll add that I’ve learned to TRY to be more patient than my instincts might otherwise dictate, so now give things like books, movies, and TV a little more time than I would naturally choose to do before I abandon them.

In all honesty it’s impossible to say how long I give a “thing” before I bail on it…it varies tremendously: I try to give a book long enough that I can come to terms with the rhythm of the author’s writing, and the nature of their voice – if I like those, I’ll keep going, even if the plot/characterization disappoints along the way, or at the end; a movie will keep me watching until I can tell that the plot/look/characterization is letting me down – I have, however, continued to watch an entire movie in which neither the plot nor the characterizations appeal to me simply because I enjoy the way it looks; for TV, if it’s a series I’ll give it maybe one and a half episodes, if it’s a mini-series maybe one episode, if it’s a one-off maybe a third of its running time.

Yes, this has changed since I started writing, because I get cross more quickly when the plot has gaping holes, or if the characters just aren’t up to snuff. My first book came out just a little less than ten years ago, so I can’t say if my increased impatience is to do with the passing of time or an insider’s view of constructing a story, but it’s probably a mixture of the two. I find that, for books, I use the Look Inside opportunity offered by Amazon, because I can usually tell by reading a sample if I want to spend a) my money and b) my time on the book in question…so that’s helpful. As for movies and TV, I don’t find trailers as useful, because sometimes they are so well edited that I think it’s going to make for good viewing, but it turns out that ALL the best bits were in the trailer, or that there’s a tension suggested there that isn’t conveyed by the actual movie/series, so I give it some time, then bail, or stick with it.

Look Inside THE CORPSE WITH THE GRANITE HEART

Do I wish I were different in this regard? Well, not really – I have so many other faults that I would attend to them first! But I do acknowledge that the mood I’m in when I “sample” something, or begin to read/watch impacts my level of like/dislike, so I’ve found that I return to books/movies/TV at different times and feel differently about them, which might also be a reflection of my age…I’ve always believed in second chances, and am living proof they can work out well, so – because I have benefitted so much from a second chance being given – I endeavor to do the same.

Have you tried one of my books from one of my series and it didn't appeal? Sorry about that - but let's just admit that not everything is everyone's cup of tea; it's true that you cannot please all of the people all of the time. But...if you'd like to give my work a second chance, you can find out all about it at my website: http://www.cathyace.com/

Grab Me

When reading a book (or watching a movie or TV series), how long do you give it to grab you before giving up?     

From Frank

I used to be a completionist. If I started a book, I finished it. Same with a movie. Maybe not so much with a TV series but definitely an episode. And if I invested in it for a few of those episode, I was seeing it through.

No longer.

Now, if you don't grab me in a reasonable amount of time, I'm gone. 

What's a reasonable time? Well...

Is your tolerance level different in the different mediums? 

I think so. If you're a movie, the first fifteen minutes better be interesting. A TV show, I'll usually give it one episode. If it's a video game, I'll go an hour. A book? You get one chapter, pal. One. If I'm not still interested after that, adios.

Has it changed from where it was ten or even twenty years ago?

Definitely. As I said, when I was younger, I hung in no matter what. No longer. I'd say this changed for me about a decade ago. Why? Read on.

How much of this tendency has to do with your reader/viewer self and how much is due to the writer self?

It's both, and more. The 'more' part is my changing philosophy on time. My time, to be precise. I'm 53 as I write this. When I was 23, I didn't really think about how much time I had left on this earth. That's a concept that has wormed its way into my consciousness in the last few years. So I don't want to waste time doing anything I don't love doing unless it's a necessity. 

As a consumer, my attitude is that there is so much content out there that I will never get to all of it that I will enjoy. So why spend any meaningful time with something I'm not enjoying. Move on and invest that precious resource of time into something worthwhile.

As a writer, I look at it this way: I'm held to a high standard by the reader. I have to grab the reader early, provide a compelling story, rich characters, and so forth. So there's no way I'm letting you off the hook. I'm not buying or reading your work if it doesn't meet that standard. Why should you get a free pass when the rest of us are working hard to toe the line?

Do you wish you were different in this regard, and if so, how? 

Absolutely not. I am wholly comfortable with this approach. And I don't buy into the complaint that some artists have expressed that this is about short attention spans or a need for instant gratification. It isn't. I'll watch a three-hour movie if it grabs me. I'm in the middle of reading a fantasy series that is currently eight books (I'm on number seven). I recently finished the entire run of Justified and by the time this post goes live, I'll have binged Deadwood. I don't have a short attention span nor do I need instant gratification.

But I do need quality. It is my time, after all, and my subjective preference. 

Note that I fully endorse the YMMV doctrine at the same time, so anyone else is free to approach things however they prefer. This works for me and I'm unapologetic for it. That doesn't mean I expect anyone else to adopt it (although I suspect I am in no way unique).

We live in a world where people sometimes seem to resent people having different opinions. I say, take 'em as they come. You're a completionist? Salud. You're more along the lines of my approach. Also salud.

And if I didn't grab you with the first paragraph of this post, and you're not even reading this final line:  well, good for you. I feel ya.

So many books, so little time

 Q: When reading a book (or watching a movie or TV series), how long do you give it to grab you before giving up? Is your tolerance level different in the different mediums? Has it changed from where it was ten or even twenty years ago? How much of this tendency has to do with your reader/viewer self and how much is due to the writer self?  Do you wish you were different in this regard, and if so, how? 

- from Susan

 Less and less time, no matter what medium. 

I started stockpiling books in my 40s against the imagined day when I would be completely housebound from old age. I have a fairly impressive, multi-room library and have only read about two thirds of the books in all genres, fiction and non-fiction. A number of already-read books are so admired that I intend to read them again in my dotage (wishful thinking?). I browse for fresh reads, greedily fingering the spines as if they were varieties of Sees chocolates. Periodically, my habit forces me to cull some books to make room for tastier volumes. Today, it’s restocking some Joan Didion essays that I read and passed along ages ago. Watching the documentary about her and reading some trenchant reviews of her work, I think I plan to revisit it. 

 All of this – I refuse to see it as hoarding – means I have zero tolerance for books that don’t engage me pretty quickly. If they’re fiction, I now quit at about 50 pages if it’s been heavy slogging or eyebrows raised in disbelief at the characters or plots. I don’t mind slow as long as the author has me in her capable hands for the journey. If it’s non-fiction and I realize the dive into science or history is too deep for me to follow after about four chapters, I acknowledge to myself that I’m not going to get a passing grade in that topic. 

It’s more dramatic with movies and TV/streaming material. Most of that, if it even engages my interest by looking at the trailer or seeing the snippets that the streaming services push at me, is dead to me within ten minutes. Ninety-nine percent of rom-coms, so-called comedies, “family” fare…just no. Bad writing, bad acting, trite plots, mediocre directing. I do not have enough time left on this planet to waste on tripe. I graze, then give up, grumbling about why I spend money on streaming services anyway when I could be reading. The why is that every so often something surfaces that I love.My fallbacks for visual storytelling are the small, highly curated DVDs and streaming purchases that I enjoy so much that I screen them at least once a year. The newest among them, to give you an idea how picky I am, is “Moonlight.”

Was I always like this? Probably not. Until a few years ago, I seemed to have more patience with run of the mill fiction, especially in the genre I also write in. But the more I write, the more I read crime fiction – everything from soft to seriously hardcore – the more I understand about what makes a good book shine. I want to leave room for those and respectfully set aside the rest, honoring the work that went into them and the author’s pride, but saving space in my personal library for the works that I fantasize will sustain me, enlighten me, challenge me, make me laugh or cry to the end. 

Season's Greetings from 7 Criminal Minds

 

Reading My Way Out of the Darkness, by Josh Stallings

 

View from my desk

Winter is classically a time to celebrate the belief that regardless of the long cold nights, spring will come again. I take it on faith that the hardest days will ultimately end and better ones are coming if I keep holding on. I don’t mean to fly in the face of “seasonal joy,” but for many of us, myself included, these holidays bring up a cocktail of joy and pain. It’s raining on my mountain, snow is coming in this afternoon. I haven’t spoken to my younger son in almost five years. Last time I saw him he had been homeless, and was in the hospital. I don’t know where he is now. I hope he is warm. I hope he is with people who bring him love and joy. I miss the hell out of him.

Simultaneously, my older son is in a good place. Last Saturday we went and saw Ghostbusters Afterlife. We laughed so loud that if there had been more than five patrons in the theater we might have been asked to leave. Next week my brother, his amazing wife and a couple of their offspring are joining us. As always, my life is a mixed bag. It’s been this way as far back as I have memories. I was a child of huge feelings. Raging and laughing in turn. Tears at heartbreak and joy at the simple love of a dog. 

In this uncertain world I can always count on a good book. Being inside someone else's written world, gives me the needed perspective to see my own life clearer. Sometimes it just gives me a much needed break. 

In that spirit I’d like to share some of the books that helped me get through, and even enjoy parts of this last year.  

 We Begin at The End, by Chris Whitaker

This book gutted me. It broke my heart, and ultimately put it back together only better. It is a feel good book, if you’re willing to travel the rough road it takes to get there. 13 year old Duchess calls herself an outlaw, she’ll do anything to protect her little brother. She continually makes life hard on herself. But she’s brave, and unforgettable. Chris Whitaker has created a mythical yet real version of California’s coast and the wilds of Montana. He also created a book that must not be passed up.

Boy from County Hell, by Thomas Pluck

I read this in both draft and finished novel form, and loved it from the get. Pluck takes a hard look at American slave culture as it has mutated and shaped Louisiana’s prison system. He writes characters with humanity and morality, some at least; he’s also willing to write unrepentantly vile characters. This book is part social novel, part mystic bayou poetry, and full of non-stoppable action. If you loved James Lee Burke’s latest work, you’ll love Boy from County Hell.

The Southland, Johnny Shaw

This is the story of three unauthorized Mexican immigrants living in Los Angeles. Shaw paints these characters with strength and dignity and true humanity. They stumble and fall and keep going. In our sound-bite, blip-news world it is easy to lump these women into one monolithic group. Shaw make you see the individuals. People trying to get from one end of the day to the next, sometimes with grace, others stumbling but forever fighting to make things better. This is a hell of a book. 

  Children of Chicago, by Cynthia Pelayo

Is it a grim fairy tale, or a gritty police procedural? A crime novel or a horror novel? It’s all of the above and more. She slips in current and historical facts about Chicago that make the city itself a vibrant character. Pelayo has written a multiple genre novel that delivers regardless of what expectations you bring to it. Confession, I don’t read horror. Full stop. Okay I didn’t. I did completely dig Gabino Iglesias’ Coyote Songs, but I figured it was crime, freaky, but still crime. Funny, I rail against genre constraints and prejudices. “Good writing is good writing.” But Children of Chicago uncovered my own prejudice against horror and made me give it up. I’ll read whatever Cynthia Pelayo writes next, regardless of where it shows up in the bookstore’s filing system. 

 

 

The Invisible Mountain, by Caroline De Robertis

A multi generational love letter to Uruguay. It follows a mother, a daughter, and a grand daughter through their lives. A country through growth, fascist repression, revolution. It is a huge sweeping canvas that always feels small and personal. Take a vacation to warmer days among these amazing women.

Suicide Souls, Penni Jones

A coming of death ghost story? Love story? It’s a feminist novel hidden inside an afterlife thriller that is also funny — like Tim Burton meets the Coen brothers to tell you a ghost story funny. And at the core of this wild tale are people I cared deeply about, and that is what kept me turning pages too late into the night, to discover how their afterlife would turn out.

Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem, Gary Phillips

Think, Raiders of the Lost Ark, with a Black cast, set in Harlem and starring Mathew Henson, a real life Black explorer. Pure fun. Enchanting and exciting as hell. Yes you’ll learn some history, but you won’t know you’re learning it. This is a page ripping gas of a book.

Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas, by Roberto Lovato

This is a late entry, I finished it a few nights ago. Non-fiction. I was reading it as research for a book I’m working on, and it took my breath away. Roberto Lovato connects the dots between El Salvador’s 1932 La Matanza ("The Massacre”) a mass murder of indigenous people, and the creation of MS13. Like David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Unforgetting’s strength is in the human story telling. We bounce between three stories, Lovato’s father growing up in El Salvador, Lovato growing up in San Francisco, and Lovato as an adult reporter returning to El Salvador.

It is a brilliant humanizing novel that won’t let you ever hear, “MS13, the most dangerous gang in the world,” without understanding these gangster’s humanity and the US government’s complicity in its creation.

     

* HUGE ASTERISK

Three of these books were edited by Chantelle Aimée Osman and published by Agora/Polis, (Chantelle edited and published Tricky.) Most of the others were written by friends. I can’t help it if I’m surrounded by brilliant writers, just lucky I guess.

________

(Shameless self promotion)

Library Journal named TRICKY one of the ten best Crime Fiction books of 2021

  

Pick of the Year, by Catriona

It's been another tremendous year in books. I've read 120, what with still living very quietly and also what with there being nothing I'd rather do. And finally what with spending so much less time browsing and grazing.

Let me explain:

Halfway through 2020, when I discovered I had bought the same book twice (again!), I put my TBR shelves into alphabetical order. Then, for reasons I can't really remember - to take away options paralysis? because some of the TBR had been waiting for years? because the first book looked enticing? - I decided to read them from A-Z too.

Actually, it ended up being from B-Y. I started with Alafair Burke and ended with Ovidia Yu. By the time 2021 came around, I was in the Ds. And last month I started again at A, with Stacey Abrams' WHILE JUSTICE SLEEPS.

There are only three books on this list that I've closed and laid aside after 50 or 100 pages, because I was still counting the pages. (That's my reading rule.) I'm sure this is fewer than when I would sicken myself swithering instead of just reading what was next.  (Those three books weren't by anyone I know, who's likely to read this, by the way.)

And there's a book that so very much should be on this list and isn't, it looks like a typo from the Empress of Typos. Or maybe Rachel walked over the keyboard and paused on DEL. But here's the thing: I read Lori Rader-Day's totally brill DEATH AT GREENWAY, last December. Modest cough.

But back to this year. What about a book of the year? Ooft. Impossible. I'd still be here this time next year. Instead I did 13 quickfire BsOTM. I looked at each month's reading (+ the holidays) and picked the one that still made my heart leap. Some months were tough, with multiple books that could have ended up on a BOTY list compiled by another method. November was particualrly awful. I only cheated once. See if you can spot it.

By that method, I ended up with seven crime novels, three general fiction (one historical), two memoirs, a science fiction and a middle-grade mystery.as my favourite baker's dozen of 2021.

Dec 2021

 

THE VANISHING HALF, Brit Bennett

 

MAGGIE AND ME, Damian Barr - coming out and coming of age in 1980s Scotland. I didn't have to come out, and I had a less turbulant childhood by and large, but otherwise this is my world.

 

PAYBACK, Margaret Atwood

 

DJINN PATROL ON THE PURPLE LINE, Deepa Anaparra

Nov 2021

 

WHILE JUSTICE SLEEPS, STACEY ABRAMS

 

THE PAPER BARK TREE, Ovidia Yu

 

STRAIGHT UP, Cathi Stoler

 

IN FOR A POUND, S.G.Wong

 

WE BEGIN AT THE END, Chris Whittaker - a heart-pounding, heart-breaking, heart-healing psychological thriller/police procedural. Rare case of a book being hyped to the heavens and still being better than I expected.

 

HARLEM SHUFFLE, Colson Whitehead

 

THE PROMISE BETWEEN US, Barbara Claypole White

 

THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE, Richard Osman

 

THE WIFE'S SHADOW, Cath Weeks

 

THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET, Catriona Ward (couldn't have guessed this wouldn't be the choice, But then came Chris Whittaker)

Oct 2021

 

WHEN YOU FIND ME, PJ Vernon

 

THE CITY WE BECAME, N K Jemisin - an impulse birthday present from my husband, because I love New York. I'm in for the other two in this sci-fi trilogy (and that's not something I say every day.)

 

THE BANGALORE DETECTIVES CLUB, Harini Nagendra

 

BROTHER OF THE MORE FAMOUS JACK, Barbara Trapido

 

THE QUEEN AND I, Sue Townsend

 

CONCRETE ROSE, Angie Thomas

September 2021

 

WINTER WITNESS, Tina deBellegarde

 

A SPELL FOR TROUBLE, Esme Addison

 

THE PURIFIED, C.F. Peterson

 

JEOFFREY THE POET'S CAT, Oliver Soden

 

BLOOD WILL OUT, Lauren Stoker

 

THE QUIET SIDE OF PASSION, Alexander McCall Smith

 

THE FORTNIGHT IN SEPTEMBER, R.C. Sherriff

 

NESSIE QUEST, Melissa Savage

 

THE WATER'S LOVELY, Ruth Rendell

 

LILIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK, Kathleen Rooney

 

CITIZEN, Claudia Rankine

 

MY SALINGER YEAR,  Joanna Rakoff - NYC again, this time following an intern at JD Salinger's agent's office in the 90s. Gossipy and gorgeous.

 

EAST OF HOUNSLOW, Kurrum Rahman

August 2021

 

RISE AND SHINE, Anna Quindlen

 

I KNOW WHERE YOU SLEEP, Alan Orloff

 

LAY YOUR SLEEPING HEAD, Michael Nava

 

HOLLY HERNANDEZ & THE DEATH OF DISCO, Richie Narvaez

 

THE HUSBAND'S SECRET, Liane Moriarty

 

HOW TO BE FAMOUS, Caitlin Moran - one of those books you can't believe you haven't read. A barnstorming and hilarious love letter to teenage girls. I wish I'd had this novel when I was one.

 

FOGGED OFF, Wendall Thomas

 

THE KEEPER, Jessica Moor

 

DEVIL'S CHEW TOY, Rob Olson.

 

THE SECRET LIFE OF BOOKS, Tom Mole

 

ARSENIC AND ADOBO, Mia Manansala

 

ONE OF US IS LYING, Karen M. McManus

July 2021

 

WHAT'S DONE IN DARKNESS, Laura McHugh

 

LITANI, Jess Lourey

 

LITTLE VOICES, Vanessa Lillie

 

RAZORBLADE TEARS, S.A. Cosby - as good as last year's Blacktop Wasteland, with added twists.

 

RUNNER, Tracy Clark - one of my drop everything and read it the day it comes out books. I love Cass Raines, PI.

 

PHANTOM LADY: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the forgotten woman behind Alfred Hitchcock, by Christina Lane

 

ME AND BANKSY, Tanya Lloyd Kyi,

 

QUEERING AGATHA CHRISTIE, JC Bernthal

 

UNSHELTERED, Barbara Kingsolver

 

 June 2021

 

FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT, Stephen King

 

CHASER, Dharma Kelleher

 

DERAILED, Mary Keliikoa

 

THE THREE MRS WRIGHTS, Linda Keir

 

SCABBY QUEEN , Kirsten Innes - back in Scotland again. This book is like How To Be Famous x Maggie and Me x Shuggie Bain (from last year). Incidentally one of the few jackets that doesn't look great on my tomato-red kitchen work-top.

(read as a print-out)

May 2021

 

FINDING MY VOICE, Nadiya Hussain

 

THREADS OF LIFE, Claire Hunter

 

THE LONG VIEW, Elizabeth Jane Howard

 

ELINOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE, Gail Honeyman

 

LIKE A SISTER,  Kellye Garrett (Mar 2022)

 

EASY MARK, Shannon Baker - I'm a sucker for Shannon's Kate Fox, Nebraska Sandhills sherrif, and this is one of the best. Good news: Books 8,9, and 10 are coming

 

CIRCLES OF CONFUSION, April Henry

 

SUMMER OF THE BIG BACHI, Naomi Hirahara

 

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED, Mick Herron

 

BITTER RAIN, Shannon Baker

 

PAPER GHOSTS, Julia Heaberlin

  

Apr 2021

 

CHASING JACK Parnell Hall

 

KEEPING LUCY, T. Greenwood

 

THAT AFFAIR NEXT DOOR, Anna Katherine Green - speaking of books I can't believe I haven't read yet. This is the first female sleuth in series fiction, published in 1897.  And it's really really good.

 

BINTI, Nnedi Okorafor

 

MAMBO, MANGO, AND MURDER, Raquel Reyes (Oct, 2021)

 

SOMEDAY, SOMEDAY, MAYBE by Lauren Graham

 

AFTER ALICE FELL, Kim Taylor Blakemore

 

LAST WOMAN STANDING, Amy Gentry

 

NEEDFUL THINGS, Stephen King

  

Mar 2021

 

COTTONMOUTHS, Kelly J. Ford

 

THE HOLLYWOOD SPY, Susan Elia MacNeal

 

WIN, Harlan Coben

 

THE NINJA DAUGHTER, Tori Eldridge

 

THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE, Carolyn Keene

 

THE TREASURE HUNTERS, Enid Blyton.

 

HAD I KNOWN, Barbara Ehrenreich

 

SQUEEZE ME, Carl Hiassen

 

BURNT SUGAR, Avni Doshi

 

I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN, Joanne Greenberg

 

FROM THE DESK OF ZOE WASHINGTON, Janae Marks - another case of "If there had been books like this when I was a girl". This is a sweet and serious middle-grade mystery that I fell in love with.

 

HOLD ME DOWN, Clea Simon (Oct 2021)

 

Feb 2021

 

THE NIGHT HAWKS, Elly Griffiths

 

DEEP INTO THE DARK, PJ Tracey

 

WINTER COUNTS, David Heska Wanbli Weiden

 

THE POSTSCRIPT MURDERS, Elly Griffiths

 

INHERIT THE SHOES, Jeff Cohen

 

TRICKY, by Josh Stallings - from one of Criminal Minds' own. Tricky is gritty and honest about disability, corruption and poverty. It tackles a tough subject with a clear eye and a heart the size of, well, Josh Stallings. 

 

SKIN DEEP, Sung J Woo

 

A GLIMMER OF DEATH, Valerie Wilson Wesley

 

WHEN WE WERE VIKINGS, by Andrew David MacDonald

Jan 2021

 

WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING, Alyssa Cole - starts with gentrification like Rosemary's Baby started with neighbours through the wall. Clever, funny, unsettling and irresisitible.

 

THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED PYTHAGORAS, J Michael Orenduff

 

THE GREENLEAF MURDERS, RJ Koreto

 

ENGLISH PASTORAL, James Rebanks

 

BITTERROOT LAKE, Alicia Beckman

 

OLIVE AGAIN, Elizabeth Strout

 

WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST DO WHAT YOU WERE TOLD, Jenny Diski.

  

Xmas Hols

 

BLOODLINE, Jess Lourey

 

THE WILD SILENCE, Raynor Winn

 

SUCH A FUN AGE, Kiley Reid

 

THIS IS SHAKESPEARE, Emma Smith

 

HAMNET, Maggie O'Farrell - utter genius. The story of a family in Stratford in the late sixteenth century. Twins fall ill with plague. Judith survives and her brother Hamnet dies. Their mother's life will never be the same again. Oh and the dad's a playwright.

 

RANDOM COMMENTARY, Dorothy Whipple

 

AN ISLAND CHRISTMAS, Jenny Colgan

 

PIES AND PREJUDICE, Stuart Maconie,

 

PINE, Francine Toon

 

THE MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY, Mo Moulton

 

A CHRISTMAS MEMORY, Truman Capote

 

THE LANTERN MEN, Elly Griffiths

 

THE DARKEST EVENING, Ann Cleeves

This is my TBR shelf today. I'll pluck some out for Christmas couch time, but I'm a convert to the A-Z reading method overall, so it might be a while before I get to Mohsin Zaidi!

Happy reading if you choose to check out any of my top 13. Happy reading if you don't. Happy Christmas if that's your bag and a Happy New Year when it rolls round,

Cx