Certainly this is not a book for readers who like their characters pleasant or those who like a neat resolution to the plot. But if you can get past that, this is a marvelous character study of a family who increasingly amazes us with their actions. It all takes place over the course of a restaurant dinner.
What about you? What writer, new to you, gave you the most pleasure?
16 comments:
Patti - I'm not surprised you chose Herman Koch; he's quite talented. As to my top choice? I honestly haven't made up my mind yet.
Jeffrey Siger (mysteries set in Greece)
Jo Walton (sf/fantasy/alternate history)
Ivy Pochoda (Brooklyn mystery)
Martin Limon (mysteries about US soldiers in Korea)
Julia Dahl (Brooklyn mystery)
Adrian McKinty (Irish mystery)
Lauren Beukes
Gabrielle Zevin
Karen Joy Fowler
Jeff M.
Jeff-you put the rest of us to shame. McKinty would be my second choice. Reading his first right now.
Jo Walton's fiction and non-fiction is wonderful!
Ana Maria Spagna writes essays about wilderness, but, as the best of such always are, they are about much more than that.
I would also be remiss if I didn't mention Jon Keller, whose debut Of Sea and Cloud was great.
For a "classic" writer I read for the first time, I'll mention Leigh Brackett. Loved the Mars stuff of hers I read this year.
I'll list three:
Johnny Shaw BIG BLACK MARIA
Andy Weir THE MARTIAN
Philip Kerr - Bernard Gunther series.
So many of these I have meant to try. Kerry, I have tried-but only the first in the Gunther series. Wilderness writing sound just about right with WILD coming out.
Jeff just read Karen Joy Fowler for the first time this year? I would've expected him to have read any of her books long ago.
I enjoyed three new writers:
M. J. McGrath
Derek Miller
Keigo Higashino
And discovered these very good oldies for the first time:
G. M. Wilson
S. H. Courtier
Charity Blackstock
Michael Collins (aka Dennis Lynds)
Chester Himes
Charles Forsyte
Veronica Parker Johns
Boris Vian
And I haven't read a one of them, John. Even though Himes is a favorite of my daughter's.
Eudora Welty - hadn't read anything of her until short stories last spring.
I'll have more, but have to look at my books read list
In the mystery world, I've been happy to discover Delores Hitchens, Anne Holt, Henry Wade, and newcomers J.M. Zen and Tom Crowley.
Quite a few but Eva Dolan stands out.
Amy Bloom, whose book Lucky Us is my favorite book of the year so far. On one level, it's the story of two sisters during and after WWII, but on another it's about how America became the post-war melting pot.
Jeff Vandermeer, whose Annihilation (the first of a trilogy) was compulsively readable. I read it in two sittings.
I should have mentioned Jeffrey Siger, who Greek mystery series is excellent. We saw him at LCC in Monterey, CA and we both have read all six books in the series.
Wiley Cash and Ron McLarty are the only two new-to-me novelists who received three and one half stars in my up to four-star rating system. Right now I'm reading Life Among Giants by Bill Roorbach and it could reach that rating. Gwen Florio, Owen Laukkanen and Nic Pizzolatto earned three stars so I want to read them again.
Jess Walter; I started with Land of the Blind, read all his others; no two are alike, all are wodnerful
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