Carol’s Annual Best-of

Lists. I love them.

My ‘Best Reads’ below are books I’ve actually read that year, not the year they are published. I’d recommend these books as shining examples of their genres or flat-out good reads.

Being the orderly person I am, I’ve linked to the review where I have it. I’m a person that re-reads, although admittedly I did it a lot more often before finding Goodreads. I generally left out a few of my auto-buys. It goes without saying that if Kobna Holdbrook Smith reads an Aaronovitch book, I’m going to adore it.

Best reads of 2020

• I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong (non-fiction)

Best reads of 2019

• A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (sci-fi)
• Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys
• The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World (non-fiction)
• The Size of the Truth by Andrew Smith (young adult)
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (lit-fic)

Best reads of 2018

• Touch (supernatural) by Claire North
• Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Letham (mystery)
• Starfish by Peter Watts (sci-fi, horror)
• The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran (mystery)
• helium by rudy francisco (poetry)
• I Contain Multitudes (non-fiction)
• The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley (mystery)
• Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (sci-fi)

 

Best reads of 2017

• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (non-fiction)
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond (non-fiction)
• Lumberjanes: Friendship to the Max (graphic novel)
• The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch (UF)
• The Trespasser by Tana French (mystery)
• Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon (YA/fantasy/UF)
• Children of Time by Adrian Tchaskovsky (sci-fi)
• The Long Spoon by Jonathan Howard (short story/fantasy)
• Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith (sci-fi?)
• The Tomato Thief by Ursula Vernon (short story/fantasy)

 

Best reads of 2016

• The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch (UF, mystery)
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley (non-fiction)
• Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Andersen (comic)
• Johannes Cabal (a tie between Book 1 and Book 4) (fantasy)
• The Living End (Daniel Faust book 3) (UF)
• A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes, read by Samuel L. Jackson (audio, mystery)
• Four Roads Cross by Max Gladstone (fantasy)
• Elephants and Corpses by Kameron Hurley (short story, fantasy)
• Smoke-Filled Rooms by Kris Nelscott (mystery)

 

Best reads of 2015

• Spillover by David Quammen (non-fiction)
• The Last Policeman Trilogy by Ben H. Winters (sci-fi/mystery/apocalypse) that includes The Last Policeman, Countdown City and World of Trouble (recommend reading as a group)
• City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
  
• God’s War by Kameron Hurley
• The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart

 

Best FICTION Reads of 2014

It’s looking to be a better year! Why? Because I’m using my book community to pick out great reads for the right mood. I’ve really enjoyed

• California Bones by Greg Van Eekhout (fantasy)
• Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone (fantasy)
• Annhilation by Jeff Vandermeer (science-fiction)
• The Secret Place by Tana French (mystery)
• Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews (UF)
  
• Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan (sci-fi)
• The Glass God by Kate Griffin (UF)
• The Last Word by Lisa Lutz (mystery, humor)
• Emperor Mollusk and the Sinister Brain by A. Lee Martinez (sci-fi, humor)
• My Dog, the Paradox by Matthew Inman, The Oatmeal (graphic art/comic, humor)

 

Best FICTION Reads of 2013

• Wool by Hugh Howey (sci-fi)
• The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (UF/thriller/sci-fi)
• The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway (sci-fi)
• Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran (mystery)
• Quite possibly, Cursed, by Jeremy C. Shipp for sheer oddity and thought-provokingness. Re-read soon. (lit-fict? sci-fi?)
  
• Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China that Never Was by Barry Hughart (fantasy)
  
• Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (UF/fantasy)
  
• Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone (fantasy)
  

Best FICTION Reads of 2012

• The Killing Moon
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
• In the Woods
• Something Wicked This Way Comes
• The Reapers are the Angels
• Doorways in the Sand
• Eight Million Ways to Die and When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Matthew Scudder mysteries)

Best Non-Fiction Reads

• Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton
• Fast Food Nation. Recommended for everyone who thinks about eating fast food.
• Crucial Conversations. If only I can remember the strategies, I’ll be so much better at those high-stakes moments

 

Top Urban Fantasy

These authors’ series are on my auto-buy list (links go to the author’s book page)

• Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series  (10 books and now spin-offs)
• Ben Aaronovich’s Peter Grant series (8 books and forthcoming, also graphic spin off)
• Kate Griffin’s Matthew Swift series (4 books in the original series, 2 spin-off)
• Craig Schaefer’s Daniel Faust series (8 books and forthcoming)
• Frank Tuttle’s  Markhat series (short stories and books)

 

Urban Fantasies that are very good (but may not appeal to everyone or have some challenges)

• Eileen Wilks’ World of the Lupi (many books; some PNR focus)
• Charlie Huston’s Joe Pitt series (5 books total)
• Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock series (6 and forthcoming)
• Mike Carey’s Felix Castor series (5 books total)

 

Best Zombie Books

• The Reapers are the Angels
• The Girl With All the Gifts
• Rot and Ruin
• World War Z
• This is Not a Test
• Zone One (with reservations–excellent writing, depressing message)