If you scan the list below, you will see a wide range of fiction (I only read four non-fiction works) that can be more or less divided into three parts – well-known literary-ish novels I’d never read (“The Lying Life of Adults,” “Rabbit, Run,” “The End of the Affair”); newer popular works (“Small Mercies,” “Crook Manifesto”); and audiobooks, which are exclusively crime, and mostly by Michael Connolly (background noise for the gym).
As I have since the pandemic (remember that?) when I told myself to take more reading risks, I reveled in the discovery of writers who fall outside my previously narrow comfort zone, among them: Elena Ferrante, (more) Rachel Cusk), Rabih Alameddine (amazing), and Eudora Welty). Their work widened my world view and heartened my belief that in reading we can find the humanity that is too often hidden amid the atrocity and hatred of our times.
I only dropped out of two books, of which the biggest disappointment was “Kairos” by Jenny Erpenbeck, which I’d looked forward to because I’d loved her previous work, “Go Went Gone.”
People ask about favorites, a list I find hard to delineate because my tastes vary so much. For me, reading is all all-you-can-eat buffet: who’s to say if the mountain of mashed potatoes is better than the thick slabs of sliced roast beef or the gurgling vat of mac and cheese? Still, one must choose, so in lieu of favorites, I offer some of the books that most delighted or surprised me:
Non-fiction: “On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey” – Paul Theroux, a marvelously descriptive and insightful road trip by a septuagenarian explorer through our complex southern neighbor.
Fiction (in no order): “My Monticello” (a magnetic mirror on the world); “The Wrong End of the Telescope” (phenomenal); “Signs Preceding the End of the World” (the bizarre realities of the US-Mexico borderlands); “The Swimmers” (beautiful simplicity); “The Sentence” (I hope to read all of Erdrich); “Small Mercies” (powerful); “The Great Believers” (so real); “Train Dreams” (a tasty morsel); and “Ask the Dust” (more John Fante, please).
Finally, for me audiobooks are mostly filler, but one set of them made me realize I’ve been overlooking one of the world’s most popular authors: The “Mr. Mercedes” series by Stephen King. Good writing, great storytelling. (The trilogy also includes “Finders Keepers” and “End of Watch.”
The List, 2023:
1. The Feral Detective – Jonathan Lethem
2. Hell of a Book – Jason Mott
3. The Black Echo – Michael Connelly *
4. Ill Will – Dan Chaon
5. The Black Ice — Michael Connelly *
6. When the Killing’s Done – T.C. Boyle
7. Northern Spy – Flynn Berry
8. The Concrete Blonde – Michael Connelly *
9. Nightmare Alley – William Lindsay Gresham
10. The Last Coyote – Michael Connelly *
11. The Survivors – Jane Harper
12. Chances Are … – Richard Russo
13. Trust the Plan, The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America – Will Sommer
14. My Monticello – Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
15. The Searcher – Tana French *
16. The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith
17. Trunk Music – Michael Connelly *
18. On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey – Paul Theroux
19. The Poet – Michael Connelly *
20. The Wrong End of the Telescope – Rabih Alameddine
21. Signs Preceding the End of the World – Yuri Herrera
22. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee *
23. The Swimmers – Julie Otsuka
24. Since We Fell – Dennis Lehane
25. Angels Flight – Michael Connelly *
26. Telephone – Percival Everett
27. Ladydi (Spanish) – Jennifer Clement
28. Dead Lions (Slough House #2) – Mick Herron
29. A Darkness More than Night – Michael Connelly
30. Kudos – Rachel Cusk
31. The Children Act – Ian McEwan
32. Kindred – Octavia Butler
33. I Will Find You – Harlan Coben *
34. The End of the Affair – Graham Greene
35. City on Fire – Don Winslow *
36. City of Bones – Michael Connelly *
37. An Unnecessary Woman – Rabih Alameddine
38. The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler *
39. The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
40. Ask the Dust – John Fante
41. This Dark Road to Mercy – Wiley Cash
42. Lost Light – Michael Connelly *
43. Real Tigers (Slough House #3) – Mick Herron *
44. The Sentence – Louise Erdrich
45. Giant – Edna Ferber
46. Spook Street (Slough House #4) – Mick Herron *
47. Murder on the Red River – Marcie R. Rendon
48. The Narrows – Michael Connelly *
49. Empire of Wild – Cherie Dimaline
50. The Closers – Michael Connelly *
51. Small Mercies – Dennis Lehane
52. Crook Manifesto – Colson Whitehead
53. London Rules – Mick Herron *
54. Am I Alone Here – Peter Orner
55. Kairos – Jenny Erpenbeck **
56. The Optimist’s Daughter – Eudora Welty
57. Parrot in the Oven – Victor Martinez
58. Joe Country – Mick Herron *
59. Mystic River – Dennis Lehane
60. The Lost Daughter – Elena Farrante
61. War Trash – Ha Jin
62. Echo Park – Michael Connelly *
63. No One Will See Me Cry – Cristina Rivera-Garza
64. Train Dreams – Denis Johnson
65. Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
66. Mr. Mercedes – Stephen King *
67. The Lying Life of Adults – Elena Ferrante
68. Killers of the Flower Moon – David Grann *
69. The Dog of the South – Charles Portis
70. If I Survive You – Jonathan Escoffery
71. All the Sinners Bleed – S.A. Cosby
72. Finders Keepers – Stephen King *
73. Old God’s Time – Sebastian Barry
74. Chain Gang All-Stars — Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
75. End of Watch – Stephen King *
76. Bluebird, Bluebird – Attica Locke
77. Fear is Just a Word – Azam Ahmed **
78. Among the Bros – Max Marshall
79. The Lincoln Lawyer – Michael Connelly *
80. A Line in the Sand – Kevin Power
81. The Lost Americans – Christopher Bollen
82. Rabbit, Run – John Updike
83. Heaven, My Home – Attica Locke
84. Slough House – Mick Herron *
85. The Power of the Dog – Don Winslow
* Audio
** Did not finish