Monday, January 15, 2018

Favorite Reads of 2017

I’m ba-a-a-ack.

You didn’t think you were rid of me forever, did you? You’re not that lucky. This blog takes a licking and keeps on ticking. I’ll also pop up on some other worthy blogs over the next several weeks in a delayed effort to get the word out about the fifth Nick Forte novel, Bad Samaritan, launching January 22 from Down & Out Books. (More on Bad Sam next time.)
                                                         
There’s no better way to look forward to 2018 than to tie a bow on 2017. I read 59 books all the way through last year. Stealing Seizing an idea from another blog (I’d say which but I genuinely don’t remember), I decided it was pretentious to name the best books I read because who am I to say what’s best? I can name my favorites, and I had quite a few. I didn’t read as many books last year as I usually do, but the level of quality was high. I’d rather mention all those I thought worthy than write reviews, so I broke them out by categories.

Titles are listed in the order read. All are more than deserving of your time.

Favorite Reads by Authors New to Me
Scent of Murder, James O. Born
Random Victim, Michael Black
Only the Hunted Run, Neely Tucker

Favorite Reads by Authors Already Known to Me
Razor Girl, Carl Hiaasen
80 Million Eyes, Ed McBain
The Promise, Robert Crais
Nasty Cutter, Tim O’Mara
Tomato Red, Daniel Woodrell
The Mexican Tree Duck, James Crumley
Crime Song, David Swinson
Six Guns at Sundown, Eric Beetner
Down & Out, The Magazine: Volume 1, edited by Rick Ollerman
Money for Nothing, Donald Westlake
Hollywood Moon, Joseph Wambaugh

Favorite Re-Reads
Jimmy the Wags: Street Stories of a Private Eye, James Wagner
The Kid From Tomkinsville, John R. Tunis
All the Dead Voices, Declan Hughes
The Walkaway, Scott Phillips
True Grit, Charles Portis
Deadwood, Pete Dexter
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
Hombre, Elmore Leonard
Appaloosa, Robert B. Parker
Homicide, David Simon

Favorite Non-Fiction
The Big Short, Michael Lewis
Moneyball, Michael Lewis
Deadwood: Stories of the Black Hills, David Milch
Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and the Wickedest Town in the American West, Tom Clavin
Bestseller Metrics, Elaine Ash
Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, Bat Masterson
Age of the Gunfighter: Men and Weapons of the Frontier 1840 – 1900, Joseph Rosa
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Rise of the Warrior Cop, Radley Balko

No comments: