Once again, it's been a great reading year for me (in fact, I've read more books this year than I have since I began my spreadsheet in 2002) with a nice mixture of brand new novels, a few books that have languished on my TBR pile for too long, some good second-hand finds (which jumped straight to the top of the pile) along with some welcome re-reads.
As always, the top 20 places were hard fought and, I think, show a nice variety in genre and tone - if I've blogged about a book before, I've linked to it on the list.
Without further ado, I present the Thirteenth Annual Westies Award - “My Best Fiction Reads Of The Year” - and the top 20 looks like this:
2: Season Of Mist, by Paul Finch
3: Valley Of Lights, by Stephen Gallagher
4: The Saturday Night Ghost Club, by Craig Davidson
6: Summer At The French Park Café, by Sue Moorcroft *
7: Clown In A Cornfield, by Adam Cesare
8: Of Men And Monsters, by Tom Deady
9: Don't Turn Around, by Jessica Barry
10: Blow Out, by Neal Williams
11: Reckless, by R J McBrien
13: The Flight, by Julie Clark
14: Driftnet, by Lin Anderson
15: The Other Passenger, by Louise Candlish
16: Murder Most Unladylike, by Robin Stevens
18: Later, by Stephen King
20: The Cottingley Cuckoo, by AJ Elwood
* This will be published in the summer of 2022, I read it to critique
The Top 10 in non-fiction are:
1=: Days & Ages, by Mark Beaumont
3: The Storyteller, by Dave Grohl
4: The Bassoon King, by Rainn Wilson
5: Paperbacks From Hell, by Grady Hendrix
6: Lonely Boy, by Steve Jones
7: In The Pleasure Groove, by John Taylor
8: A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away, by Paul Hirsch
9: Imperfect Hero: Harrison Ford, by Garry Jenkins
10: Star Wars Year By Year, by Lucy Dowling
Stats wise, I’ve read 91 books - 42 fiction, 21 non-fiction, 16 comics/nostalgia/kids and 12 Three Investigator mysteries.
Of the 79 books, the breakdown is thus:
7 biography
20 horror
14 film-related
6 drama (includes romance)
16 crime/mystery
5 sci-fi
2 nostalgia
9 humour
All of my reviews are posted up at Goodreads here
In case you’re interested, the previous awards are linked to from here:
Thank you very much for including 2 of my books, Mark! Awesome!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome - they're terrific novels!
DeleteMerry Christmas to you and yours, MW. Hope Santa was good to you.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kid, you too!
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