Notable Reads of 2019
We’re finally here. The first or my two year-end best reads lists. While I’ve read considerably more books in 2019 than I did last year (16 more, to be exact), it’s been kind of a down year for standout books. Authors are not the only one to blame. I’ve had a bad case of book blogging burning over the last couple years, so I branched out into comic books and non fiction to save whatever I had left of a soul. But it worked. I’m still here.
The Notable Reads are the book that were not quite the best, but almost. I cut them off last from the Best Reads list, but they were too good not to mention. These will come next Wednesday. Because of my aforementioned down year, you’ll find a lot of familiar names in this list. It’ll get better once we’ll crack the top 10, I promise. Remember: I’ve read these book in 2019, but they’re not necessarily from this year. Newer doesn’t always equal better. So, without further do… here are Dead End Follies’ Notable Reads for 2019.
Lawrence Block - Even The Wicked
For daring to give us a different vigilante. One who’s violent, elusive, arbitrary and criminal Matthew Scudder has to stop.
J.G Ballard - The Crystal World
For using such a crazy, vivid premise to confront us to our own ignorance and inconsequential place in the universe.
Dan Chaon - Ill Will
For experimenting with the form, demanding more out of its audience and ultimately rewarding them for it.
Joshua Chaplinsky - Whispers in the Ear of a Dreaming Ape
For unashamedly writing boundless conceptual genre fiction.
Leonard Cohen - The Book of Longing
For its masterful understanding of the personal and intimate.
For its unique atmosphere that expertly walks a thin line between film noir cliché and realistic American working class.
Cody Goodfellow & J. David Osborne - The Snake Handler
For expanding the possibilities of noir and giving Jim Thompson’s legacy a shockingly moving twist.
John D. MacDonald - Darker Than Amber
For expertly writing the depths of human darkness under the blistering Florida sun.
Tales from the Crust: An Anthology of Pizza Horror
For the almost impossible stunt turning a familiar and delicious staple of contemporary living against the reader.
For relaunching an epic in an era where everything in increasingly more fragmented and easy to consume in short bursts.
