Merle's Door by Ted KerasoteRead about the other entries on the list.
Kerasote tells the story of his fateful camping trip which resulted in him meeting a Lab who was living free in the wild. A bond is formed, but after taking the dog—named Merle—home, Kerasote discovers he must give his new pet the best of both worlds.
Shalini Boland is a USA Today bestselling author of psychological thrillers The Girl from the Sea, The Best Friend, The Millionaire's Wife, and The Child Next Door. She lives in Dorset, England with her husband, two children, and their cheeky terrier mix.The Detective Kim Stone Series, by Angela MarsonsRead about the other entries on the list.
Book 1 in the series, Silent Scream, is a crime mystery that draws you in straight away. This is in part due to the unconventional and abrasive main character, DI Kim Stone, whose own story is emotionally tangled up with her latest case. With an abruptmanner that often borders on downright rude, I really shouldn’t have liked Stone, but I found that I absolutely loved her, rooting for her every step of the way, my heart in my mouth as the body count rose. The plot is intricate, and fast-moving, the writing deft and smooth. I also laughed out loud on more than one occasion which balanced out the darker and more grisly aspects.
Stone is a complex woman, who has virtually no filter and isn’t afraid to says it like it is. She’s suffered trauma in her past, but instead of holding her back, it spurs her on. Stone’s character arc deepens through the series and far from sliding into predictability, author Angela Marsons builds on the foundation of book 1 to create a character—along with an outstanding supporting cast—that readers will truly care about.
English, and has published seventeen books, eleven of which are novels, including the bestselling The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love, and Three Daughters of Eve. In 2017 she was chosen by Politico as one of the twelve people who would make the world better.An Artist of the Floating World, by Kazuo IshiguroRead about the other entries on the list.
Set in post-second World War Japan, this is a masterfully written novel by the British-Japanese author about ageing, solitude, art, memory, and the endless tricks it plays on our minds … Ishiguro is the kind of writer who each time asks the reader to trust him, come along for a walk in an unknown territory, and if need be, change perspective. But he does all this with an unwavering modesty and quiet intelligence that only further contributes to his literary strength.
Brian Evenson is the recipient of three O. Henry Prizes and has been a finalist for the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He is also the winner of the International Horror Guild Award and the American Library Association’s award for Best Horror Novel, and his work has been named in Time Out New York’s top books.Ill Will by Dan ChaonRead about the other entries on the list.
Chaon is one of those authors who never disappoints. Dustin, a psychologist, has an off-kilter patient trying to convince him that a series of drownings are the work of a serial killer. As he reluctantly embarks on an amateur investigation, his ability to distinguish the truth becomes more and more vexed. Add to that Rusty, his adopted brother who was imprisoned for years for killing Dustin’s parents and who is just getting out, and Ill Will becomes a complex and beautifully chilling story about damage caused by the stories we tell ourselves so as not to see how things really are.
Karen Lord has been a physics teacher, diplomat, part-time soldier, and academic. She is now a writer and research consultant, BSc, MSc, MPhil, PhD. Her novella Redemption in Indigo won the Frank Collymore Literary Award and the William L. Crawford Award, among others. Her novel The Best of All Possible Worlds won the Frank Collymore Literary Award, RT Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and Locus Awards Best Science Fiction Novel. She has been nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her new novel is Unraveling.The Bone Readers by Jacob RossRead about the other entries on the list.
Published in 2016, written by award-winning Grenadian author Jacob Ross, this police procedural murder mystery takes place on a fictional Caribbean island. The population lives with the weight of history—descendants of an enslaved people who were for centuries denied marriage, family, or even consent; children of revolution and conflict still trying to make sense of what befell their parents; youth with potential but no prospects walking a tightrope between law and crime, with corruption and violence endemic in both systems. And yet, with all this burden, and all the bodies, the tale is told with fondness, humor, and hopefulness for humanity.
Richard Zimler's novels include The Search for Sana, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, and The Seventh Gate. He has won many prizes for his writing and has lectured on Sephardic Jewish culture all over the world. He now lives in Porto, Portugal, where he teaches journalism and writes. His latest novel is The Gospel According to Lazarus.One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken KeseyRead about the other entries on the list.
While serving a prison term for assault, Randle McMurphy fakes insanity in order to win a transfer to a psychiatric hospital. There, his rebellious antics, zest for life and sexual allure put him in conflict with the despotic and puritanical head of his ward, Nurse Ratched, who comes to see him as a disruptive misfitand rival. McMurphy soon earns her fury by encouraging his fellow patients to live more adventurously, and though readers know that he is unlikely to win this battle of wills, the length to which Ratched goes to ensure victory still comes as a terrible shock.
At Tor.com she tagged five "books that explore the paradoxical relationship of time travel and portal narrative," including:The Time Traveler’s Wife — Audrey NiffeneggerRead about the other entries on the list.
The Time Traveler’s Wife is an interesting play on the time travel as portal narrative theory. Niffenegger’s novel reveals much about what life is like for those close to portal narrative characters. The ones who aren’t taking the trip to another dimension. Claire, the titular character, stays in a single timeline, while her—well Henry’s a LOT of things—is deposited in different times by a genetic disorder.
Meg Donohue is the USA Today bestselling author of Every Wild Heart, Dog Crazy, All the Summer Girls, How to Eat a Cupcake, and the newly released You, Me, and the Sea. Her novels have been translated into Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish. Donohue has an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from Dartmouth College. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she now lives in San Francisco with her husband, three young daughters, and dog. Lisa Gabriele, The WintersRead about the other entries on the list.
Writers of Gothic fiction are known for using place and weather to create a dark, spellbinding tone, and Gabriele’s retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca pays tribute to the classic with its eerie, secluded-mansion setting. The Winters is the kind of homage that I love—it hues closely to the original while still managing to have enough twists to keep even fans of the classic guessing.
children. His latest novel is Some Choose Darkness.At the heart of every great thriller is an unforgettable climax, [Donlea writes at CrimeReads]. This pinnacle moment in a thriller is what defines the genre. It’s where the action takes place, where the reveal is laid bare, and where the twist is sprung on us. But there is an art to creating the climax.... Before the best reveals, in front of the most stunning twists, and ahead of the greatest unveilings of a killer’s identity, is a staircase. Climbing it is where the real fun happens, because it is with each successive step up this staircase where readers find the suspense in a thriller.One of the author's ten best slow-burn thrillers:
Beat the Reaper by Josh BazellRead about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.
Josh Bazell was offered a million dollar advance for his debut novel, and it’s not hard to see why. Beat the Reaper tells the story of Peter Brown, a New York doctor with good looks, a talent for saving lives, and a buried past he’d like to keep underground. Dr.Brown’s new patient is Nicholas LoBrutto, a mafia wiseguy with three months to live. But Mr. LoBrutto is not entirely without his wits. It seems he recognizes Peter from back in the day and believes that before his doctor was saving lives, he was ending them as a hitman for the mob.
The genius of Bazell’s novel doesn’t come from Peter going on the run, the chase scenes, or the shark tank where Peter spends an entire night fending off dorsal fins and jagged teeth. Instead, the white-knuckled reading comes from the slow building tension of Dr. Brown’s identity becoming known to those who’d rather see him dead than benefit from his life-saving abilities.
Staircase level: Extreme
Stephen William "Billy’ Bragg" is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that span political or romantic themes. His music is heavily centered on bringing about change and getting the younger generation involved in grass-roots activist causes. His book Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World was a bestseller in 2016.
By breaking the power of the crown to grant economic monopolies, the English were able to establish a political system more responsive to the aspirations of business, which led in turn to the industrial revolution taking off in Britain earlier than in nations that continued to be ruled by absolute monarchs. This process is analysed in Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson, in which the authors argue that successful countries require accountable institutions that practise transparency and probity.Read about the other entries on the list.
The Prey of Gods, by Nicky DraydenRead about the other entries on the list.
Two words to describe Drayden’s first novel: delightfully disorienting. It wages a pitched battle between two very different demigoddesses in an alt-future South Africa: one a girl only just reaching her deadly potential, the other a fallen hellbeast hell-bent on clawing her way back into power. Their encounter promises to have cataclysmic consequences for the unfortunately mortal as it plays out against a bonkers near-future backdrop littered African folklore and scads of incongruous SFF tropes, from sentient robots, to genetically engineered animals, to hallucinogenic superdrugs with nigh-spiritual effects. Plus murder. Lots and lots of murder.
Ruthless River, by Holly FitzGeraldRead about the other entries on the list.
This is the stunning true survival story of a married couple, Holly and Fitz, who survive a plane crash in the Peruvian jungle in the early ‘70s. Setting off on the river with only a rickety raft at their disposal, they fought starvation, insects and predators, racing against time to navigate the deadly waters of the Amazon to find a river town before it was too late.
Posts
All Comments
