2015 books read and a few thoughts

Last year I put a list of books read together along with some random thoughts, and I enjoyed it. So I’m doing it again this year. Enjoy!

The Norse Myths, by Kevin Crossley-Holland

The Fog, by James Herbert

Girl in a Band, by Kim Gordon

Europe Central, by William T. Vollman

Get in Trouble: Stories, by Kelly Link

Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers

Birth School Metallica Death and Into the Black by Paul Brannigan and Ian Winwood

The Weird, compiled by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer

Giallo Fantastique, edited by Ross E. Lockhart

Sevenevens, by Neal Stephenson

Finders Keepers, by Stephen King

Find Me, by Laura Van Den Berg

How to be a Man (and other illusions), by Duff McKagan

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief, by Lawrence Wright

Ten Little Indians, by Sherman Alexie

Occultation, by Laird Barron (re-read)

The Hour of the Oxrun Dead, by Charles L. Grant

The Howling, by Gary Brandner

The Hunger and Other Stories, by Charles Beaumont

The Two Pennies, by Susie Millar

Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer

Phantom, by Thomas Tessier

Making Sense of the Troubles, by David McKittrick and David McVea

Live from New York, by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller

The Graves are Walking: The History of the Great Irish Famine, by John Kelly

Wicked Things, by Thomas Tessier

After the Quake, by Haruki Murakami

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami

Scarce Resources: 18 Weird Tales by Brendan Detzner

The Best Horror of the Year Volume Seven, edited by Ellen Datlow

The Sick Bag Song, by Nick Cave

The Great and Secret Show, by Clive Barker (re-read)

Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe, by Thomas Ligotti (re-read)

Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco, by Stephen Thrower with Julian Grainger

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, by Stephen King

Your Band Sucks: What I Saw at Indie Rock’s Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear), by Jon Fine

L.A. Confidential, by James Ellroy

Light in August, by William Faulkner

Van Halen Rising: How a Southern Californian Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal, by Greg Renoff

Let’s start with the book that impacted me the most: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. I could not stop thinking about this book when I read it, replaying it in my head every night as I fell asleep. I can honestly say that no other book has fired up my mind in the last decade like this one. I’m not sure that it tops Anathem, especially given that the final third of the book can’t compare to the first two-thirds, but what a thought-provoking, exhilarating read. I can’t believe people go through life without knowing the joy reading a book like this can bring…Going Clear was a different kind of sci-fi, one infinitely more disturbing. I wanted to understand the appeal of Scientology and instead I find its continued existence even more mystifying. It’s a Hollywood thing, I guess. Expertly researched and a certainly a fascinating read, the documentary of the same name that came out this year is well worth your time too…

I am as thrilled as any Stephen King devotee can be that he still cranks out several books a year. This year wasn’t one of his better ones, though. Finders Keepers features some of the same characters as Mr. Mercedes (itself no great shakes) and the most absurd plot I’ve read for some time. King’s readability makes it a breezy enough read but there’s nothing special here (and I’m not the only fan who is mystified as to why King enjoys these characters enough to give them more than one book; they are, frankly, pretty dull.) The Bazaar of Bad Dreams was a difficult read for me: 1)The best story by far, “Morality,” was previously published in Blockade Billy, which was also included in this collection and seems like a ploy to pad out the book; 2)Stephen King read a bunch of Raymond Carver and then wrote a story like Raymond Carver, and despite the fact these are 2 of my 3 favorite authors of all time, it didn’t work; 3)the stories more often than not felt…incomplete, somehow. Like they were closer to sketches than complete works. That said, there was one element to this collection I found fascinating and compelling: King was upfront about wrestling with his own mortality. Honestly, his intros were often better than the stories themselves. Look, I realize it sounds like I just trashed this book, but if you are a fan, you should read it. King’s worst is still better than most writer’s best, and the comforting familiarity of his voice can’t be denied. I am proud to be a Constant Reader…

Old-school horror, you say? How about The Fog? Great fun, pure pulp, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Dated, but if you love late 70s pulp horror, it’s a treat…I have long meant to get around to reading The Hour of the Oxrun Dead, ironically this quiet tale became the first book I ever read on a Kindle. I found it enjoyable if slight; I appreciate quiet horror but this one occasionally veered towards somnambulistic…I finally read another author I was long overdue to explore, Charles Beaumont, while on a bus in Ireland. The very 1950s American tales were so out of place in this setting that they became timeless. The Hunger and Other Stories is essential reading for any fan of the genre; you can definitely still feel its influence on modern, realistic horror and the best tales still pack a punch…The Howling wasn’t very good but at least it was short and better than the movie, which I’ve always found awful (make-up effects aside.)…Last on my list of “finally read them!” authors this year was Thomas Tessier. Phantom I also read in Ireland and enjoyed it, though it ended with more of a whimper than a bang. Wicked Things, however, didn’t work for me at all. I’d still like to check out more of his work; he’s clearly a talented writer…

You know what book reset my expectations of what an anthology could do? The Weird. I am just astounded at what the VanderMeers pulled off, and I could not have more admiration for their accomplishment. The essential anthology of short weird fiction, I might quibble with an occasional inclusion or omission, but these are so minor as to not be worth mentioning. I consider myself well-read in the genre, and I discovered tales here I’d never heard of. Just a treasure and it belongs on your shelf so go get it right now…Giallo Fantastique was the other anthology that rocked my world this year. Focused more on the fantastic than the mystery/police procedural of most giallo films (a passion of mine), several stories in here were among the single best pieces I read this year. Go buy this book now and support small presses!...

I consider Kelly Link’s Magic for Beginners and Stranger Things Happen two of the best short story collections of the past 20 years (and two of my all-time favorites), so my expectations were pretty high for Get in Trouble. And it didn’t quite deliver; she’s pushing herself as a writer but the tales don’t hold together as strongly as her past work. Probably more a transitional collection, she still drops lines that make you want to stop writing forever, they are so damned perfect. Flawed genius is the only interesting genius, anyway…I know I read Occultation when it first came out but I finally bought a copy this year and whereas the first time I read it the book didn't really sink in, this time it did and I wondered what the hell I was thinking before. It’s a great collection from one of the very best writers working in horror; what more needs to be said?...On the subject of re-reads, if you are interested in horror and haven’t read Thomas Ligotti, you’d better correct that now. The Penguin Classics (!) reissue of Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe is a good starting point. From there make sure to search out his story “Purity”, still my favorite Ligotti—oh, and read everything else he has written as well…I’m going to come out and say it: Clive Barker is not a great novelist. Re-reading The Great and Secret Show this year I was astounded that I had completely forgotten everything about it since reading it in high school, but it rapidly became clear that it was due to the fact that the book doesn’t quite work. The ideas behind it are intriguing, but the characters are very flat and uninteresting. I will forever stand by The Books of Blood and the first two Hellraiser movies, but I’m finding much of his other work either hasn’t aged well or didn’t work in the first place. I don’t want to end this paragraph on a bum note so I’ll tell you instead to go buy Brendan Detzner’s Scarce Tales and enjoy the perfect antidote to overbearing pretentious weird tales while supporting an intriguing writer beginning to find his voice. Short, surreal and frequently hilarious, these stories are gems. He has a new collection out that I’m looking forward to…

Europe Central is the type of book that is rapidly disappearing: bold, ambitious, literary, demanding your concentration and shooting for the stars. Populated with real-life historical figures, its scope is vast as it wrestles with the soul of Germany and Russia in WWII and the idea of Europe Central. I’m not sure who reads novels like this anymore; it belongs to an era where a major work of fiction held a lot more cultural cachet. But I’m thankful it exists and I discovered it, a robust ghost cutting through our short-attention span era…If I had to explain what it is like watching America tear itself apart and chew its tail off in the post-9/11 world, I’d simply have them read Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? When someone uses the term “literature” I think of a book like this; it engages on levels beyond mere storytelling (though it does that quite well too.) I think you could get a sense of the fragmented, paranoid American identity better from this book than any work of non-fiction…Light in August is, for Faulkner, approachable. I love his ear for syntax…After the Quake is the first collection of Murakami’s short fiction I’ve read. One of my favorite authors, the story “Landscape with Flatiron” is easily one of my favorites I’ve read in the last ten years…

I spent two weeks in Ireland this year, and three of the books on this list are a direct result of this trip. The Two Pennies was written by my tour guide and I won’t pretend to have an objective opinion about it; it will forever be part of the trip…The Graves are Walking, which I purchased in an Irish bookstore, provides a good overview of the potato famine but the tone is weirdly uneven for a non-fiction book, almost snarky at times…Making Sense of The Troubles was recommended by my tour guide (who grew up in Belfast and also spent time as a reporter covering The Troubles) and I found it to be an excellent, necessarily broad overview of a complex situation. The authors are upfront about this, and as such it is a good place to start if you want the overall picture. Having walked through the site of Bloody Sunday, an experience that affected me deeply, I want to delve even further into this tragic period of Irish history…

Wrapping this up, I don’t have much to say about the music books. If you’re a fan, they are interesting, if you’re not, they won’t be. The exception is Van Halen Rising, which captures the feeling of a very specific and long-gone era. At least we still have the music.