Well here we are, after a month of looking back over my reads of 2011, at my top book recommendation for the year. As I said yesterday each one of the top three is worthy of the top spot in it’s own way, but what gives this one the edge is two-fold. It’s a collection of short stories, and it is the first and the last stories that push it that little bit higher than all of the other thirty books that have come before it, and above all seventy-one others that I have read this year. If you’ve read it, you’ll know what I mean, if you haven’t then I recommend you get hold of a copy without delay (but you really should read the book that is a number three first).

Continue reading “Books of 2011 # 1 Top Read of 2011!” →

The top three books in this review are exceptionally hard to separate. Each in its own way is worthy of the top spot, and Lake Charles is a very worthy runner-up.

Lake Charles: A Mystery Novel by Ed Lynskey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s the summer of 1979 and Brendan Fishback, his sister Edna and brother-in-law Cobb Kuzawa are heading to Lake Charles to do some bass fishing and have a good time.

Brendan has the spectre of a murder charge hanging over his head, a crime that he didn’t commit, and this might be the last chance he gets to cut loose before his trial.

Lake Charles isn’t the same place that it was though, once a haven for leisure, it’s now run-down and in a bad way, and it isn’t long before Brendan’s situation goes from bad to worse. His sister disappears and Brendan and Cobb run up against some back-country marijuana growers while trying to find her.

“Lake Charles” is told by Brendan in the first person and also through the clever use of flashbacks in dreams in Brendan’s mind’s eye. In this way Ed Lynskey writes a novel that oozes evil and violence by turn. As the story unfolds you are caught time and again by another punch to the guts in terms of a twist in the plot or a revelation that you didn’t see coming. Page after page, I found myself thinking about things I wanted to include in this review, but without giving too many spoilers that would have made this review too long, and given away too much of the plot.

The story carries an air of realism, and is grounded with the practicalities of the late ‘70s, this gives it an edge in terms of pace and dialogue that wouldn’t have been possible with a more modern setting. The characters feel complete and as a result as the plot turns, you become embedded in what is happening to them and wondering what the next shock will be.

This is the first novel I have read by this author, but I will certainly be looking out for others, and would recommend “Lake Charles” if you like a good crime or mystery.

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Essentially a collection of short stories, this book is for Western novels, what Unforgiven was for the Western movie. Worth every one of it’s Five Stars!

Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles by Edward A. Grainger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my introduction to the characters of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles, and I wasn’t disappointed. A selection of short stories, that show the violence of the old west and the principles that the lawmen of that time held dear is well portrayed.

A highly recommended read.

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The only audiobook in the top thirty-one, but what an audiobook. As the review says think you know Macbeth? Think again. 

Macbeth: A Novel by A.J. Hartley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Think you know the tale of Macbeth?

Think again.

This retelling of the tale by David Hewson and A J Hartley is just simply amazing. Bringing a new depth to the story, this is no repeating the original Shakespeare but an inspired reworking, incredibly bought to life by the vocal talents of Alan Cumming.

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OK the top 5, and this is a nomadic road trip and a look at a country that I’m not sure if the author fully recognised. Great pictures and words, well worth a read.

The Road to Somewhere: An American Memoir by James A. Reeves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is much more than another book about a journey across America. This is a memoir of discovery both of the author and of his native country.

Beautifully illustrated throughout, with the authors own photographs, this book tells the story of many times when the author would take off and try to find both himself and his country.

There is an openness and honesty about both the words and the pictures, that kept me repeatedly picking the book up, and being disappointed when I had finished it. So much so, that I know I will be picking it up again in the near future to read through again.

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