Books read in 2016 - For Board Members

Lou_Sytsma

Perfect encapsulation.

Lou_Sytsma

21) The Courier by Gerald Brandt

Solid debut novel with an intriguing protagonist and a glimpse of a fascinating future.

Really looking forward to the second book where I expect the story scope to expand and stakes to rise.

22) The Long December by Richard Chizmar - ongoing.

This is a huge collection of stories so I'll be ploughing through a couple each day. About  200 pages in and it's been a fun ride so far. Some great short stories.

Lou_Sytsma

23) The Guardians by Andrew Pyper

Strong mystery/haunted house/ghost story that captures the small town Canadian mentality that many of us grew up with.

The Guardians mean many things and most of those meanings are explored in this book.

A tad too much telling and not enough showing - especially for the main quartet - for my tastes but overall an enjoyable read.

Lou_Sytsma

24) How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy(Genre Writing Series) - by Orson Scott Card

Reread of this book. 

Solid book. The MICE quotient is the big takeaway.

Lou_Sytsma

25) I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells

A fun YA version of Dexter. The first couple of chapters are hilarious. Things settle down once the main story starts. Love how the antagonist propels sociopath John Cleaver on his inner exploration.

Look forward to reading subsequent installments.

Lou_Sytsma

26) A Long December by Richard Chizmar

I received an ARC of this in exchange for a review. Turned out to be a real treat.

This book will last you a long December and then some. Not because it's tough to get through. Quite the opposite. At over 500 pages this beast is chock full of tasty treats. Over 150,000 words spread over more than 30 stories and each one a charmer. In the course of this book, themes invariably are revisited but the execution of each story is always unique.

Chizmar taps into that Stephen King oil well to invest his stories with memorable characters.  Likable characters. Maybe you'll see yourself, your spouse, your family, or your friends in these stories. Maybe you'll get to see how they, as normal people, would react to abnormal conditions.

These are clean and tightly coiled stories. Well worth a long month of reading.

Lou_Sytsma

27) Pines by Blake Crouch

Basis for the Wayward Pines TV series.  Quick fun read - read it in two days. Not a lot of substance and not a story that will stick with me.

Re-reading Firestarter for an upcoming podcast.

Lou_Sytsma

28) Firestarter by Stephen King

Finished a reread of Firestarter for an upcoming Stephen King Podcast 

Forgot how good this book is. The relationship between Charlie and her father is captured so beautifully. The two halves of the book - the chase and the showdown are so masterfully constructed. Both so tense and done with clockwork precision. 

The real power of the book lies in the quiet moments - between Charlie and her dad and Charlie and Rainbird. If there is ever another remake hope they know to capture those beats.

Has the book has become a bit overlooked maybe because of the movie? I wonder.

Lou_Sytsma

29) Six Scary Stories - Introduced by Stephen King

I enjoyed King's introduction.

BevVincent

That's all?

Lou_Sytsma

The first story, upon reflection, was better than how it read. The last one was fun though the logic of the story does not 'bear' up well from scrutiny of any type.

It's also hard to separate King from the writers for me which is unfair to them and a stumbling block I couldn't divorce myself from.

Lou_Sytsma

30) The Traitors of Camp 133 by Wayne Arthurson. 

Wayne is a local Edmonton writer who has crafted a murder/mystery that takes place in a fascinating setting - a World War II German POW camp in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. It's fascinating to find out all the background history of these camps which I knew next to nothing about.

The story is told from the German's perspective mainly Wehrmacht Sargeant Neumann - who in civilian life is a town policeman.  The best parts of the book are when Neumann interacts with Canadians those moments are few and far between.

Camp 133 info - http://ginger.lethbridge.ca/pdf/Internment Camps.pdf

Lou_Sytsma

31) Novels & Stories by Shirley Jackson

Read the well-known pieces and some of the lessor ones. She is a quite of force especially given the time period she lived in. One of the highlights was a piece she published about the public reaction to her story - The Lottery. Some things never change.

32) The Dinner by Herman Koch

This is a writer that King has mentioned reading. The Dinner starts out innocently enough but the further you get into the nastier it becomes. A dark look at families, marriages, and history repeating itself all set around the various course of a dinner.  Definitely aim to read more by Koch.

I'll be on reading hiatus for November as I do my first NanoWriMo.

BevVincent

Yeah, I read The Diner when it came out. My review: http://www.bevvincent.com/onyx/koch-dinner.html

Lou_Sytsma

33) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Mitchell is a story chameleon. His ability to change his writer's voice is amazing. I'm really in awe of his ability here to switch up writing styles giving each section of this Chinese puzzle of a story its own unique voice and yet link them all together.

Lou_Sytsma

34) The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

A seemingly straight ahead story that becomes more complex as more details come to light and the flaws of the protagonist are revealed.

Clean prose makes for a quick read which is exactly what this story needs.

That wraps up 2016. Some great reads this year. Glad to have finally read David Mitchell. Great writer and I am currently reading The Bone Clocks which I am enjoying even more than Cloud Atlas.