WHAT I READ IN 2022 AND MY FAVOURITE BOOKS

-

WHAT I READ IN 2022 AND MY FAVOURITE BOOKS

I didn’t get started on novels/nonfiction this year until about Easter (prior to that I read lots of short stories randomly selected from anthologies) and yet I still managed to get through 124 books this year. Below are my favourites, followed by the whole list. (The favourites list excludes rereads, of which there were many, especially earlier in the year. So although MIDNIGHT SUN (Campbell) and THE INFORMATION (Amis) and BAG OF BONES (King) would easily have made the list, I’ve left them out.)

My main revelation this year is that I consider Ruth Rendell (and her twisted pseudonymous sister Barbara Vine) an utter genius, probably one of the great writers of our age. I read a lot of her work when I was very young, and appreciated the plots, but after returning to her this year, I found her literary concerns and command of human psychology every bit as compelling as her storytelling. Indeed, she now joins a group of four male writers I consider my perennial favourites – Ramsey Campbell, Martin Amis, Stephen King, and Alan Ayckbourn.

And so, to my favourite reads of the year …

FELLSTONES by Ramsey Campbell – another unique masterwork by the guvna. Intense, darkly comic, and yielding that rarest of qualities in the supernatural field – it’s genuinely weird.

I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith – a delightful read, and if a scene near the end didn’t influence a notorious similar one in Kubrick’s THE SHINING, I’ll eat my literary cap.

101 DALMATIANS by Dodie Smith – another delight; wise, witty and warm.

WEALTH, POVERTY AND POLITICS by Thomas Sowell – a comprehensive and complex overview of why the economic world is the way it is. Argue with his conclusions if you wish, but you can’t ignore his data.

LOVE SONGS FOR THE SHY AND CONFUSED by Rob Shearman – my first sustained exposure to Shearman’s quirky and disturbing work. Some magnificent stories here, especially the one about Luxembourg which is both moving and funny.

LETTERS TO A YOUNG CONTRARIAN by Christopher Hitchens – a beautifully written and wise piece of advice to anyone interested in polemics.

A LITTLE PRINCESS by Frances Hodgson Burnett – another delightful classic with Burnett’s usual deep grasp of human psychology.

THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT by Barbara Vine – a late period masterwork which draws on the author’s understanding of seedy latter-day politics and the vicissitudes of human desires.  

TALKING TO STRANGE MEN by Ruth Rendell – her best book? Quite possibly. Few others better address her principal concerns as a novelist: male desire, the collision of disparate social groups, and the fine line between order and chaos. Quite brilliant.

THE KILLING DOLL by Ruth Rendell – her most disturbing book? I’d say yes. In fact, it’s among the most disturbing books I’ve read. Matter-of-fact prose is used to devastating effect in a novel so grubby it might need wiping before you read it. Truly insidious.

THE CROCODILE BIRD by Ruth Rendell – a mature Rendell masterpiece with a timeless theme: to what relative degree is human identity fashioned by nature and culture? It’s a sterling contribution to literature about childhood development. Comprehensive and astute.

A FATAL INVERSION by Barbara Vine – I include this as a demonstration of the author’s technical ability. Her narrative here is as intricate as anything Philip Roth managed in his later career. And the story is fantastic too, with a memorable last scene.

THE BRIDESMAID by Ruth Rendell – a deeply troubling analysis of human psychopathology, and another of the author’s obsessive investigations into dark love and male vulnerability. The final scene is grotesque.

THE LAST BUS TO WOODSTOCK by Colin Dexter – this was Inspector Morse’s first case and one I greatly enjoyed. There are genuine insights into human psychology here, and a plot so intricate it required watchmaker precision. Dexter was up to the task and then some.

THE LAST DETECTIVE by Peter Lovesey – a refreshingly unlikeable main character and a truly compelling story set in a fine location: Bath. I really enjoyed it.

THIRTEEN STEPS DOWN by Ruth Rendell – another of her late period pieces, and a blackly hilarious account of the human tendency to substitute fantasy for reality. The last scene is so bleak and yet so comic that I laughed out loud while pitying our poor fragile species. Rendell knew people like few others.

 

THE FULL LIST 

The Searching Dead, Ramsey Campbell

The Doll Who Ate His Mother, Ramsey Campbell

Midnight Sun, Ramsey Campbell 

Ancient Images, Ramsey Campbell

New Terrors 1, ed Ramsey Campbell

The Dubliners, James Joyce

Inferno, ed Ellen Datlow

Final Cuts, ed Ellen Datlow

Julia, Peter Straub

The Ceremonies, TED Klein

Needful Things, Stephen King 

Dead Zone, Stephen King 

Bag of Bones, Stephen King 

Rose Madder, Stephen King

Sleeping Beauties, Stephen and Owen King

Song of Kali, Dan Simmons

Strange Weather, Joe Hill

Creed, James Herbert

The Spear, James Herbert

48, James Herbert

Fellstones, Ramsey Campbell 

Trilby, George du Maurier

Cold Moon Over Babylon, Michael McDowell

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith 

101 Dalmatians, Dodie Smith 

Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev

Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

Charlotte’s Webb, E B White

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, J M Barrie

Peter and Wendy, J M Barrie

Boy in the Dress, David Walliams 

Charlie and Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift

Platform Seven, Louise Doughty

Lying in Wait, Liz Nugent

Making History, Stephen Fry

Old Devils, Kingsley Amis

The Information, Martin Amis 

War Against the West, Douglas Murray

Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt 

Conspiracy Theories, Michael Shermer 

Pattern Seekers, Simon Baron Cohen

American Fascists, Chris Hedges

Don’t Believe in Atheists, Chris Hedges 

America, The Farewell Tour, Chris Hedges

Wealth, Poverty and Politics, Thomas Sowell 

Dawn of Everything, Graeber and Wengrow

8 Billion and Counting, Jennifer Sciubba

You Can’t Do Both, Kingsley Amis

Empire of Illusion, Chris Hedges

India, Michael Wood 

Long Songs for Shy and Confused, Rob Shearman 

Mythos, Stephen Fry

Fairy Tale, Stephen King

Letters to Young Contrarian, Christopher Hitchens 

Radicals, David Horowitz

Ravelstein, Saul Bellow

Outsiders, S E Hinton

Corrosion of Conservatism, Max Boot

Mr Stink, David Walliams

Pet Sematary, Stephen King 

Elizabeth Finch, Julian Barnes

Revival, Stephen King

Buried Giants, Kazuo Ishiguro

Turtles All the Way Down, John Green

A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett 

Kestrel for a Knave, Barry Hines

The Borrowers, Mary Norton

The Things They Left Behind, Tim O’Brien

Stig of the Dump, Clive King

Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson 

Killer Inside Me, Jim Thompson

Are you there, God, it’s me, Margaret, Judy Blume

Magic City, E Nesbit

Mindreader, David Lieberman

Tiger Eyes, Judy Blume

Paper Towns, John Green

Black Mouth, Ronald Malfi

Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

Remember Why You Fear Me, Robert Shearman

Winnie the Pooh, A A Milne 

Butterfly Lion, Michael Morpurgo

My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh

Wizard of Oz, Frank Baum

Death in her Hands, Ottessa Moshfegh

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Devil of Nanking, Mo Hayder

King Solomon’s Carpet, Barbara Vine

Saint Zita Society, Ruth Rendell

The Birthday Present, Barbara Vine 

The Child’s Child, Barbara Vine 

Gallowglass, Barbara Vine

Grasshopper, Barbara Vine

The Vault, Ruth Rendell

One Man’s Nightingale, Ruth Rendell

Monster in the Box, Ruth Rendell

Speaker of Mandarin, Ruth Rendell

Talking to Strange Men, Ruth Rendell 

Killing Doll, Ruth Rendell 

Copper Peacock, Ruth Rendell

Secret House of Death, Ruth Rendell 

Asta’s Book, Barbara Vine

Vanity Dies Hard, Ruth Rendell

Brimstone Wedding, Barbara Vine

Crocodile Bird, Ruth Rendell 

Keys to the Street, Ruth Rendell

Fatal Inversion, Barbara Vine 

Bridesmaid, Ruth Rendell 

One Across, Two Down, Ruth Rendell

Piranha to Scurfy, Ruth Rendell

Odessa File, Frederick Forsyth 

Avenger, Frederick Forsyth

Last Bus to Woodstock, Colin Dexter 

Knotts and Crosses, Ian Rankin

Some of your Blood, Theodore Sturgeon

Whisper Man, Alex North

Fear Index, Robert Harris

Last Detective, Peter Lovesey 

Thirteen Steps Down, Ruth Rendell 

Down Cemetery Road, Mick Herron

No Night is Too Long, Barbara Vine 

Last Seen Wearing, Colin Dexter

Cover Her Face, P D James

Bloodlines, Ruth Rendell

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

13 DAYS BY SUNSET BEACH by Ramsey Campbell -- a review

-
THIRTEEN DAYS BY SUNSET BEACH by Ramsey Campbell – a review by Gary Fry   For a long time I’ve felt that a collection of Ramsey Campbell’s short fiction set in countries other than in the UK would make a great book. Remember such tales as ‘The Same in any Language’, ‘All for Sale’, and (more tangentially, perhaps) ‘Seeing the World’? I personally loved every one, and I strongly believe that stories taking place amid alternative cultures and geographical landscapes offer horror an additional layer of unease, of potential alienation. And so it seems unusual that – with the exception of a few chapters in the likes of The Claw and The Count of Eleven , along with a significant chunk of Pact of the Fathers  – none of Campbell’s novels has been set wholly abroad. Until now, of course. All the events of his latest, Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach , take place on a fictional Greek island. The plot is relatively straightforward. Focusing exclusively on the perceptions of an older...
Read more

The Incubations by Ramsey Campbell - a review and an interview with the author

-
  The Incubations by Ramsey Campbell   Review by Gary Fry       In a relatively recent review, I suggested that, just as "the wrong man" had become a central, recurring theme in the work of Hitchcock, the "misunderstood doomsayer" has similarly come to preoccupy Ramsey Campbell's later novels. By this I mean that there's usually a character who perceives a truth that others are un willing to accept, resulting in much frustration and , ultimately, enforced isolation on the part of he  (and it usually is a he ) who cries wolf.    But now, in his latest work, Campbell appears to be pushing that sense of social exclusion even further. Without giving too much away, the central character of his previous novel, The Lonely Lands , is forced to avoid integration with others in fear of contaminating them with a mysterious ailment that has befallen him. And i ndeed, some thing of the same stripe seems to be occurring in this, his new book, a...
Read more

At the end of the year...

-
Image
2013 was good to me in that I achieved a number of things I've been working towards for over a decade. Firstly, I got solid book deal with a publisher with a nice slice of the horror market: DarkFuse over in the States. My first novel with DF ( Conjure House ) has, for me, shifted an unprecedented number of copies and continues to sell strongly six months after publication. Additionally, the novellas Emergence and Lurker still draw positive attention. Long may this continue, what with a new DF novel due next Easter ( Severed ), a bunch of new novellas ( Menace in January, Savage in June, and Mutator later), and an ebook reprint of my limited edition PS Publishing novel The House of Canted Steps (due February). The second great 2013 thing was getting a deluxe-edition collection out from PS Publishing, the home of horror masters Ramsey Campbell and many other fine folk. Shades of Nothingness looks gorgeous and I'm happy with the range of fiction in there, which represents...
Read more