Author: Andres Kabel

James Sallis has been my reading companion for years, from his Lew Griffin noir series, through the stunning “Drive” and “Driven” pair, to his increasingly oblique recent lit-noir offerings. He writes with a wonderful literary yet spare style. “Sarah Jane,” his latest, promises plenty with its tale of a female sheriff with a baroque past investigating her ex-boss’s disappearance, but alas, the reputational allure is misplaced. Sallis’s last half dozen books have increasingly had skating, baffling plots (baffling, even, I have to say, to someone who loves to be mentally tested). “Sarah Jane” is a plot mess and although I revelled in the poetic language, the storyline flopped again and again and again. For completists only.

What a beguiling concept! In “A Word for Every Day of the Year,” Steven Poole brings us 365 words that are “old and half-forgotten, or thoroughly forgotten.” He takes care, he announces at the start, to avoid two categories of words that crop up in similar books or websites, namely “nonce-words” used only once in history, and “dictionary orphans” that have a technical history “without ever being used in anger.” As soon as I opened the book, gratitude flooded me, for I’m forever bemoaning my lack of lexical self-education. Dear reader, in contravention of my contract with you, I have not read the entire book, because in 2020 I plan to work through “A Word for Every Day of the Year,” day by diligent day, and I don’t want to spoil the pleasure and impact. (If interested, check out the Day Zero post.) Instead, I have browsed the first seven entries, from “dringle” to “ultracrepidarian.” This dip of toes into the water is sufficient, I reckon, to report that Poole is a smart, engaging writer with a keen vocabulary curator’s eye. If the book’s very concept interests you, buy it and, I’m sure, enjoy.

2019 finished as a superlative year of reading. My preoccupation with climate change influenced the list in obvious ways but the Top 10 is eclectic enough for all tastes. The first two books below received the rare accolade of a 10/10 rating, the others were 9/10. Enjoy!

Jon Gertner orchestrates a combo exploration/science history masterpiece with “The Ice at the End of the World: An Epic Journey into Greenland’s Buried Past and Our Perilous Future.” It is as vital as it is compelling. Review.

Jonathan Safran Foer weaves a classic polemic with sophisticated philosophical discussion in “We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast.” Review.

Kevin Barry is one of our most lyrical yet tough stylists. “Night Boat to Tangiers” is an unforgettable tale of Irish drug runners. Review.

Genius historian Robert Caro graces us with his craft and ethos in “Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing.” Review.

Sophie Cunningham’s “City of Trees” is near perfection, part memoir, part essayistic reflection on the earth we’re razing. Review.

“Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman is a treat and a triumph. Review.

One of the most brilliant books of the past few years, “The End concludes Karl Ove Knausgaard’s epic six-volume My Struggle series. Review.

An utterly propulsive thriller, Adrian McKinty’s “The Chain” also possesses a heart. Review.

You must not miss the unique voice of George Packer in his scintillating biography, “Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century.” Review.

“The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future” by David Wallace-Wells is a bracing if thoroughly depressing guide to Earth’s future. Review.

Also check out reviews of these honorable mentions: Lou Berney’s noir “November Road“; Max Gladstone’s space opera “Empress of Forever“; Mick Herron’s spy thriller “London Rules“; Joe Ide’s mystery “Wrecked“; “The End of Ice“, a climate change eyewitness account by Dahr Jamail; “Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting” by Anna Quindlen; Nathaniel Rich’s “Losing Earth: A Recent History“; and “The Incomplete Book of Running” by Peter Sagal.

The brilliant author of the six-strong Sean Duffy series, Irishman Adrian McKinty has shifted terrain with magical effect. “The Chain” is one of those blockbuster thrillers with a premise so remarkable one wonders why it hasn’t been used before. A single mother, on an ordinary day, is thrust into hell when her daughter is kidnapped and she’s told by the kidnapper to pay a ransom (in bitcoin!) and to perpetuate “the chain” by kidnapping someone else’s child. The book kicks off at a ferocious pace and then accelerates, building up tension to an almost unbearable level. The characters, both heroes and villains, are vividly portrayed. McKinty is a robust yet elegant stylist and manages to both catapult the action and mystery forward and retain deep character connections. For this reader, “The Chain” was a single-night midnight-breaching read. A 2019 standout.

“The Testaments” is not, repeat is not, a sequel to Margaret Atwood’s revolutionary dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Indeed it could not follow that classic novel’s trajectory, if only because the TV series has usurped the plot. Instead Atwood reexamines the perverted, horrific world of Gilead, commencing a decade and a half later, and switching from a claustrophobic single viewpoint to three interwoven narratives, two of handmaids and one of ruthless Aunt Lydia. Atwood is among the world’s most assured novelists, each word and sentence carefully chosen, and the story zips along pleasingly. By the halfway point, one spies an overall arc and then races to uncover the dramatized endgame, and the overall read is intriguing and satisfying. But the deep immersion in political terror that “The Handmaid’s Tale” engendered is missing and the plot-driven structure distanced this reader somewhat from any of the three characters. If you’re a fan of the original, this is a must-read, but “The Testaments” will surely not sit as the same class of classic.