For me, 2019 was lean on good books published this year, though I expect, as often happens, somewhere down the line I’ll discover some cracking books published this year that totally missed me. I “read” one(!) brilliant book in 2019 published in 2019: The Last Days of August by Jon Ronson, which is only available as an Audible audiobook. It’s a compelling piece of nonfiction that looks at the sad life and death of porn star August Ames and the effects of social media on people – highly recommended.
I still read some great books published from previous years. My favourite by far was The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, set during the Cold War and about a young American chess prodigy who goes up against the reigning world champion from Soviet Russia. It deals with genius, social isolation and addiction in a fantastically gripping narrative. Tevis was my find of the year – after The Queen’s Gambit I went on to read almost all of his books. Unfortunately there weren’t any others as good but his debut novel The Hustler is also a great read.
Faber and Faber released a new line of small pocket paperbacks called Faber Stories which reprinted some brilliant short stories – my favourites were A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor (a dark, blood-drenched Southern Gothic tale), Come Rain or Shine by Kazuo Ishiguro (a genuinely funny farce of a man who accidentally wrecks his friends’ flat), and Terrific Mother by Lorrie Moore (about a woman dealing with grief abroad).
I re-read Roald Dahl’s Matilda and was glad to find that it was as superb as ever. I read Robert Harris’ 1995 novel Enigma, about WW2 codebreakers at England’s Bletchley Park, for the first time, which sent me off to read the rest of his books that I hadn’t read. Like Walter Tevis’ The Queen’s Gambit, the others I subsequently read sadly didn’t measure up but Archangel, about Stalin’s legacy in modern Russia, wasn’t bad.
Nonfiction-wise, Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way was an inspiring self-help book from the approach of the ancient philosophy of stoicism and Richard Lloyd Parry’s People Who Eat Darkness was a fascinating crime study of the case of Lucie Blackman, a stewardess who went missing in Japan in 2001.
Alrighty, onto the pitcher books!
Thankfully there were ten great comics that came out this year so I can do a top 10 list. Anyone who’s familiar with my tastes won’t be shocked with the entries. I’ve been a huge fan of well-established titles like Tom King’s Batman, David Lapham’s Stray Bullets and John Allison’s Giant Days for years now and they continue to put out great books – it’s always a joy to pick up their stuff. Norwegian cartoonist Jason is, I suppose, “indie” but I feel like he has an ever-growing and loyal audience at this point – his latest, O Josephine, was really fun and original.
Brian Bendis’ Jinxworld titles, Cover and Scarlet, are my favourites of his to emerge so far from his move from Marvel to DC. Only thing about Scarlet 2019 is that it’s labelled Volume 1 but it’s actually Volume 3 – if you’re planning on reading the series, don’t start with this “Volume 1”!
Andrews McMeel continue to corner the market in printing the internet’s funniest gag strips and Ben Zaehringer’s Sorry I Ruined Your Childhood has more laffs than not. I also discovered doctor cartoonist Ian Williams whose book The Lady Doctor turned out to be very entertaining – good to see my home country of Wales featuring in a comic this good!
As for the best of the year – I’ve gotta give it to Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. They’re arguably the best creative team in comics there’s ever been and this year they renewed their second Image-exclusive tenure with an absolutely stonking new run of their signature crime comic, Criminal, from which emerged the bittersweet Bad Weekend.
So, in descending order:
10. Sorry I Ruined Your Childhood by Ben Zaehringer
9. The Lady Doctor by Ian Williams
8. Cover Vol 1 by Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack
7. Scarlet Vol 1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev
6. O Josephine! by Jason
5. Batman Vol 9: The Tyrant Wing by Tom King and Mikel Janin
4. Sunshine and Roses Vol 4 by David Lapham
3. Giant Days Vol 11 by John Allison and Max Sarin
2. Criminal #1-6 by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
1. Bad Weekend by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
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Other great comics I read this year, not published this year, included – yes, some Marvel at last! – Bendis’ first volume of Ironheart and Jason Aaron’s The Mighty Thor, Volume 5. I also still find myself randomly thinking about Christophe Chaboute’s haunting silent comic The Park Bench.
Manga-wise, I really enjoyed the second volumes of My Brother’s Husband and Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live?, as well as the first volume of My Wife is Wagatsuma-san. The big discovery for me though was Keiichi Arawi. I really enjoyed both of his comedy titles Nichijou and CITY - specifically volumes 1 and 3 of Nichijou and volumes 2 and 4 of CITY stood out for me.
My favourite book, out of all of the above, of 2019: The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis.
And what Best Of list would be complete without mention of the cruddiest of the year?
The worst novel of 2019: Cari Mora by Thomas Harris.
The worst comic of 2019: Lucifer Vol 1 by Dan Watters and Max Fiumara.
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Did I miss anything I should’ve read? What were your favourites of the year? Let me know in the comments below – and happy holidays guys!
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