Miskatonic University PressThis year I reread, as usual, books by Georgette Heyer, Rex Stout, P.G. Wodehouse and some other eternals. Here are some of my favourites of books new to me. First, fiction:
- Jonathan Coe, The Proof of My Innocence (2024): a brilliant mystery and novel.
- Maurice Druon, the first four books in the Accursed Kings sequence (1955–57): I saw Druon named as the second-best French historical novelist, and after reading the first book I could see why; I will finish the series next year.
- Jason Pargin, I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom (2024): one of the best novels about the internet; see my post in August about it.
- John Scalzi, Starter Villain (2023): enormously enjoyable.
- Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game (1978): another brilliant mystery, this is a Newbery Medal winner; I knew nothing about it and was amazed and delighted from the start.
E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (1952) is not new but it’s been decades since I read it. Another Newbery Medal winner and an absolute beauty.
And nonfiction:
- Sophie Calle, Blind (2011): I read in an obituary of Diane Keaton that she kept this book of photography at her bedside, which intrigued me; having read it, I understand.
- Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich in Power (2005): the second of the Third Reich Trilogy; this and the first are two of the best works of history I have ever read and I have no doubt the third will match them.
- Daniel Handler, And Then? And Then? What Else? (2024): a surprising memoir, with some great insights.
- Ian Penman, Erik Satie Three Piece Suite (2025): a delightful and idiosyncratic book about more than just Satie.
- Roger Shattuck, The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War I (1968): I was led to this by Penman’s book; this is another of the best histories I have ever read.