A Year in Books
Making funny books takes a ridiculous amount of time. Consequently I have a tragic lack of hinterland. The nearest thing to a hobby I can claim is reading. Here're some notable books I read in 2023. A couple might even be in your wheelhouse.
Make a nice couple
Joko's Anniversary by Roland Topor and The Mount by Carol Emshwiller.
Topor takes a typically nihilistic approach to having someone, or someones, on your back. Emshwiller creates something less brutal and more strange. It's a story about colonisation, slavery, class, animal rights, masculinity and family wrapped up in a coming of age and alien invasion story. If there was any justice in the publishing world, this would be a YA classic.
Side note: Don't be put off by the cover of the mass market paperback, which is awful.
Collect the set
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald.
German poet marries twelve-year old is not a premise that would normally interest me, but this is Fitzgerald and she never disappoints. This is her last novel and now I've read them all. She always surprises. Start with The Bookshop.
Heartbreaker
Mothers & Other Monsters and After the Apocalypse by Maureen F. McHugh.
Two collections of short stories that floored me. The Cost To Be Wise in Mothers and the title story of After the Apocalypse were punches to the gut. McHugh is very good on families and the ethics of medical advances. Read Cannibal Acts online for free (it's less gruesome than it sounds). And support Small Beer Press who do wonderful work of publishing fine authors.
Shorts
Individual short stories I can recommend. Fat Face by Michael Shea in the Demiurge collection, but widely anthologised elsewhere. Updates the ickiness of Lovecraft to late 80s L.A. sex work. Whimsical, gross, depressing. Good Stuff.
Three Miles Up by Elizabeth Jane Howard in the Mr Wrong collection. A banger of a weird tale set on, of all things, a narrowboat.
The title story of Dark Neighbourhood by Vanessa Onwuemezi. Refugees waiting at a border or an apocalyptic vision?
Dirty work
Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross. Love, of sorts, on the cusp of WWII with a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. Describes the moment where war is coming, but it hasn't quite arrived yet. I loved it.
More dirty work
I finished the Manchette and Tardi crime collaborations: Streets of Paris, Streets of Murder and Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot. Violent, sardonic, existential crime with Tardi drawing the hell out of car chases and splattered brains.
Bloke books
2023 was not all smooth sailing and I sought comfort in some rereads: True Grit by Charles Portis and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Try them on your dad.
Rabbit hole of the year
As a teen I read The Stand and that drove a stake through any interest I had in the horror genre. I don't remember a thing about it beyond it was really, really, really long. I made an effort to read more around the genre this year and found my taste leans towards the border between weird and literary fiction. The Night Doctor by Steve Rasnic Tem really scratched that itch. Warning: bad cover.
Silliest book of the year
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household promised a 39 Steps ripping yarn, but was mostly *SPOILERS* about a man living in a hole. The introduction was written by a man who wanted to find and live in the hole that the fictional character had hidden in.
Unpopular opinion
I know people love Heartburn by Nora Ephron, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples, but I didn't get on with any of them.
Pet peeve
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin was a brilliant collection of short stories, but too long at 400 pages. Two collections of 200 pages would have been even better. (Shakes fist at cloud.)
All unhappy families
First Love and My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley are scalpel-sharp short novels about love, parents and children. Thankfully, there isn't a single consoling bromide in either book.
And that's it. Onto 2024 where I'll post my weekly reads every Sunday.
Colour
Punycorn published by HarperCollins
Blackwells/ WHSmith/ B&N/ BAM!/ Bookshop.org/ Hudson/ Target/ Walmart/ Amazon/ AmazonUK
Hardcover : 224 pages
ISBN-10 : 0358571995
ISBN-13 : 978-0358571995
Reading age : 8 - 12 years
You can read more about the making of Punycorn, from pitch to publication over at my patreon.
And if you read and enjoyed the book please leave a positive review online where editors will read them and continue to pay me to make more books in the spirit of generosity and kindness that publishing is known for.
I now have a bunch of my books on Kindle. Dumped, Breakfast After Noon, The City Never Sleeps (short story sampler), Super Hero Pink(previously Gum Girl...it's a long story), Glister and Princess Decomposia.
I have DRM-free PDF versions of more of my backlist on Ko-fi and Gumroad
I still have books out in the world: Sunburn, Paris, Kerry and the Knight of the Forest & the awards nominated The Book Tour. Support my efforts through my store – digital comics – patreon or by leaving a positive review online.