FP’s Holiday Book List
An illustration of books inset into red ornaments.
Your Favorite Books of the 2024 Read Harder Challenge
Back in November, I sent out a survey about your experience with the 2024 Read Harder Challenge, including your favorite book you read for the challenge. A couple weeks ago, I shared some of those results, including pie charts and bar graphs for the data nerds. If you want to know the most and least popular tasks as well as how many books Read Harder Challengers read in a year, check out that post too!Today, though, I’m sharing your answers to my favorite question on the survey: What’s your favorite book you’ve read for the 2024 Read Harder Challenge, and which task does it check off? The vast majority of the titles mentioned came up only once, but I’ve put together a list of the most frequently mentioned books and which tasks they fulfilled.I’ve omitted the books that I already mentioned in the results of the halfway check-in survey, so click through to find even more popular Read Harder books of the year!
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Task #5: Read a sci-fi novella.
Murderbot is the reigning monarch of sci-fi novellas, so it’s no surprise it was one of the favorites of this task! This has won the biggest awards in SFF, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus. All Systems Red is the first book in the series, and it follows a security android who has reprogrammed themselves and mostly just wants to be left alone to watch TV—relatable. Unfortunately, Murderbot keeps getting pulled into human conflicts, and now they’re reluctantly trying to find out what went wrong in a neighboring mission.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Task #23: Read a “howdunit” or “whydunit” mystery.
In the post for this task, I recommended another book by this author, Deacon King Kong, but The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store ended up being the more popular read for this task. This one follows the residents of Chicken Hill after a skeleton is unearthed at the bottom of a well and the investigation brings the town’s secrets to light.
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The Best Mystery Books of the Past 10 Years For Armchair Sleuths
Best-of lists have been very popular for some time and I am not immune from the curiosity of needing to click them and see what was selected—whether to agree, disagree, or find new-to-me reads! But many times, I do ask myself how the lists were put together, which I think is important when you’re saying “these are, in my opinion, the best books.” So, I went into this list with that in mind and decided to start by establishing some parameters.First, this is a solid mystery book list with no thrillers—nothing against thrillers, they get their own list! To qualify, the majority of each book’s plot has to be focused on solving a mystery with a tone and pace that’s not edge-of-your-seat thrilling or intense (if you want to yell at me that Gone Girl isn’t on this list, it’s a thriller and also: see the next bit). Secondly, the 10-year timeframe mathematically (if I mathed correctly) means the mystery needs to have been published in the US from 2014 through the year 2023.From there, I wanted to offer something a bit different from most lists, offering up what each book was individually “the best of.” It also means the list hits a wide range of tropes—this is a very trope-filled genre, after all—and reading tastes. As a person who deeply loves the mystery genre and has read a lot of mystery books for decades, I want you to find your next great mystery read on this list.The Best Mystery Trilogy
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
When you start off as strong as Attica Locke did with this series, you have to really keep up the quality and then nail the ending, and she absolutely does. You get an excellent complicated character with family and personal drama threaded throughout, writing that will have you fanning yourself thinking you, too, are in the sweltering heat, and timely mysteries that explore race and the U.S. justice system.
The mystery: Texas Ranger Darren Mathews is on suspension after his attempt to be a good samaritan backfires, but that doesn’t stop him from investigating the murders of a white woman and a Black man in a small Texas town.
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The Best Sherlock-Inspired Mystery
A Study in Scarlet Women (The Lady Sherlock #1) by Sherry Thomas
My list of everything I love about this series is very long but I don’t want to rob you of the pleasure of discovering the books yourself. So all I’ll say is this: Sherry Thomas does a brilliant gender-swapped Sherlock that understands the constrains on women in Victorian society while also delighting in being a woman, and she sure knows how to write mystery, romance, adventure, and witty banter.
The mystery: This is one of those mysteries where the less you know, the better. What I’ll say is Charlotte Holmes doesn’t want the Victorian life expected of her, so she blows up her social standing and sets herself up as working for Sherlock Holmes (a lie) in order to get cases she can solve! Yes, there’s a Watson (also a delight) and you will also get a Moriarty, and the entire series is wonderful.
The Best Quirky Family Mystery
The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels (The Swifts #1) by Beth Lincoln, Claire Powell (Illustrator)
This series is absolutely delightful, hilarious, and a love letter to language and the mystery genre wrapped around a quirky family.
The mystery: Shenanigan Swift is having a bit of an identity crisis in relation to her name. The Swift family uses a dictionary to name their children on the day they are born and they’re expected to grow into that name. When a great aunt turns up dead at a family reunion, Shenanigan isn’t sure if the name is leading her or she’s leading it as she finds herself in charge of a murder investigation with her sisters and cousin!
The Best Mystery For Fans Of TV Procedurals Like Bones and Castle
Bury Me When I’m Dead (Charlie Mack Motown Mystery #1) by Cheryl A. Head
A team of very different personalities at a PI agency is catnip for me. Cheryl A. Head understands how entertaining this can be for readers while also exploring humanity through her characters and cases.
The mystery: Charlie Mack runs a PI agency with PIs Don and Gil, who previously worked at INS/homeland security together, and their office manager, Judy, who loves quoting musicals and annoying Don. A friend of Mack’s father brings them a case involving an account executive who stole over a hundred grand and has now disappeared.
The Best Slow Burn Mystery
The Witch Elm by Tana French
Any best-of-crime book list that doesn’t have Tana French on it is suspect in my eyes. So many readers went into this book thinking it was part of her Dublin Murder Squad series (It is not, but if you haven’t read that series, you should!) and/or a thriller (also not) that their expectations got in the way of the brilliance of this book. French is excellent at plunging you into a character(s) life and you don’t realize you’re on a ride until the drop is suddenly beneath you.
The mystery: Toby is a young man with a good life whose fortunes change dramatically: after an error at work and a violent attack, he finds himself moving back to his uncle’s home to recover. Much of his childhood was spent there, but his uncle is now dying, so the return is bittersweet. Oh, and a skull is found beneath a tree in the yard, which starts a police investigation.
Best New Author In The Genre
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
I’ve dropped everything to read each of Tiffany D. Jackson’s books and each one is excellent, different from each other, impactful, and timely—all while being for and about Black girls. Every release has felt like a treat, and I’m always excited for any future works.
The mystery: In multiple timelines, we get to know Claudia and Monday in their childhoods as best friends. Now, as Junior High starts, Claudia is confused about where her best friend Monday can be, especially after not hearing from her over the summer. And Claudia is certain Monday’s family’s excuses all sound like lies…
The Best Mystery + Courtroom Drama
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
Angie Kim wrote a great murder mystery and courtroom drama that explores family, the immigrant experience, and the many ableist views towards autistic people. It’s a mystery that offers plenty of discussions for book clubs.
The mystery: In a small Virginia town, the Yoo family’s business was running an experimental treatment called the Miracle Submarine. Now, a mother is accused of setting a fire that caused an explosion inside the pressurized oxygen chamber, killing and injuring people receiving treatment. As the court case unfolds and you get to know the Yoo family and those using the Miracle Submarine, it feels as if everyone had motive or opportunity to have started the fire.
The Best Tropey Mystery That Feels Fresh
The Box in the Woods (Truly Devious #4 ) by Maureen Johnson
Every once in a while I will get to delightedly read a mystery book that feels as if it’s written by someone who deeply understands and loves the mystery genre and all its tropes, and Maureen Johnson feels like she fits that bill.
The mystery: Four camp counselors were murdered in the woods in the ’70s, and it’s currently a cold case. High schooler Stevie Bell has been offered a chance to spend the summer at the camp where the murders occurred because the new camp owner wants to do a true crime podcast about the case. Bell isn’t interested in helping him, nor his podcast, but she can’t ever turn down solving a mystery so she brings her friends and gets to sleuthing.
About the series: While this is the 4th book in the series, you can start here and read it as a standalone. The first three books are a trilogy and must be read as such, but Johnson kindly doesn’t spoil the trilogy in this book and lets it stand on its own.
The Best Small Town Past-and-Present Mystery
The Dry (Aaron Falk #1) by Jane Harper
Jane Harper is so on top of the atmospheric mystery writing game that I have to read her books in cold air conditioning. I drop everything to read her new releases as she always delivers a solid mystery from beginning to end with great characters, and plunking me down into feeling like a resident of Australia even though I’ve never been there.
The mystery: The present mystery revolves around Aaron Falk, a financial crimes federal agent, who returns to his hometown when his childhood best friend is involved in what appears to be a murder-suicide. In the past, false alibis were given after a friend’s suspicious death, and Falk fled the town when fingers pointed at him.
Bonus: There’s a great film adaptation starring Eric Bana.
Best Under-the-Radar Author
The Unquiet Dead (Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak #1 ) by Ausma Zehanat Khan
Ausma Zehanat Khan has two procedural series with fantastic investigator pairings that are part of, go into, and investigate cases centering marginalized communities without painting them as monoliths. You get a wonderful balance of great characters and their dynamics, with interesting cases written with nuance.
Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak series: Esa Khattak is a second generation Canadian Muslim running a police unit focusing on community policing. Rachel Getty is a cop’s daughter with family issues who had her career implode after she filed a sexual harassment case, so Khattak assigns her to his team.
Blackwater Falls series: Detective Inaya Rahman has a past she’s trying to shake and investigates places with high complaint incidents against police officers. Lieutenant Waqas Seif is raising his two younger brothers and unlike Rahman keeps his culture/ethnicity close to the vest.
Best Group Of Elderly Sleuths
The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club #1) by Richard Osman
Think Jessica Fletcher but English, and as a group of investigators living in a retirement community. It’s a winning combination that has mass appeal both for long-running mystery fans and readers who only dabble once in a while.
The mystery: Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron meet weekly to discuss true crime and the unsolved murder cases the local police are unable to solve. Then a case lands too close to home: a brash developer with an unwanted plan is murdered, and this group of septuagenarians is on the case!
If you’re looking for even more mysteries—and thrillers, crime, and true crime—we’ve got you covered.
Shorter Books to End Out Your 2024 Reading
Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack.
Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_.
View All posts by Erica Ezeifedi
We’ve already gotten some most-anticipated book lists, courtesy of TIME and Goodreads, and all I can say is: we are still technically in 2024, girl! I love seeing what’s coming book-wise, but these 2025 roundups are messing with my already fragile sense of time. Have mercy, abeg.And, let’s be real, I know a few of us are still trying to get in some last few books before the year officially ends because of a reading challenge or goal we set around this time last year. Of course, we don’t have to read any number of books, and reading is about the journey, yadda yadda, but, some people still want to see that certain number in their reading tracker. Let me just say, I’m here for you.If you’re also a last-minute gremlin who over-commits to things—but still wants to add some titles to your personal reading challenge (or if you just want some literary distractions for the last days of the year), the BIPOC books below all come in at 240 pages or fewer.In them, a young Palestinian woman unravels in New York, a mystical healer leads women in 1930s Rwanda, and a collection of stories tells tales of gods, ghosts, and revenge in the American Southwest.
The Coin by Yasmin Zaher
I love a good unraveling, and here, that’s exactly what happens to a young Palestinian woman who teaches underprivileged boys in New York. While in pursuit of the famously slippery American DreamTM, she becomes involved in a pyramid scheme reselling Birkin bags with a houseless person she befriends. But it may be the idea of the Birkin—whose value only increases every year, no matter the state of the world—compared to everything else in her life that leads to that aforementioned unraveling. She feels smothered by the US, and in an attempt to rebalance herself, she overcorrects and becomes obsessed with things like purity and cleanliness, which, unsurprisingly, lead her down a path.
Sister Deborah by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Mark Polizzotti
This book just became one of the first ever listed in a longlist for the The National Book Critics Circle Awards. And let me just say, the summary alone has me hype. It tells the story of a revolution, with fabulistic elements, that centers around a healing woman called Sister Deborah.
It’s the 1930s in Rwanda when young Ikirezi—whose many ailments seem untreatable—is sent to be healed by Sister Deborah. Now, the good Sister, with her termite perch beneath a coral tree, had healing hands, yes, but she had something else, too. Folks said she would descend on a cloud, bringing abundant harvests with her, and that women would bare their breasts under her influence, all in the name of liberation. Once Ikirezi grows up, she travels back to her home country after being educated in America to find out who—or what— Sister Deborah really was.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
The Singing Hills Cycle series, which The Empress of Salt and Fortune is the first of, is perfect to get into in the last days of the year. I know when I read it years ago, it had me in a vice grip.
This fantastical novella clocks in at 119 pages, and in it, Vo has cleric Chih meet an aging woman named Rabbit who was sold to the emperor for a basket of dye as a child. Rabbit’s world is sent spinning once she befriends the emperor’s new and lonely foreign wife, and the tale she has for Chih could mean ruin for the current empress. Vo is a master of concise yet beautiful prose, and Rabbit’s story had me in my feelings. Whew! Once you get hooked on being in Vo’s world, you can keep reading up to the fifth novella in this series (The Brides of High Hill), which just came out this year.
Coyote Songs by Gabino Iglesias
This collection of stories jumps from different points of view as it tells the story of migration in the American Southwest. The concepts of borders, gods, ghosts, colonization, revenge, and more are explored through deftly interwoven stories.
**Subscribers, continue below for new BIPOC books out this week**
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Six Books to Read by the Fire
When I taught high-school English, I loved planning out the syllabus, book by book. Once chosen, one novel might lead naturally to another; certain titles seemed to go with certain seasons. This second consideration was usually more intuitive than logical, yet it seemed to make a real difference; some books just felt more immersive at particular times of the year. The closing weeks of December, which are both hectic and in some ways ill-defined, have always occupied a unique place in our emotional life—and they seem to call for their own distinctive reading material as well.Picking the right books for the days ahead can be tricky, because the atmosphere that defines the last dregs of the year can be fraught and contradictory. As decorative lights sparkle while the sun retreats, and rough winds hustle us to holiday parties indoors, most of us feel some mix of merriment and bleakness. Something new and uncertain is on the horizon; nostalgia competes with the promise of the new year’s fresh start. Perhaps what makes a book right for this period is that very both-ness: a liminal space between sorrow and joy, end and beginning, dark and light. The six books below capture just that—and each one is perfect to read by the fire while the days grow imperceptibly longer.Flight, by Lynn Steger StrongFamily members are frequently the only people who can really fathom certain formative experiences of yours—what it was like to grow up with your specific mother, what your childhood holiday parties smelled like. In part, that’s what can make being misunderstood or judged by them particularly agonizing. In Strong’s novel, siblings Henry, Kate, and Martin gather for the first Christmas since their mother’s death. Each is grieving her loss, struggling because of their complex, unresolved relationships with her. They’re also fighting over how to handle their inheritance: her Florida home. Disagreement about how to manage its sale or ownership—and whether to see it as a financial lifeline or a memorial to the past—simmers under the surface of every conversation about Christmas traditions or family photographs. Through the alternating perspective of each character, readers come to understand the private sorrows that everyone has brought home with them. But the novel suggests, however subtly, that it’s possible to grow beyond the people we were in our youth—to take flight—while still holding on to the people who knew us back then.FlightBy
Barack Obama’s 2024 list of favorite books includes a Boston-born author
Former president Barack Obama shared his lists of his favorite books, movies, and music of 2024 over the weekend, and a Boston-born author made the cut.Arlie Russell Hochschild — a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and a best-selling, Boston-born writer — earned a spot on Obama’s 2024 favorite books list for her latest work, “Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right.” In Hochschild’s first book since the 2016 hit “Strangers in Their Own Land,” the former National Book Award finalist explored Pikeville, Kentucky, researching the embrace of right-wing politics by blue-collar men in the wake of the 2016 election.Other books featured on Obama’s 2024 list included Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s memoir “Patriot”; author and NYU Stern School of Business social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation”; Irish author Sally Rooney’s latest novel “Intermezzo”; and Ethiopian-American writer Dinaw Mengestu’s new book “Someone Like Us.”“I always look forward to sharing my annual list of favorite books, movies, and music,” Obama wrote in his post on X revealing this year’s book selections, noting that the 2024 titles “stuck with me long after I finished reading them.”I always look forward to sharing my annual list of favorite books, movies, and music. Today I’ll start by sharing some of the books that have stuck with me long after I finished reading them.Check them out this holiday season, preferably at an independent bookstore or library! pic.twitter.com/NNcAnaFzdU— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 20, 2024
The rest of the list included Samantha Harvey’s “Orbital”; Ayşegül Savaş‘s “The Anthropologists”; Martin MacInnes’s “In Ascension”; Daniel Susskind’s “Growth”; and Adam Moss’s “The Work of Art.”As for Obama’s favorite music of the year, the former president’s top songs of 2024 spanned from hip-hop hits Kendrick Lamar’s “Squabble Up” and Asake and Travis Scott’s “Active” to more country fare like Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Beyoncé‘s “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Colombian star Karol G earned a spot as well, for her hit “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido,” while folk band Bonny Light Horseman, featuring Vermont’s own Anaïs Mitchell, made the cut, too, for the song “Old Dutch.” Other big songs of the year that made the list included Billie Eilish’s “Lunch,” Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” Leon Bridges’s “Peaceful Place,” Jack White’s “That’s How I’m Feeling,” Central Cee and Lil Baby’s “Band4band,” Hozier’s “Too Sweet,” and “Jump” from Tyla, Gunna, and Skillibeng.Here are my favorite songs from this year! Check them out if you’re looking to shake up your playlist – and let me know if there’s a song or artist I should make sure to listen to. pic.twitter.com/MK51Z77uEb— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 21, 2024
The rest of Obama’s music picks included Rema’s “Yayo,” Ezra Collective and Yazmin Lacey’s “God Gave Me Feet for Dancing,” The Red Clay Strays’ “Ramblin’,” Fontaines D.C.’s “Favourite,” Rae Khalil’s “Is It Worth It,” Jordan Adetunji’s “Kehlani,” Artemas’ “I Like the Way You Kiss Me,” Johnny Blue Skies’ “Scooter Blues,” Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman’s “Right Back to It,” Myles Smith’s “Stargazing,” Moses Sumney’s “Gold Coast,” plus FloyyMenor and Cris MJ’s “Gata Only.”For big screen picks, Obama’s favorite movies of 2024 included a pair of Timothée Chalamet-starring blockbusters, with the sci-fi sequel “Dune: Part Two” and the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” both making the former president’s list. Director Edward Berger’s Vatican drama “Conclave,” writer-director Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” and “The Piano Lesson,” director Malcolm Washington’s adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning August Wilson play, also made this year’s film list.Obama’s other top flicks of 2024 included “Sugarcane,” “Dìdi,” “The Seed of the Sacred Pig,” “The Promised Land,” and “All We Imagine as Light.”Matt Juul can be reached at [email protected].
Days and Days: A Story about Sunderland’s Leatherface and the Ties That Bind – Chris MacDonald – Book Review
Days and Days: A Story about Sunderland’s Leatherface and the Ties That Bind – Chris MacDonaldPublished by ECW Press
Available Now
‘Documenting is to believe that something should be remembered’ – Chris MacDonald
Days and Days is a pitch-perfect celebration of perhaps the last great traditional sounding punk band. My discovery of its publication triggering a rush of memories, and in an age in what seems like everybody from Slaughter and his Dog has a tome written about them, a surprise that they didn’t get the book they deserved sooner. That the role places have in shaping us, and the peculiar nature of male friendships is examined in as much detail as Leatherface themselves, entirely fitting for the off-kilter nature of the band. A group at least as imposing as original Oi bands like fellow Mackems Red Alert, that attracted skinheads to gigs outside of that circuit, but could feature the wordplay and sensitivity of the best indie poet.
Lyrics so good Days and Days opens every section with a sample which would have been collected to stand alone if they featured in a genre less ignored than the punk scene of the early 90’s. The writer is one Norman Frankie Warsaw Stubbs, a terrace Larkin with zero xenophobia. As both parties succinctly put it, when Chris MacDonald mentions first looking at the cover of Minx and seeing the song title Books he, ‘needed to hear what Frankie Stubbs had to say about books.’
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All of which makes it seem less incongruous than it was seeing Leatherface for the first time on a bill with PJ Harvey at the famously compact Hull Adelphi. My fortune or otherwise to be born in the north of England, meaning I was around for their early days but changed shift with MacDonald for the period he picks them up at. Coincidentally first reading about them in a fanzine at the Duchess of York in Leeds, that MacDonald sees Hot Water Music at, and conjures up well as a part of his UK pilgrimage from Canada. Incredulously trying to tell anyone that would listen, that someone reckoned they had heard a band who were like SLF meets Motorhead with a sprinkling of Husker Du, and sending away for their first album at the earliest opportunity.
Amazingly in the days of buying an album because it supposedly sounded like something good, and discovering it didn’t, Cherry Knowle actually did. That it was just about surpassed by follow up Fill Your Boots, a miracle, before the Leatherface masterpiece Mush arrived. From the opening to stream of consciousness, howl for more that is I Want The Moon, where anyone who rhymes contrite with shite, proves themselves better at encapsulating their own yin and yang appeal than Chris and me. The barrage of Not Superstitious and its perfect art in vinyl form, demonstrating why Dave Grohl wanted drummer Lainey’s autograph.
Dead Industrial Atmosphere providing the ideal soundtrack to MacDonald’s road trip around the north of England. Stubbs evoking the decay and disaffection without recourse to the didacticism which blights some punk. Leaving that to me, as the heartbreaking thing is thirty odd years on and it is if anything more pertinent, as the defences of these places are so low, they have been infected by Farage and the far right. Even so, the book drawing parallels between violence in Sunderland and the Troubles in Northern Ireland is a little much.
Despite its melancholy, Springtime is relatively hopeful, its reminiscences perhaps a Transatlantic cousin twice removed of Husker Du’s Celebrated Summer. Elements of the aforementioned Americans sound combining with the words and their sturdy foundations to make Leatherface so special. For me this period all culminated in a triumphant performance to a heaving crowd at Reading Festival in 1992. The tent was so full people having to peer in from some distance away, just to catch glimpses of gangly guitarist Dickie Hammond’s spikey head. Punk crashing the home of alt-rock, with bodies being pulled out over the top of the stage barriers, only to run around and do it all over again.
From here it wasn’t exactly downhill, with a split in ‘93 and reformation in ’99 which still saw them going on to release albums that most bands would have killed for. Days and Days covering what I would consider their pomp, with interviews and structuring the book with an effective time travel style narrative. But it is during MacDonald’s journey with his companion Jason and the turn of the century incarnation of the band when it is at its best. I imagine anyone reading this can relate to his experiences on trains and sleeping on station floors in the pursuit of touring bands, but perhaps less so, pitching your tent on a predictably windblown Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh.
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All throwing a light on young men’s relationships which are usually part sharing, part point scoring in a not necessarily sympathetic split. As is often unfortunately the case, it being the time when things unwind and the boozing isn’t quite as much fun anymore, that prove the most revealing. Some of the funniest, and indeed finest writing, coming when he MacDonald gets angry. In one instance, as he attempts to get a fiercely hungover Jason out of their tent and onto a bus to the airport.
With Leatherface and their sound tech one anecdote, an example of male bonding that entailed breaking each other’s noses, having a particular air of tragic machismo to it. For my part, I cannot deny the horrible subtext of one-upmanship that accompanies my recollections of the band’s early years. This is despite Chris and his friend travelling from Toronto to experience Leatherface rehearse, while I walked down the road to see them.
On a night last week, back in the Adelphi, I bumped into someone I hadn’t seen in a while but attended several Leatherface gigs with. And at the risk of making us both look like bad people, these hopeless obsessives didn’t ask how each other was doing or enquire after our respective families. Oh no, it was straight in to check that each other had got a copy of Days and Days, which coincidently had arrived with both of us that day. When we see each other again, we’ll probably dispute the best bits, before we agree it’s a book that most importantly, does this complex and brilliant band justice.
~
Available from ECW Press at https://ecwpress.com/search?q=leatherface and other good retailers
Leatherface’s music can be bought from Little Rocket Records at https://littlerockerecords.bandcamp.com/artists records.co.uk
All words by Steve John – Author profile here. You can also find Steve online at his website & Facebook
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Book Review: Pip Drysdale’s new Hollywood thriller ‘The Close-Up’ weighs legacy against love
Drawn by sheer possibility and that magic, golden-hour light of Los Angeles, Zoe Ann Weiss moves from London to California when she gets her two-book-deal break. It’s that Hollywood allure that also prompts her to accept an invitation from a famous actor on her 30th birthday, sparking a string of events that leads her to inspiration — and desperation.
In reality, this is Australian author Pip Drysdale’s fifth book. In this fictional world, “The Close-Up” is written as Zoe’s overdue sophomore book, inspired by the things she sees and experiences now that she has access to celebrity life via Zach Hamilton, an old flame who made his big break as an action star and was recently dubbed sexiest man alive.
The book’s title and the fact that both the real author and her fictional character are thriller writers are about as far as the similarities go — fortunately for Drysdale, as her character finds herself running into worse luck and more dangerous secrets than she ever could have anticipated.
This cover image released by Gallery Books shows “The Close-Up” by Pip Drysdale. (Gallery Books via AP)
Because when the press leaks that Zach has a new love interest, the hate comes unrelenting.
Zoe soon finds herself the target of a stalker who seems to be following the plot of her debut novel — the one in which a human heart is left on the protagonist’s windshield and the main character dies in the end. She could just walk away and hope this all blows over, but Zoe needs to deliver the manuscript for her second book yesterday, and every scary thing that happens to her becomes fodder for her new novel. Each sexy, scandalous detail of Zach’s life and their romance can be catalogued and used, if she can blur the lines enough to get around the non-disclosure agreement and not ruin the good thing she has going with him.
All the while, LA nudges her, almost a character itself. The city’s influence is undeniable and persistent, persuasive in its ability to make your dreams come true even if, as the narrator notes, odds are you won’t make it there.
Combined with the present-tense, first-person perspective quintessential of thrillers, Drysdale drives up suspense by leaning heavily on the foreshadowing and fourth-wall breaking, particularly early on before things really pick up speed.
An unforeseeable penultimate reveal follows a rapid-fire, late-stage progression of twists and turns that would leave your head spinning if Drysdale wasn’t so skillfully keeping track of all the criss-crossing threads.
Everything is explained in the end in a bold but gratifying plot-dump — a relief after all the buildup. Because it’s not so much about the plot points as much as it is about the underlying theme that calls into question the impact of a person’s life and actions. What makes “The Close-Up” compelling is Zoe’s constant struggle with her legacy, with taking agency in her life and making it meaningful, weighing her career versus her relationships.
“The Close-Up” checks many boxes: steamy, suspenseful, surprising, meta. But it’s Drysdale’s momentous writing and underlying musings that really drive this novel home.
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No book budget, 23 layoffs projected at local libraries after ballot measure defeated
The Washoe County Library System is facing a $4.5 million budget cut following the failure of WC-1, the ballot initiative that would have extended designated library funding. After the measure failed, the tax money will still be collected but will no longer be dedicated to libraries.Libraries Director Scott, at Wednesday’s library board of trustees meeting at the downtown library, presented the dire financial outlook for the library system. “It’s a fairly severe crisis,” he said. The funding loss will lead to the elimination of 23 staff positions and the entire book budget.“There’s not a scenario in which you’re going to avoid layoffs. You’re losing the expansion fund, and so anyone in there is going to be gone,” he said. “That’s 23 positions just in there, and top of that, you’re going to lose $1.4 million of your book budget. That’s an entirety of your book budget. You won’t be able to order books.” Scott said county commissioners during the Great Recession chose to use an expansion fund, originally intended for new facilities, to retain library staff. The library system at that time faced a 40% cut.“The county decided to use the expansion fund instead of using it for new facilities or repairing facilities, to put staff in there,” Scott said. That decision, while averting immediate layoffs, created a potential crisis if the expansion tax was not renewed.”Scott said the Washoe County Employee Association was going to petition the Board of County Commissioners to keep the funding for libraries.The board requested more details on the budget, hoping to find alternatives to the proposed cuts. Scott agreed to provide a more detailed budget breakdown for the January meeting and suggested inviting a county budget representative to explain the library’s funding structure. Budget cuts are not expected to take effect until July 1.Correction: It is the Washoe County Employee Association that is going to support the funding, not the Education Association, as originally reported.
Six writers to be felicitated at Chennai Book fair
Six writers will receive the Kalaignar Mu. Karunanidhi Porkizhi Award at the 48th edition of the Chennai Book Fair to be held from December 27. The recipients are professor Arunan for prose, Nellai Jayanta for poetry, Suresh Kumar Indrajith for novel, N. Shriram for short stories, Kalairani for drama and Nirmalaya for translation. Speaking at the press conference held in Chennai on Monday, Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI) secretary S K Murugan said, “Over 900 stalls have been set up. We have taken precautions to ensure that rain will not dampen or damage the properties in the book fair. Further, there’s also a resting area created for senior citizens.” Published – December 23, 2024 08:59 pm IST
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