BOOKGASM’s Best (and Worst) of 2007

Another year, another load of books down …

Best in Fiction
Since it’s a couple of years old, it may be a bit of a cheat to give 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS by Joe Hill this spot, but I’m doing it anyway. First of all, 2007 marked its first publication in America, and furthermore, it arrived with a new story attached not available in its original British edition. So there. Plus, nothing excited or moved me more this year, with Hill expertly moving from one short story to another, demonstrating incredible range. If you’re into horror fiction, you’ll love it; if you’re not into horror fiction, you’ll still love it. Such appeal is the mark of a great writer.

Runners-up: The best novel Hard Case Crime printed this year was that of its chief: Richard Aleas’ SONGS OF INNOCENCE, an all-aces mystery about a non-detective playing detective to look into the death of his “massage therapist” gal pal. For pure escape, there was no beating Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s seafaring thriller THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS, their best in years (although none are bad), and a solid reminder of how pleasurable reading can be.

Best in Non-Fiction
A good biography should reveal something new about its subject, and I certainly didn’t know Charles Schulz was a terribly depressed and emotionally stunted cheating husband and lousy father. A greater biography should reveal those things and yet not make you hate its subject. That biography was David Michaelis’ SCHULZ AND PEANUTS, which told the story of the über-successful cartoonist in a rather unique fashion: letting the late Schulz tell his side of the story through selected Peanuts strips. Instead of vilifying Schulz, it further humanizes him.

Runners-up: Sports nuts may not think chess a sport, but Michael Weinreb’s THE KINGS OF NEW YORK: A YEAR AMONG THE GEEKS, ODDBALLS, AND GENIUSES WHO MAKE UP AMERICA’S TOP HIGH SCHOOL CHESS TEAM was as compelling as any last-second, from-behind touchdown. This warts-and-all work didn’t win the Quill for best sports book for nothing. Patrick Anderson’s THE TRIUMPH OF THE THRILLER: HOW COPS, CROOKS, AND CANNIBALS CAPTURED POPULAR FICTION makes a strong case for reading just for the sake of reading in his wide-reaching look at the genre that dominates best-seller lists. Championing his favorites and skewering the others, his taste is impeccable and – because we share it – his mission admirable.

Worst in Fiction
Matthew Scott Hansen’s misguided THE SHADOWKILLER is a Bigfoot novel that takes itself too seriously, yet comes across as camp. You can’t do both, unless Leslie Nielsen is your lead. With jaw-droppingly bad phrases and passages, it smells like what I would imagine Sasquatch fecal matter to smell like.

Runner-up: STEP ON A CRACK by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge. Read this embarrassingly inane thriller and you’ll break your mother’s heart and soul.

Worst in Non-Fiction
Giving humor a bad name: LETTERS TO EBAY: HILARIOUS AUCTIONS, CRAZY EMAILS, AND BONGOS FOR GRANDMA by Art Farkas (oh, stop! You’re killin’ me with the nuttiness!) and KOTTER’S BACK by Gabe Kaplan. Both turn the once-reputable art of satirical letter-writting into the equivalent of chimpanzee finger-painting. The hermit-like Kaplan used to be very funny; with “Farkas” (aka Paul Meadors), there’s no such evidence.

Best in Comics
While some debate whether the whole thing is a hoax, I still can’t deny the innumerable charms of Fantagraphics’ I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILIZED PLANETS!: THE COMICS OF FLETCHER HANKS, a collection of “so bad, it’s good” superhero comics from the late 1930s and early 1940s. Delusional never seemed so entertaining.

Runners-up: For trade paperbacks, DC’s experimental 52 proved that not all “event” series had to be an excuse just to throw in a ton of characters, and Dynamite’s revival of THE LONE RANGER put more grit and bite into the Western character than he ever had before.

Best Independent Endeavor
Proving that the short story is anything but dead, the occasional perfect-bound magazine OUT OF THE GUTTER delivers fiction that kicks you in the nuts as it jams a syringe full of adrenaline in your forearm … with air bubbles. A few writers you’ve heard of, many you haven’t and almost all that you should contribute to this brave, bold and ballsy project, now three issues strong.

Worst Titles of Books We Didn’t Review
• CRIME SCENE JERUSALEM by Alton Gansky
• LONG-TIME LISTENER, FIRST-TIME WEREWOLF by Carrie Vaughn
• THE MANURE PALACE by Benjamin Rollins Cohen

Best Title of a Book We Didn’t Review … but Perhaps We Should Have
• THE MILF ANTHOLOGY: TWENTY-ONE STEAMY STORIES edited by Cecilia Tan and Lori Perkins

–Rod Lott

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