Okey-dokey, my friends, it’s time for my year end round up articles. Every year in January (or February if I’m running late) I write up a list of my favorite things I read and watched in the previous year. I started doing movies in about 2007, then I added a books list in 2009. These are some of my favorite articles to write because I can look back at the previous year and relive all the ups and downs in my own reading and watching. It really is a lot of fun.
I keep my reading log in two places. I’m still keeping a Google Spreadsheet of the books I’ve read. But you can also check me out over on Goodreads. See the details for all the books I’ve read, read my reviews, marvel at how handsome my profile pic is. Lots of stuff to do there.
Here’s my 2019 Goodreads “My Year in Books” information:
According to Goodreads, and it’d know, I read 115 books last year, equaling 22,094 pages. The longest book I read was Beastie Boys Book, which is surprising because I totally thought that Making of Empire Strikes Back book was longer. Anyway, last year I had set my 2019 reading challenge to 80 books, so I beat that. Yay! I had a pretty good, consistent year of reading in 2019 so I was able to get my numbers up. I hit a rough patch in October and November where I couldn’t read very much at all, otherwise, I would have finished with 120 books. I set up my Goodreads challenge for 2020 just the other day, and I set it to 105 books. We’ll see if I can keep last year’s momentum going.
The rules for this list are the same as always; only books I read for the first time in 2019 are eligible. No re-reads. I’ll probably do a followup article with Honorable Mentions and I’ll include any re-read books worth mentioning in that article. I generally pick about 5 books and 5 comics to put in this list, but as always, I reserve the right to pick a few extras. Let’s see if that happens this year.
First up…
Books
The Four Legendary Kingdoms by Matthew Reilly – I’ve been reading Matthew Reilly for years, starting with The Contest way back in 2007-ish. Since then I’ve read almost all of his books over the years. This is the 4th book in Reilly’s Jack West Jr series. The first three books of this series made a previous Favorite Books list (WAAAAAAY back in 2011). I read both the 4th and the 5th book (Three Secret Cities) in the series this year. Reilly is such a fun author. He writes these incredible, fast paced, adventure novels with fantastical plots. I love them. And this book actually features a low key but great crossover with another of Reilly’s heroes from a different series. So much story and adventure in this book, I really enjoyed it. As well as the aforementioned 5th book. Looking forward to the release of the 6th book, soon I hope.
Vengeful by VE Schwab – The second book in Schwab’s Villains series. The first book made my list last year. The world in this book has developed EOs (extra-ordinaries). EOs are people that have acquired super powers through a near death experience. And how the person nearly dies kind of determines the powers that person will have. This book picks right up after the previous book with Victor and his crew tracking down and trying to stop Eli. But we also get the rise of a brand new EO with her own vengeful agenda. This is a great followup to the also great, Vicious. The characters are all well written, the storyline is dark, but I had a lot of fun with this. And I like the manifestation and different types of power sets in this series. Really well thought out and written.
Beastie Boys Book by Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz – The Beastie Boys are one of my favorite groups. Ever since I discovered them on the Krush Groove soundtrack back in the mid 80s I’ve been a die hard fan. Consequently, I was thoroughly excited for the guys to tell their own history. And they don’t disappoint here. You get a great time capsule of New York in the early 80s. Some of the punk scene and then transitioning over to the hip hop scene. The Boys were there on the ground floor for a *lot* of hip hop history. Some of my favorite stuff in this is the pre album stuff. The stuff they did while recording the albums. We get a lot of reminiscing about hanging out recording all their albums, like Check Your Head and Hello Nasty out in California, which is great. And touring. So much content. This book is PACKED with info. If you’re even a casual fan, you need to give this book a shot. The only sad thing is that Adam MCA Yauch is no longer with us to tell his part of this story. That would have made this just that much more complete.
The Making of The Empire Strikes Back by JW Rinzler – I read Rinzler’s The Making of Star Wars book last year and it made my year end list. So I started this book this past summer and read it on and off for about four months. These books are exhaustive and super long. I would read here and there, absorbing the details of filming on sets, the drama of actors, trying to get the story right, etc etc. While this wasn’t as good as The Making of Star Wars, I really enjoyed the peek behind the curtain for Empire. The lead up writing the screenplay, the tension that occurred between the actors over their parts, and the final marketing before the movie was released. All of that info, and the book is packed with pictures, images, diagrams, script remnants. So much to look at. I also have Rinzler’s The Making of Return of the Jedi, and I hope to read that in 2020 the same way I read Star Wars and Empire the past two years. I would say expect to probably see Making of Jedi on next year’s list.
Rewinder series by Brett Battles – Every year Amazon offers its Kindle Unlimited program for a special low promo price. Normally it’s $9.99/month, but they will sometimes offer 3 months for $9.99, or 3 months for $.99, or even 3 months for free. With it you can browse and read a cultivated selection of kindle books and magazines. I will usually take advantage of these special prices and read as many books as I can in three months for the low low promo price. This series by Brett Battles is on Kindle Unlimited and during one of these promos I tried it out because it was about time travel. And it’s a pretty great story. Denny Younger was born into one of the lowest rungs of society. His fortunes change when he’s recruited by a mysterious institute to become a Rewinder, a verifier of personal histories. However Denny learns that verifying these histories doesn’t involve research in a library, but actually witnessing history and events through time travel. And if he’s not careful, even the smallest mistake can have the largest consequences. I blew through the first book and only had like a week or two before my promo period ended to read the second and third books which I was able to do with days to spare. The whole series is a great read. I had a lot of fun binging the three books back to back to back. This series will definitely become a re-read at some point for me.
The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak – This book was sent to me by my good friend, Shawn Robare. He actually sent it to me years ago, but I didn’t get to it until this past year when I had an unexpected lull in my reading pile. So I picked up this book, started to read it on a lark, and completely fell in love. It’s set during the summer of 1987, and the book feels natural in that time period. I don’t feel like it tries to hit you over the head with the nostalgic setting. And the characters are very well drawn, especially our leads, Will and Mary. It’s a wonderful, unassuming “back in the day” type story that I totally fell for. Great great book. Highly recommended. Thanks Shawn for introducing me to it.
Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen – I forget how I discovered this book. It was published in January 2019. It’s a really cool story about Kin Stewart, a man living a normal life in San Francisco in the 1990s with his wife and daughter but whose previous occupation was as a time traveling temporal police detective from 2142 who was accidentally stranded in the 90s after a botched mission. 18 years later, Kin is struggling with only partial memories of his previous life which is giving him headaches and blackouts, when his rescue team unexpectedly shows up and tries to take him back to his rightful future and a family he doesn’t remember. This was such a good book. I’m a sucker for time travel anyway, and this really hit the spot. A lot of the story is about family and really hit home for me with the relationship of the main character and his daughter.
Time to move on to…
Comics
The Superior Spider-Man Complete Collection Volume 1 – I’ve had some of these issues for a while but never got around to actually reading them. Then I was able to get this complete collection (the first 16 issues of the series) on sale for cheap and decided to give it a shot. Just before he dies, Otto Octavius manages to switch his mind into Peter Parker’s body and Peter’s mind into Otto’s dying body. Then Otto masquerades around as Peter/Spider-Man, being a super hero and living Peter’s life. I think this is a great concept. Otto tries to fit in and use his intellect to make his job as the new Spider-Man easier. He’s also a lot more ruthless about catching criminals and it gets him into trouble. It’s an interesting take on the “fish out of water” concept. I really like it. It reminds me a lot of Brian Michael Bendis’ Infamous Iron Man (which made my Best Books of 2017 list).
Kate Bishop: Hawkeye by Kelly Thompson – Several years ago I read Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye series and loved it. Kate is a big part of that series and I loved her in it. So when I found out she got her own series, I snatched it right up. And it’s great. Kate is an awesome character and I love how Kelly Thompson writes her, and her eclectic group of friends that gather around her. This is a great series, I love Thompson’s humor and was sad there weren’t more issues of this series when I finished with the third volume. I wanted more!
Gwenpool the Unbelievable by Christopher Hastings – There are 5 volumes of Christopher Hastings’ Gwenpool series. I originally started reading it because we were having him on as a guest on our now defunct podcast, Down the Rabbit Hole. The very first volume was a bit rough. I had a hard time getting through it but it sort of worked itself out by the end. Then, starting in Volume 2, it just took off. The series was so fun. I know, she seems like a total “girl Deadpool” rip off, but she’s not. Exactly. Yes, she has the same “break the fourth wall” abilities, and she’s very wacky, but, as far as this series goes, I think I like her better than Deadpool. I really enjoyed how zany and meta this whole series got. I want Gwenpool to show up a lot more from now on.
West Coast Avengers by Kelly Thompson – So I loved the two previous series starring the badass ladies Kate Bishop and Gwenpool, so of course I decided to pick up the title that TEAMS THEM UP and is written by the gal that wrote Kate Bishop’s solo series! This was such a cool and quirky team book with an eclectic collection of characters that I had so much fun with. I am doubling down on Kelly Thompson here, she is a fantastic writer. I loved both of these series she’s written so much I’ve gone searching out more of her work. She’s currently writing the new Deadpool book, which of course I am going to read, but secretly, after West Coast Avengers ended this year, I was hoping she’d write a Gwenpool solo book. This Avengers book is awesome and I was super sad it only lasted two volumes. I wanted so much more of this team!
Thanos Wins by Donny Cates – On my list last year I grouped together a bunch of Jeff Lemire titles as favorites. One of those titles were his Thanos books (Thanos Returns, The God Quarry). Those books were awesome and epic and I loved them. So when I saw another guy, Donny Cates, was finishing off the third and final volume of the series, I was unsure what to do with that. I loved those first books and I was disappointed Lemire wasn’t writing the third. But I read it anyway and BAM! Cates knocks it out of the park. It is BANANAS. So much fun and I don’t know why I was worried or surprised because Cates also wrote Cosmic Ghost Rider: Baby Thanos Must Die and *that* book was cosmic and bonkers and amazing. So, Donny Cates is now someone I’m paying attention to.
And those are my picks for the best books/comics I read in 2019. Like I said, I may have some honorable mentions I can talk about in a separate article, but let me get my “Best Movies of 2019” list out there first.
Hope you enjoyed this list, stay tuned for my Best Movies list coming up soon!
Cavalcade of Awesome 