The Book Thread 2025

[Macdoc]

Good science and fascinating tales
Learned a lot

[Macdoc]

2025 Hugo Award winner. Extremely innovative world building.

There is a sequel as well I'm just starting

[Blip]

First 50 here.

51. Flesh by David Szalay
52. Endling by Maria Reva
53. The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
54. Audition by Katie Kitamura
55. Flashlight by Susan Choi
56. One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
57. Universality by Natasha Brown
58. The South by Tash Aw
59. Love Forms by Claire Adam
60. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
61. The Great Eastern Hotel by Ruchir Joshi
62. Helm by Sarah Hall
63. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
64. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
65. Amity by Nathan Harris
66. Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
67. Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
68. Rapture by Emily Maguire
69. Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh
70. Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
71. Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
72. I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà translated by Mara Faye Lethem
73. Venetian Vespers by John Banville
74. Shyness and Dignity by Dag Solstad translated by Sverre Lyngstad
75. One of Us by Elizabeth Day
76. Half Light by Mahesh Rao
77. How to be Animal by Melanie Challenger
78. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon

A spoof on American 30's private investigator yarns, with extra supernatural elements and some serious background about the rise of Fascism in those days.

[NamelessFaceless]

1. The Barrens - Rosamond Smith (pseudonym of Joyce Carol Oates)
2. Native Son - Richard Wright
3. And Give Up Showbiz? How Fred Levin Beat Big Tobacco, Avoided Two Murder Prosecutions, Became a Chief of Ghana, Earned Boxing Manager of the Year, and Transformed American Law - Josh Young
4. The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
5. Dcacula - Bram Stoker (Audiobook)
6. This Penis Business: A Social Activist's Memoir - Georganne Chapin
7. Busybodies Collection (1. Crime of Fashion, 2. The Reunion Dinner, 3. Staged, 4. A Classic Case, 5. One Lucky Subscriber, 6. The Nosy Neighbor) - Various Authors (audiobook)
8. The Best American Short Stories of 2005 - Various Authors
9. Holiday Hideaway - Mary Kay Andrews (audiobook)
10. The Christmas Book Hunt - Jenny Colgan (audiobook)
11. The Doll's House - Lisa Unger (audiobook)
12. Death in the Air - Kate Winkler Dawson (audiobook)
13 Abandoned Prayers: The Incredible True Story of Murder, Obsession, and Amish Secrets - Gregg Olsen
14. The Tasting Menu - Stuart MacBride (audiobook)
15. Mania - Lionel Shriver
16. The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy That Let a Killer Go Free - Gregg Olsen.
17. The Rule of Threes - Jeffrey Deaver (audiobook).
18. Julia: A Retelling of George Orwell's 1984 - Sandra Newman
19. The Devil and the Dark Water - Stuart Turton
20. 29 Stories - H.P. Lovecraft
21. Out of Sorts - Aurelie Valognes
22. Fox - Joyce Carol Oates
23. Mr. Harrigan's Phone - Stephen King
24. The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer
25. Three Short Stories: Bad Date (Ellery Lloyd), When We Were Friends (Jane Green), Falling Down (Guillermo del Toro)
26 The Life of Chuck - Stephen King
27. The Vicar of Wakefield - Oliver Goldsmith
28. Out of the Woods: A Girl, A Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home - Gregg Olsen
29. Desperate Characters - Paula Fox - a really good book that kept me on edge the whole time, but ended really abruptly.
30. The Good Neighbor - A.J. Banner
31. If It Bleeds - Stephen King
32. Rat - Stephen King
33. Notes from the Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
34. 1922 - Stephen King
35. Bartleby, the Scrivener - Herman Melville
36. Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
37. Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) - Jerome K. Jerome
38. The Day of the Locust - Nathanael West
39. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
40. The Recognitions - William Gaddis (audiobook)
41. Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell
42. The Waltham Murders - Susan Zalkind
43 Mrs. Caliban - Rachel Ingalls
44. The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares
45. Fever Dream - Samanta Schweblin

I usually get annoyed when I see "on the edge of my seat" type comments on book reviews, but this one was truly tense. No cap. Honestly, my stomach felt sick reading it. It just made me had that feeling of dread, like when you know something scary is around the corner and you tiptoe toward it because you know you have to see it, even though you know seeing it will terrify you.

[Macdoc]

There are movies and episodes I will stop for a breather at times.

...

Not my usual fare but innovative fantasy world with a western overlay

[Blip]

First 50 here.

51. Flesh by David Szalay
52. Endling by Maria Reva
53. The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
54. Audition by Katie Kitamura
55. Flashlight by Susan Choi
56. One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
57. Universality by Natasha Brown
58. The South by Tash Aw
59. Love Forms by Claire Adam
60. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
61. The Great Eastern Hotel by Ruchir Joshi
62. Helm by Sarah Hall
63. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
64. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
65. Amity by Nathan Harris
66. Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
67. Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
68. Rapture by Emily Maguire
69. Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh
70. Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
71. Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
72. I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà translated by Mara Faye Lethem
73. Venetian Vespers by John Banville
74. Shyness and Dignity by Dag Solstad translated by Sverre Lyngstad
75. One of Us by Elizabeth Day
76. Half Light by Mahesh Rao
77. How to be Animal by Melanie Challenger
78. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
79. The Wax Child by Olga Ravn translated by Martin Aitkin

Based on a series of witch 'trials', with the usual outcomes, in 17th century Scandinavia, this is remarkably good.

[NamelessFaceless]

1. The Barrens - Rosamond Smith (pseudonym of Joyce Carol Oates)
2. Native Son - Richard Wright
3. And Give Up Showbiz? How Fred Levin Beat Big Tobacco, Avoided Two Murder Prosecutions, Became a Chief of Ghana, Earned Boxing Manager of the Year, and Transformed American Law - Josh Young
4. The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
5. Dcacula - Bram Stoker (Audiobook)
6. This Penis Business: A Social Activist's Memoir - Georganne Chapin
7. Busybodies Collection (1. Crime of Fashion, 2. The Reunion Dinner, 3. Staged, 4. A Classic Case, 5. One Lucky Subscriber, 6. The Nosy Neighbor) - Various Authors (audiobook)
8. The Best American Short Stories of 2005 - Various Authors
9. Holiday Hideaway - Mary Kay Andrews (audiobook)
10. The Christmas Book Hunt - Jenny Colgan (audiobook)
11. The Doll's House - Lisa Unger (audiobook)
12. Death in the Air - Kate Winkler Dawson (audiobook)
13 Abandoned Prayers: The Incredible True Story of Murder, Obsession, and Amish Secrets - Gregg Olsen
14. The Tasting Menu - Stuart MacBride (audiobook)
15. Mania - Lionel Shriver
16. The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy That Let a Killer Go Free - Gregg Olsen.
17. The Rule of Threes - Jeffrey Deaver (audiobook).
18. Julia: A Retelling of George Orwell's 1984 - Sandra Newman
19. The Devil and the Dark Water - Stuart Turton
20. 29 Stories - H.P. Lovecraft
21. Out of Sorts - Aurelie Valognes
22. Fox - Joyce Carol Oates
23. Mr. Harrigan's Phone - Stephen King
24. The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer
25. Three Short Stories: Bad Date (Ellery Lloyd), When We Were Friends (Jane Green), Falling Down (Guillermo del Toro)
26 The Life of Chuck - Stephen King
27. The Vicar of Wakefield - Oliver Goldsmith
28. Out of the Woods: A Girl, A Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home - Gregg Olsen
29. Desperate Characters - Paula Fox - a really good book that kept me on edge the whole time, but ended really abruptly.
30. The Good Neighbor - A.J. Banner
31. If It Bleeds - Stephen King
32. Rat - Stephen King
33. Notes from the Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
34. 1922 - Stephen King
35. Bartleby, the Scrivener - Herman Melville
36. Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
37. Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) - Jerome K. Jerome
38. The Day of the Locust - Nathanael West
39. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
40. The Recognitions - William Gaddis (audiobook)
41. Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell
42. The Waltham Murders - Susan Zalkind
43 Mrs. Caliban - Rachel Ingalls
44. The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares
45. Fever Dream - Samanta Schweblin
46. The Pursued: A True Story of Stalking, Memory, and Madness in America's Heartland - Corey Mead

[Blip]

First 50 here.

51. Flesh by David Szalay
52. Endling by Maria Reva
53. The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
54. Audition by Katie Kitamura
55. Flashlight by Susan Choi
56. One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
57. Universality by Natasha Brown
58. The South by Tash Aw
59. Love Forms by Claire Adam
60. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
61. The Great Eastern Hotel by Ruchir Joshi
62. Helm by Sarah Hall
63. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
64. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
65. Amity by Nathan Harris
66. Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
67. Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
68. Rapture by Emily Maguire
69. Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh
70. Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
71. Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
72. I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà translated by Mara Faye Lethem
73. Venetian Vespers by John Banville
74. Shyness and Dignity by Dag Solstad translated by Sverre Lyngstad
75. One of Us by Elizabeth Day
76. Half Light by Mahesh Rao
77. How to be Animal by Melanie Challenger
78. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
79. The Wax Child by Olga Ravn translated by Martin Aitkin
80. The Employees by Olga Ravn translated by Martin Aitkin

Having enjoyed The Wax Child so much, I thought I'd give this a whirl. It's good, and it's original, not to say strange; I can't do it justice in a thumbnail, so here's The Guardian's review.

[The_Metatron]

The Hunter, 1965, by Richard Stark.

Basis for the Mel Gibson movie Payback, in which he pretty much gets the crap pounded out of him for much of the movie. What’s not to like about Mel Gibson getting the crap pounded out of him? Apparently, Lee Marvin did a movie adaptation in 1967 called Point Blank. I’ve never seen it, but the trailer I found didn’t look at all like scenes from the book.

Crime noir, I think it is. Not much of a story, really.

[NamelessFaceless]

1. The Barrens - Rosamond Smith (pseudonym of Joyce Carol Oates)
2. Native Son - Richard Wright
3. And Give Up Showbiz? How Fred Levin Beat Big Tobacco, Avoided Two Murder Prosecutions, Became a Chief of Ghana, Earned Boxing Manager of the Year, and Transformed American Law - Josh Young
4. The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
5. Dcacula - Bram Stoker (Audiobook)
6. This Penis Business: A Social Activist's Memoir - Georganne Chapin
7. Busybodies Collection (1. Crime of Fashion, 2. The Reunion Dinner, 3. Staged, 4. A Classic Case, 5. One Lucky Subscriber, 6. The Nosy Neighbor) - Various Authors (audiobook)
8. The Best American Short Stories of 2005 - Various Authors
9. Holiday Hideaway - Mary Kay Andrews (audiobook)
10. The Christmas Book Hunt - Jenny Colgan (audiobook)
11. The Doll's House - Lisa Unger (audiobook)
12. Death in the Air - Kate Winkler Dawson (audiobook)
13 Abandoned Prayers: The Incredible True Story of Murder, Obsession, and Amish Secrets - Gregg Olsen
14. The Tasting Menu - Stuart MacBride (audiobook)
15. Mania - Lionel Shriver
16. The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy That Let a Killer Go Free - Gregg Olsen.
17. The Rule of Threes - Jeffrey Deaver (audiobook).
18. Julia: A Retelling of George Orwell's 1984 - Sandra Newman
19. The Devil and the Dark Water - Stuart Turton
20. 29 Stories - H.P. Lovecraft
21. Out of Sorts - Aurelie Valognes
22. Fox - Joyce Carol Oates
23. Mr. Harrigan's Phone - Stephen King
24. The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer
25. Three Short Stories: Bad Date (Ellery Lloyd), When We Were Friends (Jane Green), Falling Down (Guillermo del Toro)
26 The Life of Chuck - Stephen King
27. The Vicar of Wakefield - Oliver Goldsmith
28. Out of the Woods: A Girl, A Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home - Gregg Olsen
29. Desperate Characters - Paula Fox - a really good book that kept me on edge the whole time, but ended really abruptly.
30. The Good Neighbor - A.J. Banner
31. If It Bleeds - Stephen King
32. Rat - Stephen King
33. Notes from the Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
34. 1922 - Stephen King
35. Bartleby, the Scrivener - Herman Melville
36. Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
37. Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) - Jerome K. Jerome
38. The Day of the Locust - Nathanael West
39. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
40. The Recognitions - William Gaddis (audiobook)
41. Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell
42. The Waltham Murders - Susan Zalkind
43 Mrs. Caliban - Rachel Ingalls
44. The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares
45. Fever Dream - Samanta Schweblin
46. The Pursued: A True Story of Stalking, Memory, and Madness in America's Heartland - Corey Mead
47. Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I'm generally not a Sci-Fi fan, but this one was so much more than that.

[Macdoc]

That's part of Southern Reach trilogy tho I think there may be five books in the series.
Sounds similar to the Hugo winner this year - I'm just finishing up the second book.

The Tainted Cup is the Hugo winner and first book.
Drop of Corruption sequel
Very innovative world building - hard to categorize

[Blip]

First 50 here.

51. Flesh by David Szalay
52. Endling by Maria Reva
53. The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
54. Audition by Katie Kitamura
55. Flashlight by Susan Choi
56. One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
57. Universality by Natasha Brown
58. The South by Tash Aw
59. Love Forms by Claire Adam
60. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
61. The Great Eastern Hotel by Ruchir Joshi
62. Helm by Sarah Hall
63. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
64. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
65. Amity by Nathan Harris
66. Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
67. Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
68. Rapture by Emily Maguire
69. Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh
70. Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
71. Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
72. I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà translated by Mara Faye Lethem
73. Venetian Vespers by John Banville
74. Shyness and Dignity by Dag Solstad translated by Sverre Lyngstad
75. One of Us by Elizabeth Day
76. Half Light by Mahesh Rao
77. How to be Animal by Melanie Challenger
78. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
79. The Wax Child by Olga Ravn translated by Martin Aitkin
80. The Employees by Olga Ravn translated by Martin Aitkin
81. The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien

I'm not sure this works for me, as I found myself questioning some of the historical, literary, and mathematical content. Maybe that's the authorial intent. Anyway, as always in these cases, here's The Guardian's review for balance.

[Macdoc]

Tigers Between Empires
A modern success story rescuing Siberian tigers from the brink of extinction.
Very engaging and long ranging…a few heart stoppers too.
The geo-political world then was better than now.

[Blip]

First 50 here.

51. Flesh by David Szalay
52. Endling by Maria Reva
53. The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
54. Audition by Katie Kitamura
55. Flashlight by Susan Choi
56. One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
57. Universality by Natasha Brown
58. The South by Tash Aw
59. Love Forms by Claire Adam
60. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
61. The Great Eastern Hotel by Ruchir Joshi
62. Helm by Sarah Hall
63. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
64. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
65. Amity by Nathan Harris
66. Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
67. Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
68. Rapture by Emily Maguire
69. Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh
70. Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
71. Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
72. I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà translated by Mara Faye Lethem
73. Venetian Vespers by John Banville
74. Shyness and Dignity by Dag Solstad translated by Sverre Lyngstad
75. One of Us by Elizabeth Day
76. Half Light by Mahesh Rao
77. How to be Animal by Melanie Challenger
78. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
79. The Wax Child by Olga Ravn translated by Martin Aitkin
80. The Employees by Olga Ravn translated by Martin Aitkin
81. The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien
82. Havoc by Rebecca Wait

Weird goings-on at a third-rate girls' boarding school in the 1980s. Not sure sixth-formers would have played jacks.

[Blip]

First 50 here.

51. Flesh by David Szalay
52. Endling by Maria Reva
53. The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
54. Audition by Katie Kitamura
55. Flashlight by Susan Choi
56. One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
57. Universality by Natasha Brown
58. The South by Tash Aw
59. Love Forms by Claire Adam
60. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
61. The Great Eastern Hotel by Ruchir Joshi
62. Helm by Sarah Hall
63. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
64. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
65. Amity by Nathan Harris
66. Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
67. Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
68. Rapture by Emily Maguire
69. Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh
70. Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
71. Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
72. I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà translated by Mara Faye Lethem
73. Venetian Vespers by John Banville
74. Shyness and Dignity by Dag Solstad translated by Sverre Lyngstad
75. One of Us by Elizabeth Day
76. Half Light by Mahesh Rao
77. How to be Animal by Melanie Challenger
78. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
79. The Wax Child by Olga Ravn translated by Martin Aitkin
80. The Employees by Olga Ravn translated by Martin Aitkin
81. The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien
82. Havoc by Rebecca Wait
83. Dream State by Eric Puchner

The intertwined lives of three people; I enjoyed it a lot, and wouldn't do it justice in a hurried thumbnail, so here's The Guardian's review.

[Blip]

First 50 here.

51. Flesh by David Szalay
52. Endling by Maria Reva
53. The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
54. Audition by Katie Kitamura
55. Flashlight by Susan Choi
56. One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
57. Universality by Natasha Brown
58. The South by Tash Aw
59. Love Forms by Claire Adam
60. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
61. The Great Eastern Hotel by Ruchir Joshi
62. Helm by Sarah Hall
63. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
64. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
65. Amity by Nathan Harris
66. Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
67. Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
68. Rapture by Emily Maguire
69. Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh
70. Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
71. Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
72. I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà translated by Mara Faye Lethem
73. Venetian Vespers by John Banville
74. Shyness and Dignity by Dag Solstad translated by Sverre Lyngstad
75. One of Us by Elizabeth Day
76. Half Light by Mahesh Rao
77. How to be Animal by Melanie Challenger
78. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
79. The Wax Child by Olga Ravn translated by Martin Aitkin
80. The Employees by Olga Ravn translated by Martin Aitkin
81. The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien
82. Havoc by Rebecca Wait
83. Dream State by Eric Puchner
84. Rainforest by Michelle Paver

A slight departure from the author's previous approach to her supernatural stuff, this includes interesting comparisons between stalking and haunting, as well as ancient Mayan practices, contemporary shamanism, and the perils of the jungle. If you're reading this post, UncertainSloth, I bring the novel to your attention.

[Calilasseia]

Don't have a top 50 to post here, but I do have a little milestone that I've achieved.

Years ago, there was a book available at my local library, that I kept renewing on constant loan, until circumstances forced me to return it without renewal. At which point, the library promptly lost the book after storing it in a basement that was subject to flooding. Sigh.

I then spent 25 years hunting down my own copy. Sometimes, the book would be available to buy, but I didn't have the ready funds. At other times, I would have the funds when the book wasn't available.

But then, finally, this year, the match was made - I had the money AND EBay had copies for sale at reasonable cost.

So, at long last, I've added my own copy of this book to my personal collection:

IMG_20250929_133812.jpg

Even though the book is largely obsolete, and several of the taxa have undergone serious revision since first publication, this book is still a treasure to me, because it has five thousand images of butterflies from the entire global fauna, arranged in family and zoogeographical order, and I can chase up the obsolete taxa and find the new valid names with ease online if I need to.

This book, Butterflies of the World, was written by one Brigadier Hilary Leonard Lewis, one of that generation of British Army officers who ended up serving in India during the last years of the Raj. With a name like that, he could hardly be anything else, could he?

It's amusing how many British Army officers serving in colonial service, ended up becoming involved with Lepidoptera. Butterflies are not the first choice of organisms to appeal to the sort who pursue military careers, but such is life.

[Macdoc]

you can grab a couple others
https://oceanofpdf.com/?s=Butterflies%2 ... he%20World

[NamelessFaceless]

1. The Barrens - Rosamond Smith (pseudonym of Joyce Carol Oates)
2. Native Son - Richard Wright
3. And Give Up Showbiz? How Fred Levin Beat Big Tobacco, Avoided Two Murder Prosecutions, Became a Chief of Ghana, Earned Boxing Manager of the Year, and Transformed American Law - Josh Young
4. The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
5. Dcacula - Bram Stoker (Audiobook)
6. This Penis Business: A Social Activist's Memoir - Georganne Chapin
7. Busybodies Collection (1. Crime of Fashion, 2. The Reunion Dinner, 3. Staged, 4. A Classic Case, 5. One Lucky Subscriber, 6. The Nosy Neighbor) - Various Authors (audiobook)
8. The Best American Short Stories of 2005 - Various Authors
9. Holiday Hideaway - Mary Kay Andrews (audiobook)
10. The Christmas Book Hunt - Jenny Colgan (audiobook)
11. The Doll's House - Lisa Unger (audiobook)
12. Death in the Air - Kate Winkler Dawson (audiobook)
13 Abandoned Prayers: The Incredible True Story of Murder, Obsession, and Amish Secrets - Gregg Olsen
14. The Tasting Menu - Stuart MacBride (audiobook)
15. Mania - Lionel Shriver
16. The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy That Let a Killer Go Free - Gregg Olsen.
17. The Rule of Threes - Jeffrey Deaver (audiobook).
18. Julia: A Retelling of George Orwell's 1984 - Sandra Newman
19. The Devil and the Dark Water - Stuart Turton
20. 29 Stories - H.P. Lovecraft
21. Out of Sorts - Aurelie Valognes
22. Fox - Joyce Carol Oates
23. Mr. Harrigan's Phone - Stephen King
24. The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer
25. Three Short Stories: Bad Date (Ellery Lloyd), When We Were Friends (Jane Green), Falling Down (Guillermo del Toro)
26 The Life of Chuck - Stephen King
27. The Vicar of Wakefield - Oliver Goldsmith
28. Out of the Woods: A Girl, A Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home - Gregg Olsen
29. Desperate Characters - Paula Fox - a really good book that kept me on edge the whole time, but ended really abruptly.
30. The Good Neighbor - A.J. Banner
31. If It Bleeds - Stephen King
32. Rat - Stephen King
33. Notes from the Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
34. 1922 - Stephen King
35. Bartleby, the Scrivener - Herman Melville
36. Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
37. Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) - Jerome K. Jerome
38. The Day of the Locust - Nathanael West
39. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
40. The Recognitions - William Gaddis (audiobook)
41. Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell
42. The Waltham Murders - Susan Zalkind
43 Mrs. Caliban - Rachel Ingalls
44. The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares
45. Fever Dream - Samanta Schweblin
46. The Pursued: A True Story of Stalking, Memory, and Madness in America's Heartland - Corey Mead
47. Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer
48. Should We Stay or Should We Go - Lionel Shriver
49. We the Animals - Justin Torres

Oh, so close!