Book Summary 2011: Fiction

Here is a summary of the fiction books I read in 2011.

K is for Killer by Sue Grafton

A fine entry in the long running series of mysteries featuring California PI Kinsey Millhone. I’m way behind on this series. “V is for Vengeance” was published last year.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Maintaining interest in a thousand page novel is no easy task, but that’s what Brandon Sanderson has done in this massive first entry into a planned ten volume series. The trick in writing in the epic fantasy genre is to combine effective and credible world-building with interesting characters and a compelling plot. Sanderson does this very well. His specialty is creating believable “magic systems,” meaning the ways in which the fantastic elements are used are logically worked out and consistent. He is also very good at the narrative pace of the novel. As long as the book is, it is rarely boring and he saves some terrific plot twists for the final few pages. I’m looking forward to the next installment.

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

This clever novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2011. Each chapter in the book is a self-contained short story but together they all end up telling one big story. In addition, each story is told from the perspective of a different character and uses a unique literary style. Egan writes in first person, third person, and even a creative use of second person. One story is told in the form of a Powerpoint presentation!

The “goon squad” of the title refers to the ravages of time on people. Characters who at first are presented as young and full of energy can appear in later stories in pretty bad shape. Events and characters that seem trivial or tangential in one story take on greater importance in later stories.

The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke (audio book)

This is one of those cases where now that I’ve listened to the audio version of James Lee Burke’s excellent crime novel I can’t imagine actually reading it. The narration by Will Patton is perfect. He not only gets the Southern accents of the Louisiana setting just right, he comes up with a wide variety of voices for a considerable number of characters. Burke's ability to show multiple sides of the story, using both police and criminals made me think of the TV series The Wire. The presentation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is devastating. The story gets quite harrowing at times with some gruesome violence so the book isn’t for everyone.

The 39 Clues books 1 and 2 (audio book)
I listened to the first two volumes of this middle-grade series. If this had been around when I was 12, it probably would have been one of my favorites. The action centers around two children who become involved in a deadly quest around the world to uncover clues to unlock the secret of their powerful family Each book revolves around a historical character. In the ones I listened to, the figures were Benjamin Franklin and Mozart.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I must be one of the last people on the planet to read this popular young adult novel. It certainly is entertaining and makes me want to see the movie. Collins makes some interesting observations about our entertainment obsessed culture by placing the reader into the story making them as much of a voyeur as the people in the novel who are forced to watch the deadly Hunger Games. I have a bad habit of not finishing series so we’ll see if I get around to reading the other two books in 2012.