David S. Atkinson, whose book Bones Buried in Dirt just plain delighted me this time last year and whose preview of Hagridden this year was beautiful and so greatly appreciated, well, he’s gone and done something awesome again.
Not a great believer in “top books” lists, David has instead listed some books that surprised him this past year. “These ones are from authors who I was already familiar with, but the authors did something so interestingly different from their other work I’ve read that I wanted to make special note.”
And there’s Hagridden on the list. David had previously read Box Cutters, which, for those who haven’t picked it up yet, is indeed quite different from Hagridden. One is a dense and violent historical novel; the other is a compact chapbook of tight flash fiction involving contemporary characters and situations.
I’m thrilled that David liked them both!
Also on David’s list, some books I’ve heard great things about and want to read soon, like David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green, as well as books I read a while back and still love and refer to all the time, like Irvine Welsh’s Marabou Stork Nightmares.
And then there are the bevy of books by writer friends of mine, which you definitely need to pick up copies of ASAP:
- Ryan W. Bradley, Love and Death in the Moose League
- Timothy Gager, The Thursday Appointments of Bill Sloan
- Jon Konrath, The Memory Hunter
- Edward J. Rathke’s Twilight of the Wolves
- Michael J. Seidlinger, Metronome
- Ben Tanzer’s Lost in Space: A Father’s Journey There and Back Again
That’s some amazing company to be in, folks!
And seriously, you need to get all these books. But instead of linking to them, I’ll just send you over to David’s post, where he lists even more great books and links to all of them.
Samuel Snoek-Brown 
It’s gratifying when one finds oneself listed amongst good stuff!