Reading

John Hinderaker at Powerline, a blog I follow, posts about "My Books of 2021." He reads far more than I do. His list includes many classics, most of which I have never read (although I should have), not even when they were required reading in college. He does also read the kind of books I read these days:

C.J. Box–Chuck to his friends–is a novelist whose books immediately rocket to the top of the best-seller lists. His principal character is Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden whose commitment to doing the right thing often lands him in trouble. The Pickett books come out once a year, and in 2021 it was Dark Sky. As always, I digested the latest Joe Pickett in a matter of hours.

Chuck’s Cassie Dewell series is also excellent. Watch for a new installment in 2022. Or start from the beginning with Back of Beyond and The Highway, one of the more riveting books I have ever read. ....

I enjoy C.J. Box, too. Spectrum Originals has a series based on early Joe Pickett books, and ABC's "Big Sky," has completed its second season and is based on another of C.J. Box's series.

He liked another favorite of mine:

Michael Connelly has sold many millions of books featuring Los Angeles police detective Harry Bosch. The Bosch books have been turned into a very good television series on Amazon Prime. A few years ago Connelly introduced a new character, a woman detective named Renee Ballard, whom I like a lot. She has several times teamed up with the now-retired Harry Bosch, as in 2021’s The Dark Hours. It’s good.

And in historical fiction:

Bernard Cornwell is probably the greatest historical novelist now working. In 2020 he published War Lord, the 13^th book in the Last Kingdom series, featuring a tenth-century Saxon warrior named Uhtred. I read War Lord last year. I have greatly enjoyed this series and highly recommend it. Cornwell also returned to the Richard Sharpe franchise with the first new Sharpe book, Sharpe’s Assassin, in a number of years. It is set just after the Battle of Waterloo and is very good, as you would expect.

John Hinderaker, "My Books of 2021," Powerline, January 29, 2022.