Best Books of 2016
This month each of our critics have highlighted some of their favorite books from this year. From those posts on the Run Spot Run blog, we’re pleased to present a Top 5 for 2016,...
Run Spot Run Book Reviews
Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah
★★★☆☆ Bestselling author Sophie Hannah attempts to capture Agatha Christie’s masterful storytelling in Closed Casket, but Christie was an author who cannot be replicated. Closed Casket takes place at Lady Athelinda Playford’s estate in Clonakilty, County...
Iza’s Ballad by Magda Szabo
★★★★☆ Although not the shimmering, layered masterpiece that is Magda Szabo’s 1987 novel The Door (translated last year to critical acclaim), Iza’s Ballad is an accomplished work of similar emotional weight. Before The Door’s...
Ema, The Captive by César Aira
★★☆☆☆ The prolific César Aira is a writer of momentum and continuum. He often discusses his work ethic in essays and interviews, explaining how he’s a daily writer and resists editing yesterday’s material. He...
The Murderous History of Bible Translations by Harry Freedman
★★★★★ It is highly likely that more people have been persecuted or killed in the name of religion than in all the wars in history. The Murderous History of Bible Translations examines one particular...
The Invisibility Cloak by Ge Fei
★★★☆☆ This short novella about music, family, and business in contemporary China is an alluring introduction to Ge Fei, a novelist of subtle peculiarity and intrigue. The narrator of The Invisibilty Cloak is an...
Sequential Drawings by Richard McGuire
★★★☆☆ You’ve probably seen “spot illustratings” before but not known what to call them. They’re the “unsung toiler of the magazine page,” illustrations tucked into margins and quietly placed after an article’s paragraphs in...
Last Look by Charles Burns
★★★★★ Wickedly unsettling and alluring, Charles Burns’s graphic novel Last Look was originally published in three separate hardcover volumes between 2010 and 2014: X’ed Out, The Hive and Sugar Skull. Typically, omnibus editions are...
Submission by Michel Houellebecq
★★★★☆ When politicians invoke the “threat of radical Islam,” this typically features imagery of automatic weapons, plane crashes, and IEDs. Michel Houellebecq’s novel Submission suggests an alternate, perhaps more powerful arsenal: textbooks and bank...
