I once again concede that a year's-best posting before Thanksgiving might seem, well, early. But surely not so much if you -- or your reading giftees -- prefer their material in paper and ink. If that's you, well, you may prefer to undertake your holiday shopping sooner rather than later. Also, in general, Stuff Happens.
In any event, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will soon be upon us. At some stores/e-stores, they somehow already are.
As always, I read a lot: as research, keeping current with the genre in which I write, and simply for enjoyment. Before the annual holiday shopping onslaught, I've taken to volunteering a few words about the most notable books from my reading (and sometimes re-reading) thus far in the current year. IIRC, this is my fourteenth such compilation.
When I name a book, you can be certain I really enjoyed it and/or found it very useful. Life's too short to gripe about books I didn't find notable (much less the several I elected not to finish). Presuming that you visit SF and Nonsense because you appreciate my assessment of things, you might find, in what follows, books you (and like-minded friends, relatives, etc.) will also enjoy. Unless otherwise indicated, the dates shown are for original publication. Titles of recommendations are Amazon links, often to newer editions than the original publication (and to Kindle editions, where available).
As many of you know, I write science fiction. For many years I mainly read SF. Alas, as the genre skews ever more toward YA, media tie-ins, dystopia, post-apocalypse, and endless revisiting of tired tropes, I find myself reading less and less of it. So: whereas a fair portion of this year's reading remained SF, I found little of that reading to be recommendation-worthy. Not to bury the lede, I mainly enjoyed several books of history, historical fiction, and/or historical mystery fiction. For that matter, two of the three SFnal books I do recommend below are also in an historical vein.
All that said, there certainly are books from this year's reading I can enthusiastically endorse. To see what's impressed me so far this year, read on ....
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