 | The Fighter by Craig Davidson
Buy new: $18.72 / Used from: $4.74 Easily the best novel of the year. Reads like a David Cronenberg film in print. However, most readers of contemporary fiction will be turned off by the violence of the story, but don't let this turn you off of one of the premier stylists of the 21st century.
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 | The Shotgun Rule: A Novel by Charlie Huston
Buy new: $14.93 / Used from: $4.45 The Fighter barely beat out this great coming of age crime novel. Recommended for
for anyone who was a teenager in the 1980's
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 | The Blonde by Duane Swierczynski
Buy new: $11.16 / Used from: $4.49 Swierczynki is becoming one of those writer's that I practically drool over when I find out he's releasing a new novel. I may even take up comic books again to read what he'll be doing with Marvel's favorite mutant terrorist, Cable, just so I can get a monthly tatse of what he's writing. TPB also includes the novella follow up to the blonde, the Redhead.
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 | The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993 by Charles Bukowski
Buy new: $19.77 / Used from: $6.99 Not fiction, but a great addition and final goodbye to the post hominis work of the much loved working class poet. Warning to readers who have been purchasing the previous uncollected works, you'll be re-reading a lot of the same material
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 | Songs of Innocence (Hard Case) by Richard Aleas
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.08 Hard case crime is becoming one of the most important publishers of crime fiction, and for some one who is far from a fan of PI fiction, this is a great and highly original read
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 | The Castle in the Forest: A Novel by Norman Mailer
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $0.01 Technically a 2006 release, but it was released close enough to the end year that most readers probably didn't crack it open after the new year. In my opinion, this is one of Mailer's most accomplished, and extremely creepy, novels.
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 | The Blade Itself: A Novel by Marcus Sakey
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $1.46 Sakey's first novel is making a lot of top ten lists, and for obvious reasons.This fish out of water/revenge tale will keep you turning pages.
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 | The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel by Michael Chabon
Buy new: $17.79 / Used from: $2.95 Yeah, yeah, every top ten is going to have this one on it, but there is a reason for it. This highly stylized novel ranks as one of the years most inovative, combining Alternative History Sci-fi with a hardboiled detective story, and it's actually a page turner.
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 | American Skin by Ken Bruen
Buy new: $10.36 / Used from: $2.15 Bruen is truely becoming the preiminent crime writer of the 21st century. The vast majority of his books are intense, highly personal, and extremely bloody reads. This stand alone is proof of the sheer power of Bruen's writing. Once again, the hardback came out in 06, but most readers picked up the TPB
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 | Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $7.02 A lot of Palahniuk fans found this to be pretty disappointing, but I honestly considered this to be a return to form for the inovative Portland, Ore., novelist
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