Wednesday, December 16, 2009

TIME: top 10 fiction books of 2009

Lev Grossman is Time magazine's book critic as well as the author of the new novel, The Magicians.

He named Time's top ten fiction books of 2009. One title on his list:
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

It's been a long time since I read a debut writer with the pace, humor and hard-boiled, powder-burned worldview of an Elmore Leonard. Who knows where he got 'em, but Josh Bazell has 'em. His hero is Peter Brown, a former Mob hit man who has witness-protected himself into a medical residency at a New York hospital. Surprise, surprise, his old life comes around looking for him. The book takes us careering through a crime-thriller plot, but the story is salted with a lot of really fascinating insider medical know-how and peppered with all kinds of ballistics lore and martial artistry. This is a hit man who knows in anatomical detail exactly how he's damaging you ("the two bones of the forearm, the ulna and the radius, move independently of each other..."). I defy you to put it down.
Read about another book on Grossman's list.

Beat the Reaper also made the Telegraph's top ten list.

The Page 69 Test: Beat the Reaper.

--Marshal Zeringue