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For those with short attention spans and a fondness for bullet points:
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Interviews: 5 (6, if one with a character from a book counts!)
Reviews: 34 (14 of them Irish crime related)
Classes of German students forced to read Mick's reviews: 1
Villains named after Mick Halpin: 0 (come on, how many more authors do I need to annoy before I get my heart's eighth-fondest wish-?)
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The best number of all: €1205.50 was raised for The Alzheimer Society of Ireland in the first annual Critical Mick Charity Auction. Generous online friends helped with the publicity and three of the signed editions on my groaning shelves found new homes. Many thanks to all who assisted! There was a large contribution from a sordid and mysterious source. Where'd that come from? The incredible story's accesable via a link hidden somewhere on this page.
A trend in 2009 was for consumers across the Republic to road trip it up over the border into Northern Ireland where grocery and other items cost about half of what the price gougers down South are charging. (Besides, such trips provide access to lovely exotic microbrews like Belfast Ale and Clotworthy Dobbin) My reading tastes seemed to jump on that bandwagon, with an unusually high number of excellent novels set in Northern Ireland- Family Life by Paul Charles, The Dark Place by Sam Millar, Bleed A River Deep by Brian McGilloway, The Bloomsday Dead by Adrian McKinty, Ulterior by Darryl Sloan and Stuart Neville's The Ghosts of Belfast.
Four of those authors found a place on the Best Book Read shortlist. Other exciting new authors encountered in 2009 include Rob Kitchen and Alan Glynn. From the US, Mick read new novels from CJ Box, Karen Dionne and Michael Loyd Gray. Long-time friend of the site Linda Weaver Clarke concluded her five-part historical family saga set in Bear Lake Valley, Idaho with Elena, Woman of Courage. Exploring a darker side of the past was fellow history nerd George Franklin Feldman- there is much that is airbrushed out of the discovery and development of the Americas. Enormous statues have been erected to honor some figures who, in stature as well as virtue, stood four feet high.
The auction aside, my notable misadventure of 2009 was the night I got brained by a mammoth. (I am not making this up. That sucker hurt. Wiping handfuls of blood off my forehead, I probably should have gone for stitches. The guy felt so bad about it, though, I had to spend the rest of the night just reassuring him that I was alright. Sheesh. What a bizarre year.)
Good books aside, I managed to find some scattered marshmallowy bits of bliss in what's widely regarded as one of the sourest, mealiest coven of months since the Great Depression. Three trips to the US, and the toddler behaved on each one of them! The Miracle of Not Getting Booted Off the Plane. I connected with some old friends via one of those social networking sites, that was good. And last spring, my text entry was the lucky one chosen in a contest on Phantom 105.2. The prize: a classy set of Raymond Chandler reissues.
Cooooooooooool.
Nevermind another week of freezing weather, the forecast for reading in 2010 is great. New titles by Ken Bruen, Stuart Neville, Arlene Hunt, Declan Hughes, Ian Sansom, John Connolly, Erin Hart, Ellen McCarthy, Ava McCarthy (no relation) and Brian McGilloway will be released this year. Personal fave authors Roddy Doyle and David Mitchell also have new books in the works.
So, stay tuned for more unruly reviews in 2010 and throughout the coming decade. (Teenies? No. Tweenies? Nah. I'm pushing for this new decade to be called the Maxies. Look at the Roman numerals and think positive, all: MMX.)
Peace
Yer Friend Mick Halpin
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and the year's winner gets to tattoo it on their foot.
