Hitting some good classics to start the year

• A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson
• Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp
• Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix
• Dogs of War by Jonathan Maberry
• The Running Man by Richard Bachman
• Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
• Juniper by Ross Jeffery

There were a few newer titles this month that were every bit as good as I expected. Juniper was a bit of messed up, and Ross Jeffery deserves all the praise he's been receiving for his work. And of course I enjoyed Ready Player Two, since I'm a sucker for eighties nostalgia and Ernest Cline's approach to storytelling. I get it that it's a bit predictable and maybe even pandering for some people – I don't care. It's fun and enjoyable, and what more can you ask of a novel, really?

Horrorstor was also a little bit of messed up. I may actually go back and re-read it since I rushed my way through it. There is something about Grady Hendrix's style which is both approachable and fun even while being creepy and weird.

The highlights of the month for me, however (and this was a great month of reading to be sure) were my re-reads of A Stir of Echoes and The Running Man. Older titles that drove home the message of how important these authors are, even if these titles are not right at the front of the list for either. Interestingly I also read Nothing Lasts Forever, which is the novel that inspired Die Hard. In all three cases we have solid stories with compelling protagonsits, all of which inspired terrific movies that differed significantly from the source material. And differed in interesting ways.