Best Books of 2024 TFF To-Read Festivus Guide

Best Books of 2024 TFF To-Read Festivus Guide

Dec 23, 2024 | Babel, Best Books, Best Of 2024, book review, Book Reviews, Brandy Schillace, Discworld, fantasy, Feet of Clay, fine press, Horror, Kurt Vonnegut, limited edition, Max Allan Collins, Michael Crichton, Mickey7, mystery, Phantasia Press, Quarry, R.F. Kuang, sci-fi, science fiction, Signed Limited, small press, speculative fiction, Spoiler-Free, Terry Pratchett, THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE, walter mosley

Best Books of 2024 TFF To-Read Festivus Guide comes to you just in time to place some last-minute literature at the feet of your metal pole, recently taken from out of the crawl space.

Here at TFF, we are especially focused on the fiction that transforms us all, this Solstice.

So Happy Yule, Happy Holly King, Welcome Father Christmas, or whichever legends you may observe ere the New Year of 2025* comes!

*At TFF we review newly released books and also books that have been released any year, so our ‘best of list’ contains what we found and loved this year, not necessarily what was published in 2024.

Feast your eyes, Eager Readers, The Best of 2024:

THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE, brandy schillace, neurodivergent, autistic, autism, mystery, murder mystery

The Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot’s Mustache Equals Best Mystery Award goes to the THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE by Brandy Schillace.

Few can intertwine classic golden age mystery tropes with modern fiction themes, both with myriad intriguing facets, like Dr. Schillace writes in this classic.

An excerpt from our review: The witty, charming, and intelligent [protagonist] Jo is thirsty for answers . . . And despite her difficulty overcoming a not-too-distant divorce with a husband that continually reminded her of her autism and her behavioral faux pas . . . she collects herself time and again and proves to be insightful, well-read, and courageous as she presses on. [ReadTFF.com]

babel, babel by R.F. Kuang, the poppy war, r.f. kuang, book review, book, sff, fantasy, history

The Ray Bradbury Award Winner For Best Speculative Fiction Likely To Blow The Doors Off Your Mind Palace goes to…R.F. Kuang for the novel BABEL.

This book is the one that moved me the most in the entire year of 2024.

I knew as soon as I read BABEL, it would make an indelible dent in my brain.

An excerpt from our review: If you are a fan of language or translation or history or great characters being challenged beyond your wildest prescient thoughts, then you must read this . . . As with many great stories – especially in the SFF-speculative fiction realm – the character’s path needs to resonate deeply, and Kuang’s protagonist Robin Swift does this while being utterly captivating. [ReadTFF.com]

The 1984: You Made Me Cry…Twice Award goes to Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass – it hurt so damn much.

If you want to buy any of the award-winning books, check them out here in my Bookshop.org List – I get a commission if you buy from there and monies are donated to local bookstores with each purchase:

best, best of, best of books, books, book reviews, best of tff, tff

The Red Death Award For A Work Most Likely To Keep You Too Terrified To Sleep Award goes to…THE CLUB DUMAS by Arturo Pérez-Reverte and Sonia Soto (Translator).

I love bibliomysteries, but this one combines a historic evil, played out in brutal fashion, against the backdrop of New York City, Spain, Portugal, and the many twists of a previously unknown The Three Musketeers manuscript pages.

THE CLUB DUMAS is utterly unique, but be careful you do not lose yourself as you strive to unravel the book’s many strands.

TOUCHED by Walter Mosley, walter mosley, easy rawlins, sci-fi, sff, vonnegut

The Michael Crichton You Better Check Your Technology At The Door Sci-fi Award goes to…TOUCHED by Walter Mosley.

The language from one of the world’s best authors is as sharp as it comes!

book review, book, sff, fantasy, history, phantasia press, edward ashton, Mickey7, limited edition, small press, fine press, barclay shaw

The Da Vinci Ornithopter Award For Best Small Press Publication goes to…both Hard Case Crime for THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins and Phantasia Press for Mickey7 by Edward Ashton.

Quarry is the villain we love to root for, and, hell, make him an ‘antihero’ he does not give a damn as to your labels. In this book, there is an outstanding display of character growth for the would-be-retired assassin.

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton was the first in a historic Phantasia Press relaunch, as the first fine press dedicated entirely to Sci-Fi-Fantasy returns in the 21st Century with a resounding BOOM and a gorgeous limited edition.

The Kurt Vonnegut Satiric Stylin’ Society Needs Kilgore Trout To Give It An Enema Award goes to…TIMEQUAKE by Kurt Vonnegut.

You will never read anything remotely like this novel – TIMEQUAKE is genius, but I know of no sane way to describe it to you.

Feet of Clay, terry pratchett, discworld, night watch, fantasy, sff, sherlock, tolkien, tff, book review

Last, but not least, is the Inklings Award For Best Fantasy In Fiction is…FEET OF CLAY by Terry Pratchett.

The Discworld Series continues to daunt my dreams and haunt my, well for lack of a better word, daydreams, and, well, the point is these books are so bloody good, you want to keep reading more and more about Commander Vimes of the Night’s Watch and all of the plethora of fantastically, wonderful characters that contribute to the sludge that clings to the edge of the Disc.

FEET OF CLAY is an impactful classic on multiple fronts in the fantasy genre.

Here dear readers is the list of TFF Best Books of 2024:

  • The Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot’s Mustache Equals Best Mystery Award
  • The Ray Bradbury Award Winner For Best Speculative Fiction Likely To Blow The Doors Off Your Mind Palace
  • The 1984: You Made Me Cry…Twice Award
  • The Red Death Award For A Work Most Likely To Keep You Too Terrified To Sleep Award
  • The Michael Crichton You Better Check Your Technology At The Door Sci-fi Award
  • The Da Vinci Ornithopter Award For Best Small Press Publication x2
    • Hard Case Crime for THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
    • Phantasia Press signed limited edition of Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
  • The Kurt Vonnegut Satiric Stylin’ Society Needs Kilgore Trout To Give It An Enema Award
  • Inklings Award For Best Fantasy In Fiction

 

Buy books here:

best, best of, best of books, books, book reviews, best of tff, tff

 

Happy New Year, Fictioneers!

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THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE by Brandy Schillace

THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE by Brandy Schillace

Feb 12, 2024 | book review, Book Reviews, Brandy Schillace, mystery, Spoiler-Free, THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE

THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE by Brandy Schillace is all aces in TFF’s book, and this preview review aims to uncover some of what makes this engaging mystery so damn good, without lifting the veil too much.

This story is one of the more perplexing murder mysteries you may come across, combining new, thrilling elements with style!

Agatha Christie would love Schillace’s THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE.

Not only are the brilliant and extremely engaging facets to this case enveloping, but solving a murder by antique pistol, as well as the mysterious disappearance of a rare Ardemore family portrait that may be connected, prove to be difficult entanglements that unwind in wholly unexpected ways and leaves the reader feverishly turning pages to follow the threads.

The following Preview Book Review of THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE by Brandy Schillace is SPOILER-FREE.

Schillace’s characters, from the outsider-protagonist Jo Jones, to the Detective Inspector MacAdams with his inferiority complex due to his divorce, to Gwilym the young antique and hobby collector, and to the brazen Irish innkeeper and fellow outsider, Tula, they all stand up with great intrigue and pack a punch.

To ramble a little, characters are the lifeblood of fiction, with few memorable exceptions.

The one I come back to frequently is the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov, because it simultaneously thwarts the rules by creating a compelling and innovative pillar of science-fiction without (I argue, though some disagree) characters being central to the story told over the course of centuries.

I appreciate Foundation for that, but my favorite work of Asimov is and will always be THE END OF ETERNITY.

Aside from being used for near every time travel tale post-H.G. Wells, THE END OF ETERNITY has memorable and incredibly realistic characters that you root for.

They make you love the story.

Just as each character in THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE stands out in their own ways and brings you on a wholly uncharted journey to a murder / painting mystery, this too is a story to love.

The young American woman, Jo, inherits an old estate with a decrepit English manor house that holds her in uncomfortable territory.

She finds hidden in a locked room what appears to be an Ardemore family portrait of an unknown relative that was taken from the library for some reason.

Shortly thereafter, it is stolen.

And then a body turns up.

The neurodivergent Jo felt like an outsider before she becomes a suspect in the murder, and that feeling only grows as she attempts to solve the crimes and find out who was the Ardemore mystery woman.

The witty, charming, and intelligent character of Jo is thirsty for answers.

THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE, brandy schillace, neurodivergent, autistic, autism, mystery, murder mystery

And despite her difficulty overcoming a not-too-distant divorce with a husband that continually reminded her of her autism and her behavioral faux pas – some of which she deems may be fair and some of which are certainly not – she collects herself time and again and proves to be insightful, well-read, and courageous as she presses on.

The insight into the way this character thinks is exciting, and makes me feel like I am privy to a behind the scenes look into the methods of Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes that is essential to their effectiveness in solving a crime.

Schillace’s Jo Jones is flawed and extremely realistic.

The ways in which Jo reflects on how she thinks – especially using memories of her experiences to guide her – makes for a refreshing new perspective into someone who is on the spectrum and not just surviving society, but thriving despite it.

In a touching moment, the Irish innkeeper speaks of leaving her home and landing in England as an outsider, like Jo, and then the younger woman reveals a fun and difficult attribute:

“Words have just always been my people…and I don’t forget them after I read them.

“Ever? Like a photographic memory?” Tula asked. Jo scrunched up her nose. She’d never liked the term.

“It doesn’t work like that. I can recite from most of the books I’ve read–but it has to be triggered…sometimes the connections I see aren’t really there…but sometimes it means I see connections other people can’t see.”

The marked self-reflection makes the reader empathize with Jo in a deeply impactful way.

Despite the social difficulties of inter-personal relationships and reactions to situations, social norms, and speech that are often a struggle for Jo Jones, she proves to be an exceptional force in the book and a very relatable person of interest.

 

THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE by Brandy Schillace is out tomorrow – February 13, 2024 – so get your copy post-haste!

 

The Forgotten Fiction Grade: YEA (read it!)

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“THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE by Brandy Schillace” Book Review Was Written By R.J. Huneke.

 

THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE, brandy schillace, neurodivergent, autistic, autism, mystery, murder mystery