Staff Picks: Best Book or Comic

As the year draws to a close, we turn to our faithful Geekade staff to tell us what they consider to be the ultimate winners (and losers) of the past 12 months.  Join us as we look at 2019 with a critical eye, and please chime in with your own thoughts on a variety of categories.

Today, we ask the Geekade team…

What was the best book or comic that you read this year?

Karen Randazzo (This Week’s Episode, The Think Tank) : The Wanderers by Chuck Wendig. I wrote about this book a couple months ago. If you haven’t read it yet, I strongly recommend you check it out. It’s an amazing modern epic and is something that very frighteningly could happen any day now, but it still manages to leave you with hope, laughing along the way, and feeling all the feels. Honorable mentions to Evvie Drake Starts Over, a very well written debut novel by Linda Holmes; Mrs. Everything, a historical departure from the usual fare by Jennifer Wiener; and Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia.

Dean DeFalco (Vest Lord, General Administrator) : I read the first Dark Tower book this year. That was pretty great. Also, the Power Rangers comic is straight fire.

Brenda Cierech (Tardy to the Party, 31 Days of Horror) : Honestly, I think the best book I read this year was Pride and Prejudice. I read it over 20 years ago and was pleasantly surprised by my re-read. It’s a masterpiece, pure and simple.

Kris Randazzo (Stone Age Gamer, This Week’s Episode, Waveback) : IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been so consistently awesome it never stops blowing my mind. They’re leading up to issue 100 now, and it’s been a heck of a ride. Great artwork, awesome unpredictable stories, and just a lot of fun.

Billy Ludt (Select Your Starter) : Leaving Richard’s Valley by Michael DeForge.

Dave Marconi (You Shall Not Pass Go) : The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. It was recommended to me by a friend and was not something I expected to love as much as I did. In a world where magic used to exist and then disappeared, the main character is the best assassin in the world at age 17. She’s been serving a life imprisonment and is given one chance to end her sentence: win a tournament for the prince of the king who captured her. I was in. Great world building and lore.

Amy Ebeling (Editor-in-Chief) : Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. I know I’m tardy to the party (see what I did there, Brenda Cierech?), but I was inspired to pick up the book after reading Brenda’s review of the HBO series and how it held up in comparison to the novel. I was instantly hooked, and have been making my way through Flynn’s other works.