Every outlet in the world has been doing their best books of 2016, which I skim voraciously and make superficial notes of. I figured I’d add my voice to the mix with the stuff I’ve read this year that I really liked. To keep to theme I’m sticking to newly published work, though I might put together a non-2016 post at some point to chronicle some of the very good stuff I read which is not new and being pushed by publishers:

The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil by Al Ridenour

Ridenour’s book on the Alpine folklore and traditions surrounding the Krampus figure is wonderful. It features in depth examination of the legends associated with the figure and the importance of the darker winter traditions in their historical context and the modern age.

Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London by Matthew Beaumont

I first came across Beaumont’s work in an article on Wuthering Heights‘s slave-trade context. His work is one of the more convincing and nuanced takes on the novel’s relationship to slavery and it resists the dogmatism I’ve seen of late among some Bronte partisans. Nightwalking is a wonderful book, deep and engaging, and historically and literally rich. Its sharp too, with politics that will cut you if you’re not correct or careful.

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

Dickey’s book is both theoretically rich and readable (things which don’t always go hand in hand together.) It takes the stories we tell seriously and seeks to understand the various social functions of ghost stories. If nothing else this book helps illuminate the fact that these stories, urban legends, and pieces of folklore are important tools to think with when we contemplate American identity.

The Witches: Suspicion, Betrayal, and Hysteria in 1692 Salem by Stacy Schiff

One of my favorite films of the year was Robert Eggers’ meticulously crafted The Witch.  The film put the viewers directly in the head-space of 17th-century Puritan colonists and their fears of the new continent in which they found themselves. Schiff does similar work in her well-research tome that more than anything else highlights the actual psychological spaces that the villagers of Salem were inhabiting in 1692.

Hard Light by Elizabeth Hand

The third of Elizabeth Hand’s Cass Neary crime novels is as sharp as ever. It finds Neary in London and the West Country of England as she seeks to navigate another mystery surrounded by outsider artists and the remains of ancient pre-history. Hands work is always lyrical and subversive and impossible to put down.

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Ruff crafts a Lovecraftian America centered on the enduring legacy of America’s racial crimes and in the context of the Jim Crow south and the Sundown Town north. It digs deep into pulp fiction in order to connect the horrors of writers like Lovecraft to the genuine horrors of racism. It doesn’t always succeed, but the interconnected stories are worth examining even when they miss the mark somewhat.