"The Fisherman: A Novel" by John Langan. When Abe's wife died, he took up fishing. Later, when his co-worker loses his family, Abe takes Dan fishing and a friendship is born. Then Dan talks Abe into fishing at Dutchman's Creek. Not even Howard, the short order cook, can dissuade them with his haunted tale of the mysterious 'Der Fisher'. However, Abe finds far more than fish at the creek.

"Bottled Abyss" (revised edition) by Benjamin Kane Ethridge. Herman and Janet Erikson lost their daughter in a hit and run accident. They live in a world of grief and suffering until their dog goes missing. Cutting through the veil of grief, Herman sets out to find his pet and finds himself at the boarder between life and death . . .

"Pet Sematary" by Stephen King. This book almost always features a cat on the cover but the real loss of the story is when Dr. Louis Creed loses his son Gage. The pain of the loss, the haunting of Louis on several levels works powerfully in this story even before he does the wrong thing by his son and pays for his actions. Possibly the best meditation of loss, right up there with "The Crow".

"Cell: A Novel" by Stephen King. This book and I have a very personal and powerful relationship. The short version is that I read it years after it was published. I was already a father twice over and my second child, my son was diagnosed with autism. So the last quarter of the book when Clayton finally discovers what happened to his son really hit hard.

"Lisey's Story: A Novel" by Stephen King. This is Stephen King's story about love and marriage but it's also about loss. The story takes place after Scott's death and Lisey is still unable to even go through his papers. The sense of loss she feels comes through almost as powerfully as Dr. Creed's loss in "Pet Sematary"

Global time rift phenomena result in Freaky Friday-type swappings between past and present, with dinosaur-filled forests appearing where major cities stood just a moment ago, causing great panic in the characters and great delight in the readers. Dinosaurs neither panic nor delight, they just stomp and eat.

Well-researched pop science exploring advances in fields like cloning and de-extinction in both a factual and a "what if" approach, making the material fun and accessible to the lay reader. It's a humorous book, advertised as employing "both science and willful irreverence." Because science, irreverence, not taking things seriously, and bringing things back from the dead has never once led to hubris-fueled disaster.

A select group of international VIPs are invited to tour a new, very secretive Chinese zoo before its official grand opening, where it's revealed that China has dragons. Hundreds. Of. Dragons. They've been kept secret for 40 years while a huge theme park has been built up around them and it's all totally safe, so come marvel at the Dragons of China! They're excited to meet you. Sorry, bad translation. To "eat" you.

True story: scientists are reviving an extinct species and creating a home for them in Siberia called Pleistocene Park. HOW? by smooshing together DNA extracted from a woolly mammoth and a today-elephant. WHY? Because mammoths were good at preserving the permafrost, which keeps the methane and carbon in. Will we live to rue the day we reintroduced these grass-munching ancient pachyderms to our world? Wait and see!

A fine entry in the "Dear God, Science, what have you done?" genre. Medical scientists have eliminated disease by repurposing the humble tapeworm, with some genetic modifications, into an all-purpose implant that prevents illness and allergies, delivers medication, regulates immune systems, even works as a contraceptive, if desired. It's a breakthrough that will make humanity great again. Unless the tapeworms object?