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2017 Book List
Note: Kindle version unless otherwise
noted. Non-fiction unless (novel) is appended.
Department
of Clarification: nothing to
report
Department
of Analysis: A few
more books “read” than last year; THB thinks that he stopped reading the “not
recommended” novels faster than ever before. And, this year THB followed the
passions of the moment: more dystopia,
more black lives matter, way more
oldies, more oldies in paper, more connectivity between authors. And, way more
books by women than men.
As always, a lot of the Recommended books could be Top Picks, and
as the year went on it was tough to knock of the early Top Picks. If the Oceans Were Ink seemed really relevant
early in the year. Now it might be banned via tweets by DJT as he tromps the
earth bullying hither and yon.
Top Picks (12)
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| 11 weeks old |
If the Oceans Were Ink, An
Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran, Carla Power: A terrific book. Power spends a year
with what she calls a conservative, madrasa trained, muslim “Sheikh” (one who
gives advice and counsel to others) discussing her questions about and aiding
in her understanding of the Quran, which of course also aids and abets in her
understanding of her own beliefs (and you in yours when you read the book).
She, an American, met Sheikh Mohammed Akram Nadwi (she calls him Akram; he’s
Indian and raising his family in Britain) at the Oxford Centre when they were
both in their 20s, she helping on a project of his illuminating the history of
women in Islam. Spoiler alert: THB did not turn into a Muslim, nor did Power.
Here’s one of the meta-messages (there are quite a few): it is harder to be a
good Muslim every day than it is to go on jihad.
Station
Eleven, Emily St.
John Mandel (novel, paperback): Dystopian set in current times, a flu wipes out
99.9% of humanity within a few days. Tell
me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right. You vitriolic,
patriotic, slam fight, bright light. Feeling pretty psyched. And it’s the end
of the world…
American War, Omar El Akkad
(novel): Another dystopian view of the future of the world, focused on the
North vs South retelling, set 50-120 years in the future where climate change
and biological warfare destroy the USA as we know it now (written before the
DJT era, yet somehow managed to be very prescient!). Particularly distressing
in light of "current" events in Charlottesville and DJT's view of
climate change. If you don’t wanna be really depressed, then only Recommended.
Side By
Side, Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine, edited by Sami Adwan, Dan
Bar-On, Eyal Naveh, Peace Research Institute of the Middle East (paperback
textbook): The oddest book of the
year hands-down (THB should also put this one in the Something Else category). And, not just because it is a middle and high
school students history textbook of Israel and Palestine post-WWI. Split into side-by-side chapters with titles
such as The Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967 (Israeli) and Israeli Aggression
against Arab and Palestinian Lands: June 1967 War. On the left-hand pages is the Israeli text;
on the right is the Palestinian text. Compelling, revealing, and trying to
reach each student on an emotional level (particularly true for the Palestinian
text), not just straight facts (maybe alt-facts?). Definitely not an e-book
since (at least for THB) you have to read a chapter on one side of the book and
then retreat and read the other, preferably by alternating starting a chapter
with Israeli and Palestinian versions.
Dark Money, The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the
Rise of the Radical Right, Jane Mayer: SCARY! Charles and David
Koch built up an inherited empire to be worth $40B+ (each!) and by 2016
controlled the “donations” of near a billion $$ to impact the elections at all
levels of government. Supposedly, the one guy that didn’t take their money:
Donald Trump. Their dad was one of the early supporters of the John Birch
Society which morphed into the Libertarian Party then the Tea Party wing and
finally basically the Republican Party. Why? Just maybe because they are
big-time energy investors (and polluters) and denial of climate change fueled
the growth of their wealth. Charles took a very long view of how to influence
Americans into becoming the Radical Right and it worked. Helps you know the
players in the new administration (which makes it really scary!).
The Six:
The Lives of the Mitford Sisters, Laurel Thompson: A well-known story told
extremely well. Concise, insightful, modernistic and very much placing this
extraordinary set of siblings in the context of the 1930s through WWII. And,
for you trying to figure out our time (say late 2010s?), this one will resonate
with you probably a bit too strongly.
The Discovery of Slowness, Sten Nadolny (novel, pub’d 2003, extremely well translated
by Ralph Freedman): THB does not normally read translations. This one (a
moderate oldie) was recommended by the NY’er artist/designer Cristoff Neimann
in the first episode of Abstract, The Art of Design (now streaming from
somewhere, recommended by KB and also very good), who couldn’t really remember
the name of the book. Obscure, no? It’s the story of John Franklin, a Brit
naval explorer from the early 1800s who, per the author, took in visual information
in an unusual way and took a long time to process aural input as well, and thus
was very slow to respond. When he did, it was in a long-view, thoughtful way.
Think Type A’s and the slowest Type B you know and respect for providing an alternate point of view. THB has read a lot of these
sea-battle-Admiral-Nelson and find-the-pole-in-deep-winter books and so this
one seemed really familiar. It was all the slow stuff that was new, and much
appreciated. Context is everything: sometimes you feel you’re miles ahead and
sometimes you just want the person you’re with to slow down to your pace and
stop interrupting you all the time.
Another Day in the Death of America, A
Chronicle of Ten Short Lives, Gary
Younge. A black British journalist living in Chicago describes the 10
children and teens killed by gunfire in one 24 hour period on an arbitrarily
picked day in November 2013 (the average then was a bit less than 7 a day, or
2500 or so a year, and doesn’t count suicides, which is also a huge number),
using their individual stories to paint the broader context. Of course, the
answer is “it’s the guns, stupid” since being killed by gunfire is the number 2
killer in this age group behind car accidents and an only-in-America happening
among Western-style democracies. Deeply depressing, illuminating, racial, and
NRA controlled (the only thing Steve Jobs didn’t destabilize with a smart phone
is using the many ways to unlock your phone for guns…another “obvious” way to
prevent thousands of children shooting each other and themselves).
Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir, Joyce Johnson: Another oldie, pub’d in 1983 or so. A coming
of age story that happens to feature Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, and other
famous Beats. Extremely well written, an excellent view of a young woman trying
to make her way in the mid-50s in NY along with insight to the Beats before
they all became famous.
The Color of Lightning, Paulette Jiles (novel): A terrific book, takes place
in the post-Civil War era in Texas and north into Indian territories. The lead
character is a recently freed slave from Kentucky who came west with his family
as they try to get established and subsequently become victims of Indian raids.
THB read this after reading an earlier book by Jiles, News of the World, also
excellent. One minor character in The Color of Lightning, a roving news-reader,
is the primary character in News of the World, and the focus is on the
recapture and re-entry of a young girl taken by Indians.
Hamlet: Globe to Globe; Two
Years, 190,000 Miles, 197 Countries, One Play, Dominic Dromgoole: This book
is a THB dream: the world’s greatest play eruditely explained in clear language
by the artistic director of the Globe Theatre, intermixed with great travel
stories as the small touring group from the Globe perform the play in country after country
(EIGHT passports full of stamps!!!! THB is sooooooooooooooo jealous).
Love and Trouble: A Midlife
Reckoning, Claire
Dederer: A second and far more sexually explicit memoir from the Seattle-based
author of another THB fave, Poser: My
Life in Twenty Three Yoga Poses. A girl that wants to be more like a boy:
lots of sex and skip the acting inferior and being compliant for men. There’s a
before and after marriage line drawn, and a pretty supportive husband.
Recommended
(45): Enjoyed, listed
in no particular order (well, actually mostly in the order read)
Note: The first two books are memoirs
initiated by the same event: the assassination of Malcolm Kerr in Beirut in
January 1984. Malcolm is the father of Steve Kerr, the coach of the 2015 and
2017 NBA champion Golden State Warriors. Malcolm Kerr was very much a student
of the Middle East, and sympathetic to the Arab world.
One Family’s
Response to Terrorism: A Daughter’s Memoir, Susan Kerr Van de Ven: the focus is on the
filing of a civil claim in US Federal court by the family years after the
assassination; the essence is more on Susan’s relationship with her father and
growing up in Beirut, Cairo and Pacific Palisades High School (the closest one to
the one THB attended in LA).
Come With Me
from Lebanon, Ann
Kerr-Adams: This is a broader view of life with Malcolm, starting with Ann’s
early life and then in much more detail from the point at which they met when
Ann was an exchange student at the American University of Beirut. Is destiny
your fate? It was for Malcolm: he left a job he loved, professor at UCLA, for
one he was groomed for from childhood, president of AUB. He knew the job came
with risks: the acting president of AUB had been kidnapped and was being held
when Malcolm accepted the job. It is also a very powerful story of how a woman
modestly sublimated her career for her husband’s career. An excellent primer (even 30 years earlier)
of the political challenges of what befell Lebanon.
Welcome
to the Goddamn Ice Cube, Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White
North, Blair
Braverman: a coming-of-age memoir by a woman in Alaska and the far north of
Norway. A junior year abroad and then later living in a very small town in
rural Norway, working summers in a mush-camp in Alaska, two relationships, and
lots of internal life struggles.
Blood in
the Water, the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, Heather Ann Thompson: A straightforward (mostly
chronological) retelling of the uprising, quelling, and cover-up. There are a
thousand ways to solve every problem. Rockefeller and the prison and legal
systems managed to find the worst possible solution: rampant shooting and
killing of 10 hostages by the men sent in to free them as well as the deaths of
29 unarmed inmates, then hiding what happened from the public and stalling any
judicial or monetary findings for 30+ years (let alone no reforms).
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Joanna Cannon (novel): Set on a non-descript
block in a British housing tract in 1976, a soft version of Lord of The Flies
as the neighbors are isolating and picking on their own, for the wrong reasons
(and lots of shame). Mostly narrated by a 10-year-old girl, fortunately more in
the keeping of a voice of a naïve kid, and not too much narration.
The Queen’s Gambit, Walter Tevis (novel, hardback): a golden oldie
from 1983 by the author of the Hustler (Tevis’ first book), this unusual
coming-of-age story follows a young orphan as she rises quickly through the ranks
of chess to challenge the Russians in Moscow.
Wasp Farm, Howard Ensign Evans (hardback): a short tour
through a small portion of the world of wasps, published in 1964 with most
information gathered in the 1950s, focusing on nesting habits and species
differentiation. THB was impressed with how many other insects wasps kill to
feed their larva.
When in
French, Lauren
Collins: this memoir by a NY’er writer is a meditation on learning a new
language as an adult to communicate more intimately with her French-speaking
spouse in his primary language and the underlying meaning of language on
“native” speakers. Very well written.
Liberty
Street, Dianne
Warren (novel): The main character,
Frances Mary Moon, must be related to Olive Kitteridge (a great book by
Elizabeth Strout and an excellent TV series starring Frances McDormand), with a
focus on her tormented childhood (spoiler alert: she’s not very likable). The
ending is Hollywood-ish, which THB wasn’t really surprised to find as
redemption is often too tempting a solution.
Mischling, Affinity Konar (novel): a story told in
alternating chapters by 12ish year old twins who survive Auschwitz and Josef
Mengele’s maltreatment. Complete with a “happy” ending, it is a humanizing view
of true evil. Read before THB knew twins
were coming into his life.
The Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s
Racial Justice Movement, Wesley Lowery: A Washington Post reporter’s
intimate (and short) version of the last few years of the protests (often
summed up as the Black Lives Matter movement though it is broader than that
group) mixed with memoir-like introspection. Valuable for its on-the-ground
moments and placement in the broader context, THB wished Lowery had included
more of the stats the Post reporting team has been trying to collect about
police shootings of unarmed men and women from police departments across
America. Similar to accurate death certificates, measuring would go a long way
towards identifying where solutions should be focused. Written before the 2016
election results were known; something tells me that DJT has decided to focus
on areas other than police reform and training (“…are you a muslim?).
Tears We Cannot Stop, Michael Eric Tyson (hardback): A sermon on whiteness
and how white people are well short of empathy in understanding the feeling of
being black in America. Thought provoking and a lot to absorb. THB didn’t agree
with everything Tyson put in his sermon, hopefully out of thoughtful review
rather than lack of understanding of the sermon itself.
The Other Side of the World, Stephanie Bishop (novel): A woman abandons
her family after moving from England to Australia with ex-pat bi-racial Indian
husband and two young daughters.
Wherever you go, there you are, early 60s version? Post-partum blues?
Separation anxiety? Too much sun deprivation depression? Beautifully written in
large part, don’t look too deep for explanations.
The Pond, Claire-Louise
Bennett (novel): almost impossible to categorize. Sort of stream of consciousness
except nobody really thinks this way to themselves. Not quite chick-lit though
the entire book is inside the head of a young woman. Fairly existential in that
not much happens and there’s a bit of introspection on what does happen. It is
British current exurban life in that the narrator actually texts, lives in a
cottage and rides a bike to the local market.
Thomas Hardy, Claire Tomalin: THB read and liked the novel Max Gate by Damien Wilkins last year (covering the last few weeks of
Hardy’s long life) and followed it up this year with this straightforward bio
of Hardy by Tomalin (author of a terrific bio of Samuel Pepys). Read both Hardy
books (and the Pepys bio!): start with the Hardy bio and when future wife #2
shows up switch to the novel and finally come back for the last few chapters of
the bio.
Commonwealth, Ann Patchett (novel):
Chick-lit? Two families intertwine in the 80s through divorce, skip-a-few-years
and the kids grow old and the parents become ancient, right up to modern times
(i.e., smart phones). Mostly a happy ending. Some scenes take place in THB’s neck
of LA.
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett (novel): another
oldie, from 2001. Really written for opera fans, the story of captives kept too
long. So long that the captives and the captors start seeing the humanity in
each other. Another “is it chick-lit” book.
Defending the Damned, Inside
Chicago’s Cook County Public Defender’s Office, Kevin Davis: Another oldie,
covering the late 1990s and early 2000s, giving you the reader an intimate view
of the worst of the worst: defending the ugliest murders Chi-town has to offer,
and cop murder case in great detail. Well written and great insights on why
these clients deserve strong representation.
News of the World, Paulette Jiles (novel):
Short, brisk, moving, it’s a “love”
story of an old man (older than THB) and a 10 year-old girl he’s agreed to
deliver to her relatives after she was ransomed from Kiowa Indians after four
years in captivity. Takes place over several months as they travel towards San
Antonio in the mostly lawless 1870s Texas.
Transit, Rachel Cusk (novel): Another
set of interlinking stories in a version of My Dinner With Andre. Cusk writes
extremely well and most of the stories are fascinating.
The Rules Do Not Apply, Ariel Levy, NY’er writer, has produced a
well-written, short memoir that mostly focuses on her 20s and 30s. She is a
gay, single child with eccentric Jewish parents, married to an alcoholic, and
suffers a miscarriage in her late 30s, when the story ends.
The Arm, Jeff Passan (paperback): For
you baseball fans, this book is a good read; for everyone else: don’t bother.
The epidemic in baseball (it’s no longer ‘roids) is now how many players of all
ages are now having Tommy John surgery (replacing the shredded ligament in the
elbow with a tendon). The big sports comparison: baseball is to arms as
football is to heads; momma, which one would you rather have your son play.
Enigma Variations, Andre Aciman (novel): the narrator’s five different life stages
(i.e., chapters) focused on the regret, remorse, and intensity of falling in
love, are witty, fast paced even when just stream of consciousness inside the
narrator’s head. Four of the five are fabulous, one just so-so.
With The Old Breed, E. B. Sledge:
The last bit of the WWII invasion of Japan as told by a Marine who fought
through two harrowing island invasions. Originally published in 1981 and then
subsequently annotated later. Harrowing and numbing, Sledge was one of the few
to escape physically uninjured; everyone who participated had to be mentally
damaged.
A Separation: Katie Kitamura (novel): Not
quite a murder mystery, not quite the story of a marriage, maybe more a story
of a stranger comes to town (in this case a small Greek island). Told in the
flat style of A Little Life, leaving THB the space to add in his own story.
Conundrum, Jan Morris: A bright shining
memoir: born Jim and always believing he was a female (in a male body), Jan
transitioned in her late-30s, and because two women could not be married at
that time, divorced her wife only to remarry her in 2008 after England allowed
same-sex civil partnerships. Short and very heartwarming as well as full of
good feelings.
Rules of Civility, Amor Towles (novel): pub’d in
2011 and getting a lot of retro press because Towles’ latest, A Gentleman in
Moscow, is all the rage (and THB couldn’t finish; obviously THB read Rules of
Civility first). Rules is best when being moved along by the action, taking
place in Manhattan in 1938, focused on two young female roommates who meet-cute
a well-heeled young banker…sparks fly. Witty, urbane, decent plot twists, and
of course lots of money and drink, and some culture, thrown in the mix.
The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas (novel, Young
Adult category): narrated by a 16-year-old girl, the story kicks off when she
is the lone passenger and the sole witness as her friend is shot and killed by
a police officer after the officer pulls them over for driving while black. Lots of teen angst, inter-racial dating, going
to a barely integrated upper class white private high school while still living
in the ‘hood and working at the family store, drugs, blended families, and much
more. Hard to believe anyone reading THB’s book list has any life experience
with much that goes on in this one!
The Twelve Lives of Samuel
Hawley, Hanna
Tinti (novel): THB thinks this is a another YA coming-of-age book, even though
the reviews were more of an adult story of a girl growing up with a single “independent
thug for hire” parent. THB almost put this in the Neutral category, and then
decided to list it next to another YA novel, also full of violence.
Exit West, Mohsen Hamid (novel): Another
dystopian style novel, this one is short with a happy ending (i.e., not too
apocalyptic). This is the third book of Hamid’s THB has read and enjoyed.
The Songs We Know Best, John
Ashbery’s Early Life, Karin Roffman (hardback): The first of several volumes (the
rest to come) on THB’s fave poet (yes, THB reads poetry and Ashbery is numero
uno), up through age 28. Ashbery’s spent his early life mostly on deep artistic
endeavors and he did everything he could to avoid farm chores (his father ran a
fruit farm in update New York) and, after graduating from Harvard, everything
he could to avoid doing any type of paid work. This is an intimate look at the
coming of age of a gay man, and in the mid-1950s the intersection of young
artists trying to make it in NY while living on the edge of poverty.
The Happiness Hypothesis,
Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, Jonathan Haidt (paperback, pub’d in 2007):
First 2/3 is excellent, last 1/3 (morality and religion) not so great. A good
synthesis of “ancient” views, modern science of the brain and behavior theory.
Wanna be happy? Understand what makes each of us tick (the “unconscious”
elephant) and then consciously work on your strengths (conscious “rider”), look
for the good in everyone, feel like a contributing part of a larger group goal,
or just accept your fate and don’t fight it because most of what makes you
happy comes from your genetic makeup.
Anything is Possible, Elizabeth Strout (novel):
more interlinked stories by the author of Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy
Barton – these stories interlink with Lucy Barton. Short studies of mostly very
damaged and unhappy folks living out in the middle of mostly rural farmland.
The Last Life, Claire Messud (novel,
paperback, pub’d in ‘99): THB found this one from reviews of Messud’s latest
book (not well received). A dense coming of age story for a teenage girl,
half-American, half-Algerian, with some overlap with a new movie release, Lady
Bird. Well written, and introspective (the story is narrated by the teenager 10
years after the events) in an authentic voice.
The Crossing, Andrew Miller (novel): short
and compelling, a young British woman on the Asperger’s scale becomes a mother
who works while her partner (they aren’t married) takes care of their daughter.
Tragedy befalls and Maud ends up sailing solo across the Atlantic to find a
small tribe of children and herself.
Ice, Anna Kavan (novel, pub’d in
1967): Dystopian to an extreme (entire world covered in thick sheaf of ice and
one man’s obsession with a young albino woman. It can’t happen here?
Faster,
Higher, Farther: The Volkswagen Scandal, Jack Ewing: Big companies make decisions that
affect the entire planet and VW decided years ago it was okay to cheat on
pollution regulations. They got caught by a small-time educational study at
West Virginia University. Too bad the US can’t extradite and prosecute the VW
management team responsible, there isn’t an extradition treaty with Germany
(they did catch one guy who stupidly decided to check on rental properties he
owns in Florida).
The Fierce
Kingdom, Gin Phillips
(novel): Too short/fast a read to be in the Highly Recommended category, a
captivating look at the terror of being caught up in a Columbine-like event.
All choices are bad ones. So, in a sense, this book has a Hollywood ending
except even the survivors are seriously damaged.
The Sacred
Willow, Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family, Duong Van Mai Elliott (used paperback,
pub’d in 1999). A family bio by Mai Elliott reveals how the turmoil of 100
years of occupation in Viet Nam separated the lives of a large upper class
family who took pride in education and community service. Better than the Rand
book (below), Elliott’s Rand involvement is covered in less than a page.
Perenials, Mandy Berman (novel): Chick-lit,
multiple coming of age stories, spanning two separate years, 2000 and 2006,
mostly taking place at a summer-long girls’ camp. Like Cat Power (if you
haven’t read the rage of 2017 NY’er short story, you should find it or forever
have missed a “cultural moment”), told through the voice of girls and women.
And every topic is covered including the shooting of a horse (hmmmm…now there
was another cultural moment from long ago).
An English
Governess in the Great War, The Secret Brussels Diary of Mary Thorp, lightly edited and notated by Sophie De Schaepdrijver and Tammy M.
Proctor: Not for everyone, three plus years of a WWI diary and the continual
strangling of Belgium, specifically Brussels, by the German occupiers. Makes a
great companion read to one of the all-time greats, Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain.
The Siege of
Krishnapur, J.G. Farrell
(novel, used paperback): Pub’d in 1973, this book got better and better and
better the longer the siege of a British settlement in India in the 1850s went
on and on and on. Elements of farce (British humor?) did not impede THB’s
enjoyment as the siege continued.
A Year
(1599) in the Life of William Shakespeare, James Shapiro (used hardback; pub’d in 2005):
The companion volume to Highly
Recommended Hamlet:
Globe to Globe; Two Years, 190,000 Miles, 197 Countries, One Play, it is more
the history of England over 1.5 years and informs how Hamlet came to be (first
performed in 1600). The discussions of the plays isn’t as strong as the
history!
Jesus’ Son,
Stories Denis
Johnson (short stories pub’d in ’92; Denis died 5/24/17): takes less than two
hours, each of the 11 stories features a nameless (the same guy?) narrator
carousing around in low-lifeness. Good, hard
to highly recommend given brevity.
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| Aerial view of large algal outbreak at Lake Erie: this pic was taken in 2017, after the pub of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes |
The Death
and Life of the Great Lakes, Dan Egan: A brief amount of ancient history and then a lot about
how man did not sit quietly in the room when it came to altering the life of
and in the lakes (which make up a huge percentage of the world’s fresh water).
Some of the changes were intentional, and many of the ways to keep the lakes
functional as a source of clean water and food are ignored.
Neutral (29):
Something of
value, not enough to actively encourage reading (or listening)
The Sellout,
Paul Beatty
(novel, paperback): THB had to wade through the early pages to get to the good
stuff. If you can stick with it, there are some great reverse-racial moments to
enjoy in a mythical downtown LA enclave called Dickens.
The Senility
of Vladimir P, Michael
Honig (novel): THB couldn’t pass this one up; Trump’s key supporter has got
dementia (set in the near future) and the story is told by through the saint of
a nurse that tends to him. Fast read and very corroborating: everybody in
Russia is totally corrupt or has nothing.
The Pursuit
of Love, Nancy
Mitford (novel): The book that made Nancy famous and independent. If you read The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters (a Top Pick), then THB recommends you give
this one a go as sort of a companion, it’s a mashup of different sisters and
the parental units, and it’s not near as
good as reality!
Arthur
and Sherlock, Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes, Michael Sims: THB loved to
read Doyle’s stories in his teens, not just the ones featuring Sherlock. This
book is an easy to read recap of the early life of Arthur Conan Doyle, which
takes the reader right up to the early success of the Sherlock stories when
Doyle was in his early 30s.
Nutshell,
Ian
McEwan (novel): another cute try of re-inventing Hamlet through the viewpoint
of Gertrude and Claudius, set in modern times and told through Hamlet in utero.
Much better: John Updike’s version, Gertrude and Claudius.
The
Expendable Man, Dorothy
S. Hughes (novel): Pub’d in 1963, a noir-ish old-style story of a 20 something
man being framed for murder, complicated
by his race (black) and that of the victim (16 year old white woman). Well presented … or, in this day and age, can
a white female author well represent a black man’s thoughts when it comes to
how he feels? THB thinks so…
The
Gloaming, Melanie Finn
(novel): another (well-told) story of “Africans believe in magic” combined with
non-Africans running away from tragedies.
Girls &
Sex, Navigating the Complicated New Landscape, Peggy Orenstein: Yep, THB read
this book and, while it isn’t a “great” read, it is an important one for all
ages and all sexes. Maybe a gift for young teens and their parents! And, some
good insights for us older types who don’t know squat about hooking up (e.g.,
pretty much 100% of males and females have taken some mind-altering substance,
usually alcohol, before hooking up).
The Radetzky
March, Joseph Roth
(novel): an oldie (pub’d 1932), translated, main character in the army and
overtaken by alcohol with not much to do. Takes place in the years just before
WWI in the Austrian empire near the border with Russia. Melancholic, static,
and just before everything changed.
Black Water,
Louise
Doughty (novel): set mostly in Jakarta and Bali covering two timeframes - mid
60s and mid 90s – illustrating turbulent Indonesia times through the main
character, a Dutch mercenary (who doesn’t carry a gun, more a spy type). The
third and fourth timeframes – John as a kid in LA and later as an adult living
in Amsterdam – are not all that interesting.
Just Mercy:
A Story of Justice and Redemption, Bryan Stevenson: An important book by an impressive guy on the
recent history of fighting racial injustice in the legal system with a focus on
the inequity of the administration of the death penalty. Not comprehensive, nor
a personal memoir, yet very powerful in the ongoing deceit of justice for all.
The Story of
a Brief Marriage, Anuk
Arudpragasam (novel): One day in a refugee camp under attack, told through the
mind of a teenager struggling to survive and make sense of his current
situation.
No One Cares
About Crazy People, Ron Powers:
journalist, TV presence, and father of two schizophrenic sons, covers the
history of schizophrenia and the current state of mental health support in the
US. There’s hope that modern biological science will discover the cause and
genetic cures while at the same time it appears that a combination of the
talking therapy, medication, and developing social and work skills while being
re-integrated into communities works. Right now: prisons are the number one (by
far) mental institution “caring” for the mentally ill and the military is the
number one generator of mentally ill patients (and suicides).
The Dry, Jane Harper (novel): small
farming town life with echoing deaths 20 years apart among four teen friends.
The Lost
City of Z, A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, David Grann: Maybe “High Neutral”
or “Low Recommended” and the basis for a movie coming out. Typical early 20th
C explorer bravado, “Colonel” Fawcett spends many years exploring the Amazon
and eventually takes his son with him in 1920s and they never re-appear.
The
Invention of Nature, Alexander Humboldt’s New World, Andrea Wulf: A terrific ½ book,
the part that focuses on Humboldt’s life. The other half is filler. Humboldt
was mostly an autodidact who in the early 1820s created the concept of the
naturalist as scientist, melding his observations and findings into large
integrated environmental views of life.
And, for such an avid learner, a guy that mastered half the art of
conversation (i.e., the talking half).
The
Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret
Atwood (novel): A 1985 dystopian view of what will happen to women if the
religious right takes over…not looking to far-fetched anymore! The basis of the
Hulu series, a very good adaptation.
Caught in
the Revolution: Petrograd, Russia, 1917 – a World on the Edge, Helen Rappaport: The year of
revolution and overthrow of the tsar as mostly told through the remembrances of
British and American embassy officials (and on African-American “valet” to the
ambassador). It has been a 100 years, seems like just yesterday for us
Putin-ites when it comes to replacing the tsar with a tsar-like system.
Locking Up
Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America, James Forman, Jr: the most recent
45 years of how Black America became part of the driving force behind the major
movements behind law enforcement of their own communities. More focused on
broad based changes in DC, national and northern cities (so not the South)
mixed with anecdotal and personal experiences by an ex-public defender.
Somewhere between neutral and recommended.
My Darling
Detective, Howard
Norman (novel): Recently published, written in an old noir-ish style, takes
place in late 1970s (so, seems not quite of its time) with flashbacks to end of
WWII (also not quite accurate). Better: read Bird Artist from 1995, Norman’s
finest!
Autumn, Ali Smith (novel): short, jazzy,
partly based on a real-life (and unrecognized in her own time) British pop
artist, Pauline Boty, tells the platonic love story of neighbors 70 years apart
in age in post-Brexit vote England. Supposedly the first of a quartet of books
with the seasons as titles.
Fat City, Leonard Gardner (paperback, novel,
pub’d in 1969): Too short to get a “recommended” rating, more a novella that
takes place in Stockton and follows two fighters, one of the decline and a
drunk and the other a 20 year old with a hint of ambition. Sharp, short
sentences (it is jarring when a three syllable word is encountered) and
insightful.
You Sat to
Brick, The Life of Louis Kahn, Wendy Lesser: it’s hard to make a building come alive with just
words and sadly the kindle is not picture friendly. Kahn is known for a) 3 to 5
really top-notch buildings and his eccentric teaching and office management,
and b) having openly juggled a wife and three mistresses (a kid each with the
wife and two of the mistresses). The youngest, Nathan, with mistress number 3,
made an excellent documentary of his father. The three kids knew of each other
and became close as they became teenagers and young adults, spurred on by the
daughter of mistress number 1.
The Holy or
the Broken; Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of
“Hallelujah”, Alan Night (used
paperback, pub’d in 2012): Yep, an entire book about one song, mostly how it
became so imbedded in world-wide culture, long after Leonard included it on an
album the record company rejected. The keys: an unlimited number of verses (you
pick ‘em, Leonard doesn’t care), the emotion tied to the religious aspect of
the word hallelujah, and the fact that most people don’t really understand the
words anyway.
Eve’s
Hollywood, Eve Babitz:
a memoir, pub’d in 1972. Though published earlier, sort of the sequel of Minor Characters: A Beat
Memoir. Eve is (to THB) most famous for being the naked
woman in a photograph playing chess with Marcel Duchamp. If you grew up in LA
or Hollywood in the 50s and 60s, and want to relive middle school and high
school then upgrade this book to Recommended.
Priestdaddy,
Patricia
Lockwood: A memoir of the poet’s unusual family, headed by her father, a priest
with five children. Very entertaining
during the first half of the book, a slog as the stories become redundant and
she catches up to her current life, living at the refectory with her parents
and husband of 10 years.
RAND in
Southeast Asia, A History of the Vietnam Era, Mai Elliott: RAND, a nonprofit
institution that produces research and studies for policy and decision makers,
commissioned this work by an ex-employee in Viet Nam, Mai Elliott, to review
the expansion of the war by the US through the prism of work performed by RAND
for the government, primarily the Air Force. She and her husband, David
Elliott, were active in Viet Nam in the mid-60s and oh these many years later
are executive advisors to Ken Burns. If, like THB, you are not a big fan of
Burns’ work, then this is a decent substitute (and takes about the same amount
of time to get through) for remembering how it all went down then.
Ill Will, Dan Chaon (novel): Truism: all
families are dysfunctional in their own way…and this family is really
dysfunctional! Two multi-murder plots intertwine, a gun introduced in act 2
goes off in act 5, there is a set of twin girls, the parallax view plot is in
play, lots of drugs, mom dies an early death of cancer, and the editors forgot
to take out about 75 pages.
The Blood of
Emmett Till, Timothy B.
Tyson: it’s the 1950s and the South is so resistant to equality that it is just
fine for white supremacists to murder a 14 year old for an alleged indiscretion
with a white female shopkeeper. Very depressing. Oh, and even more depressing,
the entire region was one large organized white resistance movement after Brown
v. Board of Education. Has anything changed? Will it ever change?
In the
Something Else category (7):
Shit Town (aka
S-Town), season 3 of
Serial, reported by Brian Reed in a 7-episode pod cast: What starts out as a
local’s indictment of his small town in Alabama turns in to a character study
of the man who first caught Reed’s attention by alluding to a potentially
covered up murder. Highly Recommended (as
is season 1 of Serial)
I Love Dick,
a seven
episode series (half-hour each) on Amazon streaming service based on the novel
by Chris Kraus, created by Jill Soloway, the creator of Transparent. For you
art lovers, lots of scenes of Marfa TX and homage to Donald Judd (Dick is
supposedly a current version of Judd; you should have no trouble recognizing
the Flavin work). Oh, and for you soft-porn lovers, lots of sex scenes, and
plenty of focus on the trauma of being female. Highly Recommended
The
Handmaid’s Tale, a ten
episode Hulu series (with more to come?) illuminating a future in the northeast
US after the religious right takes over and there’s a huge drop off in the
birthrate. Recommended and Elisabeth
Moss (of Mad Men) is terrific as always. Getting more real all the time,
especially if Mike Pence becomes president.
Jeff
Buckley’s Hallelujah: the definitive version of the Leonard Cohen song
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4
Shakespeare
In Love: the
companion movie version to A Year (1599)
in the Life of William Shakespeare and Hamlet:
Globe to Globe; Two Years, 190,000 Miles, 197 Countries, One Play. Don’t watch if you’re
boycotting Harvey Weinstein.
A
Memoir, MQ
(THB’s bridge partner): A snappy telling of life as an attorney, spanning 40
years, based in San Francisco. A variety of cases, partners, and clients keep
the action moving. Father of M. Quint, she has also appeared on a THB annual
book list.
Fantasy Life,
Baseball and the American Dream, Photographs by Tabitha Soren (coffee table
size): A photo-essay of 10 of the Oakland A’s 2002 draft picks (including
Lauren’s birth-date twin Joe Blanton), with brief summaries of their careers
and a bit of Dave Eggers thrown in. For an A’s fan, some nice memories and some
great pictures.
Not
Recommended (and high likely not finished – 21):
The Madhouse
Effect, How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our
Politics, and Driving us Crazy, Michael Mann (text) and Tom Toles (cartoons), hardback: You’ve
read this all before, not much new from a scientist that took a beating from
the deniers lobby.
Still Here, Lara Vapnyar (novel): Russian
immigrants trying to make a go of it in New York.
Imagine Me
Gone, Adam Haslett
(novel): Told from point of view of five family members: two parents and three
children. Four are worth reading, unfortunately the pov of the eldest child is
not.
At the
Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails, Sarah Bakewell: Words, lots and
lots of words. Better was the biographical information on the existentialists.
Maybe THB should’ve been drinking those cocktails?
Surrender
New York, Caleb Carr
(novel): a very long, unrealistic forensic psychologist procedural. THB gave up
around 40% of the way through.
Problems, Jade Sharma (novel): How does THB
keep buying these stream of consciousness drug-addled sex rants? It is a
Problem all right.
Six Four, Hideo Yokoyama (novel,
translated): a bizarre police bureaucracy procedural. While there is a 14 year
old crime, the entire focus of the first 20% of the book (where THB stopped) is
on how screwed up the Japanese are in the running of their national police
department. Thank goodness THB retired from corporate life.
Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari: First two
portions (Cognitive and Agriculture Revolutions) interesting, then THB gave up
(not brief enough?).
I Love Dick,
Chris Kraus
(novel): how did Jill Soloway make a great 7 episode TV series out of this pile
of crap? Jill had the good sense to move the show to Marfa and to change the
focus of the obsession to a Judd-like character.
Idaho, Emily Ruskovich (novel): THB stuck
it out for a long time and finally the picking, prodding and going nowhere with
no more illumination of the original crime wore him down.
The Honeymoon, Dinitia Smith (novel): Based on the life of George
Eliot (pen name of Marian Evans), the book starts off as Eliot, in her 60s, is
on her honeymoon in Venice with her much younger husband (who it is clear she
doesn’t know very well), returns to Eliot’s life history and finally bogs down
about half way through as it becomes more “greatest hits” (Middlemarch, Adam
Bede) and meeting famous people. More a Wikipedia entry than novel. Not enough
novel, not finished.
The Animators, Kayla Rae Whitaker (novel): Another bad choice by THB where
the main character is supremely talented, mostly drunk and drugged and without
nuance, the discussion of the art (animated films) is puffed up art-speak, and
the caricatures of real people (e.g., Terry Gross) are ridiculous distractions.
Partly placed in NY such that maybe it appeals to Brooklyn hipsters?
How
to be both, Ali Smith
(novel, used hardback): THB is shocked, this is two unreadable books stuck
together (apparently some editions put one first, some the other) and it is
totally unintelligible no matter which one you read first. A Man Booker Prize
Finalist with lots of great review blurbs. Yes, it was in English, not some
foreign language. THB liked the other book by Smith he read this year.
The
Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Wayne Johnston (used hardback, novel): THB thinks
you really must want to know more about Newfoundland to wade through this
puppy.
A
Gentleman of Moscow, Amor
Towles (novel): THB could not get past the feeling he was reading a story about
Eloise at the Plaza that morphed into the Chronicles of Narnia (the first 25% of the book, over 100 pages). Silly, on topics THB has read a lot about: the
Bolshevik revolution and Russia in the 20th century. Another case of
THB being out of step with popular fiction?
The
Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, Siddhartha Mukherjee:
More like the history of medical science, which felt like a high school primer
of famous scientists and old empires. Not enough cancer for THB.
The
Barrowfields, Phillip
Lewis (novel): Another dysfunctional family, told as the coming-of-age story of
a boy raised by a father probably somewhere on the bipolar scale in rural North
Carolina. Too morose (what teenage boy isn’t?), too much beer, no thoughts for
those around him that turn into action.
One
of the Boys, Daniel
Magariel (novel): more a novella, and child abuse of his two sons by a drug
addicted father.
Miss Burma, Charmaine Craig (novel):
Historical saga, too preachy and unrealistic
The Gulf:
The Making of an American Sea, Jack E Davis: way too much history that has nothing to do with the
Gulf and a lot to do with what THB learned in 7th grade history
class. THB never made it anywhere near the recent eco-disasters in and around
the Gulf.
Mikhail and
Margarita, Julie
Lekstrom Himes (novel): one of 100s of stories about the Stalin era, many of
them just like this one: shallow, repetitive and thus uninteresting.
Total Books: 107
The sort:
-
12 Top
Picks: 8 non-fiction, 4 fiction; 5 male, 8 female* authors
- 45 Recommended:
21 non-fiction, 24 fiction; 16 male, 29 female authors (counting Jan Morris as female)
-
29 Neutral: 14
non-fiction, 15 fiction; 16 male, 13 female authors
-
0 Something
Else books: no books in the something
else category
-
21 Not
Recommended: 5 non-fiction, 16 fiction; 10 male, 11 female authors
-
48
non-fiction, 59 novels (107); 47 male, 61 female (108*)
(*one book by both women and men)
|
|
Total
books
|
Non-Fiction/
Fiction
|
Top
Picks
|
Recommend
|
Neutral
|
Something
Else
|
Not
Recommendd
|
|
2017
|
107
|
48/59
|
12
Total
8/4
|
45 Total
21/24
|
29 Total
14/15
|
0 (no books)
|
21 Total
5/16
|
|
2016
|
100
|
50/50
|
14
Total
13/1
|
42 Total
23/19
|
19 Total
13/7
|
4 Total (+5)
2/2
|
20 Total
4/16
|
|
2015
|
84
|
47/37
|
14
Total
8/6
|
36 Total
22/14
|
11 Total
5/6
|
4 Total
3/1
|
19 Total
9/10
|
|
2014
|
95
|
48/46
|
8 (+2) Total
4/4
|
36 Total 22/14
|
29 Total 12/17
|
2 Total
2/0
|
18 Total
6/11
|
|
2013
|
91
|
46/45
|
12 Total
5.5/6.5
|
42 Total 24/18
|
21 Total 12/9
|
3 Total 1.5/1.5
|
13 Total
3/10
|
|
2012
|
77
|
36/41
|
8 Total
4/4
|
26 Total
9/17
|
29 Total 19/15
|
3 Total
all N-F
|
11 Total
6/5
|
|
2011
|
53
|
22/31
|
10 Total
4/6
|
25 Total
13/12
|
11 Total
5/6
|
-
|
7 Total
All Fiction
|
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