2017 Book List

Jackie's latest e-release: buy it now, donate a nickel to my bro!

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)

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.

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 20^th 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 20^th 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 7^th 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