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| In memoriam: WH, a faithful follower with lots of good reading tips |
2018 Book List
Note: Kindle version unless otherwise
noted. Non-fiction unless (novel) is appended.
Department
of Clarification: nothing to
report
Department
of Analysis: By number of books read, basically an average year; more female than male authors.
Department of Warnings: THB enjoyed a lot of the Reco'd books and resisted moving too many of them up into the Top Picks list otherwise what the hell is a Top Picks list if too many books are on that list.
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| Blue tastes better than yellow? |
Top Picks (15) pretty much in order of highest reco to lowest
Sweetbitter,
Stephanie
Danler (novel, pub’d 2016): seemed like a prototypical coming of age story –
new girl (22) comes to the big city and gets her eyes opened about life, sex,
alcohol, drugs, commitments, set in an interesting work place, a very upscale
New York restaurant. As THB was finishing (rushing to finish) the thought
flashed that this was as good a book as The Magus by John Fowles, a mind-fuck
that requires reading twice (as THB did with The Magus many years ago).
Notes on a
Foreign Country, An American Abroad in a Post-American World, Suzy Hansen: Sometimes you have
to get away to see how others perceive your country, and Suzy spent 10 years in
Turkey (with visits to Afghanistan and Mississippi) listening intently. It
turns out the rest of the world sees America as an empire, throwing its weight
around all over the globe (and not in a good way). This book is challenging,
and THB now looks at the news in a different light (and not as fake news),
seeing how our news allows us to think we’re just good guys trying to help out
everywhere we can. That’s not how others outside America see us, not by a long
shot…not even close.
Asymmetry, Lisa Halliday (novel…debatably!):
three really well written novellas, with #2 having nothing to do with #1 and #3.
#1: A roman a clef of an early February/late December romance told refreshingly
mostly from the woman’s POV (well, the author is a woman as is the narrator; Mr
December is Phillip Roth, died May 2018) and, as THB is gaining quickly on 70,
THB thinks this must be pure Narnian fantasy (i.e., there must be a 25 year-old
hottie hiding in the back of the closet who falls for Mr December). #2: A
coming of age story of a young Iraqi man bridging the before and after of 9/11
and the Bush number 2 invasion as told mostly from the POV of the Iraqis.
Resonates a lot when read with another of THB’s top books, Notes on A Foreign Country or Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist. #3: back to Mr December and a
glorious send-up / interview on Desert Island Discs. DID does exist; Phillip
Roth did not do an interview. If you have not listened to a few of the interviews
via podcasts (or live), THB highly recommends you do so before reading
Asymmetry.
The Heart is
a Shifting Sea, Love and Marriage in Mumbai, Elizabeth Flock: A keen insight into life
(and love and marriage) in India, following 2 Hindu and 1 Muslim couples as
they navigate tradition (family and religious) in a rapidly changing culture.
THB thinks India is unfathomable and this book helps explain why an outsider
has no clue as to what life is really like in India.
The Friend, Sigrid Nunez (novel): Actually, a
real insight into what older writers think of the mass of current student
writers (not much), an inquiry into suicide among authors, and some nice things
to say about the love of a dog. THB is convinced that most modern novels are
either set in early 90s or about older people so that the author can stay away
from all the new communication media (which doesn’t leave much room for
face-to-face conversations or deep thinking…all texting and tweeting and poorly
worded e-mails).
Pure, Andrew Miller (novel, paperback,
pub’d 2011): Are there really only two plots: A man goes on a journey and a
stranger comes to town? In the late 1700s, Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young,
inexperienced engineer comes to Paris and is placed in charge of emptying out
an overflowing cemetery and deconstructing the now unused attached church in
the very middle of town. One year later, he has succeeded, gained much
experience, and Miller has entertained THB mightily.
Gertrude
Bell, Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations, Georgina Howell (pub’d 2006,
paperback): Reco’d by CYS, makes a great companion to another of THB’s all-time
faves, A Peace to End All Peace by
David Fromkin. In fact, THB realized that the two books share a very similar cover
photo (both are from Gertrude’s archives) that includes two other giants:
Winston Churchill and TE Lawrence.
Bell packed an awful lot into 58 years: brilliant, full of energy,
archeologist, mountaineer, linguist, adventurist, in-depth knowledge of Middle
East, intimately involved in the creation of the modern Iraq and a very close
advisor to King Faisal (elected first leader of Iraq). Also, a virgin, a heavy
smoker, with a devoted father and step-mother, and almost always the only woman
in the room.
Pachinko, Min Jin Lee (novel): THB compared
this book to Little Life and DB summed it up in two words: compellingly
depressing. So true! A number of generations of a Korean family that ends up in
Japan and their lives as second-class non-citizens.
The Line
Becomes a River, Dispatches from the Border, Francisco Cantu (hardback): fits right in the
compellingly depressing category. The first 2/3 is Cantu’s life and career path
as an agent in the Border Patrol, the last 1/3 is just one story of an illegal
immigrant’s tragic trajectory that overlaps with Cantu’s kindness and internal
struggles to change his own path.
Ghosts of
the Tsunami, Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone, Richard Lloyd Parry: An intimate
view of the 2011 tsunami (that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power plant),
with focus on the one elementary school where most of the children were killed,
their families, and the after-effects on the small surrounding communities.
Another “how to understand Japan” book written by someone who has lived there
for 20+ years. Also consider Parry’s chilling People Who Eat Darkness, a true story of the death of a foreign
(i.e., not Japanese) bar girl.
Furnishing Eternity, A Father, a Son, a Coffin
and a Measure of Life, David Giffels. A memoir of
Giffels’ family and his best friend who dies within the 5 years that most of
this story occupies. The author is a professor at the University of Akron, a
life-long resident of Akron as is his father. Giffels is a former journalist
for the local paper, and an aficionado of new bands (now old bands), and
enthralled with collecting “junk” (including his old 20 room house) with the
idea that everything can be turned into something special. Good news: his dad
is a retired civil engineer with a knack for fine woodworking skills among
other talents. Poignant for most
of us in the “older” age bracket.
Self-Portrait
With Boy, Rachel Lyon (novel):
Another coming-of-age book except the narrator is looking back on her 26 year
old self, which is kinda old for gaining self-insights. A starving, overworked
photographer takes the picture that will make her career and struggles with art
world choices versus making sacrifices for those she is close to, with “close”
meaning those she should be more sympathetic of (you know, like with her going-blind
father, her beleaguered employers, and her sorta new friends).
Kudos, Rachel Cusk
(novel): the last of an extremely intelligent trilogy, making THB think hard in
the seemingly simple act of telling stories where the main character mostly
listens to the emotionally intense stories told by others. The image Cusk
creates at the ending of Kudos is
priceless. Read Outline and Transit also (they’re all short).
Educated: A Memoir, Tara Westover: You think your family is dysfunctional?
Westover was nearly killed a number of times when her father had her doing work
that was ultra-dangerous, a psychopathic woman-hating physically abusive older
brother, a mother totally cow-towed by dad and bro, no schooling until she passed tests to get into college (yep,
college!) and yet overcame all of this to graduate from BYU, get scholarships to
Cambridge and Harvard and earn a PhD in history. Needless to say, she was
eventually disowned by dad and mom and half her family. Amazingly, half her
family is still in contact and appreciates her.
Patriot Number One, American Dreams in Chinatown,
Lauren Hilgers: A current story of a young
Chinese activist and his wife who jump ship in Vegas, make it to Flushing, NY,
and seek asylum. The story is told simply and in a straightforward manner, and
Hilgers had pretty much unlimited access to the couple as they attempt to
bridge two societies in the midst of the shift in American attitudes towards
immigration.
Recommended (34): Enjoyed, listed in no particular order (well, actually mostly in the
order read)
A Good
Country, Laleh
Khadivi (novel): A coming of age story about an American teenager of Iranian
descent who ends up fighting for ISIS. Can it really happen to an Orange County
surfing stoner pre-chem major headed to UC Berkeley?
Code
Girls, the Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of WW II, Liza Mundy: WWII as told from
a unique point of view, that as seen by (mostly women) cryptologists helping
break the codes of the Germans and Japanese. Especially since the code breakers
were sworn to secrecy for years.
The
Odyssey by Homer, translated
by Emily Wilson (half non-fiction – Wilson’s explanation of the process - and
half fiction): Wilson extensively describes the art and practice of translating
this (ancient) classic (the non-fiction part, 100+ pages). THB then took more
hours to read a story of a man possessed by his desire (and the goddess Athena)
to return home. The Odyssey was plenty easy to read, flowed like the currents
in the wine-dark seas and was as light to touch as the rosy fingers of the dawn
bringing the light of day.
An
Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic, Daniel Mendelsohn: A re-telling of Jay
Mendelsohn’s life by his son, interspersed with a college course on the The
Odyssey taught by Daniel and attended by Jay in his early 80s. If you read the
new translation and this memoir, upgrade both to Highly Recommended, they are a powerhouse when read together (you
could almost alternate chapters of each). Daniel also wrote another THB fave: The Lost, which focused on his mother’s
father and the holocaust.
Little
Soldiers, An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve, Lenora Chu: A bi-lingual
Chinese American journalist/writer moves with her husband to Shanghai and
experiences firsthand what pre-K and kindergarten is like in China (for the
kids and parents). A fascinating comparison exists between her growing up in
Houston with Chinese immigrant parents and her raising a child in a much
different educational environment (she and her Minnesota born husband are
bi-lingual). The second half of the book mixes in a bit too much sociological
sound bites along with current educational trends.
Thanks,
Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years, David Litt:
A jokey and slightly repetitive-in-form version from inside the first 7
years of the Obama administration. THB can hardly wait for the compare and
contrast version of the DJT years. Advice to Litt: kill the epilogue.
The
Idiot, Elif
Batuman (novel): a very smart book, takes place in the early 1990s over a 12
month period. A 19 year old first year Harvard girl (she’s not a woman yet) of
Turkish heritage falls for a Hungarian senior math whiz. Lots of linguistic
asides and an intellectual coming-of-age story (emotions are evaluated with the
mind more than the heart, and no sex). The “swooning” and chasing of the math
whiz bogs down a bit as the first year of college winds down, then picks up
again.
The
Beautiful and the Damned, A Portrait of the New India, Siddhartha Deb (paperback,
pub’d 2011): A long intro and five case studies (with an individual as the
jumping off point) into India around the late aughts. More stories of immense
poverty, corruption, discrimination, vast migrations to urban areas, and more
explanations of how an outsider can never know the true India.
Reading
with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student and a Life-Changing Friendship, Michelle Kuo: Can a teacher
change a student’s life? Can one person change another? Kuo dedicates a major
chunk of her post-collegiate life in her 20s to a group of students in a
disadvantaged area of rural Arkansas, then continues to support one student
who, after dropping out of high school, kills a drunken man on the porch of his
family’s home and is eventually convicted of manslaughter. Of course, it is
hard to change others without changing yourself.
Mrs.
Bridges, Evan
Connell (novel, paperback, originally pub’d 1959): an oddity, an existential
Beverly Cleary book, the life of India Bridges told in many short easy-to-read
chapters. Simple prose, not much going on other than a series of snapshots of
India’s life between the ages of 31 to around mid 50s in the 20 years leading
up to WWII, living in KC with her workaholic (and mostly absentee, literally
and figuratively) husband. Somehow, that era before women worked and had to
obey their husbands comes through.
Admissions:
Life As a Brain Surgeon, Henry Marsh: Volume 2 of Marsh’s memoirs, this one full of
anguish, brashness, and self-reflection for ill-deeds, ill-considerations, over
confidence and generosity gone wrong.
Time
Pieces: A Dublin Memoir, John Banville: Memories of mostly his youth in and around
Dublin (Banville is in his early 70s now) interspersed with current views of
the city now looking back at the good old days.
Real
American, A Memoir, Julie
Lythcott-Haims: A bi-racial woman relates her life in terms of her race (she
identifies as black) and the reactions of those who see a very light-skinned
African-American. Her black American father was a successful doctor/diplomat
who met her successful white British mother in Ghana, he 20 years older than
her with 3 grown children from a first marriage. Raised practically as an only
child in mostly white suburban America, Lythcott-Haims has had a successful
career helping undergraduate students at Stanford. Want to be woke? This is a
good starting point as the author leads us through her growing awareness at
various stages of her life.
The
Kremlin’s Candidate, Jason
Matthews (novel): the last of the Red Sparrow trilogy. Longer and bit more
detailed/redundant than the first two.
Neon In
Daylight, Hermione
Hoby (novel): A 25 year old English woman goes on a spur-of-the-moment journey
(the summer or 2012, just before Hurricane Sandy lands) and a stranger comes to
town (NY). Yep, the two oldest plots. Extremely well done: not too much
e-plotting, well-drawn characters, lots of drinking, some drugs, plenty of sex
or the innuendo of sex, very little about food.
Gorbachev:
His Life and Times, William
Taubman: THB suggests reading pages 250-650 (roughly 1985 to 1992) and skipping
Gorby’s early years and the post-leadership years. It’s impressive, and amazing really, how one
guy, mostly a Communist party striver, could end up deconstructing the USSR
without much blood being spilt. Of course, what Gorby wanted was openness, a
market economy, and friendly ties with the rest of world starting with
integration with Europe. OOOPS!! Yeltsin was not the guy to further these ends
and Putin is just the guy to put all of it to rest for another 60 or 70 years.
Mating
in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence, Esther (Est-air) Perel (paperback): A brilliant
speaker, Perel is a Belgian psychotherapist specializing in helping individuals
and couples identify (and reconcile) sexual fantasies and reality. It helps to
have heard her speak (live, TED talks or podcasts) because the cadence of her
brilliance shines through her writing if you are familiar with her speech
emphasis.
The Last
Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, Nadia Murad: the personal,
family and cultural tragedy of a Yazidi young woman’s capture and escape from
ISIS while many of her family were slaughtered and all her co-villagers were
uprooted from their village in northern Iraq in the mid-2010s. A catastrophe
told in a straightforward style, Murad is now fighting for the resurrection of
her obscure religious sect after a kind Muslim Mosul family engineered her
escape from ISIS sexual enslavement.
A Tokyo
Romance, Ian
Buruma (hardback): A memoir from time spent in the erotic and cultural
underground of the mid-1970s Tokyo. Buruma is a terrific writer and brings to
the fore the challenges and ambiguities of being a foreigner in Japan. Also
terrific by Buruma: The Wages of Guilt, Memories of War in Germany and Japan
(Buruma is Dutch by birth, English mother, and speaks fluent German and Japanese).
There There,
Tommy Orange
(novel, hardback): Hey, it takes place in Oak-town, THB’s city for 37+ years,
in locations THB knows. Chapters from perspective of many individuals who all
come together at a powwow at the Oakland Coliseum, telling the stories of urban
Native Americans. THB can even overlook a lot of drinking and drugs since the
characters don’t act drunk or druggie. Many of the chapters are exquisite and
the ending is intense. A big benefit of reading in paper: going back to earlier
short chapters to re-read the vignettes of some of the characters.
In The
Distance, Hernan Diaz
(novel): Sasquatch meets Odysseus. A young boy is separated from his brother on
the docks in Sweden, goes to San Francisco instead of NY, and ends up traveling
the Wild West from around 1840 to 1870 hoping to get to NY and find his
brother. On his journeys, he has a number of adventures, one of which ends up
making him infamous.
America
Is Not the Heart, Elaine
Castillo (hardback, novel): Filipinas falling in love in the 1980-90s (think
pagers, not smart phones) in Milpitas (a suburban community in the South Bay).
How entangled are immigrants from the Philippines with each other (many don’t
speak the same language other than English) and their homeland? This book
helped enlighten and confuse THB as well
as making him hungry for Filipino food!
Warlight,
Michael
Ondaatje (novel): Does any child know his parents? And if the parents are
absent, can a child know what impact that might have? The narrator is the son
of British parents who are active in espionage and absent during his and his
sister’s formative teenage years in the midst of WWII and the years afterwards
as Europe deteriorates and reforms.
Upstate,
James
Wood (novel): THB could relate to this story, which takes place in late 2007
when the Great Recession is just starting and the characters don’t realize its
breadth yet. A 68 ½ year old moderately successful northern British developer
father with two daughters, 40 and 37, whom he helped raise after his divorce
and death of his ex-wife (okay, not exactly same-same), makes a visit with the
London based music executive younger daughter to the often depressed older
Skidmore philosophy professor daughter, living in Saratoga Springs. Slow start,
very realistic finish. Aside: Wood is married to Claire Messud whose book, The Last Life, was in THB’s 2017
Recommended list.
Lucky
Boy, Shanthi
Sekaran (hardback, novel): Another book that mostly takes place in THB’s hood.
A young Mexican woman illegally crosses into the U.S., finds work in Berkeley
through her cousin, has a baby boy, then runs afoul of immigration and her son
is put in foster care with a loving couple. The struggle for the birth mom to
regain custody drives the last 150 pages and turns the book into a real
page-turner.
The
Warmth of Other Suns, the Epic Story of
America’s Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson (pub’d 2010): Puts faces and stories to a few
blacks who, along with millions of others, left the South in the first 7
decades of the 1900s to find a better life, a free(r) life, and succeeded just
in the act of moving. THB likes to say America was settled by whole bunch of
Type A’s, those that had the incentive and bravery to leave behind a dire
situation. So true for this disadvantaged group. Note: there’s a short passage in this book that might have been lifted
straight from a 2017 THB novel, The
Expendable Man, by Dorothy Hughes. Since Hughes died 20 years before this
book was published, it seems Wilkerson must have read it before writing this
book. Another compellingly depressing book.
Red Notice,
A True Story of High Financee, Murder, and One Man’s fight for Justice, Bill Browder (paperback, pub’d
2015): Yet another of THB’s “Putin is evil” books, this one told by a
American/British hedge fund manager that made billions in Russia only to see
the Kremlin put in motion a series of criminal acts to put the money in their
pockets (mostly by stealing it from the Russian government after Browder got
all the hedge fund’s money out of Russia). Browder put in motion a series of
events that led to personal sanctions against the main bad guys by the US and
other countries to the point that Putin felt his authority threatened (of
course, Vlad was behind all of this).
A Farewell to Ice, Peter Wadham: A polar scientist explains the current
state of saving the planet from the greenhouse effect, and the future is
murder. Wait until the methane buried in the Arctic starts bubbly to the
surface; things are gonna get hot very fast. What can we do (per Wadham): Keep
after the climate change deniers; do what you can individually (e.g., insulate your house, install solar,
drive an electric bike and car; harass your political representatives to change
the basis of power generation to renewables); promote the global emphasis on
finding, testing, and installing new power sources (i.e., the Manhattan project
for renewable power); same-same for taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Doesn’t look hopeful as your loyal collapsarian understands the science and
political will.
Give Me Your Hand, Megan Abbott (novel): more a character study of
two young women than a thriller (i.e., dead bodies in the lab) whose lives are intertwined
through high school and their careers. Good companion book: Lab Girls
(non-fiction).
I Am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes (781 pages, paperback, thriller):
Reco of BB, about 681 pages are thrilling and maybe 100 are filler. It’s the
modern era and the main threat is the one THB things works for solving climate
change: eliminate huge swaths of humanity through some virus without a vaccine
(lots of dystopian novels take this approach) and the focus here is on the
almost lone villain and the almost lone hero.
The Education of a Coroner, Lessons in Investigating Death, John Bateson: A profile of the career of Ken Holmes, for many years the Assistant Coroner and elected Coroner of Marin County (across the Bay from E-ville). Lots of examples of cases (several that THB vaguely recalled) that illustrates how an independent coroner’s office (i.e., one not part of the Sheriff’s department) functions.
The Education of a Coroner, Lessons in Investigating Death, John Bateson: A profile of the career of Ken Holmes, for many years the Assistant Coroner and elected Coroner of Marin County (across the Bay from E-ville). Lots of examples of cases (several that THB vaguely recalled) that illustrates how an independent coroner’s office (i.e., one not part of the Sheriff’s department) functions.
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| Sunrise at the beach house |
Neutral (19):
Something of
value, not enough to actively encourage reading (or listening)
Slouching
Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion:
essays from the 60s. Joan ended up being at the core of the cultural revolution
of her era, and knew everyone. Best part of the book: the Keats poem Second
Coming where she got the title for the book. Also recommended: The Center Will Not Hold, a recent
documentary of Joan by her nephew Griffin Dunne (co-star of I Love Dick
series).
The Boat Runner, Devin Murphy (novel): Maybe a better title would
be Dutch Teen Comes of Age During the Rise of Hitler. Lots of remorse, lots of
loss, and a few moments that defy credibility.
He
Calls Me By Lightning, The Life of Caliph Washington and His Forgotten Saga of
Jim Crow, Southern Justice, and the Death Penalty, S. Jonathan Bass. A
depressing story told in straightforward fashion of a young black man convicted
of shooting a policeman in a small town in Alabama in the mid-1950s and the
transitions of justice and politics in the South over the next 45 to 50 years.
Not enough tension in Caliph’s story, and lots of chapters filling in the
background of the local and state issues in Alabama.
Beautiful Animals, Lawrence Osborne (novel): Crime pays when a
psychopathic single child manages to build a scheme that all goes right for her
in the end.
History of Wolves, Emily Fridlund (novel): a teenager with parents
who used to be part of a commune gets involved as a babysitter for a couple
(only mom is around most of the time) who have built a house across the lake
from where she lives. The four year old is odd. The teenager is morose. The
story is told looking back some 20 years later. A NYT top 100 of 2017.
Arbitrary Stupid Goal, Tamara Shopsin: A follow-up memoir/biography to
the much better Mumbai New York Scranton,
this is more of a novella with not many words, and lots of stories about her
dad (and a few about her mom) and others in and around the family business of a
food store and more famous restaurant. Her father is more a bully than THB
would like to see lionized.
Munich, Robert Harris (novel): a fictionalized version as
told through the lives of a junior diplomat and a translator during the 5 days
leading up to Chamberlain and Hitler negotiating the September 1938 appeasement
of giving part of Czechoslovakia to Germany.
Selection Day, Aravind Adiga (novel): A lot of the technique and
intensity surrounding cricket (boring), some about what life in the big city in
India is like (okay), more about the relationship between two brothers and
their overbearing father (okay).
Murder in Matera, A True Story of
Passion, Family, and Forgiveness in Southern Italy, Helen Stapinski: The only word in the title that
rings false is “true” as Stapinski has imagined immense chunks of the book as
the thoughts and motivations of her great-great-grandmother’s live in Italy in
the late 1800 and early 1900s. Better is Stapinski’s own experiences in going
to Italy to do the research.
Elmet, Fiona Mozley (novel): interspersed with the story
(mid 1930s? in Scotland or northern England?) are snippets of the time just
past when the story ends. A core family of two non-schooled teenagers and their
rogue father make due just this side of ethical society.
Convenience Store Woman, Sayata Murata (translated, novel): A woman on the
autistic scale takes a job in a 24 hour convenience store, which turns out to
be a good fit for someone who doesn’t fit in to the norms of Japan’s strict
social constructs. Short (novella length), and presents a good understanding of
the place of these stores in Japan’s economy and society.
Wild Tales, Graham Nash (audio book read by Nash): Not really
as written by Nash, clearly a ghostwriter did the “fill in the blanks” outline.
The tales are wild! Lots of sex, drugs and rock and roll and more drugs, most
interesting once Nash joins up with Crosby (who becomes his best friend) and
Stills and shortly the 3 add Young, and then Graham gets dumped by Joni
Mitchell. Outside of Nash’s activism and a bit about his early days in Salford,
England, this book is solid sex, drugs and rock and roll. THB and DB decided to
listen to C&S&N golden oldies and they sound like very dated soft rock
(CS&N needed more Y, way more Y).
A Boy’s Own Story, Edmund White (paperback “autobiographical” novel): there are
beautifully written parts, and much of the story could hardly be
autobiographical of a gay boy’s early life (at least to THB it seemed way far
from the reality of life as a teenager). The narrator at least is hardly a likeable
sort, so White doesn’t paint a particularly heroic version of himself.
The Inland Sea, Donald Richie (paperback, pub’d 1971): Richie was an iconic
American living in Japan for many years (see A Tokyo Romance above) who took a “tour” of the Inland Sea of Japan
over many months in the late 1960s, keeping an idiomatic, impressionistic
travel blog. Well worth reading for those that have spent much time in Japan.
Directorate S, the CIA and America’s Secret Wars
in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Steve Coll: Not
actually all that secret as THB has read a lot of Coll’s reporting in the NY’er
and elsewhere. Spy vs spy vs spy, with the secret org’s national priorities at
odds with what might be good for their own people, at odds with their elected
officials announced policies and priorities, and of course at odds with the
groups providing the funds and weaponry for all this strife. And, maybe,
inadvertently for the US, it has resulted in the best possible outcome:
stalemates everywhere on meeting local objectives might actually thwart the
spread of terrorism, though at a tremendous cost (if you think never-ending
wars are costly, which they are in real terms, maybe not in reducing
terrorism).
Algiers, Third World Capital: Freedom Fighters,
Revolutionaries, Black Panthers, Elaine Mokhtefi:
A memoir focusing on the 50s, 60s and 70s when Mokhtefi, an American, moved to
Paris, became fluent in French, journalism, interpreting and translating for
(mostly Algerians) those who were fighting colonialism and ended up knowing
just about everyone in the fight for freedom. Then, the Black Panthers (mostly
Eldridge Cleaver) came to Algeria and Mokhtefi because intimately involved in
their struggle. Nowadays she would be branded a terrorist (aiding and
abetting). Best to read her early days first (it is included as an afterword),
she’s in her 90s and living in NY. Quite a story!
Tell Me a Riddle, Tillie Olsen (paperback, pub’d 1961): 4 slightly interrelated
short stories, the last more a novella. Definitely throwback in style, the
title story takes place partly in Santa Monica, a spot THB knows well.
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the
Natural History Heist of the Century, Kirk Wallace
Johnson: A burnt out do-gooder is chilling out fly-fishing when he becomes
obsessed with fly-tiers’ obsession. THB first heard about this story/chase when
listening to a This American Life podcast. The podcast was intriguing enough
for THB to buy and read the book. Spoiler alert: the bad guy(s) are really the
bad guy(s).
The Malay Archipelago, Volume 2 of 2, Alfred R Wallace: Companion to The Feather Thief, follows Wallace in the late EIGHTEEN 50s, as he journeys around islands in the midst of Philippines, Borneo, and New Guinea searching for unknown birds and beetles (for most part). He foreshadows the fascination in the rare birds' feathers. If you're going to the Moluccas, Ternate, Gigolo, Kaioa, Batchian, Ceram, Goram and nearby islands, this is a precursor to recognizing how easy you have it now. Best if you can toggle back and forth between pics of the birds on-line while ready this journal.
The Malay Archipelago, Volume 2 of 2, Alfred R Wallace: Companion to The Feather Thief, follows Wallace in the late EIGHTEEN 50s, as he journeys around islands in the midst of Philippines, Borneo, and New Guinea searching for unknown birds and beetles (for most part). He foreshadows the fascination in the rare birds' feathers. If you're going to the Moluccas, Ternate, Gigolo, Kaioa, Batchian, Ceram, Goram and nearby islands, this is a precursor to recognizing how easy you have it now. Best if you can toggle back and forth between pics of the birds on-line while ready this journal.
 |
| Twins in Hawaii |
In the
Something Else category (9):
The Center
Will Not Hold, a recent
documentary of Joan Didion by her nephew Griffin Dunne. A very good companion
to any of her literary work.
Seven
Seconds (10
episodes, Netflix): By the same show-runner that ran one of THB’s streaming
faves, The Killing. A 15 year-old black
boy is found almost dead in a ditch in a park in Jersey City, a victim of a hit
and run by a policeman rushing to the hospital to be with his 8 months pregnant
wife. The show covers testilying, police cover-ups, black lives matter, racial
bias, and dealing with grief, lots of grief. Seven seconds may as well describe
the very beginning (5 seconds) and the very end (2 seconds) of the series and
the rest is just details. Recommended
for you binge watchers
16 Shots (Podcast serial by WBEZ Chicago
and the Chicago Tribune): In October 2014, Chicago police officer James Van
Dyke shot and killed 17 year old Laquan McDonald (there’s a youtube video that
THB strongly suggests you watch – it’s disturbing – if you decide to listen to
the podcasts), firing 16 shots into his body as Laquan was walking down an
empty wide street surrounded by at least 6 other CPD officers while carrying a
short knife. The release of the dashcam
recording 13 months after the shooting has set off a chain of events that
include a murder trial for Van Dyke (very, very rare…). A conviction of Van
Dyke (guilty as charged; even rarer!) and a decision by Rahm Emanuel to not run
for a third term as mayor. Recommended, though
probably not as much fun as following along in real time.
O Mecanismo (The
Mechanism), 8 episodes
on Netflix, series loosely based on the attempt by a few non-corrupt polizia
and a brave judge to bring down the corruption at the highest levels of the
Brazilian corporate and political system. Corruption so deep it is everywhere;
THB doesn’t see how you cure an entire country where every transaction includes
sobornos (Esp) o subornos (Port). Interestingly, the series is having
repercussions in the Brazilian real world: ex-presidente just put in jail to
serve his 12 year suspended sentence and the current presidente is being
hounded for his part in the cover-ups and taking subornos.
The
Americans, six seasons
on FX of Russians embedded in the US in the 1970s and 1980s. Based on a true
story, the series follows a family of four as the kids grow into teenagers
while the parents are carrying out brutal espionage. Highly Recommended, especially if you make it to season 6 and
Gorbachev and Reagan vs the old-liners. BTW, a 20 something was rejected this
year in his application for a Canadian passport because his parents were
Russian implants; life imitating art? Also goes well with the Red Sparrow
trilogy.
Something
Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury: THB revisits his teen years and one of his all-time
young adult faves. It has been so long, THB didn’t remember a single word. Recommended for teens of all ages.
Handmaid’s
Tale (season two): Not for the
faint of heart or those who don’t want to see the parallels with DJT’s
administration and his supporters (who let the dogs out? WHO?). Some of the protesters at Kavanaugh’s hearing were dressed
as Handmaidens: very appropriate.
Our Man in
Tehran (OMIT?): two
two hour Frontline documentaries done three years apart (2014 and early 2018)
narrated by a Dutch born NYT reporter who has lived in Tehran for the last 17+
years, married to an Iranian photographer. Erdbrink shows the tension between
everyday life without total freedom of expression under an oppressive religious
regime and the pull of a homeland for self-exiled individuals who now live in
America (where the vast majority of Iranians who want to leave want to go
to). Erdbrink avoids the major geopolitical
issue of Iranian sponsored “revolution” around the Mid-East in order to get
these documentaries made (and shown in Iran!). Recommended
Whose
Boat is This Boat: DJ Trump
(by Accident): a gag gift. The blurb on the back flap has more words than the
entire book. Sooooooo sad.
Not
Recommended (and high likely not finished – 21):
The Answers,
Catherine
Levy (novel): tons of words about nothing, intentionally about nothing.
Conversations
with Friends, Sally Rooney
(novel): an affair taking place in Dublin and France between a 21 year old
college student and 32 year old married actor with so little heat it hardly
seems worth following … and thus THB lost interest.
Less, Andrew Sean Greer (novel):
satire. THB really doesn’t like satire. Why does THB keep buying satire? Maybe
because the reviewer doesn’t mention this is satire. Maybe the reviewer thinks
this is a representation of real life, just told funnily. THB went back and
read review. No more books reviewed by Christopher Buckley for THB.
The
Evolution of Beauty, How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the
Animal World – And Us, Richard O. Prum: there’s a fascinating book hiding inside this
one, with great pics and stories of birds, a succinct study of Darwin’s second
book (Descent of Man), and cogent analyses of how beauty (i.e., attraction) and
the existence of free choice in mates meshes with natural selection. It is
really unfortunate that it stays hidden inside a lot overwrought and repetitive
text full of strident whining and conjecture. THB recommends you look at
youtube videos of manakins (by Kimberly Bostwick) and pics on the internet.
The Book of
Joan, Lidia
Yuknavitch (novel): Another dystopian view set in 2049, with way too much
sci-fi for THB (humans are now not really human-like). Another NYT 2017 top 100. Hmmmm….
The Cadaver
King and the Country Dentist, A True Story of Injustice in the American South, Radley Balko and Tucker
Carrington: Two journalists team up to write another despicable story of how
prosecutors and police used false post-mortem data to imprison (mostly)
Mississippi blacks in large numbers over many years. A long magazine article
would have been more than sufficient.
After the
Eclipse, A Mother’s Murder, A Daughter’s Search, Sarah Perry: Not much as a
memoir, very morose and tedious, and THB skipped way ahead to remind himself
who the committed the murder (this is a fairly notorious case, with DNA solving
the crime).
A Brief
History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, the Human Story Retold Through our Genes, Adam Rutherford: THB really
wanted to like this book, let alone finish it. Using DNA studies, this is a muddled
book, full of lots of explaining how much we still don’t know, and unclear
examples of what we do know along with bad illustrations (that might be a
Kindle issue). The very short version: lots of humans have been interbreeding
all over the world for around 2 million years (even this wasn’t stated clearly
in the 30% of book THB finished), more often as disparate populations grew and
met each other.
Some Hell, Patrick Nathan (novel): 13 year
old boys jerking off or thinking about jerking off, bullying or being bullied;
a 17 year old older sister totally and bitchily self-absorbed; a middle child
with autism; a non-functional father who commits suicide, leaving behind tons
of notebooks; a mother who takes up chain-smoking after the suicide and enters
therapy a year later with pretty much nothing to say. Yep, hell
The Plains, Gerald Murrane (novel): An oldie
from an Australian author who publishes sparsely and has a new book out. This
one was not worth resurrecting: dull, slow, unrealistic.
An American
Marriage, Tayari Jones
(novel): An Oprah Book of the Month. Guess this wasn’t THB’s month.
Call Me
Zebra, Azareen Van
der Vliet Oloomi (novel): There was a lovely stretch of writing early in the
book and then the narrator went off the tracks into oddball land and THB went
away.
Why Bob
Dylan Matters, Richard F.
Thomas: THB finished this eclectic book, mostly to hum along to the few quotes
of lyrics. Based on lectures given at Harvard, you really need to love the old
Greek and Roman poets to appreciate Bob.
Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh (paperback novel
pub’d in 2016): glowing reviews (and a recent write-up in the NYT) for a book
where a 60ish woman is writing about her 24 year old repressed, depressed self
in a dead-end job with a drunk of a father, a dead mother, and no friends or much
of a life. To THB, this is just too much tedium and boredom to be worth
documenting.
Windfall,
Let Luck Find You, Jennifer E.
Smith (novel): OOOPS! THB bought (i.e., downloaded) this book by mistake.
Turned out to be a young adult piece of crap. Succinctly, luck did not find THB
this time.
Windfall,
How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s
Power, Meghan L
O’Sullivan: Luck didn’t find THB on this one either. Nor O’Sullivan: she got
this pub’d just before Trump destabilized yet another geopolitical entity. Oh,
and of the 40% of the book THB read, the author forgot to mention the
devastating environmental consequences of fracking (let along the undermining
of democracy by big energy). She comes across as a shill for for the benefits
of “tight oil” and “unconventional natural gas” production.
The Shelf,
Adventures in Extreme Reading, Phyllis Rose: A gift from a THB follower who knows THB reads a
wide variety of books, and books about books or authors. It turns out this one
is “about” picking a shelf in a library at random (using some very arbitrary
rules) and then explaining why the books aren’t worth reading. At least, THB
stopped after 4 (or 7 or 9 books, depending how you count them), all of which
were all not worth reading: either old,
out-of-date, incomprehensible, poorly translated (multiple versions of the same
book) or just dull and not finished. Same-same for THB for The Shelf.
 |
| Twins are already amassing a large book-read list |
Total Books:
The sort:
-
15 Top
Picks: 8 non-fiction, 7 fiction; 4 male, 11 female authors
-
34 Recommended:
18 non-fiction, 16 fiction; 18 male, 16 female authors
-
19 Neutral: 10 non-fiction, 9 fiction; 11 male, 8 female authors
-
2 Something
Else books: 1 non-fiction; 1 fiction, 2
male authors
-
21 Not
Recommended: 7 non-fiction, 14 fiction; 9 male, 12 female authors (no, not all
non-fiction was male and fiction female)
-
44 non-fiction,
47 novels (91); 44 male, 47 female
- 91 books is
right on the yearly average mark (not bad considering THB spent 3 weeks on a
ship rocking back and forth instead of reading)
Total
books
|
Non-Fiction/
Fiction
|
Top
Picks
NF/F
|
Recommend
NF/F
|
Neutral
NF/F
|
Something
Else
NF/F |
Not
Reco’d
NF/F |
|
2018
|
91
|
44/47
|
15
total
8/7
|
34 Total
18/16
|
19 total
10/9
|
2 total
1/1
|
21 Total
7/14
|
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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