THB's 2020 Annual Book List: Neutral books

  

2020 Book List:  Neutral 

Note: Kindle version unless otherwise noted. Non-fiction unless (novel) is appended. This year THB switched over to supporting local book stores by buying many hardbacks (at LB’s suggestion, a good one!).

Intro: same-old same-old

·      The CO-19 pandemic: sheltering in place encouraged THB to read more, source his books from independent book stores, notice how often pandemics were mentioned in books pub’d before the pandemic started. THB rarely watches much TV and when baseball got off to a 4 month delay it created even more free reading time.

·      The George Floyd protests: finally, there is a sustained mass movement to re-examine the political, cultural and military power as the dominant features of western democracies where white supremacy maintains one group’s advantages to the disadvantage of all others.

·      DJT: the wrong leader at the wrong time, willing to kill Americans of all colors especially those of color or over 75, to further his strongly held essence and the motivation for re-election. Can the bully win? Is folie a deux (a shared madness or delusional disorder) the way to run a country? Can one man dominate almost every possible conversation across the entire world? President Inappropriate can/did. Would you wear a mask to save someone's life?

Department of Conclusions:

1.  Somehow this all translated into THB finding more Highly Recommended and Recommended books. Influenced by reading “real” books? Heightened awareness of content being more impactful given the environment? Better books found to read? Reading more books published years ago? More memoirs?

2.     THB read way more translated books this year than normal, and for the most part they were either Highly Recommended or Recommended. THB thinks this because the translators have greatly improved…can it possibly be that THB has become more “liberal” in his reading choices?

3.     At a certain point this year (around April), THB became almost afraid to start a novel, fearing it would be too “light or fluffy” given the demons ravishing the landscape in 2020. Maybe so…

In order of order read; first just titles and authors, then in same order with highly arbitrary descriptions. Non-fiction - 13 , Fiction - 14 (or 14 and 13 depending on how you evaluate Sahara Stories)

           1.     Dominicana, Angie Cruz (novel)

2.   A Brief History of Indonesia, Sultans, Spices and Tsunamis, the Incredible Story of Southeast Asia’s largest Country, Tim Harrigan (paperback, pub’d 2015)

3.     K, a History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner

4.     The Secrets We Kept, Lara Prescott (novel)

5.     The Godmother,  Hannelore Cayre (novel, translated)

6.     Machine, Susan Steinberg (novel)

7.     Once More We Saw Stars, Jayson Greene

8.     Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, Andrew Milletr (novel)

9.     The Hut Builder, Laurence Fearnley (novel, pub'd 2010)

10. The Ice at the End of the World, an Epic Journey into Greenland's  Buried Past and Our Perilous Future, Jon Gertner

11. Stories of the Sahara, Sanmao (pub’d in Chinese in 1976, translated much later, fiction or non-fiction?)

12. The Fertility Doctor, John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution, Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner (sisters, hardback, pub’d 2008)

13. Other Paths to Glory, Anthony Price (novel, paperback, pub’d 1974)

14. Glass House, Emily St John Mandel (novel, hardback)

15. In Araby Orion, Edward Thompson (novella, hardback, pub’d 1930)

16. Assad or We Burn the Country, How One Family’s Lust for Power Destroyed Syria, Sam Dagher (hardback)

          17. Once In Europa, John Berger (novel, used hardback, pub'd 1987)

18. Red Dress in Black and White, Elliot Ackerman (novel)

19.  97,196 Words, Essays, Emmanuel Carrere (hardback, xlated)

20. The Margot Affair, Sanaë Lemoine (novel, hardback)

         21. Waterlog, a Swimmer’s Journey through Britain, Roger Deakin (paperback, pub’d 1999)

22. Apeirogon, Colum McCann (novel, hardbac)

23. The Glass Kingdom, Lawrence Osborne (novel, hardback)

24. The Beauty In Breaking, A Memoir, Michele Harper

25. Acid For The Children, Flea (aka Michael Balzary; hardback)

26. Memorial Drive, A Daughter’s Memoir, Natasha Trethewey

27. Frank Ramsey, a Sheer Excess of Powers, Cheryl Misak (hardback)

Dominicana, Angie Cruz (novel): a young Dominican girl living on the rural outskirts of a Santa Domingo city in the mid-1960s gets married off to a Dominican man twice her age striving to make a living in New York. It is well written and not particularly believable (though it may be) as in a year she goes from being a child bride to having the first of her family members come live with her while her husband is banished to the sofa. 

A Brief History of Indonesia, Sultans, Spices and Tsunamis, the Incredible Story of Southeast Asia’s largest Country, Tim Harrigan (paperback, pub’d 2015): 270 pages getting familiar with a small portion of a large country before our trip to Jakarta, Raja Ampat and Bali.

 K, a History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner: THB knows most of the history of baseball, so it was pretty repetitive. Audience: maybe the casual fan who wants to know more about what big-time fans already know and find fascinating.

 The Secrets We Kept, Lara Prescott (novel): A light retelling of how Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago was smuggled out of the Soviet Union, became a big bestseller, and mild intrigue of how the CIA smuggled back in copies. Not very convincing, the author should’ve skipped the CIA part and spent more time in Russia.

 The Godmother, Hannelore Cayre (novel, translated): A snappy little book about a French-Arabic translator for the vice department of sizable French police department who, under personal distress due to the illness of her mother, seizes the moment to help one of her mother’s caretakers and then jumps into the drug trade. As the author also is a movie director and scriptwriter, it does have a bit of a Cesar award ending.

Machine, Susan Steinberg (novel): a very fast read of a stream of consciousness coming-of-age book as told by what THB thinks is a very sexually and drug active 16 year-old teenage girl. Well told, just too short.

Once More We Saw Stars, Jayson Greene: Recounting the 15 months after his 2 year old daughter was struck and killed in NYC by falling masonry while sitting on a bench in front of a high rise apartment building with his mother-in-law, Greene explains how he and his wife dealt with the tragedy and grief.

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, Andrew Milletr (novel): a well-told yarn of a psychopathic British army corporal in the early 1800s given the job of tracking down an army officer trying to recover from a traumatic stint of service in Spain. And, somehow Miller had to name the psychopath Calley...unintentionally?

The Hut Builder, Laurence Fearnley (novel, pub'd 2010): A odd coming-of-age story of a man raised by parents who had lost his older brothers (twins), killed in WWII. Boden narrates the story from when he was around 7 or 8 in 1944 or so until 22 or 23, then skip over 30 years to when he is a well-known (though not prolific) New Zealand part-time poet and full-time butcher, having taken over the business from his father. Unusual in that it is the male voice continually grappling with his emotions and how out of step he always is.

The Ice at the End of the World, an Epic Journey into Greenland's  Buried Past and Our Perilous Future, Jon Gertner: Really two books, told chronologically. Chapters of each of the "well-known" pre-engine explorers (up to the 1930s) fighting the elements, followed by chapters on the modern explorers and scientists up to 2018. The last two chapters are more like eulogies for the country as the melting of the ice accelerates and the scientists can't keep up with the meaning of the changes enough to predict when Greenland will turn from white to grey (i.e., no more ice and still not green) and the sea levels rise (pushed also by the melt in Antarctica). 

Stories of the Sahara, Sanmao (pub’d in Chinese in 1976, translated much later, fiction or non-fiction?): interlinked stories of the time Sanmao spent in Spanish Sahara in the early 1970s. Most of the stories first appeared as newspaper articles. Reads like a travel blog scrambled into non-chronological order, an impressionistic view of someone embedding into the local culture.

 The Fertility Doctor, John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution, Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner (sisters, hardback, pub’d 2008): Rock was at the heart of the reproductive revolution from the 1930s until the late 1970s: caring for the poor, starting the IVF process, retaining frozen sperm, helping get the birth control pill into millions of women’s bodies, and fighting the Catholic Church (and Rock was Catholic) on their inability to accept pills made of human hormones related to reproduction. THB wasn’t very interested in the dogma of the church, the first 75% of the book chugged along.

Other Paths to Glory, Anthony Price (novel, paperback, pub’d 1974): if you want to know something about one small part of the battle of the Somme in WW1 in 1917, the learning is wrapped inside a mystery of who has been killing British and French people with some slim connection to the memorabilia of that battle.

Glass House, Emily St John Mandel (novel, hardback): The author of Station Eleven, the great dystopian book of a few years ago, now takes on a fictional version of the Madoff Ponzi scheme. Well written, a bit gripping, and very light stuff.

In Araby Orion, Edward Thompson (novella, hardback, pub’d 1930): a short elegiac to a fictional lance-corporal, this book takes place near the Jordan river during an attack by a British unit trying to scale and overtake an Arab stronghold (supported by German troops). Too short to recommend buying and reading, clearly written by a poet.

Assad or We Burn the Country, How One Family’s Lust for Power Destroyed Syria, Sam Dagher (hardback): Exhaustive look at the Assad regime starting almost 50 years ago with Hafez and then Bashar’s reign of terror. THB has read a lot on the local level of what has happened in the Middle East and thus much of this level of detail was exhausting. On other hand, if you haven’t read much about what the Assads have done with their power to Syria and Lebanon (with a lot of support from Iran), this is the book for you to catch up.

Once In Europa, John Berger (novel, used hardback, pub'd 1987): the second of Into Their Labours trilogy focused on the life in a small southern French village (unnamed). This time more on  "peasants" and their interaction with city folks who have moved nearby. Not near as good as Pig Earth.

Red Dress in Black and White, Elliot Ackerman (novel): 6 “related” characters manipulated by the one working in the US Consulate in Istanbul. Not enough tension and little suspense. The ending is definitely a dud. THB like Ackerman’s last book Green on Blue much more.

97,196 Words, Essays, Emmanuel Carrere (hardback, xlated): mostly personalized journalistic essays (the French author is present) covering the last 30 years. Some THB had read before (or just new the topic well), and for the most part these essays say nothing of real note about our current lives. And, THB skipped a few that seemed very familiar or idiotic, so he really only read 82,621 words.

 

The Margot Affair, Sanaë Lemoine (hardback): another coming of age story, this time of a senior in a Paris high school with one friend and a single mother that is the mistress of a well-knonwn (now) French cultural minister who drops in infrequently to be a father (and sex with mom). Melancholy and full of angst (industry standard for this genre), with the ususal mother-daughter lack of understanding and connection.

Waterlog, a Swimmer’s Journey through Britain, Roger Deakin (paperback, pub’d 1999): an early version of a travel blog, Deakin spends several years swimming in open water. Best to read as you are traveling the UK and need a break to take a dip. Otherwise, it is one natural pool after river after quarry after local swim club after another.

Apeirogon, Colum McCann (novel, hardback): From Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, “one must be in the right frame of mind to assemble the grill”…and THB was not in the right frame of mind to read a well-written unrelenting story of parallel deaths of Palestinian and Israeli girls while their fathers were part of a cross-lines peace group. Based on a true situation, with a section in the middle that is verbatim “history” by each father.

The Glass Kingdom, Lawrence Osborne (novel, hardback): a naive stranger comes to town carrying ill-gotten gains and the natives quickly strip her to her bones. Takes place in Bangkok during political unrest over 3-4 weeks. Worth reading if and when you are in Bangkok for more than 3 days.

The Beauty In Breaking, A Memoir, Michele Harper: from an abusive family upbringing to becoming an ER doc, this is a version of Break, Heal, Love with some yoga and meditation thrown in. Short, fast read, THB enjoyed the doctoring part the best (and the insights to how broken the VA health system is).

Acid For The Children, Flea (aka Michael Balzary; hardback): A memoir of his youth from the bass player for RHCP (THB had no clue what RHCP stood for until about halfway), now 57. The book takes us up to age 20, full of drugs, drugs, and more drugs, lots of music, very little sex. And an admonishment at the end: kids, don’t do drugs, way too dangerous. There’s volume 2 coming, doubt THB will give it a go.

Memorial Drive, A Daughter’s Memoir, Natasha Trethewey: the brief recounting of Trethewey’s mother’s marriage of 10 years to an abusive husband (her step-father) ending in a divorce and a killing. Her step-father was an illustration of the truism on insanity: repeating the same behavior over and over and expecting a different outcome.

Frank Ramsey, a Sheer Excess of Powers, Cheryl Misak (hardback): Really two books: a biography of a genius and the explanation of his writings and beliefs. Needless to say, THB much preferred his biograph: brilliant at an early age; congenial and caring of others not well off; got to Cambridge very young and was latched on to by JM Keynes for his deep math skills; befriended Wittgenstein (pretty much and impossible guy); fell in with the Bloomsbury crowd (they were twice his age for most part) and wrote papers and a book that changed Mathematics, Philosophy, Economics, Logic, Game Theory, etc; had a loving, open marriage; his brother became the head of the Church of England; Frank died at 27 of a liver-related illness that was untreatable in 1929. The other “book” is an explanation of his theories: for most part unintelligible, even to post-graduates in many fields.