2021 Book List
Note: Kindle version unless otherwise noted. Non-fiction unless (novel)
is appended. THB switched over to another local bookstore in 2021 in support of
the real book business.
Department of Remembrance: Two of THB’s fave authors passed away this year, Larry McMurtry and John le Carre’ (Smiley books). If you haven’t got around to them, they are still well worth a read; Lonesome Dove and the Smiley series are in THB’s top 20 all-time novels.
Department of Selection: A few more non-fiction than fiction this year.
Department of Clarification: It bears no repeating, it’s a Covid world and the three most common words in a Covid world are I DON’T KNOW
Department of Analysis: Lots of translated books as THB surmounts his fear of foreign languages sounding terrible in English. Lots of memoirs. Lots of really old books. Lots of books.
Department of Conclusions: If you really like to plan and aren’t too bothered
when nothing comes of your plans, this is the life for you.
Highly Recommended: Top Picks (27) in order of highest
reco to lowest
The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, Joe McGinniss (hardback, pub’d 1999): The miracle was that the local soccer team allowed McGinniss to embed with them for the 1996-7 season, their first in the 2nd tier of Italian professional soccer after winning promotion the prior season. Forget this is about soccer, this is a book about zealotry, fanaticism, Italy, passion, and il sistema (the form of patriarchy, criminality, favors paid and unpaid). McGinniss does not hide his own warts (especially not speaking Italian before embedding), and somehow wins over the manager of the team who tolerates all his faults. The players come off as genuine and full of character.
The Inequality Machine, How College Divides Us, Paul Tough: a dive into why and how colleges continue to boost the top quintile of America while holding down the bottom quintile, interspersed with real-life stories of people involved in the college system. Is there hope to reverse systemic racism inherent in a system that has become bloated and expensive, especially for the poor and disadvantaged? Probably not in our polarized political atmosphere where state after state is defunding education at all levels. While severe in Red states, Blue states aren’t far behind.
The Privileged Poor, How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students, Anthony Abraham Jack: THB found this one from a reference in the Inequality Machine (above). It is very revealing on how kids growing up in the same poor neighborhoods part ways in high school (or even, rarely, in middle school) and then rejoin at elite colleges and have totally different college experiences. Try to remember what your college days were like and then see if the next generation (or two) down had different experiences.
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death, Maggie O’Farrell (memoir, paperback, pub’d 2017): By the author of Hamnet, #3 on the 2020 list, another scintillating, thought-provoking, emotion-evoking (though not emotionally written) book. Can one person have been this close to death (by around age 40), leading a life full of disasters and illnesses, and be such a clear-headed writer? It has evoked memories of near misses in THB’s life (and those of his children) and maybe it is not so unusual; as an example, while THB finished this book in less than 3 days, a traumatizing event occurred in his family.
The Overstory, Richard Powers (novel, paperback, pub’d 2018): Close
encounters of the Tree Kind meets Man does not sit quietly in the room. 500 pages:
1/3 a series of short stories, 1/3 bringing the characters together, and
1/3 acceptance of climate change as an irrefutable force damaging the one thing
that can save the planet: trees in all their diversity and life force.
Beautifully written. Engrossing. Scary. We still have a lot to learn about
trees.
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, Peter Wohlleben (hardback, translated, pub’d 2015): The non-fiction counterpart to The Overstory. THB thinks you might read this one first to believe the stories of trees in the novel. It doesn’t really matter, both books get you to see the trees and the forest in a different light.
The Ministry For The Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (novel, hardback): A heat wave in India that kills 20 million in a week kick starts this intriguing book focused on the damage and the remedies for climate change, set in the near future (2025 to about 2045). Things will be different in the future (or, as Leonard Cohen suggests, it will be murder). Can humanity do a 360 and create the will to collaborate and make the necessary changes to civilization and geoengineering to mitigate the damage? Remember THB’s three-part solution: Trillions to keep carbon based fuels in the ground; billions fewer humans; and trillions to put solutions / mitigations of climate change in place. It is all here…in the novel, not here in the real world.
Invisible Child, Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City, Andrea Elliott: A deep dive into how one family attempts to navigate the NYC poverty industry (which includes the legal system and jail and prison). Elliott immersed herself with a Black blended family from 2013 to 2020, primarily focused on the parents and the eldest of 8 children, a girl of 12 when the reporting started. You may have seen parts of the story serialized in the NYT: this book is the continuation of that story. Horrifying and disturbing, lives most of us cannot imagine. The last book read in 2021 and a real winner.
Final Cut; Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven’s Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists, Steven Bach (paperback, first pub’d in 1985 and then an updated edition in 1999 with a new sub-title): THB read the updated version based on a reco of a movie star who said he wanted to learn the truth about the movie business. This is a fascinating, entertaining, name dropping, funny, sad, and, lastly, realistic view of how movies get made using one extreme version. THB saw much in common with many large business projects, especially those that fail (disastrously). The path to hell is paved with good intentions. Written by a guy who should know: he was the co-production head of UA and intimately involved with the corporate decisions at UA.
Alright, Alright, Alright; the Oral History of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, Melissa Maerz (hardback): the counter to Final Cut, here’s the view from the director’s point of view on interacting with a large movie studio (Universal) to make and market a small indie film. THB wasn’t sure about an oral history done in “chronological” order from interviews 20 years after the movie was made; turned out to be a great way (in this case) of presenting background from the cast and crew.
The Good Girls, an Ordinary Killing, Sonia Faleiro (hardback): THB traveled for over 3 weeks in India in January 2009 and came away thinking that India is unfathomable, the variables of life there are impossible to understand without deep context, something no outsider can grasp. This book is about a pair of young girls deaths just outside a small rural village in Uttar Pradesh. The story Faleiro tells helps make the unfathomable a bit more understandable. Short chapters, many characters, small and large explanations of life, especially for the poor.
All Girls, Emily Layden (hardback, novel): A school year set in 2015, in an all-girls private high school, with the administration beset by a series of “pranks” that keep alive the accusation of an alleged rape 20 years earlier. Even with a large cast of characters, the mood and interaction of the girls with each other and the administration is fully captured and entrancing.
The Biggest Bluff, How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win, Maria Konnikova (hardback): first book read in 2021 and a winner. Full of analysis and stories on learning to play poker, the ultimate game of luck and skill. Much of the analysis was familiar to THB, not poker (here it is No Limit Texas Hold’em, the most popular game). Much applicability to other games (such as bridge, THB’s regular game) as it pertains on how to improve (gain the skills) and tilt the odds in your favor.
The Mercies, Kiran Millwood Hargrave (novel, hardback): set in the far north of then Denmark and Norway in the early 1600s, a small village is beset by a tragic storm that carries all the men at sea during the storm to death, followed closely by accusations of sorcery and witch hunting. Very well written, compelling and hard to put down, and there is no escaping the fate imposed by ignorant and powerful men.
The Shadow King, Maaza Mengiste (novel, paperback): based on real stories of Ethiopian women serving in the fight against the Italian invasion of 1935. Mengiste’s great-grandmother was one of those fighters. Fascinating, the characters come alive, and the interpersonal interactions are sharply drawn.
The Third Rainbow Girl, the Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, Emma Copley Eisenberg (paperback): Eisenberg, raised as a NY girl, takes a summer job during college in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, at a new school encouraging teenage girls to stick with education and thrive. While there, Eisenberg falls into a complex relationship with the community (especially blue grass musicians) and returns repeatedly in the 2010s to the school. As part of her understanding the history of the area and community, she takes a deep dive into a double murder in the early 80s, and a continual analysis of her motivations as compared to those of the community. Some of the writing is so scintillating in its self-awareness as to be almost universal philosophy.
The Startup Wife, Tahmina Anam (novel, hardback): A couple who went to the same high school meet up 6 or so years later, get married two months after re-connecting, and then collaborate with another friend to create a tech start-up. While the site is created by the wife, the husband ends up CEO when the other two co-creators plead with him to step in. A Hollywood story ensues for the first 90% of the book, then reality hits home in the definitely non-Hollywood ending. As it turns out, in real life Anam’s husband founded a start-up and she is on the board.
No-No Boy, John Okada (novel, paperback, pub’d 1957 and re-released in 1976 and 2014): after Pearl Harbor, there was mass incarceration in internment camps of Japanese citizens living in the US and US citizens of Japanese heritage. Men of draft age were given an option of joining the military if answering yes to two questions: are you willing to serve if assigned to combat duty in the US military and will you provide unqualified allegiance to the US. Those answering no and no were arbitrarily imprisoned. This is a fictional view of what happened to one of these men in his first few weeks after coming home to Seattle. The book is considered one of the earliest of what is now thought of as Asian-American fiction.
In The Time Of Madness. Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos, Richard Lloyd Parry (paperback, pub’d 2005): Parry has made THB’s top category before, in 2018 with Ghosts of the Tsunami, Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone. Madness is actually an older book than Tsunami, and just as well written, detailing the end of the Suharto era and the beginning of democracy in Indonesia, starting with the struggle for independence in East Timor in the late 1990s. This book is more intimate and emotional; Parry is a reporter on the ground and scared for himself and the Timorese.
Sea Wife, Amity Gaige (novel, hardback): a twist on the “madman goes on a journey” plot. This time the madman brings along his wife and two children as he goes into debt to buy a sail boat and they plan to spend a year traveling the Caribbean. Needless to say, he isn’t well prepared and none of the others have a day of experience sailing, and it doesn’t end well. And, to set the path for a new genre, this is the first book THB has read where the madman is a Trumpian. Watch out, here they come! THB also ranked another Gaige book, Schroder, as highly recommended on the 2013 Book List.
The Blind Light, Stuart Evers (novel, hardback): Two Brits in their early 20s meet during their National Service commitments in the mid-1950s and form a bond that last a lifetime, with events ranging up to 2019. Great backstory of the fear by Brits of being annihilated in a nuclear holocaust (which figures prominently in testing the bond between the two men and their families). The story also wraps well, all the main characters are well delineated and there is one memorable moment where a guy says to a woman: ‘I know just how you feel’ and her retort of ‘you have no idea, not a clue, of how I feel’ was a classic feminist moment, rare in literature written by a man.
Portrait Of An Addict As A Young Man, Bill Clegg (paperback): mostly the telling of a 2-month long
drug and alcohol binge by a 30ish literary agent (now successful author). THB
usually isn’t a fan of drugs and drinking, this one in context (light up and
smoke crack, drink vodka, repeat) reveals well the instant pleasure and
deferred issues to come. Interspersed with incidents from Clegg’s growing up
and deep feelings that many of his friends and colleagues have for him.
My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante (novel, translated): remarkably similar to the streaming season 1 version, and in a good way. Does THB need to recount the plot line…no. THB is reading books on the kindle while traveling and DB had already downloaded the 4 books of this set and since THB loved the streaming version he went on to read them. In tandem with the streaming version, highly recommended.
The Story of a New Name, Book 2
of the Neapolitan Novels. Remarkably similar to the streaming season 1 version,
and in a good way.
The Story of the Lost Child, Book 4 of the Neapolitan Novels, another winner. More
complexity between the two friends, with their children in the mix now. Can
there be this much death, intrigue, crime, sex, nepotism and overlapping family
matters in a suburb anywhere else in the world? Or, put another way, is this a
real version of Italy dressed up in a fictional form?
Phase Six, Jim Shepard (hardback, novel): a fast paced, fast read of the dystopian variety. Written after Covid started, this one is a pandemic from day 1 through to the ending (unresolved) and makes THB think a) we were lucky with Covid and b) how can it get worse – with multiple variants all over the place.
Sybille Bedford, A
Life, Selina Hastings
(hardback): A biography of a not very prolific or well-known author and
journalist. And, yet, this telling is enthralling as Bedford, gay and unable to
stay in one place for very long, lived a very long and passionate life, mostly
living off the generosity of others. Born in Germany in 1911, dying in England
in 2006, and living much of the time in France (speaking all three languages
proficiently), her emotionally detached father ingrained in her a love of good
wine and food while her mother was a cold and a free spirit. A tour de force in
making an exceptionally good book out of the small life of a relative unknown.
A Place For
Everything, the Curious History of Alphabetical Order, Judith Flanders (hardback – highly
preferable): A THB oddity, a book about the long history of something we all
take for granted as the internet has replaced the need for understanding how to
do the sorting of the world of words. The extensive footnotes make the physical
book much more useful than an e-book would.
What Strange
Paradise, Omar El Akkad (novel,
hardback): an 8 year-old boy survives a
catastrophe, the immigrant-filled sinking of a sub-par boat, and is rescued by
a local 15 year-old girl. The moral issues are boldly posed and the ending is
foretold well in advance. Not as good as American War by Akkad, one of THB’s
all-time fave dystopian novels.
Miss Aluminum, Susanna Moore (hardback): another genre that THB relishes, the
Hollywood memoir, is told in a flat, direct style by Moore. Covering her life
from about age 10 to 30, she managed to go from an obscure upbringing in Hawaii
(pre-statehood) to modeling, sleeping with and marrying Hollywood biggies. Much
of the “action” takes place in neighborhoods THB, just a few years younger than
Moore, was familiar with from his pre-adult life, adding to his enjoyment. Lots
of pics!
Nomadland, Surviving
America in the Twenty-First Century, Jessica Bruder
(paperback, pub’d 2017): Houseless is not the same thing as homeless. Bruder
follows a group of economic migrants who have given up paying a mortgage or
rent because they travel in vans that have become their homes, taking temporary
jobs across America and mostly following better weather. Starkly revealing on
how humans (mostly white and older) can live on the road with no home addresses.
The basis for the Frances McDormand movie.
After the Fire, A
Still Small Voice, Evie Wyld (novel, paperback, pub’d 2009): Interwoven
stories of three generations of Australian men damaged by war (Korean and VNam)
and their struggles to connect with the women in their lives.
Did You Ever Have A
Family, Bill Clegg (novel, paperpack, pub’d 2015): The big
event happens on page 3, and from that point on the backstory and what comes
are after are revealed in short chapters by the many characters. Well done, and
an example of good intentions are the path to hell (i.e., guilt) and bad
intentions are just normal. Clegg is on THB’s list twice.
The Beauty of Your Face, Sahar Mustafah (novel, hardback): how a Palestinian immigrant
family living outside of Chicago (like Mustafah’s) comes apart, as told by the
second child, a ten year-old girl, over 30+ years. Well-crafted and credible,
dealing with the role of religion and the struggle to adapt in an antagonistic
society. Lots of Arabic words that you understand in context.
All For Nothing, Walter
Kempowski (novel, paperback, translated, pub’d 2005): Takes place in Prussia
over a few days in the winter of 1945 as the Russians are closing in on Germany.
The plot is centered around an eccentric family and their retainers, living in
an upscale and outdated manor. The local population is completely deluded,
thinking that Germany will fend off the Russians, win the war and that things
will go back to that rosy time in 1939-41. Heil Hitler! No Hollywood ending.
Owls of the Eastern Ice, a Quest to Find and Save
the World’s Largest Owl, Jonathan C Slaught:
A 10-15 year old story about a novice graduate student tracking, capturing and
releasing large banded owls in the very cold far east of Russia over 5 years.
Interesting people, desolate places, and birds that fish to survive.
Uncanny Valley, A Memoir, Anna Wiener: THB often thought he could write a book about his
work experiences; sort of a greatest hits complete with ethical dilemmas, odd
co-workers, and the struggles to complete projects. Here’s that book, based on
Wiener’s working at two start-ups (one more established than the other) in her
mid-to-late 20s, as seen from the customer support role. Takes place in SF,
which is of course THB’s old work area. And, in the midst of the book, Wiener
tells an anecdote that showed up in another book on THB’s list: Driven.
Monogamy, Sue Miller (novel,
hardback): Chick lit? Certainly told mostly from the women’s points of view.
Mothers and daughters? Women and their friends? Women and their need for men?
Some men’s needs for a number of women? Lots of internal dialogue about
feelings…what the hell does THB know about feelings? Or even internal
dialogues?
Eat The Buddha, Life and Death in a Tibetan Town, Barbara Demick (hardback): a familiar story of China’s struggle
over the last 70 years to bow the “autonomous region” of Tibet to identify
primarily as Chinese and make the inhabitants give up their allegiance to the
Dalai Lama. Personal stories help the book come alive, especially as it obvious
that ethnic minorities in China are discriminated by the Han majority.
Self-Portrait, Celia
Paul (hardback): A memoir mostly in the telling of Paul’s relationship with
Lucian Freud, which started when Paul started her college-level study of art at
The Slade, in London. Something that would not happen today (one can hope):
Freud was associated with The Slade and a famous artist given his choice of any
new “girl” that was enrolled. Paul does not look back with regret (at age 59) at
the affair that lasted 11 years and produced a son. Lots of pictures (mostly by
Paul, get this book in hardback), poems (by Paul) and her tell-all is
interspersed with memories of her life.
Stranger In The Shogun’s City, a Japanese Woman and
Her World, Amy Stanley (hardback): The Japanese family at the
core of this mid-1800s story notated their lives through letters and official
documents to such a degree that Stanley could recreate what happened to
Tsuneno, the second oldest child of a family whose heritage was tied up in managing
a Buddhist temple. What happened to
Tsuneno was fairly uncommon as she rebuked her father, mother and older brother
to lead her own life.
Fake Accounts, Lauren
Oyler (novel, hardback): a meta-book, odd, so odd THB isn’t really sure he
liked it. The book refers to itself as a self-absorbed narrator tells her
story, which is of course foretold by the title of the book. The narrator is so
clearly unaware of her own incorrect narrative that THB couldn’t figure out:
brilliant or over-written. It is entirely possible that THB couldn’t figure it
out because it is told from a woman’s point of view.
White Too Long, The Legacy of White Supremacy in
American Christianity, Robert P. Jones
(hardback): a straightforward acknowledging of how the churches have been
complicit for 100s of years in the systemic controlling of Black lives. No
surprise as they are made up of the same people who set the rules in the rest
of society. An easy flow between the personal, anecdotal and statistics of who
is racist (yes, a strong correlation between being a member of these churches
and racist tendencies).
The Push, Ashley Audrain
(novel, hardback): is your child a psychopath? You’d think Dad would be
convinced after two other kids in the vicinity died violent deaths (one was the
younger brother of the supposed killer) except he was at work. Mom knew almost
at birt thath something wasn’t quite right with her daughter and she was on the
scene for both murders (or were they accidents?).
The Performance,
Claire Thomas (novel, hardback): A short companion to the biography of Samuel
Beckett by Deidre Bair. Three women (young, middle aged, THB’s age) contemplate
their lives while watching the play Happy Days (by Beckett) while outside of
Melbourne the Australian countryside burns and burns.
The Copenhagen Trilogy, Childhood – Youth –
Dependency, Tove Ditlevsen (hardback, pub’d 1967 and 1971,
translated): a memoir that takes place from 1922 until post WWII, when
Ditlevsen was age 5 to 30. Amazingly, very little about the coming war, mostly
because the author was so tied up in herself it left little room for something else
to make a dent. A poet, published very young, with multiple books published
before age 30, this is an insightful look into growing up poor in Copenhagen
with big dreams, becoming successful, and how youth is wasted on the young.
Drop City, T.C
Boyle (novel): a hippie commune moves from N. California to outside of
Fairbanks and peace, love, and rock ‘n roll get chilled to the bone during
their first winter. Great to read if you are up in the great north, probably a
lot less fascinating if you are snug in your down south house with all those
modern conveniences. C, owner of Winterlake Lodge, had read it many years ago,
he and his wife read it at night to each other. Spoiler Alert: the ending is
straight out of Night Moves with Gene Hackman.
The Erratics, Vicki Laveau-Harvie (hardback): THB hopes none of you has a mother like the one in this memoir. Two sisters in their 60s, one living in Australia and the other on the West Coast, have to deal with their 90-year-old mother’s broken hip (the hip is the least of their worries, this is the woman from hell). Mom and dad live in the middle of nowhere kind of near Calgary in a large house and Dad isn’t up to taking care of Mom at home (e.g., Mom has been starving Dad and throwing his money away for years).
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Elena Ferrante (novel, translated): Book 3 of the Neapolitan Novels. The streaming version of this book hasn’t been released yet. THB found it not quite as good as the first two books, maybe because the narrator gets what she has always wanted and you can see the damage to come (Book 4).
The Fourth Child, Jessica Winter
(novel, hardback): Two generations struggling with motherhood, religious
beliefs, pro-life vs pro-choice (who is in control on multiple levels), what
are friends for, all told from the female point of view. The first 100 pages
are a bit slow, and parts are a bit pedantic, and it is worth reading all the
way to the end.
To Start a War, How the Bush Administration Took America Into Iraq, Robert Draper (paperback): Here’s a quote from the back cover that explains why THB couldn’t finish this book…”Everything was believed; nothing was true.” Even eighteen to twenty years later, it is infuriating to review how these fatheads had their minds made up on the direction the US should take in the aftermath of 9/11: a war on terror, invading Afghanistan, ignoring all the research pointing right at Bin Laden, every piece of truth saying Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and believing they were the brightest bulbs around. Infuriating to this day. At least the book is well written even if war in Iraq was a catastrophe.
My Heart, Semezdin Mehmedinovic (hardback, novel, translated): Reads like a memoir, so much so it seems autobiographical. A story beautifully told through simple remembrances that highlight the immigrant story, love for your partner, the loss of your early life. Complete with “drawings” by the supposed storyteller.
The Twilight Zone, Nona Fernandez (novel, translated): A jazzy-styled fictionalized version of the time of the era of the disappeared in Chile under Pinochet. Very similar events as those that occurred in Argentina; does not mention the US’s intervention in the Allende administration and subsequent coup.
Unsolaced, Along the Way to All That Is, Gretel Ehrlich (hardback): A memoir that in essence catalogs the effects of climate change in Ehrlich’s lifetime (she’s just a few years older than THB). More a series of vignettes of time spent in Greenland, Africa and Wyoming and Montana, intermittently, over 50 years. Ehrlich is deeply embedded wherever she is. Never far from death, including being hit by lightning.
This Little Family, Inez Bayard (novel, paperback, translated): This is a very disturbing book. The primary character suffers terrible PTSD after being raped, with major consequences (which are revealed in the first two pages). THB struggled as the book progressed, even considering stopping while grappling with the character’s choices. Short and hard to put down. Not for the faint of heart. The NYT review had it just right: You can’t stop reading, even as you want to look away.
Breasts and Eggs, Mieko Kawakami (novel, translated, paperback): a long book (unusual nowadays) about a Japanese woman on her own and contemplating having a child using donor sperm. Much of the story is women expressing what it feels like making it through Japanese culture where men are worthless and oppressive (hinting at why the birth rate is so low in Japan, similar to Italy). Only downside: a Hollywood ending.
Salt, A World History, Mark Kurlansky: the subtitle says it all, this is a very eclectic trip through the history of the world as seen from the viewpoint of salt. Truly eclectic, from geography to geopolitics and lots of recipes besides (which THB skipped over for the most part).
Mike Nichols, A Life, Mark Harris (hardback): THB doesn’t usually have regrets. A
major one showed up during this book: not seeing enough live theater
performances. Nichols had an unbelievably long and successful life in the
theater (actor and director) and cinema (director, small acting roles). The
only downside of the book: each play, TV special and movie, success or failure,
is pretty much given equal treatment and thus the book is long. Long and
captivating. BTW: an alternate title: My Brilliant Friend with Elaine May
playing herself.
The Barroy Trilogy, Books 1 and 2: The Unseen and White Shadow, Roy Jacobsen (novels, translated): The first two books cover around 1900 to 1946 and takes place mostly on a small one-family Norwegian island a good hour or two of rowing away from the mainland. Most of the story is told through the only daughter of the second generation, and deals with the challenges of peasantry under severe weather conditions and isolation. The third part of the trilogy will be out on Kindle in April 2022. Pig Earth by Paul Berger is very similar (French peasants) and recommended.
After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie, Jean Rhys (novel, paperback, pub’d 1931): a story of a serial
mistress (without sex scenes), living on the money provided with men she
encounters. Julia relies on her looks as well as her muddled sense of honesty
to navigate life. Ahhhh, the golden age before the feminist movement really got
going in the sixties.
The Plague Year, America in the Time of Covid, Lawrence Wright (hardback): a modest retelling of the beginning
of Covid in 2020, up to the insurrection of January 6, 2021. How many people
did DJT doom to death by a total lack of leadership (let alone undermining
those that were trying to bring Covid to heel): the total is up over 800,000 American
deaths (and as always, in the US we don’t bother counting non-American
collateral deaths).
Two Truths And A Lie, A Murder, A Private
Investigator, and her Search for Justice: Ellen
McGarrahan (hardback): when the author was 26 and a journalist in Miami, she
witnessed a botched electrocution of a convicted double murderer. Unable to put
that behind her, 25 years later the author sets about trying to find out the
truth of what happened at the murder scene. THB’s view: when a guy murders and
disfigures two women before the crime that put him on death row, and is out dealing drugs and loaded
with weapons, he’s your guy.
Intimacies, Katie Kitamura
(novel): very short, the story of a young woman who takes a new job as a
translator for the world court in The Hague. She falls in love with a local man
who is dealing with a separation from his wife and kids. More interesting is
the impact on translators as they navigate detailing the horrors of the crimes
against humanity.
The Young H.G. Wells, Claire Tomalin: a short biography by a very old author (Tomalin is in her late 80s). As one of Wells’ contemporaries described the young Wells: he could be the best company in the world and he could be mean, spiteful, and quarrelsome. Tomalin captures him just so, along with being extremely creative, a fast and oft published writer, and much better before the age of 40 than after. And, a believer in free love, with his wife of many years supportive of his many romantic endeavors.
The Time Machine, H.G. Wells (novel, pub’d 1895 and only 66 cents
on Amazon): now THB understands why Wells was so prolific: this book takes less
than 2 hours to read! Good companion to the Tomalin biography.
The Underneath, Melanie Finn (novel, paperback, pub’d by Two
Dollar Radio…who?): A reporter and her documentarian husband and two children
decide to spend the summer in “The Kingdom” of upstate Maine. Hubby goes off
suddenly to Africa to make a film and the wife spirals into the grasp of a
mystery based on the eclectic findings in the house they have rented. It
doesn’t end well for her.
The Society of Reluctant Dreamers, Jose’ Eduardo Agualusa (novel, translated,
paperback): Normally THB wouldn’t go near a book of dreams. However, this is a
book of dreamers and as such isn’t too bad. Takes place in Angola/Mozambique/S.
Africa and Cuba, and is not easy to follow at times. And, clearly, not very
realistic!
Neutral
(39): Something of value, not enough to actively encourage reading
In
The Eye Of The Wild, Nastassja Martin (paperback, translated): short, dense retelling
of this anthropologist’s bear attack in Kamchatka. Not pretty, and Martin jumps
back on the horse.
The
Essential Kerner Commission Report, the Landark Study on Race, Inequity, and
Police Violence, Edited and introduced by Jelani Cobb with Matthew Guarigla
(originally pub’d in 1968): Chaired by Otto Kerner, governor of Illinois, the
Commission was created by an LBJ executive order in July, 1967 (just after THB
finished up his first quarter of college). To quote LBJ: The only genuine,
long-range solution…lies in an attack – mounted at every level – upon the
conditions that breed despair and violence. All of us know what those conditions
are: ignorance, discrimination, slums, poverty, disease, not enough jobs. Few, if any, of the Commission’s reco’s
were ever adopted and put into place, oh those many years ago.
Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa
Gyasi (novel, hardback): an extremely repressed daughter of Ghanian immigrants
living in Alabama looks back at her short life full of grief: her father goes
back to Ghana, her brother dies of an opioid overdose, her mother develops a
deep depression that lasts a long time. All the while, she has become a
well-thought-of post-doctorate neuro-biologist researcher. Morose and
melancholy, deeply religious at times, asking the big questions (with no
answers) of life.
Missionaries, Phil
Kay (novel, hardback): 5 or 6 characters intersect in a Colombian “hot spot”
where drugs are the main source of income.
The backstories are moderately interesting, the grand meet-up finale is
a bit of a letdown and the aftermath not that engaging…life moves on. Klay’s
first book, Redeployment, was a lot better.
The Price of Peace, Money,
Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes, Zachary
D. Carter (hardback): while the focus of the book was on Keynes (450
pages) it was excellent, when Keynes
died and the focus shifted to the US and John Kenneth Galbraith (150 pages) it
was not near as good unless you wanted more of McCarthyism, Nixon, Clinton,
Bush, and Greenspan.
The West Without Water, When Past
Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us About Tomorrow, B.
Lynn Ingram and Frances Malamud-Roam (paperback, pub’d 2015): So much has
happened so fast on climate change that the book needs an update (and that will
be out-of-date soon also). The West is drying out, using up surface and aquifer
water at an alarming rate while losing snowfall at the same time. Add intense
fires, poor water management (huge totals/person, agriculture and meat
production), increasing population and aging infrastructure and you end up with
endless catastrophes and disasters.
Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous
Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of the Plants, Robin
Wall Kimmerer (pub’d 2013, paperback): the sub-title tells it all. A gentle
series of anecdotes, personal remembrances, and stories of how treating the
earth well is a long-term benefit to all living things, as told by a botanist,
professor, poet, single mom raising two daughters, and a member of the
Potawatoni tribe.
Truth
In Our Times, Inside the Fight for Press Freedom in the Age of Alternative
Facts, David E. McCraw: A deputy general
counsel of the NYT, Mcraw gives examples of what the NYT had been doing in the
legal department from 2002 to 2018. THB first started reading this book 1.5
years ago and then put it on hold as there had been a lifetime of DJT to that
point and it was time to take a break. There's actually not all that much on
DJT, just more of the same-old same-old legal crap that keeps a big newspaper's
legal department busy.
The
Provocative Joan Robinson, The Making of a Cambridge Economist, Nahid Aslanbeigui and Guy Oakes (paperback,
pub’d 2009): THB was hoping for more of a biography and instead this is more of
the academic overview of Robinson’s work and the infighting among the Keynesians
from 1930-39. Geared towards those with a deep interest in the development of
Keynes economic treatises.
The Elephant to Hollywood, Michael Caine (paperback, pub’d 2010): A long
career full of memorable and forgotten films, some TV shows, an a ton of famous
friends (if you aren’t mentioned in the book, you clearly are an Hollywood
outsider). Not carefully well written or memorable, a fast gossipy read.
The Adventurer’s Son, a Memoir, Roman Dial (paperback): an outdoorsy family
grows up and the son becomes a wanderer, mostly traveling very light on his own. On one trek in Costa Rica
he goes missing. His father, the author, spends two years trying to find out
what happened (he is most likely dead). The chase goes on a bit too long for
THB, the ending is heartwarming even if the result is expected.
How Much of These Hills Is Gold. C Pam Zhang (novel, hardback): two sisters of
Chinese descent roam the old West after their remaining parent dies. After a
gap of five years, the girls re-unite to find their fates entangled by the
younger one’s “indiscretions”. Parts of the story are very well-written, and
there is not a Hollywood ending.
Driven, The Race to Create the Autonomous Car, Alex Davies (hardback): a one year old has more
cognizance of her surroundings on the road than any robot. So, the race among
large and small companies continues after 15 years and billions of dollars. One
of the leads in this race is Anthony Levandowski. THB’s connection: Tony’s dad used to work at Levi’s and we knew
each other well (both techies) though we didn’t work together during our overlapping
long tenures. Tony is not a chip off the old block.
His Truth Is Marching On, John Lewis and the
Power of Hope, Jon Meacham (hardback): cobbled
together from a number of sources including Lewis’ own memoir. THB sees Lewis
as an individual with a belief in non-violent change embodied by staying
committed to his ideals. Is that hope? Does hope have power? THB likes to think
power requires more than hope.
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, John le Carre’ (novel, pub’d 1963): the beginning of the Smiley
novels, this shorty is not near as good as the rest, more enriched and detailed
Smiley books. However, one day is enough to get back in the divided Berlin of
the early 60s spy scene.
The Aosawa Murders, Riku Onda (novel, paperback, translated, pub’d
2005): not quite a who-dunnit, more the exploratory aspect of understanding a
30 year old hard to solve poisoning of a an entire family and others at a party
but for the teenage blind daughter (who becomes the obvious suspect). The
ending was hard to understand, a bit of a letdown.
V2, Robert
Harris (novel, hardback): A fast read focused on an assistant scientist to
Werner Von Braun, taking place at the end of the war when Germany was randomly
firing V2 missiles into the heart of London. Harris has written many excellent
books, this one is just below that level.
Amoral Man: A True Story and Other Lies, Derek Delgaudio (hardback): Memoir? Fictional
memoir? Someone else’s memoir? A performance artist (It & Of Itself: a play
and TV special), this is a light and fluffy accompaniment to The Biggest Bluff and Fake Accounts.
A Magnificent Catastrophe, the Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First
Presidential Campaign, Edward
J Larson: Parallels to 2016 abound, except with an amazing number of votes
finally resolving in two states moving from the Federalists (Adams, Burr) to the
Republicans (Jefferson) and no insurrection when counting the electoral college
votes (though one state, Georgia, submitted an “incomplete” ballot). Too many
chapters recounted through the
campaigning of the biased press, otherwise this would be a recommended book.
Burr, the leading Federalist vote getter, became VP, the last time the
President and VP came from different parties.
The Sum Of Us, What Racism Costs Everyone and
How We Can Prosper, Heather McGhee: How much does
racism play a part in every basic American system: a lot. Why do (white)
Americans vote against their own best interests: racism. Why do the majority of
red states have lower health outcomes, lower incomes, and poorer education:
racism. How long has this been going on:
a long time.
Towers of Gold, How One Jewish Immigrant Named
Isaias Hellman Created California, Francis
Dinkelspiel (paperback, pub’d 2006): If you grew up or lived in LA and/or Bay
Area (like THB) much of this book will seem familiar, even though it spans the 1850s to 1920, as
many of the towns and cities and buildings and businesses are names you will
recognize. While there is a bit of the history of the Jews, the book is much
more focused on how business (primarily banking, real estate, wine and
investments) was done when California was in its infancy. Dinkelspiel is a journalist
and descendent of Isaias, many of whom also became successful in business.
The Keeper of the Mountains, the Elizabeth
Hawley Story, Bernadette McDonald: An independent woman ends up in Katmandu
and over 50+ years keeps track of the permitted climbs of Mt. Everest and other
surrounding high peaks of the Himalayas. She is more documentarian and
chronicler than a lover of mountain climbing. Her archives over many years
become a wealth of information for many generations of climbers. She is also a
close friend of Sir Edmund Hillary, working with him to provide essential
education infrastructure to Sherpas in Nepal.
The
Arsonist, a Mind on Fire, Chloe Hooper: the story of a huge fire in
Australia in 2009, from the start of the fire to the end of the trial. Sadly,
the arsonist was someone on the autistic spectrum and thus was hard for
everyone to understand, literally and figuratively. The key point in the trial:
the main witness for the defense had huge holes in his evaluation of what
happened.
Show
Them You’re Good, a Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year Before
College, Jeff Hobbs (hardback): Hobbs tags along with 4 seniors and their
friends, half in a charter school in a poor part of LA and half at Beverly
Hills High (THB’s mom’s alma mater). Lots of dealing with anxiety over college
choices, the highs and lows of senioritis, immigration issues (this is the
2015-16 school year and DJT is hyperventilating about building the wall and
expunging non-citizens, and surprisingly, not too much angst over dating.
Grace
Will Lead Us Home, the Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring
Journey to Forgiveness, Jennifer Berry Hawes (hardback): Dylann
Roof walks into a church at night, sits in on a bible study group, and shoots 9
people to death. The story is gruesome, Roof is indignant as to his intentions
(if you ask him, he is not mentally disabled), and the survivors struggle with
the repercussions. There is a side story embedded in this one: the head pastor
was killed and his replacement allegedly embezzles some of the donations sent
to the church.
A
Naturalist in Alaska, Adolph Murie (paperback, pub’d 1961): Murie
was a field research biologist for the National Park service and between 1922
and the early 1950s spent much time watching animals in what is now called
Denali National Park. Made up of vignettes of the primary animals in the par
through stories of Murie seeing and tracking animals in the wild (or along the
main road into the Park).
The
Wolves of Mount McKinley, Adolph Murie (paperback, pub’d 1944): heavy
overlap with A Naturalist in Alaska, read
one or the other, not both.
The
Promise, Damon Galgut (novel, hardback): So light that one puff will blow
this book down. Farce? Probably…even the author hints at it in an aside.
The
Soul of an Octopus, a Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, Sy
Montgomery (I-pad): Good news for I-pad fans, the pictures are in color. Bad
news: I-pad is not as good an e-reader as the Kindle. The author has written many
books for children and adults; this one was supposed to be for adults and THB
thinks it is more at a Young Adult level.
The
Beautiful Cure, The Revolution in Immunology and What It Means for Your Health,
Daniel Davis (paperback): a bit sappy, a bit technical, and the
current state of immunology can be summed up easily: it’s early days and the
field is really, really brutally complicated. Nice treat for THB: meds he has taken
or is taking are mentioned as big steps in the field.
The
Vietri Project, Nicola Derobertis-Theye (novel, hardback): a 25-year-old
Sacramento-raised, UC Berkeley educated woman trying to center herself goes on
a journey and eventually re-enters her Italian family living in Rome. The
existential threat: her mother’s schizophrenia showed when she was 25; will the
same fate befall the daughter? A bit too melancholic and with a lost soul for
THB’s taste.
The
Elephant of Belfast, S. Kirk Walsh (novel, hardback): Set in 1940 as WWII comes to N.
Ireland, a 20 year-old woman takes care of the latest addition to the Belfast
Zoo, an 800 pound 3 year-old elephant. Tragedy strikes, Germany commits air
strikes, attraction and sex is in the air, and yet it all feels like nothing
much happens.
Tough
Love, My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For, Susan
Rice (paperback): THB doesn’t usually read politician’s autobiographi; this one
came highly recommended and it is well written, with a ton of name-dropping. It
is also long, covers a lot of familiar territory and has a tragic ending (Rice
mourns for all the Obama accomplishments wiped out by his clumsy successor,
rightly so). Rice clearly adores Barack: he’s brilliant, insightful,
conscientious, a great listener, and even friends with his predecessor.
The Man
Who Ate Too Much, the Life of James Beard, John Birdsall
(hardback): a life of an odd-duck, somehow a guy who didn’t seem to be all that
talented ends up as a famous character when it came to American cooking in the
1950s through the early 1980s. Fully capable of plagiarizing the work of others
as well as himself, living as a gay closeted man in NY and never quite settling
down, almost always on the move (of course he ran into another nomad, Sybille
Bedford). The “author” of one of THB’s fave cookbooks (great if you are
learning how to cook): James Beard’s Theory & Practice Of Good Cooking – highly recommnded.
Wayward,
Dana Spiotta (novel, hardback): Midlife crisis? Menopausal?
Self-absorbed? Feeling undervalued as a woman? THB almost stopped reading after
about 70 pages. THB skipped a lot of filler junk in the last 30 pages. In
between, a lot happens to Sam (short for Samantha) that is well told: leaving
her husband and 16 year-old daughter, buying and moving nearby to a derelict
house; witnessing a murder; suffering a concussion; finding out her mother is
dying.
Passing,
Nella Larsen (novel, paperback, pub’d1929): the source of the
movie of the same name (see below), a pair of Black women meet up accidently
after a gap of 12 years, both “passing” as white, in a Chicago hotel terrace
café that doesn’t allow in people of color. The story is narrated by the woman
who lives in Harlem with her black husband and two children. The writing style
is dense and while the book isn’t very long it takes a slow read to finish.
Nobody
Will Tell You This But Me, A True (as told to me) Story, Bess
Kalb (hardback): a bit eccentric in formatting because some is done as
dialogue, some monologue, some voice mail, and most of the first half is a
mash-up of the author’s great-grandmother, grandmother, a bit of her mother,
and herself interacting with her grandmother. Thank goodness the author (a
writer for the Jimmy Kimmel show) recently had a son.
Enduring
Patagonia, Gregory Crouch (paperback, pub’d 2002): THB knows the author, a
mountain climber in his youth, and Greg reco’d this one. Lots of familiar
places (there aren’t that many places in Patagonia to visit) except for the
mountains themselves. Many moments of deep fear that accompanies high mountain
alpine climbing mixed with trying to wait for a break in the extreme weather of
the region.
Second
Place, Rachel Cusk (novel, hardback): based on Lorenzo in Taos, a
memoir by Mabel Dodge Luhan (1932, THB couldn’t finish it), this is a story of
confusing the artist with his art. Not same-same, very different. Much better:
Cusk’s Outline trilogy.
In the Something Else Category (10):
Land of Big Numbers,Te-Ping
Chen (paperback, short stories): THB never buys and reads books of short
stories. This one is an exception as it was written by a classmate of KHM. Some
good, some okay, some not so good, all in the same style, mostly set in current
day China.
The
Call of the Forest: The Wisdom of Trees (movie, streaming on Amazon): a
very slow and meditative companion to Overstory.
Threads:
Companion to the Blind Light, a British movie from 1984 about a nuclear
explosion that wipes out the city of Sheffield. Watch if you don’t mind having
nightmares or don’t watch and try not to think about those elementary school
drills of ducking under your desk (not effective).
Heaven’s
Gate: The companion to Final Cut, this is just as Bach described, a 3.5
hour monstrosity, full of long scenes that don’t really have much point, an
epilogue and prologue that are just silly, and a cast of thousands (see if you
recognize the young Jeff Bridges). Thankfully, not the 5.75 hour version and
THB only wishes the 2.5 hour version was available to stream.
The
Least Expected Day: Inside the
Movistar Team 2019 is
a documentary series on
Netflix and gives an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the riders in the
Movistar Team. The original Spanish title for the series is El Día Menos
Pensado. For cycling fans only, English subtitles that flash by quickly, and
covers the 3 Grand Tours from 2019 and 2020 (a very unusual year). Almost no
focus on anything outside the Movistar team, so don’t expect vignettes on any
other riders or teams.
Dazed and Confused (the original) and Slacker movies: A great companion set to Alright, Alright, Alright.
THB watched D&C after reading the book, and Slacker in the middle of the
book. Slacker is actually the more fascinating in THB’s opinion, a series of
barely connected scenes from the Austin weirdo community.
Philly DA, 8 part series streaming on PBS Independent Lens: progressive
defense attorney Larry Krasner wins the DA’s office election in 2018 and
proceeds to remake the DA department into a progressive organization, much to
the dismay of the office’s many fired attorneys and the FOP (Philadelphia
Fraternal Order of Police). Can an office this large be reengineered? Maybe
we’ll find out in season 2.
One Pound, Twelve Ounces, A Preemie Mother’s
Story of Loss, Hope and Triumph, Melissa Harris (paperback): A tough, honest
and deeply emotional portrayal of an infant surviving against all odds, as told
by a niece of THB. As she states in the
book as an on-going metaphor, from beginning of pregnancy to Sam’s one-year
birthday, life can be one hell of a roller coaster.
Passing:
a movie streamed on Netflix. THB saw the movie and then read the
book, which might be better done in the opposite order. Too late now. The movie
is in black and white (meant as ironic? Probably…) and the two leads are
perfectly cast (ooops, more irony?). Unusual for movies: many more scenes with
women and without men.
The Beatles: Get Back, Streaming on Disney: A documentary of a
documentary (a meta-documentary?). Almost 8 hours in 3 parts, it covers the making of the Beatless 1970 album Let It Be and draws from material
originally captured from Michael Lindsay-Hoggs 1970 documentary. THB and DB put in more hours listening to the
Beatles since Sgt Peppers was played non-stop for weeks on the stereo in the college dorm
lounge. Wraps with a concert on the roof of the new Apple Studios building.
The world’s greatest pop band turns out more pop music with a serious tone and
get alone with each other much better in this version than the 1970 version.
Not
Recommended - and high likely not finished (17):
A Saint from Texas, Edmund
White (novel, hardback): cliches and caricatures in abundance more than drowned
out two identical twins (not similar in personalities).
Divorcing, Susan
Taubes (novel, paperback, pub’d 1969): The introduction by David Rieff (son of
Susan Sontag who was the author’s best friend) and the first 70 pages are very
good. Then the main character dies and the book continues on into LaLa Land.
Metazoa,
Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind, Peter Godfrey-Smith (hardback):
the tree of life 101 set in philosophical terms.
Time of the Magicians,
Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidger, and the Decade That Reinventedd
Philosphy, Wolfram Eilenberger (hardback): three
true eccentrics and one straight arrow (Cassierer) and a lot of words with zero
meaning. This level of philosophy is almost inexplicable and most of the famous
philosophers of this period didn’t understand what these guys were saying,
hence the calling of them magicians.
Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart (novel, paperback): an unrelenting
story of a Scottish alcoholic mother ruining the lives of her three children.
THB gave this a good try, and is pretty
sure there isn’t a Hollywood ending because the start of the book takes place
10+ years after the main part of the story.
The Book of Eels, Our Enduring
Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World, Patrik Svensson (paperback, translated): a bit
oversold you might say, this is a meditation on how very little we know about
eels…when they tell you who they are, believe them. Better sub-title: the
history of how little we know, which is very little.
A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G Summers (hardback, novel): no cliché left
unsaid. Supposed to be humorous, not. A serial killer reporting from prison,
dull.
The Sun Collective, Charles Baxter (hardback, novel): when an older
couple starts talking to their pets (half-way through the book) and the pets
almost immediately start talking back, THB abandons ship (woof – OH NO! meow –
NOT AGAIN!)
Hades, Argentina, Daniel Loedel (novel, hardback): set in the time of
the disappeared, the story is narrated by a returnee who participated in the
elimination of “enemies” of the state. The narrator is so ambivalent and
wishy-washy the story barely moves.
The Final Revival of Opal and Nev,
Dawnie Walton (novel): told through a
series of interviews by a journalist, the story of how a young Black singer
from Detroit met a young red-haired singer/songwriter from England (living in
NY, each about THB’s age). THB could not get in the rhythm of the book, with
characters from each period of life popping up with short stories of
what/when/how.
Lorenzo In Taos, D.H. Lawrence and
Mabel Dodge Luhan, Mabel Dodge Luhan (pub’d 1932, I-pad):
Dodge’s letters exploring her interaction with Lawrence (just okay, too
mystical/spiritual for THB’s taste) and writings about Taos by Lawrence when he
stayed with Luhan (the writings are awful).
Unforgetting, a Memoir of Family,
Migration, Gangs and Revolution in the Americas, Roberto Lovato (paperback): The story jitters from
time frame to time frame decades apart, from personal to personal, from
repetitive to repeating itself, without making much progress. THB jumped off
about a third of the way through.
The First Day of Spring, Nancy Tucker (novel, hardback): Too much time spent
in the mind of an 8 year-old psychopath and in her mind at 28. Very redundant.
Oh William!, Elizabeth Strout (novel): THB couldn’t get past all
the self-referential narrator comments, asides, flashbacks, etc., and didn’t find William that captivating as expressed by his ex-wife (the
narrator, Lucy Barton). Lucy is no Olive Kitteridge.
A
Lonely Man, Chris Power (novel, hardback): writing about writer’s block and
having trouble making up a story? Gosh, that’s this book except the story
wasn’t made up, it was copied right from the news: an exiled Russian oligarch
is hanged in London by Putin’s thugs while working with an alcoholic
ghostwriter mid-book. Hmmmmm….this is the author’s first novel.
Albert
and the Whale, Albrecht Durer and How Art Imagines Our World, Philip
Hoare (hardback): normally THB likes an idiosyncratic view of the world,
particularly through art. Not this time. Maybe you truly have to be in the
right frame of mind to understand Durer in his times; he became famous in his
20s from woodcuts in the early 1500s. Ed. note: a print, apparently by Durer and purchased for $30 years ago, just resurfaced and its estimated worth is in the millions
Herself
Surprised, Joyce Cary (novel, pub’d 1941, now out of print): the (male) Irish
author of many novels, Herself is the first of a trilogy. Maybe THB should have
started with the last of the trilogy, a more well-known book. This one seemed
trite and old-fashioned.
Total Books:
The sort:
-
27 Top Picks: 14 non-fiction, 13 fiction; 12 male, 15 female
authors
-
41 Recommended: 17 non-fiction, 24 fiction; 15 male, 26 female
authors
-
39 Neutral: 27 non-fiction, 12 fiction; 19 male, 20 female authors
-
2 Something Else books: 1
non-fiction; 2 female authors
-
17 Not Recommended: 6 non-fiction, 11 fiction; 9 male, 8 female
authors
- 65 non-fiction, 61 novels; 55 male, 71 female (updated)
- 126 books is exactly the same as 2021 (both tied for top year all-time)
Ed. note: Looks like this table is now printing awkwardly
|
|
Total books |
Non-Fiction/ Fiction |
Top Picks NF/F |
Recommend NF/F |
Neutral NF/F |
Something Else |
Not Reco’d NF/F |
|
2021 |
126 |
65/61 |
14/13 |
17/24 |
27/12 |
1/1 |
6/11 |
|
2020 |
126 |
59/67 |
22/14 |
18/23 |
14/13 |
15 total |
5/17 |
|
2019 |
91 |
49/42 |
18 total 10/8 |
30 Total 17/13 |
25 total 14/11 |
1 total 1/0 |
17 Total 7/10 |
|
2018 |
91 |
44/47 |
15 total 8/7 |
34 Total 18/16 |
19 total 10/9 |
2 total 1/1 |
21 Total 9/12 |
|
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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