2022 Book List
Note: Kindle version unless otherwise noted. Non-fiction unless (novel)
is appended. THB switched back to Kindle mid-year as his eyes were struggling with real books.
Department
of Selection: NYT Top 25 poll cane out
and if you want to see how it compares to your personal faves, here’s the link
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. Where did THB and DB get Covid? Ironically at a Hanukah party where everyone tested negative the morning of the party....5 of 9 attendees tested positive within 5 days of attending.
Department of Analysis: Not particularly insightful and repeated so
often it is possibly a cliché: write what you know…and it has gone on for far
too long. THB will make a note (“**”) if a book on this year’s list fits this
description. And THB has stopped adding writers writing about writers and writing to his
Books To Read list.
Department of Conclusions: More
travel and weaker eyes = fewer books read this year. THB’s eyes continued to
degrade and thus he has switched back to reading mostly on the Kindle, using
bigger fonts (and a few audio books). Seems better. Another awesome indication
of an aging body.
Highly
Recommended: Top
Picks (26) in order of highest reco to lowest (and still ahead of all the rest)
In
Love, A Memoir of Love and Loss, Amy Bloom (audio,
read extremely well by the author): another one of THB's specialties, this time
dying and death. Bloom's husband of 15
years, Brian Ameche, is diagnosed with MCI - Moderate Cognitive Impairment -
the early stage of Alzheimer's, and he decides to end his life. That leads the
couple on an 8 month journey to Zurich and a company, Dignatus, that specializes
in accompanied (not quite the same thing as assisted) death. The
"customer" takes his/her own life by drinking sodium pentobarbital
after passing a series of tests and interviews. Bloom intersperses their life
together with the process of giving Brian what he wants. Especially poignant
for those of us over 65 who don't mind contemplating the end of life.
Things
Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse, Inside the Collapse of Venezuela, William Neuman: Can it happen here? Has DJT
taken the pages of his shtick/kleptocracy right from Hugo Chavez’s playbook? Is
there a cure for extreme corruption where only the top crooks live extravagant
lifestyles and everyone else starves? Is every government project is a sham and
nothing ever gets completed? Can a country of 30 million people survive on one
product (oil) that takes no collective effort to produce? Venezuela over the
last 20 years has been second only to Syria in losing population to emigration.
Will populism undermine the very nature of democracy?
The Oregon Trail, A New American Journey, Rinker
Buck (paperback, pub’d 2015): A guy in his 60s and his brother make a trip from
Missouri to Oregon in a covered wagon pulled by three mules, following the
“Oregon” Trail (not really just one set of ruts, more like a wide swath with
lots of options). As the author puts it near the end of the book: I know a
great deal more now about a seminal time in my country’s history [1830s to
1850s]. But, mostly I had indulged om a wonderful summer of romance and grit. It's
quite the tale, interspersed with stories and recollections of his father, a
big figure in life and in the author's life.
The Makioka Sisters, Junichiro Tanizaki (paperback, pub’d
1957, translated). Blurb on back cover: In Osaka in the years immediately
before WWII, four autocratic women try and preserve a way of life that is
vanishing…the story is arguably the greatest Japanese novel of the 20th
century, a poignant yet unsparing portrait of a family – and an entire society
– sliding into the abyss of modernity. THB mini-review: In over 500 pages, the
main impact of the 1930s – the rise of fascism – is barely mentioned, this is a
focus on the interpersonal dynamics of individuals and families. A rueful
meditation on the nature of procrastination.
The Betrothed**, a Seventeenth-century Milanese Story Discovered and
Rewritten, Alessandro Manzoni (novel, translated by Michael Moore, preface by
Jhumpa Lahiri, audio book - 80% and Kindle -20%, originally pub'd in 1828, new
translation pub'd in 2022, 665 pages, 22 hours and 38 minutes, read brilliantly
by Nicholas Boulton): An Italian classic updated in English by Michael Moore.
THB loved the story of a couple separated just as they were about to be married
and then lived through evil doings of a local bully, famine and the plaque in
and around Milan in the 1620s and 1630s. Even the preface and introduction are
concise and well written/read treatises on the art of translation and the
beauty of the story of the young couple. How did THB come to buy both the
e-book and audio book? The usual way, by mistake when he inadvertently bought
both versions almost simultaneously. He started with the audio book, got hooked,
and kept with it until traveling to Colombia where it was easier at times to
read the kindle version, synched, by Audible. The book is both a historical
masterpiece and justifiably an Italian classic.
In The Country of Others, Leila Slimani (novel, hardback, translated): the first book of the year is a winner! Possibly book one of a trilogy. The story of a Moroccan soldier in WWII who meets a young French woman in France, marries her and they move back to Morocco, living on an isolated farm on property owned by his father. The following years are ones of struggle, leading up to the growing insurrection in the mid-1950s of Moroccans to free themselves from being a colony of France. And, surprisingly, a traditional novel that starts at one place and chugs through time to end at another with hardly any long flashbacks, no numerous cutting back and forth, no introducing many new characters throughout: a revelation!
Crossing To Safety**, Wallace Stegner (pub’d 1987, probably his final book): DB decided
to read this and Angle Of Repose (won the Pulitzer) and supposedly it is
semi-autobiographical, about two couples that meet when the husbands are
beginning their teaching careers at the University of Wisconsin (in 1937) and
stay friends until death is soon to take hold on one of the women thirty five
years later. Stegner is a beautiful writer and the prose is exceptional: impulsive,
clear, thought provoking, and the ideas expressed are timeless. Worth a second
read, maybe two more.
How The Word Is Passed, A Reckoning With The History
Of Slavery Across America, Clint Smith
(hardback): a journalist and poet, Smith visits various “memorials” across
America (and Africa) and tries to make
sense of how the history of slavery is translated in these various spots. Each
site provokes a seemingly obvious and central thought about how we either
ignore history or make it an integral part of the stories told at these sites.
Aftermath, Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich
1945-1955, Harald Jahner: the author did
a huge amount of research and presented a fascinating look at what it was like
in Germany, mostly years 1945-1953. The last chapter is particularly relevant
to today as the Germans had the ability to somehow turn their collective
psychology from aggressors to victims. Nobody was a Nazi, nobody wanted to
acknowledge the murders of 6 million non-combatants, nobody was doing much of
anything other than scrambling to survive the devastation of their country.
After all, they were being led by an evil psychopath.
Home Made, a Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up –
and What We Make When We Make Dinner, Liz Hauck: For 3
years in the 2006-8 period, Hauck volunteers once a week for 2 hours making
dinner and dining with teen-age boys in a “half-way” house. Seems simple,
meeting the boys on their turf (they live in a house, loosely under the
guidance of a few staff members. Hauck’s dad worked for this non-profit for
around 35 years and the idea of cooking and dining was something she shared
with her dad before he passed away. Listening, showing up, imposing few “rules”
on the boys, just taking what they had to offer relates a heart-felt story.
The School For Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan (novel): A divorced mother of a toddler leaves
her daughter alone for several hours, the police are called and she ends up
losing custody and ordered by the court to attend a year-long course with a
bunch of other negligent mothers in an isolated former college. Can bad mothers
be reformed? Can behavior and talk therapy work? Can the reader get past the
unlikelihood of a “doll” taking the place of a real child? THB hopes you can…and
read the NYT article to see how this bestselling book by a female writer of
color in her 40s with no book publishing experience came to fruition, during a
pandemic no less.
Something Wild, Hanna Halperin (novel, hardback): The biggest threat to women? Men. This story about a family tragedy of domestic violence perpetrated by an abusive step-father / husband and handles the emotions in the various female characters in a straightforward way and thus feels very real: do women have power?
Mercy Street, Jennifer
Haigh (novel): another well-told tale about the biggest threat to women…MEN! A
woman from a small, poor town in Main gets through college and ends up working
in a women’s health clinic which attracts a crowd of protesters outside because
they counsel women seeking abortions. Wraps up neatly (maybe a bit too neatly)
not a full Hollywood treatment. THB still recommends Heat And Light,
another Haigh book that starts in a small town.
The Magician**, Colm
Toibin (novel): The imagined life of Thomas Mann, the German Nobel Laureate who
lived through two world wars, gay, married with six children. From Tolstoy: All happy families are alike, but every unhappy
family is unhappy in its own way. What an idiosyncratic bunch. You could spend
a lifetime reading about this family and also the books they produced. A droll
retelling with a fascinating story line: Germany in two wars, authors and their
intentions, a hint of incest, a wife that supports Thomas in his writing and
life wholeheartedly and subtly, and some time in exile near were THB grew up.
The Founders, The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley, Jimmy Soni: Four chaotic, intense years from the late 1990s to early 2000s when a few extremely young (mostly) guys were soon to be famous and wealthy as they built a start-up into a multi-billion dollar behemoth. Easy to follow with lots of snippets of interviews done years later by Soni. How many nights did this group sleep under their desks? Many! Oh, and Elon Musk got booted out at a key moment, not that it slowed him down at all or cost him mucho dinero.
The Lost Art Of Losing, Alice Zeniter (novel, translated): Mostly the story
of Algerian descendants (grandpa eldest son, granddaughter) that spans the
revolutionary period that enabled Algeria to break free of French colonization
in the 1950-60s, then brought current. Poignant, thought-provoking, and “you
can’t go home again,” literally and figuratively.
Memoirs Of A Fortunate Jew, Dan Vittorio Segre (pub’d 1987): Segre was a totally assimilated
Jewish child in the 1920s and 30s, living in rural luxury in Italy. At age 16,
his father sent him to Palestine to live on a kibbutz and escape the coming
war. At 18, he joined the British Army and ended up in the Intelligence unit.
Much is explained of the various allegiances and contradictions of the
individuals involved in this beautifully and intelligently told coming of age
story.
Life Undercover, Coming of Age in the CIA, Amaryllis Fox (paperback, short): From an early age, Fox felt
the usual do-gooder idealism, raised between UK and USA. Deciding that she
could put her ambition into saving the world from mutual destruction, after college
she joins and excels at the CIA. For 10 years she lives a dual life, including
marrying a fellow CIA agent and having a child. After leaving in 2010, she’s
still the same old do-gooder, spreading the word on how to bring peace to all.
{ed. note: the next three books make good
back-to-back-to-back companions}
Pastoral Song, A Farmer’s Journey, James Rebanks (hardback): THB loved A Shepherd’s Life, and this
book is as well beautifully written. Part a coming-of-age story working the
farm with his grandfather and part can we reverse the damage of industrial
farming with a return to more traditional (and updated) ways to blend
beneficial farming techniques and raising cattle. Is the race to provide the
billions of humans with cheap food going
to be won (on our way to 9 billion living souls) and losing the planet at the
same time?
Damnation Spring, Ash
Davidson (novel, hardback): Set in a small lumber town on the coast near the
California – Oregon border in 1977-78, a family of 3 struggles with the demise
of the lumber industry. As the big trees are logged to extinction, ecological
catastrophe is tolerated to keep the few jobs remaining intact. Pretty
depressing, and for those characters impacted, unrelentingly depressing. Stick
with it…and there’s no Hollywood ending.
Finding The Mother Tree, Discovering the Wisdom of
the Forest: Suzanne Simard (hardback): Or, put another way,
illustrating the total lack of wisdom of humans to comprehend how interrelated
and “feeling” the plant environment of the forests are, including across
species, something many (all?) scientists did not believe until Simard’s
experiments proved that it was just not competition, it was also collaboration
that enhanced evolution. Mixed in telling is her life story, fighting for a
voice at the table when women started entering the work force.
Run Towards The Danger, Confrontations with a Body
of Memory, Sarah Polley: Six essays on various aspects of the
Canadian actress, scriptwriter and film director. Reminiscent of I Am, I Am, I
Am by Maggie O’Farrell, Polley relates episodes from her life that involved
revelations about her childhood as an actor, health disasters (many), and
family relationships. Honest and bracing, it turns out THB has seen most over
everything Polley has done or been involved with since she became of adult age.
She’s very talented! If you haven’t watched Away From Her or Stories We Tell,
try and find them.
Joan Is Okay, Weike Wang (novel): A woman of Chinese descent
(born in Oakland) is clearly on the autism scale and an excellent lead ICU doctor. She is well liked by her
co-workers and struggles with her family relationships and non-hospital people.
As the Covid pandemic approaches (unknown to her), she has spent so much time
on duty that the HR department forces her to take 6 weeks off, which baffles
her. An excellent telling of how she struggles emotionally to understand her
and others motivations.
Either/Or**, Elif Batuman (novel): The narrator, a 19-year-old
Harvard sophomore of Turkish descent, is also clearly on the spectrum (it’s a
thing!). She is an aspiring novelist
majoring in Russian Lit and Batuman is brilliant at drawing what it means to be
an intellectual in the midst of a bunch of other intellectuals, dissecting and
analyzing life while having no trouble with the educational side of things.
Free Love, Tessa Hadley (novel): A family comes apart after
getting back together? A woman finds her conventional life stifling and goes
awol? Secrets kept for too long bubble to the surface? Can an old flame be
rekindled? It’s 1967 (and 68) in a suburb of London and the world is breaking
apart and Hadley brilliantly captures that unique moment in time.
The Umpire Is Out, Calling the Game and Living My
True Self, Dale Scott with Rob Neyer: Only for baseball fans
of a certain (i.e., old) age. Lots of well-told anecdotes by a former MLB
umpire. Not too much about being gay and having to cover up since Dale came out
to his family in his teens and has been living with the same guy for 35 years.
Most of the stories focus on the kerfuffle's Dale was involved with personally
and the comradery among the umps.
Recommended
(22)
Halfway Home, Race,
Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration, Reuben Jonathan Miller (hardback):
Miller is Black, a sociologist, criminologist, professor, and social worker. He
grew up in poverty and in a family well acquainted with the incarceration
system. Through vignettes and his personal story, Miller explains about the
dread that hangs over entire communities once caught in this system.
The
Plot**, Jean Hanff Korelitz (novel,
hardback): THB was thinking, enough of writers writing about what they know cuz
that just means you get to read another book about writers writing. The play
within the play (Hamlet), the death by carbon monoxide poisoning in two recent
THB reads (Overstory and The Plot), stealing a story from another writer (The
Plot). A decent who-dun-it. Sorry, no spoiler alert because you should be able
to figure this one out, the crumbs all lead to the same place.
On The Clock, What Low-Wage Work
Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane, Emily Guendelsberger (paperback, pub’d 2019, longest author’s
name ever): An out-of-work journalist goes undercover at an Amazon warehouse, a
call-center supporting AT&T, and a San Francisco McDonalds. The stories are
chilling and basically same-same but different: work non-stop for minimum wages
while computer algorithms dictate your work flow and technology measures your
every move. Make sure you read all three stories and skip the myriad footnotes.
Show compassion for every person you interface with who is one of the
stress-inducing, numbing jobs; they need the job and will put up with every
possible stressor to keep it (immense turnover is built into the hiring
practices and none of these companies does direct hiring, it is all
outsourced).
Jigsaw, An Unsentimental Education,
Sybille Bedford (a “biographical
novel”, paperback, pub’d first in
1989): If Bedford’s biography by Selina Hastings (see 2021 book list) is
accurate, much of Jigsaw, this dense story of Bedford’s early years, is also
accurate to the point of redundancy (déjà vu?). Sybille had the mother from
hell and yet it provided a basis for which all writers would be thrilled to
obtain: much fascinating material to be of use later. Appropriately titled, as
the many moving parts are placed into their respective roles.
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry (novel, paperback, pub’d 1995):
In 2021, the NYT published readers 23 top choices of the last 125 years and A
Fine Balance made the top 25 list. THB had never heard of this book or author
(THB had read many of the choices) so decided: hey, it’s only 600 pages of
small print, give it a shot. A week plus later, he made it through, captivated.
Covers the Indira Gandhi years around 1975, following the story of a 43 year-old
widow living in Bombay (unnamed) who takes in a young college student boarder
(for the rent money) and two tailors (uncle and 17 year old nephew) who work
for her making dresses, all in a small apartment. Everyone that comes on the scene gets a
thorough background story and India and its convoluted culture is the spine of
the book.
The Cellist, Daniel Silva (thriller): Reco'd by a thriller connoisseur
blog follower (BB), this is the current entry in a long series centered around
a restorer of paintings who just happens to be the head of Israeli
Intelligence. There's the usual disclaimer about "any resemblance to
actual persons...blah, blah, blah...a work of
fiction...blah...blah...blah". Set in 2019 and 2020 and right up to
Biden's ....OOOPS....some US politician is inaugurated, it is basically an
attempt to infiltrate Putin's....OOOPS....some Russian president's inner circle
while swindling the Russian guy out of a lot of money. Also a great
illustration about using "faction" to tell the story gives it a lot
of credibility. Can anyone guess who is Putin's mole at the top of the US
government (hint, first initial is D last initial is T and the middle initial
is J...the guy wants credit, right?), the same Prez that tried to pull the US
out of NATO.
Memoirs Of A
Failed Diplomat, Dan Vittorio Segre (pub’d
2005): Segre continues his memoirs, running from 1946 to mid-1967. He spent a
long-time in the Israeli Secret Service, his career hampered for many years by
a mix-up in identity. When finally cleared, Golda Meir offered him any job he
wanted. He asked for a year's leave and used it to launch his university and
journalism career before quitting. A Swami and a writing / career counselor
each play a big part in his metamorphous. Also, by explaining what happened in
the Cold War, Segre (unintentionally) explains what is happening in the Ukraine
right now and what a risky game Putin is playing.
Better
To Have Gone; Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville, Akash Kapur (hardback): Kapur and his wife grew
up in the Auroville utopian community, based in the Tamil region of India. As
teens, they knew each, then ended up staying in touch as they both went their
separate ways outside the community, ultimately marrying and having children
and moving back. Kapur spends ten years investigating the Auroville history,
with a focus on his wife's mother, Diane, and partner, John, both deceased.
And, the community continued to grow and today still exists and now has
on-going support from India's government and has become a tourist destination.
Eat
Like A Fish, My Adventures Farming the Ocean to Fight Climate Change, Bren Smith: Smith’s memoir of a life, starting
with his parents moving to Canada to evade the Viet Nam war, struggling in
school, juvenile delinquency, commercial fishing, and becoming a crusader for sustainable
reduction of climate change chaos by starting a small kelp and shellfish
ocean-based farm. Scaling up becomes the real challenge and Smith is now more
involved in spreading the word than doing the actual farming. THB has plans to
make the kelp noodle dishes described in the back of the book. Is capitalism
evil? Smith’s story would say it sure brings out the worst in humans faced with
the existential threat of too many people and bad choices on feeding them all.
The
Howe Dynasty, the Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind
Britain’s Wars for America, Julie
Flavell (hardback): A large set of siblings were intimately involved in
Britain’s unsuccessful attempts to retain the future United States of America.
Brothers served in the armed services and sisters and wives did much on the
political / social side to promote the brothers’ careers. Most likely will not
be made into a world-famous stage play.
The
Living Sea Of Waking Dreams, Richard
Flanagan (novel, paperback): largely a fictionalized version of what THB and
his siblings went through (and would’ve gone through if different decisions had
been made) when his mother went into the hospital at age 86. Alongside that is
the story of the family as narrated by the eldest living child. Flanagan is a
terrific writer, also try The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Real
Estate, A Living Autobiography**, Deborah
Levy: an interesting stroll through Levy’s life as she turns 60. Reads more
like a novel.
The
End Of Your Life Book Club, Will
Schwalbe: Looking for book recommendations beyond THB’s book list? This is the
book for you! Will and his mother spend the last two years of her life (she’s
dying of pancreatic cancer) sharing books, many of them they like. There is
fiction, non-fiction, poetry, short stories, kid books…sorry, don’t think there
are any graphic novels. Will’s mom is a saint, which THB thought just a bit
overdone except she is truly a remarkable person with a great outlook on life.
Love
Lockdown, Dating, Sex and Marriage in America’s Prisons, Elizabeth Greenwood (hardback): 6 case studies
of couples trying to make a relationship work while at least one of them is in
prison. Very illuminating on the power dynamic, the intensity, and the hope
engendered in trying to make a go of intimacy.
No
One Is Talking About This, Patricia
Lockwood (paperback, memoir as novel): THB does not know if this is a jazzy
retelling of part of Lockwood’s life, it sure reads as if the second half is as
the narrator relates a sister’s dealing with having a child that she already
knows will have a very short life.
The
Book Of Mother: Violaine Huisman (novel, hardback,
translated): short and dense, reads more like a memoir since the author uses
real names and real actions, yet who has a mother like this one? Told in 3
parts: middle, beginning, end. very much like a memoir.
The
Matchmaker, a Spy in Berlin, Paul
Vidich (novel): set just as the Berlin wall was coming down in 1989 and told
from the point of view of a woman who has realized she was living in someone
else's fantasy, none of the spy agencies come off looking all that
competent.
The
Lizard Cage, Karen Connelly (novel, pub’d 2009):
Set in a Myanmar prison overfull with political prisoners as well as criminals
during the early days of Aung San Suu Kyi’s challenge to the
military running the country. The punishment of solitary confinement with few
human interactions is brutal and yet the main character achieves “sainthood” by
finding his inner strength. Midway, the story shifts to a youngster who has
settled within the prison taking on odd jobs.
Phenotypes,
Scott Paolo (novel, translated):
almost a stream of consciousness (one long chapter) tale of two brothers, one
light-skinned (the narrator) and one dark-skinned, detailing a story of
Brazilian societal racism.
The
Book of Emma Reyes, A Memoir, Emma
Reyes (audio, translated): THB and DB listened to this one, trying to get a
feel for Colombia before our trip there. The author wrote a series of letters
to a friend looking back at her time growing up in Colombia, from about age 4
to 12. She and her older sister are abandoned and end up living in a convent.
Sad, uplifting, indicative of the value of girls in the Colombian culture.
Ocean
State, Stewart O’Nan (novel): A high
school trio gets complicates and one is killed by the other two, revealed in
the first few pages. How it happens is “entertaining” and yet THB feels that
the victim’s family is not treated well even though the other two spend time in
jail. Teen-age boys without remorse do not come off well, nor do jealous
lovers.
Skating
to Antarctica, Jenny Diski (paperback, pub’d
1997): Way more a memoir detailing her years growing up with two very
dysfunctional parents than detailing a trip to Antarctica. The Antarctica part
is very accurate, the part about her life and her parents has a lot of musing,
paths not taken, lives spent not fully lived, and poor mental health.
Neutral (19) Something of value, not
enough to actively encourage reading (or listening)
Horizontal Vertigo, A City Called Mexico**,
Juan Villoro (hardback,
translated): Many vignettes by a novelist and journalist of happenings past and
present in his hometown. Best read when in Mexico City because of the
familiarity the reader will experience.
Despite The Best Intentions, How Racial
Inequality Thrives in Good Schools, Amanda
Lewis and John Diamond (audiobook, pub’d 2015): Very academic and insightful as
to systemic racism making it very difficult to overcome racial bias throughout
the myriad school systems. And, now out-of-date because something called
Critical Race Theory has the political right challenging everything that
possibly calls out discussing this bias including banning books that might
create “shame” or “guilt” in their white children. Sooooo depressing.
Do Not Disturb, the Story of a Political
Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad, Michela
Wrong (hardback): Going back 30 years, Wrong recounts deeply the background of
the Rwandan genocide (Tutsis and Hutus), the aftermath of a small rebel force
that overthrew Uganda’s sclerotic government and then overthrew Rwanda’s
government, and the resulting infighting and intrigue between the two new
governments. Basically, Kagame, one of the original rebels, became the dictator
in Rwanda and it didn’t go well from then on.
Eyes
of the Rigel, Roy Jacobsen (novel): the
third book of a trilogy spanning the history of a Norwegian island. Really only
worth reading if you invested time with the first two books. A gender-switched
Odyssey with the need to get home again by a mother and infant trying to locate
the father of the child in the immediate aftermath of WWII.
Bibliolepsy**, Gina Apostol (novel, pub'd 1997): life in the Philippines up
to the abdication of Marcos in 1986, focuses on two orphaned sisters: the narrator
is the younger, and her life is books, sex, books, writer/poet groupie, books,
more sex, and an occasional meet-up with her older sister, a seer who predicts
Marcos' exit.
Lincoln On The Verge, Thirteen Days to Washington, Ted Widmer (paperback, pub’d 2020): Lincoln wins the 1860 election with a low plurality. There is a much longer period between the early November election and inauguration than now, and lame-duck Buchanan does nothing to prevent the South from seceding and transferring arms to the southern states. By the time Lincoln is on the train to Washington the rumors of how to prevent him from taking office are vivid and being acted on. Does this sound familiar: militia attacking him and the Capitol, and preventing election results from being validated (same process pretty much as for the 2020 election, right down to the opposing party’s VP cancelling the states’ ballot from being “accepted”).
We Are The Brennans**, Tracey Lange (novel, hardback): An Irish-American family
living about 40 minutes north of Manhattan relives secrets that drove their
sister into leaving for LA and a sequestered life. Does it all come good in the
end? Light summer reading…
Three Girls From
Bronzeville, A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate and Sisterhood, Dawn Turner (hardback): Turner became a nationally recognized
journalist, specializing in stories of individuals not usually written about
(well, except for Obama). The story of her growing up in Chicago is not
particularly enlightening, the story of what happened to her closest friend and
sister are well delineated (one redeemed, one died young). Oh, for a simple
twist of fate….
The Double Life Of Bob
Dylan, A Restless Hungry Feeling (1941 – 1966), Clinton Heylin (paperback): Really 1961 – 1965. You gotta
really be deep into Bob to get through, and if you are deep there are some
great insights due to more back info in the newly released archives. The boy
genius could sure write and construct songs on the fly. Lots of them. Many
really good.
The Almost Legendary
Morris Sisters, A Tale True Story of Family Fiction, **, Julie Klam (hardback): A relatively short book that would
have been more appropriate as a magazine article. Klam spent 3 years
not-so-well researching the story of relatives, the 4 Morris sisters.
Condensed, the findings take up less than 20 pages (10?) of information. More
time is spent describing her ineptness and the fiction of her family (i.e., all
families create fictions of their eccentricities and puff up what are mostly inaccuracies
of importance).
The Last One**, Fatima Daas (novel, translated, paperback): The main
character and narrator is named Fatima Daas. Every one of the many chapters in
this short book starts with the phrase “My name is Fatima.” A gay girl, barely
able to talk, horribly introverted, is the last daughter of a Muslim family
having moved from Algeria to France. Wrought with anxiety is the major theme.
Flying
Blind, The 737 Max Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing, Peter Robison: more than half the book is on
the history of Boeing. The fatal flaw: the shift from an engineering-centric
company to a financially-led behemoth. Doesn’t end well either for the two
planes and passengers that crashed shortly after take-off due to a mis-designed
MCAS and the company that thought skimping on design specs, testing, the
benefits of the FAA overseeing new instruments and eliminating pilot training
would work out well for their profit margins. Also, the new finance leaders
were Jack Welch disciples. It worked out for them if you just measure by
income.
The
Hidden Case Of Ewan Forbes, and the Unwritten History of the Trans Experience, Zoe Playdon (hardback): Intermixing the life
story of the Brit Ewan Forbes and his legal story that the British government
kept secret for over 50 years (to not entangle the outcome with royal
succession traditions), and the last 75 years of the trans “experience” (mostly
of cruelty and lack of civil rights), Haydon is no innocent bystander, which
“side” she is on is made very clear.
Brothers
On Three: A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in
Montana, Abe Streep (hardback): a small
group of talented basketball players come together under an aggressive coach
and have state title aspirations. As told by a NYT journalist who imbeds with
the team and their families (really one large family as almost everyone living
on the reservation is related in one way or another), and explains the pressure
the boys are under to achieve the entire school and community goals. Is there
racism in Montana colleges when it comes to recruiting athletes of Indian
descent? Is depression inherent in the underserved and more in poverty than
most?
LaserWriter
II, Tamara Shopsin (novel): Based on an
Apple product repair store (must be legendary in NYC), the book is light, and
superlight as THB started skipping the pages where the computer and printer
parts talk to each other. THB hopes some
day to visit the restaurant run by Shopsin’s family, Shopsin’s General Store.
THB highly recommends another book by Shopsin: Arbitrary Stupid Goal. Maybe
Shopsin will be filling in as a chef.
The
Steal, the Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It,
Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague:
Only for those who didn’t pay any attention to the post-election follies initiated
by the guys who brought you MAGA magic. Otherwise, it is pretty redundant with
what happened in 4 or 5 swing states. Even worse, these same participants are
back for more election disabling with a lot more friends this time. Will they
be armed?
Southern
League, a True Story of Baseball, Civil Rights, and the Deep South’s Most
Compelling Pennant Race, Larry
Cotton (pub’d 2013): author of another THB admired book, Goat Brothers, and a
former ballplayer, Cotton covers a minor league season in Birmingham, Alabama.
The year is 1964, and a local owner of the Birmingham Barons decides to
re-start minor league baseball in a city deeply troubled by racism. He gets
Charlie Finley, owner of the KC A’s (later to become the Oakland A’s), to be
his major league team sponsor. Focused on five players on the now-integrated
team and the first-year manager, you should be a baseball fan and need a
remedial lesson on what people of color face in everyday life to find in
enjoyable. Every chapter starts with a banal cliché, which drove THB crazy!
The
Furrows, An Elegy, Namwali Serpell (novel): an NYT
2022 top ten book, it was a bit to unreal for THB. Liked the main female
character / narrator and then halfway through the POV switched to a young male
character / narrator that seemed a bit too cliché/cliché-filled and THB lost
the thread.
There
Are No Dead Here: A Story of Murder and Denial in Colombia, Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno (Audio,
translated): Unusually, the narrator did not enhance this book, it was flat and
fairly tedious. On the other hand, it was an accurate rendering of the state of
Colombia over the last 40 year: corruption, a four-way battle by four
well-armed groups, and on courageous journalist who had no trouble finding the
next big story to report on. Is the current state of peace a mirage or
something more permanent. Certainly the Colombian economy is way more balanced
than in its neighbor, Venezuela.
The Something Else Category (11):
The
Tragedy of Macbeth: Will
Shakespeare (play, paperback, heavily annotated): THB read the play after
watching the streaming version. Best to read it or the scene summary version
before watching. Or, read after and then watch the streaming version again.
(streaming)
The Tragedy of Macbeth: on Apple TV+. Extraordinary staging and
cinematography. THB and DB saw the impact of MC Escher on this production. The
cast is excellent. Highly Recommended
The
Weird Sisters? Make That The Twisted Sister: New Yorker profile of
Kathryn Hunter, who plays all the witches and a few more parts in Macbeth.
North
By Northwest, The Jewelry of Laurie Hall, Susan Cummins and Damion
Skinner (soft cover, large format): another beauty, featuring a Pacific
Northwest jewelry artist with mostly highlighted pieces from the mid-1980s to
early 1990s. Laurie had a way of turning jewelry made from everyday objects
into a pun with a wry sense of humor as well as a handsome piece of wearable
art. Particularly good for the vignettes of Hall intersecting with other
Northwest artists. Highly Recommended, especially for jewelry art makers
and collectors.
(streaming)
Last Chance U, Seasons 1 thru 5: on Netflix, seasons 1 and 2 take place at East
Mississippi Community College, seasons 3 and 4 at Independence Community
College (in Kansas) and season 5 at Laney College (in Oakland). This is an
in-depth look at football at the junior college level. Not just a sports
program, there is a look at the education level of the athletes (not high) and
the coaches view of how to get the most out of the players (not particularly
inspiring). Not pretty, and very illuminating. Recommended
(streaming)
The American Sector: a couple of
documentarians tour the US visiting sites where pieces of the Berlin Wall are
on display. Highly Recommended (if idiosyncratic) for you art
lovers
(streaming)
The Nuclear Family: on HBO, a three-part
documentary focused on a lesbian couple who start a family in the 1980s and
allow one of the sperm donors access to his biological child. That child grows
up to make this series, a fantastic insider look at the issues raised when
“dad” want to increase his visitation access and sues for that privilege. Highly
Recommended
(streaming)
Station Eleven, nine-part on HBO MAX, based on
the terrific book of the same name. This version, the play-with-the-play
concept, jiggles back and forth around the release of a virus that kills off
almost all humankind and mostly settles around 20 years later in upstate
Michigan where a few bands of people have survived. Of course, there are people
in some of the bands who knew each other “before”. Given the times we live in
now, a Hollywood ending when few humans survived actually makes sense, right? Recommended
(podcast) Name. Age. Detail, from
This American Life: Ten people were killed at a grocery store in Buffalo,
NY. Their stories as you’ve never heard them. TAL found writers to dig into the
lives of the people profiled heard. Gives a more extensive way of honoring
those who died than just listing their basic information. And, their stories
are remarkable. Highly Recommended
(streaming) Undeclared War, British
six-part series set in 2024, detailing a successful attempt by the Russkies,
misusing social media, fake TV, and cyber skills to undermine British
democracy. Who does best at trying to foil this effort: college interns! As the
Mothers of Invention sang so many years ago: it can’t happen here….well, yes it
can! Recommmended
(streaming) The Vow, two
seasons, on HBO-Max, the story of how one man’s sex drive brought down NXIVM, a
human potential company that helped train 17,000 participants. And, of course,
this fell right into THBB’s definition of a cult: the top guy wants to screw
all the women. SEVENTEEN THOUSAND? No, just the ones in and around the head
office (a house in Clifton Park, NY. Highly Recommended, though only if
you stick with the entire two seasons.
(straming) The Patient, 10 episodes on Hulu. Strap on your big-boy and big-girl pants and hang on to your remotes, this thriller is chilling. Yeah, sure, what can go wrong in therapy? If you are the therapist, being kidnapped and locked up in the basement trying to help a serial killer get in touch with his deep-rooted anger can go south in a hurry. Highly Recommended, don't watch after the sun goes down.
Not Recommended - and high likely not
finished (14):
The
Fortune Men, Nadifa
Mohamed (novel, hardback): A fictionalized version of a true story from the UK
in the early 1950s; a Somali man is unjustly accused of murdering a shopkeeper
and executed for the crime. Unfortunately, the story sags badly as the man is
kept in prison and the British justice system grinds away.
The Other Black Girl**, Zakiya Dalila
Harris (novel, hardback): Another book
about writing, this time told from the inside of a publishing house. THB didn’t
make it very far: nothing was happening except a lot of cliches dealing with
jealousy of position and status.
The Holly, Five Bullets, One Gun, and the
Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood, Julian Rubinstein
(hardback): Unfortunately, for THB there was way too much gang ancient history
in Denver and Los Angeles, and too much detailed family histories of those
involved in the current shooting that set off the author’s investigation.
The Maidens, Alex
Michaelides (murder mystery, hardback): some books are a mash-up, and this one
is really mashed up: Greek mythology, psycho-drama, Cambridge (England) pretty
co-ed murders, group therapy, family dysfunction, odd coincidences, and almost
total absence of police detectives. And, sadly, THB read the whole book.
The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann (novel, pub'd 1924, translated): THB downloaded
the free version, all 720 pages. He made it to around page 75: one cousin has
been at a tuberculosis clinic in the Swiss Alps for six months and the other
cousin has come to visit for three weeks. It is still day one of the visit, and
life is already too repetitious for THB. Is it a farce? Mann's wife was in a
similar institution for over 6 months and Mann came to visit her. THB decides
to move on. Nobel prize winner's most famous book
Appleseed, Matt Bell
(novel, hardback): THB now suffers from periods of delusion. What else could
explain adding this book to his list. A faun is stealing apple seeds? On page
1? This is toooooo dystopian even for THB. And, it is mentioned in paragraph
one of the NYT book review. ARGHHHHHH.
A Shock, Keith Ridgway
(novel, paperback): supposedly interconnected stories that make up a novel. THB
makes it through 3 stories that have nothing to do with each other and aren’t
all that interesting.
Paris Is A Party, Paris Is A Ghost**, David Hoon Kim
(novel, hardback): a long-term student going nowhere, not doing much, no
thesis, and much melancholy and more of a go-with-the-flow nowhere.
This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends,
the Cyberweapons Arms Race, Nicole Pelroth (hardback): THB almost didn’t add
this book to his list of books to read and then almost didn’t buy the book when
it hit the top of his list. After all, what more can you say about cyberweapons
that isn’t obvious or overdetailed? Not much…and the people who work in this
field are relatively uninteresting obsessives with no life, and can’t really
talk about their work.
Heaven, Mieko Kawakami
(novel, translated, hardback): 14-year-old angst and bullying and a heavy dose
of moroseness. Not a great combination.
The Last House On Needless Street, Catriona Ward
(novel, hardback): THB is getting old. How did THB put this book on his to-read
list? Ghosts? Talking cats? ARGHHHHHHHH!
Lost In The Valley Of Death, A Story of
Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas, Harley Rustad: Well, not really a book, more like a
short story about a lost 30 something guy with no direction home and a lot of
padding…a lot of padding.
The Torqued Man, Peter Mann
(novel): too simplistic a story set in 1943 Europe, espionage told through
journals and cliches.
In The Shadow Of The Mountain, a Memoir
of Courage, Silvia
Vasquez-Lawado: THB found this tale of a woman mountaineer somewhat disjointed
and a shade too melancholic, and eventually gave up before Silvia made it to
the top of Everest (if she did succeed). Climbing to the summit is not an easy
task and the author made it even more difficult…does that translate to courage?
Total Books:
The sort:
-
26 Top Picks: 13 non-fiction, 13 fiction; 12 male, 14 female
authors
-
22 Recommended: 11 non-fiction, 11 fiction; 11 male, 11 female
authors
-
19 Neutral: 13 non-fiction, 6 fiction; 10 male, 11 female authors
(two books had two authors)
-
1 Something Else book: 1 non-fiction, 1 male, 1 female author (the
book had two authors)
-
14 Not Recommended: 10 non-fiction, 4 fiction; 8 male, 6 female
authors
-
48 non-fiction, 34 novels; 42
male, 43 female
|
|
Total books |
Non-Fiction/ Fiction |
Top Picks NF/F |
Recommend NF/F |
Neutral NF/F |
Something Else |
Not Reco’d NF/F |
|
2022 |
82 |
48/34 |
13/13 |
11/11 |
13/6 |
1/0 |
10/4 |
|
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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