2023 Annual Book List

 

2023 Annual Book List

Full descriptions

{ed. notes: This section is included in all three 2023 Book List posts.  Feel free to skip ahead to the actual list if you've looked at one of the other posts}

Note: Kindle version unless otherwise noted (Kindle stopped being an option for THB mid-year and is no longer used). Non-fiction unless (novel) is appended.

Department of Supply: THB found two viable options for ordering audio books (there are others, THB just doesn’t have experience with them)

1.    libro.fm Purchase books and download them to your listening device (THB uses his smart phone + Bluetooth hearing aids). You can designate a bookstore (East Bay Books for THB) to get some remuneration passed back to the book store by libro.com. (THB used to download from audible.com, then it was bought by Amazon, which THB prefers to avoid - not easy to do!)

2.    libby.com Download books for free! You access the public library’s audio/print catalogs by getting a library card and entering it on the libby.com site (THB uses both the Berkeley and Oakland libraries). Once you get used to this site, you can place a book on hold if there is a backlog of readers waiting to download a copy, then download when notified of availability. This works well when you have a series of books on hold for different lengths of time – the site keeps you informed when approximately the book will be available to you.

3.   Other choices: Let THB know of other places that you like to use for downloads. Also let THB know of audiobooks you particularly enjoyed – current or golden oldies!

 

Department of Analysis:  

·      What’s the difference between sitting in a chair reading a book versus sitting in a chair listening to an audio book? Reading: your eyes get tired and you stop. Listening: you close your eyes and fall asleep or lose focus. Fortunately, audiobooks come with a couple of nice features: you can bookmark often and/or you can set a timer to turn off the audiobook (THB uses this feature with the timer usually set to 10 or 15 minutes).

·      What’s the difference in listening and reading? There are some obvious ones: the author’s voice is pre-eminent in reading and the narrator’s voice is when listening (a number of authors narrate their own books, which THB thinks is often a mistake); it is a lot easier to go backwards or skip ahead when you are reading; you can listen more often than you can read (like when dog walking); you can speed up the narration (THB always goes very fast when listening to magazine articles and more so with non-fiction than novels); not all books are available in audio, especially older books or translated books.

·      THB doesn’t have a choice: reading a book or magazine or newspaper is now a thing of the past for THB. We are blessed to live in an era of technology where there are now lots of options.

·      Bluetooth is terrific. Only downside is that DB used to be able to tell if THB was reading (kindle or mag or newspaper appeared to be held up in front of his face) or sleeping. With Bluetooth hearing aids she can’t tell if he is sleeping or listening.

·      THB was so thrilled to find out he could play the audio at different speeds (always faster than normal) that he included the speed in his reviews. After a while it became redundant…just assume that THB was going at 1.2x or greater most of the time unless otherwise noted.

·      Prices are higher for audio books than e-books. Had back books are about the same price as audio books, paperback are about the same as e-books. Audio books from public libraries are free. THB bought e-books for a long time (especially good for travelers and/or living in two locations). This year the vast majority of audio books were purchased and for the foreseeable future will be the main source of THB’s book consumption.

·       By the numbers: 138 books, 82 non-fiction, 56 novels, 74 audiobooks. THB ran out of novels during the year, picked up again after NYT released its top books of the year. Audiobooks are the new trend, THB is not doing much “reading” anymore. Who knows, by the time the end of 2024 comes around THB will be dictating his book list.

  

Highly Recommended: Top Picks (32) in order of highest reco to lowest (and still ahead of all the rest) 21 non-fiction, 11 novels, 21 audio

{ed. note: The Country Of The Blind was almost the last book "read" in 2023 and Independent People was almost the first book "read",  probably a coincidence. Not a coincidence: both were audio books}

The Country Of The Blind, a Memoir at the End of Sight, Andrew Leland (audio narrated by the author): At first, THB was reminded of his initial months of Necrotizing Myositis (now under control), then it became much more current as THB (and Leland) are gradually losing eyesight. Leland touches on many topics: the history of aids for the blind (or near blind), the intersection of being blind with other disabilities, and finally placing the lessons he  is learning in how to deal with losing sight altogether. In addition, much of the historical stuff means coming to Berkeley for research and overlaps with THB's knowledge of local Bay Area culture. 

Independent People, Halldor Laxness (novel, translated by J.A. Thompson, pub'd in English in 1997, audio read by Michael Page). Fabulous saga set in rural Iceland in the late 1800s through WWI. The narrator is above and beyond, all 20+ hours. The main character is a sheep farmer who is so independent he won't even borrow or accept gifts, eventually buying land outright and raising a family. Laxness won the Nobel Prize in 1955 and this book alone was worth receiving the award. 

Notes On A Silencing, A Memoir, Lacy Crawford (audio read by the author, pub’d in 2020): now 48, Clarkson takes a deep look back at her sexual assault while a student age 15 at St Paul’s prep school in New Hampshire.  Articulate and honest, Crawford uses the best way to “out” the school as an institutional bully - especially when dealing with girls as most boys get a pass – by circumventing the legal system, the patriarchy, the criminal justice system by owning her own past. Women and girls often get erased by shame and slander, and here are some other reco’s by THB: a Serial podcast, The Retrievals, about women in pain and Yale’s ability to debase them over and over and I Have Some Questions, a novel by Rebecca Makkai.

Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh (novel, book 1 of the three-part Ibis Trilogy, audio brilliantly narrated by Phil Gigante, pub'd in 2008): This saga starts in 1838 while India is in the throes colonization as the source of opium leading up to the upcoming British opium wars with China. The main characters (and there are maybe 8 or 9 of them, one of whom is based on the author's great-great-grandfather), are brought together on the Ibis as they and others are being transported to Mauritius to work on plantations or man the ship.  THB dares you to put it down mid-book and, if you keep going, double-dares you to not go immediately on to Book 2 (with a new narrator and not near as much action, much more talkie-talkie). Maybe better to go to Book 3.

The Hours, Michael Cunningham (novel pub’d in 1998, read beautifully by the author): an intimate interwoven look at three women of different generations, short and emotionally very powerful.

Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig (novel, pub 1974, afterword added in 1984, audio pub’d in 2003, narrated wonderfully by Michael Kramer): THB has read this book twice and listened to it twice, approximately every 12 years or so. It is a book steeped in philosophy, about a cross-country journey by a father and son taking what each thinks may be their final trip together.

Sea People, The Puzzle of Polynesia, Christina Thompson: The author, married to a Māori man, digs deeply into the history of the diaspora of Polynesians and in so doing really has written a meta-book about the human need to explain things (though not all humans share this trait). How did a population of people become the dominant genetic group across a huge expanse of the Pacific Ocean, from Hawaii to Easter Island to New Zealand?  

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions, Jonathan Rosen (narrated by the author): A detailed and intimate look at mental illness, focused on Rosen's childhood friend who suffers from schizophrenia and in 1998 killed his pregnant partner with a knife. The epilogues is a tremendous articulation of the rights of the individual and of society  when dealing with the conflicting goals of safety and personal expression.  

The Center Cannot Hold, My Journey Through Madness, Elyn Saks (narrated by Alma Cuevo): the companion book to The Best Minds, a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia overcomes her illness to become a lawyer (at Yale), studied philosophy in England, an honored professor at USC, an advocate for those diagnosed with mental illness, and an authored books and legal briefs, all the while being treated with talk thereby and medications while suffering hallucinations of grandiosity and violence. Sometimes redundant (feeling good, going off meds and becoming delusional, back on meds), overall enlightening about what can only be seen as a unique example of overcoming debilitating adversity.

The Deluge, Stephen Markley (novel, audio narrated by a large cast): another giant dystopian novel covering 2020 to 2040, and Markley has seen the future and it is murder. The main characters are members of either a non-violent group or one advocating violence in  an effort to deal more directly with climate change. Basically, there will be no real movement on reducing carbon generation into the atmosphere until real suffering is inflicted on the US. January 6 will soon look like a footnote.

 Songs Of Achilles, Madeline Miller (novel, pub’d 2011, brilliantly narrated by Frazer Douglas): The love of Achilles and Patroclus, boyhood friends and companions in the Trojan wars, as narrated by Patroclus (in life and the after-life).

Free, A Child and a Country at the End of History, Lea Ypi: As told by a girl growing up in Albania before and after the fall of the Soviet Union. Before: her parents and grandmother kept their dissident past from her. After: chaos predominated as Albania tried to move to become a “member of Europe” with none of the tools available to them for a successful transition. Can this child actually have grown up to teach Marxism at a uni in London?

We Don’t Know Ourselves, A Personal History of Modern Ireland, Fintan O’Toole: The author, a journalist, was born in Ireland in 1958. Most of the book covers the author’s life span and is an intimate look at what is really a small island, analyzing the relationship between politicians and the Catholic church hierarchy. As always is the case in patriarchies, it doesn’t go well for women.

Stay True, a Memoir, Hua Hsu (audio narrated by the author): Hsu relates his story starting as a teenager through entering graduate school at Harvard, the only child of Taiwanese immigrants. He goes to UC Berkeley as an undergrad in the 1990s and focuses on the relationship with his closest friend, Ken, (whose family immigrated from Japan several generations ago).  Hsu lives the non-conformist life seemingly by choice, and is a lost intellectual. Ken is an extrovert. Not only does THB recognize all the locales, Hsu lived in the same apartment building THB did 55 years ago.

The Covenant Of Water, Abraham Verghese (novel, read by the author): THB’s first audio library book, downloaded using the Libby app. The book is very long, maybe too long to be highly recommended if in print as some parts of the book seemed a bit flat. THB listened mostly while watching the baseball playoffs and this worked very well.  Over 7 decades of the early 1900s, the story follows a family beset by an unusual affliction that is passed down genetically. Takes place in the parts of India that THB and DB (and BH, DR and MR) visited in early 2009 (chronicled in the first entries in TravelsofTHB). From the Jan 11, 2009 blog post: the 7th century AD 100 foot long rock carving … can be seen as emerging from the rock or melding back into the rock. If you get a chance, make sure you visit the caves; THB wishes the carvings were in the loft!

The Great Fire, Shirley Hazzard (novel, pub’d 2003, narrated by Virginia Leishman): A biography of Hazzard was released this year and, while awaiting its audio release, THB decided to listen to one of Hazzard’s best books. It is really good, though THB was disappointed in the Hollywood ending. Now on to the biography…

When The Heavens Went On Sale, The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach, Ashlee Vance (thrillingly narrated by Robert Petkoff ): Vance had written a biography of Elon Musk (the richest man in the world) and this time takes on four start-ups trying to reach low orbit space with “small” rockets (aka as large missiles). One off the start-ups is on a former naval base less the 20 minutes from the loft, and another one based in New Zealand employees the son-in-law of a long-time friend who reco’d this book (he works out of the LA office, our friends live in SF).    

A Fortune-Teller Told Me:  Earthbound Travels in the Far East, Tiziano Terzani (possibly translated, English version first pub'd in 1997): An Italian journalist working for Der Spiegel (German mag), is given a prophecy in the 1980s by a Chinese fortune-teller that he will be involved in an airplane crash in 1993. The year comes and he decides, while living in Bangkok, to heed the warning and spends the year traveling around Asia and eastern Europe and Russia by boat, train, and other earthbound conveyances. His mantra mirrors Ogden Nash: progress was okay in its day, and now it has gone on for far too long. Cultures are being swallowed by capitalism.

Strangers To Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us, Rachel Aviv (audio, narrated by Andi Arnodt): A NY'er contributor explains how much influence a "diagnosis" has in determining how an "illness" is treated. Aviv was diagnosed with anorexia when she was six. Both a historical and personal review of individuals (and supporting interviews with their offspring, relatives, friends, doctors, etc.) who had been categorized and then recovered.

Raven Smith’s Men, Raven Smith (audio by the author in a breathless rush of consciousness at an average of 1.2x which is like 1.5 for most audio books): A gay man tells his life story through the various emotions and actions interacting with a lot of men, many men, many fucking men – mostly gay – and a bit about his mother and father, divorced when he was 8 or so. THB’s research: Raven is a British cultural columnist British Vogue and – especially if THB listened to the book enough times at less than rushing, gushing speed – opened THB to a cultural scene he knows almost nothing about.

I’m Glad My Mom Died, memoir, Jennette McCurdy: a true horror story. Mom is an extreme case of living through her daughter, and not in a good way. Jennette was a child TV star (iCarley? Sam and Cat? Streaming on Nickelodeon). How bad was it? Ranking about 5th on list: her first real love announces one day he was Jesus Christ. It’s a very tough read, and yet…you can’t turn away from the train crash. And Grandma was a piece of work also!

The Physician, Noah Gordon (novel, pub in 1986): over 850 pages about a boy orphaned in London in the eleventh century apprenticed to a traveling barber-surgeon (who makes his money selling an alcoholic elixir in small villages all over England. The boy has a deep love of curing others and travels to Persia to learn from the best physicians of the day. Heavy on religious history and some of the constraints between doctors and religious beliefs still ring true today. Also made into a movie in 2013 (THB has not watched it yet).

We Do What We Do In The Dark, Michelle Hart (novel): A coming of age story for a young woman in her first year of college. She has an affair with an older woman and they part ways when the older woman’s husband comes back from teaching at another school, then reconnecting briefly 5 years later. Hart’s style is mesmerizing and reads as very truthful as the young woman lives the examined life.

True Biz, Sara Novic (novel): Novic is the author of a 2015 fave of THB’s, A Girl At War. True Biz is a nicely detailed story of a deaf teenager suffering from a terrible Cochlear implant, an egocentric mother disappointed in having an “imperfect” daughter, and the last year of a boarding school for deaf kids (Novic is deaf and a college professor). Interspersed are lesson of how to sign in American Sign Language, Wikipedia entries of mostly unknown people and events from deaf history. Big lesson: don’t trust those who are making money off implants! THB is always amazed at what we do to children in the US, our “greatest asset.”

Dead In The Water, A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy, Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel (audio, read by Derel Perkins): Well narrated, a easy-to-understand story from 12 years ago of a hijacked ship with excellent explanations of the shipping industry, the crooks who pull of the insurance fraud, how Lloyds of London works, how the British courts work, and how easy it is to forget the main victim (i.e., the guy sent out to survey the damage on the ship who is shortly thereafter killed by a car bomb).

The Nutmeg’s Curse, Parables For A Planet In Crises, Amitav Ghosh (audio, narrated by Sam Dast): If a bit too repetitive, this book collapses colonialism, capitalism, neo-fascism, European domination, and the inability of environmentalists to stop global warming, and about 5 other things, into a call for action. It will be hard to stop 400+ years of futility. Here’s one example: who is the biggest (by far) in the US creating a change in the planet from use of carbon-based fuels. Gosh, the Pentagon, something THB railed against 55 years ago…the military-industrial complex. Well read by Sam Dastor, using a compelling “we’re all in this mess together, are you listening” tone.

Crying In H Mart, a Memoir, Michelle Zaumer (audio, narrated by the author @1.1x): Zauner is multi-talented: lead singer of a band called Japanese Breakfast, essayist, songwriter, guitarist, and a Korean chef and foodie and now an author. THB doesn’t know what this book “looks” like since he has only heard the audio version: maybe full of recipes, Korean language lessons, song lyrics…who knows! The book is focused on Zauner’s relationship with her mother and especially how the two were at odds throughout Zaumer’s teen years, and they only reconciled during the last year of mom’s life as she suffered from cancer. 

The Boys, Katie Hafner (novel): a mid-thirties man on the spectrum repeats a biking trip in Italy with foster twins after he and his wife separate. There is a great section where the guides for the bike trip are describing how they categorize the bikers that made THB rethink how the guides on his man tours might have seen him and his fellow tourists (and not always in a good way). And it takes place in the time of Covid and, for those in the Covid information seeking group, Hafner is married to Bob Wachter, head of UCSF Medicine. 

I Have Some Questions, Rebecca Makkai (novel): Another excellent book by the author of The Great Believers (NYT top 10, Pulitzer Prize finalist), this time set in a high school level boarding school out in the boonies (familiar territory for Makkai, she lives on a similar campus along while teaching at two universities). This is a whodunit story, long and engaging. As THB continues to read about and hear about, the biggest danger to women (or girls) are men (or boys).

 The Forgotten Girls, a Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America, Monica Potts: If you liked Strangers In Their Own Land by Arlie Hochschhild, this book is same-same except different. Potts actually grew up in a small town in very rural Arkansas, was the top student in her class and, with her mother’s strong support, left for college at Bryn Mawr, and about 20 years later decided to document what had happened to her best friend and the town they grew up in. THB believes that staying in a Red state dooms you to poorer health, worse education, and lower income than those fortunate to “escape” or already be in a Blue state. Potts does an excellent job of showing this by humanizing the people she left behind.

Raising Them Right, the Untold Story of America’s Ultraconservative Youth Movement and Its Plot for Power, Kyle Spencer (audio, narrated by the author at 1.1x): Another way the under-registered Republicans put their conservate views front and center for their followers. They do a better job of focusing their messages and training he messengers.

Mr.B, George Balanchine's 20th Century, Jennifer Homans (narrated by Cassandra Campbell): THB doesn’t know a lot about ballet and yet found this long book a historical pleasure. Mr. B was born in Russia, barely survived WW1 and the Russian revolution, made it to America and after a number of years was a co-founder of the New York City Ballet company and rose to international fame. Born at the right time, he would now be known as a sexual predator of young dancers, using his power to get close to (and often marrying) young women, all of whom found their careers boosted dramatically.

Recommended (42):  21 non-fiction, 21 novels, 32 audio

The Return Of Faraz Ali, Aamina Ahmad (novel): mostly a Pakistani saga: a brothers goes missing, his mostly hidden (from him) father calls him back to Lahore to bury the case of the shooting of a virgin prostitute in the red light district. In the late 1960s was it still a thing for prostitutes to auction of their virgin daughters? In the background is the independence of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and the resulting brutality for control. 

Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices From the Afghanistan War, Svetlana Alexievich (audio, pub'd 1992, aka Boys in Zinc - coffins - narated by Christine Marshall): Stories as told by the men and women who served in Afghnaistan and/or their relatives. The combatants were clearly deceived by the Soviet government; this may well turn out be the foretelling of the Ukrainian 2022 inversion and  the similar tales of how unprepared the soldiers were for war. 

The Tenth Island, Finding Joy, Beauty, and Unexpected Love in the Azores, Diana Marcum: THB inadvertently left this book off the 2022 Book List. A wonderful story of how researching the story of the Portuguese migration from the Azores to the California Central Valley led Marcum, a journalist, to follow the trail backwards to the Azores. 

Fellowship Point, Alice Elliott Dark (audio, narrated by Cassandra Campbell): First the specs. This book is read very slowly and the elapsed time is 19 hours. THB almost gave up and then used a trick suggested by LB and sped up the narration to 1.2 times, which was closer to normal speech (and thus also shortened the book). That worked very well. The story is also unusual, focused on the friendship of two women in three stages of life: childhood, their 40s and their 80s. Most of the plot deals with the well-known author of the two, and the property they (and three other families) share on the Maine coast. In the middle of the book a tragedy/accident occurs and yet it is hardly mentioned thereafter. 

Bad City, Peril and Power in the City of Angels, Paul Pringle (audio, narrated by Robert Petkoff): A journalist at the struggling and shrinking LA Times in 2016 is working on a story of drugs and depravity by a high ranking doctor in the USC school of medicine when he starts to realize his publisher and the number 2 ranking executive are side-tracking stories dealing with USC. This is the classic story of the low-level employee turning the tables on those in power, in this case bringing two organizations to task.

Bitter Orange Tree, Jokha Alrarthi (novel, translated by Marilyn Booth): a 20-yea- old going to college in London recounts her family history, focused on her “grandmother” (family identities are more fluid in Arabic countries). Lyrical (great translation?) and how disorienting it can be when you are living a life your family cannot envision and probably wouldn’t condone. 

Surrender, 40 Songs, 1 Story, Bono (audio, read by Bono): Probably a highly reco’d book if you are familiar with and a fan of U2. Otherwise, it is mostly a memoir with Bono revealing his inner emotions throughout and trying to persuade many famous people to support many good causes. Major event: mom died when Bono was 14, leaving his dad and older bro to be his core family. Spoiler alert: Bono had a half bro that he didn’t know about until late in life. Happened before his mom died, as dad wandered.

The Daughters Of Yalta, the Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War, Catherine Grace Katz (audio, read by Christine Rendel): Each of these key members of their respective negotiating teams decides to bring a daughter to help provide and manage his comfort while the conference is held in in the Crimea for 8 days. The Russians do their best (unsuccessfully) to provide comfort and out-fox (very successful) the near-death Roosevelt and the astute Churchill (Harriman is the US’s ambassador to Moscow).

The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, a Murder, and an Unlikely Fight For Justice, Benjamin Gilmer: a gruesome coincidence leads one of the Dr. Gilmers to research why the other Dr. Gilmer murdered and mutilated his own father. The murderer and the author share more than the same profession, they practiced at the same rural clinic, they also shared a deep commitment to serving the underserved. For a shorter and almost current report, even though released in 2013, listen to episode 492 of This American Life. It’s reported by Sarah Koenig; she went on to Serial fame (and that crime has had recent updates for Syed as well).

Rough Draft, a Memoir, Katy Tur (audio, read by the author): If you listen, Recommended. If you read it to yourself, maybe Neutral. The journalist, author, and TV news show lead, Katy has quite a family story to relate. Her first book was about the 510 days following DJT’s run to the White House, so this one is more personal. She grew up with parents who became famous for trail-blazing the live news coverage from a helicopter flying over LA (remember OJ’s ride through the LA freeways…that was brought to you by the Tur’s).

The Last White Man, Mohsin Hamid (novel): another interesting dystopian novel from Hamid. Would the world be different if we are all the same (brown) color?

Nightcrawling, Leila Motley (audio, narrated by Joniece Abbott-Pratt): A very young author fictionalizes the Oakland 2015 police scandal where officers were corrupting under-age girls (mostly) of color to have sex with them and others in the police force. Takes place in proximity to where THB lived for 38 years such that THB recognized many of the locations (okay, not the ones in the poorest parts of Oakland, just close by).

The Instant, Amy Liptrot: Only 135 pages, so the title is very accurate. Amy spends a year in Berlin doing what most people do in Berlin: hang out, fall in love with the city, people watch, try and meet people, earn just enough to survive on the cheap. All seen through Amy’s recovering-from-alcohol addition, lots of (most of the book) discussing urban wildlife, traffic islands, an intense love affair, plus a few excellent poems scattered throughout.

The Latecomer, Jean Hanff Korelitz (novel, possibly the last e-book read by THB): An old-time Jewish family saga, including being 500 pages long. Includes IVF, lots of art, a “second” family (interracial), Brooklyn, siblings not talking to each other, and a Hollywood ending.

The Ship Beneath The Ice, The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance, Mesnun Bound (audio narrated by Charles Armstrong): Over two attempts, in 2019 and 2022, Bound led two slightly different teams in search of the Endurance. Read well by Armstrong, using modern technology to scan the ocean floor in Antarctica. Especially good if you have been or are going to the icy continent as the search visited a number of places THB and DB visited on their two journeys.

The Whalebone Theatre, Joanna Quinn (novel): a long 500+ page saga that follows three “British-related” children through WW1 and WW2 growing up in a landed gentry manor in the boonies of Dorset. Confirms THB’s theory of the disarray of marriage in upper class British lives (i.e., the adults in the kids’ lives, not the kids).

Born A Crime, Stories From a South African Childhood, Trevor Noah: THB has never seen Noah, what a miracle this guy made it out of the hood, made it out alive at all to become world famous. The incidents in this book can’t possibly all be true and, yet somehow, they must be. Read it and weep! Or laugh?

All The Beauty In The World, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me, Patrick Bringley (audio, read by the author): After suffering a tragedy of the death of his older brother, Bringley becomes a security guard at the Met, staying in the job for 10 years. A mix of melancholy and admiration, the benefits of the job come through at last: art wins!!

Zero Fail, The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service, Carol Leonid (narrated by Maggi-Meg Reed, and the author in the beginning and end): The history of what started out as a small effort to protect the president until finally pumped up by DJT’s “requirements” – including a lot of money going to Trump organizations under the guise of needing even more security for his family, Trump Towers in NY, his family’s personal travel, and the constant movement back and forth between the White House and Trump’s golf courses. Now it has a budget of around $3 billion.

The Last Resort, a Chronicle of Paradise, Profit and Peril at the Beach, Sarah Stodola: Well before the effects of climate change started to make beaches decline, humans got an early start by just spending a lot more time at the beach, and then constructing their downfall by adding resorts, more resorts and even more resorts. Surfers tended to lend the way to remote sites with great breaks. Best beach for THB is the small one at Kapalua: shad, palm trees the resorts are set well back of the high-water line, no surf brea, pretty sand and water. Downside: long plane flight to get to Hawaii.

We All Want Impossible Things, Catherine Newman (novel): How entertaining can a book be if the main story is the narrator helping her best friend through the last days of cancer in a hospice center? This one does it really well, and to say that it is has a Hollywood ending is a bit of a shock (spoiler alert: the friend dies).

The Great Bridge, the Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, David McCullough (pub’d in 1972,  well narrated by Nelson Runger): It’s a mammoth undertaking, both listening to the book and the 14 years that it took to build the bridge in the 1870-80s. The Roeblings, father and son, designed (dad) and chief engineer (son) were the main characters, and son’s wife, Emily, was a major part of the last six or seven (?) years of development after son suffered a severe case of the bends.

The Bat, Jo Nesbo (novel, read by John Lee, translated by Don Barlett, pub’d in 1997): Publisher note: in the electrifying first installment of the New York Times bestselling series, Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. As he circles closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the murder. (see  Scandinavian Noir, In Pursuit of a Mystery, Wendy Lesser, in Neutral Category)

Cockroaches, Jo Nesbo (read by John Lee, translated by Don Barlett, pub’d in 1999): more of the same in the second of the Harry Hole series, this time in Bangkok (Harry seems to be the guy the Oslo cops are ready to ship overseas).

The Chestnut Man, Soren Sveistrup (translated by Catherine Waight, narrated by Peter Noble pub’d 2019, free from the Berkeley library on Libby app): Long! THB thought it was ending and he was only halfway through. Gruesome. Sadistic. And that’s just the first chapter. Two off-kilter detectives are matched up in Copenhagen and end up solving 3 (more?) mysteries. Made into a Netflix series (THB won’t watch), the author also wrote another Netflix series, The Killing, that THB did watch years ago and really liked (the version he liked took place in wet and rainy Seattle). 

Roll Red Roll: Rape, Power, and Football in the American Heartland, Nancy Schwartzman and Nora Zelevansky (read by Brittany Pressley): Schwartzman made a documentart of the same name and then pub'd this book in 2022, both based on the rape of of a 16-year-old girl by members of the high school football team in Steubenville, Ohio, in 2012. Once again, the biggest risk to girls and women: boys and men. In this case, the boys and many others were involved in creating texts, videos and tweets of their actions with one with knowledge of the crime coming to the girl's defense and then of course shaming/blaming the victim afterwards. See She Said in the Something Else Category.

Flood Of Fire, Amitav Ghosh (novel, book three of the Ibis trilogy, audio, narrated by Raj Ghatak – the third different read of the trilogy): this book brings back all the characters from book one of the trilogy, and delves into the British tactics for re-introducing opium to China in the 1840s. The history sounds real including the beginning of Hong Kong as a British colony, and the only “slightly off” tone is that of the young seaman who somehow gets the girl and yet seems a pretty evil guy. THB thinks you should read/listen to three books though book two is sorely lacking in action.

Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano (novel): Four sisters living in just above poverty in Chicago in the early 1980s are struggling with teenager angst and in a few years the two older sisters, extremely close, reach a crisis during early adulthood and the family both splinters and comes closer together. Things come back together at the end of the book, 25 years later, when one of the older sisters dies.

Trespasses, Louise Kennedy (novel, narrated by Brid Brennan: Taking place during the early 1970s of the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, a young Catholic elementary school teacher falls for a 65 -year-old Protestant barrister, and troubles arise.

Early Decision, Based on a True Frenzy, Lacy Crawford (novel, pub’d in 2013, narrated by Erin Moon): Crawford’s first book and second on THB’s list (see Highly Recommended, Notes On A Silencing), a madcap  few months in the life of college admission counselor working with several 17 year-old seniors to write a brilliant essay and get into nis/her first choice college (or more often, their parents’ first choice.

Doppelganger, a Trip Into the Mirrored World, Naomi Klein (read by the author): Confused as to who the author is? She wrote No Logo (excellent) about the exploitation of workers around 20 years ago and has focused on the need to slow down climate change more recently. She is often confused with Naomi Wolf, who published The Beauty Myth 8 years before No Logo and for the last 10 years or so has become a conspiracy theorist with frequent visits on Steve Bannon’s podcast. This is a philosophical journey through the major issues of our time (including a section near the end on the way Israel has colonialized the Palestinians).

Tom Lake, Ann Patchett (novel, narrated by Meryl Streep) another gentle story by Pachett (THB has read several other of her books) that invokes the ways that some people shine in the spotlight while others are happy to be loved by just a few others. All the while told by a 57-year-old woman while picking cherries with her three daughters, back to the farm due to Covid.

A Thread Of Violence, a Story of Truth, Invention, and Murder, Mark O’Connell (narrated by the author): This is an expansion of a small bit of Fintan O’Toole’s book, We Don’t Know Ourselves (Highly Reco’d): the recounting of a 1982 double-homicide by an intellectual dilettante who has spent his inheritance and decides to return to Dublin and rob a bank to shore up his finances. More improbably, he then stays with the Attorney General of Ireland (an old friend) who has no knowledge or even suspicions he is now housing the most wanted man in the country. O’Connell finds the now paroled murderer living a quiet life in Dublin forty years later and spends many hours interviewing him about his life and crimes.

The Spectator Bird, Wallace Stegner (novel, pub’d 1976, narrated by Edward Hermann): a couple in the early 70s revisits a stay in Copenhagen through the husband’s diary. Stegner is a superb storyteller, Hermann an excellent narrator, and the first 15% of the book gives a tragic rendering of what it means to be old. The story within the story is not all that believable yet that is insignificant when compared to enjoying the pleasure of listening.

Emergency, a Pastoral Novel, Daisy Hilyard (novel, semi-biographical? narrated by Barrie Kreinik): A middle-aged woman looks back at her childhood (maybe ages 4-10) through specific episodes where she interacted with nature (and some adults).

Flash Boys, a Wall Street Revolt, Michael Lewis (pub'd 2014, narrated by Dylan Baker): The story of how stock markets were rigged by high frequency traders skimming off billions by making trades just ahead (in milliseconds) of the orders being processed. The big players hid the truth from investors until one honest broker at Royal Bank of Canada figured out what was happening and went public.

The Lion House, the Coming of a King, Christopher de Bellaigue (novel, or more prperly a historically accurate novel, well narrated by Barnaby Edwards): Suleyman comes to power over the Ottoman empire in the early 1500s, rivaled only by the European empire under Charles V. Much intrigue is afoot in the royal court and the wheels of influence are always turning.

Fever in the heartland, The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, Timothy Egan (narrated by the author): most of the story takes place in the period just after WW1 and into the mid-1920s. The KKK, with a mission to expunge Blacks, Catholics and Jews, expanded dramatically (recruiters were rewarded) and started to take over state governments (particularly in Indiana). The men who led the shadow government were very venal, and only a deathbed avadavat brought down the guy running the KKK in that region. The parallel to today’s environment of White Supremacy is same-same (DJT is promising to go after communists, Marxists, Facisist an the radical left thugs that live like vermin).

The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff (novel, narrated by January LaVoy): a teenager escapes from a fort in Northeastern pre-America in the 1650s and manages to survive on her own for many years with minimal tools and almost no knowledge of he great outdoors.

Poverty, By America, Matthew Desmond (emphatically narrated by Dion Graham): A call to a movement dedicated to eliminating poverty in the US. Most of the book describes how pervasive poverty is embedded in the U.S., followed by “straightforward” methods for ending it…THB does not see this movement succeeding in our polarized political world, yet even attempting it seems worthwhile.

All The Sinners Bleed, S.A. Cosby (novel, narrated by Adam Lazare-White): Murder mystery with lots of murders, set in a small county in S. Carolina, all of which stymie the Black sheriff and his small staff. THB thinks Cosby committed the ultimate sin: in the last 5 pages of a pretty well written book, the killer is revealed and is it the first time the character becomes known to the reader. And a whole bunch of other characters quickly became irrelevant.

Monsters, A Fan’s Dilemma, Claire Dederer (narrated by the author): THB has read or listened to Dederer’s other books and this one is pretty similar: deep intellectual analysis. This time: what do you do when the artist is a piece of shit and the art is great. Ultimately, Dederer decides we are all monstrous in some way(s) and if you love the person or the artist or the art you are human. Bit of a cop-out; since we are all hypocrites too, it feels like a Hollywood ending, right?

The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell (novel, audio narrated by Genevieve Gaunt): In the 1500s, a young  Italian bride feels threatened by her husband, a duke who deeply wishes her to produce an heir. Not quite as good as either Hamnet or I Am, I Am, I Am. 

Neutral (43) Something of value, not enough to actively encourage reading or listening  28 non-fiction, 15 novels, 11 audio 

Indigenous Continent, the Epic Contest for America, Pekka Hanalaien (audio narrated extremely well by Kaiji Schwab): THB really liked this book, all 18+ hours, mostly because Schwab is such a great reader. 4+ centuries of the many indigenous tribes resisting the onslaught of the colonialists who arrived with their greed, lack of understanding of local cultures, ever-growing numbers, diseases, and the fight among the empire of the Old World for control and profits. THB recognizes that almost none of his followers will be too interested, especially if reading instead of listening to it. 

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, Dee Brown and Hampton Sides (pub'd 2012): THB had read this one before and forgot. A detailed history of how the US government continually mislead all the Indian tribes on the N. American continent for over 3 centures. 

The Lioness, Chris Bohjalian (novel): KGB, CIA, Hollywood actors and writers, all on safari when things in Africa are going sideways politically (1965). Entertaining, just not very enlightening.

Tyranny of Merit, Can We Find the Common Good, Michael Sandel (audio, read very slowly by the author an): Very repetitive. Sandel, a philosopher and Harvard professor of 40 years, believes the 1940s to 1980 were the golden years (true) of American growth and the 1980s to current times have been slow and stagnant mostly due to depending on “merit” to support policies of globalization levelling the playing field and succeeding with hard work and new skills. Much of the book is spent using ancient philosophers and presidential speeches (somehow excluding the two Bushes and DJT) as straw figures to be rebuked or debunked. Sandel grew up not far from THB in LA and as a high school student ended up debating then governor Ronald Reagan (and losing the debate to the affable Ronny).

The Beauty Of Dusk, On Vision Lost and Found, Frank Bruni (audio, read by the author): THB, who has not read much of Bruni’s work, imagines this book is a compendium of his columns dealing with the sharp drop-off in his right eye from NAION (loss of blood flow to the optic nerve caused by a stroke) and the upbeat way some individuals (including Bruni?!) deal with a (mostly) sensory disability: making the best of a bad situation. THB has a similar situation as his macular degeneration makes it harder to read no matter how big the font. Cheer up, THB, cheer up, go audio!!

The Swedish Art Of Aging Exuberantly, Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You, Margareta Magnusson (age 86 when written): Maybe a magazine article worth of good advice from the woman who made Death Cleaning “a thing”. Light, short, funny at times, insightful and pretty basic common sense. Make the best of things even if they are truly worth complaining about.

Trailed, One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders, Kathryn Miles: Miles proposes a book deal and then becomes obsessed with what happened to two women murdered on the Appalachian Trail in 1996. Over four recent years (and many pages) the crime remained unsolved though a likely suspect (now dead) shows up near the end of the book. Much more a story of how police, prosecutors and the FBI continue to botch investigations, falling in love with their own theories and suspects, ignoring the facts and more livelier solutions.

An Island, Karen Jennings (novel): Must be an allegory, or some sort of parable? A country moves from dictator to dictator and one man spends of half his life in jail for protesting, then many years as sole inhabitant of an island as a lighthouse attendant. An immigrant floats ashore and thus begins the 4 days of the story. Fast read.

On Java Road, Lawrence Osborne (novel): a life-long friendship between college men gets stretched at the seams (of some bespoke suit) when one suspects the other of killing his much younger paramour. Takes place in Hong Kong during the uprising over Chine starting the process of turning the former British colony into an autocracy.

Of Boys And Men, Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It, Richard Reeves (audio, read by author): THB and DB listened together in the car over a couple of weeks, and frequently paused or got out of the car to discuss Reeves major point. At an early age, many boys, especially those of color and/or mired in poverty, are falling behind the girls and never catching up. This has led to relatively steep and fast decline in stability and earning power for males, while simultaneously girls and women are taking leadership roles in school success and in the job market. THB is thrilled for girls and women (and was there at the beginning of the women’s movement in the 60s), and much less thrilled at what has happened to the men who became demoralized as their traditional jobs moved elsewhere, historically male entitlement dissipated, and men felt a loss of masculinity. The rise of Trumpism can be tied to this sense of being devalued, especially among white males. THB did not think Reeves proposed very viable solutions unless women and politicians embrace a revolution in shifting education and poverty policies.

Son Of Elsewhere, a Memoir of Pieces, Elamin Abdelmahmoud: At age 12, after being separated for 5 years, Elamin and his mother joined his father in Canada. They were Islamic immigrants from Sudan, and left for political reasons. Elamin (a lot easier than using his last name) describes growing up fast while his overprotective parents tried to shelter him. He became a journalist, radio personality, and married to a non-Muslim Canadian woman. Intermingled with his Canadian experience are memories of Sudan. THB did not ever expect to read a book with the extended retelling of the author’s love for the TV show The OC.

Dying Of Whiteness, How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland, Jonathan Wetzl (audio, narrated by Jamie Renell): THB has long wondered why most red states opt for policies that create a population of less healthy, less wealthy and less education than most blue states. This book confirms the outcome and uses statistical science to prove this belief is true and the citizens of Missouri, Kansas and Tennessee are interviewed to provide anecdotal evidence of how politicians get elected to implement these policies.

Ejaculate Responsibly, a Whole New Way to Think About Abortion, Gabrieelle Blair (audio read by the author): Very short (3 hours or so) and very redundant (so maybe a longish magazine article. The key stat: 99% of abortions are from unwanted pregnancies. The main point: men are always fertile, woman generate only one egg a month, and thus men should be way more in charge of procreation than women. Of course, patriarchy generally rules in human culture. Men need to use way more condoms, get more vasectomies, and scientists need to invent an easy-to-use birth control method for men (though condoms are not all that hard to use!).

Scandinavian Noir, In Pursuit of a Mystery, Wendy Lesser: A book in two parts: a long section on trying to summarize and categorize the multitude of books in this genre – barely skimmable; another long section (this one readable) about the changes to real-life homicide police work is done in Sweden, Norway and Denmark as compared to the old-time mysteries the author is enamored of, researched with visits to the three countries in the style of a travel blog. Of value if you are deep in Scandinavian thrillers.

Checkout 19, Claire-louoise Bennett (novel): THB normally puts a book he can’t finish in the Not Recommended category. Here’s an exception, and it is a book within a book, and THB couldn’t stand the book within the book and he really liked the book. So, he starting skipping (just as he does when the author includes dreams). This was a NYT top 10 in 2022. After a couple of 100 pages, enough was enough and thus THB came to the end of his fictional rope.

Unravelling, What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater: Peggy Orenstein (audio, read by the author): Could be subtitled Zen and the Art of Knitting. If you are a knitter or needle pointer and looking for something to accompany you during the efforts of crafting, this book is Highly Recommended in audio format. If not and you’re looking for the history of the elements of making a sweater (were does wool come from) and what some encouragement, this one is for you!

Getting Lost, Annie Ernaux (pub’d in 2002, translated 2022, narrated by Tavia Gilbert): Ermaux won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2022. This memoir is based on Ernaux’s journals from late 1988 to early 1990 documenting a torrid love affair with a married Russian “cultural diplomat (more likely a KGB agent. She was 48, he was 36 and the first 75% was made up of his visiting her Paris apartment for extended periods of lovemaking; she was in heaven. The last quarter if mostly retelling her dreams while they were becoming disentangled.

River Of Smoke, Amitav Ghosh (novel, book #2 of Ibis Trilogy, audio narrated by Sanjiv Jhaveri): Unlike book #1 – Sea Of Poppies – book #2 is all talk and no action. It is informative as to one of the key years, 1838-39, before the Opium Wars, yet it is told through letters and speeches rather that events. Thus, the main characters in book 1 hardly appear and the new characters are mostly full of bluster and cute chit-chat letters. Like SOP, this is a long listen.

A Visible Man, a Memoir, Edward Enninful (audio narrated by the author): an immigrant to England grows up to be the first Black editor of British Vogue. It is all about growing up in a racist society with strict father and a mother devoted to sewing, fashion (so tons of name dropping), being gay, and recovering from depression and lack of confidence. His lucky break: being spotted reading a indie fashion mag on the underground when he was 16.

Doing Justice, a Prosecutor's Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, the Rule of Law, Preet Bhara (audio, read by the author, pub'd 2019): If you have listened to one of Bhara's podcasts, you already know his positions: balanced, apolitical, faithful to the concept of the plusses and minuses of living under the rule of law, and not much of a risk-taker when stating his opinions (unless you think convicted criminals are not entitled to due process). A good primer on what happens in and around the office of the lead attorney of a federal district.

The Wager, a Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann (audio, read by Dion Graham): A true story from the 1740s of a British ship that was part of a convoy sent out to intercept a Spanish galleon loaded with riches. Just about everything that could go wrong with the Wager near Cape Horn did, culminating in the few survivors undergoing a court martial years later in England. Based on journals and court records. THB and DB have been in some of the remote locations mentioned. Low Recommended or High Neutral, just like Grann’s last book read by THB.

The Unquiet Englishman, a Life of Graham Greene, Richard Greene (no relation, pub’d early 2021): THB read Vol 1 (excellent) of the 3 Vol biography of Greene by Norman Sherry and couldn’t understand why he hadn’t even heard of Vols 2 and 3. Greene the biographer explained well into his well-written biography: Sherry suffered from dementia before finishing his trilogy. AHA! In any case, Greene was one of the most prolific and extremely readable writers of the 20^th century. Better to read many of his well-known books the go on to this biography or Sherry’s Vol 1.

In The Mouth Of The Wolf, a Murder, a Cover-up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press, Katherine Corcoran: An AP journalist decides to focus (and solve?) the murder of a journalist in Veracruz, Mexico. While she doesn’t solve the murder, her book is an indictment of Mexico for immense political corruption, massive control by drug cartels, and the resulting cowering of the “free” press. Journalist are now murdered, disappeared and driven into exile on a very frequent basis. Corcoran needed an editor, the book is too long by maybe 100+ pages.

Finding Me, a Memoir , Viola Davis (audio, narrated by the author): growing up in poverty in Rhode Island, Davis had a passion to become an actor and succeeded through determination. Somehow, her destitute parents in an abusive relationship remained together and Viola completed college and Julliard through grit and luck became extremely successful. THB has hardly seen any of her movies (and certainly none of her plays), so much of the details of her career when right by him. 

Getting Stoned With Savages, a Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu, J. Maarten Troost (Pub’d 2006): Troost has a style, semi-cynical, partially ironic, jocular, almost humorous, and grating when used through and entire book. On the other hand, he drank a lot of kava (something THB did not try on Fiji).  One example: 2/3 of the book is about he and his wife’s stay on Vanuatu and les than 25% on Fiji. It’s a small thing, yet it made THB suspicious what else he tried to mislead his readers. Not recommended unless you have plans to go or have been to the South Pacific.

The Quiet Tenant, Clemence Michallon (novel, audio narrated by many different women so this is more like a play read for a radio broadcast): A serial killer kidnaps one of his victims instead of killing her, then integrates e woman into his household. A Hollywood ending even with a story about women being killed.

The Seven Moons Of Mali Almeida, Sheehan Karu Karunatilaka  (novel, audio book narrated by Shivantha Wijesinha) : The type of book that THB normally never buys – a fantasy narrated by a dead man from the afterlife. A bit of a thriller who-dun-it, a political overview of the bad things done by all sides in Sri Lanka in the 1980s, and a three-way love story. May be better when read to keep the characters straight. 2022 Booker Award winner. 

Hatchet Man, How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutor’s Code and Corrupted the Justice Department, Elie Honig (narrated by the author): Want to be depressed? Listen to a diatribe by an ex-prosecutor turned media personality? How DJT used others to move his personnel agenda forward? This is the book for you, and it is really cheap to download (therapy session is extra)!

My Hijacking, a Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering, Martha Hodes (narrated by Lauren Lefkow): 50 years ago Hodes was on a TWA flight that was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. Kept on the plane for 6 days, Hodes tries to recall what really happened, researching the files, reports of the incident and interviewing others that were on board. Needless to say, nobody can accurately remember what happened, and Hodes, a historian, surely knew that before she wrote the book.

The Scatterlings, Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe (novel,read by Christel Mutombo): The story of an marriage of a Black Jamaican woman raised by adopted parents in England and a S. African white man, raising their two children in Cape Town  during the time when the legislature enacted a miscegenation law making their marriage illegal. Tragedy ensues. The narrator had a low-pitched voice which at times THB struggled to understand.

Blood Sugar, Sascha Rothchild (novel read by Allyson Ryan): a murder mystery where the reader/listener knows about 3 murders and has to follow along to find out what happened to death #4.

Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (novel, narrated by Joe Morton, book pub’d 1952, 2010): THB had read the book 55 years ago or so and hardly remembered much. The audio book is like hearing a one-man stage play as much of the book is the main character’s interior dialogue, analyzing his reactions to the action taking place. Not near as powerful as THB remembers as the Civil Rights movement has become a more well-known part of the American experience for all Americans.

Watch Us Dance, Leila Slimani (novel, translated by Sam Taylor, narrated by Lara Sawalha): if you read book 1 of this trilogy – In The Country Of Others – then this book is recommended, otherwise not up to the first book or the Perfect Nanny, both excellent.    

Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng (novel, pub’d 2014, narrated by Clarissa Campbell): what one family faces: death of a child, racism (interracial marriage), teen angst, family dynamics when under stress, pre-feminist struggles.

To Name The Bigger Lie, a Memoir Told in Two Stories, Sarah Viren (narrated by Natalie Naudus): the bulk of the book deals with Viren’s early life and the influence of a high school philosophy teacher and what happened when she and her wife were maligned on-line and then via e-mails and texts by a deranged competitor of Viren’s for  a college teaching job (detailed in a 2018 NYT article that THB had read back in the day when THB’s reading was still a thing). The last 15% is made up of dreams and imagined dialog…arghhhhhhhhhhhh! It is not easy to skip in an audio book.

Predictably Irrational, the Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, Dan Ariely (narrated by Simon Jones, pub’d 2008): Behavioral economics has made big strides in the last 15 years, so much so that this book reads more like a primer for middle school students).

Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, Ben Mckenzie (audio narrated by the author): if you don’t already know it, crypto is another word for ponzi. A small number of very shady types at the top of the crypto pyramid made huge money (SBF for example) and lots of people lost money. At one time bitcoins had a few legitimate uses and then it all went sough in a hurry. The author was an actor and his narration wasn’t all that good though the book is really all about him.

Killers Of The Flowers Moon, the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann (pub’d 2017, narrated by Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, and Danny Campbell, 1/3 each): THB has not seen the movie. The author could’ve started backwards: 100s of Osage were murdered for their headrights – the mineral rights grated to Osage Indians – in the 1920s and 30s after oil was discovered on their reservations. The government required (white) guardians for each recipient qualified to receive payouts from the oil. Murders were not particularly concealed, and many of the local whites were in cahoots to gain access to what was then a huge amount of money. Another grim story of how colonialists treat indigenous people.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride (novel, narrated by Dominic Hoffman): Jews and Blacks living close together in rural Pennsylvania after WW2. Lots of characters, lots of “dialect” and not particularly well narrated.

Slow Horses, Mick Herron (spy novel, narrated by Gerald Doyle): now streaming on Apple TV+, a group of MI5 misfits/outcasts are involved in a fake kidnapping and somehow 3 agents are killed and the “slow horses” get the better of the MI5 insiders. The narration is spotty and two seemingly unrelated events take turns being moved along in the plot making it challenging to follow along.

Shielded, How the Police Became Untouchable, Joanna Schwartz (narrated by the author): A legalese way of analyzing how and why historically the police have avoided responsibility for unconstitutional actions for over 150 years.

A History Of Burning, Janika Oza (n novel, audio narrated by Lipica Sgag abd KP Upadlhyayula): a multi-generational saga that begins in India, migrates to Uganda, on to London and Canada, taking place from about the later 1800s up until the 1980s. The two narrators alternate with one reading from the females' point of view and the other the males'. More a story of the women and the struggles of being displaced. 

Built From The Fire, The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street, Viktor Luckerson (audio narrated by JD Jackson): One chapter on the actual massacre, much context before and after. 

In the Something Else Category (9): 1 non-fiction, 1 audio

1000% Me, Growing Up Mixed - Streaming documentary where Kamau Bell (Berkeley native) interviews mostly kids about what it means to be bi-racial and/or products of mixed nationality biological parents. It is something more and more kids in US are facing, and the interviews are very insightful. Highly recommended for everyone, especially kids 5 and up!

We Need To Talk About Cosby -Streaming 4 part documentary where Kamau Bell interviews a diversity of people about the context of one of the most famous comedians and philanthropists of the TV era drugging and raping over 60 women without their consent. Originally on Showtime, it can be rented through Amazon Prime for about $2/episode. Strong stuff, at times very hard to listen to victims relate their stories.

The Fourth Estate – Streaming 4-part series from 2018, directed by Liz Garbus, following the NYT’s coverage of DJT’s first year and half. Mostly it is filmed in the NY office, “starring” those assigned to cover DJT from before the presidency and those staff who are part of the Washington team. If nothing else, you’ll quickly realize these jobs are all-consuming as DJT sucks the oxygen out of news organizations.

She Said, bio-drama directed by Maria Schrader, tells the story of how two NYT reporters break the story of Harvey Weinstein and breathe major life into the #metoo movement. The real life reporters and editors show up in cameos in The Fourth Estate. This film was the number 2 NYT story during the time The Fourth Estate was being made, and both won Pulitzers for the NYT.

Miracles and Wonder, Conversations With Paul Simon, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam (narrated by the authors and Paul Simon       at 1.0x): Gladwell calls this a book. THB calls it a creative use of podcasting by integrating Simon’s music (some live, some recorded) into a terrific look into his creativity and personality. Highly Recommended in audio, especially if you are a musician

The Retrievals, 5 episodes presented by Serial, narrated, produced, etc., by Susan Burton: Women seeking IVF assistance at the Yale Clinic are suffering during egg retrievals because of excruciating pain. It turns out a nurse had been substituting saline for Fentanyl and using the drug herself. The women were ignored. Eventually the nurse was caught, the podcast was put together and even more women reported being victims. How to be victimized twice? Be a woman experiencing pain and large-scale institution belittles you. Haunting…

Stop Making Sense: re-released after 40 years; DB and THB saw the IMAX version. Pure art with a spectacular set of songs. A brilliant front man. Great on the huge screen. A band at the peak of their creativity (they basically broke up after the film came out).  Nobody in the movie theater danced along this time.

The World Before Your Feet (streaming on Kanopy): Released in 2018, the story of a guy walking every street (and more) in the 5 boroughs of NYC. He’s maybe 70% of the way through, and about 1.5 years behind in his blog posts. Inspirational, maybe a touch OCD, and a fountain of knowledge. Follow Matt Green on the imjustwalking  site

The Waste Land, Poem, T S Eliot (pub'd 1922, audio, read by Troy Rattetema) A classic that THB hadn't read. Twenty seven minutes, a real treasure. 

Not Recommended - and high likely not finished (20):: 11 non-fiction, 9 novels, 9 audio

The Fell, Sarah Moss (novel): this is the first of the Covid books THB has tried to read. People don’t go anywhere, don’t do much except an occasional load of wash or a bit of homework. Maybe too much like THB’s year of socially isolating: BORING!

Hurricane Season, Fernanda Meelchor (novel): THB bought a book about a witch in Florida.

Love In The Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (novel, translated, pub'd 1985): THB read this one many years ago and liked it. This time it took too long for the story to get moving, takes places in Cartegena, Colombia, where THB and DB visited in 2022.

A Childhood, the Biography of a Place, Harry Crews (pub’d in 1978): THB made it over halfway, and got the feel for the dirt-poor county Crews (a well-known author of his time) grew up in, and then stopped believing the story being told. Mostly because his research was done by going back and listening to the yarns told by the old geezers.

What’s So Funny? A Cartoonist’s Memoir, David Sipress: Stick to cartoons David, your stories about your parents and sister are not too entertaining.

Time Shelter, Gergi Gospodinov (novel): meta-fiction, too meta for THB.

Spellbound By Marcel: Duchamp, Love and Art, Ruth Brandon: THB has read quite a bit about Duchamp and seen a lot of his art. This book didn’t add anything new ….. nada.

All The Lovers In The Night, Mieko Kawakami (novel, audio): not much of a story, a fact-checker has a melancholic life. THB wasn’t speeding up the narration yet when he listened to this book.

Left On Tenth, a Memoir, Delia Ephron (audio read by the author): THB tried increasing the reading speed, skipping ahead, skipping chapters, slowing it back down…nothing worked. Somehow this book, covering the period from when Delia’s husband of 30+ years dies, came off as cliched and strident, lacking generosity, an example of what grief can do to your point of view. Delia is no Nora, even though they both were genetically destined to have the same challenging illness later in life.

The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy (novel): There is a story of a plane crash here somewhere, intermixed with long dialogues between characters you don't know and don’t care about. Sections divided by italics and non-italics. THB started skipping the italics sections (freaks) and then gave up before getting to the second part of the novel. Short version: this is no country for old men writers.

The Rabbit Hutch, Tess Gunty (novel): A bit too unrealistic, no central plot (maybe people living in same building), and THB let it go.

Diary Of A Misfit, a Memoir and a Mystery, Casey Parks: A gay journalists decides to find out more about a woman who posed as a man in the town where her mother grew up, and at the same time relate the story of her and her mother and grandma dealing with her being gay and reluctant to be fully out until her late 20s. Both story lines drag, then drag some more, and finally THB gave up. 

The Netanyahus: An Accout of...blah, blah, blah, Joshua Cohen: Pure unadulterated shtick.

Shy, the Alarming Outspoke Memoir of Mary Rodgers, Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green (narrated by Christine Baranski and Jessee Green at not near fast enough speed): cliched in short words and constantly interrupted by Green as if you stopped listening to check the notes attached to the margins of the manuscript.  THB has read a lot of dishy artists’ memoirs, and this one is for the generation raised on snappy Broadway musicals. In other words, dead people.

Faith, Hope And Carnage, Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan (Interview narrated by author and Cave): THB is a Nick Cave fan (both the singer and the sound-suit creator) and this is a “book” with short questions from O’Hagan and stoic, lengthy reading of the answers by Cave the singer. Almost no music. Very “intellectual” answers.

A Living Remedy, a Memoir, Nicole Chung (audio narrated by Jennifer Kim): a long lament, how unhappy the author sounds even during the moments of acknowledging how some things did make her happy, then right back to lamentation, moroseness, how challenging life is, grief, more grief, etc..

Nineteen Steps, Millie Bobby Brown (novel, narrated by the author): Recognize Brown? THB didn’t. She’s the odd female  kid in Stranger Things. Now 19, she’s written what THB can only describe a Young Adult book, and she’s narrated it like she’s a bit younger than 19; not a good thing, just a strange one.

The Method, How The Twentieth Century Learned to Act, Isaac Butler (narrated by the author): Over 40% of the way, THB still didn’t feel gripped by the novel approach to learning how to project the emotions and meaning when acting a part. 

Take What You Need, Idra Novey (Novel, audio, narrated by the author and Christinne Delaine): lots of whining and lack of self-esteem

Some People Need Killing, a Memoir of Murder in My Country, Patricia Evagelista (narrated by Corey Wilson): so many murders, on and on and on, all sanctioned by Rodrigo Duterte.