2023 Book List by category and short descriptions
(ed. notes: This section is included in all three 2023 Book List posts. Feel free to skip ahead 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 and reading
a book versus sitting in a chair and listening to an audio book?
Reading: your eyes get tired and you stop. Listening: you close your eyes and
fall asleep. 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 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 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
most of the time at 1.2x or greater 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 main source of THB’s book consumption.
· By the numbers: 138 books, 82 non-fiction, 56 novels, 74 audiobooks. THB ran out of novels this year, picked
up after NYT released its top books of the year. Audiobooks are the new trend,
THB 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
The Country Of The Blind, a Memoir at the End of Sight, Andrew Leland (audio): 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).
Independent People, Halldor Laxness (novel, audio). Fabulous saga set in rural Iceland in the late 1800s through WWI.
Notes On A Silencing, A Memoir, Lacy Crawford (audio): 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.
Sea
of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh (novel, audio), 1st
of 4 books b Ghsh on this year’s list): This saga starts in 1838 while India is
in the throes colonization as the source of opium leading up to the British
upcoming opium wars with China.
The
Hours Michael Cunningham (novel audio): 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, audio, 4th time for THB): 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).
The Best Minds: A story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions, Jonathan Rosen (auddio): A detailed and intimate look at mental illness, focused on Rosen't childhood friend who suffered from schizophrenia and in 1998 killed his pregnant partner with a knife.
The Center Cannot Hold, My Journey Through Madness, Elyn Saks (audio): the companion book to The Best Minds, a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia overcomes her illness to become a lawyer (also at Yale), studied philosophy in England, an honored professor, and advocate for those diagnosed with mental illness, and found love with a kind partner, combining talk and medicine to control her illness.
Deluge, Stephen Markley (novel, audio: another giant, dystopian book covering 2020 to 2040, and THB has seen the future and it’s murder.
Songs Of Achilles, Madeline Miller (novel, audio): 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.
We
Don’t Know Ourselves, A Personal History of Modern Ireland, Fintan O’Toole: The author, a journalist, was
born in Ireland in 1958 and 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.
Stay
True, a Memoir, Hua Hsu (audio): Hsu relates his
story starting as a teenager through entering graduate school at Harvard, the
only child of Taiwanese immigrants.
The
Covenant Of Water, Abraham Verghese (novel, audio):
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.
The
Great Fire, Shirley Hazzard (novel, audio): 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
When
The Heavens Went On Sale, The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within
Reach, Ashlee Vance (audio ): 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).
A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far
East, Tiziano Terzani: 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.
Strangers To Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us, Rachel Aviv (audio): A NY'er contributor explains how much influence a "diagnosis" has in determining how an "illness" is treated.
Raven Smith’s Men, Raven Smith (audio): A gay man tells his life story through his 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.
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.
The Physician, Noah Gordon (novel): 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.
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.
True
Biz, Sara Novic (novel): 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).
Dead In The Water, A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global
Maritime Conspiracy, Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel (audio,
well read by Derel Perkins): an easy-to-understand story from 12 years ago of a
hijacked ship.
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, the inability of environmentalists
to stop global warming, and about 5 other things, into a big call for action.
Crying In H Mart, a Memoir, Michelle Zaumer (audio, narrated by
the author): 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 telling a story about her mom.
The Boys, Katie Hafner (novel, married to Bob Wachter): a mid-thirties man on the spectrum repeats a biking trip in Italy with foster twins after he and his wife separate.
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).
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.
Raising Them Right, the Untold Story of America’s Ultraconservative Youth Movement and Its Plot for Power, Kyle Spencer (audio, narrated by the author): Another way the under-registered Republicans put their conservate views front and center to attract followers.
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.
Recommended (41) 21 non-fiction, 21 novels, 31 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.
Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War, Svetlana Alexievich (audio, pub'd 1992, aka Boys in Zinc - coffins) - audio): Stories as told by men and women who served in the war and/or their relatives.
The Tenth Island, Finding Joy, Beauty, and Unexpected Love
in the Azores, Diana
Marcum (inadvertently left 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):). The story is
unusual, focused on the friendship of two women in three stages of life:
childhood, their 40s and their 80s.
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 medici
Bitter Orange Tree, Jokha Alrarthi (novel, translated by Marilyn Booth): a 20-year old going to college in London recounts her family history, focused on her “grandmother” (family identities are more fluid in Arabic countries).
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.
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 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.
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.
The
Last White Man, Mohsin Hamid (novel): another
interesting dystopian novel from Hamid.
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.
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.
The
Latecomer, Jean Hanff Korelitz (novel): An
old-time Jewish family saga, including being 500 pages long.
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.
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.
Born A Crime, Stories from a South African Childhood, Trevor Noah: THB has never seen Noah. What a miracle that this guy made it out of the hood to become world famous.
All The Beauty In The World, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me, Patrick Bringley (audio, read by the author): After suffering the tragedy of the death of his older brother, Bringley becomes a security guard at the Met, staying in the job for 10 years.
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 and now 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, constructing their downfall.
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?
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 Bat, Jo Nesbo (novel, read by John Lee, translated by Don Barlett, pub’d in 1997): Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. First of the Hole series.
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.
The Chestnut Man, Soren Sveistrup (translated by Catherine Waight, narrated by Peter Noble pub’d 2019): Long! THB thought it was ending and he was only halfway through. Gruesome. Sadistic.
Roll Red Roll: Rape, Power and Football in the American Heartland, Nancy Schwartzman and Nora Zelensky (read by Brittany Pressley): Schwartzman made a documentary of the same name and then pub'dd this book in 2022, based on the rape of a 16-year-old girl by members of the high school football team in Steubenville, Ohio, in 2012.
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.
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.
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.
Tom Lake, Ann Patchett (novel, narrated by Meryl Streep): another gentle story by Patchett that invokes the ways that some people shine in the spotlight while others are happy to be loved by just a few others
A Thread Of Violence, a Story of Truth, Invention, and Murder, Mark O’Connell (narrated by the author): 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.
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.
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 Lion House, the Coming of a King, Christopher de Bellaigue (historical novel, 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.
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 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 the great outdoors.
Poverty, By America, Matthew Desmond (emphatically narrated by Dion Graham): A call to a movement dedicated to eliminating poverty in the US.
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. Not a good ending to the book.
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.
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.
Neutral (43) Something of value, not enough to actively encourage reading or listening 28 non-fiction, 15 novels, 11 audio
The Lioness, Chris Bohjalian (novel): KGB, CIA, Hollywood actors and writers, all on safari when things in Africa are going sideways politically (1965).
Tyranny of Merit, Can We Find the Common Good, Michael Sandel (audio narrated by the author): 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.
The Beauty Of Dusk, On Vision Lost and Found, Frank Bruni (audio, read by the author): THB imagines this book is a compendium of his columns dealing with the sharp drop-off in his right eye.
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.”
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.
An Island, Karen Jennings (novel): Must be an allegory, or some sort of parable? 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.
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): At an early age, many boys, especially those of color and/or mired in poverty, are falling behind the girls and never catching up.
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.
Dying Of Whiteness, How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland, Jonathan Wetzl (audio, narrated by Jamie Renell): Why most red states opt for policies that create a population of less healthy, less wealthy and less education than most blue states.
Ejaculate Responsibly, a Whole New Way to Think About Abortion, Gabrieelle Blair (audio read by the author): Very short, the key stat: 99% of abortions are from unwanted pregnancies.
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.
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.
Unraveling, 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.
Getting Lost, Annie Ernaux (pub’d in 2002, translated 2022, narrated by Tavia Gilbert): This memoir is based on Ernaux’s journals from late 1988 to early 1990 documenting a torrid love affair with a married Russian.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Quiet Tenant, Clemence Michallon (novel, audio narrated by many different women): A serial killer kidnaps one of his victims instead of killing her, then integrates the woman into his household.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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, audio in 2010): 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.
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.
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 now 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 just another word for ponzi.
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 Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride (novel, narrated by Dominic Hoffman): Jews and Blacks living close together in rural Pennsylvania after WW2.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Miracles and Wonder,
Conversations With Paul Simon, Malcolm Gladwell,
Bruce Headlam (narrated by the authors and Paul Simon): Integrating Simon’s music (some live,
some recorded) into a terrific look into his creativity and personality.
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.
Stop Making Sense: re-released after 40 years; DB and THB saw the IMAX version.
Pure art with a spectacular set of songs.
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 website is Imjustwalkin.com
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 highly likely not finished (20): 11 non-fiction, 9 novels, 9 audio
The Fell, Sarah Moss (novel): the first of the Covid books read by THB. Boring: people don't go anywhere, don't do much, and on and on.
Hurricane
Season, Fernanda Meelchor (novel):
THB bought a book about a witch in Florida.
Love
In The Time of Cholera, Gabriel
Garcia Marquez (pub'd 1985, novel, translated): THB read this one many years ago and liked
it…not this time.
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 grew up in, and then stopped believing the story being
told.
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.
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.
The
Passenger, Cormac McCarthy (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.
The Netanyahus: An Account of a Min...blah, blah, blah, Joshua Cohen: Fact or fiction? Whatever, 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.
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.
A Living Remedy, a Memoir, Nicole Chung (audio narrated by Jennifer Kim): a long lament, how unhappy the author sounds.
Nineteen Steps, Millie Bobby Brown (novel, narrated by the author): Recognize Brown? THB didn’t. She’s the odd female kid in Stranger Things.
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.
Take What You Need, Idra Novey (Novel, audio, narrated by the author and Christinne
Delaine): lots of whining and lack of self-esteem
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