Dec 28, DB and THB celebrated their 55th
Anniversary at Sun Moon Studio, located
a few minutes from the Loft. seats 12-14, voted
best new restaurant in 2024 by SF Chronicle
The menu, personalized and signed by the chef/owners
Fabulous!!!!
EDITORIAL NOTE: LET'S JUST SAY THAT BY Q3 2024 THB HAD RUN OUT OF STEAM IN CATALOGUING ALL THE AUDIOBOOKS HE LISTENED TO THIS YEAR...EVEN FELT LIKE HE HAD SCORCHED THE BOTTOM OF THE EMPTY KETTLE.
Sinead visits her cousin Sandy
THE 2024 YEAR-END LIST POST CONTAINS ONLY THE YEAR'S HIGHLY RECOMMENDED AUDIOBOOKS AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED SOMETHING ELSE ENTRIES. IN ADDITION, THB HAS RANKED THIS YEAR'S TOP 5 NON-FICTION AND TOP 5 FICTION AUDIOBOOKS AND ONE (EXTREMELY) HIGHLY RECOMMEDED STREAMING SERIES.
Auntie and the twins celebrating Auntie's b'day
and THB's shortened year-end book list
Highly Recommended Audiobooks
TOP 5 Non-Fiction
Desert Solitaire: a Season in the Wilderness, Edward Abbey (read by Michael Kramer, pub'd 1968)
The Year Of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine In Miami 1980, Nickolas Griffin (read by Pete Simonelli, pub’d 2020)
A Walk In The Park: the True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon, Kevin Fedarko (read by the author)
Judgment At Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia by Gary J. Bass (read by Simon Vance)
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: the US, Central America,
and the Making of a Crisis, Jonathan Blitzer (read by Andre Santana)
the dreaded Conicosia, nearly gone from MDC after years of being pulled out
TOP 5 Fiction
Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner (read perfectly by the author)
The Known World, Edward P. Jones (#4 on NYT top 100 of 21st C, read by Kevin R. Free, pub'd 2004)
Clean, Alia Trabucco Zeran (read by Sylvana Kane, translated by Sophie Hughes, pub’d in English 2024)
Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (read by the author, pub’d 1997)
When We Cease To Understand The World, Benjamin Labatut (#83 on NYT Top 100 of 21st C, " non-fiction" novel, translated from the Spanish by Adrian West, read by Adam Barr, pub'd 2021)
The Something Else Category
Pages floating down from the sky
Dying peonies
Self Portrait as a Coffee Pot: 9 episodes by William Kentridge streaming on MUBI (free for your first two months). Do not miss this one, it is one of the best things ever about making art, art itself, and art with meaning (and no art speak). The two pics above are inspired by the series.
Complete List: Non-fiction (20)
Desert Solitaire, a Season in the Wilderness, Edward Abbey (read by Michael Kramer, pub'd 1968): THB thought he had heard this book before. Nope, he had heard Kramer read twice Zen and the Art of Maintenance. Zen is one of THB's top 5 all-time (even before listening to the book) and now Desert Solitaire enters the pantheon of all-time greats as well.
This book fits perfectly with THB's Grand Canyon listening spree as Abbey spent 6 months as a ranger for Arches NP, at a station so remote that most visitors to the park never saw him. Intellectual, sense of self-deprecating humor, ends with one of the last raft trips before the Glen Canyon dam is finished. It is another view of this region, extremely well done, if not perfect, which is what THB thought about 75% of the way through. Actually: it is perfect, just like Zen (per N. Young, "it's all one long song" especially when sung by the same reader).
The Year Of Dangerous Days, Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine In Miami 1980, Nickolas Griffin (read by Pete Simonelli, pub’d 2020): Looking for a template for DJT’s third campaign for president? This book gives a faint acknowledgement to the Reagan - Carter situation in 1980. Major events: a race riot due to police brutally murdering a Black man, the Mariel exile from Cuba bringing 180,00 refugees to Miami (the vast majority speaking no English), and the explosion of drug money being laundered in Miami. A media star running against a struggling president. No contest!
A Walk In The Park, the True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon, Kevin Fedarko (read by the author): DB and THB have been to over 40 US national parks, and a decent summary is that we hiked a few trails, drove around a bit, and saw less than 1/100th of 1 percent of each park (even that small amount is definitely worth doing!). Sometimes we weren’t even allowed to take a hike. Got some good vistas. Took some nice pics. Two journalists (one writes - Fedarko - and one photographer - Pete McBride) decide to do a more extensive view of the Grand Canyon for a potential magazine article. THB can’t conceive of two more unprepared buffoons than these two (and Fedarko owns up right away). THB wished he could see the pictures … and here they are, Into The Canyon, directed by McBride and streaming on Disney + and also highly recommended
Judgment At Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia, by Gary J. Bass (narrated by Simon Vance): a well-written history of pre- and post-WWII Japan with a keen focus on the trial of the major war criminals (with the exception of the Emperor). Also recommended is an oldie by Ian Buruma, Wages of Guilt pub’d in 1994.
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here, the US, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis, Jonathan Blitzer (read by Andre Santana): a well crafted review of the impact the US had on El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala with the story starting in the 1980s through to DJT’s presidency. Much of the “official” story is augmented by following 3 individuals as they emigrated to the US and returned to their home countries.
Roman Year, a Memoir, Andre Aciman (beautifully read by Edoardo Ballerin): Acima, just one year younger than THB, recalls his 17th year, mostly spent in Rome in a dingy apartment with his deaf mother and his 15 year-old brother. They are exiles, having escaped the holocaust and then, after 10 years in Egypt, they were forced by Egypt to moved on. Dad ends up in Paris, he and his wife have been feuding for years, and they each have extended families scattered all over. Honorable Mention: this book would be on the non-fiction top 5 list except THB thinks only as an audiobook…Bellerin is a perfect reader, using only his voice and Aciman’s poetic words to take the listener back to the angst of teenage awe and wonder and depression.
The Rebel’s Clinic, the Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon, Adam Shhatz (read by Terrence Kidd): A nice review of the post-WWII of the colonized countries revolting against the colonizers as told through the biography of one of the most influential authors and activists of the period.
the Monterey Dunes 2024
a
version of Christo's Running Fence
The Emerald Mile, the Epic Story of the Ridee in History Through the Heart the Grand Canyon, Kevin Feedarko (read by author, pub’d 2014): THB has been on a Grand Canyon ride of his own this year, and this is the best “summary” of the Grand Canyon. This book is a great overview with a near-epic failure of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1983 that led to the fastest ride down the Colorado up to that point in time. Here are two links that help illustrate what went on that year, best to visit them after you have got to that point in the book.
Glen Canyon 1983 damage video watch - the first 15+ minutes
Raft being torn apart in Crystal rapids: still images by Richard Kocim
Do Something, Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of ‘70s New York, Guy Trebay (read by Edoardo Ballerini): Right up THB’s alley: a short, snappy, name dropping boil of family and cultural tragedy. Not sure how Trebay had slipped by THB - probably because the observer isn’t often observed - since Trebay writes for the NYT and has for the NY’er in the past.
Cold Crematorium, Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz, Jozsef Debreczeni (read by Laurence Dobiesz, translated by Paul Olchvary, pub’d 1950): A Jewish Silesian journalist is sent to Auschwitz, is among the few to survive this group of slave camps, and authors this astonishing memoir. Publishers in English refused to have it translated when it first appeared in Hungarian, and it was only recently found and re-published. Powerful and unrelentingly grim, it is told in a matter-of-fact tone, a small document of the German’s sadistic murdering of 6 million, often with the compliance of the prisoners and locals.
You Don’t Belong Here, How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War, Elizabeth Becker (read by Lisa Flanagan): Becker. A long-time reporter/journalist, recounts the story of three pioneering women covering the American wars in VietNam and Cambodia, a terrific way to see the impact of misogyny, how much harder women had to work to do the same jobs as men and the backstory of the wars themselves. Francis FitzGerald, one of the three, wrote what THB thinks is the seminal book, Fire In The Lake, on how misguided American politicians, the CIA, and military leaders have been led astray by believing somehow America was the height of exceptionalism.
The Exceptions, Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science, Kate Zerinke (read by Kathy Mazur): Hopkins was in the forefront of women entering into the good-old-boys field of science, documenting her frustrations in trying to get equal treatment, especially when she became a professor at MIT. Zerinke does an excellent job detailing how Hopkins, other women, and mentors helped guide her into transitioning MIT science departments (and ultimately all departments) into more equal opportunities for women.
Fire Weather, a True Story From a Hotter World, John Valliant (read by Alan Carlson): An examination of a catastrophic 2016 fire (that lasted for 15 months) that burnt down a city of 100,000 north of Alberta then extrapolated to the recent history of ignoring the warming planet for 40+ years until it is now too late to undo the damage.
sunrise over the ocean (looking West!)
Bottoms Up And The Devil Laughs, A Journey Through the Deep State, Kerry Howley (read by Nikki Massoud): A jazzy review of various events over the last 20+ years demonstrating the power of government agencies to invade the privacy of US citizens.
Cobalt Red, How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives, Siddhartha Kara (read by Peter Ganmim): The essential mineral is used in the batteries that run our smartphones, tablets, et al, and those doing the mining are exploited to death.
The Great Escape, a True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America, Saket Soni (read by the author): starting in 2006, a group of Indian pipefitters and welders are signed up by corrupt agents, defrauded of their savings and extended loans in expectations of earning “green cards” and enslaved in work camps in the deep south and Texas by an oil rig construction company.
Fire In The Lake, Frances Fitzgerald (pub’d 1972, read by Jeff Bottoms in 2018?): Masterful, relevant today for illustrating the arrogance of one culture oblivious to its impact on another (so not woke!) as the US attempted to stop the dominoes from falling in Asia to the communists in what is now known as the American War, then called the Vietnam war.
We Were Once A Family, a Story of Love, Death and Child Removal, Roxanna Asgarian (read by Suehyla El-Attar): Asgaria, reporter in Houston, was randomly selected by editors in California to dig into the story of the families whose children when driven off a cliff onto the rocks adjacent to the Pacific; six children and the two adoptive parents (married women) died. The story focuses on the vagaries and trauma of the protective services for children, foster care, and the impact on all concerned.
Between Two Kingdoms, a Memoir of a Life Interrupted, written and read by Suleika Jaouad: A woman of 22 is struck by a rare cancer that requires a bone marrow transplant in the attempt to save her life, with slim odds of survival. Several years later, in the throes of despair, she undertakes a “100 day project” of driving across America visiting those that reached out to her during her convalescence (she wrote a widely distributed serialized column of what it meant to be treated for her illness). Note: after the time period covered by the book, Jaouad is a significant part of the documentary American Symphony, featuring Jon Batiste, bandleader of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Revenge Of The Tipping Point, Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering, Malcolm Gladwell (read by the author): THB likes Gladwell and this audiobook is more “new stories” rather than updated old ones (pub’d 25 years after The Tipping Point). And, with the proposed knowledge of how to find or anticipate tipping points, Gladwell has a whole nother book (if he wants to pursue the topic) on the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Jet-ski surfing in front of beach house, Dec 21; those are 8-10' waves
Complete List: Fiction (18)
The Known World, Edward P. Jones (#4 on NYT top 100 of 21st C, read by Kevin R. Free, pubmed 2004): a long story set mainly on a farm owned by a free black man with approximately 30 slaves, none free, all owned by the "master." The narrator is fabulous and eventually the listener realizes no person of color is even close to being really free (with one exception, and she could pass for "white").
When We Cease To Understand The World, Benjamin Labatut (#83 on NYT Top 100 of 21st C, " non-fiction" novel, translated from the Spanish by Adrian West, read by Adam Barr, pub'd 2021)
- The path to hell is paved with good intentions
- Man does not sit quietly in the room
Profiles of scientists who were dedicated to finding new ways more ways to move knowledge forward during the last 2 centuries despite losing their minds and/or the impact on humanity as was known when they were pushing the boundaries. The ideas and the individuals are real, the stories told by the author may not be (e.g., one story seemed based on Thomas Mann's novel, The Magic Mountain)
Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner (read perfectly by the author): The "protagonist" is a female agent hired to infiltrate and foment mayhem within the targeted activist groups. Think the Parallax View starring Warren Beatty. Intellectually challenging: how did those Polynesians find their way across thousands of miles of ocean? How did Neanderthal DNA show up in Sapiens DNA?
Clean, Alia Trabuco Zeran (read by Sylvana Kane, translated by Sophie Hughes, pub’d in English 2024): Set in Santiago, Chile, a 40 year-old maid relates the tale of a seven year old girl’s life who has died (the same span of time the maid worked for the family). She tells the whole story before arriving at the girl’s death. The perfect audiobook as the author has written it in the first person and it reads as if the maid is talking directly to the listener.
Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (read by the author, pub’d 1997): A lush version of the Odyssey as the main male character, after a serious injury in the Civil War, struggles to return to his native area in the South and resurrect his “engagement” to a naive Charlestonian young woman. THB’s third go with the novel (second audio version), as thrilling as ever.
The Aubrey/Maturin series), Patrick O’Brian: starting with Master and Commander, these 20 books collectively are terrific (not all, most), especially if read by Simon Vance. Sea battles galore!
Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin (read by Jennifer Kim and Julian Cihi, pub’d 2022): Two tween video gamers meet cute in an LA hospital waiting area and bond over their love of games. THeir lives stay intertwined over the next 20+ years: college, working together and going into the gaming production industry, all the while having a platonic love and hate relationship. Typical of the genre, misunderstandings abound (see any JOB book as a reference).
the running fence overturned after a big storm
Orbital, Samantha Harvey (read by Sarah Naudi): 2024 Booker Prize winner; a captivating tale of 6 astronauts circling earth in a space station 16 times every 24 hours. Earth is the protagonist in this meditation on life, the astronauts are sparingly described and everyone else mentioned is almost universally nameless.
I Am Code, An Artificial Intelligence Speaks: Poems, edited by Brent Katz, Josh Morgenthau, and Simon Rich (poems brilliantly read by Wener Herzog): An episode of This American Life led THB to a new collection of poems (yes, THB is actually a fan of poetry), I Am Code, poems generated by an AI program, code-davinci-002. There are 3 individual introductory essays, by each editor, plus an epilogue that explains the techniques used by the editors to train the program. The poems are unedited by humans; they are shockingly powerful and even humorously self-referential. THB gave the entire (albeit short) book two listenings, some poems more than twice.
Netherland, Joseph O’Neill (novel, read by Jefferson Mays, pub’d 2008): post 9/11, a family of 3 separates and mom and child move back to London. Dad commutes between NY and London, and over time through his love of cricket, he is befriended by an older Trinidadian autodidact. Starts as a thriller, then becomes more of a coming-of-age story for dad. Another fave read by THB and revisited as an audiobook.
Euphoria, Lily King (read by Simon Vance and Xe Sands, pub’d 2015): Set in New Guinea and loosely based on Margaret Mead and two other anthropologists in the run-up to WWII, a common plot: strangers come to villages and madness occurs.
Mr. Texas, Lawrence Wright (read by Steve Weber, with musical interludes at the beginning of chapters by Gordon Wright, Lawrence Wright and Marcia Ball): This is a book that was at first a play, then a pilot for HBO, then a musical and finally a really entertaining look at how the the Texas state legislature works. The book is a satire, informed by the fact that when Wright started work on the story Texas was very Blue and is now extremely Red. If Marcia Ball comes to a venue near you, she kicks ass in a honky-tonk New Orleans way.
North Woods, Daniel Mason (read by an all-star cast of great narrators including
Simon Vance): Interrelated stories revolving around a house in the woods of
Massachusetts, ranging over 400+ years. THB wishes the book had ended 20-30
minutes earlier as the world is being consumed quickly by climate change and ghosts.
Being Dead, Jim Crace (pub’d 2008, read by Virginia Leishman): not quite a police procedural, a couple is murdered on an isolated part of a beach (in the dunes!) and goes unnoticed for a week. Much detail on how the bodies decay, a bit of their backstory, and their adult daughter’s lack of remorse (or, hatred) of her parents demise.
James, Percival Everett (read by Dominic Hoffman): a retelling of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where the slave Jim is the future of freedom.
Precipice, Robert Harris (read by Samuel West): Based on a true story: letters sent by the British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith (in his early 60s) to Venetia Stanley (early 20s) between 1910 and 1915, many of which contained state secrets, including British WWI war plans. Only his letters exist as Stanley kept his while he disposed of her replies. Several characters are fictional, the two main ones are not. Great insight to how the British upper class lived lives so different from the average British citizen.
Great Circle, Maggie Shepsted (read by Cassandra Campbell and Alexa McKenna, pub’d 2021): A saga following twins rescued at sea as infants by their father and raised by an uncle. Jamie becomes a well-known painter (like his uncle) and Marian becomes one of the early women to fly planes. This barely covers the surface of the book as many events happen to them, their friends and relations. In telling their stories, there are a few lulls that don’t last long … keep going!
The Echo Maker, Richard Powers (read by Bernadette Dunnem, pub’d 2006): winner of the National Book Award for fiction, laden with the interactions in the brain connected to thoughts and actions, the core of the story is following the people circling around a 2001 car accident survivor who, when revived, believes that the people around him have been replaced by dopplegangers. A Hollywood ending a year after the accident, most resembles Close Encounters Of The THird Kind (1977).
The Women, Kristin Hannah (read by Julia Whelan): a story of a young Army nurse serving in VietNam in the late 60s, a period when the tide of the war caused a huge increase in the number of American casualties in the “American” war co-joined with a disbelief that there were no women serving in the military stationed there. For THB, this book had a great impact, resonating with his mom’s first book, California Generation.
on the first night of Hanukah, the MDC maintenance crew lit the missing light
The Something Else Category (4)
Self Portrait as a Coffee-Pot: 9 episodes streaming on MUB, a William Kentridge project made during Covid. THB and DB are big Kentridge fans. Really big Kentridge fans. We hit the JACKPOT!!!! Lots of his well known images, processes, collages, and even a philosophical existential plot (right down THB’s mental alley). The whole series can be watched many times, same for just individual episodes. In true Dadaist fashion, just pick an episode at random, repeat. Another of Kentridge's stage performances is coming to Cal Performances (on Berkeley campus) March 14-16. Look for THB on the far right near the stage on March 16.
Clipped, 6 streaming episodes on Hulu, the story of how the owner of the Clippers, an NBA basketball team, is “outed” as a racist by his personal assistant. A real-life soap opera starring the rich, the famous, the strivers, the un-woke, told from the POV of the team's new coach, Doc Rivers, played by Laurence Fishburne. Note: Richard Parsons died in late December. He was the interim CEO between the ousted owners (the Sterlings) and the new owner (Ballmer).
Kanye West Bought An Architectural Treasure - Then Gave It A Violent Remix: NY’er article that seemed to be using THB and DB’s love of art and early life in LA as a clue to writing this article. No, THB does not know a single Kanye song, this ain’t about the music.
My Brilliant Friend, streaming on Max: 10 episodes of season 4 wrap up this captivating and faithful rendering of Elena Ferrante’s tremendous 4 books long tale of two young girls born into a destitute “suburb” of Naples full of corruption, deceit and small-town intrigue. THB finishes the triathlon: read the books, listened to the books, and watched all 4 seasons.
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