What are we Reading 2022 split from 2021

[Edgy MD]

++

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

we should have a running database of books that everybody's read, with starred ratings. i'm not volunteering to do this, by the way.

i just read this book.

The First Conspiracy, by Brad Meltzer

do not read this book. it is probably the book that i hate the most, ever. even more than the one baby board book that had a rainbow with the colors out of order, and no blue. it is awful. zero stars.

it's got maybe, MAYBE fifty pages of actual story and information. the rest of it reads as a breathless history channel pseudoscience bullshit clickbait show where they're hunting for sasquatch's collection of alien artifacts hidden in a pocket dimension accessible only by sprinkling unicorn blood onto the sacrificial altar at the center of el dorado.

it's so desperate to keep your attention that, at every chapter, it reminds you why you're reading the book. as if you've forgotten since the last time you turned a page. and it's so utterly lacking in confidence that the audience is actually interested in the story, that it has to drop spoilery cliffhanger bullshit at the end of each chapter. of which there are 85. a good 50% of the book or more is reminding you why you're wasting your time reading this book, with another 25% hoping to convince you to keep reading. i'm overly generous in claiming that 25% of the book is actual story.

it probably could have been an essay. maybe a long magazine article.

or it could have been a hell of a lot better book if it actually included ancillary details, like why this one thing is important, what this one person who was just introduced also did, something. anything. to add context, aside from constantly reminding us, the reader, who is presumably an american over the age of seven, that the conspiracy - which is to kill george washington - which the book frequently treats as a shocking revelation despite being in the subtitle of the damned book - would be ruinous and disastrous to the success of the revolution, with unknowable consequences should it be successful.

it doesn't delve into what that potential outcome could look like, of course.

in fact, it barely scratches the surface of what happened as a result of the conspiracy, nor, really too much information related to the investigation into it. and it wraps up remarkably fast with little follow-on.

i don't truly believe the author believed that the story he was telling was one worth reading all the way through, or he didn't trust the reader to be interested in a more contextually complete story. maybe it's meant to be read on your daily bus ride, for those times when you've already solved today's wordle (with hints from the internet, because, damn, who even knows that many words?!). who knows.

all that really happened as a result from this book is my wife telling me, 'i told you you'd hate it' (she'd read it before, and also hated it. and warned me. but i foolishly picked it up anyway, i think forgetting her recommendation), as well as me wanting to pick up and reread the far, far, far superior 1776 which has so much more detail and information and history that this pathetic rag. i forget if it even mentions this escapade. now that was a good revolutionary war book.

It was worth it to read that review though! LOL

[Edgy MD]

It's probably marathon's greatest non-m.e.t.b.o.t. post, since his "woman's truck" post at the MOFo.

And that's saying something.

[whippoorwill]

I’d like to see that one. I don’t think I remember it

[Edgy MD]

It was after we had started the Crane Pool. A poster arrived at the MOFo, named Piazza4Prez, who was a more naïve version of Paulie Cee. He lived in the central New York area and he was a muscle-flexin' tru' 'Merican. He worked his truck into his posts as often as he could. Everything about this guy's understanding of himself was tied up in this stupid fucking truck. If you disagreed with him, it was go time. He would literally threaten to take you out with his truck. "Try saying that to me when I've got my Chevy Silverado, asshole!!"

Like he was literally threatening to run you down in cold blood. Always with the make and model explicitly stated, as if the words "Chevy Silverado" were supposed to make rooms hush and hearts skip a beat. It was so stupid that it took the room a week or two to realize, my God, this character isn't kidding. Even Paulie, who had, like, 33% self-awareness, was giving him the side-eye.

I wasn't even posting anymore, but I lurked now and then. People would calmly and detachedly, slowly and carefully, suggest that it would be a good idea to take it down a notch, and then he'd open up on them. "You're just afraid of me and my truck, asshole!"

Since there was no talking him down, marathon, in his excellence, just responded with his shitty punctuation and logical jiu-jitsu: "that's all good ... but you know that's a woman's truck, right?"

Piazza4Prez went ballistic. marathon didn't know what he was talking about, and was just too pathetic and weak to respect the truck, and if he posted something that upset Piazza4Prez, shit was apparently gonna go down for real. Woman's truck, indeed!! You stupid fuckface, I'll kill you!!

Those aren't his actual words, but he did openly threaten murder, probably to over a half-dozen posters at once. It was the sort of thing that might inspire a person or two to start their own forum.

But that person wasn't marathon. Talking trucks with an engineer = bad idea. marathon coolly responded as he went, line for line, through the specs on the model year of P4P's Silverado, feature by feature, listing the available colors, the official MPG, the number of cup holders, the AC positioning, the storage spaces made for handbags, the luxurious cleanable seat upholstery, the vanity mirrors on BOTH sun visors.

And then he finished with his coup d'grace, something along the lines of: "i don't know if this is going to bring you the epiphany you surely need. more likely, you're going to threaten to run me down in the street along with everyone else. but in your heart of hearts you'll know — you'll be doing it in a woman's truck."

Everyone from every bitter wing of the MOFo came together in joy and laughter. If a crowd of forumites could run through a forum with a poster on their shoulders, that's what would have happened. I had either canceled my profile or forgotten my login info, so I created a new profile just to log in and give marathon a pat on the back.

It was probably the last moment the MOFo was even remotely unified.

[metsmarathon]

ho lee shit, i almost... almost forgot about that. but it's all flooding back to me now.

my biggest regret from the mofo is that i never copied down my "i like big trucks and i cannot lie" parody. :sadface

[Frayed Knot]

I remember all kinds of stuff from that site ... but not even a hint of that story. I may have been on hiatus.

[whippoorwill]

Me too.

I love the part about storage spaces for handbags!

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I do feel like I did know something like that but would never have remembered. Nor know why, or the details of that, like what the poster's name was or even who said. Or any of the background et etc.

But the part of the reply with the truck takedown I only needed to read a few words that that bit all came back. It was unexpected funny, used the guy and his own words to identify what was most vulnerable and just tear it to shreds. It like like artwork and it basically destroyed the guy as a character so soundly, all pretty much just as described. That's next-levvel memory

[kcmets]

"i don't know if this is going to bring you the epiphany you surely need. more likely, you're going to threaten to run me down in the street along with everyone else. but in your heart of hearts you'll know — you'll be doing it in a woman's truck."

Solid platinum.

[whippoorwill]

I've been reading this...it's been on my bookshelf for a while and I thought I already ready it, but I don't think so. It is SUPER!
Did one of you guys write it or recommend it? Because I don't remember why I have it, but I'm glad I do

[Edgy MD]

I recently read The Bomber Mafia, by best-selling Canadian-American guy Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell is known as a social scientist, so a military history is a departure for him, but he can't help himself and frames his subject through the lenses of the social sciences.

Basically, he looks at World War II — the endgame in particular — as a race between two competing ethics: high-altitude precision bombing, and scorched-earth firebombing. A generation of air strategists try to perfect the former as the more humane way to end a war — targeting high-value industrial targets — while the alternative (leveling and torching population centers) is completely horrific, but a counter argument says that its very horror makes it more humane because it motivates the enemy to surrender more quickly.

The two ethics are embodied by two developing technologies. One is a high-altitude scope that, when perfected, should allow bombers to hit factories and key choke points from well outside of the range of anti-aircraft weapons, but perfecting it takes time, as altitude, speed, and varying wind speeds, among other factors, must be accounted for. The competing technology, developed mostly by accident at DuPont, is the first generation of Napalm.

[Frayed Knot]

After careful consideration (about a half-second's worth) I've decided to pass on the new Matthew Perry autobio.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I read this one during my recent trip to visit the folks. It's not as heavy as you might think. Kind of a breezy read. Was actually hoping for a little more detail.

[Edgy MD]

After careful consideration (about a half-second's worth) I've decided to pass on the new Matthew Perry autobio.

Man, is it possible for a book to get more publicity? Every third story in my news feeds is either a promo for that or Bob Woodward's Trump interview audiobook.

I want Perry's publicist working for me.

[Frayed Knot]

Man, is it possible for a book to get more publicity? Every third story in my news feeds

Yeah, that's pretty much what triggered my post.
But, who knows, now that Tom and Gisele have apparently filed for divorce maybe Perry will suddenly find that not even media outlets care about a litany of who he was fucking and what drugs he was talking while filming FRIENDS.

[Frayed Knot]

My 2022 list is complete as of about an hour ago.


THE PREMONITION: A Pandemic Story — Michael Lewis (2021) ***
Kind of an odd book in that Lewis says it grew out of his previous one about the value of government workers, then turns out as one where gov’t outsiders wind up doing the most good.
The CDC, for instance, doesn’t come off real well here.

SIDECOUNTRY: Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of Sports — John Branch (2021) ***-1/2
A collection of short and long form pieces from the fringes of the sports world [everything from mountain climbing to horseshoes] by a NYT writer.

FALSE ALARM: How Climate Change Panic Costs us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet — Bjorn Lomborg (2021) ****
Danish political scientist agrees with the existence and causes of climate change but not always the most commonly cited solutions.

OUR FIRST CIVIL WAR: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution — H. W. Brands (2021) ****
Separation from England was not a universal dream among Americans.

FREE SPEECH: A History from Socrates to Social Media — Jacob Mchangama (2022) ***
The main point is that freer speech always tends to make societies better, even when imperfect in its application.

SCOUNDREL: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Woman Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment and the Courts to Set Him Free — Sarah Weinman (2022) ***
A story with which I was totally unfamiliar: a convicted murderer in N.J. somehow gets the attention of William F. Buckley and a handful of others who are irrationally convinced of his innocence.

OFF THE EDGE: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything — Kelly Weill (2022) **-1/2
Focusing mostly on flat-earthers during the internet age as a kind of parallel to how easily people will buy unproven and unprovable political and social theories as well.

ORIGIN: A Genetic History of the Americas — Jennifer Raff (2022) **-1/2
Trying to use science to explain the when and how the Americas became populated.
Reading science books so overly concerned with political correctness has become tiresome.

THE FAR LAND: 200 Years of Murder, Mania, and Mutiny in the South Pacific — Brandon Presser (2022) ***
A travel writer gives the back story of the HMS Bounty mutiny and aftermath, and then travels to Pitcairn Island to spend time with the 48 descendants of the mutineers
who currently live on a hunk of rock about the size of Central Park about as far away from anything as one can get on this planet.

WATERGATE: A NEW HISTORY — Garrett Graff (2022) ***-1/2
With an eye looking back at the events that led up to the infamous break-in and subsequent cover-up, the author shows how the seeds were sewn long before ’72 even
as it’s still unclear who specifically ordered the break-in or why.

THE GULF: The Making of an American Sea — Jack E. Davis (2017) ***
A history of the Gulf, mostly from an environmental point of view, from its creation to Spanish colonization to the present.

ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE: The Surprising History of Gerrymandering in America — Nick Seabrook (2022) ***
From the infamous Mr. Gerry himself up through more sophisticated methods now.

ISAAC’S STORM: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History — Erik Larson (1999) ***-1/2
It was 1900 when Galveston, TX was a booming city and weather forecasting was an emerging science. Then a storm hit.

PATH LIT BY LIGHTNING: The Life of Jim Thrope — David Maraniss (2022) ***-1/2
Full cradle to grave bio of the ups and downs (self-induced or otherwise) of the great early 20th century athlete.

THE MILKY WAY: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy — Moiya McTier (2022) ***
Quirky astrophysicist writes a history of the Milky Way from the point of view of the galaxy itself. A bit odd, but it worked.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EARTH: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters — Andrew H. Knoll (2021) ***
Pretty much what the title/sub-title says: a scientific examination of our planet’s journey from swirling dust through the present.

POWERS AND THRONES: A New History of the Middle Ages — Dan Jones (2022) ****
Filling in the gaps in my knowledge of the time between the fall of Rome and the renaissance. A LOT of people get slaughtered.

(Fiction) THE WINNERS — Fredrik Backman ****
The third and final book in Backman's series on youth hockey’s outsized role in the rivalry between two northern Swedish towns too close to each other and too far
from everything else. Great characters, great writing.

THE MOSQUITO BOWL: A Game of Life and Death in World War II — Buzz Bissinger (2022) ****
The title refers to a bragging-rights football game played by college and even NFL players turned Marines on Guadalcanal. Initially cautious about this book from a fear
of it being one long football-as-war analogy, but the football angle really just gives the author a group on which to focus and is really about what happens after the game
when the participants wind up in the subsequent fight for Okinawa.

[The Hot Corner]

The Winners by Fredrik Backman was a wonderful final installment of his outstanding three book series on the towns and inhabitants of Beartown & Hed. I hate that there will not be a 4th installment. I have faith that Mr. Backman will come up with something else to captivate and engross me in the future.

The Mosquito Bowl caught my attention a few weeks ago, while looking for something to read. I will have to pick that up in the near future.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

My year end list:

SO HERE IT IS, Dave Hill
--former Slade guitarist memoirs. accidentally purchased for me by Lunchpail who knew I wanted to read...

DAVE HILL DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, Dave Hill
--The American comic/musician talks about his Dad. This guy is very funny

SINGLED OUT: The True Story of Glenn Burke, Andrew Maraniss
--pretty good, pretty sad

TERROR IN THE CITY OF CHAMPIONS: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society That Shocked Depression-Era Detroit, Tom Stanton
--Klan activity juxtaposed with baseball

TWO STEPs FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK: My Life in the Music Business, Miles Copeland
--I.R.S. Records founder dishes on the biz and the misadventures, and explains at least twice why he hates Tracey Chapman. A little indulgent but up my alley

THE BOYS, Ron Howard
--I enjoyed Cunningham's memoir of growing up in showbiz

THE PREMONITION: A Pandemic Story, Michael Lewis
--discussed above

LEAVE THE GUN, TAKE THE CANNOLI: The Epic Story of the Making on the Godfather Mark Seal
--not bad

(fiction) FLORIDA ROADKILL, Tim Dorsey
--crime fiction set against 1997 Marlins World Series

LABYRINTH OF ICE: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition, Buddy Levy,
--a CPF reco I very much enjoyed

GAME SIX, Mark Frost
--no not that game 6, or the other one, but the 1975 World Series. Enjoyable

THE UMPIRE IS OUT: Calling the Game and Living My True Self, Dale Scott with Rob Neyer
--I remarked before this book is hardly gay at all; Scott you can tell is an irl fun storyteller and some of it comes across here

PLAYING THROUGH THE PAIN: Ken Caminitti and the Steroid Confession that Changed Baseball Forever, Dan Good
--I did not like this book and at times hated it but it redeems itself a little at the end. Too much detail early, too much sympathy for the subject

RICKEY: The Life and Legend of an American Original, Howard Bryant
--I thought this was outstanding as a topic --and hit with me as I didn't appreciate Rickey in his time. Bryant hammers you white ignoramuses with it

HELLHOUND OH HIS TRAIL: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History, Hampton Sides
--on the assassination of King and pursuit of Ray. A CPF reco I enjoyed

ON DESPERATE GROUND: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle, Hampton Sides
--Incredible story of deadly military hijinx

OCCUPY THIS BODY: A Buddhist Memoir, Sharon A Suh
--I wouldn't normally pick this up except it was written by my childhood friend Eugene's sister and concerns a harrowing childhood I had no idea about. I'm sort of in it in the background. Very good.

THE WINNERS, Frederik Backman
--as discussed above great story

AN UNQUIET MIND: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, Kay Redfield Jamison
--they give this to you when you're diagnosed bipolar: She's a scientist studying the mind who's also a victim

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, H.G. Bissinger
--Finally read this. I had no idea it was written so long ago. New afterword updates where are they now.

STILL ALRIGHT, Kenny Loggins with Jason Turbow
--I'm about 33% through. Loggins talks and talks. Turbow wrote 2 baseball books I liked, he's expanding to rock-star memoirs

[Fman99]

I failed to keep a list this year. I got tired of trying to remember to record what I read.

[TransMonk]

I got through 79 books in 2022. Some of my favorites were:

THE DIVIDER: TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE, 2017-2021 - Peter Baker
QUIT: THE POWER OF KNOWING WHEN TO WALK AWAY - Annie Duke
THE PERSUADERS: AT THE FRONT LINES OF THE FIGHT FOR HEARTS, MINDS, AND DEMOCRACY - Anand Giridharadas
CONFIDENCE MAN: THE MAKING OF DONALD TRUMP AND THE BREAKING OF AMERICA - Maggie Haberman
PARTISANS: THE CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTIONARIES WHO REMADE AMERICAN POLITICS IN THE 1990S - Nicole Hemmer
THE DISPLACEMENTS - Bruce Holsinger
THE NINETIES - Chuck Klosterman
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVITUDE: DONALD TRUMP'S WASHINGTON AND THE PRICE OF SUBMISSION - Mark Leibovich
THIS WILL NOT PASS: TRUMP, BIDEN AND THE BATTLE FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY - Jonathan Martin
I'M GLAD MY MOM DIED - Jennette McCurdy
WOKE RACISM: HOW A NEW RELIGION HAS BETRAYED BLACK AMERICA - John McWhorter
WHY WE DID IT: A TRAVELOGUE FROM THE REPUBLICAN ROAD TO HELL - Tim Miller
THE STORM IS HERE: AN AMERICAN CRUCIBLE - Luke Mogelson
ALLOW ME TO RETORT: A BLACK GUY'S GUIDE TO THE CONSTITUTION - Elie Mystal
COMEDY COMEDY COMEDY DRAMA - Bob Odenkirk
THE LOOP: HOW TECHNOLOGY IS CREATING A WORLD WITHOUT CHOICES AND HOW TO FIGHT BACK - Jacob Ward

[whippoorwill]

This year, 2023, I am going to try to keep track

[cal sharpie]

Read 65 books this year. There is a chance I will finish one more today but will reconfigure if I do finish it.

PARIS TROUT – Pete Dexter
HIPPIE – Paulo Coelho
COFFEELAND – Augustine Sedgewick
FAITHFUL PLACE – Tana French
THIS SIDE OF BRIGHTNESS – Colum McCann
THE 1619 PROJECT – Nikole Hannah Jones (ed)
THE MARS ROOM – Rachel Kushner
WAYWARD – Dana Spiotta
HELL OF A BOOK – Jason Mott
THE CALIPH’S HOUSE – Tahir Shah
AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD – Kazuo Ishiguro
WRITERS AND LOVERS – Lily King
THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY – Amor Towles
BROKEN HARBOR – Tana French
THE PAGES – Hugo Hamilton
NIGHT OF CAMP DAVID – Fletcher Knebel
RULES OF CIVILITY – Amor Towles
TELEX FROM CUBA – Rachel Kushner
A TIME OUTSIDE THIS TIME – Amitava Kumar
I WAS BETTER LAST NIGHT – Harvey Fierstein
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO – Alexandre Dumas
HOW TO DO NOTHING – Jenny Odell
TIMBUKTU – Paul Auster
BRAVE NEW WORLD – Aldous Huxley
MISTER MONKEY – Francine Prose
THE VANISHING HALF – Brit Bennett
THAT OLD COUNTRY MUSIC – Kevin Barry
SEA OF TRANQUILITY – Emily St. John Mandel
THE SECRETS WE KEPT – Lara Prescott
AMERICAN KOMPROMAT – Craig Unger
BORN A CRIME – Trevor Noah
BORSTAL BOY – Brendan Behan
THE CANDY HOUSE – Jennifer Egan
BALLPARK – Paul Goldberger
LOBOTOMY -- Dee Dee Ramone
SMALL WORLD – Jonathan Evison
YOUR BAND SUCKS – Jon Fine
THE ORIENTALIST – Tom Reiss
ALL THAT FOLLOWS – Jim Crace
CRYING IN H-MART – Michelle Zauner
HITLER: DOWNFALL – Volker Ullrich
2666 – Roberto Bolano
THE BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN – Wallace Stegner
THE CHEMISTRY OF TEARS – Peter Carey
OLIVE, AGAIN – Elizabeth Strout
FELICIA’S JOURNEY – William Trevor
MERCURY PICTURES PRESENTS – Anthony Marra
DIRT – Bill Buford
THE LAST WHITE MAN – Mohsin Hamid
CROSS CHANNEL – Julian Barnes
UNFORGIVABLE BLACKNESS – Geoffrey C. Ward
CONFIDENCE MAN – Maggie Haberman
DESTINATION: MORGUE – James Ellroy
LIBERATION DAY – George Saunders
SWEET CARESS – William Boyd
NUMBERS IN THE DARK – Italo Calvino
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO – Boris Pasternak
DEACON KING KONG – James McBride
SEVEN EMPTY HOUSES – Samanta Schweblin
ARABIAN SANDS – Wilfred Thesiger
THE CLEARING – Tim Gautreaux
UNLESS – Carol Shields
HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD – Robert Kolker
LIVING – Henry Green
GULAG: A HISTORY – Anne Applebaum


A few books to note:

COFFEELAND. A pretty fascinating look at the coffee industry and how it grew, focusing on El Salvador. The kind of non-fiction I prefer, something I know almost nothing about (also applies to THE CALIPH’S HOUSE, THE ORIENTALIST, ARABIAN SANDS and GULAG.

THE 1619 PROJECT. Loved how it exploded so many myths about the Founding Fathers and how pissed off it got so many politicians.

AMERICAN KOMPROMAT and CONFIDENCE MAN. I did read two Trump books this year and won’t do so anymore. This kind of recent history isn’t what I look for as following the news closely gets me what I need.

2666. A gigantic, amazing book. A 400-page section deals with murders of women in Mexico and is tough going but really this is one of the novels of the 21st century that will be read long from now. Other novels or short story collections I loved this year include THE MARS ROOM, THE PAGES, SWEET CARESS, LIBERATION DAY, SEVEN EMPTY HOUSES, UNLESS and LIVING.

[Frayed Knot]

GULAG: A HISTORY – Anne Applebaum

She writes extensively on eastern bloc history/issues and has a more recent one (2017) that I plan to dive into soon: RED FAMINE, about the Stalin-induced
starvation of Ukraine. Putin certainly isn't the first Russian leader (actually Georgian in Stalin's case) with whom that the Ukrainians have had issues. It's been
more a long smoldering grudge than a sudden outrage.

AMERICAN KOMPROMAT and CONFIDENCE MAN. I did read two Trump books this year and won’t do so anymore.

Kinda where I'm at too. I read three in 2021 (though neither of the above), mostly dealing with the final year of his Presidency, and figure that was enough
for me. No knock on any of the books and I'm sure each one contains fresh outrages from slightly different sources than the others. But there's only so much
wallowing in Trump hate I plan to do.

[metsmarathon]

I don’t have my list with me. I read 4 books this year, the last one being that stupid Brad meltzer book. I think it broke me for reading lol.

I’m in the middle of two different books actually. The baseball 100 by joe posnanski and what if by Randall Monroe - the xkcd guy.

Both are interesting but neither has a narrative draw so they’re entirely too easy to put down and not pick up.

I want to read more in ‘23 but we’ll see what happens