Whatcha reading?

[whippoorwill]

My January 2023 list.

A World of Curiosities – Louise Penny. (typical very good Penny book)

State of Terror – Louise Penny and Hillary Clinton (Wasn’t really a fan of this)

WildTrack – Bernard Cornwell. (Super good book about sailing and murder)

Missing in PA Wilds – James Baumgratz (People who have gone missing in PA. Friend of my dad’s is in here)

Pennsylvania’s MOST HAUNTED Places – Tony Urban (There were some new ones for me in here, and I’ve read dozens of ghost story books!)

Needful Things – Stephen King (The dead child and pets upset me, but I still got a few giggles from this, as I always do with King)

The Case of the Gilded Fly – Edmund Crispin, pseudonym of Robert Bruce Montgomery – (part of a trilogy of Gervase Fen mysteries)

Stormchild – Bernard Cornwell – (my husband loves Bernard Cornwell war stories; I can’t get into them at all. He suggested the sailboat mysteries and I love them!)

[A Boy Named Seo]

You all read so much faster than I do.

I'm currently on Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow which got lots of acclaim in 2022. So far a lovely story that chronicles the long friendship between two interesting protagonists. And video games.

I just re-watched The Good Place which led me to read Michael Schur's really funny intro of sorts on ethical philosophy called How to Be Perfect. I stayed on that path and read the less funny (but still informative) The Forking Trolley, which broke down the moral philosophies (and philosophers) that Schur explored in the TV series. Cool 101 material for a dum college dropout like me.

My better half got me a spanish language copy of Love in the Time of Cholera (it's about girls, right?) but it was even more slow-going than the english version so I hit the eject button about 30% in.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I picked a book off Sharpie's year end recos and am reading COFFEELAND.

I need book recos all the time because my kindle recos suck or I read them already

[DocTee]

Just finished Stanley Tucci's Taste: My Life Through Food, which made me hungry and Marked for Life: One Man's Fight for Justice from the Inside, by Isaac Wright, Jr. which made me angry,

[The Hot Corner]

I am a very slow reader, but I am trying to spend more time reading this year. Thus far in 2023, I have read The Mosquito Bowl by Buzz Bissinger which was a good read, One Day by Gene Weingarten which is a collection of events (and back story for each) that occurred over a 24 hour period of a randomly selected day in America. I found many of the stories quite interesting and engaging. I am currently in the final pages of The Ratline: The Exalted Life and Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive by Philippe Sands which has had some interesting aspects and I have learned quite a bit about post war WWII and the start of the Cold War, but the narrative does drag at times.

[Frayed Knot]

Started the year off with LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
No, not the Twain story (Mark or Shania), but a more recent one by writer/adventurer and amateur historian Rinker Buck (yes, that's his real name).

I read his book a few years back chronicling his trip by mule-pulled wagons along the Oregon Trail. This time he has a more modern version of a 'Kentucky Flat Boat'
crafted and sails it from Pittsburgh down the Ohio & Mississippi Rivers all the way to New Orleans. He's not a "re-enactor", and in fact has mostly contempt for such
stuff, dismissing them as costumed actors more interested in wearing period-proper buttons on their shirts yet often ignorant of the actual history of the event they're
supposedly portraying. Rather he's using the trip as a way to learn more about the history of the era and the area when it was river traffic and trading, instead of the
more heralded covered wagons he argues, that was the bigger and earlier step in the westward expansion that followed the American Revolution.

[whippoorwill]

That sounds very good. I’ve often daydreamed of a Mississippi raft trip.
My raft would be quite comfortable though

[whippoorwill]

A6F25C62-FCB9-4345-9A37-962392905481.jpeg (30.73 KiB) Viewed 2266 times

I’d like to recommend this. I read it last year…I had it for a while but thought it looked boring so it lay around the house for a few years.
But it was fascinating, and a true story about a Pittsburgh young man, Frank Lenz, and his bicycle tour (alone) across the world.
He went missing, and the attempts to find him in early twentieth century (Turkey as I recall?) were laced with politics and required patience.

Please let me know if the picture doesn’t show up

[Edgy MD]

The picture is great.

[Fman99]

I'm enjoying this one, currently.



This was also an interesting read.



Turns out my Nook has a "My Shelves" feature and I'm hoping it'll better allow me to keep track of what I read this year, as nearly all of my reading is done on my e-reader these days. I read mostly at night, in bed, and it's just easier than the various clip light solutions out there that a real book requires.

[whippoorwill]

The picture is great.

Lots more in the book


The first time I read about the molasses flood I thought it surely was a joke but , alas it wasnt

[Edgy MD]

A lot of what's in Confederates in the Attic seemed like a joke at the time, but alas, now that they've come down from the attic and attacked the country, we know it isn't.

Tony Horwitz initially seems kind of dilletantish, like "Check out these campy weirdos," but he seems to have really been a curious and interesting guy.

[cal sharpie]

I recently read Tony Horwitz's final book, SPYING ON THE SOUTH, which is even more dilettantish although interesting in parts.

This year so far has also featured POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS OF BRAS CUBAS by Joaquin Machado de Assis, a 19th Century Brazilian work which is pretty hilarious; THE LOCUSTS HAVE NO KING by Dawn Powell, a 1940's novel by an undeservedly forgotten author; LIFE WITHOUT CHILDREN by Roddy Doyle, a bunch of COVID era short stories by the author of THE COMMITMENTS; THE PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG, Bob Dylan's oddball examination of about 100 songs that mean something to him, sometimes really insightful, sometimes an excuse for him to write about other things he cares about, like his favorite movies; DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE by Juan Pablo Villalobos, a book that a friend of mine insisted since I was going to Mexico, it was pretty funny and very short; REDEPLOYMENT by Phil Klay, stories of the Iraq War; AFTERLIVES by Abdulrazak Gurnah, a recent Nobelist, beautifully written; and AUGUSTOWN by Kei Miller, basically a novel presenting the roots of the Rastafari movement.

Currently I am reading the five Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St. Aubyn - the five novels are in one volume. Do I count them as five (fairly short) novels or as one 800 page entry?

[whippoorwill]

Oh by all means that is five!

[batmagadanleadoff]

I'm enjoying this one, currently.

I read it years ago. Not all the way through, beginning to end, but much of it. If I remember, I also jumped around, reading sections out of order. It was very insightful. Or maybe eye-opening would be a better word. Especially to someone like me -- a northern liberal. I never imagined just how deeply embedded the confederate/slavery/Jim Crow/antebellum/southern ways culture still was. I mean, I knew it still existed, but not to that extent. African-American politicians? That's nothing. You'd think they're still seething that African-Americans even have their freedom.

[metirish]

Just started The Wager : A tale of shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann ( The Lost City of Z )

https://www.davidgrann.com/book/the-wager/


Excellent so far , heard him interviewed on Fresh Air last week , exhaustive research and great story telling

[The Hot Corner]

Just started The Wager : A tale of shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann ( The Lost City of Z )

https://www.davidgrann.com/book/the-wager/


Excellent so far , heard him interviewed on Fresh Air last week , exhaustive research and great story telling

Pred-ordered it from Barnes & Noble last week. Downloaded it onto my Nook last night. Will likely start reading it this evening. I have enjoyed numerous books by David Grann in the past. This story sounded interesting, so I expect it to be a good, gripping read.

[Frayed Knot]

Some of you guys who mentioned in the TV thread about following the docu-dramas on Waco might want to check out:
WACO RISING: David Koresh, the FBI, and the Birth of America's Modern Militias -- Kevin Cook, published just earlier this year.

Along with detailing the timeline of the standoff which led to the whole clusterfuck, the author makes the case that the ATF/FBI over the top
tactics (whether real or perceived) planted the idea that 'the gov't is out to get us' among certain types. Timothy McVeigh was a standoff
bystander (and hawked t-shirts from across the street) and Alex Jones later used it to build his brand of extremism.

[DocTee]

I really, really enjoyed this:

The Tao of the Backup Catcher: Playing Baseball for the Love of the Game. Tim Brown with Erik Kratz.

Well written, funny at times, poignant at others.

May we all approach life like backup catchers!

[Fman99]

The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. Heavy stuff, for which he is well known

[whippoorwill]

I just finished TommyKnockers. Again, giggles for Stephen King’s dark humor but the last few chapters were anything but funny.

Loved it!

[Frayed Knot]

My 2023 list now complete with the last three being the best of the bunch.



LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI: An Epic American Adventure — Rinker Buck (2022) ***-1/2
Writer/adventurer/amateur historian builds a replica ‘Kentucky Flatboat’ and pilots it from Pittsburgh to New Orleans in a recreation of sorts of the first phase of America’s post-revolutionary westward expansion.

SUPER VOLCANOES: What They Reveal About Earth and the Worlds Beyond — Robin George Andrews (2022) ***
Volcanologist/writer takes a look at major volcanoes both on earth and elsewhere in the solar system.


FOLK MUSIC: A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs — Greil Marcus (2022) **-1/2
Veteran writer covering music in general and Dylan in particular parses (often in VERY long sentences) Dylan’s psyche and impact through seven selected songs spanning his long career. Not sure that I got much out of it though some probably will.

A DOG’S WORLD: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World Without Humans — Jessica Pierce, Marc Bekoff (2021) **
Speculative thought piece on if and how dogs would survive were humans to suddenly disappear.

PRISONERS OF THE CASTLE: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis’ Fortress Prison — Ben MacIntyre (2022) ***
Very detailed history of a WWII German prison camp and the Allied prisoners held there.
This castle/prison is very famous in European circles though less so here due to few American inmates.

WACO RISNG: David Koresh, the FBI, and the Birth of America’s Modern Militias — Kevin Cook (2023) ***
A look at the siege/standoff at Waco in 1993 which the author cites as a launching pad for future militias and other anti-gov’t types (McVeigh, Alex Jones, etc.)

RED FAMINE: Stalin’s War on Ukraine — Anne Applebaum (2017) ****
The Russian/Soviet quest to stamp out any thought of Ukrainian independence isn't new but has been going on for more than a century. In the early 1930s that policy peaked with a manufactured famine that killed nearly 4 million.

SONG OF THE CELL: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human - Siddartha Mukherjee (2022) ***
From the author/oncologist, a history covering the discovery of cells to the present/future where cells can be manipulated to fight diseases and other human maladies.

SHIELDED: How the Police Became Untouchable — Joanna Schwartz (2023) *-1/2
An interesting book, I suppose, if you’re into the minutia of constitutional law. Much less so if you want a broader examination of causes or solutions to out of control policing.

PATHOGENESIS: A History of the World in Eight Plagues — Jonathan Kennedy (2023) ***
How viruses, bacteria, and other microbes shaped the history of humans on earth.

THE WAGER: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder — David Grann (2023) ****
About a specific ship but really about the brutal toll of sea travel in an age of war, exploration, and conquest, both on sailors themselves and on the unsuspecting folks they’d run into.

(F) SMALL MERCIES — Dennis Lehane (2023) ***-1/2
My first Lehane novel. Wasn’t blown away but pretty good. A tough Irish mom is the protagonist of a story set in 1974 Boston (no, really, it takes place in Boston) during the turmoil triggered by court ordered school busing.

A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them — Timothy Egan (2023) ***
The rise of a ‘new’ Klan in the early 20th century had much of its success in the north and especially so in Indiana.

AMERICAN MIDNIGHT: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis: Adam Hothschild (2023) ****
The presidential election of ’16 is followed by vitriol towards immigrants, a rise in racial and ethnic tensions, a global pandemic, and increased government criminalization of free speech and the press. Plus there was America’s controversial entry into WWI.
Sort of a national and more expansive take on the story from FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND (above)

DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s NEBRASKA — Warren Zanes (2023) ****
A writer/musician writing about an album that Bruce never intended to make, then decided he couldn’t Not make, then had to decide How to make, before finally realizing he already had made it. Well written by a music savvy author and a nice study of the subject.

ENEMIES AND NEIGHBORS: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 — Ian Black (2017) ****
The tough part about this subject is finding writing without prior bias and I think this one, from a British journalist with long experience in the region, manages just that while delivering a terrific chronological history where almost no side comes off looking good.

[whippoorwill]

I will look for Small Mercies…I am very much a Denis Lehane fan

[The Hot Corner]

I read mostly non-fiction. The only fictional works were The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead and Open Throat by Thomas Hoke. The bold entries are the ones I enjoyed the most.

1. The Misquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger
2. One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America by Gene Weingarten
3. The Ratline: The Exalted Life and Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive by Philippe Sands
4. A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
5. A False Spring: A Memoir by Pat Jordan
6. The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman
7. The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us by Karen Fine
8. Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas
9. Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey in the Dark Antartic Night by Julian Sancton
10. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann
11. Follow Me to Hell: McNelly’s Texas Rangers and the Rise of Frontier Justice by Tom Clavin
12. Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss
13. Coming Home: My Amazin’ Life with the New York Mets by Cleon Jones
14. Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam by Mark Bowden
15. Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss
16. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
17. American Prometheus: The Triumph & Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird
18. Through The Wilderness by Brad Orsted
19. Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe
20. Open Throat by Thomas Hoke
21. Lucky 666: The Impossible Mission by Bob Drury
22. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments by Joe Posnanski
23. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Y

[cal sharpie]

There were 64 books read this year., one fewer than last year. Mostly fiction, mostly by foreign authors. I'm in a fairly intense book group that devoted much of the year to really classic literature. Those titles are marked with an asterisk. Both the fourth book I read this year and the final one were by musicians writing about songs that meant alot to them (no song made it into both books). There were also two other books by women singers, Rickie Lee Jones' being the better of the two. Novels that meant much to me are in bold.

POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS OF BRAS CUBAS -- Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis*
THE LOCUSTS HAVE NO KING – Dawn Powell
LIFE WITHOUT CHILDREN – Roddy Doyle
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG – Bob Dylan
SPYING ON THE SOUTH – Tony Horwitz
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE – Juan Pablo Villalobos
REDEPLOYMENT – Phil Klay
AFTERLIVES – Abdul Razak Gurnah*
AUGUSTOWN – Kei Miller
NEVERMIND – Edward St. Aubyn
BAD NEWS -- Edward St. Aubyn
SOME HOPE -- Edward St. Aubyn
MOTHER’SMILK -- Edward St. Aubyn
AT LAST -- Edward St. Aubyn
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS WITH CHE GUEVARA – Ben Fountain
TRUST – Hernan Diaz
AGE OF VICE – Deepti Kapoor
GILGAMESH – Stephen Mitchell (translator)*
THE SENTENCE – Louise Erdrich
INSPIRED SLEEP – Robert Cohen
BILGEWATER – Jane Gardam
JUSTINE – Lawrence Durrell
BEOWULF – Seamus Heaney (translator)*
THE SWEET HEREAFTER – Russell Banks
HIDDEN CAMERA – Zoran Zivkocik
THE RABBIT HUTCH – Tess Gunty
TO THEWHITE SEA – James Dickey
THE WAGER – David Grann
DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD – Olga Tokarczuk
DON’T TELL ANYBODY THE SECRETS I TOLD YOU – Lucinda Williams
COMPANION PIECE – Ali Smith
WAITING FOR SUNRISE – William Boyd
POT LUCK – Emile Zola
DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE – Warren Zanes
MY LIFE AS EDGAR – Dominique Fabre
PARZIVAL – Wolfram Von Eschenbach*
LAST CHANCE TEXACO – Rickie Lee Jones
BROOKLYN – Colm Toibin
BLACKTOP WASTELAND – S.A. Cosby
THE SECRET PLACE – Tana French
EMPIRE FALLS – Richard Russo
THE LONG VALLEY – John Steinbeck
RESTLESS – William Boyd
GRENDEL – John Gardner
POVERTY, BY AMERICA – Matthew Desmond
LICKS OF LOVE – John Updike
TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT – Graham Greene
4321 – Paul Auster
MILDRED PIERCE – James M. Cain
INTIMACIES – Katie Kitamura
THE CANTERBURY TALES – Geoffrey Chaucer (translated by David Wright!)*
THE PARIS DIVERSION – Chris Pavone
PAPPYLAND – Wright Thompson
MILKMAN – Anna Burns
AN IMMENSE WORLD – Ed Yong
KING RICHARD – Michael Dobbs
LAND OF MARVELS – Barry Unsworth
HALCYON – Elliot Ackerman
FAITH FOX – Jane Gardam
OUR MUTUAL FRIEND – Charles Dickens
ESTHER’S INHERITANCE – Sandor Marai
BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ – Alfred Doblin*
A TREATISE ON SHELLING BEANS –Wieslaw Mysliwski
WORLD WITHIN A SONG – Jeff Tweedy