Books you’ve read in 2022

1. Power and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages - Dan Jones (8/10)
2 Star Wars: The High Republic: The Fallen Star - Claudia Gray (9/10)
3. The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States - Walter Johnson (9.5/10)
4. Damnation Spring - Ash Davidson 8.5/10
5. Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire - Johnathan M Katz (7.5/10)
6. How To Be Perfect: The Correct Moral Answer To Any Question - Michael Schur (7.5/10)
7. Mickey7 - Edward Ashton (8/10)

How to Be Perfect - All the problems I had w this book were more of a me problem. I think I just find psychology extremely boring, and ethics slightly less. That said this was really well done and I learned a lot. Just felt more like a chore to read at times

Mickey7 This was really good. Same type of feel as an Andy Weir book. Scratches the same itch, but doesn’t reach the same heights. Funny main character, with a decent amount of science. Mickey is an a expendable on a galactic colony on a new world. Expendable are people who are sent to do shit jobs. If they die, the colony makes a new body and the consciousness is uploaded into it. Something happens, they think Mickey7 died and made Mickey8. Shit hits the fan

 

Yeah it’s definitely not one I’d recommend if you aren’t really interested in philosophy and ethics. I was not expecting it to be an in-depth exploration of those issues. I enjoyed it but I also like reading stuff like that.

 

February was one heck of a month for #EliteFiction. New additions are in bold. I added a little blurb for January's haul as well after initially failing to do so

1- The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner (8.5/10)
Stegner is one of the best American writers ever and here he follows the trials of a family as they try to make something for themselves in various parts of the country during the Great Depression. If you have a romantic interest in the American West, I'd read this

2- Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston* (7.5/10)
Required reading for a HS English class, I revisited this and am glad I did. Tells the story of a black woman in FL in the early 1900s and her ability to stay strong through it all

3- All the Little Live Things - Wallace Stegner (5/10)
While it's as well written as you'd expect from a Stegner novel, was kind of a slog to get through IMO. Set in the Bay Area in the 60s, it is a story about two couples who, while separated in age by many years, share many values and develop a close relationship

4- The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen (9.5/10)
One of the funniest novels I've ever read, this pretty long book recounts all the drama experienced by each member of a Midwestern family, all while the mother of the family tries to get everyone together for one last Xmas together. Had a hard time putting this book down

5- A Burning - Megha Majumdar (9/10)
An extremely easy book to read because it has short chapters, tons of dialogue and also happens to be super engaging. A story about three people in India who are all just trying to make something for themselves. Based on what limited reading I've done on Modi's efforts to turn India into a Hindu nationalist state, it struck me as a really insightful book by one of the best young authors I've read in a while

6- Going After Caciatto - Tim O'Brien (7.5/10)
A classic I've had sitting on my shelf for years. Breezed through this because it also has short chapters and tells a really captivating story about a group of soldiers in Vietnam who go on a mission to locate an AWOL solider. Solid stuff from the master of the modern war novel

7- The Ballad of the Sad Cafe - Carson McCullers (7/10)
Collection of short stories by one of the finest writers to ever live. Worth reading because it's written by Carson McCullers, but none of the stories really hit me in the feels like her novels have

8- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers (10/10)*
A masterpiece. Set in the deep south, the main character is a deaf-mute man and the story revolves around him and his interactions with four other characters who experience their own sense of isolation

9- The Field of Vision - Wright Morris (3/10)*
I rated this higher when I read it back in 2019, but I had to show tremendous resolve to make it through this time around. It's about a family at a bullfight in Mexico and it's just really boring and lame

10- The Shipping News - Annie Proulx (9/10)
Proulx is one of the most accomplished American authors of our generation and this has to rank among her very best novels. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, it's about a man who works in the newspaper industry and moves to Newfoundland with his aunt and daughters to start a new life in his ancestral home. One of the few novels that manages to be super touching and downright hilarious at the same time. Really cool book if you're into life by the ocean or intrigued by the fishing industry as well

11- A Death in the Family - James Agee (8.5/10)
This book had me in tears. Beautifully written, it is set in Knoxville in the early 1900s and focuses on a family right before and after the death of one of its members. Agee died before it was published, but was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for it in 1958. There are times where it gets bogged down in catholicism but it has some of the most touching scenes I've read. I plan on taking a particular passage from it and getting it framed. Would highly recommend to people with young children because you'll be moved. Was supposed to read this in HS and feel like a dipshit for probably playing video games or jacking off instead

12- The Sea - John Banville (8/10)
By one of the best European authors of our time, this is the story of a man who revisits the Irish beach where his family used to spend its summers, with specific focus on his memories of a particular family. Extremely well written, it's pretty short yet packs a punch with a pretty dramatic ending. It won the 2005 Booker Prize

13- The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes (9/10)
Winner of the 2011 Booker Prize, this was a super easy book to read. Short chapters with brilliant dialogue. Narrated by a retired man looking back on his past, it focuses on his friendship with three other boys and one girl and how their relationships evolve through their times in college and ultimately later on in life. Had to re-read the last few pages like five times before I could really process the ending

14- Ladder of Years - Anne Tyler (7.5/10)
A very sheltered woman from an old money Baltimore neighborhood decides to walk out on her family while on vacation at a Delaware beach. Follows her as she gets to experience true independence for the first time in her life. Tyler is a master of the English language and I enjoyed the story, but could see this being even more appealing to young women because it hits on a lot of subjects to which I think they can better relate

15- Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney (10/10)
15-20 years from now I am going to be smug as fuck about the first edition Sally Rooney books that will be sitting on the shelves I reserve for my very favorite authors. Rooney will be the greatest living author at some point in the next 10-20 years. I read Normal People last year and cried like a baby several times. While this book didn't evoke that same response, it was still a super emotional read filled with amazing dialogue and hilarious insights throughout. Feels like Rooney would fit in really well on this board given her political and social stances. She has an ability to touch upon the most important issues facing young people these days without making her writing feel intimidating or inaccessible. I am in awe of her. Will be reading Beautiful World, Where Are You in the next few weeks and I can't imagine being any less impressed than I have been with her first two books

* denotes a re-read

 

There is so much buzz around Rooney. Really need to read her stuff.

 

Rooney mentions Animal Collective, Arrested Development, Joanna Newsom, Tinder, etc. It's so cool to have my socks knocked off by some seriously contemporary fiction

 

1. The Mismeasure Of Progress: Economic Growth And Its Critics / Stephen J. Macekura (6.5/10)
2. Guitars: A Celebration Of Pure Mojo / David Schiller (9/10)
3. Mountain Men: The Remarkable Climbers And Determined Eccentrics Who First Scaled The World's Most Famous Peaks / Mick Conefrey and Tim Jordan (9.5/10)
4. The Lost City Of Z: A Tale Of Deadly Obsession In The Amazon / David Grann (10/10)
5. Salt: A Word History / Mark Kurlansky (8.5/10)

6. Invisible No More: The African American Experience At The University Of South Carolina (8/10)
Great, I hate my alma mater now. Good book that filled in some gaps in my knowledge. Half the essays were a little more boring like a school paper, half were more fun to read.

Up Next:

 

1. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakeur 9/10
2. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne 6/10
3. The Pearl Diver by Jeff Talarigo 8/10
4. Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno 4/10
5. Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar 8/10
6. The Deserter by Nelson DeMille 8/10

 

Somebody else likes the mountain climbing books I see

 

Yeah, I’ve add a lot more to my lists after reading them too! Any recommendations?

 

1. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
2. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling
3. The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski 8.5/10 - fantastic storytelling, kind of a feel good story with beautiful, unique writing style. author is similar to Scott Hawkins as a one-hit wonder.

 

#1 is next on my list. I went with a non-fiction and picked up Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly. Just started it but really enjoying it.

 

1. Power and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages - Dan Jones (8/10)
2 Star Wars: The High Republic: The Fallen Star - Claudia Gray (9/10)
3. The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States - Walter Johnson (9.5/10)
4. Damnation Spring - Ash Davidson 8.5/10
5. Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire - Johnathan M Katz (7.5/10)
6. How To Be Perfect: The Correct Moral Answer To Any Question - Michael Schur (7.5/10)
7. Mickey7 - Edward Ashton (8/10)
8. Dark Horse (Orphan X #7) - Gregg Hurwitz (8/10)
9. Goliath - Tochi Onyebuchi (7/10)
10. The Nineties - Chuck Klosterman (7/10)


Dark Horse - Really good, fun action series. 7 books in and still really strong.

Goliath - Scifi that takes place in the near future. Earth has almost become uninhabitable. The rich flee to space colonies, while the lower classes remain on earth to eek out an existence. People are earth get evicted from homes so the colonist can deconstruct them brick by brick and rebuild them in their colonies. Book is pure social commentary on class, race, privilege ect. Really good.

But man - Not sure how to rank this. This was a difficult read. Non linear story, the writing style was challenging for me. Getting through this book was a lot of work. Not sure if Im proud I finished, more than I actually liked it. I think Id like much more on a re-read, having a better grasp of what was going on, and probably able to catch more of the nuance.

90s - It was just ok. It was good nostalgia, but it just didnt really hit for me. I was hoping for some lightbulb moments or some stuff that I didnt understand as a kid that Id interpret differently as an adult. Just felt a little underwhelmed. idk

 

90s is on my list, so a little disappointed to hear. I haven’t read his other stuff but I was thinking that would be really good based on description

 

I feel like I may be in the minority opinion on this, so dont let my review turn you off. I think he had good insight and everything. I feel like this would have been better as a podcast discussion or something like that. Just reading it kind of fell flat for me.

 

1- The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner (8.5/10)
2- Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston (7.5/10)*
3- All the Little Live Things - Wallace Stegner (5/10)
4- The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen (9.5/10)
5- A Burning - Megha Majumdar (9/10)
6- Going After Caciatto - Tim O'Brien (7.5/10)
7- The Ballad of the Sad Cafe - Carson McCullers (7/10)
8- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers (10/10)*
9- The Field of Vision - Wright Morris (3/10)*
10- The Shipping News - Annie Proulx (9/10)
11- A Death in the Family - James Agee (8.5/10)
12- The Sea - John Banville (8/10)
13- The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes (9/10)
14- Ladder of Years - Anne Tyler (7.5/10)
15- Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney (10/10)

16- Amsterdam - Ian McEwan (8/10)
Winner of the 1998 Booker Prize, the novel is a comic morality tale about a couple friends in the wake of their mutual ex-lover's death. Yet another book by a brilliant European writer that had me thinking by the time I was done. I flew through this because it's short, there's a lot of dialogue and it's also super enjoyable

17- That Night - Alice McDermott (5.5/10)
Two Long Island teenagers fall in love in the early 60s. A parent doesn't approve and the boy causes trouble in their peaceful neighborhood. It was a finalist for the National Book Award, Pen/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize. So clearly McDermott is a brilliant person (Hopkins professor) who writes critically-acclaimed stuff, but for my tastes the story strayed way too far from the actual night the book is supposed to be about. It never really resonated much with me

18- Salvage the Bones - Jesmyn Ward (10/10)
Was initially planning on waiting till the end of the month to do another big list, but wanted to make sure I recommended this ASAP. Ward is the first black person and the first woman to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice. This novel earned her the honor the first time around and I can't think of a way it could have been better. A black family on a MS bayou braces for Katrina and you get to know them/follow them over the course of 12 days. While heartbreaking at times, the story is very engrossing. Kinda reminds me of A Burning in that it reads almost like a thriller while still managing to be a very thought-provoking book with impeccable writing

* denotes a re-read

 

Sixteen Years After ‘The Road,’ Cormac McCarthy Is Publishing Two New Novels

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/books/cormac-mccarthy-new-novels.html

 

I don’t do much reading but tonight, sat on the couch from the “formal” area of my childhood home, after just moving my grandmother’s china cabinet into the same room and drank Smoke Wagon while reading Lonesome Dove. I’m not sure but it’s hilarious. Just a quarter the way in and highly recommended it.

 

1. A Memory of Light (Wheel of Time #14) - Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson (10/10)
2. Reaper (Cradle #10) - Will Wight (8.5/10)
3. The Last Wish (The Witcher #1) - Andrzej Sapkowski (8.5/10)
4. Sword of Destiny (The Witcher #2) - Andrzej Sapkowski (8/10)
5. Blood of Elves (The Witcher #3) - Andrzej Sapkowski (8/10)
6. Time of Contempt (The Witcher #4) - Andrzej Sapkowski (7.5/10)

 

1. The Mismeasure Of Progress: Economic Growth And Its Critics / Stephen J. Macekura (6.5/10)
2. Guitars: A Celebration Of Pure Mojo / David Schiller (9/10)
3. Mountain Men: The Remarkable Climbers And Determined Eccentrics Who First Scaled The World's Most Famous Peaks / Mick Conefrey and Tim Jordan (9.5/10)
4. The Lost City Of Z: A Tale Of Deadly Obsession In The Amazon / David Grann (10/10)
5. Salt: A Word History / Mark Kurlansky (8.5/10)
6. Invisible No More: The African American Experience At The University Of South Carolina (8/10)

7. Roots: The Saga Of An American Family / Alex Haley (10/10)
So he stole half of it from another book and came to some faulty conclusions in his ending. Still a great book -- gripping, moving. Required reading if you live in the south

Up Next:

 

1) The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson 9/10
2) The Fires of Vengeance by Evan Winter 8/10
3) Founding Martyr: the life and death of Dr. Joseph Warren by Christian Di Spigna 7.5/10
4) Star Wars Dark Disciple by Christie Golden 8/10

 

Loved Dark Disciple

 

Little late in the game here but getting going again. Took a trip recently, all packed up and a few miles down the road I realized I forgot my book. In any event, I did some judge a book by the cover at the airport and here we go. First two you will see on the list, figured NY Times wouldn't let me down.

1. Leave the World Behind, Alam, Rumaan 4/10 and it's only a four because I enjoyed the writing style. I will read other books that he writes.

2. The Prophets, Jones, Robert Jr. 1/10 highly do not recommend.

 

The ending of Leave the World Behind was extremely disappointing and unsatisfying but I still enjoyed it.

 

Yeah it was really lined up to be elite. I read it in the better part of a day and left the ending for the flight home. You live and learn.

 

1. Power and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages - Dan Jones (8/10)
2 Star Wars: The High Republic: The Fallen Star - Claudia Gray (9/10)
3. The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States - Walter Johnson (9.5/10)
4. Damnation Spring - Ash Davidson 8.5/10
5. Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire - Johnathan M Katz (7.5/10)
6. How To Be Perfect: The Correct Moral Answer To Any Question - Michael Schur (7.5/10)
7. Mickey7 - Edward Ashton (8/10)
8.Light Years From Home - Mike Chen (7/10)
9. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Albert Lansing (8/10)
10. The Sins of Our Fathers (The Expanse 9.5) - James S A Corey (8/10)


Light Years From Home - Loved the premise or what I thought was the premise, was disappointed with the execution. A family goes on a camping trip, the father and son get abducted by aliens. The father returns 2 days later. The son returns 15 years later. He was recruited to fight in a galactic war. Sounds pretty cool, right? Thats just used as a vehicle for a story about the fallout of what happened after his father returned, and he was missing for 15 years. How it effected his family. It wasnt a bad book, but my expectations of what it was going to be, a cool story inspired by The Last Starfighter or something it was not. Glad I read it, but also disappointed by it.

Endurance - Title is pretty self explanatory. The rediscovery of the ship recently was the motivation to read. Pretty incredible survival story.

Sins of Our Fathers - One last Expanse Novella. Wasnt what I was hoping for, but it was good. Now Im bummed it's over all over again :(

 

1. The Mismeasure Of Progress: Economic Growth And Its Critics / Stephen J. Macekura (6.5/10)
2. Guitars: A Celebration Of Pure Mojo / David Schiller (9/10)
3. Mountain Men: The Remarkable Climbers And Determined Eccentrics Who First Scaled The World's Most Famous Peaks / Mick Conefrey and Tim Jordan (9.5/10)
4. The Lost City Of Z: A Tale Of Deadly Obsession In The Amazon / David Grann (10/10)
5. Salt: A World History / Mark Kurlansky (8.5/10)
6. Invisible No More: The African American Experience At The University Of South Carolina (8/10)
7. Roots: The Saga Of An American Family / Alex Haley (10/10)

8. Come As You Are: The Story Of Nirvana / Michael Azerrad (7.5/10)
I think there are better Nirvana bios out there now, but I remember this book sitting on like every kids shelves in the 90s so I wanted to read it. Solid nostalgia. Interesting how Dave Grohl was considered then vs now. Sadly, Kurt definitely killed himself IMO. I never realized he was so small, 5’7 125 lbs supposedly

Up Next:

 

1. The power of influence- Robert Cialdini
2. The Republic of Pirates- Colin Woodard
3. Alone on the wall- Alex Honnold Bio about Alex, pre-free solo
4. Shattered Air- Bob Madgic About the 1985 lighting strikes on Half Dome
5. Sandman Act II- Neil Gaiman
6. Hero with 1000 faces- Joseph Campbell
7. Bottle of Lies-Katherine Eban - how generic drugs came about and how deceitful those companies are
8. The Vikings and their Enemies- Phillip Lane
9. Chasing the Scream- Johann Harl Really well done book on how useless the War on drugs is.
10. Darkwater Bride- Marty Ross

11. Black Flags, Blue Waters- Eric Jay Dolin. More Pirate History
12. The Outlaw Ocean- Ian Urbina. Details all the illegal activity that goes on on the Ocean. From Illegal Fishing, Poaching, Pirates, Slavery, Ship Repos.
13. Skeletons of the Zahara- Dean King. About a ship called the Commerce that wreck off the coast of Africa in the early 1800s. Captain and crew were forced in to Slavery by Arab Tribesman.
14. Meditations- Marcus Aurelius

 

1) The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson 9/10
2) The Fires of Vengeance by Evan Winter 8/10
3) Founding Martyr: the life and death of Dr. Joseph Warren by Christian Di Spigna 7.5/10
4) Star Wars Dark Disciple by Christie Golden 8/10
5) The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier 9/10

Felt like a mix of Lost and Black Mirror, right up my alley.

 

1. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
2. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling
3. The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski
4. Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
5. Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney - 7.5/10 - gonna politely disagree with Cornelius on the impact of Rooney. She is definitely nailing certain topics but I withdrew from her writing style because it it reads like a diary. That would have been fine for one book - if it was the best way to put forth the narrator's thoughts. But it seems it's just her style, which can be off-putting at times. When you read a big event and the character relays as if it were as mundane as an ordinary occurrence, it loses something. Again, if that were the case for this single character/narrator, that would make sense but from what I've seen/heard, the primary lead in Normal People is just the primary lead of Conversations.. but with her problems ratcheted to 10. I love some of the topics of the book, and it's worth a read - her ability to relay the thoughts of Frances and her issues is really great - but I'm not going to go so far as Cornelius. I won't be reading any other entries to her catalog.

Next up: To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

 

I have To Paradise on my list. Looking forward to seeing how you like it.

 

1. Power and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages - Dan Jones (8/10)
2 Star Wars: The High Republic: The Fallen Star - Claudia Gray (9/10)
3. The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States - Walter Johnson (9.5/10)
4. Damnation Spring - Ash Davidson 8.5/10
5. Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire - Johnathan M Katz (7.5/10)
6. How To Be Perfect: The Correct Moral Answer To Any Question - Michael Schur (7.5/10)
7. Mickey7 - Edward Ashton (8/10)
8.Light Years From Home - Mike Chen (7/10)
9. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Albert Lansing (8/10)
10. The Sins of Our Fathers (The Expanse 9.5) - James S A Corey (8/10)
11. Pachinko - Min Jee Lee (9/10)
12. The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War - Scott Anderson (8/10)

Pachinko - Multi generational story about a family of Koreans who live in Japan. About the struggles of Koreans who are 2nd class citizens there. Starts in early 1900s and ends in 1989. Really really good. Moving. They made it into a show on Apple TV. Watched the first 3 episodes and had to read the book. Did not disappoint.

The Quiet Americans - Tells the beginnings of the CIA and the Cold War through 4 men. Really good and informative. However, it was pretty long, and quite dry at times. Glad I read, if I didnt enjoy all the time. USA and USSR really fucked up the world for the dumbest reasons

 

1- The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner (8.5/10)
2- Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston (7.5/10)*
3- All the Little Live Things - Wallace Stegner (5/10)
4- The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen (9.5/10)
5- A Burning - Megha Majumdar (9/10)
6- Going After Caciatto - Tim O'Brien (7.5/10)
7- The Ballad of the Sad Cafe - Carson McCullers (7/10)
8- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers (10/10)*
9- The Field of Vision - Wright Morris (3/10)*
10- The Shipping News - Annie Proulx (9/10)
11- A Death in the Family - James Agee (8.5/10)
12- The Sea - John Banville (8/10)
13- The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes (9/10)
14- Ladder of Years - Anne Tyler (7.5/10)
15- Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney (10/10)
16- Amsterdam - Ian McEwan (8/10)
17- That Night - Alice McDermott (5.5/10)
18- Salvage the Bones - Jesmyn Ward (10/10)

19- A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley (9/10)
Winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize (and other major awards), this is a brilliant reimagining of King Lear set on an Iowa farm. Told through the eyes of the oldest of three sisters, it focuses on drama experienced by a seemingly stable and well-respected farm family. There's neat insight into life on a farm and dark twists driving the plot

20- Light Years - James Salter (8/10)
Salter might be a top five non-McCarthy author for me. He was ridiculously smart and talented. You'll go 50 pages without seeing the word 'that' once. Impeccable writing. This emotional novel focuses on a couple living along the Hudson just north of NYC that seems to have it all. It follows them from dinner parties they attended in their early days up through the rest of their lives

21- The Hours - Michael Cunningham (9/10)
Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize (and other major awards), this was a dazzling read. It's essentially a tribute to Virginia Woolf. The book focuses on three women, with each chapter telling more and more of their stories until paths all cross at the end. For a book that's only 226 pages, it packs a punch. I think I read it in three sittings

22- Being Dead - Jim Crace (7.5/10)
Winner of the 2000 National Book Critics Circle Award, this is one of the most unique books I've read. An older couple, both zoologists, go back to the beach location where they fell in love. They're murdered and the novel focuses on their passing and the decomposition of their bodies. There are some other strands woven into the plot so it's not entirely about death and rotting corpses, but much of the focus is. Under 200 pages, I breezed through this because it was so original (and frankly odd)

23- The Book of Evidence - John Banville (6.5/10)
A finalist for the 1989 Booker Prize, this was a hard read because it's almost all stream of consciousness. Banville is an elite writer and I enjoyed the dark humor here, but there might not be 150 paragraphs throughout the entire 220 pages and it took some effort to get through. An educated Irish man's mental health deteriorates and he commits a heinous crime. He then spends the entirety of the book detailing what led to the crime and its aftermath

*denotes a re-read

 

1. Liberty or Death: The French Revolution by Peter McPhee - 8/10
2. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti - 4/10
3. Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him - 8/10
4. The 1619 Project created by Nikole Hannah-Jones (with contributions from ~30 others) - 9.5/10
5. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue - 8.5/10
6. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers - 9/10

A long read but definitely lived up to the hype. A very expansive historical fiction book that touches on slavery, Native American history, Jim Crow, feminism, addiction, sexual abuse and many other things.

 

Ha! I’m 2/3rds through it. Probably will finish by the weekend. So far, I agree w your assessment.

 

I’m not the biggest fan on these type of books, but they’re like a guilty pleasure of sorts. The history part is really fascinating. The prescriptions made from them always seem shaky to me. A conclusion in search of a path.

I do like how the authors create a counter narrative to Diamond and Harrari. It’s all good thought experiment.

 

Yep, I need to read as well because Pinker/Diamond/Harrari have been some of my favorite authors

 

Upton^2 todays episode of the Tides Of History podcast had an Indus Valley Scholar who discussed many of the egalitarian origin themes in the books.

Crazy coincidence. Good companion material.

 

I'm reading about Indonesia right now. You've got people in the New Guinea part prob still living those old lifestyles

 

1. A Memory of Light (Wheel of Time #14) - Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson (10/10)
2. Reaper (Cradle #10) - Will Wight (8.5/10)
3. The Last Wish (The Witcher #1) - Andrzej Sapkowski (8.5/10)
4. Sword of Destiny (The Witcher #2) - Andrzej Sapkowski (8/10)
5. Blood of Elves (The Witcher #3) - Andrzej Sapkowski (8/10)
6. Time of Contempt (The Witcher #4) - Andrzej Sapkowski (7.5/10)
7. Baptism of Fire (The Witcher #5) - Andrzej Sapkowski (7.5/10)

 

1. Power and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages - Dan Jones (8/10)
2 Star Wars: The High Republic: The Fallen Star - Claudia Gray (9/10)
3. The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States - Walter Johnson (9.5/10)
4. Damnation Spring - Ash Davidson 8.5/10
5. Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire - Johnathan M Katz (7.5/10)
6. How To Be Perfect: The Correct Moral Answer To Any Question - Michael Schur (7.5/10)
7. Mickey7 - Edward Ashton (8/10)
8.Light Years From Home - Mike Chen (7/10)
9. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Albert Lansing (8/10)
10. The Sins of Our Fathers (The Expanse 9.5) - James S A Corey (8/10)
11. Pachinko - Min Jee Lee (9/10)
12. The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War - Scott Anderson (8/10)
13. Don't Know Tough - Eli Cranor (6/10)
14. Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity - David Graeber/David Wengrow (7.5/10)
15. Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel (8.5/10)

Dont Know Tough - About a HS football team. Mostly a troubled player and coach. I read this book because SA Cosby sent out a recommendation for it on GR. Love Cosby so I gave it a try. The entire time I read I was thinking - I hate these characters. They're not likable, even the ones that are suppose to be. It's horribly written. But somehow the plot kept me engaged and was a page turner. Then the ending sucked. Just annoyed because there was a kernel of a good premise in there.

Dawn of Everything - Dont have too much to add from what I said earlier. I like the history aspects of it. I like the 'new thinking'. My biggest issue is so much of these types of books, is that they're so speculative that fits a desired outcome. It's useful to use as rhetoric in philosophical discussion, but I enjoyed the hard history aspects more. Still - learned a lot and enjoyed it.

Sea of Tranquility- she is such a good storyteller. Short quick read. This book is. a lot like Cloud Atlas where there are several stories told over centuries that seem separate and come together in the end. Also she brought some characters fro, Glass Hotel into this book, which is cool. Although you don’t need to read that one to enjoy this. More of just an Easter egg. Great plot, characters you’re invested in, good social commentary, good mystery. Big fan