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Tag Archives: Fiction

THE LIST – 2022 Favorite Reads

31 Saturday Dec 2022

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures

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2022 Favorite Reads, Favorite Authors, Favorite Books Read in 2022, Favorite Series, Fiction, Looking for a Book to Read?, MillersTime Readers Favorite Reads, non-fiction, Readers List the Books They most Enjoyed in 2022, THE LIST

A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” A. Lincoln

(Note – 1/8/23: Some readers have expressed interest in having a printed list of just the titles, authors, and contributors. For some reason, I have not been able to embed it in this post, but if you send me your mailing address, I’d be glad to send it to you. RAM)

Sixty-four contributors responded to this 14th MillersTime call for favorite reads. Readers of this site offered 229 titles they identified as books they’ve particularly enjoyed over the past year. Nonfiction (NF) were cited far more often than Fiction (F), 58%-42%. The contributors were evenly divided between female and male – 32-32.

Books listed just below this paragraph are titles that appeared in two or more submissions:

FICTION:

*Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

*Horse: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks

*Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmis

*The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan

*The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

*The Personal Librarian by Benedict & Murray

*The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

*Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

NON-FICTION:

*Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis

*How Civil Wars Start & How to End Them by Barbara Walter

*In Love: A Memoir of Love & Loss by Amy Bloom

*Invisible Stop by Jason Kander

*Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit

*Saints & Soldiers by Rita Katz

*Stolen Focus by Johann Hari

*The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson

*The Grieving Brain by Mary-Frances O’Connor

*The Man Without a Face: Putin by Masha Gessen

*These Precious Days by Ann Patchett

*Walking the Bowl by Chris Lockhart & Daniel Chama

INDIVIDUAL FAVORITE READS

What makes the list below of particular value to me are the personal descriptions of why a book was a favorite. And for the time each contributor took to write and send in their (up to six) titles, I am deeply thankful.

Hopefully, you’ll return to this list throughout 2023 for possible new reads, many of which (most in fact) have not been listed in the various ‘Best Lists of 2022’ by ‘professional’ reviewers.

The list below is alphabetical by first name. Any errors are solely my responsibility. Let me know if I need to make corrections. And if you missed the deadline, you can still send in your favorites – Samesty84@gmail.com – and I can easily add them.

Abigail Wiebenson:

The Daughters of Yalta by Catherine Grace Katz (HF). It was fascinating to read this segment of history from a woman’s perspective in a very masculine power centric world. 

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (F). Oh my, Isabel Allende is such a reliable, spellbinding storyteller. This time her characters navigate challenging situations and family secrets. 

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (HF). Rich in literary language (Maggie is a walking thesaurus) and family Shakespearean history during pandemic times, this spellbinding story of relationships is provocative, complicated, and enlightening. 

Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Marilee Adams (NF). As always, navigating and creating the language of conversation is fascinating and compelling. The anatomy and choreography of questions is critical to leadership of self and others and key to my work in leadership coaching. 

Allan Latts:

Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence by Ajay Agrawals, Avi Goldfarb, and Joshua Gan (NF). In Prediction Machines, three eminent economists recast the rise of AI as a drop in the cost of prediction (the computer revolution recast rise of computers in cutting the cost of calculations). With this single, masterful stroke, they lift the curtain on the AI-is-magic hype and show how basic tools from economics provide clarity about the AI revolution and a basis for action by CEOs, managers, policy makers, investors, and entrepreneurs. 

How the Mountains Grew: A New Geological History of North America by John Dvorak (NF). After visiting Utah, I read this book on the geological history of the earth America. It was a little dense but really interesting tidbits of info. (I think this was this year…could have been last)

Mistborn Series by Brian Sanderson (F). I read this series…sci-fi / fantasy – Really great story line across five books.

Anita Rechler:

Matters of race on my mind. Two very different books:  

Horse: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks (HF).  An easy read, interesting, though imperfect book (the ending is contrived). It is a story well told about a slave, the remarkable racehorse Lexington, their relationship, a mystery painting and its artist, a romantic relationship, and more. The story looks back to 1850’s Kentucky and forward to contemporary DC (folks who live in DC will recognize city landmarks), telling a story about racing and racism, then and now.

Douglas: Prophet of Freedom David Blight (NF) – This is a detailed biography of Fredrick Douglass and his emergence from slavery to a complicated life as a gifted orator, energetic proselytizer, friend, colleague, husband and father. I read the book imagining what he might say if reborn to this moment. 

And recommend this and anything else Anand writes:

Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas (NF). The book is a devastating critique of the wealthiest who donate big bucks to various causes and charities of their own creation. Read it, and it is impossible to look at big philanthropy and its elite donors in the same way again. 

Barbara Friedman:

Mary Churchill’s War: The Wartime Diaries of Churchill’s Youngest Daughter Mary Churchill edited by Emma Soames (NF) is a fascinating book even if you have read a lot about Churchill. You get an “inside” perspective on the family and the times.  She provides interesting perspectives on the life of a young women in war times – the parties, the gaiety, and the bombing.  In addition, you see life at the Admiralty and 10 Downing Street from the perspective of an insider.

Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolutionby Gordon Wood (NF) is an excellent book on the framers as they wrote the American Constitution, covering what they included and why, what they left for future consideration (slavery), and how it all came together. An excellent book of the times.

Forty Autumns: A Family’s Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall by Nina Willner (NF) is a wonderful book about her family (grandparents, mother, aunts, uncles, and cousins) who were born in East Germany and who lived behind the Berlin Wall.  Aided by her grandfather, her mother escaped East Germany and eventually lived a normal American life while her mother’s family lived, suffered, endured, and made the best of living in East Germany.  The author was the first female US Army Intelligence Officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. I found the book in a shop across from Checkpoint Charlie.  It is a fascinating read.

The Death of Democracy by Benjamin Carter Hett (NF) is an excellent and well written history of the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler in 1930’s Germany, the widespread use of lies and untruths among the Nazis and Hitler in particular, and the confidence of the conservative politicians who thought that Hitler and the Nazis would support but instead drove them out of power and created the Hitler regime.  The parallels with today’s conservatives are eerie.

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb (F) is a wonderful novel about Ray, a black boy/man who became a concert and prize-winning violinist, and his PopPop’s (his great grandfather’s) violin. This old, rosin encrusted violin turns out to be a Stradivarius and is stolen just as he is practicing for the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Did he win it?  The book is not only a compelling story about Ray and his ascent up the path to becoming a professional violinist, but it also tackles the inevitable issues of discrimination and racism. The hurried pace at the end of the book to tie everything together is a bit disappointing, but the book remains a great read.

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson (NF) is a MUST READ!  The book focuses on the exploration and understanding of RNA and this part of the book was fascinating and written in English! However, what I found most interesting was the debate on gene editing – is it OK to correct genetic mutations by restoring a “normal” version of a gene –  such as eliminating sickle cell anemia or Huntington’s disease?  Probably yes. But if you do this gene editing, do you then affect genes that are resistant to malaria or West Nile virus?  Not a great result!  Is it okay to gene edit to make a newborn taller or have blue eyes, etc?  Probably no!  Great questions!  The book ends with the work done in recent years regarding Covid 19.  An interesting fact – Isaacson participated in the Pfizer-BioNtech clinical trials! Said again…a MUST read!!

Ben Senturia:

Harlan Coben Series by Harlan Coben (F). I am continuing to read this series of mysteries which I love. The main character is a sports’ agent (Myron Bolitar). They are well written and fun.  

Bob Thurston:

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (NF). This is the story of the American rowers who competed in the 8-man (plus coxswain) boat that represented the US in the 1936 Olympic Games (“Hitler’s Games”). The author weaves many strands together: a picture of the sport of rowing, hitherto dominated by elite schools in the east; the program at U of Washington and its driven coach, Al Ubrickson; a sense of the mechanics and demands of rowing; and most compellingly, the story of one young man, Joe Rantz, who had to overcome incredible odds just to support himself, never mind getting to the U of Washington and its rowing program.

I had to keep reminding myself that this is a true story; it reads like a novel in that you want to keep turning the pages. Brown’s narration of the actual races was excellent and, in many cases, suspenseful. Each chapter is prefaced by a bit of wisdom from George Pocock, a boatman and aracing shell builder, sort of the Yoda of this story. The author includes some of the story of the Nazis, including the decision to make a grand show of the 1936 Olympics, and how the Olympic areas were “cleaned up” to impress visitors and hide evidence of atrocities. I found it inspiring to read about how the physical and mental toughness of the rowers allowed them to overcome situations that, at critical times, looked hopeless. Definitely a fun read.

Brandt Tilis:

Bittersweet by Susan Cain (NF). Why do we push people toward happiness instead of letting each other (and ourselves) just be?  This book is about normalizing negative emotions and finding the good in our sadness.

Boom Town by Sam Anderson (NF). The history of Oklahoma City that you never knew you had to read. I have never been to Oklahoma City, and outside of the 1995 bombing and their basketball team (the Thunder), I have never thought much about it.  This book goes through the history of the city from the Land Run (fascinating!) to the bombing (tragic). It is so well written and colors everything through the lens of the Thunder who have become a major part of the city’s identity. Boom Town is for people who like quirky history.

Mindset by Carol Dweck (NF). This is not a new release, but it is timeless.  Mindset is about the two different types of mindsets: Fixed and Growth, and how to identify and cultivate a Growth Mindset in ourselves, our children, and our workplace. This book changed the way I look at everyone, particularly my kids. If you have young children or grandchildren, Mindset will help you have meaningful, constructive dialogue with them beyond “Good Job.”

Quit by Annie Duke (NF). Quitting things is frowned upon in our society, but some great success stories are born from decisions to quit. This book will give you the confidence to quit and tips for how to know when it’s time

Stolen Focus by Johann Hari (NF). Our phones and social media are designed to distract us from what’s happening in front of our faces. Reading this book has given me a reason to look past my phone and live more intentionally (though I’m still striving for perfection there).  If you think you spend too much time on your phone, do yourself a favor and read this book.  It is eye-opening.

The Power of Regret by Daniel Pink (NF). Another book about normalizing negative emotions. This time, about feeling regret for past actions. This book breaks down different types of regret and shares some very poignant, real-life examples of people’s regrets. The author collected thousands of peoples’ greatest regrets in life and broke them down. This book helped me learn to appreciate my regrets instead of suppressing them.

Brian Steinbach:

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) (F). As I said last year about Lethal White, Rowling always writes a page-turner, and this is no exception. Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellicott remain engaging characters, and the story – involving a forty-year ago disappearance – kept me going even thought it was over 900 pages. I await her latest, The Ink Black Heart, to appear in paperback come next June. (The TV films aren’t bad, either.)

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (F). Several others have already commented onthis book last year and spring, I can’t add much. Very engaging, amusing and at time horrifying, a mostly satisfying ending.

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (F – mostly). A real tour de force telling the story of John Brown – both in Kansas and Harper’s Ferry – through the eyes of a enslaved youngboy who is taken in by Brown during Bleeding Kansas times, who believes he is a girl and a good luck charm. He separates from Brown and resides for a time in a brothel, then is reunited and accompanies Brown to Harper’s Ferry. Much of the account of Brown’s action is true. The boy escapes to live a long life. An adventure, but also a lot of insight into identity and survival.

All Roads Lead to the Birchmere by Gary Oelze & Stephen Moore (NF). The story of the“legendary music hall”, but also chock full of short biographies of the musicians and characters who have played there, most interconnected. Great for a history of the DC music scene and great stories.

Of The Land by Lou Stovall (NF). Mary [wife] knows Lou from her days at Sidwell and gifted me one of his prints before I had any idea who he was. (We have another one as well). We once went to his studio with our then young kids, and he worked with each to do abstract prints. More recently we attended his shows at the Kreeger Museum and the Phillips. Much of the former drew on this book, put together by his son Will. The book tells Lou’s life, but focuses on work done in 1974 and 1977, with accompanying poetry and a short autobiography. A great introduction to his work.

Carole Haile:

The Lobotomist’s Wife by Samantha Greene Woodruff (HF). Very interesting book that delves into what actually happened to people who received lobotomies and what can occur when ego overtakes reason.  As is often the case, the author’s notes were as captivating as the book. 

Based on true events during the introduction of frontal lobotomy and movement to the “icepick” outpatient procedure. What seemed to be an effective procedure, was not followed up with objectively evaluated results for decades.  

The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku (NF). When you start a book and can’t put it down it’s a 5.  I don’t remember how I learned of this book. After I closed the book, I needed some quiet time to digest it. What begins as a difficult to read Holocaust story, written so well that I verbally reacted to some of the atrocities, ends with Eddie completing his vow to smile every day and lead a happy life as a tribute to those that didn’t survive. His memoir succinctly presents his life before, during, and after his capture and imprisonment (more than once). He lived to 101, dying in 2021. I would have loved to have met him. He realized later in life that it was important to share his story to truly liberate himself and to ensure the youth today understand the Holocaust DID HAPPEN and 6 million Jews were killed. He’s done a Ted Talk as well. Would be great if this was required reading in high school. 

The Last Stand of Payne Stewart by Kevin Robbins (NF). Listened on audio and highly recommend this format. The narrator brings the emotions of the story to life. This isn’t just about Payne Stewart’s career and untimely death. There’s a tremendous amount of golf history and trivia. What I enjoyed most was learning about the friendships and competitiveness between golfers and following Payne’s transition from a cocky kid to a thoughtful, caring, mature husband, father, and golfer. Who would have thought you’d need tissues for a golf book? You do!  And after the epilogue, what resonates with me is that you never know when the last words you speak to someone may be your last. Make them count.

Catherine Lynch:

In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi (NF). Faludi, well-known American feminist (she wrote Backlash, which is just wonderful), tracks down her estranged Hungarian-born father, who had returned to Budapest, and discovers that he has transitioned and is now living as a woman. Absolutely fascinating. 

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (F). Loved this. Tackles the origins and nature of love, ideas about God and religion, class and talent and illness and alienation and loss. Ishiguro is just remarkable. 

How Civil Wars Start by Barbara F. Walter (NF).  Everyone should read this. Here’s the summary: Be afraid. Be very afraid. 

Charlie Atherton:

Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ve read any fiction worth reporting, but in July I started to get seriously involved in baking sourdough bread and have come across several good books which cover everything from creating your own starter to baking in a Dutch oven. The dough is the thing.

The first two books I read were:

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhard (NF).

How to Make Bread: Step by Step Recipes for Yeasted Breads, Sourdoughs, Soda Breads and Pastries by Emmanuel Hadjiandreou (NF).

Several others were:

Artisan Sourdough Made Simple: A Beginner’s Guide to Delicious Handcrafted Bread with Minimal Kneading by Emilie Raffa (NF).

New World Sourdough: Artisan Techniques for Creative Homemade Fermented Breads, With Recipes for Birote, Bagels, Pan de Coco, Beignets, and More by Brian Ford (NF).

Tartine Bread by Chad Roberston (NF).

I especially enjoyed the various authors’ descriptions of how it was that they became bakers and how they learned the trade. Then, of course, were all the descriptions of equipment and techniques for baking good sourdough bread. I’ve not got into their pastries, etc, I’m just a sourdough baker.

Charlie Haile:

Freezing Order by Bill Browder (NF). The true story follow up of Red Notice, also by Mr. Browder. More murder and corruption in modern day Russia. 

The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn. (F). A fictional story that is a cross between Girl on the Train and Rear Window. 

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks (F). A fictional mystery of love and betrayal that puts a couple and their unlicensed therapists on a collision course. 

Chris Boutourline:

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (F). I wasn’t loving it through the first 30 pages or so but it was well worth continuing on. The plot involves a bank robbery gone awry and the taking of a group of hostages in an apartment. I enjoyed he plot twists and the way the characters evolved.  

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. (F)  I know, when you see the subtitle, “A Sheep Detective Story”, you think, “not another one of those”. Lots of fun to follow the flock.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (F). A gritty, wild ride in this coming-of-age tale from the author of A Gentleman in Moscow. 

Chris Rothenberger:

Kathryn “Kate” Quinn is the author of three of the historical fiction books that I highly recommend.  I became a fan after reading The Rose Code (F).  Not always easy reads, the reader is transported to the frontline in each of these powerful stories.  Also, in each book, Quinn’s notes help to understand her mindset and choices as she weaves the real history into the complex stories she creates.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn (F) is an unforgettable WW2 story of a quiet woman who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper.  It is based on a true story and drawn from the personal memoir of Mila Pavlichenko. In 1937, Mila, a student and single mother in the Ukraine, is recruited to join the fight against the Nazi’s. Over time, she transforms from a student to a deadly sniper who becomes known as Lady Death. When news of her 300th kill makes her a national figure, she is sent to Washington DC on a goodwill tour. An unexpected friendship develops with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, which provides an unexpected twist to the story. When an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a deadly new foe, Mila finds herself in the deadliest duel of her life. The story is a haunting story about heroism, desperation, and a woman who changed the course of history. This story tells a little-known story about the role females during WW2, and how heavy a blood price Russia paid to help defeat the Nazi regime. This well researched and well written novel conveys details about Soviet culture, the harsh landscape that is Russia and weaves an unforgettable story. You can practically smell the gunpowder and feel the frigid cold because the words are rich and vivid. There are great photos of the real Mila, and the author’s notes are very insightful as she portrays this strong woman, rich characters, and puts a human face to wartime. It is particularly meaningful as we understand facts about the past history of Russia and now read about the War in the Ukraine today.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (F) is the story about two women whose lives intertwine in WW1 and 2.  Their story is told in dual timelines which alternating well with each chapter. It is another well researched story based on a real female spy ring in wartime France. The story is told from the perspective of two characters, “Charlie” and “Eve” in various English and French locations. The book centers on the search for Charlie’s Cousin Rose who is missing. Eve is a battle-scarred spy who has no interest in helping until she realizes her own hunt for a French collaborator and Charlie’s hunt may lead to the same man. The riveting and heartbreaking stories of their journey are well done. The characters are engaging and the settings of England, France, and Germany are vivid with a lot of period detail.  Kathryn Quinn combines the two time periods well and brings the two stories together nicely. This covert story of spies who infiltrated German lines, memorable characters, a meaningful epilogue, and the themes of courage, guilt, redemption, and what it means to be a warrior woman are riveting.

The Huntress (F) is the story about Nina Markova who grows up in icy Russia and joins the infamous night witches, an all-female night bomber regiment that is charged with attacking Hitler’s Eastern Front. Shot down, she is thrown into the path of a Nazi murderess known as the Huntress, a ruthless murderer. Ian Graham is a British war correspondent who abandons journalism to become a Nazi hunter. He joins forces with Nina who is the only witness to escape the Huntress. Meanwhile, Jordan, a 17-year-old in Boston is very suspicious of the woman her father has chosen to marry.  The characters of Nina, Ian, and Jordan converge and eventually they must come to terms with their pasts.  The characters are vivid, themes of PTSD, survivor guilt, evil brutality, denial of truth are intertwined. Another fascinating story, based on true events, draws the reader into a world few know about or can even imagine as the hunter becomes the hunted. Be sure and read the author’s notes at the end.

 Chuck Tilis:

The Terrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman Who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America Originally–by Anonymous and since revealed to be Rita Katz (NF).  Want to read about one of the bravest women in America?  Get this book and be inspired by Rita’s life story starting with her childhood in Iraq, escaping to Israel after her father was executed, making her way to the United States, raising a family and becoming a leading expert on terrorism in the United States. And, with all that going underground to infiltrate Islamic terrorism organizations to help expose the threats which our own government fails to detect. Issued in 2003, this is the classic must read to gain an appreciation of how terrorism organizations operate in the United States. While Rita’s story is one of triumph, the revelations are disturbing.

I read The Terrorist Hunter in anticipation of her second book Saints and Soldiers: Inside Internet-Age Terrorism, From Syria to the Capitol Siege by Rita Katz(NF) which was published this October. Rita’s second book, given the timeliness of the subject matter, mandates we remain vigilant to protect our democracy against the impact social media/on-line forums have in promoting extremist behavior and especially the antisemitic fervor being promoted today. 

By The Grace of the Game: The Holocaust, a Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream by Dan Grunfeld (NF). THIS IS NOT A HOLOCAUST BOOK NOR A SPORTS BOOK. This is a book for entire families—Parents, children, and older grandchildren to enjoy reading about an incredible story of a grandmother who survived the Holocaust and her family’s story, especially her relationship with her grandson Dan, all as told through the lens of Dan himself.  In the end it’s a love story—the love of family, the love of life, the love of bubby’s cooking and the love of a game– basketball–which provided so much to the Grunfeld family.  Yes, Dan’s father is Ernie Grunfeld who is believed to be the only professional athlete in the U.S. to have parents who survived the Holocaust.  Ernie was an acclaimed NCAA star at Tennessee, on a US Olympic Gold Medal winning team, NBA player for years and a NBA General Manager for several teams including the NY Knicks.  Get multiple copies to share with family and friends as the story is inspiring on so many levels but, in particular, how to enjoy life by pursuing excellence as a person, in a career and through hardship. An added bonus is that I can say from first-hand knowledge having spent time corresponding with Dan–he is such a mensch.  You don’t (want) me to say this though–the book speaks volumes.

Cindy Olmstead:

The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson (NF). Isaacson covers the life of Jennifer Doudna, Nobel prize winner for developing CRISPR, gene editing that will help to cure diseases, viruses, as well as create healthier babies. Book covers the intense scientific research and competition to development of this methodology. It also highlights the moral issues that are emerging with the ability to manage future children’s DNA. Much scientific data but an excellent read even for the non-scientific. Certainly raised my awareness on the impact of our transitioning to the next great innovation revolution, the life-science revolution.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (HF). Delightful and interesting read about the formation of the Oxford English Dictionary as well as the importance of words that are missing. Given that the original OED words were compiled by educated men, Esme, the protagonist, collects her own words relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences that were not recorded. Set during the height of the women’s suffrage movement and pending Great War, the novel intertwines history and actual events.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (F). Ignore the cover! I thought it was some ditzy novel but actually was very surprised with the depth of the novel. It is a NYTimes bestseller and author’s first book. It is about Elizabeth Zott, single mother, dedicated scientist who is forced by life’s circumstances to take on a role outside of the science lab, a cooking show. Teaching cooking as a science she becomes a star and emboldens women to seek their own creativity. It is a great read that tends to stick in your thoughts once the book is closed.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray (HF). Historical novel about JP Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle de Costa Greene, the Black American woman who hid her identity to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books and artwork for JP Morgan’s new Pierpoint Morgan Library. This is the story of an extraordinary woman known for her intellect, style (famous for her hats), and ability to mingle in society’s upper circles to accomplish what she knew she had to do. Excellent read!

How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them by Barbara Walter (NF). Walter is a professor of International Affairs at the Univ of California San Diego’s School of Global Policy. She is one of the world’s leading experts on civil wars, political violence, and terrorism. Her book examines the dramatic rise in violent extremism around the globe and exposes the increasing likelihood of a second civil war in the US. She reveals the warning signs of a civil war, where they tend to start, who initiates them and why some countries move to conflict while others remain stable. She identifies the crucial risk factors, democratic backsliding to factionalization and politics of resentment, all symptoms that are precipitated by social media. It is a very insightful book and one the made me realize how complacent we are towards this possible reality.

Dominique Lallemont:

A repeat of my March submission: The Hare with Amber Eyes – A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal (NF). A cultural fresque through a family memoir — the Ephrussi’s — spanning the 19th and 20th C., three continents and many countries, all brilliantly tied by the travels of a collection of Japanese Netsuke’. Most painful descriptions of the Anschluss of Austria and the human devastation from WWII. Some passages reminiscent of what we are living today with Russia’s president. (PS. November/December 2022: During my recent visit, I was hoping to visit the Nissim de Camondo museum in Paris, which is mentioned in the book. Alas, not enough time…)

I will Never See the World Again: The Memoir of an Imprisoned Writer by Ahmet Atlan (NF). Atlan wrote this book while in prison for his political activism in 2018-2019. How to keep one’s sanity when in prison: dreams, memories of travels, the stories you write, the authors you revisit…

Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit (NF). A brilliant literary and political essay anchored in a reflection on Orwell’s life-long cultivation of roses, leading to a profound reflection on the 20th c. Solnit unfolds a tapestry covering the Bolshevik revolution, the emergence and evolution of the Soviet Union, the Spanish Civil War, and Western Europe in WWII, all woven with great dexterity with highlights of great literary, political, and artistic figures: Diego Rivera, Lenine, Trotsky and Tina Mondotti to name a few. A masterpiece that leads us to major contemporary issues: the preservation of our planet, the protection of our environment and the saving of modern democratic systems.  A humorous wink: too bad she did not start with battle of Hastings in 1066 described in the Bayeux Tapestry….

The Man Without Face: the Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gassen (2012) (NF).  A brilliant biography of Vladimir Putin that clearly explains what’s happening today in/with Russia. Nothing has changed since she wrote the 2014 Postface, except that everything got worse as she had predicted. After Crimea, the Donbass and now Ukraine, Russia is waging an ideological war against Europe and the West. How long will it be before Russians actually realize that he is actually destroying Russia? Once criticism though: she could have addressed better the role played by such Western economists as Jeffrey Sachs who arrogantly contributed to fostering the rise of the oligarchs through the privatization programs; they now protect the current regime. 

And, if the following books are ever translated from the French, I highly recommend them: Cherif Mecheri: Courageous Prefect Under the Vichy Government by Boris Cyrulnik and Joe Lenzini (NF); Les enfants de Cadillac by François Noudelmann ( (NF); and Le Mage du Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli (NF).

Donna Pollet:

Cork O’Connor Series, 1-19 by William Kent Krueger (F) Audio and Print. More than good story telling and a compelling mystery and crime series, it is an insightful study of character, unimaginable ethical choices, Native American culture, and place, the north woods of Minnesota. Start with #1 Gailbraith (F) and meet Cork O’Connor, part Irish and part Anishinaabe, ex-sheriff turned private eye and be transported into his world. Other books by this author, not in the series, may also be of interest. This Tender Land (F) and Ordinary Grace (F).

Walking the Bowl, a true story of murder and surival among the street children of Lusaka by Chris Lockhart and Daniel Mulilo Chama (NF) Like Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo which told the story of India’s poorest of the poor children, this is another heart wrenching portrait of children surviving in the worst possible conditions imaginable. The place is the capital city of Zambia, where a child, horrifically disfigured, is found murdered and left in an alley way of garbage. The back story is daily survival as seen through the lives of four children. Heartbreaking tragedy abounds, but there are also glimmers of uplifting moments and experiences when resilience and “good” win out. This book has appeared on the list previously. 

Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis (NF) Audio and Print. Viola Davis in her own words, an unvarnished telling of her rise to accomplished actor. It is gritty, difficult to read in parts, but also humorous and inspiring. It is also the story of race as it permeates theater and film.  It is the very private and behind the scenes look at what it takes to be an actor.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (F) Audio and Print. This is a fictionalized portrait of Belle de Costa Greene, the first librarian of the J Pierpont Morgan Library in NYC. It is a mesmerizing story of an accomplished, intelligent woman who rose to great professional heights in the world of rare books and art collecting all the while “passing” and hiding her true identity as African American throughout her entire career beginning in 1902 till her death in 1950. FYI: there is a work entitled An Illuminated Life, Bella De Costa Greene’s Journey from Prejudice to Privilege (NF). 

Ed Scholl:

The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves by Keith Law (NF). I really enjoyed this book, not only because I love baseball, but I loved how he analyzed baseball and decisions made in the game and by front office executives. He draws on knowledge from the fields of behavioral science and psychology to analyze how decisions in baseball are made (wisely or irrationally) and how they are rooted in how we make decisions in everyday life. 

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird (NF), 2005 (winner of the Pulitzer Prize). I listened to this as an audio book during a cross-country drive and it sure made the hours pass by. I knew only a little about this brilliant physicist who led the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. I really   that came to pass. It was fascinating to learn as well how he lost his security clearance and was unable to work as a result of McCarthy era hearings that maligned him for his past association with progressive causes that had real or perceived Communist associations.

Elizabeth Lewis:

Leonardo de Vinci by Walter Isaacson (NF). The 525 pages of this book is as close a meeting with a genius that I will ever have. Isaacson’s lucid writing unveils the mysteries of Leonardo’s scientific inquiry for the layperson, the exquisite nature of how that science informed the art, and the mystery that connects the man and his oeuvre:  “But by the time the list (of inquiries) gets to an infant in a womb and the cause of sneezing, it is clear that he is looking for more than information that might help his brush.”  While the book is stronger on the science than the art criticism, its encyclopedic quality does justice to the “uomo universalle” who is Leonardo.  The quality of the paper and the clarity of the plates make this a book that belongs in your library.

Elizabeth Tilis:

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng (F). Latest from the author of many fabulous books, but probably my favorite to date. Very poignant.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow byGabrielle Zevin (F). Recommended by several other MillersTime readers, a story about two friends and how their lives intertwine over decades.

The Lincoln Highway byAmor Towles (F). A (very) long read about the story of three young men and a young kid traveling across the United States in 1954. Probably would have read another 500 pages if he’d written more. 

The Last Green Valley byMark Sullivan (F). From the author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky, a work of historical fiction that takes place in the dark days at the end of World War II detailing the bravery and heroism of the Martel family, one of the many families of German heritage whose ancestors farmed in Ukraine for more than a century. I don’t typically love historical fiction, but this book was the exception. 

Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD by Jason Kander (NF). A progressive Kansas City politician icon opens up about his struggles in Afghanistan, his PTSD, and his family. 

Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari (NF). Spend too much time on your phone? Or on any devices? Read this book, get your life back. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be worth it. 

Ellen Kessler:

The Prison Minyan by Jonathan Stone (F) – (amusing if it does rely on some stereotypes, but it still has a serious side). It is fiction, but it is based on the Federal Pen. in Cooksville NY, which is where Michael Cohen was imprisoned, so it is based on a real (semi-real) place with a large Jewish population.

The Thread Collectors by Shaunna Jones and Alyson Richman (F). Two Harvard- trained attys (I think-definitely lawyers) collaborated to present fascinating insights about Afro-American and Jewish soldiers in the Civil War. It does have a ring of truth, and both the authors are very impressive. 

The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen (F). It wasn’t my favorite and some of the plot was a bit disappointing, but there was a romantic and Venetian sense that was pleasant–maybe a nice beach book?  I loved to remember Venice reading this book.

From the Dark We Rise by Margarret Kommonow (F). I read this during my WWII novels-about -courageous women who saved thousands of lives by their activities but were ignored after the war and either forgotten or relegated to secretarial duties and completely forgotten.

Non-Fiction books are not my favorites generally, but during my WWII period, I read two that I can recommend.

A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Hill about Virginia Hall (NF), a society kind of woman, who set up and managed an effective spy ring in Europe, saving so many lives. She was the subject of a special Gestapo squad. She saved so many lives and retrieved so much information. She accomplished all this despite her disabilities relating to the loss of her leg and managed daring trips at great physical pain. This was selected as THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR & received many other awards. Apparently, she was mostly ignored by historians, but there has been increased information about her activities.

The Daughters of Yalta by Catherine Katz (NF)) about the daughters of FDR, Averill Harriman, and Winston Churchill who accompanied their fathers to Yalta and had important supportive functions. When I read about the book, I was fascinated and bought it immediately, but when I started reading it, it was rather ponderous–seemed dull despite the subject matter. I felt after reading it, as I often do when I read non-fiction, that I have improved myself but would have rather read a novel!

Ellen Miller:

The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland (NF). Despite a promise (to myself) to read fewer books about the Holocaust this year, I was hooked by this nonfiction account after page two. The story is about a man named Rudolph Vrba who planned his escape from Auschwitz to let the world know what was happening there. He details his own time as a prisoner while he methodically memorizes the number of transports, the treatment of prisoners, and every detail of the exterminations. His goal is to let the world know what is happening in time to stop it. After the escape, he writes a report detailing all the horror, and points fingers and names names of all those in officialdom — throughout the world – who were in the position to try to stop the horrors of Auschwitz or acted too slowly, if at all, to do so. This book is a “tough” read. It’s another side of the story I haven’t read before.

Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver (F). This much-heralded book lives up to Kingsolver’s reputation and the critics’ praise of the book. Even without knowing that it is a reworking of the David Copperfield, it is a moving description of a boy’s challenges, as he grows up essentially, on his own. The book is set in Appalachia, where Demon is born to an unwed mother. It tells his life’s story, and the reader is engulfed by the challenges he faces: the “support” system offered by government agencies that fail him miserably; the mal and well-intentioned adults who shape his life, along with the good and bad choices he makes. The book uncomfortably reflects the reality of the American today for too many children and families. It’s must-read.

How Not to Drown in a Class of Water by Angie Cruz (F). This was one of the books I most thoroughly enjoyed this year. It’s a must-listen. It’s funny, it’s real, and it’s heartbreaking all at once. And it is another story about how we fail as a country to serve those who need just a little bit of help to raise themselves out of poverty. The heroine of this story is a woman – a factory worker for 25 years — named Cara Romero who was laid off in her md-50s. She turns to a government agency to help her find a new job. The book is comprised of “transcripts” from her many visits to a government agency which, after assessing her skills, will try to place her in a new position. This is a light “listen” that takes a hard look into how America fails those who need help. I highly recommend listening to this book.

Kiki Man Ray: Art, Love, and Rivalry in 1920s Paris by Mark Braude (NF). Freewheeling Paris in the 1920s, plus the artists, musicians, thinkers, and writers who gathered there, make for one heck a great story, especially when it’s about a woman unknown in today’s world, yet an artist and influential thinker. The captivating nightclub performer “Kiki” became a muse for Man Ray, the famous artist. She was good friends and a muse with others whose names you know, whose paintings you’ve seen, whose books you’ve read, and whose avant-guard movies you might have seen. Her story as an artist in her own right has never been told. Later in life she wrote a memoir, for which Ernest Hemingway wrote the introduction. The memoir made front-page news in France and was immediately banned in America. That’s another good reason to learn more about her.

Finding Me by Viola Davis (NF). I listened to this book which I enjoyed very much: it was read by the author, and it was superbly executed. I am certain it would be a good read too. This is the actress Viola Davis’ life story – rising from poverty to world- famous actor. It details the huge hurdles she faced and overcame along the way. But it is not just a story about rising up and out of poverty, but also a story of the institutional and systematic discrimination from the establishment artistic world as she struggled to advance her career. Reading biographies of famous people is not usually something I seek out. I am so glad I found this one. Anyone interested in the theater and film worlds will find this extremely enlightening.

Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War by Deborah Cohen (NF). I loved this historian’s account of the band of famous American reporters who, in the run-up to World War II, from their posts in Paris told the story of what was happening in Europe at that time. The reporters — John Gunther, H. R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson — got exclusive interviews with Hitler and Mussolini, Nehru, and Gandhi. What they reported shaped what Americans knew about that world at that critical time. This book is also a personal story of what these reporters gained and lost as they aggressively pursued their truth telling. It’s a marvelous, engaging true story of real American heroes.

Ellen Shapira:

My favorite books for the second half of the year:

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Gramus (F) is one of the few books that I can say I loved in 2022.  For me the book had all the elements that I love:  set in the past (1950’s-60’s), interesting, quirky characters, some thoughtful issues to explore that resonate for a baby boomer woman coming of age in a male dominated society and above all, humor. 

Horse, A Novel by Geraldine Brooks (F) is written by one of my favorite authors. All of her books are very different from each other and this one doesn’t disappoint. There are two story lines with the first one being about a Smithsonian bone researcher intrigued with knowing about a misplaced skeleton of a famous racehorse from the mid 1860’s and her relationship with the art historian who helps her unravel the mystery.  The second story line is far more compelling, telling us the story of a famous racehorse and his slave trainer.  While the horse, named Lexington, was an actual real champion, his Black slave trainers and jockeys are largely unknown.  The story, set in the pre-Civil war years, that Brooks develops around the horse is captivating. I particularly loved to the tie-ins with Kentucky and art history.

The Latecomer: A Novel by Jean Hanff Korchlitz (F) tells the story of a wealthy New York family in conflict.  A mis-matched couple has triplets by in vitro fertilization and then as an afterthought use the last of their fertilized eggs to have another child.  I found the plot intriguing and the relationships explored compelling. 

The Last Green Valley: A Novel
by Mark Sullivan (F) is a World War II novel.  Mark Sullivan had written Beneath a Scarlet Sky which I had really enjoyed.  This story centers on a group of German settlers in Ukraine who were caught between the opposing German and Russian armies.  It was interesting to get a perspective on the Eastern Front of the war and to learn how European refugees had to survive during the war.

Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera (F) is set in South Carolina in the 1920’s in the aftermath of the boll weevil infestation that destroyed the cotton crops and the local economy.  The story is told from the perspective of three different women whose lives intersect: one is a poor white mother, one a plantation mistress and one a black housekeeper.  The characters are well developed, and the story moves at a pleasing pace with a few plot twists to keep the reader’s interest.

The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray (F) is another work of historical fiction though based on three very real women placed in three different periods of history.  The first is the fascinating story of Adrienne Lafayette, the wife of the General Lafayette of the American Revolutionary War fame.  I particularly liked learning of the political intrigue that she was involved with at the French Court during the 18th Century.   The second story centered on an American woman residing in France during World War I who helped establish a home for war orphans at the ancestor Lafayette chateau and the third story is about one of the grown-up orphans who becomes involved in an elaborate resistance operation during World War II. The book is well written with exquisite details.

Emily Nichols Grossi:

The Yank: The True Story of a Former US Marine in the Irish Republican Army by John Crawley (NF). John Crawleywas born in New York to Irish immigrant parents and moved to Ireland as a young teenager to attend school. Inspired there by the struggle for Irish freedom against British rule in the North of Ireland, he returned to America to receive military training in an elite, special forces “Recon” unit of the US Marine Corps. Afterwards, he returned to Ireland to volunteer for the IRA and conducted many missions, including gun-running from the US, working with Boston criminal head Whitey Bulger. Crawley would be captured and imprisoned twice, both in Ireland and in England, while on major missions, done in both times by informers.

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time by John Kelly (NF). In The Great Mortality, author John Kelly lends an air of immediacy and intimacy to his telling of the journey of the plague as it traveled from the steppes of Russia, across Europe, and into England, killing 75 million people—one third of the known population—before it vanished.

The Ruin. The Scholar. The Good Turn. The Murder Rule. all by Dervla McTiernan (F). Fabulous Irish-living-in-Australia crime writer. The first three books are a series. The Murder Rule is independent. 

The Fell by Sarah Moss (F), although could easily be NF. Moss is queen of gorgeously written small books, and this story, which takes place in a small English town during the pandemic, is no different. I couldn’t put it down.

Eric Stravitz:

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Toles (F).

 Live by Night by Dennis Lehane (F).

 The Overstory by Richard Powers (F).

Fruzsina Harsanyi:

The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss by Mary-Frances O’Connor (NF). This amazing book by a neuroscientist shares groundbreaking discoveries about how our brain handles grief and provides a new paradigm for understanding love, loss, and restoration.  It was on my list in July and stays on. 

Churchill’s Shadow: The Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill by Geoffrey Wheatcroft (NF).  In 535 pages I could not put down, Wheatcroft tells the good and the bad, the successes and failures, the passions and prejudices of this great man. Most interestingly, he describes Churchill’s afterlife, the evolution of a mythical figure whose legacy has been used and misused by today’s politicians.   

And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham (NF). This is the best book on Lincoln written by my favorite Presidential historian. Meacham argues that 1) Lincoln believed from early in life that slavery was wrong; 2) nevertheless, he disappointed abolitionists time and again; 3) because Lincoln was not a full-time reformer but an office-seeker,” not “a preacher but a politician.”  And yet, Meacham finds, it was his religious faith that guided him through the most consequential decisions of the “American struggle.”  Not a surprising conclusion for a man of faith, but his massive endnotes and bibliography support this very readable book.

The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan (F). A beautifully written book about life and death and how we adapt to our own extinction. It is told in the style of magic realism, which in this case is not a gimmick, but essential to telling the story.

What Storm, What Thunder by Myrian J.A. Chancy (F). This fictional account of the aftermath of the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti is based on interviews the author had with people who lived through and knew people who didn’t. The book is built around the story of 10 characters through whose experience she explores the horror of the earthquake and the desperate conditions in the camps. It’s heartbreaking for the people in Haiti and in a different way for the people who made it to an unwelcome America.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (NF).  I’m just catching up with this wonderful book written in 2013 by a botanist and citizen of the Potawatomi Nation. Its subtitle: “Indigenous wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants” is a good description of the contents, which I read AND listened to with wonder.

Garland Standrod:

Into the Great Emptiness: Peril and Survival on the Greenland Ice Cap by David Roberts (NF). I just received this book and couldn’t put it down. It details the story of the once famous, but now chiefly forgotten, British explorer, Henry George Watkins, and of his daring rescue expedition in Greenland in the 1930’s. It’s a fascinating read about someone of whom I knew nothing and a book which I quickly read.

Spadework for a Palace by Laszlo Krasznahorkai (F). This short, strange novel,  by a Hungarian writer, written all in one sentence, consists of the thoughts of a librarian at the New York Public Library whose name is Herman Melville, and who spends the course of the book discussing the architecture and landscape of Manhattan and how Herman Melville, the author, and Malcolm Lowry, the author, and Bartok, the musician, related to Manhattan, all the while trying to explain the perfect Library Palace. 

Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard (F). Stoppard’s latest play, in nine scenes, is a powerful, searing, intergenerational study of a two Viennese, inter-married, upper middle-class, Jewish families covering the years 1899 – 1955. Stoppard is usually known for his wordplay and comic sense, but in this play he is deadly serious, even with just a little word play and humor. Stoppard shows the vanity of ideas, especially political ideas, when confronted by the evil of racial hatred.

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma (F). The short stories in this collection tackles the troubles of the real world by transporting the reader to the indeterminate realm between sleeping and being awake. She contrasts the irretrievability of the past with the instability of our recollections. These are stories preoccupied with sudden, yet ordinary, schisms—death, violence, birth, infidelity, migration, publication, and the end of love.

The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: an Asteroid Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black (NF). Riley Black walks readers through what happened in the days, the years, the centuries, and the million years after the asteroid impact, tracking the sweeping disruptions that overtook this one spot, and imagining what might have been happening elsewhere on the globe. Most geological and ecological changes take enormous amounts of time to occur, but this extinction process started all in one day.

The Years by Annie Ernaux (F/NF). Ernaux, who won the Nobel Prize, writes auto-fiction—that is, a mixture of memoir and fiction. Ernaux’s The Years (2006) is a group autobiography, told in the first-person plural, of the generation that came of age in France after World War II. Ernaux tells her story not through the movements of history in any conventional sense but as a list of ordinary events, of television programs and advertisements and minor celebrity. She has been criticized as being too banal or sociological, but I found her work quite interesting, being of the same age group of which she writes.  This could profitably be read in conjunction I Remember by George Peerec (NF).

Glen Willis:

Row House Blues-The Decline and Loss of the Old Philadelphia Neighborhoods during the Suburban Migrations 1966-1999 by Jack Myers (NF).I was born in West Philadelphia in April of 1941. We lived over a Butcher Shop during the early 40’s while my dad went off to War. When he came home, we couldn’t afford to stay there, so we moved closer to South Philadelphia because the apartments were cheaper there. My Dad took advantage of the GI Bill and went to Painting and Paperhanging school. We moved again to a Southwest Philadelphia Row House, a few houses away from my grandmother. Mom and Dad were both working, my sister and I were both in Catholic School and went to Granma’s until they got home.

I share this with you, good reader, because that is a prelude to this book about living in a city neighborhood about to suffer the great migration of families into and out of the various neighborhoods scattered throughout the City of Philadelphia.

Once I started reading this book I could not stop. I felt like I knew so many of the characters and locations by heart.

Harry Siler:

The Need to Be Whole: Patriotism and the History of Prejudice by Wendell Berry (NF) – a revisit of what he’s come to believe.

The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling by James Hillman (NF) – an excellent companion to The Need to Be Whole.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (F) – upper class man is forced to live out a long, and interesting, life under house arrest.

Haven Kennedy:

You Learn by Living by Eleanor Roosevelt (NF). For a book written more than 50 years ago it’s incredibly relevant. Roosevelt takes a long look at privilege and the damage it does. Roosevelt also talks about dealing with pain, how to live with courage, and the importance of love.

Right after this book I read Nothing Was the Same by Kay Redfield Jamison (NF). Jamison wrote the groundbreaking book The Unquiet Mindher bipolar diagnosis, and I was curious about her other work. Nothing Was the Same was written after Jamison lost her husband to cancer. She is a brilliant writer and has a way with words. Jamison’s story resonated with me, as my own struggles with mental illness impacts my marriage. But – the book was lacking compassion and love towards others. The amount of privilege shown in the book was intense – her husband took part of clinical trials despite not qualifying for them. He held onto life even when it was clear that he was dying.

Roosevelt, on the other hand, shared a more pragmatic and compassionate way view of life and death. Roosevelt was matter of fact and aware of her privilege. Throughout the book she talks about the importance of service, of using your privilege to help others.

I understand that Jamison was grieving, and the book shared that. She wrote beautifully of her life with her husband, and the life they shared was beautiful. It is unfortunate, however, that Jamison never talked about her privilege. She talked about being attacked by a fellow doctor – he drunkenly told her that the only reason she wrote The Unquiet Mind was because of her privilege. She disagreed – mental illness affects everyone. What she failed to understand is that most people cannot talk about their mental illness. If I were to come into work and announce that I had anxiety and depression, I wouldn’t be greeted with applause. I would be avoided. Jamison just lost her private practice; she was still able to teach.

I recommend reading both these books and comparing the lessons in each. Read separately they are excellent books, but together they paint a picture of privilege. How to use it for good, and how to ignore the gifts it gives.

Hugh Riddleberger:

NEVER by Ken Follett (F)…pretty chilling..the only positive element is the President is a woman..and has to make the most difficult of all choices..but shows how easily “never” can happen.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (HF).  Did I read this one because it was on your readers’ list?  But a story that shows the power of one’s ambitions and a willingness to compromise her family values to achieve something even greater.

The Palace Papers by Tina Brown (NF)…my wife does not agree with my including this book and my obsession with the Royals, but there! I’ve admitted it!  Tina Brown does an excellent job writing the book. I liked it, but I will admit my monarchist support for a pretty dysfunctional family who cannot deal with their emotions should cause anyone to question my choice in books to read.  

Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg (NF) …while it hardly focused on the title, RBG obviously played a significant role in Nina’s life.  Some criticize the “name dropping” that Nina seems to focus on…I prefer to think of the remarkable women she includes in her book, many at NPR/PBS, and in this year when Judy Woodruff retires, she is worthy of including in Nina’s next book.

Jane Bradley:

In July I listed Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe (NF), an extraordinary history of the family and marketing strategy at the heart of the opioid crisis.  That book provides context for the compelling story of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (F), set in Appalachia where opioid addiction touches all the characters. 

Recognizing that the inspiration for Kingsolver’s novel was David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (F), I was prompted to read that charming classic and realized how much fun Kingsolver must have had creating and naming her characters.  I recommend reading all three books in succession.

I don’t know how I missed reading David Copperfield before, but I also had never read Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (F), a timeless novel about the generation gap and nineteenth century Russia. 

Two other novels I found unforgettable are The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li (F); and The Slowworm’s Song by Andrew Miller (F) – both beautifully written and engaging.  These are the first books I’ve read by those two novelists, and I’ll definitely read their earlier works. 

Finally, Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout (F) left me eagerly awaiting Strout’s next book.  I hope we haven’t seen the last of Lucy Barton.

Jeff Friedman:

Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America’s Edge by Ted Conover (NF). The author spent four years living on the Colorado prairie, where land is basically free and there is essentially no government presence. He presents a captivating description of what that’s like and what these people are up to. The book has a lot of what people liked about Hillbilly Elegy and Strangers in their Own Land but it’s not particularly political. I really felt like I was there with them.

Putin by Philip Short (NF). A very interesting biography, particularly with respect to Putin’s early life. I learned a lot about Russian government and society. I also found it very interesting to see America’s foreign policy through Russian eyes. 

Jesse Maniff:

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (NF).

Trust by Hernan Diaz (F). 

Invisible Storm by Jason Kander (NF).

This is How They Tell Me the World Ends by Nicole Perlroth (NF).

Jim Kilby:

Talking to GOATS by Jim Grey (NF). Interesting and funny. He has led a charmed life and had and still does, relationships with some of the most interesting people, on the planet. A lot of inside stuff.

Judy White:

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (F) — I am rarely a fiction fan, but this book, adapted as fiction from a true story of British women breaking German codes during WWII, kept me turning pages.

West With Giraffes by Linda Rutledge (F). I also enjoyed this adaptation as fiction from a true story set in the Depression of the transport of two giraffes from New York to the San Diego zoo.  

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (NF) — A perennial favorite of mine, re-read during the pandemic, sensitive and perceptive story of attempts by the California medical system to work with Hmong refugees.  Great cross-culture perceptions.

Native Voices: Listening to Native Americans by Alison Owings (NF) — Another re-read during Covid. I love this book, which gives a real feel for the breadth of experiences of Indians today. Seventeen different people from different tribes, some on reservations, some in cities. The author is obviously a great listener and gains trust, for people confide in her.

Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? by Philip Yancey (NF). The author, who had a tough childhood in an evangelical community, faces this question with honesty and without attempting a definitive answer. I especially was impressed by descriptions of communal prayer during historical crises and how that seemed to affect the resolution of the crisis.

Fifty Two Ways to Walk by Annabel Streets (NF) — Fun and inspiring set of, indeed, 52 ways to walk (think walking backwards, walking to smell, etc.) with pretty amazing research results of the benefits.

River of the Gods by Candace Millard (NF). I am a fan of anything by Candace Millard, and this one, about Burton and Speke’s explorations in East Africa, did not disappoint.

Kate Latts:

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys (HF) takes place in Romania during the final days of communist dictatorship in 1989. It is told from the point of view of a 17-year-old boy who dreams of freedoms that don’t exist in Romania and instead finds himself caught up in the frightening citizen spy network that ultimately brings an end to the reign of terror. It is not the most sophisticated of writing but really interesting to read about the harsh conditions that still existed in Romania as Communist regimes were falling throughout rest of Europe.

Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi (HF) is about an Afghan woman in modern day still managing the trauma she suffered as a young girl when her family was killed during the communist takeover of Kabul. As she navigates her adult life in NYC, she decides to return to Kabul to explore what happened to her family. There are a few annoying coincidences but overall, an interesting book about another historical time period I did not know much about.

Kathleen Kroos:

The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee (NF) – a girl’s escape from North Korea.

In My Mother’s Footsteps by Mona Halaby (NF) – a Palestinian refugee returns home.

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni (F).

Kathy Camicia:

Lessons by Ian McEwan (F). Granted I like everything he writes, but this topic is unusual. If you want to understand how sexual grooming and trauma can determine the limits of a life, McEwan takes you through a full life that is never full.

Most of what I read is essays.

Essays 1 by Lydia Davis (NF) is outstanding as is the always reliable Best America Essays 2021 (NF).

Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit (NF) is a lovely meandering journey. 

These Precious Days by Ann Patchett (NF) should be enjoyed all at once which is not hard to do.

On Getting Better by Adam Phillips (NF) is for anyone who wants what the title offers.  Written by a leading British psychoanalyst it is an easy read without jargon and more about a sympathetic understanding of the human condition.

A Swim in a Pond in Rain by George Saunders (NF) is outstanding for any frustrated would-be English major. He teaches Russian short stories, and this is how he does it.

Kevin Curtin:

The Dirtbag’s Guide to Life: Eternal Truth for Hiker Trash, Ski Bums, and Vagabonds by Tim Mathis (NF). This is a great book if you are interested in maximizing more adventure in your life and minimizing the pressures of your career, that is, how to make your career something that supports your passion rather than a barrier to the adventures you wish to seek. The book is a guide on how to do this effectively, such as how to manage money (live a minimalist lifestyle), relationships (be around cool people who support you), and other responsibilities. As an avid hiker and trail runner (who wants to do more), I found it inspiring.    

Smoke, Snort, Swallow, Shoot: Legendary Binges, Lost Weekends, and Other Feats of Rock ‘n’ Roll Incoherence Edited by Jacob Hoye (NF). This book is a compilation of stories of excess by famous/infamous rock and roll legends, centering on their use of substances of abuse. Stories (confessions) written by Johnny Cash, Marilyn Manson, Dee Dee Ramone, Lemmy, Greg Allman, Anthony Kiedis, Slash, and more, are mostly sad, often vulgar, and sometimes funny (I can admit it).  

Other one’s I’d recommend:

Group by Christie Tate (NF).

The Stranger in the Woods (by Michael Finkel (NF).

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (F).

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (F).

Land Wayland:

An Immense World:  How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong (NF). This is the most interesting/ amazing book I have read in seven years.  It was like watching “Wizard of Oz” for the first time and coming to that magical moment when the door/camera in a black-and-white world opened onto the world of TECH-NICOLOR. This book, page after page, introduces, explains and accolades the thousand senses of every kind of animal on, over or under the face of this planet. Human beings are not in the top 100 of anything except ability to see subtle colors.  Before reading, put on your chinstrap to hold your jaw mostly closed so you don’t keep muttering: “I didn’t know that”.  “So that’s how/why they do that!”.  Fives+ across the board   Readability 5.  Information 5. Credibility regrading physics 5.  To be reread annually.  

When We Cease to Understand The World by Benjamin Labatut (NF).   Recommended for those somewhat familiar with atomic physics who have heard of Schrodinger’s Cat and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.   Starts with brilliant examples of science gone wrong or misused to establish the premise that the scientific view of reality is often quite at odds with the general view.  Focuses on the story of the fall of the certainty of Newtonian physics (as represented by Schrodinger) and its replacement with the current incompatible and thus far irreconcilable views of uncertain reality espoused by the Heisen-berg school.  Concludes with a discussion of the strange dichotomy of a princi-pal science whose fundamental basement stone is composed of two concepts that are incompatible but are which both needed to understand the existing structure of the field. Makes it clear that unraveling this conundrum will re-quire a genius of the magnitude of at least an Einstein or the patient work of 1000 lesser gifted souls.   Distracting is the author’s gratuitous insertion of contrived scenes (most are sexual and libelous) portraying the fictitious private lives of some of the prin-cipal scientists. They are irrelevant and (worse) they are not interesting. If the author had wanted to produce a longer book, he should have edited the dross and provided more information about the certainty/uncertainty debate—but perhaps he wasn’t up to it and decided to write about something he was vague-ly familiar with. Readability 5.  Information 5. Credibility regrading physics 5. Credibility regarding imaginative scenes .001 (they are written like a scientific report)  

Periodic Table: A Cultural History of the Elements from Arsenic to Zinc by Hugh Aldersey-Williams (NF). A bright, chatty recounting of the history and interesting details of the elements that make up our universe.  Well written.  Easy to pickup and easy to put down to do something more pressing.  Readability 4.8, Information 5.  Credibility 4.8. (some of the abstruse elements could have been given more space but that was probably just my wishful thinking that something more interesting could have been said).  

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg (NF). Random House/Penguin New York. Well established as a “go to” book to understand habits, what they are, why we rely on them, how to make ‘em and the struggle to break ‘em. Readability 4.8, Information 5.0, Credibility 4.8.  

EDISON: A Biography by Edmund Morris (NF). Every possible detail about a very powerful, very boring man.  Good attention to Edison’s process of invention or co-opting the work of others to create many of the essential items of everyday electrical life. The author is under no illusions about the subject he was working with and about halfway thru I mentally gave up hoping for more or for a hero to emerge.  Readability 4.2, Information 4.1, Credibility 4.4. Perfect for long winter nights before the fireplace; it will take a month to get through it.

Larry Makinson:

Deacon King Kong by James McBride (F). A cast of unforgettable characters in this novel of a rundown housing project in Brooklyn in 1969 and the people who live there. Enjoyable, complicated, often heartwarming. A supremely satisfying read.

The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putinby Masha Gessen (NF). Definitive biography of Vladimir Putin’s rise to power and the thuggish behavior he has exhibited ever since. This should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand what drives the world’s most dangerous man.

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami (F). Marvelous novel about a Japanese artist who lives for a while on a mountaintop house once occupied by a great artist. He finds a hidden masterpiece in the attic, and everything changes from there. Wonderfully engaging, even to someone who doesn’t like the fantasy genre.

Walking the Bowl by Chris Lockhart & Daniel Mulilo Chama (NF). An immersive plunge into the world of the street children of Lusaka, Zambia. It reads like a novel, but it was co-written by anthropologists and based on a multi-year research project in the slums of Lusaka. Educational and absorbing.

Lydia Hill Slaby:

As you know I drift fiction, which (in one perspective) focuses on emotional truth over factual truth. The best series I read this year on that was the Rowland Sinclair mysteries by Sulari Gentill (F). Set in 1920s/30s Australia, the facts of those times told through fiction felt very true now, which triggered a lot of conversations in our house. Plus, I haven’t read a lot of Australian literature — fun to learn about a different culture. 

Mary Bardone:

Last Boat from Shanghai by Helen Zia (NF). This book chronicles the lives of four people who lived in Shanghai from 1939 until they each left for various destinations in the 50s and 60s.  It is  a fascinating view of Chinese history from the  Japanese occupation through WWII to Chang Kai Chek to Mao and beyond.

Neither Wolf nor Dog and Wolf at Twilight by Ken Neubert (NF). These are two books of a trilogy, but I only read these two.  Each gives a very in-depth insight to the native American’s experience and philosophies.  You might think that you have read enough on this topic, as did I, but I learned a lot and got a different insight into the issue.  It is spiritual, philosophical and at time brutal as the history is recounted.

The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan (NF). Initially drawn to this book as it is a Bozeman author, we live in Bozeman, and it is the story of a local family who eventually got here from Ukraine. Their story is of a harrowing escape from the Soviets and the Nazis, eventually making their way to Montana and an inspiring story of immigrant success. They defied all the odds to get here to to be successful in business once they got here. 

Mary L:

The Tragic Muse by Henry James (F).  He wanted to be a playwright, but his only play was his only failure.  This book is after all that and features some features of the 19th century theatre world–one character is an actress.  Great for me, but recommended only for other fans of Henry James.

Allegorizings by Jan Morris (NF).  Her last book, it’s about life, the universe, and everything, as Douglas Adams would say.  The essays are not connected, but in Morris’ world, everything is connected. As I said in 2020, she was a travel writer/essayist who creates prose as if she were a poet.

Marie Lerner-Sexton:

Grey Bees by Kurkov (F). Probably the best living writer in Ukraine today, Kurkov takes us into the country with an extraordinary, immersive look at the eastern Grey Zone through the eyes of a beekeeper. The emotional impact of a war’s deprivations and challenges plays a part in the novel’s lingering sentiment, and yet, the story takes place before the current Russian conflict. The characters feel real, and the story bends toward Ukraine’s present-day reality.

The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony (NF). This is an older (2009) non-fiction book about an animal reserve owner who is “gifted” a herd of elephants. A beautifully- told page-turner that grips your heart whether you love animals or not.  It reads like a novel. 

Voyage of the Morning Light by Endicott (F). An historical novel that transports the reader to the South Seas at the end of the 19th-century.  It took me a while to get into the book because it moves as slowly as the sailing ship depicted.  But soon the story engages, and the main characters’ lives take on a greater importance than their circumstances. 

Matt Rechler:

How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith (NF). Through travels and conversations, Smith looks at how slavery has left its mark on all of us. From Monticello to Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana, Smith peels away myths and sheds light on stories omitted from official tours.  Angola prison for 4 million people and was the bloodiest prison in America.  The book is informational without being confrontational. It won the National Book Critics Award for Nonfiction.

Mecca by Susan Straight (F). The book focuses on people of different backgrounds (Mexican, Mexican American, African Americans, indigenous peoples, white) who live and work at non-glamorous jobs in non-glamorous southern CA. There are several intertwining stories, for example, Johnny Frias, a California Highway Patrol officer and Ximena an 18 year old Mexican migrant pregnant from her human smugglers. These are honest stories about the lives of extraordinary people who are fragile and proud. I recommend reading the Boston Globe review by Lauren LeBlanc, “The Art of Listening in Susan Straight’s ‘Mecca’” to preview the book.

Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis (NF). This is an honest, raw telling of a life from poverty to theatrical prominence. Davis’ father was an alcoholic and violent to her mother. The family was “po”: She had one skirt, few showers. She experienced racism and sexual abuse. Life was never easy but along the way she found role models and mentors, persevered, and survived as a dark-skinned, black woman who was often ignored or rejected.

Meggie Herrlinger:

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (F). It was an easy read, and I found myself enjoying the quirky characters. 

Melanie Landau:

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (F) Her 18th book – worth reading if you are read her books – fiction- but one always feels that the town of Three Pines should exist.

Micah Sifry:

Why We Did It by Tim Miller (NF): A both hilarious and sobering dissection of why so many Republicans who knew better went with Trump, by one who didn’t.

Gunfight by Ryan Busse (NF): A gun industry insider explains how it became radicalized.

Producing Politics by Daniel Laurison (NF): How and why the political campaign industry became a self-licking ice cream cone.

Sandy Hook by Elizabeth Williamson (NF): A wrenching portrait of how the misinformation industry led by Alex Jones fanned lies about the massacre and how the survivor families fought back.

The Quiet Before by Gal Beckerman (NF): An exploration of the settings and processes that incubate world changing new ideas, from the correspondence societies and cafes of the Renaissance to the manifestos of the Furturists and zines of the riot geeks to the Arab Soring and beyond.

In Love by Amy Bloom (NF): A personal memoir of caregiving when one’s partner chooses to die on his feet rather than live on his knees with Alzheimer’s.

Michael Slaby:

Before Religion by Brent Nongbr (NF) is in fact a fascinating exploration of religion as a modern concept of sociology more than theology that actually helps break up some of the sclerosis around moral philosophy and civic life interestingly. Part of an entire curriculum of reading this year for me in the role of religion in society at Union.

Born to Be Good by Dacher Keltner (NF) not as new but a wonderful exploration of how our positive instincts are more at the heart of human nature and our capacities to thrive and survive.

Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber (NF)..He was (sadly gone too soon) one of the most brilliant moral and anthropological thinkers of his generation. Debt takes us through history of money and upends a lot of bad unhelpful assumptions about barter and trade and debt and how by fixing those bad assumptions we can unlock different ways of thinking about concepts like public financing and mutual aid.

Mike White:

Operation Pineapple Express by Scott Mann (NF). Great story of the efforts of former Special Forces officers in Afghanistan to get their Afghan counterparts out of Afghanistan during the chaotic withdrawal of American forces.

Weapons of Mass Delusion by Robert Draper (NF, unfortunately). Wins for scariest book of the year.

Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin (NF). Very clear description of how close our government came to failing during the January 6 insurrection.

Nick Fels:

Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (NF). Recommending this and also Stoppard’s autobiographical play, Leopoldstadt, well worth the time, and even the money, required to see it on Broadway.

Nick Nyhart:

In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom (NF). A superb writer chronicling a brutal love story. The author writes beautifully about her husband’s decision to end his life after a diagnosis of dementia while in his mid-60s and the road map after that decision. The harrowing consequences of a deep love, interspersing humor alongside its grieving.

American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis by David (NF). Hochschild tells the story of an authoritarian government locking up dissidents, imprisoning a Presidential candidate, and permitting/encouraging mob violence against outgroups. Immensely readable, it moves quickly, covering a short and mostly unexamined slice of American history, 1917-21. 

What it Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party by Michael Kazin (NF). This biography of a political party traces the continuing thread of pragmatism through two centuries of shifting coalitions, forming, and re-forming to win the ability to govern. It provides an insightful lens for looking at both of our major parties today.

Randy Candea:

This year I decided to re-read series of books written by my favorite authors. I started with Louise Penny and her 17 novels based on Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Due to the continued character development, I read each book in the order they were written, starting with Still Life (F) and ending with The Madness of Crowds (F). The books were as good if not better than the first time around! 

The second series of books, written by Donna Leon, are based on vice-commissario of police and detective genius, Guido Brunetti.  There are 32 novels; so far I am in the middle of the 12th book Uniform Justice. (F). Excellent reading!

Rebekah Jacobs:

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (F). Spanning thirty years, Sam, Sadie, and Marks grapple with success, joy, and tragedy, after creating a blockbuster video game. It explores friendship, art, creativity, and loss. It was my favorite book of 2022.

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro (F). Everything changes for the Wilf family after a car accident which they never speak of again. Chapters flow between 1985, 2010, 1999, 2020, 2014, and 1970 and we see Mimi, Sarah, Theo, and Ben endure, sustain, and surprise each other.

The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman (F). The chap­ters alter­nate between two nar­ra­tors: Sara, a young immi­grant Jewish woman who serves as a match­mak­er on the Low­er East Side around World War I; and her grand­daugh­ter, Abby, who works for a 1990s law firm spe­cial­iz­ing in divorce. It is entertaining historical fiction with a touch of magic. 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonie Garmis (F). Elizabeth is a chemist, forced to leave the lab due to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy in the 1960’s. She eventually becomes a star of a television program called Supper at Six takes American housewives by storm as she teaches them science and independent thinking. 

Hello, Molly by Shannon (NF). Shannon begins with the loss of her mother and sister in a car accident when she was 4.  Raised by her father with little rules, the author describes her childhood, including the time she snuck on a flight to New York City when she was 13 and her rise to SNL. Equal parts funny and sad. 

The Measure by Nickki Erlick (F). This was another favorite.

Richard Miller:

The first four of these are on my list not because they are ‘favorites’ in the sense of good literature, enjoyable reading, good writing, or intriguing story telling. Each of the four, in their own way, took me beyond my previous knowledge and understanding of issues that confront us and our society. All four are eye opening, informing, and educating. Each is compelling.

Saints and Soldiers: Inside Internet-Age Terrorism, From Syria to the Capitol Siege by Rita Katz (NF). A wakeup call as to what is truly going on in terms of how the Internet is being used in ways that most of us don’t know. Katz is doing and has done an amazing service by exposing “the surprising connections between Islamist militants and violent groups on the far right and explains why the latter now poses a far graver threat to Americans and to democracies around the world. Through case studies recounted in alarming detail, Katz shows how radical organizations are exploiting social media to extend their reach and amplify their power.” — Joby Warrick.

Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hard (NF). If you are uncomfortable with the amount of time you spend on your phone, general screen time, or time on the internet, you’re not alone. Hari explores what has happened to his and our ability to pay attention to anything for longer than a short period of time. It’s not only about our personal inability to focus but goes much deeper. Definitely worth the time to understand what is happening to all of us and what we might do about it.

The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss by Mary-Francis O’Connor (NF). From earlier in the year. The most insightful explanation of anything I’ve read in connection with the topics of loss, grieving, and grief.  O’Connor writes about what happens in our brain when we experience loss and why grief and grieving are so powerful. In helping us understand what science has recently learned about these issues, she shows us a new perspective and a new way to think about these powerful issues. O’Connor writes that The Grieving Brain is in no way an ‘advice book,’ yet for me it offers so many new insights on these subjects that I will return to it many times and highly recommend it to others. A good companion book is The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van her Kolk (NF).

Walking the Bowl: A True Story of Murder and Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka by Chris Lockhart and Daniel Mulilo Chama (NF). Also from earlier in the year. An amazingly true story – narrated non-fiction – about the street children in Lusaka, Zambia (and by implication other street children around the world?). It took five plus years and eight individuals, including five embedded individuals, to gather, sift, and put together this story. The book reads like fiction. Were it so. Similar to Pulitzer Prize winner author Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers. But with a bit of a twist. This one also has a message about how one good deed, if walked forward, played forward, can have ripples of positive effect.

These Precious Day: Essays by Ann Patchett (NF). A longtime favorite writer of mine, these are personal stories of and from her life, told simply and honestly. I listened to them and felt she was a good friend, talking directly to me. I suspect reading them would have the same affect. She is a treasure.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (F). The only fiction choice of the six books I’m allowed to favorite, Demon Copperhead is a riveting story of a young boy born in a trailer in southern Virginia to an addicted, single, teenage mother. It’s a tale that could easily have been overwhelming depressive – which it is on some accounts – but it’s told in the first person by this young boy who has a will to survive, a keen sense of humor, and in a language (Appalachian) that rings true. Kingsolver tells this coming-of-age story of a boy nobody wants, except to exploit, with a barely repressed sense of outrage. It mimics the Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield story, but you need not know anything about that to understand the value of what Kingsolver has written. Put this one on your ‘to read’ list.

Robin Rice:

Blonde Indian: A Native Memoir by Ernestine Hayes (NF). Recommended by Mary Bardone. How can one grow up in a compromised native American culture and still maintain links to its redeeming, lyrical links. Eloquent.

Sal Giambanco:

Grant by Ron Chernow (NF). The most extraordinary book about America I have read in a really long time. Chernow’s biography, simply titled Grant, tells the story of one of the most maligned American heroes – following his death. Grant is maligned because no other American President before or since tried to do true justice towards Black Americans – he almost succeeded. Think 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments – all exist because of Grant’s support. He defeated the first installment of the KKK across the South, etc. This book is a reminder that narratives and the stories we tell ourselves and our children really matter.

Sam Black:

Best New Books:

The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier (F). This book caused a sensation in France and Europe when it first came out, in 2020. Just translated into English and released in 2021. Set in the present with just a single but existential astrophysical twist.  Unputdownable – and it leaves you with things to think about. Not overly long – you could read the whole book on just part of a transatlantic flight. Won the Prix Goncourt.

The Tyranny of Merit by Michael Sandel (NF). A careful analysis and evaluation of the history, rationale, and subtle biases of current American versions of meritocracy. Especially provocative on the rhetoric of Democratic candidates. The principal areas of focus are U.S. college admissions and U.S. national electoral politics. Essential.

The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow (NF). Turns much of the last few hundred years of cultural anthropology, a k a the study of human prehistory, upside down. A fresh look at the evolution of human culture. Thought-provoking on every page. A magnificent accomplishment that involves the re-thinking of the received wisdom in almost an entire field.

All That She Carried by Tiya Miles (NF). Based on an exhibit in the African American Museum in Washington: a cloth sack given, with a few contents, by a mother to her 9-year-old daughter, Ashley, when their family, which was enslaved, was broken apart. The emotional reactions, to this exhibit, of hundreds of museum guests resulted in curators placing boxes of tissues alongside the display case. Starting with a description of the exhibit, the author traces Ashley to a place and time, traces her family to the past and almost to the present, and creates a tapestry of narrative and analysis out of this humblest of objects. By a woman historian, a professor at Harvard, the book digs into the history of materials, food, gender roles, culture, and the skewing of the historical record by the socially and economically dominant forces that create the records. (Ed. Winner, National Book Awards 2021 for Nonfiction)

A Brief History of Equality by Thomas Piketty (NF). The kind of book that gives you a new perspective on major issues every time you read a chapter. Based on the best set yet of compilations of the (historical, recent and current) nation-by-nation data on income and assets, and on the author’s deep thinking on the issues of equality. The analysis digs into what happened to wealth distribution after the end of slavery, and after the French revolution, and what are the arguments pro and con for compensation to those who were, or whose families were, enslaved. What causes changes in the distribution of wealth? What social principles underlie these changes? What political changes would be needed to bring about a more egalitarian distribution of income or wealth? The kind of book I may have to read more than once.

Tiffany Lopez:

The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin (F). This was one of the most fascinating, mind-shifting books I have ever read. It is set during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and blends physics, philosophy, and a dystopian fantasy book into one incredible story that is somehow, not as far-fetched as it sounds. I was not aware of the Chinese cultural revolution, which has sent me down a very deep, dark rabbit hole, and many of the scenarios in the book made me pause and consider some pretty hefty questions. This book has been the topic of many interesting dinner conversations with friends, and I recommend it for anyone needing a good think.

Going Postal by Sir Terry Pratchett (F). This is a light-hearted, whimsical satire book I picked up as a recommendation from a friend. This is one book out of the Discworld series (41 books in total), but no previous knowledge of the other books was required. I loved the cheesiness, puns, and witty banter of the characters, and unbeknownst to me, every mention of anything ties into the greater Discworld, which is literally a disc-world (think flat planet) balancing on four elephants on the back of a turtle. So I guess it is sci-fi, too. It reminded me of Absurdistan or A Confederacy of Dunces, but with much, much more runway for future reading.

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (NF). This one has been on my reading list (MillersTime suggestion) for years, and I finally had the time to get through it this summer. It has been a beautiful book to read to better understand the evolution of civil rights and to learn about the great migration in the US. While living in Sweden, it has been interesting to reflect on what I was reading while also seeing a similar micro segregation here due to the influx of asylum seekers and refugees after several different humanitarian disasters in recent times. 

Freezing Order by Bill Browder (NF). This is Bill Browder’s own account of following the trail of money laundering, leading to murder, and eventually surviving Putin’s wrath. I decided to try to understand more about Russia and the oligarchs after the war in Ukraine started this spring, since I am living a stone’s throw from Russia, in a land with a pending NATO application, realizing I know very little about our neighbors, and war feels much closer to home than it did when I was in the US. It is in large part to the work mentioned in this book that the world was able to sanction Russia during this war at the speed they could, but is it actually making an impact? Browder also follows the money right to Washington, where the picture he draws makes so much sense, and it just leaves me asking why we are not doing more. 

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (NF). I listened to this audiobook after seeing Trevor on tour this summer. This book really highlights his gift for storytelling, his playful energy, and his humble, human, real-life experiences. I understand so much more about South Africa from hearing his story and can truly relate to his account of growing up bi-racial and finding it hard to fit in with any group, regardless of how you identify. This light-hearted adventure with a serious underlying plot was a pleasure to hear read with the author’s own emotions.

Predictable Success by Les McKeown (NF). I enjoyed this relatively short book, and though it is very high-level, it is an simplified description of the lifecycle of companies, with some very tangible descriptions and stories of companies and leaders in each phase. I read this book during my most recent job transition and felt I could see how different areas of the business I was leaving was in different phases and how the attitudes and strategies of different individuals landed the company right where they were at during my tenure. I appreciated how the author gave some advice for transitioning from one phase to the next, and back, now if only it were that straight forward to pull off in real time. 

Todd Endo:

Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown (NF). By the author of The Boys in the Boat, Facing the Mountain tells part of the story of how Japanese Americans fought for their rights and their place during World War II by fighting in Europe as part of the all-Japanese infantry unit (442nd Regimental Combat Team) and by challenging the Constitutionality of the forced removal of Japanese American from the west coast of the US.

Tom Perrault:

Breakfast with Seneca: A Stoic Guide to the Art of Living by David Fideler (NF) – I really enjoyed this easy-to-read distillation of Seneca’s writings into nine (or so) thoughtful ways to live your life. I still think about this book, and it has fundamentally altered my thoughts and behaviors.

Across the River: Life, Death, and Football in an American City by Kent Babb (NF) – It helps that the “American City” is New Orleans and feels intimately familiar so there’s that. But upon finishing, I felt compelled to tell almost everyone I could think of to read this book. It’s non-fiction but reads like a novel. I loved it.

Memorial by Bryan Washington (F) and 100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell (F) – Two LGBTQ choices that I lump together because a) I read them concurrently and b) they feel stylistically the same in spirit, if not in form. “Memorial” is the more “traditional” novel form but super offbeat characters and plot which kept me captivated. “100 Boyfriends” was more of experimental writing with amazing short stories, sometimes as small as a few paragraphs. Both written by gay Black authors that I’m grateful are finally getting a larger and louder platform in which to be heard.

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard (NF) – It was a (fun) slog but I *finally* understand ancient Roman history!! Worth the read.

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To see previous years’ lists, click on any of these links: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. 2016. 2017. 2018 Mid-Year, 2018, 2019 Mid-Year. 2019. 2020, Mid-Year 2021, 20221. 3/30/22. 7/16/22.

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Year End Call for Favorite Reads

30 Wednesday Nov 2022

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures

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Books, Favorite Books of "MillersTime" Readers, Favorite Books Read This Year, Favorite Reads, Fiction, MillersTime Readers Favorite Books, Nonfiction

As I have done for the past 13 years, I am asking for a list (anywhere from one to as many as six) of books you’ve most enjoyed reading in 2022.

There is no definition to the kind of book which you might add to this list. They can be fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, short stories, science, poetry, mystery, romance, hobbies, children’s books, etc. I’m most interested in what you truly enjoyed this past year (old or new books) with the thought that others might get some ideas for their reading in 2023.

Even if you think others may recommend a particular book that you liked, please include it on your list. Some of you like to know that more than one or two MillersTime readers have enjoyed a given title.

Also, if you want to include any of the books you cited from the March 30, 2022 or July 17, 2022, feel free to do so. You can review what you sent in here:

March 30, 2022 Favorite Reads

July 16, 2022 Favorite Reads

Send me your list (Samesty84@gmail.com) with the title, author and whether the book is fiction (F) or non-fiction (NF).

Please take the time to include a few sentences about the book and particularly what made this book(s) so enjoyable for you. For many of the contributors and readers of this annual list, it is the comments that are what’s most important about MillersTime Favorite Reads each year.

Send your list by December 20. Then I can post the results on Dec. 31, 2022.

Thanks in advance.

*** *** ***

To see previous years’ lists, click on any of these links: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. 2016. 2017. 2018 Mid-Year, 2018, 2019 Mid-Year. 2019. 2020, Mid-Year 2021, 20221. 3/30/22. 7/16/22.

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Winter-Spring 2022: Best Reads

30 Wednesday Mar 2022

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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Berst Reads, Exceptional Reads, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Looking for Book Suggestions?, MillersTime Favorite Reads, Nonfiction

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” A. Lincoln

At the suggestion of a long time contributor to MillersTime Favorite Books posts, I asked everyone on this mailing list to submit a title and a few sentences about a book or two that have been of exceptional interest in the first three months of ’22.

Of the 19 submissions and 30 books that have been submitted, one thing jumps out: NF topped F by 73% to 27%. Generally this division has been slightly weighted in F over NF, at least until the last two years, when NF began to outpace F. Also, there were many more females than males responding to this three-month call. In the past it’s been more equally divided. I have no idea if any of this is significant, especially since it’s a relatively small sample.

But I hope you can find one or two titles that may interest you.

Let me and others know what you think about the idea of this three-month post and any reactions you have to it. (You can use the Comment section of this post or email me directly at Samesty84@gmail.com.)

Barbara Friedman:

The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War by Stephen Kinzer (NF) is a fascinating biography of the two brothers.  During WW II and afterwards, they were both in Switzerland getting to know and fraternizing with all of the relevant foreign leaders and “poohbahs”.  The more interesting part was later in the 1950’s when Allen was the head of the CIA and Foster the Secretary of State – i.e. covert government/foreign affairs and overt government/foreign affairs.  They spoke multiple times a day, saw each other almost every day, and there was no “separation of powers”.  Together they “facilitated” the overthrow of the Iran and Guatemala governments (in the latter case changing it from a democracy to a dictatorship!) and tried but failed to unseat Sukarno and Ho Chi Minh.  Astonishing!  One piece of trivia: Ho Chi Minh for a short time was pastry chef at the Parker House in Boston.

Ben Senturia:

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (F). American Dirt follows a Mexican woman and her family as they try to escape the clutches of an all consuming drug cartel with a long reach. Well written, it gives you a picture behind the headlines of the hopes and travails of some of these desperate emigres.

Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (F). The author of A Gentlemen in Moscow again produces a beautifully written story. This time a 10-day trip as a number of young lost souls search for family, future, and heroes. Towles peals away the layers as we understand what drives each of the characters. I loved it.

The Future is Faster Than You Think by Peter Diamandis, Steven Kotler (NF). Taking each category of our lives (transportation, food, health, housing, etc), the authors project what the future holds which at first seems like a Jetsons make believe world. But they quickly show you it reflects real research and big time investment by major corporations, and thus the title. I tried to skip by chapters but became amazed by what’s around the corner.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (F). His previous novel, All the Light You Can Not See, captivated me. His new novel did the same. It focuses on five characters in VERY different time periods (Constantinople in the 1400s, the present day Midwest, and the distant future) and ties them together through a faux Greek novel. Doerr again shows a mastery of layering  character development and plot and a beautiful writing style. Don’t miss it. 

Carol Haile:

The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eger (NF). I couldn’t put it down and then kept thinking about this book long after I’d finished it. It’s the memoir of Edith Eger’s childhood during the Holocaust and subsequent liberation and adult transformation. She is an eminent therapist, and about half the book is centered around her providing guidance and therapy to others while still working through the trauma of her own life. She has a keen ability to meet people where they are and guide them with an approach suited to their personality and situation. I’d love to hear her speak. The atrocities she lived through are (as you can imagine) unspeakable, yet she came to America and made a successful life and career. She is still alive and practicing at 94 and has a 96 year old boyfriend!  You gotta love that!!!

Forty Autumns: A Family’s Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall by Nina Willner (NF). I marked this as “To Read” in 2017. Don’t wait five years like I did. I was immediately drawn into this family and the events of the Cold War as it affected them and all East Germans. The author tells the story of her mother’s escape from East Germany and what transpired over the next 40+ years until the fall of the wall in 1989. How this family maintained their cohesiveness and strength to continue living under the communist regime (as all others did as well) is so difficult for me to wrap my head around. I bookmarked some passages because they are chilling to hear today…and too close to some current events to ignore. I’m anxious to learn more about the author and hope she will pen another book in the future. (Ironically, as the Olympics recently wrapped up, you learn how East Germany used the Olympics to create an image of a strong nation to the rest of the world, while controlling every move of their athletes. Nina’s cousin was selected and groomed as an Olympian in cycling. She was an alternate but went on to become a National Champion.) As I saw in one review…this should be required reading in High School.


The Right Side of the Fairway: 18 Golf Inspired Lessons for Healing by, Doug deGrood (NF). A superb quick read where the author shares his cancer diagnosis and journey using golf (a love of his) metaphors to express himself. This is not just for those living with cancer. He offers great perspective on how to live life positively. Infused with humor and reality.

Chris Rothenberger:

The Four Winds by Kristen Hanneh (F). This is the story of Elsa, unloved by her family and abandoned after her marriage to Rafe Martinelli. These became the years of the Dust Bowl, The Great Depression which became synonymous with desperation, starvation, and a fight for survival.  She left for California and endured the battle between the “haves” and “have nots”, a nation divided, and the rising up of the migrant worker.  Sad and illuminating, it placed a spotlight on the story of the land, on enduring love and heroism, and of a country in crisis. This powerful and sad story of perseverance and will long resonate with me. I knew very little of this chapter in American History and the challenges and suffering of farmers.   It was well researched and vividly told, as this era came to life on the pages.

Cindy Olmstead:

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare (F). I listened to this book on Audible, and it was outstanding. Not sure how it reads in print, yet the story is so powerful I am sure the written word is just as poignant. Story of Adunni, a Nigerian child bride who wants to get an education and make a difference in the world. She becomes a house-girl to escape her marital situation, and the experiences that she encounters weave an incredibly moving and inspiring story. Well worth either listening to or reading to gain understanding of the intensity of the cultural mores and the bravery of the young heroine.

Dominique Lallement:

The Hare with Amber Eyes – A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal (NF). A cultural fresque through a family memoir — the Ephrussi’s — spanning the 19th and 20th C., three continents and many countries, all brilliantly tied by the travels of a collection of Japanese Netsuke’. Most painful descriptions of the Anschluss of Austria and the human devastation from WWII. Some passages reminiscent of what we are living today with Russia’s president.

Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy by Jamie Raskin (NF). Living with the wrenching pain of losing his son to suicide, Raskin confronts the assault of the Capitol on January 6, 2022, the day after he buried his son, and is then called to lead the impeachment effort against Trump for inciting the violence. Very painful to read, but a book full of lessons on humanity and on American institutions. 

[ Bonus Books, only in French. Joseph Kessel : En Syrie. Explains incisively the situation resulting from the French Protectorate, the roots of today’s instability. Laurent Gaudé: Dans la nuit Mozambique. Brilliant short stories. Metin Arditi: Rachel et les siens. The story of a fascinating story teller through most of the xxth C, from her childhood in Jaffa where her Jewish family shared a house with an Arab family, then her time in Istanbul before finally settling in France where she becomes an outstanding playwright. Maybe, one day, these books will be translated into English! ]

Fruzsina Harsanyi:

If “exceptional interest” can mean books I’ve recommended in conversations recently, then this qualifies:

It Was All A Lie by Stuart Stevens (NF). Donald Trump is not an aberration, argues Stevens, a long -time Republican campaign strategist.  His book traces the history of the party over the past 50 years and shows how  the party itself “became Trump.”  While his material is not news to us, it is a thoughtful treatise on how the Republican Party became “the white man’s grievance party.” 

Sensation by Arnold Lehman (NF).  The subtitle of the book “The Madonna, the Mayor, the Media, and the First Amendment” says it all. Written by the former director of the Brooklyn Museum about his battle with Mayor Giuliani over exhibiting Chris Ofili’s Black Madonna is a page-turner lesson in what happens when art collides with power politics.

Ellen Miller:

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (F). Give me a terrifically written historical novel, and I am hooked. Booth has it all.  It’s a well-imagined story of a notorious American villain (John Wilkes Booth) and, more importantly, the story of his family where he was the favored son out of 10 siblings. It’s well researched; the characters are quirky and fascinating; the times are certainly historically interesting. It begins in Maryland in the Pre-Civil War era (1822) and ends shortly after Lincoln’s death in 1865. I knew nothing about Booth’s family and little about the details of the slavery in a so-called free state. The book is filled with fascinating details.

 John Wilkes Booth only enters the story in the last third of the book, and his story is brilliantly intertwined with that of Abraham Lincoln. Booth is page-turner, and it doesn’t matter that you already know how it ends or that it is just under 500 pages.

Walking the Bowl: A True Story of Murder and Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka by Chris Lockhart and Daniel Mulilo Chama  (NF). This is one of the most stunning and shocking stories of poverty and deprivation I have ever read (a subspecialty of my reading for many years). It’s been compared to Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, which told the disturbing story of a slum in New Delhi. It’s a fair comparison.

But this story is worse. At the opening of the book an unknown child is found murdered in Lusaka, Zambia, lying on a trash heap with his eyes gorged out. Unlike hundreds of other children who die or are killed each year in this slum community, officials have an interest in who’s responsible. The story is told through the eyes and activities of several of the children.

The authors – one an American anthropologist and the other a social worker in the neighborhood where this boy was murdered – had dispatched researchers to document the day-to-day lives of the street children, a number of whom become the main characters in the context of the murder investigation.  This is a crime story, a mystery story, a sociological case study. It’s also a story of survival, corruption, and lack of morality.

It’s a nightmare, and it’s true. I highly recommend it.

Ellen Shapira:

My most outstanding read was The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (F). I know it was mentioned as one of the most frequently read books on your end of the year list, and I absolutely loved it. As a novel it had everything that I appreciate in a good read: interesting and well developed characters who grow or change as the story progresses; a story that is unique and moves along at a good pace; writing that flows and offers good descriptions with a good balance between prose and dialogue; and finally a surprise ending that works well with the story.

George Ingram:

Powers and Thrones by Dan Jones (NF). Reading a review several months ago, I realized how little I knew of the Middle Ages. It is about the most engaging history book I have ever read. It’s a history book written as a narrative. It’s the only book in which I read all the footnotes – they related what happened 1000 years ago to current world/human dynamics – you come away realizing we should learn from history and, while not the factual details, but the dynamics of human and national behavior do repeat. 

Harry Siler:

Dolly Parton Is Magnificent by Mary Townsend (NF). An exceptional essay.. “The essay puts some heavyweight words behind the good feeling we’ve always had about her…The beloved Tennessee singer-songwriter gets the joke. Do the rest of us?”

Jane Bradley:

South to America:  A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon Line to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry (NF). My feelings about the South are complicated, as I come from a Southern family but grew up in the DC area. So taking this journey with Imani Perry, whose work I know from The Atlantic, was a way to revisit my ambivalence about the South. I recommend the audiobook version, which is read by the author – a very insightful traveling companion. 

Joe Higdon:

I finally read a book this year worthy of mention, Power and Liberty by Gordon Wood (NF). The preeminent American historian writes (about) the 1787 Constitutional Convention was a claw back of power by the elite from the more democratic Articles of Confederation.

Judy White:

I am now re-reading a book I’d first read years ago, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, by Anne Fadiman (NF). I would categorize it as a book of exceptional interest because it treats the beliefs of two very different cultures, Western scientific culture and traditional Hmong culture, with equal respect — more so than any book I’ve read. The author does far more than interview her subjects. She becomes intimate friends with the Hmong family whose daughter has severe epileptic attacks, as well as with the doctors who are treating her, and maintains these close friendships for many years. Learning about Hmong history and culture and why the Hmong have had a harder time integrating into U.S. culture, is eye-opening. Very readable.

Kate Latts:

My top book so far has been The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel (F). It is set in Shanghai during WWII and alternates between two protagonists…a young Chinese woman running a nightclub and a Jewish refugee who has just arrived in Shanghai. The story is about love, loss, and choices made during the unstable period of Japanese occupation in China. It is well written and a fast read with many side characters supporting the stories of the two main ones.

ML:

Look, I Made a Hat and Finishing the Hat by Stephen Sondheim (NF). March 22nd was Stephen Sondheim’s 92nd birthday. A few years ago, he wrote two books (non-fiction) about his creative processes making the musicals for which he will be eternally remembered. I didn’t read them this year, but they are fun, informative, entertaining, detailed in any year.

Nancy Cedar Wilson:

Counterpoint: A Memoir of Bach and Mourning by Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post and a Pulitzer Prize winning critic (NF). A combined autobiography and analysis of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and the impact Bach’s music has had on his life. Kennicott was a piano student himself, taught first by his very tough mother. He documents his struggles with trying to master this lovely piece of music as an adult, with both themes woven together in a cleverly written counterpoint. Quite an amazing feat, and one that I found truly engaging, especially with the sometimes delicate, other times firmly played notes playing on my Alexa in the background. (by Glenn Gould).

Richard Miller:  

Walking the Bowl: A True Story of Murder and Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka by Chris Lockhart and Daniel Mulilo Chama (NF). An amazingly true story – narrated non-fiction(?) – about the street children in Lusaka, Zambia (and by implication other street children around the world?). The fact gathering took five plus years and eight individuals, including five embedded individuals, to gather, sift, and put together this story. The book reads like fiction. Were it so. Similar to Pulitzer Prize winner author Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers. But with a bit of a twist. This one also has a message about how one good deed, if walked forward, played forward, can have ripples of positive effect.

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrew Elliott (NF). The author, a NYTimes investigative reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner, follows a family in NYC, largely through their eyes and also the life of Disani, the eldest of eight children. It is a riveting, true story of Disani’s eight years of being homeless and living in shelters as she tries to protect her siblings as well as escape the poverty and life she is living. One of the Ten Best Books of the Year 2021 by numerous publications and reminiscent of one of my long time favorites, Random Family by Adrian Nicole (NF). (I alternated between listening to and reading Invisible Child.)

Susan Butler:

The Method: How the 20th Century Learned to Act by Isaac Butler.(NF).  Isaac–my son–writes this rollicking dive of the acting theory the Method from its beginnings in Russia to the end of the 20th Century. Now, don’t take his mother’s critical acclaim! The New Yorker said the book is “an entertaining, maximally informative new book by Isaac Butler;” The New Republic said, “compelling, meticulously new history,” and Nathan Lane wrote “The best and most important book about acting I’ve ever read.”

Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French (NF). The grizzly murder of a young English woman in pre-World War II “Peking” may not have been solved because of social and political reasons, but the author figures it out. French interweaves the tale of  the murder with the historical milieu of the Japanese and the social order in the city.


American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard (NF). Forget the idea of the melting pot. Woodard’s thesis is that the United States was settled by 11 different and rival cultures that reverberate in America today. Why is New England (Yankeedom) so different from the South? Greater Appalachia stretches much further than we generally imagine it. Written in 2010, the epilogue attempts to look into the future.


*** *** ***

If you missed the deadline but have a book to add, go ahead and send it now as I can easily add it into the list above.

And if you’re still looking for reading ideas, you can always check out the MillersTime Contributors’ Favorite Reads from 2021..

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Calling for 2020 Favorite Reads: Submit Four!

01 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Audible Books, Books, Favorite Authors, Favorite Reads, Fiction, Most Enjoyed Books 2020, Nonfiction, Reading, Reading Favorites, Reading in Time of COVID

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” A. Lincoln

For this annual post about what books have been your most favorite reads over the past year, I’m asking that we limit our submissions to just four titles.

While this may seem restrictive to some of you, I think it will make for a somewhat different post than in previous years (our 12th year). I’m aiming for less emphasis on what books got the ‘most favorite’ label from MillersTime readers (not trying to compete with all those other year end book lists) and more emphasis on why certain books were individual’s favorites.

Thus, I urge you to write a few sentences about each of your choices, explaining what was particularly meaningful to you about a chosen favorite. Why was a particular book most enjoyable, most important, most thought provoking, the best written, the ones you may go back and read again, the ones you reread this year, and/or the ones you may have suggested to others that they might enjoy?

Additionally, please feel free to add either at the beginning or the end of your submission, a couple of sentences about your reading overall this year. For instance, did you concentrate on new books, older titles, rereads, more fiction or nonfiction than in the past, etc.? Did you read electronically or in paper, did you listen to books, and generally did you read more or less than in previous years?

To make my task of putting the list together a bit easier, please given the full title of the book, followed by the author’s name, and whether the book was F or NF. If any of the ‘books’ on your list were ones you enjoyed audibly, please indicate that.

Feel free to include any favorites that you may have submitted to any of the three earlier book posts this year:

*April 10 – Favorites Reads in a Time of Self-Isolation

*May 20 – More Favorite Reads

*Aug. 19 – Favorite Reads in the Time of COVID-19,

Don’t be concerned about whether others will have the same book(s) on their lists or that a particular book might not be a popular choice as those are not the most important aspects of this year’s list. Contributors use the list to find reading options they may not know about or have considered. Your reasons for your favorites this year are what I hope readers will find most valuable.

Please send me (Samesty84@gmail.com) your submission by Sunday, Dec. 20 so I will have enough time to collate the list and post it by the end of the month.

*** *** ***

To see previous years’ lists, click on any of these links: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. 2016. 2017. 2018 Mid-Year, 2018, 2019 Mid-Year. 2019.

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National Book Festival – Sept.25-27 – Completely Virtual

06 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Authors, Books, Fiction, Library of Congress, Library of Congress National Book Festival, Natinal Book Festival, Nonfiction, PBS Special, Sept. 25-27

The Library of Congress National Book Festival which has taken place for 19 years in Washington, DC will be virtual this year, September 25-27, 2020.

In one place (on your own Internet ‘device,’ over one weekend) you will be able to hear, see, and interact with some of the authors you no doubt follow and treasure. As opposed to trying to get in line to ‘fight’ the crowds that have now increased every year, you can schedule to hear and to see them on line.

‘Live’ and in Q & A sessions, there are categories that include authors for Children, for Teens, for Family, Food, and Field, Fiction, Genre Fiction, History and Biograpjhy, Poetry and Prose, Science, and Understanding Our World. (See Schedule for names of specific authors and times and dates of their presentations.)

There are more than 100 authors participating as you can see from this alphabetical listing of author participants.

And there’s two-hour special on PBS entitled The Library of Congress National Book Festival: Celebrating American Ingenuity,

Check it all out ahead of time at the festival‘s website.

Finally, keep up with all the latest information about this delightful access to the many events and current authors who are participating in this wonderful paean to books and authors:

Follow the Festival

Finally, keep up with all the latest information about this delightful access to the many events and current authors who are participating in this wonderful paean to books and authors:

  • Subscribe to the National Book Festival email alert service
  • Follow the National Book Festival Blog
  • Follow the Library on Twitter @LibraryCongress External
  • Follow the hashtag: #NatBookFest
  • Find us on Facebook External

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Favorite Reads in the Time of COVID-19

30 Sunday Aug 2020

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Books, Favorite Reads, Favorite Reads in the Time of COVID-19, Fiction, MillersTime Readers Favorite Books, Nonfiction, Recent Favorite Reads

 “A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” A. Lincoln

Here are the books that 37 MillersTime readers have identified as recent favorites, 54% fiction, 46% nonfiction.

Barbara Friedman:

Grant by Ron Chernow (NF).  Chernow writes an excellent biography of Grant. Grant was an interesting person – not too scholarly, a masterful military strategist, an honest person, not necessarily primed to be a US President, and at many times too innocent. Grant has been described as the most underrated President, and that is probably correct. He was an honest person, but surrounded by corruption during his presidency and stuck with friends even when they were not honest. He fought for the rights of the Southern blacks and fought hard against the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction. The biography is excellent in portraying the good and the less good and brings to life a man who was probably underrated.  I highly recommend the book.

The Splendid and the Vile by EriK Larson (NF). This latest Larson biography is about Winston Churchill in his first year of Prime Minister in the UK. We know the story – he supplanted Neville Chamberlain as PM, the year was a rough one with the Battle of Britain, and the UK survived this first year. What makes the book so interesting is Larson’s extensive use of Jock Colville’s diaries and the diaries of Mary Churchill to give the book a more personal feel and texture. Larson writes so well, and this is a book worth reading as an interesting perspective on that year.

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (NF) is a well written and researched book on the Great Migration which took place between roughly 1917 to 1975 as blacks migrated from various parts of the South to northern and western cities looking for between opportunities. In particular, the books traces the lives of three migrants— Ida Mae Brandon Gladney who migrated in 1937 from Mississippi to Chicago; George Swanson Starling who migrated in 1945 from Florida to NYC; and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster who migrated in 1953 From Louisiana to Los Angeles. She really got to know these three individuals and around and through them told the amazing story of migrants.

A Game of Birds and Wolves by Simon Parkin (NF). This is a fascinating and largely unknown story of a “for real” board game “played” at Derby House in Liverpool during WWII.  In the early years the efforts focused on how the Royal Navy could have more success against the U-boats (the wolves) which were destroying the Merchant ships bringing badly needed food and supplies into the British Isles in the Battle of the Atlantic.  (Have You ever played the game Battleship?  This was the origin of the game). The Birds were the WRENS, an auxiliary unit of the Royal Navy of very young but very bright women who helped devise, improve and run the games. Navy officers would spend time at Derby House And play the games to learn new strategies to combat the U-boats. Because of the success of these games in Navy training, Britain essentially won the Battle of the Atlantic by early 1943 and the U-boats were withdrawn. The book is actually more about Gilbert Roberts who designed the games and masterminded the effort. The book looks at a largely unknown but very successful effort in Britain’s war efforts.. . . and largely done by women!

Countdown 1945 by Chris Wallace (NF) is a wonderful book recounting the 116 days between when Harry Truman became President, the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, and the beginning of the atomic age. While we all know the basic story, in this book you learn more about the scientists, the military, the President, the incredible co-operation among the various parties, the absolute precision among the various parties,  the angst around whether to drop the bomb or not, and ultimately the dropping of the bomb.

Ben Shute:

Reading seems to go to the bottom of my “to do” every day.

I’m not sure where the time goes, although there is an increasing number of on-line lectures and performances that attract us, and thanks to my daughter I’ve become a podcast listener as well.

I’m still slowly working my way through These Truths by Jill Lepore (NF), which I am enjoying but which seems best in short bursts. I then discovered her podcast, which has become another time sink.

Carrie Trauth:

Although I have worked part time and been busy with online meetings. I definitely have been escaping the virus and political turmoil by reading a lot. I especially liked the following two books:

A Race to Splendor by Ciji Ware (HF).This is a wonderful historical fiction about two woman architects in the early 1900’s. They rebuild two famous hotels after the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.

Women of a Dangerous Age by Fanny Blake (F) .A story of two middle age women starting over.

Chris Boutourline:

I”m currently two-thirds of the way through The Hours by Michael Cunningham (F), and liking it. (It was a bit hard to follow at first). Drawing inspiration from the life, and death, of Virginia Woolf, the author artfully weaves together the stories of three women to reveal their complicated, interior lives. (Ed. It won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the 1999 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction).

I enjoyed Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday (F). It follows a modern-day “Alice” down a rabbit hole when she enters a relationship with a man 30 years her senior. To some extent, based on the author’s affair with Philip Roth.

Cindy Olmstead:

Reading (and listening) more to non-fiction, specifically to understand my views on racism. Need to open my eyes to my “hidden” biases. Read How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram Kendi (NF). It is a tough read but very enlightening. Also rereading White Fragility, Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (NF).

Also found these to be good reads:

The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates (NF). Her work with the Gates Foundation to lift up women worldwide to bring economic and health security. It is not a typical feminist approach but her strength as an advocate based on her personal awareness from her global travels to the needy. 

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni (F): Story of young boy bullied due to his physical disability, ocular albinism, which makes his eyes red. it is a very inspiring and moving read.

David P. Stang:

The Gift Of Years: Growing Older Gracefully by Joan Chittister (NF). Written by a Benedictine nun, spiritual teacher, and executive director of Benetvision, a resource and research Center for contemporary spirituality in Erie, Pennsylvania. Her book contains 40, three to five to page essays on dimensions of consciousness experienced by geriatrics. She begins each essay with a quotation, then describes the particular experience or perception explaining both the defeatist, hopeless way of interpreting the topic, but also provides a far more constructive, optimistic and inspiring interpretation. My friend Rick Miller gave me the book and every night I read at least one of the little chapters before going to bed. I’ve nearly completed my second reading of her entire book. That before bed, nightly experience reminds me of my mother reading me nursery stories before I fell asleep at night as a small child. In her Gift Of Years Joan Chittister has become a substitute for my long deceased mother. As I experience it, Joan Chittister’s written words become spoken words of a compassionate mother telling her sleepy-eyed octoctogenarian son that this is a time of life about which he should become most cheerful.

Biography of Silence by Pablo d’Ors (NF) is all about the phenomenology of meditation. Phenomenology is the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view. The central structure of an experience is its intentionality, its being directed toward something, as it is an experience of or about some object. Applying this dimension of consciousness to the writing of Biography of Silence d’Ors makes phenomenological reference to all the ideas that pop into a person’s head while meditating. D’Ors is concomitantly a Spanish Catholic priest and Zen meditator. Among other things his book on meditation teaches us is how to notice but ignore all of these thoughts that pop into our consciousness when we are seeking to be silently receptive to a greater reality. His precisely described perceptions of what he experiences while meditating are awe inspiring.

Ed Scholl:

I’ve probably been reading a bit more during this time of Covid than before. Two books that I have read and enjoyed in recent months are:

The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough (NF). It is the story of the founding of Marietta Ohio – the first settlement in the northwest territory in 1788 by the Ohio Company. 

Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 by Stephen Ambrose (NF). I wanted to read this book to give me more background information for our transcontinental railroad exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History where I volunteer. But I especially wanted to read it prior to our train trip across America, which will include part of the original transcontinental railroad route from Sacramento to Omaha. Building that railroad, especially through the sierra Nevada mountains, was an engineering marvel, and Ambrose tells the story in a very engaging way. 

Elizabeth Lewis:

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (F), but seems pretty close to his real family history:  How could I have missed this gem (not a little gem, a generous epic of a book) before?  But now, with more time for leisurely reading, I have immersed myself in the life of the characters and of the land. And where else could I find such sentences as “She instructed me as out of bitter personal experience, she brooded along the edges of my childhood like someone living out a long Tennysonian regret. *** Gentility is inherited through the female line like hemophilia, and is all but incurable.”

Ellen Miller:

Here are six very different reads from me in the last four months, each of them I highly recommend for various reasons.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (NF). This much-anticipated book by the author of the prize winning The Warmth of Other Suns won’t disappoint. It is a deeply researched, anecdote-illustrated, clear-eyed discussion of race and class in America that puts systemic discrimination in this country into a global framework. It makes a strong case of the similarities to the ancient caste system of India and the Nazi-created caste system for Jews. (One of the many fascinating insights is that Nazi officials came to the US to study our laws concerning racial separation, as they designed their Nuremberg Laws.)

The book reads a bit like sociology textbook, one I would have happily read in my college days. It is engagingly written and her argument adds a new depth and understanding to our country’s system of racial injustice. It offers many examples and insights that at times I found shocking. It is a must read.

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh (F). Over the past several compilations of ‘best reads” I have recommended this author’s previous two award winning novels (Eileen and My Year of Rest and Relaxation) by this new writer. Each of her books is provocative, a little off-beat, with consistently superb writing.

Her latest is no exception. Death in Her Hands tells a haunting story about an elderly woman living alone who stumbles on a possible murder. Her suppositions about this possible murder grow into a full-blown obsession as she pursues solving the mystery to the point where she looses her grip on the real world. It’s a fascinating and well-paced and in some ways reminiscent of Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, which I also highly recommend,

Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey (NF). This book, by the African-American, Pulitzer Prize winning poet who served as United States Poet Laureate in 2012 and 2013, is a deeply personal and chilling memoir of her mother, who was brutally murdered by her second husband. Trethewey tells her own story as a mixed-race child in Mississippi history in the deeply segregated South. Her insight is sharp and her voice clear as she explores the loss and grief in trying to understand her mother’s tragic life. The writing is sensitive and engaging, the story of racism and abuse riveting. You won’t want to put this down.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (F). I recommend this book highly but cautiously. I strongly urge you to read ABOUT this book, before you read it. Hamnet (another spelling of “Hamlet”) is a fictional portrayal based on little known facts of the death of Shakespeare’s son. It does not focus only on his play “Hamlet” (written four years after the child’s death) but instead it is an imagined full-blown story of Shakespeare’s wife and family, their life and times (the 1580’s) and the plague that killed their 11-year old boy. None of the characters have their historical names (other than Hamnet and his twin sister Judith), which I found confusing. But it’s well worth struggling through that in this splendidly told story. It’s a beautiful book, superbly written, a tale of family and loss.

The Yield: A Novel by Tara June Winch (F). This book is written by an Aboriginal author and it tells the story of a young woman returning to her native home after the death of her grandfather, Albert Goondiwindi, who was determined to pass on the language of his people to those he would leave behind.

The book is divided into alternating chapters of his explanations of native wordsand phrases, the reactions of the granddaughter who has returned home from London for the first time in 10 years, and others with critical pieces of the story to tell. Woven into this tale is the news that his native place is to be repossessed by a mining company and the granddaughter’s attempts to save their land. This is essentially a story of a dispossessed culture and the attempts to reclaim it. It’s a moving, well-written, and very real story.

Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict (HF.) Even when I startedthis book, I wondered why I had chosen it, even as a “summer” read. But after the first ten pages I was hooked on the story of life of the famous film star – the Austrian-born Hedy Lamarr (ne: Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) – the glamorous Hollywood actor who began er career in 1938. My mother was an admirer.

The book deftly tells the story of an early marriage to an Austrian arms dealer very riendly with senor Nazi officials (she was of Jewish heritage), and how she became privy to many of the Third Reich’s plans while at her husband’s side. She fled him and his world and ended up in Hollywood where she was featured in 30 films in an acting career spanned nearly three decades. It also details how she struggled to use her scientific knowledge, and what she had learned about Nazi plans, to help the war effort against the Nazis by co-developing a radio guidance system for allied torpedoes. (This involved developing technology that led to both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth innovations.)

This is a great story and an engaging summer read.

Ellen Shapira:

I have been doing lots of reading the last few months, and actually I have enjoyed some good ones so here are a few for your list.  

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd (HF). I have loved Sue Monk Kidd’s  previous books and was anxious to read this, though the subject was questionable, imagining Jesus having a wife in the years before he was known as a prophet in the Galilee. The book did not disappoint, being beautifully written and focusing on the character of Ana, as she uses her cunning and wit to navigate a life of intrigue, romance, and  treachery in the 1st century. It is a masterpiece of historical fiction reminiscent of The Red Tent. 

All Adults Here by Emma Straub (F) is a charming story of a widow living in upstate New York struggling with her relationships with her three grown children and their issues, a granddaughter who comes to live with her and a new lover.  The book touches on many contemporary themes including bullying, sexual identity, adultry, surrogate pregnancies to name a few.  This is definitely a feel good read and a pleasant respite from the more serious issues of the day.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (F) is a hot book of the moment and worth the attention. It is a multi-generational saga  with a different take on racism reflected in the context of the decades between the 1940’s and the present. Twins, who are very light skinned from a Louisiana small town,  are inseparable growing up until one of them decides to “disappear” and pass for white. The story has many twists and turns; however, the strength of the book lies in the depth of the relationships between the various characters.  

Emily Nichols Grossi:

I recommend:

The Secret Place by Tana French (F). Sob, I am now done with the Dublin Murder Squad books. They are all so damn thrilling and good, even if you must suspend belief in certain moments. It pains me to find the female detective annoying, but she is overwritten in my opinion. Nonetheless, a read that renders the rest of the world invisible in the moment which is, at present, the best sort of escapism.

I’m not done with but am loving Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson (NF). Suspect this will be on many a list this time around.

And I thought In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (NF) was absolutely excellent and terrifyingly relevant. A must-read, IMO.

Fruzsina Harsanyi:

About my reading in the time of Covid (and Black Lives Matter): 1) I’ve always been interested in how ordinary people handle extraordinary situations.  Now in this extraordinary time, I’ve expanded this focus to reflect on leaders; 2) Also, I’m reading more mindfully and exploring new subjects. 

The Yield by Tara June Winch (F) is at the top of my list. Australia’s top award (Miles Franklin) went to this Aboriginal writer who says it broke her heart to write it. It’s about colonial violence, oppression and environmental destruction, but also a celebration of the Wiradjuri people through their language. A must on Audible.

Inge’s War, A German Woman’s Story of Family, Secrets, and Survival Under Hitler by Svenja O’Donnell (NF)  The subtitle describes the book.  This WWII book focuses on ordinary German people — what they knew, what they did or did not do, how they got through the war with madmen at the helm.

The Great Influenza by John M. Barry (NF), a book I wish I had read in print! The information about the so-called Spanish Flu in itself was fascinating. But Barry’s “side trips” into the history of medicine in the US, Johns Hopkins University, the role of the media, Woodrow Wilson and the Peace Conference were all fascinating and relevant to our time. It’s not really 546 pages; lots of footnotes.

The Hemingses of Monticello, An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (NF) I couldn’t put this book down, though it was often repetitious.  In this meticulously researched work, Gordon-Reed tells the Jefferson/Hemings story by focusing on the Hemings family, the enslaved women and men who worked in Jefferson’s house and lived there as servants to their father and siblings. It takes repetition to get one’s head around that. An important read for me in the time of Black Lives Matter as I try to understand systemic racism more deeply.  On to Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste!

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson (NF). Larson’s purpose here is not another Churchill biography but an account of how Churchill, his family and the people around him lived, worked, and loved during the first year of WWII.  This was the year Churchill became the leader history remembers. 

Shadowland by Joseph O’Connor (HF) In the genre of historical fiction, this book is a delight to read any time. It captures the world of late 19th century theater in London, the charisma of two of its leading actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry and their relationship with Irving’s business manager Bram Stoker, the creator of Dracula. It’s pure magic to read and, I’m told, even better to listen to.

Garland Standrod:

I have wanted to read items completely away from the current Covid calamity.  So:

For this enforced quarantine interregnum of unknown duration, I decided to read some very long poems—written in English.  These have been:

William Wordsworth, The Prelude (1850). Wordsworth worked on this autobiographical poem his entire life, and it details his interactions with nature and the development of his poetry.  Quite moving in parts.

Herman Melville, Clarel (1876). This is the longest poem in American literature, and one of the longest in world literature. It took some time to read, but that was the point. It describes how a traveller named Clarel visits the Middle East and his struggles with his religious faith. Extremely interesting, in parts, and quite philosophical, it is now considered one of Melville’s major works.

Lord Byron, Don Juan (1819 – 1824). This satiric epic poem of 16,000 lines is a parody of an epic poem, and is quite witty, in parts. The involuted plot involves the life history of Don Juan and pirates and Turkish mercenaries and the Russian army and Catherine the great… and on and on.  I am in the midst of this tale. His gibes at Wordsworth are quite funny.

Glen Willis:

My favorite book in this period was The Order by Daniel Silva (F). My 98 year old aunt turned me on to Silva many years ago so we have read all of his books together. We share Kindles so I know exactly what page she is on and see that I am always playing catch up.

Silva has as his central character,  Gabriel Allon , an artist, a spy, an assassin, high up in the  Israeli Intelligence and also a close friend of  several Popes with many contacts in the Vatican. This book begins with the assassination of his friend Pope Paul VII and the attempt of an ultra-right religious Order trying to undo the reforms of that Pope ( Think Francis) so they can take over the Catholic church.

I find his books to be real page turners and the story filled with an accuracy of his subjects, Since Allon is a known and respected as an artist specializing in restoration of great art, there is always a masterpiece or two to discuss. In this book, besides the story, I found his Author’s Note at the end of the book to be fascinating.

He takes the time to discuss the sub-plot of anti-Semitism in the church, in the current European Union etc., in our own country, and the controversies concerning  Pius XII  in WWII;

Since the time frame is present day he also covers the story within the current  pandemic.He also takes the time to share a well written history of antisemitism in the ancient texts and scriptures. I felt I leaned so much in the afterward of the story. He quotes some of the truly great theologians as apologists for alternative opinions of many of the arguments used to support antisemitism. I strongly recommend this book as a great read.

The Stand by Stephen King (F). A truly terrific book to read during this time of the Coved 19 virus, self- quarantine; masks, personal and self-distancing;

I first read this book in 1978 when I was teaching religion at Holy Names Academy with Gilbert Brennan.  We discussed the book in terms of fundamental choices we all have, What’s it going to be? Good or Evil. It was a very successful discussion.  It was Stephen King’ s fourth novel and the longest he had written to that time. To sum up, it is an apocalyptic story about a killer flu, released by the military and spreading throughout the world killing 2/3 of the population in 2 weeks. SOUND FAMILIAR?

The survivors in the US develop into two groups, those who dream of a dark man, Randall Flagg, who has his headquarters in Las Vegas; the others dream of an elderly black woman, Mother Abigail,  sitting in a rocking chair on her farm in Nebraska waiting for those who are drawn to her. Obviously the book personifies the attraction in the new world of some to good and some to evil.

The book when originally published had to be revised due to the length and cost. In 2011 the Book was revised again by Mr. King to include the original chapters as well as add some more insight into some of the characters. It was also a made for TV film and a miniseries.

It is a long book but fascinating in the story and the characters. Given the times we are living in, I recommend the Audible version. Sit back, close your eyes, and LISTEN!!!!!!  It’s my favorite is Stephen King novel.

Haven Kennedy & Daughter Miriam:

Here is something from me and Miriam:

Reading is, as always, my escape. It allows me to fall into another world. When I’m stressed, I read science-fiction and fantasy – books from my childhood. I’ve been reading an incredible amount of Terry Pratchett’s work. Miriam (my six year old) has been enjoying the books about Tiffany Aching. Pratchett interweaves social commentary and morality in his books, causing you to think. Right now I’m reading Prachett’s Thud (F) , a book about the tension between dwarves and trolls. The book is perfect for the times we are living in.

I’ve also read:

Horace by George Sand (F) – this book was very hard to find. Most of Sand’s work has not been translated into English. It took getting an inter-library loan to receive it. It’s a beautiful book, set in France during the late 18th century. It’s well-written with an emphasis on social commentary.

Lucky Us by Amy Bloom (F) – I read this book in a matter of days. It’s beautifully written with engaging characters. It’s set in WWII. After I finished the book, I began to think about it, finally deciding that it was a well-written, intelligent soap opera. I still recommend reading it, just for the way Bloom writes.

Beyond that, it’s all comfort reads. It’s Terry Pratchett, Jasper Fforde, The Chronicles of Narnia. It’s books of my childhood. It’s books written with my daughter in my lap. It’s reading to my daughter about different cultures, different religions, different ways of thinking. So much of what is going on in the political world is hate and fear – fear of what is different. I want my daughter to turn to reading as a comfort, to seek knowledge, to explore different worlds. Reading is what is needed more than anything. It’s unfortunate that so much of what we read is on social media, which is an echo chamber of what we are already thinking. Reading is a great way to escape the echo chamber. And even in the silliest books – Pratchett’s for example – we can learn something.

Jane Bradley:

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (F) – lets you escape to an island off the coast of Finland, where you get to know a grandmother and her granddaughter spending a quiet summer there.

Jeff Friedman:

Throughout the pandemic, I’ve tried to engage in long-term reading projects — that is, reading a coherent series of books one after the other as opposed to moving among topics. I try to start every morning by spending at least 30-60 minutes on that project before the workday starts. That gives my days a nice rhythm and progressing through the books helps to “mark time” across weeks that might otherwise seem interchangeable.

I started by reading a series of memoirs/biographies of foreign policy-makers, in chronological order. Then I started reading a series of books that the Kennedy School publishes after every presidential election, based on conferences that it holds with presidential campaign managers. The books are called Campaign for President (NF). I’ve learned a lot of history from them, I’ve gotten a better sense of how presidential campaigns view the world, and that has given me some useful perspective on current events.

Jesse Leigh Maniff:

During this time of uncertainty, I’ve been drawn to the familiar, re-reading fictional books that provide an escape from reality and where good triumphs over evil: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (F), Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend (F), second of the Nevermoor series, and the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (F).

Judy White:

Blue Nile by Virginia Morell  (NF). Interested Mike and me especially because it is a true adventure story of an international group who were the first to raft the full length of the very wild and dangerous Blue Nile River from the Ethiopian highlands to Sudan. Interesting on human, adventure, historical levels. (We lived in Ethiopia for two years and have returned three times.)

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker (NF). Amazing true story of a very large family with many cases of schizophrenia and how their experience added to the understanding of the disease.

Becoming by Michelle Obama (NF)  Candid, well-written autobiography.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (NF)  Amazingly, I had never read this. I loved it.

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson  (NF). Classic Bryson, funny, informative, surprising.

What It’s Like to Be a Bird by David Allen Sibley (NF).  \Big, beautiful book about how birds live, not a identification guide but just amazing facts and beautiful paintings.

Kate Latts:

I just finished the book The Gilded Years by Karen Tanabe (F). It is based on the true story of the first African American woman to attend Vassar College in the late 1890s while passing as a white girl. I loved reading about the exploits of the girls with the Ivy League boys as they navigated their futures after graduation balancing their interests in careers and exploring the world with the realities of marriage and motherhood. The focus of the book is really though on the protagonist and the double life she leads pretending to be white.

Kathleen Kroos:

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini (HF). It is a good historical novel.

Kathy Camicia:

Bit chilly in Maine but that’s perfect reading weather for me. Here’s my current list for the year of reads worth reading:

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston (F) and The Wedding by Dorothy West (F). My book club is focusing on African American women authors. I enjoyed both of these, particularly Dorothy West’s book about the upper class African American community in Martha’s Vineyard; race and class explored from several perspectives.

The Mirror and The Light by Hillary Mantel (HF). What can I say? It’s just as brilliant as Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Best read in a long time and it’s a long book.

Lane Brisson Retallick:

Crisis in the Red Zone by Richard Preston (NF).
This non-fiction book is subtitled “The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks To Come.” The author writes in his Preface that this book is the successor to his 1994 book, The Hot Zone. The story covers the Ebola Outbreak of 2013-2014 in the West African area of the Makona Triangle, which includes parts of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.

The author is an excellent writer, and he tells a complicated and dramatic story, with a large cast of characters and dire situations, in a suspenseful manner which kept me engaged.

Lydia Hill Slaby:

Just finished reading The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (F). (Did you ever read her first novel, The Night Circus? It is gorgeous and haunting and I strongly recommend it.) My sister had come home from the library with it a few days ago and got annoyed with it and handed it to me. (Has DC sorted it’s libraries yet? We’re not allowed in, but we can pick up a pile of books from the front door.)

Perhaps it’s because she has children, so everything causes a small amount of annoyance these days.

Halfway through this book I realized I was going to read it at least two more times, so I bought it from our local bookstore and returned the original.

I’m not quite sure what is happening with me and the pandemic and books these days, but I’m finding myself entranced by stories whose plots are hidden (or happen mostly underground?). It started with The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss (F), a novella that describes the life of Auri, his most enigmatic character from the Kingkiller series, and her home in the Underthing. It is more of a character study than an actual story with a beginning, middle, and end, but all stories start somewhere and then end somewhere else, so in a way it is a complete story. Either way, when I fell asleep the night of the day I read it, I felt like my time had been well spent.

The Starless Sea is much longer (so a few days, not just one, of devoted, well-spent reading) and has overlapping and intertwining fairy tales that build into the overarching plot. It is beautifully written, and, if The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a character study of Auri, The Starless Sea is a character study of story itself. How it grows, lives, and dies in one author’s imagination. How one can be chosen or disregarded. How we can pass by another in our search for the obvious, or disregard the obvious in our search for the subtle. 

In a sense, a wonderful book for our current time. Strong recommend.

Maria Lerner-Sexton:

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson (NF) has occupied my last week or so.  Erik Larson takes us on Winston Churchill’s journey through the very beginning of WW II in Britain. Yes, we know the story, but this is a a beautifully documented and highly readable account, and it includes the side stories of several Churchill family members and close confidantes.

ML – Anonymous

I received Franny and Zooey (by J.D.Salinger – F) in 1961, the year of its publication…I read it, and shelved it perfectly ignorant of its predecessors.

Well before my teaching career began, some English prof. probably suggested that everyone ought to have read The Catcher in the Rye. Done, done, and taught it.

In the early 21st century, in a second hand bookstore, I found Salinger’s Nine Stories. Forty years later, the name “Seymour Glass” in some of the stories sounded vaguely familiar; and the internet got me up to speed.  I’d broken my own cardinal rule (read multiple works by an author in the order s/he wrote them) without knowing it.  Finally, in 2020 (in a second hand bookstore) I found Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters/Seymour, An Introduction.  

So somewhere vaguely in April or May (do we still have months?), I read the whole thing in order, concluding with an affecting re-read of Franny and Zooey (you asked about re-reading at some point, but when?!). All of them are better in chronological order, but the body of work is also changed and enhanced by the recent documentary on Salinger which included the info that he suffered lifelong PTSD from having “liberated” Dachau & something else.  https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/j-d-salinger  

An upshot of this whole thing is that male academics “decided” that Holden Caulfield represented some thang about the American experience. It is the female characters in the Glass Family books & stories–Franny, Esme, Seymour’s sister and mother–who are the most remarkable–at least by comparison to Caulfield.

Meggie Patterson Herlinger:

I have been reading a lot of lighter things more recently but some of the books that I have given five stars to are:

Pretty Things by Janelle Brown (F).

This Tender Land by Willam Kent Krueger (F).

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (NF).

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (F).

Melanie Landau:

(My reading in August…interruptions by too much TV news – National Conventions – and now Hurricane Watches – 

Two books:  

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder (NF).

Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston (F). Fictional account of the rise of Joey Smallwood – New Foundland)

Mike White:

Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind’s Beginnings by Virginia Morell (NF).

Blue Nile by Virginia Morell  (NF).

Ramona Campos:

I had to reach across my train-fogged mind to remember a couple books that stand out.  I read an oldie called My Antonia by Willa Cather (F). It was a cross cultural experience for me to learn about early settlers of the American frontier: Bohemian immigrants from a region in the Czech Republic. The sensitivity and imagery used in this book was nothing short of poetic, and it is clear that the author has lived the experience and loved the forsaken prairie land. 

Because my husband lived in the Dominican Republic for six years, I try to read the literature of Hispanic authors from that region, and I zeroed in on this book called Dominicana by Angie Cruz (F). It was about a young immigrant family trying to “make it” in the Bronx. I didn’t love it, but it did keep my interest, and I recommend it because it would be a cross-cultural experience for others who want to understand the experience of Dominican immigrants told from the perspective of a young, relatively powerless and poor young girl. 

Rebecca Jacobs:

Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age by Bruce Feller (NF) A timely read about pivotal moments in our lives and adapting to change. Using different stories, he shows us ways to adapt to involuntary and voluntary lifequakes. 

The Only Plane in the Sky: Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett Graff (NF). I read this right when Covid-19 started in the US, in particular NYC in March.  The reader is transported back in time, recounting that day from multiple perspectives and first-hand accounts. Although heartbreaking, the book is filled with courage and resilience. It reminded me we will get through hard times. 

Filthy Beasts by Kirkland Hamill (NF). A riches to rags, tragic-comedy about three boys, an alcoholic mother, indifferent father. It’s perfect for people who like difficult family memoirs and complicated parents.

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kokler (NF): A true story about a family of 12, six of the boys with schizophrenia. It’s a story about mental illness that defined their entire lives.

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (F). The story alternates from the AIDS pandemic in the 80’s in Chicago to modern day Paris. Amazing characters and a good glimpse into multi-generational trauma as a mom tries to track down-her estranged daughter. Very haunting and well-written.

The Last Flight by Julie Clark (F) Two different women at dangerous crossroads change places by switching airplane tickets.

The Hate U Give by Angie Clark (F): Heartbreaking young adult book about a racism, police brutality, and interracial dating. 

Richard Miller:

I initially had five favorite reads, some of which were rereads, for this period: Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor (F), Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (F), A Burning by Megha Majumdar (F), Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey (NF), and Levels of Life by Julian Barnes (NF).

Then I read Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (NF) and decided that it was so compelling that I only wanted to focus on that single book. (See Ellen Miller’s account above.)

Some of you know of Wilkerson from her Pulitzer Prize winning reporting for feature writing at the NY Times. A number of you, including myself, have previously cited as a favorite her 2010 The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (NF), winner of the National Book Critic Circle Award and one of the NY Times’s Best Nonfiction books of 2010.

In this new eye-opening account of how our society is organized, Wilkerson captured me and held me throughout with her focus on caste as a way of understanding my country, our history, and our current divisions in a way I had never truly seen it.

In linking her examination of how our (hidden) caste system is similar to those of India and Nazi Germany and with compelling stories that we can all understand, she accomplishes her goal of making the reader see perhaps what we have never clearly seen: the effects that our caste system has played and continues to play in shaping what kind of country we have.

In her Epilogue, “A World Without Caste,” Wilkerson pulls together what she wants us all to understand: that once we truly see what caste has done and continues to do, we can choose individually and as a country to do something about it.

The book is a call to look at ourselves in a different way than perhaps we have until now.

It is compelling.

Robin Rice:

Brian Doyle’s Mink River (F). I recently read this a second time and now know I will read it again. And quite likely again. Along with re-reading Frances Itani – Requiem, Deafening (HF) – books, words, authors that hold you quietly in place, not for plot but for the solace and joy and surprise of words. (I’m thinking of launching again on Dorothy Dunnett’s The House of Nicolo for months of an amazing, gripping ride. Takes patience, but oh boy….)

Sal Giambanco:

Jeff Abbott’s new page turner, Never Ask Me (F). Follows the fast pace of his last best seller, The Three Beths.  Jeff’s work for me is an absolute page turner, and I generally stay up all night reading him.  

On the nonfiction side; a hero in America but not so much in his native France, The Marquis, Lafayette Reconsidered by Laura Auricchio (NF) is a sobering reminder how reason and moderation often cannot succeed in the midst of a radically polarized society.  Opposed by both the Jacobins and the monarchists, they could all agree on their hatred of Lafayette, the author of The Declaration of the Rights of Men and a genuine hero of the American Revolution whose very life was only spared because of the interventions of President George Washington. Later in life, Lafayette opposed both the excesses of Napoleon and France’s last king Louis XVIII.  

From the American Presidents series sponsored by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Franklin Pierce by Michael Holt (NF) and James Buchanan by Jean Baker (NF). Spurred by the bitter politics of today, I have been doing a deep dive into the most divisive politics in American history, America in the 1850s, the politics that led to the Civil War.

Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan were our 14h and 15th Presidents in the eight years just before Lincoln was elected President in 1860. Both men are ranked towards the bottom of any rankings of America’s 45 Presidents – but I expect Mr Trump will tank just ahead of Buchanan.

James Buchanan, America’s only bachelor President, may be the most disappointing.  An ambitious politician who served and loved his country and who helped add more territory to the United States as Polk’s Secretary of State than any other administration (think Mexican cession – larger than the Louisiana Purchase – and the person who negotiated our final borders with Canada.  Buchanan was less successful as President when he tried to add both Cuba and Baja California.  

Virtually everything both Pierce and Buchanan did as President blatantly favored the South (four of Buchanan’s cabinet members would serve as high ranking leaders of the Confederacy- including its President, Jefferson Davis.)

After Lincoln’s election and after South Carolina’s secession a month later in December 1860 (Lincoln would not assume the Presidency until March 1861); unlike his hero, Andrew Jackson during the 1830s nullification crisis, Buchanan inexplicably did nothing.  He even allowed virtually all federal munitions in the South to fall into the hands of the Confederacy.  

Jean Baker argues that if Buchanan had just taken basic steps to preserve the Union he took an oath to serve, the Civil War may have been entirely avoidable – and that Buchanan’s actions would have been considered treason during any other time.

Both Franklin and Buchanan failed to understand the depth of Northern opposition not only to the institution of slavery itself – but Northerners were resentful of a small anti democratic Southern aristocratic elite that seemed to dominate every lever of our nation’s national government. 

Sam Black:

Inferno by Max Hastings (NF). The best one-volume history of WW2.  The author is a master of strategy and offers unvarnished opinions about many of the prominent WW2 generals and politicians. The book also quotes from hundreds of diaries and letters to provide views of what happened from a ground-level perspective. Revelatory on the overwhelming contribution of the Soviet Union to the Allied victory.  A masterpiece.

The Man Who Broke Napoleon’s Codes by George Scovell (NF).  The British army under Wellington vanquished Napoleon’s forces in a multi-year campaign in Spain. This came about in part because of the code-breaking efforts of a British officer who is finally getting a secure place in history as the result of this book. Amazing detail and lucid narrative and description.  

Tim Malieckal:

Sashenka by Simon Sebag Montefiore (F), a prequel to Red Sky at Noon. Not as good, but enjoyable.

From Russia with Blood: The Kremlin’s Ruthless Assassination Program and Vladimir Putin’s Secret War on the West by Heidi Blake, Marisa Calin, et al. (NF). Very well sourced, scary stuff connecting the dots of Putin’s killing regime

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (NF). Anthro 101 for people like me who didn’t take it in college. inspiration in every chapter.

All Creatures Great and Small by James Harriot (NF). A vet recounts his life in Yorkshire in the 30s. Incredibly enjoyable.

Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse (F). My favorite of PG Wodehouse’s characters, Frederick Alamont Cornwallis Twistleton III, the Earl of Ickenham. Like uncorking a vial of laughing gas.

Now reading the second book, All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Harriot (NF). Reread Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (F). Managed to fit in a reread of The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham (F), my favorite book.
Just started Jean Genet’s Prisoner of Love (NF). Have you ever read him? What a life!

Tom Perrault:

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (F). I’ve loved Ann Patchett since Bel Canto and keep waiting for that lightening to strike again. It doesn’t quite happen here, but it was an interesting read and worth it.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (F). I just loved this book. Such an odd premise he begins with an a leisurely pace until the end and yet super compelling. I’m a fan.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron (F). A total classic and I understand why. I couldn’t stop thinking about this book after finishing it. It’s completely engrossing and even as I write about it, I’m thinking all over again about it. :)

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (F) – I was put off by the telling of the story: it reads like a transcript of an “interview” between multiple people spliced in with one another to tell a story. And then I was hooked. She’s a good storyteller after all.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Mink Kidd (F) – More of a “feel good” beach read than anything, but if you’re at a beach and want something light and lovely, read this.

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (F) – Her debut novel from 2017 got a ton of buzz so I read it. Interesting. She’s a good writer with a modern take on relationships so there’s that. I prob didn’t love as much as others did, however.

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More Favorite Reads – May 27, 2020

27 Wednesday May 2020

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Books Most Enjoyed By MillersTime Readers", Favorite Books, Favorite Reads, Fiction, Nonfiction, Reading in a Time of Isolation

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” A. Lincoln

Here’s the second round of books recently enjoyed by readers of MillersTime. The first one was Favorite Reads in a Time of Self-Isolation – April 10, 2020.

Fifty of you responded this time, including our Senior Contributor who is 98 years of age, and you were divided almost equally between males and females. Nonfiction slightly outpaced fiction (49-43).

We’ll do this one more time at the end of the summer; so keep a record of your favorite reads in June, July, and August. Also, there was interest from enough of you in rereading at least one book from your past. I’ll proceed with that as a separate project/post and send a few guidelines shortly.

Mostly, however, I appreciate all of you who responded and sent in contributions, and I thank each of you for participating.

Contributors are listed alphabetically by first names.

Anita Rechler:

Paladin by David Ignatius (F). Absorbing page turner spy novel. Frightening but at least not about a biological virus. Added bonus: watch interview with Ignatius here and And this replay of interview by Ignatius of Barton Gellman who has written a book about his journalistic reporting of Snowden.

Barbara Friedman:

The Island of Sea Women: A Novel by Lisa See (F). Another wonderful book by Lisa See about the Haenyeo, a female diving/fishing community on the Korean island of Jeju and interwoven with a long-term relationship between two friends over several decades.  On this island the women earn the money while the men tend to the children. The novel covers the time period starting with the Japanese occupation of Korea during WWII through the US occupation after WWII and the division of Korea into two countries and into the period when Koreans once again rule the country and what transpires for the inhabitants of Jeju.  What holds the novel together over this long period, however, are the two women, Young-Sook and Mi-ja who are life-long “friends.”

The Rationing: A Novel by Charles Wheelan (F). A HOOT of a novel and published a year ago, it is about a pandemic in the US in the mid-2020’s, how the NIH and other medical professionals worked to understand the Capellaviridae pandemic and how it was caused. (Sound familiar?)  From the beginning, they knew the drug Dormigen could cure the sick patient, but it was in short supply in the US, and other countries had an excess of supply but wouldn’t send it to the US in case they needed it. The politics – both international and within the US and its parties — ring so true for what we are seeing with COVID-19. The book is a bit long, but in today’s real pandemic, a HOOT is worth it!

Ben Shute:

These Truths by Jill Lepore (NF). Still working my way through it – it’s long and for some reason my reading time seems limited – but it’s the history of our country that we need now, and she writes engagingly. I’m rapidly becoming a Jill Lepore groupie – I don’t know where she gets the time (professor of History at Harvard, New Yorker staff writer, and now even a podcast!).

Maid by Stephanie Land (NF) – at a time when we’re understanding “essential workers” in new ways, and discovering all the tears in the safety net, this account of the life and struggles of a “cleaning lady” is sobering.

Bill Plitt:

I completed Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (F) this past week and enjoyed it from cover to cover, as it describe an area where we had a family farm, so I knew some of the types of folks in the region growing up on summers there.

I am reading Larry Cuban’s new book, and probably his last Chasing Success Chasing Success and Confronting Failure in American Public Schools (NF).

Bina Shah:

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (F).

The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay (F)

Bob Thurston:

The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig (F) takes you into the war experiences of football teammates, dispersed around the globe with the breakout of WWII. Ben Reinking is pulled out of pilot training and assigned to write about each of his buddies, thereby providing “hero” fodder for the war propaganda machine. The novel raises agonizing problems—Ben’s simmering resentment of the team’s bullying coach, and of the smarmy newsman Ben suspects of dreaming up this whole propaganda project; questions like what is heroism, or bravery, after all; a hot love affair with troubling issues— and Doig treats these issues adroitly without providing any easy answers.

White Lies (NF) – aired as a 7-part series on WAMU (NPR) that focused on the murder of Rev. James Reeb in Selma, 1965—caught my attention because Reeb had been an assistant minister at All Souls Unitarian Church that we belong to. Two journalists went to Selma to learn what they could, and the series shares their process, interviews, and findings—amazingly (and maybe because they were from Alabama) they got folks to say things they had kept secret for all these years. You learn not only about the racial issues in that place and time, but also much about the nature of perception and the deep-rootedness of beliefs – available as a podcast and worth hearing!

Carrie Trauth:

My first recommendation is Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (NF). This is a true story of his growing up in Africa. He is a wonderful comedian

Second book is Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker (NF). True story of a family where six of the 12 children were diagnosed with Schizophrenia, and is interspersed in a very readable way with research which has done on that terrible disease.

Chris Boutourline:

The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War  by Ben Macintyre (NF) is the story of Oleg Gordievsky, the son of two KGB employees who follows his older brother, a KGB operative, into the fold. Oleg’s exposure to Western ideas and values which, ironically, he was exposed to while working for the KGB out of a foreign embassy, leads him to betray the motherland in the hope of bettering his own life and those of his countrymen. It’s an account that kept me interested throughout and informed me of Russia’s attempts at foreign manipulation, countered by Western efforts, all of which began earlier than I was aware of.

Cindy Olmstead:

Know My Name by Chanel Miller (NF). This is her journey after being sexually abused by a Stanford Univ student. I listened on Audible as she reads the narrative. It is extremely poignant and shows how the victim (in 2016) is still viewed as guilty. Chanel does an excellent yet laborious job of sharing her struggle to find her voice, ultimately being able to get the legal system to change.

We Were The Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter (NF). The author traces her Jewish family’s horrific saga living in Poland during Hitler’s reign. She weaves the lives of the siblings together even when they had not heard from each other for several years. A moving story.

David Stang:

While reading Our Wild Calling: How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives – and Save Theirs by Richard Louv (NF) the subject matter of which I am quite interested in but found the book although fine on breadth, rather weak on depth

I came across Louv’s very positive comments about Jay Griffiths’ book WILD: An Elemental Journey (NF). In WILD she breaks down the planet into Wild Earth, Wild Ice, Wild Water, Wild Fire, Wild Air, and Wild Mind. Jay traveled to and reported on abused wild peoples all over the globe who she got to know through lengthy multi-week visits in highly primitive living conditions located outside of normal “civilization.” Jay, an English writer, lived with Amazon River basin shamans in their huts by beginning each day drinking ayahuasca. She also resided with Eskimos near the Canadian North Pole; Pygmies in the Calamari Desert, tribal people still using bows and arrows in Papua; Aborigines in Australia and a multitude of other peoples and places. Her impressive reporting was superbly supplemented by detail references quoted from the books in her huge bibliography. Clearly a wild woman herself, Jay’s identification with the wild people she describes is made clear by her ranting style of writing and by her photograph on the dust jacket in which looks like she might be bipolar.

Diana Bunday:

I just finished Rabbit At Rest byJohn Updike (F). I like the way he writes.

I also reread Atonement by Ian McEwan (F). I like the way he writes also.

Dixon Butler:

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (F). This is historical fiction, filling in events in the story of the Sarajevo Haggadah – a real 500 year old, beautifully illustrated book that has managed to survive the Spanish Inquisition, the Nazis, and the Serb attacks on Bosnia. It is really a series of inventive short stories cleverly told and held together by their relation to the book, and the book conservator hired to stabilize the manuscript . I found it totally engaging.

Ed Scholl:

Buzz Saw: The Improbable Story of How the Washington Nationals Won the World Series by Jesse Dougherty (NF). Baseball fans, and Nationals fans in particular, will much enjoy this recounting of last year’s historic postseason run by the Nationals. The author was the beat writer for the Washington Post and covered the Nationals throughout the season. The book is more than a game-by-game recap of the postseason; it has lots of very interesting back stories that give the read insight into the personalities and chemistry of the ball club.

The Guardians by John Grisham (F). This is another legal thriller by the master of the genre. It takes place in a small Florida town where a young black man is convicted of murdering a young lawyer. Guardian Ministries (which has a lot of similarities to Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative) takes on legal representation for the accused when they become convinced he was wrongfully convicted and forgotten by the system.

Elaine Samet:

Mary Wollstonecraft by Eleanor Flexner (NF), a biography, not about the author of “Frankenstein”, but her mother, who was a late eighteen century feminist in England. It is overly researched and academic to make for easy reading, but her life was so unusual for the time that it is worth the effort.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (F). A  highly acclaimed Czechoslovak author skillfully uses wit, philosophy, politics, passion in magnificent prose sometimes ordering on poetry to tell a complex story. 

Elizabeth (Goodman) Lewis:

Blindness by Jose Saramago (F):  Did I say fiction? It sure reads like it’s real. But actually it’s an allegory of what happens in a country when all the inhabitants become blind. Written in the 1990s by this Nobel Prize winner, Blindness narrates the worst-case scenario of a pandemic.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean (NF):  With a thesis that, “in a library, (you) can live forever,” this book details the great fire of LA Public Library, its history, and its role in the city.  Along the way, the author brings the characters that people the library to life and exposes the difficulty of proving the crime of arson.

Ellen Kessler:

Stan (husband) reads like a gourmet, and I think I read like a garbage disposer–putting it all in and then starting again.

I am almost finished Armando Correa’s The Daughter’s Tale (F) about a WWII Jewish German family and in another way, presents a choice for the mother similar to Sophie’s in Sophie’s Choice.

I am adding two more books by Jean Grainger, The Star and the Shamrock (F) and its sequel, The Emerald Horizon (F). The Grainger books are really Beach Books, rapid to read, happy ending, and characters who are pretty flat with a simple plot. All three are WWII books, with the Grainger books fun with simple take-a-way. Correa’s book is far from simple and it’s ending seems appropriate to the book.

Ellen Miller:

Inge’s War. A German Woman and Story of Family, Secrets &
Survival under Hitler
by Svenga O’Donnell (NF). A remarkable true
story — a Holocaust-era book with non-Jews as the central characters —
about the author’s great-grandparents, her grandmother, and her
mother and what they faced as Hitler rose to power through the post-war
war period. It is mesmerizing story telling, revealing secrets hidden for
many decades, brilliantly researched, and very well written. Perhaps
most importantly, this book is also a reckoning by the author as she
reveals the legacy of her family’s neutrality and inaction during those
times.

This is All I Got by Lauren Sandler (NF) . I would not recommend this
book for everyone, but for those particularly interested in how our
democracy fails the people at the lower rungs of economic ladder,
especially those who try to do everything right to get ahead, this work of
nonfiction is for you. At theheart of this story is a 22 year old woman and her infant as they confront the system to get ahead. It’s a story of failing government services, red tape, the struggle to raise yourself up, despite the
institutional pressures to keep you pinned down.

Ellen Shapira:

My two favorite books recently (read on Kindle) were both on your list generated last time:

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare (F). The novel is set in Nigeria in recent years, first in a remote village where the young protagonist is sold first into marriage as a third wife, and then after an escape is sold into virtual slavery in Lagos.  The story, though sad is actually heartwarming, and the language and dialogue are exquisite.  

Deacon King Kong by James McBride (F). This novel set in the 1960’s  tells the story of events occurring after an elderly, drunk, church Deacon, named Sportcoat, shoots one of the young drug dealers in his Brooklyn neighborhood. There is a whole host of entertaining and colorful characters who help move along the intertwining plot. 

Emily Nichols Grossi:

In Pursuit of Disobedient Women: A Memoir of Love, Rebellion, and Family, Far Away by Dionne Searcey (NF). Searcey was West Africa bureau chief for the NY Times from 2015-19, and this is about that experience. While I’m not sure the book matches the title, or vice versa, I did enjoy it. It’s been hard for me to concentrate on most reading during corona life, but I love Africa, knew little about Dakar, and very much enjoyed reading about her travels, colleagues, and experiences in Senegal and further afield. Boko Haram, gender equality, gender roles in marriage, parenting while trying to maintain a career…all fascinating stuff.

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker (NF). Fascinating book, for all the reasons we’ve discussed.

Eric Stravitz:

Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker (F).

Less by Andrew Sean (HF).

Fruzsina Harsanyi:

*****The Overstory: A Novel by Richard Powers (F)***** This book has been described as “an impassioned work of activism and resistance;” “a hymn to Nature’s grandeur;” and “a monumental work of environmental fiction.” It won the 2019 Pulitzer and short-listed for 2018 Man Booker. I resisted reading it, and now I can’t forget it.

The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope by Jonathan Alter (NF). Not much new information but a thoughtful perspective on leadership in a time of crisis. Writes Alter: FDR had many attributes and methods that in the hands of a different person (Alter mentions Huey Long) would have turned out quite differently. Doesn’t take much imagination to extend the analogy.

Garland Standrod:

A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy (NF). This collection of Mary McCarthy’s insightful and witty essays, including theatre reviews, book reviews, and essays, covers such subjects as Eugene O’Neill, Salinger, and Simone de Beauvoir. 

Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman (NF). This autobiographical book provides insight into how movies scripts are written and how movies are made. Very eye-opening.

Glen Willis:

The Paladin by David Ignatius (F). Hi tech computer hacking with a great spy story as the setting. Page turner for me. Read in two days. I have a lot of time.

If it Bleeds by Stephen King (F). Four short stories with King’s amazing insights into the human psyche.

Haven Kennedy:

Zoey & Sassafras Series by Asia Citro (F). They are a series of books featuring a young girl – Zoey – and her cat, Sassafras. Zoey and her mom have the ability to see magical creatures, they come to the house for help, and Zoey uses the scientific method to help the animals. The books are amazing, and it’s really helped Miriam (age 6) to think about things in a scientific way. She has loved the books and has incorporated them into her daily life, noticing that aphids were eating our bean plants, whereupon she informed me that we needed to get ladybugs – just like Zoey did!


The Seven & Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (F). I read this several months ago, and I loved it. It’s a great melding of sci-fi and mystery, my two favorite genres. The book starts out as a typical English murder mystery, but quickly delves into sci-fi as they days repeat.

Hugh Riddleberger:

Reading Susan Rice’s Tough Love (NF) right now and loving it. Remarkable person. An easy read. And interesting to read what really happened during significant events in our recent history…when we had an administration that acted with intelligence and careful thought. May those days return in November.

Jane Bradley:

The Overstory by Richard Powers (F). These beautifully written stories about different people and the role that trees play in their lives are especially captivating when you learn how some of them are connected in the end.    

Jeff Friedman:

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable (NF). I found this biography to be totally absorbing. In addition to examining Malcolm X and the civil rights movement, the book contains many insights about the dynamics of political and social radicalism that I found relevant to thinking about a very broad range of contemporary issues.

Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective by Space Cowboys (F). I’m kind of pushing it on this one, but I think it counts. A set of extremely detailed and well-crafted choose-your-own adventure novels. (It’s technically a board game, but everything is presented in the form of books.) You explore London to solve mysteries: each one takes a few hours to solve and you can do them with family/friends or by yourself – a very good way to spend an evening during quarantine.

John Diestch:

Highly recommend Michael Beschloss’s Presidents of War (NF), an excellent and wonderfully written study of the use and expansion of presidential power. Who knew that presidential overreach began with the otherwise undistinguished James K. Polk? And guess who was the son of Capt. George Morison, leader of US naval forces during the Gulf of Tonkin incident?

Also recommend The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst (F) or any of his spy novels set in Europe on the eve of World War II. Furst fills his books with attractive characters in murky situations. He has a mordant sense of humor and like his mentor, Georges Simenon, can really describe a meal!

Kate Latts:

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (F). There was a lot of hype around this book at the start of the year, and it did not disappoint. It may not have been 100% accurate in portraying the agonizing plight of the refugees coming to America, but it was compelling, well written, and a great story.

Kathleen Kroos:

The Wedding Gift by Marlen Bodden (HF) – The Wedding Gift is an intimate portrait of slavery and the 19th Century south that will leave readers breathless.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (F) – A little violent with domestic abuse, but it is set in Alaska and keeps your interest from the beginning.

Kathy Camicia:

The Man in the Red Coat by Julian Barnes (NF). This is about a famous painting by Sargent which you have probably seen. The story about the man, Dr. Pozzi, is a history of the times with famous and unforgettable characters. If you like history and culture, this is a fun read by a great author.

Levels of Life by Julian Barnes (NF). This is partly autobiographical and partly history which is how he likes to analyze subjects. His wife died very suddenly. He writes about grief in a most literary and poignant way, and if you ever need to look at grief for understanding, this is the best book I have ever read on the subject.

Kevin Curtin:

Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave by Peter Heller (NF).

Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land by Noe Alvarez (NF).

Land Wayland:

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester (NF)., On August 27, 1883 the volcano island of Krakatoa, Indonesia blew five cubic miles of dirt 12 miles into the air with an explosion heard 3,000 miles away, that utterly flattened or buried all the towns within 20 miles, that generated tsunami waves that circled the globe seven times and killed 30,,000 and whose dust blanket created amazing sunsets and caused the earth’s temperature to drop by two degrees thereby destroying crops everywhere.  The author, a professor of geology at Oxford, details the history of this event with a lucid explanation of the forces that create plate tectonics, the way many kinds of  volcanoes work, the immediate impact of  the largest noise ever heard by human beings (equivalent to more than one billion atomic bombs), and the rebirth of life on this shattered lifeless island.

How the Irish Save Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role From the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Rise of Medieval Europe by  Thomas Cahill (NF). As the Roman Empire began to collapse and withdrew from the British Isles and Northern Europe, this left a void in scholarship in many areas of Western Civilization. With libraries and universities closed and general education greatly reduced, there was a very strong possibility that Western intellectual thought would collapse and very little would be passed on to history. To the surprise of many, Irish Monks under the leadership of St. Patrick set out to copy and thereby save all the books they could find…and they were successful.  This is that story about how significant numbers of important books were preserved and were available to fuel the Renaissance five hundred years later.

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson. (NF). English is spoken by so many because it blends so many languages, but this history creates many mysteries about how this all merged to create the world’s most used language. Bryson has a knack for coming up with the perfect factlet to illustrate a point and keep the exposition lively and informative. As a person captivated by meandering searches through the dictionary and thesaurus, for me this was a 5/5 book all the way.

Larry Makinson:

I never read the original Dracula by Bram Stoker (F) before this year, so it’s not a reread, but it is an oldie but goody which I definitely recommend. Maybe if you call it “Oldies But Goodies,” you can include all those books one meant to read but never had time for, plus the rereads.

Lucy Conboy:

Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (F). I picked up this small book( 270 pages) and could not put it down until I saw the mystery solved. The writers style and views  about life, the privileges of gender,  wealth  and power will give us a great deal to discuss. This book was made into a movie titled Pokot  which was directed by Agnieska Holland. It premiered at the Berlin festival where it won the top award.

Marie Lerner-Sexton:

My Penguin Year: Life Among the Emperors by Lindsay McCrae (NF). British photographer Lindsay McCrae spent a full year in Antarctica documenting a year in the life of an Emperor penguin colony, as well as his own surprisingly action-packed year. The book that came out of his experience is a great read, and his photographs are stunning.

Mary Anonymous:

I’ve been supposed to read Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain (NF) since my college mentor recommended it more than a half a century ago. Now I know why: my mentor and Merton both studied English @ Columbia U. w/ the great teacher/critic/poet Mark Van Doren.  Merton’s book is engrossing enough, but not for everyone.

Rather, I recommend Van Doren’s monograph Shakespeare (NF), a conversationally written book about each play as if the characters were real people and the events just happened last month.

Mary Bardone:

As I look at the books I have read this year, I realize that I found them all on your annual list which usually forms the basis for my readings. I finally got around to reading Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (NF) and A Man called Ove by Frederik Backman (F).

Am now reading American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (F). Although I know it has been panned for being politically incorrect, and she writes in too great a detail about details so I skim that, but the story is interesting and somewhat gripping.

Matt Rechler: 

Long Bright River by Liz Moore (F). The Kensington District of Philadelphia in the early 2000s became an open-air opioid market, with rampant addiction and young women turning tricks to support their habit. Mickey, a single-mother cop, is concerned that her addicted sister Kasey disappeared and may have been killed or overdosed. The special aspect of the novel is how the opioid epidemic totally affects the lives of the entire community.

The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz (F). Billie James left the Mississippi Delta in 1973 at age four with her mother when her black poet father died. She returned to the Delta thirty years later to claim her inheritance, including the shack she had lived in. By interacting with people who remained in the community since 1973, Billie began to understand their complex behavior, ultimately establishing that her father’s death was racial, not an accident.

Melanie Landau:

The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre (NF). Fascinating read if you like cold war type double agent spy intrigue. Carefully detailed and stranger than fiction. True account of Oleg Gordiesky, double agent for M16, working through the KGB.

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker (F). A small college town mysteriously becomes the site of an unknown pandemic (a sleeping sickness). The book was written pre covid 19. It provides an interesting fictional account of coping with a virus of unknown origin.

Nancy Cedar Wilson:

I just finished Louise Erdrich’s latest – The Night Watchman (F) — based on her grandfather’s journals concerning his battle to save the Tribal Rights of the Chippewa Indians in Minnesota, when they were under attack–led by a self-righteous Mormon Senator in the ’50’s. She develops a fascinating cast of characters, well drawn and believable. It’s great read, filled with mystical Indian lore. I highly recommend this book!

The second book I liked, tho not quite as much, was Isabel Allende’s A Long Petal of The Sea — another book of (F) based on actual historical events — the Spanish Revolution and the more recent, too brief, Chilean Revolution. The whole recording of human aspirations turned into war and dashed hopes of social change, as seen through the eyes and lives of a few memorable characters. It was a rewarding read too!

Nick Nyhart:

Two non-fiction books I’ve read over the past two months that I’ve enjoyed very much, though for completely different reasons.

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larsen (NF). It covers the first year of Winston Churchill’s WW II tenure as prime minister of England, when the threat of a German invasion of England loomed large and Luftwaffe bombing raids were a nightly reality across that nation. The book details Churchill’s leadership and family life during that period (who knew he fancied pink PJ’s), with compelling storytelling that easily pulled me through its 500 pages, night after night.. It’s an example of charismatic leadership that put country first at a time of existential crisis.

Election Meltdown by top election scholar Rick Hasen (NF). It’s spare – not too much more than 100 pages. Written before the pandemic, it details the fragility of how America administers elections, predicting the likely failure points of our system if subject to stress. If horror stories keep you up at night, read it during daytime as we tick down the days to November’s vote.

Phoebe Goodman:

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (F). The movie was awful – the book was great!

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (F) – although this one is heavy (they both are) so perhaps wait till things don’t feel so grim.

Randy Candea:

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates (F).

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (F).

Richard Miller:

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kokler (NF). I posted a longer than three line review of this absorbing book on the MillersTime website. Click on the title above to read that post.

Inge’s War: A German Woman and Story of Family, Secrets &
Survival under Hitler
by Svenga O’Donnell (NF). Ellen has written above about this engrossing book. What sets it apart from other books about this period that many of us have read is that its author is not Jewish but is German, and her discovery of her family’s story is captivating. So far, my favorite read (audible) of the year.

Robin Rice:

My contribution for this month’s book is, again, Mink River by Brian Doyle (F). I’m a couple days into a re-read and am enthralled yet again, this magic place of words, a perfect balm for these reflective days. 

I’m also re-reading David McCullough’s John Adams (NF)…important, gripping history dolled out in McCullough’s gift for telling a a fine story. (Ed. note: MucCullough received a Puliter Prize for this biography.)

Romana Campos:

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (F). It’s about a young girl growing up in isolation in the marshes off the coast of North Carolina. She learns to survive by observing how the wildlife survive, and she is seen as an outcast and odd girl, although a natural beauty, so she catches the eye of several men and that’s where the plot thickens. I read this while on vacation in Costa Rica, and I could hardly put it down.

Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard by Douglas Tallamy (NF). Basic premise of the book: the combined acreage of the National Parks totals about 20 Million; our combined lawns take up 40 million acres; why not convert lawns to conservation corridors and wildlife habitats? It’s so easy to be pessimistic about climate change and our declining ecosystem, but here are some practical things we can do and Chapters 10 and 11 have lots of good details and suggestions. Right now, this is the best book, in my humble opinion (as a Master Naturalist and Tree Steward), of practical conservation that’s doable.

Sal Giambanco:

De Gaulle by Julian T. Jackson (NF) This biography of Charles De Gaulle is
truly fantastic.

Sam Black:

What Shamu Taught Me about Life, Love and Marriage by Amy Sutherland (NF). What contemporary techniques for training other animals tell us about dealing with dealing with adult humans. Funny, short and insightful.   

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright (NF). A masterpiece, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A history of al-Qaeda to 9/11.  Among many high points, the book recounts the uses of religion to justify mass murder, mass attacks on civilians of all faiths, and genocide. A grippingly reported narrative; indispensable.

Stan Kessler:

Essays in Ethics by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (NF).  Our Rabbi, who is from England, gave it (to me). and I’m reading it as if it was a piece of chocolate cake… but dieting– slowly and savoring each bite. 

The Rabbi by Rabbi Telushin (NF). He came to NO Chabad and was a great speaker. Reads quickly.

Suzanne Stier:

Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom (NF). It’s non-fiction and sort of but not quite social science. Fascinating.

When God Had a Wife: The Fall and Rise of the Sacred Feminine in the Judeo-Christian Tradition by Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince (NF).

Ted Goodwin:

God Save Texas by Lawrence Wright (NF). I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tom Perrault:

Less by Andrew Sean Greer (F). It’s a book about a 50 year old, white gay man living in my neighborhood in SF. I mean, perfect for me right? And I did enjoy it. It was only after that I recalled it won the Pulitzer Prize and that I didn’t really understand. Enjoyable book; not earth shattering enough to win such a monumental prize. Huh.

Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irb (NF). She’s kind of a “literally thing” these days, and I enjoyed her latest, best-selling collection of essays. Super raw and honest and funny. Again, not earth shattering, but I was always happy to return to the book.


*** *** *** ***

Previous Favorite Reads:

Favorites from Mid-Year 2019.

Favorites Dec. 2019.

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The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2018

29 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

"Books Most Enjoyed By MillersTime Readers", Books, Fiction, Nonfiction, Reading

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” – A. Lincoln

This list of favorite reads is comprised of the books most enjoyed in 2018 by 71 adults and five children. Forty-one of them (suggested by thirty-one people) are now on my ‘to read’ list for 2019. (The only way I can read that many, along with other books that will no doubt come to my attention throughout the year, is to fulfill a long considered ‘plan’ of spending a winter in Alaska in front of a fire place. Please don’t mention this to Ellen.)

For the first time since compiling this list (10 years ago!) nonfiction leads the fiction 53% to 47%. Last year those percentages were reversed, and I’m not sure what accounts for the change (aging contributors?). Our youngest participant is almost 18 month’s old; the oldest is approaching the century mark. The rest of you are mostly between the ages of 35- 75. Fifty-five percent of you are women; forty-five percent are men.

While I don’t expect all 76 of you will read all the way through this list (though anyone who does can claim it as a favorite book for next year, assuming you are delighted by the list), know that there is a tremendous amount of information here. Thus, I’ve organized it in several ways, hopefully to make it user friendly:

Section I. The most frequently cited titles (three or more times) are listed first.

Section II. Next, the contributors are listed alphabetically by first name — to make it easy if you are looking for the favorites of someone you know — with the titles and authors next, and then any comments made about those books.

Section III. Finally, there are also two spread sheet lists (see links below) included as easy, searchable references for you to see the titles, authors, and MillersTime contributors in summary form:

List#1 – Organized Alphabetically by Book Titles – fiction precedes nonfiction

List #2 – Organized Alphabetically by Contributors’ Names – fiction precedes nonfiction

I. Titles That Appear on the Favorites’ List Three Times or More:

Fiction (F):

  • Beartown by Fredrik Backman
  • Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
  • Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
  • Love and Ruin by Paula McClain
  • The Overstory by Richard Powers
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
  • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
  • The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
  • Transcription by Kate Atkinson
  • Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

Nonfiction

  • American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • Beneath a Ruthless Sun by Gilbert King
  • Educated by Tara Westover
  • Heartland by Sarah Smarsh
  • Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
  • Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
  • Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
  • Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Hochschild
  • The Bad-Ass Librarian of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer
  • The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
  • When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
  • Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas

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Calling for Favorite Reads in 2017

30 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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Audible Books, Books, Bools Most Enjoyed This Year, Fiction, MillersTime Readers Favorite Books, Nonfiction


“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

It’s that time of year again — when I request you share with other readers of MillersTime your most favorite books read over the past 12 months.

Here are a few guidelines that may help in drawing your list and in making my compilation easier:

*When I ask for your Most Favorite Reads of 2017, I’m seeking fiction and/or nonfiction books that stood out for you above all you’ve read in the past year. What have been the most enjoyable, the most important, the most thought provoking, the best written, the ones you may go back and read again, the ones you reread this year, and/or the ones you have suggested others read?

* You are welcome to send just one title or as many as are truly favorite reads.

* In order to make my work less cumbersome, please do the following:

* List the title, the author, and indicate whether it is fiction (F) or nonfiction (NF).

* I, and most MillersTime readers, seem particularly interested in why a particular book made it to your list this year. Please write a sentence or two, or more, about why each particular book was a favorite for you this year.

* Don’t be concerned about whether others will have the same book(s) on their lists. If we get a number of similar titles, that’s just an indication of the power of a particular book/author.

* Your books do not have to be ones that were written and/or published in 2017, just ones that you read over the past year. If you participated this year in sending titles of books you enjoyed in the first half of 2017, feel free to include one or more of those if they make it to your list of most favorites in 2017.

*If you have listened to a book(s) in one of the various audio formats, Books on Tape, CDs, Audible, etc., and if they meet your definition of books “you’ve enjoyed the most in 2017,” please include those on your list also, This is in addition to the ones you (may) have listed. Be sure to identify which ‘books’ on your list were ones you enjoyed audibly.

* Send me your list in an email (Samesty84@gmail.com) by Dec. 17th  so I will be able to post the entire list at the end of the year. (If you send me your list sooner, you may be able to avoid my constant email reminders to do so.)

To see previous years’ lists, click on any of these links: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. 2016.

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Inspired by Your Favorite Books…

25 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Audible Books, Books, Fiction, Goodreads, Nonfiction

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never read”- A. Lincoln

Each year I identify at least 12 books to add to my ‘to read’ list from the annual Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers. I generally split them between fiction and nonfiction. Some I choose because several of you have suggested them, some because of the description a reader has written, and some because of the topic (often something I might never have chosen on my own).

The twelve for 2017 (plus two audible books for the treadmill)

Fiction:

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

2nd Person Singular by Sayed Kashua (suggested by the oldest contributor to the list – 95 years old).

Between Riverside & Crazy (a play) by Stephen Adly Giurgis

Nonfiction:

I Will Bear Witness by Victor Kemperer

Strangers in Their Own Land by Allie Russell Hochschild

The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward E. Baptist

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

White Mountain: Real & Imagined Journeys in the Himalayas by Robert Twigger

I Survived Series by Lauren Tarshis (suggested by the youngest contributor, now eight years old).

Audible Books:

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

PS:

To date I have kept my New Year’s resolution to put books I have read on Goodreads as soon as I’ve completed them. Also, as a backup, I am keeping a list of books read in “Notes” on my computer, along with a few sentences on each as I’m continuing to suffer from CRS.

So far in January, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and can highly recommend The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough, The North Water by Ian McGuire, War & Turpentine by Stefan Heretmans, Do Not Say That We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thiel, The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar, and Moonglow by Michael Chabon.

Finally, I’d love to know how various readers have used the annual favorites’ list. Have you chosen books from it, and if so, what makes you chose those particular ones? You can leave a note in the Comments’ section of this post or let me know in an email: Samesty84@gmail.com.

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