Here is a random walk through some of the books that I have read and enjoyed this year. It’s not everything that I read merely some of the books that I wanted to bring to your attention. I don’t aspire to judge the absolute artistic merits of these books, this is my list based on my taste.
History
I always read a lot of history books covering a broad span of time. I finally got around to finishing Peter Brown’s masterpiece, “The World of Late Antiquity”. It is a brilliant book that describes the later stages of the Roman Empire and the transition to a post-Roman world. Much of what we all learned about the sacking of Rome and the coming of the Dark Ages was wrong. Brown is an excellent author and brilliant scholar.
I am usually a big fan of Erik Larson but for some reason I hadn’t been looking forward to Demon of Unrest . The reviews were just OK and I might have been a little bit burned out on the American Civil War. But in the end, the book was excellent. It captures the early days of the conflict when we stumbled towards disaster. It was particularly striking that the representatives from South Carolina just thought that they could go up to Washington and work out an agreement to leave the Union and take over the federal forts. Obviously a tragic miscalculation.
I enjoy personal travel narratives and one of the most interesting ones from this year was Travels with George by Nathaniel Philbrick, The author and his wife retraced a journey that Washington made in the first years of his presidency. we now take travel for granted. But in the earliest days of the republic there were few roads, almost no hotels, and not even good knowledge about the routes. Philbrick goes back and forth from Washington’s journeys to his own. It’s a great narrative. This is in the same vein as the Rinker Buck books “Oregon Trail” and “Life on the Mississippi ‘ that I have mentioned previously.
While not technically “books”, I took advantage of three Great Courses on Audible. These courses are serious academic endeavors taught by professors from major universities. Each course lasts from 12 to 18 hours. One of the courses was another dive into late antiquity , another addressed the fall of the pagans and the rise of institutional Christianity, and the third was a deep dive into what we can legitimately know about Jesus as a historical figure. The last was particularly fascinating. The professor developed a structure for decoding scriptures. One shocking insight, was that the census of everyone in the Roman Empire that’s featured in Christmas pageants around the world, couldn’t have happened. The Romans kept good records. A global census would have been noteworthy. But it is never mentioned in any official record. These courses were part of my ongoing fascination with the rise of Christianity from a small obscure sect to the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Mary Beard is a great author about Roman history and a charming presenter on the BBC. Her book Emperor of Rome is a really fresh take on (not surprisingly) the men who were emperors. What makes this book interesting is that Beard doesn’t just present list of who came when or who killed whom. She analyzes what powers and responsibilities the emperors really had. She also debunks many of the juicy but inaccurate stories about the emperors.
Mystery
I devour mystery books and love long running series. One of my more recent favorites is the Cal Claxton series by Warren Easley. This year’s entry “Deadly Redemption” was especially strong. Claxton is an attorney and occasional investigator who has relocated from Los Angeles to the Willamette wine country. These books are well written with fully developed characters. No cartoon supermen.
This year, three extensive series developed in interesting ways—two that I liked, one that I didn’t, Daniel Silva has done a great job of letting his hero, Gabriel Allon, grow older and mature in Death In Cornwall. The young gunman of the Wrath of God, is now a married man, father and art restorer. The book is still thrilling but it remains credible. Similarly, I appreciate how Michael Connelly has cultivated Harry Bosch in The Waiting. Harry is older, struggling with cancer and depending more and more on his occasional partner Renee Ballard and his daughter Maddie. This is an excellent installment. I am losing patience with Preston and Childs and their Pendergast series. Their last installment just stopped abruptly and they said “oops we’ll get back to you.” The current book, Angel of Vengeance, is all about a time machine and the occult. They’ve wandered a long way from the roots of the series.
One of the surprises and delights of this year was Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto. This book was a hoot. A feisty 60-something Chinese woman, takes it upon herself to solve a murder and also take over the lives of everyone who comes within range.
As always, Richard Osman entertains. His Thursday Murder Club series is up to four installments with a TV show coming soon. But his new series “We Solve Murders” got off to a great start. Interesting characters and clever plot twists.
I have also enjoyed the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. She’s a twelve year old chemist and detective in England after World War 2. These books are mysteries but character-driven mysteries.
And finally…
A trip to Alaska this summer, caused me to revisit Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer. The book is a compendium of stories written for Outside magazine. Krakauer is a phenomenal writer who handles action and humor equally well. He has a great eye and ear for the characters that one meets in the mountains and the wilderness.
And finally, Varina Palladino’s Jersey Italian Love Story by Terry-Lynne DeFino. My former wife, Joan, found this book and I am grateful. It’s a family story about a widow who’s lived in the same house and run the same grocery story for decades. But of course, changes come to her and her whole family. But for me, the priceless part of this book is the glossary of southern Italian slang that starts each chapter. Even though I have taken Italian weekly for the past five years, we never cover any of these expressions that I grew up hearing in my mother’s family.