If you believe Goodreads, I read 164 books this year.
Now, in fairness, there’s some fuzz here. A few of those were very short; a few were re-reads of books I’d previously read. I probably missed a few physical books that I forgot to log. There are definitely a few that I previously finished on Kindle, but where the Kindle app didn’t update the “finished on” date properly. I’ll apply a generous 10% discount and call it 150 books for the year.
In past years I might’ve listed them all and included links to them on Amazon. Sorry, not doing that this year; it’s too much work. But I also didn’t want to abandon my tradition of doing an end-of-the-year book list, so this post is a low-effort compromise.
My top books:
- “Do Hard Things” by running coach Steve Magness. Terrific meditation on what it means to be “tough,” and how to develop real resilience and grit.
- “A Hostage to Fortune,” Ernest Gann’s memoir. I love Gann’s writing style, and looking back on his career as a pilot, author, and general hell-raiser was really eye-opening.
- “Alone at Dawn,” the story of how John Chapman won the Medal of Honor as a USAF pararescueman. A stirring story that drives home just how little most of us know about what the women and men who serve in our military may be asked to do and endure in our names.
- “Everybody Knows” by Jordan Harper. After last year’s “The Last King of California” (also terrific, also a book I read this year) and 2021’s “She Rides Shotgun,” I was expecting this noir story of corruption in Hollywood to pack a punch, but wow!
- “Magic City Blues,” another noir, but this one set in exotic… Birmingham, Alabama.
- “American Sirens,” the almost completely unknown story of the first ambulance service in the US… built and staffed by African-Americans in Pittsburgh.
- “All the Sinners Bleed,” by S.A. Cosby. Cosby is an automatic must-read for me. Read this and you’ll see why.
- “Red Team Blues,” a science-fiction-ish novel about a retired guy who gets dragged back into… forensic accounting. I think I’d like Cory Doctorow, the author, if we sat down for a beer, but some of his books have had a preachy tone I don’t care for. This one, thankfully, didn’t. I’m eagerly awaiting “The Bezzle,” the planned-for-2024 sequel featuring the same protagonist.
- “Never Mind, We’ll Do It Ourselves,” a recap of how a CIA case officer and a USAF desk jockey more or less dragged the US into developing an armed drone capability. Funny story that doesn’t obscure the fundamental change in tactics thus introduced.
- “Moscow X,” David McCloskey’s superb sequel to “Damascus Station,” one of my favorites from last year. No one does spy fiction any better than McCloskey.
- Jean-Louis Gassée’s memoir, “Grateful Geek.” If you were around Apple products in the 1980s onwards, you may recognize his name; even if you don’t his insight and perspective on the tech industry, plus his skill as a raconteur, makes this well worth reading.
I’m not going to do a list of my bottom books; that would be rude. I will mention finishing, and being disappointed in, a few that I’d hoped would be better: Eli Cranor’s “Don’t Know Tough” (but his second book, “Ozark Dogs,” was terrific!), Mick Ryan’s “White Sun War,” Martin Cruz Smith’s “Independence Square,” and Claire North’s “The Fifteen Lives of Harry August” (probably the book I most regret having spent time on this year)
This year I also chose not to finish a whole bunch of books, including “This is How You Lose the Time War,” “Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks,” “The Killing Moon,” and “The Facemaker” (about the invention of reconstructive plastic surgery in World War I… just too gross.)
Onwards!
Paul's Down-Home Page 