Thirty-three books - not a bad tally for 2021, when I took off across the Plains and Mountain West, struggled with work and struggled to start any book in November and December (some that do not appear on this list were checked out and returned - maybe someday they make the list).
A Long Way from Home, Tom Brokaw
Full disclosure – I found this in a thrift store in December, and finished it a few weeks before Brokaw announced his retirement. The longtime NBC News fixture recounts South Dakota childhood and how his view of the world as a reporter sprouted from the family’s roots there. Brokaw doesn’t scrimp from hard subjects like white settlers on former Native American lands and how their treatment impacts Native lives to this day.
Office of Historical Corrections, Danielle Evans
In the novella that gives this Evans collection its title, an organization devoted to correcting and clarifying American history runs into a sign in rural Wisconsin, with two women who have been competitive since childhood trying to unwind a mystery of a Black man supposedly killed by an angry mob torching his tannery. White supremacists and other twists drive the plot as Cassie, our narrator, always feels as if she runs second to Genevieve. The night before a Midwestern wedding, everything runs awry in Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain. An unexpected Confederate flag bikini photo goes viral, and its wearer contends with the fallout in her college dorm and beyond (Boys Go to Jupiter). A girl starting over thanks to serving as a drug courier winds up with a toddler abandoned by his mother on a cross-country bus (Anything Could Disappear). A trip to Alcatraz in an attempt to clear an ancestor’s name cannot build nonexistent ties between branches of a family. This is the second Evans collection I read in a few months, and these stories resonate as strongly as the first batch.
Defending Jacob, William Landay
A book club pick, the book is mostly a monologue, the father recalling how his son ended up as the prime suspect in murder of another student. The father must explore his own background, whether murder runs in the family and the imprisoned father he has never mentioned to his wife. Lots of slippery slopes, and our characters find them all. When the twists drop, they won’t be the expected ones.
The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones
A hunting trip involving four Blackfeet Indians goes terribly wrong, and mythic spirit of vengeance follows the men as the 10th anniversary looms. Jones weaves issues of contemporary reservation life while attempting to preserve tradition and escape the trappings of alcoholism, poverty and drug addiction that run deep in some tribal communities.
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, Sarah Vowell
If you’re looking for a book about the Frenchman who joined up with the Continental Army, you should look elsewhere. This is at many times feels like Sarah and the Book that’s Somewhat about Lafayette. There are other interesting characters like Major General von Steuben, the Prussian soldier who was instrumental in training Continental soldiers, and who was likely gay. As a whole, the book felt like an idea that was too thin for a full book, which led to a fair amount of filler.
Cary Grant was an invention of Archie Leach, but over time the line between Grant and Leach blurred to nonexistence. Eyman’s bio digs deep on the famously guarded Grant. But he explains a lot of the questions that surround Grant – he turned down numerous roles that could have won him the elusive competitive Oscar but he conservatively stuck to his wheelhouse (Roman Holiday A Star is Born, Bridge on the River Kwai, The Third Man and more, plus James Bond and Phillip Marlowe). Eyman also delves into the rumors of Grant’s possibly homosexuality or bisexuality, his many long friendships and his use of LSD before it was outlawed. Grant remains hard to know, but that mystique keeps him relevant 50 years after his retirement and 35 after his death.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
Maybe the most touching book I read this year. Another Goodwill find, I was entranced by this short book that delved into the stark differences between childhood and adulthood, as his narrator befriends a group of odd women on their street and faces down existential horrors. What a blow to find the narrator regularly comes back to visit the house and the pond where his friend disappeared, only to forget as soon as he leaves.
Agent Sonya: Moscow’s Most Daring Wartime Spy, Ben MacIntyre
Sonya, code-name for one of the Soviet’s most successful spies from the 1930s to 50s, was a German Jew who married into a family of Communist intellectuals as the Nazis were gaining influence across Germany. She goes from Shanghai to Switzerland to Britain and recruits people to her cause, including the agents who smuggle the atomic bomb plans to the Soviets. Even though we know she survives, there is constant tension, as Ursula
comes so close to discovery many times, the closest due to a stunning
betrayal in Switzerland.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein
There’s the magnificent story of the figlie, female orphans who formed magnificent musical troupe at the beginnings of classical music.
The Committed, Viet Thanh Nguyen
The nameless narrator of The Sympathizer returns as a refugee in Paris in the early 1980s, still a double agent and now plying his trade for Asian gangsters while trying to rebuild his life through numerous side-hustles. He also plots revenge on the masked man who arrives at the Vietnamese embassy – his onetime friend and the man who tortured him brutally in a reeducation camp. If you read the first book, the sequel cannot be skipped.
Beartown, Fredrick Backman
Teenage hockey overwhelms the lives of Beartown. The novel spans the rise and fall of the declining town’s club hockey team, with all eyes on its star players. Then a terrible incident splits the team and the town.
Outlawed, Anna North
This feminist Western take a far different road to the formation of an outlaw community in the Rocky Mountains that conducts raids and robberies to sustain its small party during the winters. This is a community of refugees, of woman chased from their homes on accusations of witchcraft, inability to have children or being forced to masquerade as men to hide their identities.
Dog of the South, Charles Portis
Ray Midge’s wife and her ex-husband Dupree disappear in Ray’s car and with his credit cards. He tracks through Mexico, trying to shake a bail bondsman and picking up the peculiar Dr. Reo Symes, whose broke-down bus gives the novel its name. Symes is an eccentric, and Ray struggles to keep composure with him. Ray and Symes head onto Belize, where Symes wants to acquire rights to an island in Louisiana that his mother owns. Ray confronts Dupree and a hurricane hits the town. There are tragic moments that befit a black comedy of this caliber. The ending is pitch perfect – a return to Little Rock, and the jumping off for another road story that Ray decides isn’t worth the trouble.
A lot of this territory has been covered in sci-fi, but Ishiguro makes the subject of artificial beings his own. His use of first-person drives the narrative - in this case we follow the viewpoint of Klara, an Artificial Friend we first meet in a showroom waiting to go home to a family. Klara is solar-powered and views the sun as a benevolent god capable of divine intervention. She sees other machines as pollution-spewers. Ishiguro tackles big themes of existence, consciousness, love and whether what makes human is transferable. Klara might be a machine, but you will find her insights enlightening and heartening. There are shades of other issues, such as children being genetically enhanced and the dystopia with origins in our own world. As always, he brings his books to a heart-aching conclusion.
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, David Treuer
Treuer tackles the tendency to assign the massacre at Wounded Knee as an endpoint in Native American history. Treuer dives into Native American life after the Wounded Knee Massacre, an event that has served as an unofficial end of Native American history for more than a century. A surprisingly fast read. Treuer covers a lot of ground, touching on events and actions that have influenced tribes across the country, from the rise of casinos to the American Indian Movement to the subtler attempts to wipe out Native culture following Wounded Knee. The book is also recent enough to cover the Standing Rock pipeline protests, which could emerge as the latest flashpoint for Native Americans.
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, Candice Millard
Roosevelt's ill-advised journey down an unexplored river in South America is ripe for retelling. The expedition commander, Col. Rondon, might be the more interesting figure, as Roosevelt often comes off as someone trying to recapture past glory when he's no longer up to the task. The author wisely devotes a fair amount of time to Rondon and the complexities of traveling South American rain forest.
Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975, Richard Thompson
One of the most literary folk-rock musicians of the past half-century finally puts his story down. It's a short book and while full of insights and interesting stories, I found myself wishing for more of it. Thompson focuses on his Fairport Convention years and subsequent career with ex-wife Linda.
Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet, son of William Shakespeare, barely figures in the book named for him. Agnes Hathaway, the future Mrs. Shakespeare, is the dominant force, and I almost wish the book focused even more on her. But the title forces it to end where it does. Most characters are pretty thinly sketched due to lack of historical information, but Shakespeare's father John comes across as a particularly awful man, threatening to strangle his son should other pregnant women turn up around Stratford-upon-Avon. But a worthy read for how O'Farrell constructed it. I wish the magical realism ran a little wilder.
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
Not that I needed another pandemic book right after Hamnet, but Mandel delivers a society- crushing pandemic much more severe than COVID-19. Since it involves Shakespeare and the new plague, Mandel of course explains the story of Hamnet and his death during the plague, then his father’s play using a name interchangeable with that of his dead son. The connections between the characters emerge as we bounce between the start of the pandemic and 15 years later, when a symphony/theater troupe combination caravans across the encampments of survivors across the Great Lakes states. We keep returning to a night of King Lear as the pandemic began to roar, a moment when several of our main characters first intersect, and gives us unexpected insight into a prophet who rises in the years after society's collapse.
The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, Don Robertson
Robertson drops you onto the East Side of Cleveland circa 1944. The accident in question is described with meticulous detail, gathering all the people immediately impact. I grew a little tired of Morris Bond III constantly being referred by his full name, but that is a minor quibble. Would have like a little more development of the friendship that drove Morris Bond III to load a wagon and head across the East Side. The addition of his sister was perfect. A worthy look at my home city in a different time.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino
Meant for Tarantino fans only, the book takes a number of paths the film does not. Cliff Booth is much more fleshed out, with many mysteries answered (including that huge one) and plenty of superfluous details along for the ride - can't say I needed Cliff's list of favorite Kurosawa films. But we get into the heads of both Cliff and Rick, with many things only hinted at filling out the novelization.
Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
A book club read, I soured on Bourdain due to his live show (too many Guy Fieri jokes, not enough globetrotting food stories), not Parts Unknown. But the book is instructive. A lot of people don't like the work that makes that famous. But in his case, I see the issues. There's a giant chapter near the end devoted to kitchen slang, and that would have been useful earlier or as an appendix. But it is instructive to see the path he charts from a guy who has no use for Italian food to explorer of cuisines worldwide. The penultimate chapter is his first trip to Japan, and I thought it was one of the most important for who he would become through the rest of his career. Definitely a complicated guy. I never worked in a kitchen (factories,, yes, food service, no), so I enjoyed seeing all that happens before the meal reaches the customer. In some ways, it makes one consider eating out again, and definitely never touching those Monday fish specials.
Whose Names are Unknown, Sanora Babb
This title could very apply to its author's life. Few authors had the bad luck of Sanora Babb. Writing based on her experience with Oklahoma farmers who lost their farms to the Dust Bowl and ended up in the California farm fields, she ran into The Grapes of Wrath, leaving her book unreleased until the 21st century. A strong book that definitely covers much of the same ground as Steinbeck's book (they used the same resources), it's worth reading on its own merits.
The Saga of Billy the Kid, Walter Noble Burns
Written nearly a century ago, Burns' chronicle of the legendary outlaw includes firsthand recollections from many people who encountered the kid in his short life. The author also sets the backdrop that allowed by someone like Billy the Kid to grow infamous in just five years in New Mexico. The story of Billy the Kid is necessarily interwoven with those of the Lincoln County cattle barons and Pat Garrett, a one-time ally who became sheriff and eventually hunted down The Kid. It definitely feels like it was written in a different era, but the book is better for that feel.
The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
What if prior to death, you landed at a library with infinite books, all branches your life could have taken and did not? At 35, Nora lands here after decided upon suicide as her life’s slow crumbling becomes an avalanche. But she finds the lives she might have pursued have tangents and twists that don’t necessarily make them better options. Another novel full of possibilities by Matt Haig, who tweaks every universe enough that we never tire of Nora’s quest for a better path not taken.
The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion,
Elliot Brown and Maureen Farrell
Journalistic take on WeWork, the company whose idealistic founder, Adam Neumann, was convinced was going to change the world, even as the world gradually realized it was not the technology company it professed to be and essentially a real estate company. Obviously many of the people involved are not talking, but it's a good introduction into the piles of money thrown around by banks and private equity in hopes of finding the next Amazon among the myriad startups touting themselves as more than what they actually are. Neumann stands at the center of it all, becoming a figure who mingles with the upper echelons of the financial world, consumed by ego and globe-trotting, only to see those backers abandon him when it grows apparent WeWork excelled at raising money and not much else.
Gloryland, Sheldon Johnson
The National Park ranger featured prominently in Ken Burns’ National Parks documentary gives us a compelling story about an African-American man born at the stroke of Emancipation who flees a still-brutal existence in South Carolina and cross the country to Nebraska where he begins a military career. Buffalo soldiers were key figures in guarding the treasures of the first national parks, and we see that in Elijah Yancy’s journey across the West.
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family, Robert Kolker
The story of a family with 12 children – first 10 boys, then two girls – might entertaining enough on its own. But when six of the boys exhibit delusions and several schizophrenia as they age. There’s violence, abuse among the children, and life is even harder on the two girls born after 10 brothers. The story is painfully riveting. Answers are fleeting, but the Galvin family has been crucial in advancing research on schizophrenia and other behavioral health diseases.
Most of the action takes place in the city where I live, and I can point to places where many of the incidents occurred. HVR is 10 miles away, nestled near the U.S. Air Force Academy, where family patriarch Don Galvin worked and whose love of falconry supposed give rise to the academy’s mascot. Much of the family still lives around here. I had no trouble picturing any of it.
Matrix, Lauren Groff
Lauren Groff delivers the book I didn't know I needed about Marie, a young girl exiled by Eleanor of Aquitaine to a decrepit abbey, who turns into an enviable place for the women who inhabit it. Marie de France, the earliest known female poet of the Middle Ages, comes to life in Groff’s riveting fiction, delivers the book I didn't know I needed about Marie, a bastard girl exiled by Eleanor of Aquitaine to a decrepit abbey, who turns into an enviable place for the women who inhabit it, a feminist utopia that draws the ire of the English crown and the church.
My Heart is a Chainsaw, Stephen Graham Jones
Native teen Jade Daniels lives in a rural Idaho town and has encyclopedic knowledge of slasher films, leading her to believe a slasher has set up shop in the town of Proofrock. She identifies the likely final girl, the daughter of one of the people gentrifying the town through a new, exclusive development across Indian Lake. But the slasher's bloody path through town will take twists that even Jade could not predict. The pace grows intense over the last 100 pages, with every last obstacle introduced earlier in the book returning with a vengeance.
Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood, Danny Trejo (with Donal Logue)
The venerable character actor digs in deep and talks about the impact of crime and addiction on his life and those of his family and children. There's much more focus on that than on his acting career. The most memorable moment might be when his mother dies while he is on a film set, and what it takes for him to finally feel the emotion. The whole book feels like it's in Trejo's voice, although fellow character actor Donal Logue is listed as a collaborator.
Why Fish Don’t Exist, Lulu Miller
The convoluted story of David Starr Jordan hits Miller at a low point in her life. The inspiration she finds gradually turns to revulsion as Jordan’s questionable actions and hideous beliefs come to light.
Wishin’ and Hopin’, Wally Lamb
Short, light-hearted book about holidays in the early 1960s Catholic school in Hartford, Conn. The celebrity cameos are organic, the Christmas pageant turns into a disaster and the eighth grade feels a lot more bearable than it was for most of us.
The Lincoln Highway,
Amor Towles
If you’re expecting an On the Road riff with criminals and a young boy, guess again. While the first transcontinental road figures prominently in the story, much of the action takes place in other settings, from rural Nebraska to train cars to hidden corners of 1950s New York City to its climax in an upstate summer house. Narration shifts at times, but the ending of the book solidifies who are true POV character was. Parts of the book did feel like George and Lenny from Of Mice and Men meet On the Road but Lincoln Highway really comes into its own in the last 100 pages. Keeping it anchored is Billy, the idealistic younger brother of Emmett, recently paroled only to find two fellow inmates (Duchess and Woolly) escaped and want him to pursue a fortune with them. Billy’s naivete almost gets him killed at times, with some unexpected assists from a Black man named Ulysses, who wanders the rails in search of his family. All the characters are well-rounded. To my surprise, the time spent in 1950s NYC was well-structured, including a surprise visit to the Empire State Building where Billy meets a personal hero, the professor who authored the book of heroes and travelers that Billy holds dear. So much was left unsettled I expected a sequel, one I will undoubtedly plow into.
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