Books-2023

A list of books I've read this year.

The rating system:

1 star = Didn't finish it
2 stars = Finished it but can't really recommend it
3 stars = Good book - recommended - you can have my copy
4 stars = Really good book - you absolutely should read it
5 stars = A classic, keeping it for the library

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
Rating= ****

My first book of the year was a real banger. I stayed up past midnight twice, and to 1 AM on the third night, to finish it. The book is centered around the NYPL and a cartographer trying to unravel the mystery of why somebody is killing over a cheap foldout gas station map. It's a mystery thriller with a fantasy element, while also asking some deeper questions about what maps are for, and if a place actually exists if there is no map to get there.

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
Rating= ***

Writer John Green's adapted podcast essays in written form. It was very much like reading a well-written blog. Many of the essays were clearly written during the pandemic lock down and reflect the stress and lack of clarity about the future that we all experienced. The subject matter ranges from his struggles with depression and OCD to much more lighthearted takes on Diet Dr. Pepper and Scratch 'n' Sniff stickers.

Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard by Joan Strassmann
Rating = ****

This was really interesting. It's one chapter per bird, focusing on common backyard birds. The author is advocating for really getting to know your local birds, and not driving all day because somebody saw something rare 500 miles away.

The Measure: A Novel by Nikki Erlick
Rating = ****

Read this in 3 nights, staying up too late each night. So that tells you what you need to know. The story takes place in a modern day NYC in a timeline in which every single person gets a mysterious box at the same time that contains a string that is the measure of your life. The book follows 8 people as they deal with the knowledge that they'll live to 80, or will die in the next year. It also gets into questions such as it selfish to marry and have children at 30 if you know you will die at 42, and how do you marry somebody that will die in the 12th year of your marriage. A really entertaining story that also makes you think. Win-win.

A History of the World in Six Glasses by Thomas Standage
Rating= ***

A high level survey of human civilization, viewed through the lens of how beer, wine, liquor, coffee, tea, and Coca-cola have impacted human civilization. I learned some stuff, like how New England was a rum distilling boom town in colonial times, and how they used the rum as payment for slaves. Also learned how a whiskey tax almost started a civil war 100 years before the actual civil war. Not an academic history book by any measure, but entertaining to read.

The Answer Is... by Alex Trebek
Rating = ***

Trebek resisted writing an autobiography through his entire career, finally relenting after he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. What resulted is more a series of blog posts in book form, with no chapter more than 2 or 3 pages long. Given the length of his career he could have easily done 500 entertaining pages just covering Jeopardy. It's entertaining, and we get it right from Alex that Celebrity Jeopardy is easier, to protect fragile star egos. We also learn that he is not a fan of the current strategy of going big early. But given how we all feel about Trebek, I feel a little let down that we never got an in-depth autobiography from him.

Walking the Nile by Levinson Wood
Rating = ***

Who among us hasn't thought about walking from the source of the Nile River in Rwanda all the way to the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt? Along he way he dodges civil war, receives amazing amounts of hospitality from people all across Africa, and also writes a lot about the history of the areas he traverses. It's not a day-by-day account of the trip, as that book would probably be 1000 pages.

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
Rating = *

I'm taking a break. I have not been able to get into her story.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Rating = ***

Much like her first novel, this book touches on time travel, pandemics, and connections across time. Unlike Station 11, people think this ending is too neatly tied up. If you are not paying attention, you can read Sea of Tranquility and miss the point. Her prose is so enjoyable to read that it's easy to just enjoy ingesting the words without thinking too much about them. Most critics prefer this to Station 11, but I enjoyed Station 11 more. I think that is because the point was a little more obvious in Station 11. But both books are good.

Alone by Megan Freeman
Rating = ****

This YA novel , written in entirely in free verse, was a very fun read. I completed it in two nights. A lot of people probably think that a 12 year old surviving alone in a Denver suburb for 2+ years is improbable. I think the set up for the story, the US Government evacuating an entire city or maybe even state in one night is way more improbable.

Sub Rosa by Auden Lly
Rating = ****

I really enjoyed this modern fairy tale set in a NC mountain town. Grad student Loren moves in with her Grandmother while she does some field work in the woods near town. Then she ends up unconscious under a dead body with no memory of what happened, and her grandmother breaks the news that her family is subject to a curse that makes fairy tales real for them. The story takes a very dark turn about the middle of the book, before wrapping it all up in an apparently happy ending, the way all fairy tales have to end.

The Man Who Walked Through Time by Colin Fletcher
Rating = **

Colin walked the entire length of Grand Canyon National Park in 1963, the first person known to have done it. I wondered about the generations of indigenous people in the region that had been exploring the area for 1000+ years, but he addressed that by noting it wasn't possible until the first dam in the area was constructed a few months before his walk. Fair enough.

The book is okay. It gets credit for introducing America to the spiritual and physical rewards of backpacking. Thankfully, his habit of walking the trails nude didn't become the norm. I found his writing somewhat annoying. I have no doubt spending 40+ days walking through the Grand Canyon is a deeply moving experience. However, it felt like he went in looking for a "religious experience" so of course he found it, because he was looking for deep meaning behind every rock and coyote.

Moth (Me) by Amber McBride
Rating = ****

Moth is an African American teenage girl who is the only survivor of a car crash that killed her parents and brother. She was a scholarship level ballet dancer, but now living with her Aunt in VA, she feels completely unseen and alone, with no desire to dance. The only kid at school than seems to notice her is Sani, the new kid, 1/2 Navajo and in her school because his white mom left his Navajo dad and married a racist white dude with no use for a long haired Indian stepson. Of course, these two unhappy, broken teens connect, and when life gets too heavy in VA for both of the them, they embark on a road trip to Navajo country in New Mexico. The story is written in free verse and is built on both Navajo and Hoodo folklore. I greatly enjoyed this book. It's a quick read due to the free verse format, but there is a lot happening in the book.

we are the ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
Rating = ****

16 year old Henry has been regularly abducted by aliens since he was 13. But now they've given him a job. The earth will be destroyed in 144 days, unless Henry pushes a big red button. It seems like an easy choice, but Henry hasn't been digging life lately. His boyfriend committed suicide last year, his best friend dropped out of his life too, his dad left years ago without saying goodbye, and his mom is an alcoholic chain smoker trying to get by on a waitressing income. His brother is a sadistic bully who just dropped out of college and moved back home because his girlfriend is pregnant. School is no better. Henry is doing poorly and is a target for the bullies there too, including the popular "straight" kid who he is hooking up with on occasion.

Henry isn't seeing any reason that the world should continue on in 144 days. He might be doing the world a favor by putting everybody out of their misery. Will he find a reason to push the button? The book gets into big issues of depression, mental health, self-worth, friendship, relationships, and bullying as Henry navigates the 144 days of his life before the world lives or dies on his command.

The Salt Line by Holly Goddard Jones
Rating = ***

In a future America that is no longer America, most people live in "zones" that are protected via a wall (both physical and metaphorical) from killer ticks with a 20% kill rate that have taken over the county. Yet, wealthy adrenaline junkies will pay a fortune for excursions outside the wall for the opportunity to see and experience nature.

The book starts out with a bang as we follow a group training for their tour over the wall. As you can probably guess, the tour goes sideways in a hurry. For the first 1/3 of the book, it is an on-the-edge-of-your seat dystopian thriller. Then it gets bogged down in politics and chapter long backstories on characters that don't really matter. I enjoyed the book and overall it's good, but it could have been great.

Yak Girl: Growing Up in the Remote Dolpo Region of Nepal by Dorje Dolma
Rating = ****

Dorje grew up in a remote high altitude village in Nepal without electricity, running water, or even the wheel, in the 1980s. The book is the story of her life to about age 10, when she is adopted by an American couple and brought to the US for life saving scoliosis surgery. With no schooling at all, she is turned loose in the Himalayas at age 6 to shepherd over her families herd of goats and yak, responsible for both getting herself and the animals back to the village safely each day.

As it becomes apparent that she needs medical help the family embarks on a nearly 1-month trek to Kathmandu, where Dorje sees electricity, automobiles, and TV for the first time. Living 9 people in a 1 room apartment with another family from the village, they eek out survival via begging and social services until Dorje is accepted into a boarding school and starts to learn to read and write, and her family starts the 1-month trek up the mountain back to the village. The book ends as Dorje receives life saving surgery in America.

The book is essentially self-published, but her story is so compelling it does not matter. A real editor working their magic could result in an amazing book that would compare to Angela's Ashes. As is, I still highly recommend the book.

Monsters of River & Rock: My Life As Iron Maiden's Compulsive Angler by Adrian Smith
Rating = ***

It's a book about fishing by the guy who also happens to be a guitarist in Iron Maiden. I was hoping for more Iron Maiden stories in the book, but it's 80% recounting his favorite fishing adventures. Some of them, like helicoptering into a remote lake in New Zealand were really interesting. Also, I learned that the British like to fish for carp. Not a bad book, but you'd have to really like fishing to love this book.

Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta by Richard Grant
Rating = ****

What happens when a British guy and his girlfriend, both living in NYC, buy a 2 acre spread with an aging but otherwise gorgeous home in the Delta backwater of Mississippi? The book covers his first year there trying to understand the accents, and the culture. He learns to shoot, hunt, fish, and be friends with completely nice people that are otherwise at least mildly racist.

A good chunk of the book is him navigating being friends with people that will drop everything to help a neighbor, spend a day with a chain saw helping him deal with a dead tree, never shows up without food and booze, then casually drops the N word in conversation.

He also gets familiar with systemic poverty that exists along side the plantation homes owned by himself and his friends. He hangs out in majority black dive bars, where the conversations sometimes don't sound that different than what you would expect in the trailer across the street with a confederate flag hanging on the front porch.

Overall, a really good book with a lot of insight into cultures in my own country that I'm not that familiar with.

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston
Rating = ****

The Lost City of the Monkey God is also known as La Ciudad Blanca, and was first documented (by Westerners) in the 1500s by Spanish conquistadors. A 1930s expedition claiming to have found the city was debunked in the book. Using modern LIDAR, the possible location of the city is identified deep in the Honduran rain forest. The book follows the 2017 expedition that re-finds the city, apparently unvisited by humans since the Spanish conquistadors described it. The conditions in the jungle are horrible. It's so thick machetes are needed to clear the way just to make forward progress. Deadly snakes, jaguars, and annoying howler monkeys lurk around ever tree. 1/2 the expedition is infected with a parasite that is transferred by sand fleas, and treatment by specialists at NIH is needed. It's a fascinating story of what archaeology in a jungle is really like, and a fascinating story of a lost civilization that stayed lost until 2017.

Optimal by J.M. Berger
Rating = ***

Optimal is a missing person mystery set in a dystopian future where the algorithm controls every aspect of your life. You don't order at restaurants because the algorithm decides and your drinks and appetizers arrive at your table just as you enter the restaurant. There is a lot going on this book as it considers big questions about what may happen if the algorithm was instructed to organize society to optimize it. In a world where every human is pingable, how do you disappear, and what does it mean if you do?

Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow
Rating = ****

Martin is a 67 year old forensic accountant enjoying retirement living in his RV, until a good friend has the backdoor key to his cryptocurrency stolen, putting billions at risk, not to mention his life when the bad guys laundering money through his cryptocurrency find all their coins missing. Martin gets drafted to recover the stolen private key, and he'll make a fortune when he does it, assuming he survives the job. This is Cory taking on the classic mystery novel, with a heavy dose of Silicon Valley and crypto subcultures, and his usual takes on privacy and security in the digital age.

The Night Shift by Natalka Burlan
Rating = ***

Set in early 'oughts NYC, this sci-fi lite novel is set in the NYC we all know, with the addition of "doors" that jump you from one location to another. It's part missing person mystery, part exploration of millennial angst. I was invested all the way to the end, but I could have done with fewer whiny millenials.

Maphead by Ken Jennings
Rating = ***

Ken takes us on an enjoyable trip though some corners of geography nerdom that you probably haven't thought much about. He talks about his obsession with maps as a kid, the advantages of paper maps over digital, geocaching, and obsessive road sign nerds. I still believe that a paper map provides a better big picture view than Google Maps, but it is hard to beat street view.

Ducks by Kate Beaton
Rating = ****

Ducks is a autobiographical graphic novel about the author's 2 years working in the oil sands camps in Western Canada. Kate graduated with a art degree and a bunch of student loans, and decided to go work in the oil camps to pay off her loans quickly. The graphic novel details her loneliness, her daily dose of sexual harassment from the overwhelmingly male workforce in the camps, a couple of sexual assaults, and all the other shit you can image she had to deal with as a young woman in that environment. Somehow, though, the novel doesn't come off as "heavy." Highly recommend.

Floating Twigs by Charles Tabb
Rating = ****

I know the author as we are in a book club together. I've had his debut novel on my Kindle for several years and finally read it. My bad for sitting on it as the book is great. Set in a fictional Destin FL in the late 60s, it's a story about a young teen, neglected by his parents, and how adopting a stray dog and needing a job to pay for his care altered the trajectory of his life by connecting him with a couple of adults that are better parents to him than his actual parents.

Finding Twigs by Charles Tabb
Rating = ****

After sitting on Floating Twigs for several years I went straight from it to the follow up. In this story, Jack is all grown up and a successful lawyer. He has moved back to his hometown to be a defense attorney, and his first case has him defending his old school tormentor on an armed robbery charge. He also meets his first serious girl friend at about age 35. A story about forgiveness, letting go, and the ability of people to change for the better, at any age.

Gathering Twigs by Charles Tabb
Rating = ****

Jack takes on the defense of a wayward teen charged with murder. If not for the intervention of several adults when he was a 13 year old, he might have gone down the wrong road himself, and in Brandy, he sees himself if things hadn't fallen right for him. So he becomes that adult that helped him, passing the torch so to speak, to the next generation of wayward teens given a chance to change course before it's too late.

Gone to the Wolves by John Wray
Rating = ****
Lesli Z had three strikes against him already: he was black, he was bi, and he likes Hanoi Rocks.

Thus begins Gone to the Wolves, a coming-of-age story by John Wray centered around three outcast teens deeply embedded in the late 1980s metal scene. It starts when Kip, a white kid from a broken home, moves in with his grandmother in conservative Venice, FL. There he meets Lesli Z and Kira, and they bond over their mutual appreciation of metal. The book's first third is set against the up-and-coming death metal scene in mid-80s Florida. The middle third sees the trio move to LA after graduation and immerse themselves in the Sunset Strip lifestyle. The final third is built around Kira’s disappearance into the Norwegian Black Metal scene of the early 90s.

It’s a hard book to describe. It’s part coming-of-age story about that period of your life when music and bands seem like the most important thing in the world. It’s part social commentary on life as an outcast teen in the 80s, and the artificial tribal divisions young people create among themselves. And it’s part missing-person adventure story, as Kip and Leslie try to extract Kira from the Norwegian Black Metal cult that she has gotten mixed up with. It’s 100% entertaining to read.

If nothing else, read it for the Vince Neil passed out in the bathroom at the Whiskey scene. This may be a work of fiction, but it works so well because the author absolutely understands heavy metal in the late 80s.

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
Rating = *****

Another home run by Cosby. It's profane and violent, like his other books. It's also set in SE Virginia again, with racism always informing much of what goes on, just like real life in the South. This time our protagonist is the Sheriff, the town's first black Sheriff, dealing with a school shooting and the mass murder that the school shooting uncovers. And of course, he has his own demons to deal with too.

There is violence, child abuse, rape, mass murder, and torture in the plot. It's such a happy, pleasant book, said no one ever. But they all said it was a great book.

Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken
Rating = ****

See review on the blog.

Slow Time Between the Stars by John Scalzi
Rating = ***

A short story about a sentient AI holding the totality of human knowledge that is sent by humans to find a compatible planet that can be terraformed and seeded with life to create a second of humanity. Given millions of years to cruise between star systems, the AI questions the plan.

Rocky Mountain High by Finn Murphy
Rating = ****

I read his book about his years as a long haul trucker a few years ago, and it was fabulous. His new book, about the year he spent trying to hit it big in the Colorado hemp boom, is just as good. Spoiler alert - he loses big, but the trip there is entertaining and insightful.

Naturalist - A Graphic Adaptation by Edward O Wilson
Rating = ***

This graphic novel adaptation of Wilson's autobiography was a lot of fun to read. I had never really heard of him before, but his impact on how we do science in the natural world is immense.

The Modern Caravan: Stories of Love, Beauty and Adventure on the Open Road by Kate Oliver Rating = ****

Kate, her wife, and daughter spent 4 years living in renovated Airstream that they they did themselves, traveling the country to work on client renovations. The final year they spent doing photo shoots and interviews for this book. It's kind of a picture book or coffee table book, with photo spreads and stories of other folks that have renovated old Airstream trailers. I kind of want an old Airstream now, so I'd say the book did its job.

Last Ride of the Pony Express by Will Grant
Rating = ****

Outdoor writer and lifelong horseman Will Grant took two horses and followed the Pony Express (best he could in 2021) from it's origin in MO to the end at Sacramento, CA. Along the way he shares a bunch of history about the trail and the west in general, goes over Dugway Pass, near my one time home of Dugway, Utah, stares down an angry Mustang stallion in Nevada, and introduces us to some very interesting characters that he meets along the way. It's a really fun book, you'll be entertained and you'll learn stuff.

Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
Rating = ****

A fun and thoughtful YA novel about two outsider teens that bond over art, and the fallout when their public art project sparks a 'satanic panic.'

The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah
Rating = *

Tahir is a British travel writer of Afgan descent. He picks up his family and moves to Casablanca on a whim, buying a decrepit old mansion from a family member, which got him a leaky rat infested palace with several house staff locals who believe the house is haunted. It was funny at first, but by the middle of the book I was harboring an active dislike for the author so I quit reading.

Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putman
Rating = *

This book was expanded from an essay. I should have just read the essay. The author's premise that Americans have disengaged from civic participation is undeniable. I got bored with the number of examples and the amount of data for an argument that I already fundamentally agree with. It's a good book. just not one I need to read.

The Knights of the Cornerstone by James P Blaylock
Rating = ****

Another tale of ordinary folks in our world caught up with a magical religious artifact. This time it is a veil with healing powers. The Knights of the Cornerstone are not just the local old dudes fraternal group in a small Nevada desert town. They are descended from the Knights Templar. Another fun and well paced story from Blaylock.

The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
Rating = ****

Strong "A Handmaids Tale" vibes are all over this story set in a modern day Michigan where women who aren't married by 28 must register with the government as suspected witches. 'Confirmed' witches are burned at the stake. The story is centered around Jo, a biracial, bisexual young women staring her 28th birthday in the face while still missing her mom who disappeared 14 years ago. Her mom was a non-conformist in a society that expected biblical level conformity and obedience from all women, as failure to obey would get you branded a witch. Jo and her dad decide to finally declare mom dead, and that requires Jo to carry out a specific task from her mom's will. That's when things get interesting.

The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht
Rating = ****

I was super excited about the new book from Bill Watterson and John Kascht. At 72 pages and 350 words you can read this book in 90 seconds. So read it 3 or 4 times.

I know a lot of Calvin & Hobbes fans are unhappy with the new work, but really, if you thought Watterson was going to do anything related to C&H, you don't really know the author like you think you do.

That said, I do think there is a direct line from Calvin to the story in The Mysteries. C&H was about maintaining your child like sense of wonder. Calvin doesn't age, but the benefit, even the necessity, of not growing up was essential to the comic. Just compare Calvin's constant sense of adventure with his parent's constant sense of resignation.

Now read The Mysteries again and contemplate the ending implied for the people in the book that think they have it all figured out.

Also think about who exactly Watterson is talking about in The Mysteries. Who are the kings people?

Watterson's genius is that he can say so much with 350 words.

The Wolf of Amalfi: The Further Adventures of Artemis Fletcher by Pete Kennedy
Rating = ***

Musician (and author!) Pete Kennedy spins another fun yarn involving bad-ass professor Artemis Fletcher, art thieves, werewolves and other bad guys in Ireland, Asia, Africa, and 1960s era Greenwich Village. Pete brings his immense talent at telling stories in 3-4 minutes songs to bear on his books too, writing stories that quickly get to the point without sacrificing the sense of place in the story.

Extremely Online by Taylor Lorenz
Rating = ****

An extremely entertaining survey of online influencer culture starting with Dooce and The Pioneer Woman, and continuing on through the current crop of millionaire 14 year old content creators on TikTok. I thought I was rather online but everything after blogs was new to me. I was not aware of the scope of the influencer and content economy.

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose
Rating = ****

A highly entertaining and readable account of the Meriwether Lewis expedition to explore the West.

Wrong Way by Joanne Mcneil
Rating = *..

The book was billed as making a big point about late stage capitalism, AI, the gig economy etc., and seemed to be trying via the star character, a 48 year old women still living at home with mom trying to cobble together a living in the gig economy when she lands a job as the secret driver of driver less vehicles. This should be right in my sweet spot but I just could not get into it and quit trying in the middle.