2021 in Books

There are always too many books and not enough time. More, there’s never enough time to apply, to share, or to discuss the things read.

This last one—the discussion about the book—is always my favorite part and is the aspect of reading I wish I had more of when the book is done.

The year 2021 saw a lot of great books make their way to my bedside table, onto my Libby account, to the stack on the back of my desk. I didn’t read or listen to as many books as I wanted, but there’s always next year, and there are a lot of good ones left to read. My reading this year felt pretty helter-skelter, and I think I’d like to shift to a more deliberate reading course this year, but that’s a lot easier said than done. There’s just so much to read.

Here are a few of the books:

The Revenant by Michael Punke. I haven’t seen the movie, but I really enjoyed the book. I recommend it regularly.
Lovely War by Julie Berry. Oh, how I love this book. Please read it. Expect romance. And war. And death. And music. It’s so good.

The “Smart” Books (and by “smart,” I mean the books that I mention when people ask what I’ve been reading lately because they sound smart and I don’t want to admit I binge-read four fantasy epics in a row.)

Lawrence In Arabia by Scott Anderson: I’d seen Peter O’Toole’s Lawrence of Arabia but Scott Anderson’s history expands the world of the pre-modern Middle East, looking at it through the experiences of several additional characters on the scene at the time. It is an exciting and eye-opening read.
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Stephen Brusatte. Honestly, I half expected Indiana Jones, or his analog, to make an appearance in the drama around early paleontology. Also, there’s good science writing here. And I didn’t realize how much beer was involved in the paleontology field.
Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth by Avi Loeb. Several years ago, an object entered our solar system, moving too fast and along too odd a trajectory to be a natural object. Leaving no trail of gas or dust behind it, Avi Loeb concluded that it was extraterrestrial technology. With a Ph.D. in physics and a Professor of Science at Harvard University, Loeb is credible.
The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir by John R. Bolton. If there is a “smartest man in the room,” John Bolton is sure it is he. And maybe he is. His account is incredible and difficult to put down.
A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream by Yuval Levin. I read this twice. It’s that important.
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg. Tracing the history of the modern left back to the fascist right is a mind-blowing journey, but Goldberg’s research is solid. It’ll change the way you see modern politics.

Economics and finance (I’m not an economist, but I sure do find economics an interesting intersection between a lot of stuff that is interesting: politics, society, history, money, incentives, and behavior. In short, it’s “why people do what they do.”)

Great Society: A New History by Amity Shlaes. If you’ve read The Forgotten Man, then you’ll want to read Great Society, also. If you’ve ever wondered if your high school history class left something out, Amity Shlaes is here to fill in the gaps.
Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell by Jason L. Riley. I’ve got a friend who is a huge Sowell fan, and he talked us all into reading this biography of the economist. Since it created more interest than it satiated, I decided to read more.
Intellectuals and Race by Thomas Sowell. This was mind-blowing and showed me that Sowell had no intention of going along with the prevailing wisdom among the nation’s intellectual elite.
Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell. More of the above. Also, it was on audio on Libby and I cranked through it while painting doors.
A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell. This I need to read again because of how it lays out Sowell’s view of the world and how people make their decisions. “He describes the two competing visions that shape our debates about the nature of reason, justice, equality, and power: the “constrained” vision, which sees human nature as unchanging and selfish, and the “unconstrained” vision, in which human nature is malleable and perfectible. A Conflict of Visions offers a convincing case that ethical and policy disputes circle around the disparity between both outlooks.”
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing by Burton G. Malkiel. It’s a great read, and also one I need to read again. Short version? Invest in the entire stock market. You’ll always beat individual stocks.
Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook by Tony Robbins. Also, interesting and useful. But I’ll be honest: I’m terrible at putting this stuff into practice.

Book club and other sundry selections:

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks. This is just brilliant stuff, and Sacks is, I am sure, a fascinating dinner guest. That said, I admit that parts of the book left me a little drowsy.
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor. I have no idea if this stuff works, but it did have me breathing through my nose more. An interesting and worthwhile read.
Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson. Categorize this under “trying to understand how people work” and go read it.
The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society by Debra Soh. Timely and important and a must-read. Dr. Soh is a sexologist (yes, that’s an actual scientific discipline) and she has a thing or two to say about the current politics and science around transgender transition and teens.
The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It by Warren Farrell, John Gray. The book club read these last two books back-to-back, and it was an interesting combination. I recommend this, as well.
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden. There’s no doubt in my mind that Snowden is self-serving in his memoir, but he is incredibly persuasive, and it makes his story worth reading.
The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For by David McCullough. Oh, how I love David McCullough. This collection of his speeches is a must-read for anyone who wants to remember why America was and is a great place.

To the kids (it feels like I read less to the girls this year, largely because they’re reading to themselves more, and they complain my reading is cutting into their personal reading time…I know. It sounds really rough, right?):

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I don’t know how many times I’ve read this but my youngest asked, and I agreed. Perhaps not surprisingly, this book continues to teach me and I see new things in Lewis’ writing. It is a beautiful, if awkwardly assembled, book. Lewis is not a great writer of fantasy, but he is a great writer.
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Wow. How did this book become a classic? It took us a long time to read and none of us really enjoyed it. It was a slog.
Holes by Louis Sachar. This is one case where the movie really does a good job of doing justice to the movie. The girls and I had fun reading it.

Fantasy and Science Fiction (honestly, I really didn’t have any idea how much fiction I read this year, or how much of it was fantasy and sci-fi. Typically, I don’t really reread books, except to the kids, but for reasons, I reread a few old classics):

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, illustrated by Alan Lee. I love Tolkien, but other than The Hobbit I haven’t read it in decades. With this new edition, a Father’s Day gift, illustrated by Alan Lee, I am rediscovering why he spawned an entire genre almost single-handedly, as well as why he is without comparison to this day.
Fate of the Fallen by Kel Kade. I have no idea how I found this book—it was probably on Libby at a moment when my queue was empty—but it was a fun read, and I was a bit disappointed when I realized the sequels were not out yet.
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. I read this first when I was 15 and then spent the next 20 years waiting for the series to finish (which Jordan never did—it took Brandon Sanderson to tie up all the loose strings). When Amazon put it on the screen, I went back to see how close they were keeping to the books.
Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson. Speaking of Sanderson…I’ve had this on reserve forever, and it took me about as long to listen to it. Yes, it’s that long. It was fun, though, and Sanderson is a brilliant fantasy writer.
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. I’ve read a lot of Naomi Novik books, and at least seven of them this year, and that sounds kind of like I’m a fan, but really, it’s just because she writes some great fantasy.
Temeraire 1-6 by Naomi Novik. Speaking of Novik, the setup for this series is basically the Napoleonic Wars but with dragons. Yeah. It’s a lot of fun.
2034: A Novel of the Next World War by Elliot Ackerman, James G. Stavridis. I’ve been told that this is a vivid and accurate depiction of the next world war (spoiler alert—against China) and maybe it is, but there were a lot of leaps that would have to happen this way, and I was underwhelmed.
Dune by Frank Herbert. This book never ceases to amaze me. I read it again because of the movie coming to the screen, and neither disappointed.
Exhalation by Ted Chiang. Great writing, but somewhat forgettable. Except for one story: the one about the fabric merchant.
Prosper’s Demon by K.J. Parker. Late medieval or early renaissance, demons, and priests…it was better than I expected and short.
Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers. Space opera, an empire that is several (or many many) generations descended from the present and with its roots in—get this—a not-western culture. I enjoyed it.
After the Crown by K.B. Wagers. This is book two, and honestly, it was fun but forgettable.
Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn. I keep convincing myself to try the Star Wars books, but I almost never find it as satisfying as, say, The Mandalorian…maybe Dave Filoni needs to write a novel?
The Original by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal. Seriously, what a fun and cool read. And Sanderson in less than 50 hours of listening time? Yep. It was worth the listen.