Category: reading

My Best Reads of 2022

assorted books on book shelves
Photo by Element5 Digital on Pexels.com

With 2022 now behind us, I can safely post my list of 10 best reads of the year, without excluding any potential late-comers. This is actually the second draft of this post. The first draft came in at something over 2,500 words, and as I read it, I thought: No one wants to read this much other stuff. They just want the list. To that end, I’ve tried to cut this significantly.

Summary of my reading in 2022

I read 101 books in 2022, finally meeting my goal of 100 books again, after two consecutive years of falling short. 65 of the 101 books were nonfiction. I was surprised by this because my tendency these last few years has been heavily toward nonfiction. But I reread some old fiction series I’ve enjoyed in the past and that shifted the balance somewhat.

My 10 best reads of 2022

A few notes before I get to the list:

  • These are the ten books I most enjoyed reading in 2022; they are not the the ten best books that debuted in 2022. The books on the list were published over a wide range of years, the earliest being 1970 with only 2 of the books on the list debuting in 2022.
  • In past years, I’ve listed the books as a countdown from 10 to 1. It seems to me this buries the lead and is an injustice to the books that I most enjoyed. This year, I’m listing them from my 1 to 10, and damn the suspense.

Here, then, are my best reads of 2022:

1. A Place to Read: Life and Books by Michael Cohen (2014)

Cover image of A Place to Read

This collection of essays by a former professor resonated strongly with me: the subjects, the style, the fact that we were both pilots. The book was an accidental discovery, a rare success for Amazon’s recommendation system. It is one of several books this year that convinced me that I want to be an essayist. It was my favorite read of 2022.

2. Destiny of the Republic: A tale of madness, medicine and the murder of a president by Candice Millard (2011)

Cover image of Destiny of the Republic

I took a big lesson from Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic: that anyone rising to a position like that of President of the United States is worth reading about, even if they are not as well known (to me), anyway). James Garfield’s story was gripping, and Millard’s telling of it was wonderful, fascinating, and ultimately heartbreaking.

3. This Living Hand: Essays, 1972-2012 by Edmund Morris (2012)

Cover for This Living Hand

The essays in This Living Hand run the gamut of subjects, from biographical to autobiographical, big subjects and themes to small ones, like the value of handwriting, and what one can learn from it. I’d had mixed experiences with Edmund Morris in the past, greatly enjoying his 3-volume biography of Theodore Roosevelt, and perplexed by his unorthodox biography of Thomas Edison. But This Living Hand was a treasure to read, and another push toward wanting to write essays.

4. Hell and Back by Craig Johnson (2022)

Cover for Hell and Back

Hell and Back, the most recent installment in the Walt Longmire series (my favorite fiction series) supplanted the 7th book in the series, Hell is Empty as my favorite Longmire book. This is a different Longmire story, in tone as well as in the way it is told.

5. The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya (2022)

Cover for Man from the Future

John von Neumann has come up frequently in my reading and from those incidental glances, I had the idea that he was a smart person even among smart people. I was delighted to find and read this new biography of von Neumann, The Man from the Future, and it convinced me that he was very likely the smartest person I have ever read about.

6. Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace (2005)

Cover for Consider the Lobster

I’ve had Infinite Jest on my bookshelf for years, tempting me. Since I’d been reading a lot of essay collections this year, I thought I’d read some of Wallace’s essays first, and the first collection I read was Consider the Lobster and Other Essays. I was blown away by his writing, and came away awe-struck, and somewhat depressed. I don’t think I could ever write essays as well as Wallace did.

7. Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality by Max Tegmark (2014)

Cover for Our Mathematical Universe

I came to Max Tegmark’s Our Mathematical Universe via James Gleick’s Chaos. I was immediately impressed by the scope, style, humor, and imagination that Tegmark put into the book. It was one of those reads that made me want to follow up with more, and I read his book, Life 3.0 as soon as I finished this one.

8. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4 by Robert A. Caro (2012)

Cover for The Passage of Power

The 4th volume of Robert A. Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson, The Passage of Power turned out to be my favorite so far. The arc of Johnson’s career and his thrust into the presidency after the Kennedy assassination is a great illustration of how unique the job is, and how no career, no matter how stories, can really prepare someone for it.

9. The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-45 by John Toland (1970)

Cover for The Rising Sun

I’ve read a lot of the history of the Second World War, but I’d never read a history that focuses primarily on Japan. This is exactly what The Rising Sun by John Toland does. There were five themes that I found particularly interesting in this book.

10. The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (2018)

Cover for Diary of a Bookseller

Now and then I imagine what it might be like to own a used bookstore. After reading The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell, I no longer have to imagine. This is a charming book about the owner of the largest used bookstore in Scotland, who has kept a diary about the day-to-day running of the shop. I enjoyed it so much that I followed it up with its sequel.

Honorable mentions

In addition to these best reads of the year, here are some other books I read this year worthy of mention:

I am aiming to read at least 100 books in 2023. It is always exciting to start out the year and wonder what will the best reads end up being? I’ll let you know a year from now. In the meantime, if you are interested here, are some past lists:

Written 26-31 December 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com

Reading for the Week of 5/22/2022

person reading newspaper
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. Once again, my article/blog reading was down this week because of my book reading and my renewed focus on fiction writing.

Books

Finished

  • The Age of Voltaire: The Story of Civilization, Volume 9 by Will and Ariel Durant.
  • This Old Man: All In Pieces by Roger Angell. With Angell’s recent passing, I felt compelled to go back and read his writing. I started with this recent memoir, which I had read once before when it first came out. I ordered a bunch of Angell’s books and plan on continuing to go through them.
  • The Dogs of Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron. This one requires some explanation. Each weekday morning, I sit with Grace and we read together. She picks the book. Back in January, she picked out this book, and it took us five months to get through the entire thing, 20 minutes at a time each morning. Since I read the whole thing, I felt that it was okay for me to add it the list of books I have read since 1996.

In Progress

  • The Summer Game by Roger Angell. This was Angell’s first baseball book, the book made up of the baseball pieces he wrote for The New Yorker beginning in 1962.
  • The Bend at the End of the Road by Barry N. Malzberg. A collection of critical essays on science fiction by a master of the form. Some of these I read in the magazines they were originally published in, but I’m now going through the entire collection as an exercise in admiration of the essay form.

Gave Up

  • Rousseau and Revolution by Will and Ariel Durant. I was looking forward to this 10th volume in Will Durant’s Story of Civilization. It is the volume that won the Pulitzer prize. But having just read the previous two volumes (nearly 2,000 pages combined) I was ready for something else, and decided to set this one aside for now. I’ll return to it again in the future.

Articles/posts

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on May 28, 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com

Reading for the Week of 5/15/2022

person reading newspaper
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I was heavily focused on book reading this week and so my article reading is down again.

Books

Finished

In Progress

  • The Age of Voltaire: The Story of Civilization, Volume 9 by Will and Ariel Durant. After making my way through this series intermittantly over the last few decades, I’ve decided I want to finish it up this spring. After The Age of Louis XIV, I was particularly excited for The Age of Voltaire because the book is centered around the 18th century debate between science and religion, which is a fascinating debate.

Articles/posts

Rest in Peace, Roger Angell

I spent this morning reading obituaries of Roger Angell, who died yesterday at 101. For those who don’t have the joy of knowing who Roger Angell is or what he did: He was the son of Katherine Seargant Angell White, first fiction editor of The New Yorker; we was the stepson of E. B. White; he was a longtime fiction editor for The New Yorker. And he was one of the greatest baseball writers who ever lived. Read a few of the obituaries below to get a sense of him. It will be well worth the time.

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on May 21, 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com

Reading for the Week of 5/8/2022

person reading newspaper
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. As you can see, I managed to read a bunch of books this week, but that ate into article reading time, so my article/post reading was way down this week.

Books

Finished

  • A Darkness More Than NIght by Michael Connelly. I needed a break from all of the nonfiction I’d been reading so I decided to continue reading some of Michael Connelly’s “Bosch” series of mysteries.
  • City of Bones by Michael Connelly.
  • Lost Light by Michael Connelly. This is the best of the Bosch books I’ve read so far. Excellent from start to finish.
  • Never Panic Early by Fred Haise. I think it is wonderful that more than 50 years after the first moon landing, the astronauts involved in Apollo are still coming out with memoirs about their experience. Fred Haise, who flew on Apollo 13 and who piloted test landings of the space shuttle Enterprise has a delightful memoir in this book.
  • Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. I came across this book in my sister’s Goodread’s list. I enjoyed it, although it is not a particularly original time travel story in the tropes that it uses. It is the characters that make the book interesting. In some ways, I was reminded of Lauren Beukes The Shining Girls, although this book wasn’t a murder mystery.

In Progress

Gave Up

  • The Narrows by Michael Connelly. I started the next book in the Bosch series, but after reading three in a row, I’d had my fill, so I gave up on this one and will return to it eventually.

Articles/posts

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on May 13-14, 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com

Reading for the Week of 5/1/2022

person reading newspaper
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I also share my recommended reads on Pocket for anyone who wants to follow along there.

Books

Finished

  • John le Carré: The Biography by Adam Sisman. I’ve only read a few le Carré novels, and his memoir, but he seems like a fascinating person and this biopgraphy confirmed that. It is also always interesting to me to see the evolution of a writer from a nobody to a celebrity.
  • The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty by Sy Montegomery. I enjoyed Sy Montegomery’s book on the octopus and this short book on falconry was almost as enjoyable.
  • All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. I have two reasons for reading this book: one is because I recently read Carl Bernstein’s memoir, and the other is that I have a vague idea for a story involving an investigative journalist and so this book could be considered research.

In Progress

  • A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly. I was looking for a change of pace, and in particular, something set in L.A. I’ve already read the first 8 of Michael Connelly books, so I settled on another Bosch novel for the weekend.
  • In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920-1954 by Isaac Asimov. I’m taking my time with this book, which I started last week, luxuriating in it, since it is the first time I’ve read it in a dozen years.

Articles/posts

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on May 07, 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com

Reading for the Week of 4/24/2022

person reading newspaper
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them.

Books

Finished

In Progress

Articles/posts

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 30, 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com

Reading for the Week of 4/17/2022

person reading newspaper
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I also share my recommended reads on Pocket for anyone who wants to follow along there.

Books

Finished

In Progress

Articles/posts

  • The Art of Letting Go by Robert Breen (blog, 4/21/2022). I bumped this one up to the top even though I read it on Thursday evening because it is one of the best things I’ve read in a long time. I highly recommend this thoughtful piece on life.
  • Talking Talkies  by Melanie Novak (blog, 4/17/2022). I missed my Golden Age of Hollywood post this week.
  • Woody Guthrie’s Notebooks (Notebook Storie, 4/19/2022). Anything about notebooks catches my eye.
  • Two April Appreciations: Beach, Schell  by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/18/2022)
  • Two New Possibilities for the ‘Times’ by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/20/2022). Some interesting suggestions for The New York Times
  • MacOS Setup in 2022 for Minimal Mouse interaction by Decoded Bytes (Medium, 3/3/2022). Since I’ve been trying to use Vim mode everywhere, I thought this would be an interesting read.
  • How To Balance Fun and Ambition by Ian Frazier (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022). This line resonated with me: “You must balance fun and ambition, and care passionately and dispassionately at the same time.”
  • Field Testing My Cheechako by Stephanie Joyce (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
  • The Greatest Game Ever Played by Alex Hutchinson (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
  • Is This What John Denver Meant By “Dancing with the Mountains”? by Bill Gifford (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
  • There’s No Better Place to Flirt Than Outside by Allison Braden (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
  • Take a Flying Leap by Bruce Handy (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
  • Let’s Turn the faun Back On by Mary Turner (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022). Resonated quote from this one: “Fun, unlike happiness, is an action, something we can actually pursue”
  • A Winslow Homer for the 21st Century by Susan Tallman (Atlantic, May 2022). Homer’s name came up once or twice in Shirer’s memoir so I was interesting in learning more.
  • Student-Loan Reparations by The Editorial Board (Wall Street Journal, 4/21/2022). I came out of college with $16,000 in student loan debt, which is far less than what graduates 30+ years later find themselves with. I managed to pay off all my debt. Still, I’m not sure what the WSJ editorial board is so upset about. The government has bailed out banks, airlines, to say nothing of other countries. Why not help out with student debt. It helps everyone in the long run.
  • Framing: In Honor of Eric Boehlert by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/6/2022). More in James Fallows continuing series on the “framing” of news stories in the media.
  • Writer Samuel R. Delaney Reading in His Library (NY Times, 4/21/2022). Chip Delany and libraries in one piece!
  • Escaping from ‘Flatland’ – by James Fallows by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/14/2022)
  • Bring on the Pitch Clock! – by Joe Posnanski – JoeBlogs by Joe Posnanski (JoeBlogs, 4/19/2022). After seeing them in action in the minor leagues, Joe is in favor of pitch clocks. I’m still a skeptic. Introducing a clock on any kind into a clockless sport is a slippery slope. I’ll have more to say on my ideas for fixing baseball in a post in early May.
  • Revolt in Disney’s Florida Kingdom – WSJ by The Editorial Board (Wall Street Journal, 4/22/2022). I’ve got to wonder: is going after big business–from which both parties get enormous amounts of funding–a sound strategy? If a corporation is treated by law as a “person,” why can’t it have an opinion?
  • Alexandria home prices got boost near housing projects, study shows by Marissa L. Lang (Washington Post, 4/22/2022)
  • Apollo 16 astronaut reflects on life and God on landing anniversary by Earl Swift (Washington Post, 4/21/2022). An interesting look at the dramatic transformation in Duke’s belief system from the time he roamed the surface of the moon to decades later.
  • Obsidian Publish Improvements & Task Management Tips by Eleanor Konik (Obsidian Roundup, 4/23/2022). The Paste Image Rename plug-in caught my attention this week.
  • How to Fix Quantum Computing Bugs – Scientific American by Zaria Nazario (Scientific American, May 2022). I have to admit that while I have a fairly good handle of traditional error correction functionality, as well as the basics of quantum entanglement, this article pass the bounds of my ability to understand the mechanics of quantum error correction.
  • Can Sanctions Really Stop Putin? by The Editorial Board (NY Times, 4/22/2022). What are the limits of sanctions and how long should they last?
  • Why Did We Stop Believing That People Can Change? by Rebecca Solnit (NY Times, 4/22/2022). Reading this, I thought of that article on Charlie Duke above, and how much he had changed.
  • Covid Drugs Save Lives But Americans Can’t Get Then by Zeynep Tufekci (NY Times, 4/22/2022)
  • How a Recession Might–and Might Not–Happen by Paul Krugman (NY Times, 4/22/2022). Isn’t there a joke about never getting a straight answer from economists?
  • Democrats, You Can’t Ignore Culture Wars Any Longer by Jamelle Bouie (NY Times, 4/22/2022)
  • What Makes a Good Job Good by Peter Coy (NY Times, 4/22/2022). It will be interesting to see what metrics are ultimately used to measure this.
  • What You Don’t Know About Amazon by Moira Weigel (NY Times, 4/22/2022)

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 22-23, 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com

Reading for the Week of 4/10/2022

person reading newspaper
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I also share my recommended reads on Pocket for anyone who wants to follow along there.

Books

Finished

In Progress

Articles/posts

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 16, 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com

Reading for the Week of 4/3/2022

person reading newspaper
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. This was a busy week with a lot going on. I did manage to finish two books, but my article reading was down from its normal levels because things were busy.

Books

Finished

In Progress

Articles/posts

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 08, 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com

Reading for the Week of 3/27/2022

person reading newspaper
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I also share my recommended reads on Pocket for anyone who wants to follow along there.

Books

Finished

  • Twentieth Century Journey, Vol 1: The Start: 1904-1930 by William L. Shirer. As I mentioned last week, I am always fascinated with the writer’s behind great works (like The Rise of Fall of the Third Reich). So far, Shirer’s memoir is fascinating, both from the perspective of a journalist in Europe and for all of the people he meets along the way.

In Progress

Articles/posts

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 02, 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com

Reading for the Week of 3/20/2022

person reading newspaper
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. This number in parentheses after the books are as follows: # of books I’ve read so far this year / # of books I’ve read since 1996.

Books

Finished

  • The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer (17/1145). This was an outstanding history of the Second World War from inside the Third Reich. Much of the information comes from captured documents that the Allies obtained, many of which were used at Nuremberg. It is the first Shirer book that I’ve read, and I was delighted to discover that his writing style is remarkably similar to Will Durant, a favorite of mine. That really shouldn’t come as a surprise, since both came up the same age.

In Progress

Articles/posts

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on March 26, 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com

Reading for the Week of 3/13/2022

person reading newspaper
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I also share my recommended reads on Pocket for anyone who wants to follow along there.

Books

Finished

  • The Rising Sun by John Toland (16/1144). A fascinating and engaging read, and my first specifically on the war in the Pacific with an emphasis on the Japanese point of view. I wrote about my inital thoughts on the first half of the book. Next week I’ll have a more comprehensive post on my notes on this book.

In Progress

Articles/posts

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on March 19, 2022.

Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!

Follow Jamie Todd Rubin on WordPress.com