December | 2019 | Grave Error

Monthly Archives: December 2019

December 30, 2019 · 10:12 am

My Year in Books 2019

This year I felt like I was way behind in my reading. Maybe this was because of some longer books like The Brothers Karamazov or Embracing Defeat about how the US occupied Japan following WWII. Also some of my reading capacity was cannibalized by the My Brilliant Friend and Casa de Papel TV series. So I was quite surprised when I did the actual count: 29 books which is more than my usual average of 24 book per year.

Here is what I read (in reverse chronological order):

The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power
The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
What You Have Heard is True by Carolyn Forché
The Man Who Say Everything by Deborah Levy
I Wrote This Book Because I Love You by Tim Kreider
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Down by the River where the Dead Men Go by George Pelecanos
Nick’s Trip by George Pelecanos
Genesis by Eduardo Galeano
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mizra
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower
You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie
A Firing Offense by George Pelecanos
The Night Tiger by Yangzse Choo
River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon by Buddy Levy
Kitchen Confidential by Antony Bourdain
A Dance to the Music of Time: 1^St Movement by Anthony Powell
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie
Conquistador: Hernán Cortés, King Montezuma, and the Stand of the Aztecs by Buddy Levy
We Cast Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Educated by Tara Westover
If Beale Street Cold Talk by James Baldwin
The Street by Ann Petry
North of Dawn by Nuruddin Farah
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

The year had some definite winners and one major disappointment. I was so excited to finally read The Brothers Karamazov yet found it very dated and slow moving. It only became interesting during the last fourth of the story. By far my favorite books this year were the two Buddy Levy histories of the Americas: Conquistador and River of Darkness. I also loved Carolyn Forchés memoir about El Salvador, What You Have Heard is True, and Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other. Honorable mentions go to Educated, the incredibly moving You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, and Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans. I am always so impressed how each Lalami novel has a different voice and timber.

Finally as in other years, I always seek refuge in George Pelecano’s novels. This year I read four, including The Big Blowdown which may be along with The Turnaround my favorite to date. I don’t know what I will do when I have finished all of his work.

Y2K 20 Years Later

Twenty years ago as we were about to enter the new century, as my hometown and place of residence Washington, DC was preparing for fireworks and a jubilant New Year’s Eve’s celebration on the Mall, all anyone was talking about was Y2K.

Not me. My mind was on other things. I had my first real law firm job and we were in the middle of heated litigation. As I was learning, litigants used filing motions to ruin each other’s holidays. If I recall correctly I had to file responsive briefs on the days just proceeding Christmas and immediately following New Year’s day. In fact, by December 31st, I had worked eighteen days straight including weekends, with the sole exception of Christmas Day. Even though my client was winning in court, the opposing party was putting lots of political pressure on our client to drop the case. In fact, the heat was getting to our client and our client – who until then had been extremely supportive – had suddenly starting taking their frustration out on us.

Like I said, I was a junior lawyer completely new to what I was doing. I had been working close to eighty hour weeks for the entire year almost exclusively on this one client’s case. During this time, my girlfriend had left for a job in Europe (and for good) and I barely saw friends or family. Yes, my bank account was growing. But when the clock struck 10:30pm on December 31, 1999 and my boss came to my desk to cheerfully suggest, “why don’t you find the security guard to see if he’ll let us on the rooftop to watch the fireworks at midnight,” I thought I was going to cry.

I searched the desolate building for the security guard but could not find him. As you can imagine, my boss and I were the only two losers in the building on New Year’s Eve. I finally got the courage to go to my boss and say, “if you don’t mind, out of principle I am not going to spend this change of the century in the office.”

“That’s fine. I will see you tomorrow morning at 9:00am. Happy New Year,” she replied.

By 11:15pm, I was back in my tiny studio apartment, sitting at my tiny table feeling awful about my predicament. I called up my friends Jeff and Rasdy with whom I had spent the previous four New Year’s Eves. Each year it was exactly the same. We’d plan to meet at one of their places, then an hour before we were supposed to be there, they’d get in a big fight, cancel the party only to make up 30 minutes later. By midnight we’d end up at Sesto Senso making the best of what was always the most disappointing night out of the year.

I can’t remember whether it was Jeff or Raz who answered the phone, but they said come on over, we’re waiting for you. Like always, we ended up at Sesto with Jeff and I making fools of ourselves on the dance floors while we made fun of everyone around us.

The next morning, I was at the office at 9:30am. I went on to work the next 15 days straight, responding to more motions and attending court proceedings while sick with the flu.

Y2K turned out to be the biggest much ado about nothing of the 20^th Century. Later that year, I moved to Madrid. But ever since that night of Y2K whenever it is time to plan for New Year’s Eve, I always play Ella Fitzgerald signing “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve” and think of Jeff and Rasdy.