Tag Archives: books

December 28, 2025 · 12:40 pm

My 2025 in Books

Wow ! What a year ! If I normally average in the low twenties, this year I read 38 books. I’m not quite sure what the exact reason was for being more prolific than other years. Maybe it was because I just didn’t watch much TV or movies at all, or it could be I simply got lucky with more fast paced page turners. Whatever the reason, I was on a roll. 

Of note, I read my friend Alberto Cañas’ first novel. I also read lots of books that take place at sea or lost on a deserted island, and of course, I tried to read my share of novels about Texas or the wild west.

Here is my 2025 list in reverse chronological order:

  • Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World by Justin Marozzi (currently reading)
  • Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Love, Shipwreck and Survival by Sophie Elmhirst
  • The Wandering Hill by Larry McMurtry
  • The Sin Killer by Larry McMurtry
  • Flesh by David Szalay
  • The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
  • North Sun; or The Voyage of the Waleship Esther by Ethan Rutherford
  • Quizás alguien esté marcando el camino by Alberto Cañas
  • The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (re-read)
  • My Friends by Hisham Matar
  • Pressure Drop: Reggae in the Seventies by John Masouri
  • Open by Andre Agassi
  • Down the River unto the Sea by Walter Mosley
  • Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
  • The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Faithful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides
  • There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone
  • A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols
  • Eulogy by David Sparks
  • Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
  • Blessed McGill by Edwin Shrake
  • Isola by Allegra Goodman
  • The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
  • The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Jones Graham
  • King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
  • Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams
  • Owning Up by George Pelecanos
  • Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf (re-read)
  • The Man who Cried I Am by John A. Willams
  • G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage
  • The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley 
  • Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
  • The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
  • String Theory: David Forest Wallace on Tennis by David Forest Wallace
  • I Who Have Never Known Men by Jaqueline Harpman
  • Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candace Millard
  • James by Percival Everett
  • The City and Its Unknown Walls by Haruki Murakami

So many of these books were great reads, but if I had to pick just a couple as the best, surprisingly I would start Agassi’s memoir Open as my favorite, followed by Dream County, I Who Have Never Known Men, A Voyage of Madmen, and James.  

Leave a comment

Filed under Literature

Tagged as , , , , , ,

December 24, 2024 · 4:23 pm

My 2024 in Books

This felt like my slowest reading year in recent memory. I only made it through some 22 books. I am not sure quite why, maybe because I read more non-fiction books or simply that I had trouble getting into fiction. With age, I am much more interested in the story and narrative than I am in clever writing. I don’t have time for detail and flowery language or for being impressed by the writing. I want good story telling. For example, I am currently reading Cold Mountain. The story keeps me going, but the artisanal writing style annoys the heck of me.

So here’s the 2024 list, including a few books that I read out loud to my kids:

  • Cold Moutain by Charles Frazier (currently reading)
  • What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami
  • The Borderland by Edwin Shrake
  • The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
  • Wish by Barbara O’Connor
  • Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if your life depended on it by Chris Voss
  • The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of US History by Ned Blackhawk
  • The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen
  • The Man who Stayed Below by Alan Gould
  • New of the World by Paulette Jiles (re-read)
  • Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry
  • The Pilars of Hercules by Paul Theroux
  • Holes by Louis Sachar
  • Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
  • To Walk the World’s Rims by Betty Baker (re-read)
  • Sir Vidia’s Shadow: A Friendship Across Five Continents by Paul Theroux
  • The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination by Staut A. Reid
  • The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut
  • The End of the World is Just Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization by Peter Zeihan
  • The Hundred Years War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi
  • The Armor of Light by Ken Follet
  • Bridge over Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (re-read)
  • The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

 By far, my two favorite books of the year where The Maniac and The Copenhagen Trilogy. In terms of great, simple stories, even though it’s middle and high school kids, I loved Wish. And as you can see, I continue with a Texas theme. I have spent a lot of time in Texas the past few years visiting, and I really enjoy learning about its history and reading novels set there. In this vein, I read The Rediscovery of America about Native Americans and the history of settler colonialism in the U.S. which reminded me too often of Khalidi’s The Hundred Year War on Palestine (also highly recommended).

Leave a comment

Filed under Friends / Family, Literature

Tagged as , ,

December 29, 2023 · 10:43 am

My 2023 in Books

My 2023 started off reading at record pace, but then as the year went by I ended up reading less books on average than other years. In theory, I could add to my list all of those books that I read to my kids, including the final three Harry Potter books and Judy Blume’s Fudge series.

Having spent time in California over the summer sparked my interest in the John Steinbeck classics I had never gotten around to be before, of which I absolutely loved East of Eden, and then to learn more about the history of Chinese Americans. Perhaps the highlight of the year was reading my friend Joaquin del Palacio’s first novel Todo puede empeorar published in November. If you’re a Spanish speaker, I couldn’t recommend it enough.

Here is the full 2023 list:

  • The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer
  • Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese who Built the Transcontinental Railroad by Gordan Chang
  • Todo puede empeorar by Joaquin del Palacio 
  • Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  • Ignorance by Milan Kundera (re-read)
  • Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne
  • Strategy: A History by Lawrence Freedman
  • The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
  • Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
  • All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
  • The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
  • King: The Life of Martin Luther King by Jonathan Eig 
  • Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
  • Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn
  • East of Eden by John Steinbeck
  • The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
  • Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins by Aidan Levy
  • Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume
  • Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk
  • It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
  • Prisoner of the Infidels: The Memoir of an Ottoman Muslim in Seventeen Century Europe by Osman of Timisoara
  • Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk by Buddy Levy. 

My favorite of the year go to, as mentioned, East of Eden and Todo puede empeorar, as well as Empire of the Summer Moon (I also spent time in Texas), and Empire of Ice and Stone. I already have a long backlist of books to start off 2024 with. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Literature

Tagged as , , , ,