Best book I read this year:
1. Cracks in The Invisible by Stephen Kampa
Kampa is a brilliant poet; witty, extremely clever, with a serious sense of spirituality and meaning. Obviously I do not share his Christianity, but his poetry makes me sympathize with it--which is a great accomplishment. And his secular poems, like "Not At The Grave of Dylan Thomas," or "Masterpiece Interrupted by Hobo, Park Bench, 1999," are astonishing in their apparent effortlessness. My favorite is probably "Theodicy," one of the finest poems of joy I have ever encountered. Kampa has a new book coming in the spring and I can't wait. More here.
Runners-Up:
2. Uncorrected Papers by Wallace Matson
Marvelous! I regret having delayed so long getting to it. Matson is so clear, so insightful, and so principled, that reading him is like going on a safari into philosophy-land with a supremely gifted and reliable guide. I enjoyed his books Sentience and A New History of Philosophy a few years ago, and now I want to read the revised, two-volume edition of the latter.
3. Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz
Great. Horwitz expertly blends modern times and sensibilities with the older story of Cook and his discoveries. And it does it all very entertainingly. Highly recommended.
4. America’s Unwritten Constitution by Akhil Reed Amar
Best new discovery:
Really enjoyed this science fiction novel for its realism, interesting characters, and smooth prose. Howey writes with the light touch that is essential for hard science fiction. Looking forward to reading more of his work.
Best audio book this year:
6. Moby Dick by Herman Melville*
Superb; this is my third time listening to this, and it was well worth it.
Most thought provoking:
7. Inside Jokes by Hurley, et al.
Brilliant, insightful, convincing. A great book on the causes and meaning of humor. I have to admit, when I was younger, I wanted very much to write this book. I've always been fascinated by the question of how and why humor works as it does. Why is it that funny things come in threes? ("A Frenchman, an Englishman, and a Texan are on a plane...") Why is timing so essential to a joke? Why do I not find slapstick or Will Farrel funny, but I love The Simpsons and Steven Wright? What are the connections between reason, intelligence, and humor? This book has brilliant answers, or at least the beginnings of answers. One thing I would have liked, though, is if the authors had followed through to show how their model explains not only jokes but also lyric poetry. The qualities of aptness, the "Aha! moment," the framing and the retrospective effects that they describe when it comes to jokes are also to be found in (effective) poetry.
Most disappointing:
8. An Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins*
It wasn't disappointed so much as underwhelmed. I enjoy Dawkins' writing, and particularly his sense for a good literary evocation. But much of this book is unnecessary detail. It's too much of an autobiography, when what's called for here is memoir. No, not even that; in places, it's like a catalogue, when what we wanted was a story. I'd hoped for more from the author of Unweaving the Rainbow, easily one of my top ten books of all time.
The rest:
9. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Just does not do it for me. It's fine, but I don't get the fuss.
10. The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene*
Interesting, of course, although much of it is over my head...'course, it's over everyone's head. I really should re-listen to it. And I'm sure this was better on the eyes than the ears anyway, since the printed version contains many helpful diagrams and illustrations. I was much intrigued by the idea of particulate time and the Planck space, but now that I've thought more deeply on Zeno's Paradoxes (thanks to Wallace Matson) I probably should take a second look at this book.
11. Yesterday’s Son by A.C. Crispin
A good Star Trek tale, but surprisingly short.
12. The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker*
Little I didn't know, but it's great to see it so well expressed. I especially love the section on modern art. Very highly recommended, particularly for Objectivists.
13. Driven West by A.J. Langguth
Pretty good. Certainly better than his boring 1812 book. I loved Langguth's Patriots and A Noise of War, but was disappointed by 1812. This time he gets back to what he's good at: telling history as a story. But there are some weird problems with it, due to bad editing. For example, the book refers to the 36o30' line as the "Thirty six degrees, thirty feet" line! Even a basically competent editor should have caught that. Anyway, this is a good introduction to the Trail of Tears, but anyone who's drunk the rich liquor of What Hath God Wrought will find this a bit thin.
14. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry*
Must should lightly here, as C really likes this book. But although I really enjoyed the TV miniseries a lot, I found the novel boring and redundant, and the characters uninteresting and unlikeable. It seemed like something should have been there...that just never showed up. I get that all the characters are lonesome in their way, and the echo with the animals, and all the poetic stuff that just never seemed to add up to anything. That's the naturalist novel for you, I guess.
15. Law in American History volume 1 by G. Edward White
I love White. He's so on target--and his discussion of the constitutional disputes underlying the Civil War was exceptional. I liked the Dred Scott chapter a lot. I don't like his unwarranted suggestion that the Confederacy's view of the Constitution was overcome by force of arms rather than by law. I also thought the opening section on the colonial experience was longer than the material really warranted. Still, it's a good book and I look forward to volume 2.
Meh. It has some interesting framing effects, but while it's sold as an epic, it is not--it's a collection of lyric poems into a story about life in St. Lucia. Like always with Walcott, it felt bland and washed out in some way; the post-colonial elements were dully politically-correct, and the anti-industrialization stuff was very old to me. Honestly, only one line really stuck with me.
This was interesting; very bold characters and told with grandeur. But at times, it's hard to see the point of some of it. One gets the sense that Clavell had in mind a more sweeping saga than he managed to tell. And I was unable to finish Noble House.
18. Shannon by Campbell McGrath
An interesting idea, but not very interestingly executed. The "Buffalo" poem was so silly it blew up whatever credibility the book might have achieved.
19. The Korean War by Max Hastings
This was okay--not as good as some of Hastings' work. But he's so good that that is an extremely high standard anyway. The story of the takeover of the prison camp was fascinating and terrifying.
20. Captain Cook by Richard Hough
A good book, easier to read than Beaglehole, whose style is often sort of presumptive--Beaglehole assumes you've heard the story before and then is skeptical toward that story, where Hough just tells the story. On the other hand, Hough has a tendency to insert unnecessary footnotes and awkward wording. The maps and illustrations are bad, too.
21. Law’s Empire by Ronald Dworkin
I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. Very interesting, very thought-provoking, and very persuasive. I am eager to read more Dworkin. I found the "law as integrity" argument extremely persuasive, and his "serial novelist" model of legal thinking very powerful.
22. The Black Count by Tom Reiss*
Enjoyed this tremendously. What a story--worthy of the great French Romantic novelists.
23. Inside Scientology by J. Reitman*
Very interesting, and creepy as hell. The story of how Scientology obtained its IRS tax exemption is particularly interesting. Definitely worth reading.
24. The System of Liberty by George Smith
Very good--but keep in mind that this is a collection of lectures, not a book centered on a single thesis.
25. Ratification by Pauline Maier*
I found this very interesting, especially some of the shenanigans at the Pennsylvania ratification convention. I'd not known what a close call some of the ratification conventions were. But there is not much here that I think can really used for interpretive purposes--except the emphasis the Federalists put on opposing efforts to undo the most essential achievement of the Constitution--i.e., the replacement of a treaty model with a constitutional model. For instance, one of the main efforts of the Antifederalists was to add an amendment that would require the feds to requisition the states for taxes rather than taxing the people directly--and this the Federalists would not stand for. In short, this book is indispensable history--but only a relatively minor contribution to law.
26. Bunker Hill by Nathaniel Philbrick*
This book isn't about Bunker Hill. It's about Massachusetts' experience in the Revolutionary War, and particularly focusing on Benjamin Warren, about whom I knew very little.
27. The Autobiography of Mark Twain volume 2
Better than volume 1. I really enjoyed some of his reflections on the rise of redistributionist government, on the skill of public speaking--and of course the anecdotes are so well told. Can't wait for volume 3.
28. On Love by Alain de Botton
Very good. In a short little story, Botton manages to capture all the various phases and facets of the experience of love, with a lot of insightful observations, all well said. It's surprising how much he manages to squeeze into such a short book.
29. Intuition Pumps by Daniel Dennett
An excellent introductory book for students. If you have a college student friend or relative who's interested in philosophy, hand him this book. But if you're already familiar with Dennett, it doesn't really add anything that isn't already in his other books.
Great--very insightful and true at times, funny and scandalous at others, and Rolfe Humphries' translation is very good.
31. Terms of Engagement by Clark Neily
See my review, forthcoming in the Texas Review of Law & Politics.
32. Catastrophe 1914 by Max Hastings
Hastings is at his best on World War II. In books like Armageddon and Retribution, he combines scholarly, statistical history with on-the-spot accounts and eyewitness interviews. This creates a brilliant, multilayered effect that really brings home what he's writing about. Here, he attempts World War I, and not even that: rather, the political and social machinations surrounding the war's first year. This lacks the interviews, of course, since the parties are dead now. And that means the book ends up being dry--lacking both the scholarly statistical aspects and the exciting personal narratives--and often a completely confusing jumble of names and interlocking motives. Overall, a real disappointment--if perhaps inevitable.
33. Magic, Science, & Civilization by J. Bronowski
This could have been a great book, but one gets the sense that Bruno got distracted, and loses track of his argument about what magic is. It's thought-provoking, but he doesn't follow through on the difference between magic and science as he ought to, given the opening passages.
34. Origins of Knowledge & Imagination by J. Bronowski
A good contribution to Bruno's overall model of scientific reasoning.
35. Nature And Knowledge by J. Bronowski
Surprisingly deep, for such a short book.
36. Genesis of The Salk Institute by Suzanne Bourgeois
Briskly told, but detailed, history of this great science institution.
37. The Annotated Rime of The Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Martin Gardner
I had not known how short this poem is. Gardner had to stretch it to book length by printing two different versions along with his annotations...which aren't all that interesting. But the introduction and commentary make up for it; they're very good.
38. The Life of Captain James Cook by J. Beaglehole
Great. Deservedly a classic.This is such an amazing story, and Beaglehole conveys that drama mostly by letting the facts speak for themselves. Also quite honest about the last days--which, given the grandeur of Beaglehole's telling, comes off like a classical tragedy.
39. Captain Cook by Alistair Maclean
Awfully fast paced. This leads to Maclean skipping a lot of the drama and color that comes out only in the details.
40. Crooked Run by Henry Taylor
Dull. Disappointing.
41. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley*
In some ways, astonishingly prescient: on matters of sexual mores, he was absolutely right. Even on clothing he was pretty spot-on. The shallowness of modern society and the way that shallowness absorbs and assimilates its opposite, too. But the book was also a bit pompous at times.
I thought it was rather beautifully written. I can see why people compare it to Anthem, but of course it's quite different. Unlike the other dystopias, it's much more about the person than about his society. It has little abstract discussion about the ideas and causes of oppression, and much more about the mindset of the man who resists. And Zamyatin's dystopia is one of mathematics and reason curtailing the wild and untamed in man. That's very different from Rand--and from Huxley, for whom the primitive man is a representative not of wildness but of authenticity and asceticism.
43. Moral Dilemmas by Philippa Foot
Not as good as her other books. The essay on "Reasons and Morals" was great, but some of the others are very hard to follow, written in the high academic English style. And her argument in the final essay that we do not need a chain of reasons to explain moral action was totally unconvincing. I did like her argument elsewhere that the conclusion of moral reasoning is action itself--so that you don't need some other thing like desire to explain a person's action based on moral reasons; this is a point that's in Aristotle but that I'd forgotten.
44. Freedom National by James Oakes*
A very important book--thorough and convincing; a solid antidote to the terrible damage that the "debunking" style of scholarship (and, often, pseudo-scholarship) has done to Civil War studies.
Gave up on (among others): Farther Than Any Man by Martin Dugard, The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, Noble House by James Clavell.
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