Best book I read this year:
1. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston*
It's a shame I went so long without reading Hurston. What a marvelous writer. After reading this enchanting book I became obsessed with her and read everything I could get my hands on. She's just magnificent.
Honorable Mentions:
2. Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston*
An utter delight. What a charming, undaunted spirit she had, and a master of language.
3. Chastise by Max Hastings
I've raved about Hastings before, many times. This book focuses on the "dam busters" raid of 1943--a hair-raising tale, masterfully told.
4. The True Believer by Eric Hoffer
I read this in college, but somehow managed to forget it completely. On rereading, I found it fantastic. Just superb in its insights and pretty chilling.
5. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.
Extraordinary and very much worth reading. Chilling in a unique way. I was particularly impressed by the skill at describing alien psychological influences--the way the aliens affect human sexuality, for example, in "The Screwfly Solution." The time travel story "The Man Who Walked Home" was also outstanding. Highly recommended.
Most disappointing:
6. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson*
Read my review of this awful pile of words here.
Best new discovery:
The best new discovery for me is Hurston (see above). Among the works of hers I read this year were:
7. Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston
A good book. Keeps flowing along. Entertaining tales. At the time, it was really her biggest success. And you can see why. It's like reading the blues or something. But I preferred her other works.
8. Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston
A very interesting article, padded out to book length with a bunch of analysis and such. Mostly, the editors seemed overly concerned with the plagiarism allegations, which I think overblown. You have to consider the context of the times. I don't think Hurston set out to defraud anyone; I think standards of scrupulousness about attribution just weren't the same in those days. What's the big deal?
9. Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston
A solid first novel. Overshadowed, however, by her other works. I'll have more to say about it and her other work in The Objective Standard in a future issue.
10. Seraph on the Suwanee by Zora Neale Hurston
I really liked this book. In some ways, I thought it was her finest work. Overall, of course, it doesn't beat out Their Eyes. But it's still really interesting. Again, look for my analysis forthcoming in TOS.
11. Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston
Another fascinating, if flawed, novel. Very different from the usual sort of thing.
Best re-read
The best re-read was Their Eyes Were Watching God, which I enjoyed so much that I actually re-read it a few months later, which is extremely unusual for me.
12. The Romantic Manifesto by Ayn Rand
I first read this 25 years ago. On re-reading it today, I find that I agree with it much more.
The rest
13.Zora and Langston by Yuval Taylor
A good, and persuasive, analysis of Hurston's dispute with Langston Hughes. It seems pretty clear that Hughes tried to rip Hurston off--and, I think, succeeded in the sense that his admirers today still give him too much undeserved credit for his part in Mule Bone.
14. Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd
A fine, fair biography. Superior to Hemenway.
15. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography by Robert Hemenway
This was the book that started it all with regard to Hurston analysis. It's now forty years old, so some parts are outdated. But it's indispensable reading for understanding her. Hemenway does, unfortunately, allow his own politics to interfere on several occasions, in ways that Boyd does not. But his literary analysis is more in depth, because it's supposed to be a discussion of the literature more than the life.
16. The Grasshopper by Bernard Suits
A delightful, interesting, and persuasive argument. What's great about this little, easily read book, is how effectively it refutes one of Wittgenstein's more knuckleheaded, yet popular ideas regarding epistemology.
17. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer
I enjoyed this book, but it's not really what I expected. Treuer's Rez Life was great; among the best books I've read on the subject of Native America. This book is supposed to delve into greater detail on that subject, and it does, but it doesn't really add much of value that's not already in Rez Life.
18. Indigenous by Jennifer Reeser
What I love about Reeser's poetry is her blend of cultures. Here we have poems about Native culture written by a Native poet, but in Anglo poetic forms, as well as translations of Native poetry--all of this done in ways that help us better understand and appreciate Native culture. It's so deeply and beautifully American, that you can't help but love it.
19. Golden State by Ben H. Winters
This was disappointing, relative to Winters' other works. It certainly has some good, even fantastic parts. But the ending was...mystifying.
20. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte*
A good book, although Brusatte tries hard to be engaging and anecdotal, and those parts seemed to me to fall flat. The science was good enough; no reason to do that. But the science was really fascinating. I was amazed that we've made so much progress in understanding dinosaurs in a relatively short time. I particularly enjoyed the part about the history of the evolution of Tyrannosaurus.
21. The Buckskin Line by Elmer Kelton
Pretty good. Kelton tries some literary devices here that are respectable, but don't quite live up to his other work, such as Good Old Boys. The follow up novels are just bad.
22. Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker*
Read my review in The Objective Standard. And listen to my podcast about the book with Armstrong & Getty here.
23. Monument Man by Harold Holzer
A very fine book on this great American artist. Holzer spends little time trying to analyze the art, which some critics took as a good thing. I would have enjoyed a little more of that, but whatever. It's still very interesting to learn more about this too-neglected sculptor. One down side to the book is that it's printed in itsy-bitsy type. I guess 'cause it was too long? Whatever the reason, I think older readers may need a magnifying glass.
24. The Rediscovery of America: Essays by Harry V. Jaffa ed. by Edward Erler & Ken Masugi
Read my review in The Objective Standard.
25. Terence Rattigan: A Biography by Geoffrey Wansell
A good and highly sympathetic biography that shines some interesting light on this brilliant and too-neglected playwright.
26. John Marshall by Richard Brookhiser
This struck me as a real 30,000 foot view of Marshall. But then, as an attorney, I know details many others don't, so it's probably not fair for me to say that the book didn't delve enough. I would say it's a good basic introduction to Marshall's life, but readers should then follow up with some of the longer works such as Jean Edward Smith's.
27. Thomas Jefferson by R.B. Bernstein
This is praised as the best single volume biography of Jefferson. It's not, but it's certainly the best brief volume on Jefferson in recent years. Noble Cunningham's In Pursuit of Reason is now decades old, and while the Meacham and Boles biographies are better, they're also quite long. So, as with Brookhiser, I'd say it's a good start, but follow it with more in-depth works.
28. The God of the Machine by Isabel Paterson
I found this book unutterably dull, with a few highlights. A few passages struck me as particularly insightful, such as the observation that the takings clause is related to the attainder clause, because both forbid seizures of property from those who are disfavored. Things like that. But I also found Paterson's writing style bizarre in that sort of 1920s-1930s way like Brandeis or Cardozo, where they're trying so hard to be succinct and lapidary that they just come off sounding like ghosts.
29. Spying on Whales by Nick Pyenson
Quite disappointing. Very little of real scientific interest here.
30. The Whiskey Rebellion by William Hogeland
An intriguing sort of counter-culture narrative. I disagree strongly with Hogeland on basically everything, I think, but he's a solid historian who brings a really unusual perspective, and a refreshing one that keeps you on your toes. The best thing is Hogeland's skepticism toward Hamilton. He seems to think less of Hamilton than even Jefferson did, and this book comes off as a sort of attack on Hamilton without mentioning Jefferson overly much. I also had no idea about Albert Gallatin's involvement in the Whiskey Rebellion. I'm eager to learn more about that.
31. The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age by Walter McDougall
An exceedingly thought-provoking book. I'm fascinated by McDougall's argument that the Space Race was "science prestige," in the same sense as the Pyramids were religious prestige to the ancient Egyptians, and by his arguments that (a) it basically mimicked the Soviet Five-Year Plan, and was therefore the real origin of planned economics in the United States that climaxed in such things as the Great Society, and (b) that Eisenhower struggled, with surprising success but ultimate failure, to resist what he rightly saw as the drastic undermining of the America he had known as a boy. I was less impressed by McDougall's kindasortareligious speculations at the end of the book.
32. Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp
Quite good. Darker than the film (Die Hard) but was still quite surprised how faithful the film is to the book, which one would not expect.
33. Inventing American History by William Hogeland
I got this for the essay on Hamilton, which is a good corrective to the distressing popularity that this unfortunate figure is experiencing right now.
34. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
Meh.
35. 6xH by Robert Heinlein
I really enjoyed "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants." Few of the other stories stick with me now, although I enjoyed reading them.
36. Objectivity in Ethics and Law by Michael S. Moore
Genius stuff. I will have to re-read this at some point.
37. Astounding: A History of Science Fiction by Avec Nevala-Lee*
Pretty interesting, but as some reviewers have noted, it focues more on the personal relationships and lives of Asimov, Heinlein, Campbell, and Hubbard, than on their works, which is kind of a shame. I would have preferred more focus on the content of the stories and how they influenced on another. I also would have liked more on Bradbury, and on how Astounding influenced, say, X Minus One (which is mentioned only in one footnote) and Twilight Zone.
38. The Collected Prose of Robert Hayden
Interesting. Not a lot here, though, unfortunately. Hayden was genuinely great poet. It's a real shame he didn't publish more.
39. The Virginian by Owen Wister
They say all westerns are stolen from The Virginian and I can see it. It's interesting as an historical document, but those who followed in Wister's footsteps were more adept at handling ideas of his that have since become cliches. Also, I didn't care at all for the rationalization of lynching.
40. John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benet
I really enjoyed this. Some parts of it are truly outstanding. But what really struck me is how much of Gone With The Wind is taken from it. Is it actual outright plagiarism? I don't know. But surely the confrontation scene with Scarlett and the Yankee soldier is stolen from Benet. There are parts of this book that get a tad dry; the verse is a little bit free for my taste. Worse, the focus is (as was typical of that era) very largely on the white experience of the war--a point that Robert Hayden wanted to fix; he wanted to write a sort of response to John Brown's Body, but never made signficant progress toward it, which is a shame, because Hayden was a better poet. That said, I did enjoy this poem, and it kept me reading. Much of it is surprisingly modern, such as the love story. It seems to me that it is wrongly neglected today.
41. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson*
A little long, but very vivid and interesting.
42. America's Revolutionary Mind by C. Bradley Thompson
See my review in National Review.
43. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
I was unimpressed by this. Bradbury writes like he's trying very hard to be Herman Melville, and it often works, but it also leaves the reader puzzled (as it does with Melville) in important ways--and it leaves loose ends. The loose ends in Fahrenheit 451 are well known, particularly the spider-robot thing. Here, the loose ends are things like the beautiful woman frozen in the ice, and the fate of Mrs. Foster. And what does it all add up to? You got me. A sort of cotton-candy version of idealism that fails to live up to the foreboding and dread that Bradbury constructs so well with his prose. It's not a bad book, and contains a lot of interesting and compelling atmosphere, but the climax leaves one scratching one's head.
44. The Toynbee Convector by Ray Bardbury
There were only two or three stories in this that were really solid. Those were "One Night in Your Life" and "The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair," and they succeeded because Bradbury is so good at nostalgia. Problem is, we;'ve seen him do that already many times. This is decent light reading for an airplane ride, nothing more.
45. Bound for the Promised Land by Kate Clifford*
I found this a little hard to follow on audio, because it's pretty serious history, and because relatively little is actually known for sure about Harriet Tubman, so Clifford is forced to do a lot of speculating, or talking about what we do know about other people in situations similar to Tubman's. An outstanding work of research, but there's just not much you can do about a person about whom so little is known for certain.
46. Kindred by Octavia Butler
Pretty good. Some online critics complained that the characterization is lacking, and that is true enough, but it still keeps you going, and the overall way the story works is adequate. The imaginative feat of putting oneself in the period of slavery was well done (it brought to mind works like Finney's Time after Time or Matheson's Somewhere in Time) and of course it was certainly chilling and horrific in its depictions of slavery. The main character is also well drawn. I agree that the characters on the planation could have been better developed, but I didn't think it fell down too badly in that regard, as some people seem to. There was one intriguing thought. At the end, the main character loses her arm in a way that implies a symbolic message, and the editor discusses this in an afterword, but doesn't mention (perhaps because unaware) the awful short story James Madison wrote in which he analogized slavery to a diseased arm on the main character. It would be interesting to compare these.
47. Petty Thefts by Nicholas Friedman
I wasn't terribly impressed by this. The poems are sometimes cleverly written, but nothing really stuck with me.
48. Aloha Rodeo by David Wolman & Julian Smith
A light and entertaining read. Good at relating the differences between Texas cowboys and Hawaiian paniolos. But marred by annoying minor errors (e.g., that the 1800 election was a tie between Jefferson and Adams, or that Kamehameha died in 1919, or that Kamehameha was the king who gave Captain Cook the feather cloak....) Still, it was enjoyable.
49. Paradise of the Pacific: Approaching Hawaii by Susanna Moore
Kind of a frustrating book. There's a great deal of good material here, and Moore's perspective appears to be right on. She doesn't succumb to romanticizing pre-contact Hawaii, or to demonizing the missionaries. On the contrary, she has a real sensitivity to all the people she's writing about, and she's right that, for all the bad things that came later, Hawaii and the Hawaiians were far better for western contact and influence than otherwise. Her admiration for Ka'ahumanu, who's also someone I admire, is also endearing. What's frustrating is how much of the book seems to flounder around without a thesis. It starts to come off as a scrapbook or a collection of quotations she's copied from other sources--and not always old sources, for instance. Page after page after page is full of blockquotes from historians from the 1970s, and not for any particular reason: the quotes aren't particularly eloquent or essential in a way that couldn't have been sufficiently done up with a paraphrase of her own. So why do it? It gets distracting and even boring in places, almost as if she lost interest or confidence in writing her own views and just says "So and so said this. And here's what Such and Such said. And then Thus and So said this...." The reason it's such a shame is that this is a fascinating period of Hawaiian history, and it could use a good, book-length analysis that's not marred by politically correct, anti-Western bullshit or romanticized, Noble Savage fantasizing.
50. Ahab's Rolling Sea by Richard J. King
Quite disappointing. There's virtually nothing in it that's particularly enlightening about Moby Dick as a literary matter, and toward the end its efforts in that regard--to somehow view the book as part of the ancient scripture of our society's new religion of Environmentalism--are not persuasive. Still, it's supposed to be more of a book about the biology in Moby Dick--about whales and such...and it turns out to be quite meagre in that regard, with little in it that one did not already know. This is particularly because we frankly still know so little about whales. On top of that, the book is riddled with typos and grammar errors...from University of Chicago Press! So...a letdown that, at best, just made me want to read Moby Dick again, instead.
51. The Street of Wonderful Possibilities: Whistler, Wilde and Sargent in Tite Street by Devon Cox
Compulsively readable and beautifully illustrated. Also, shorter than it looks. It looks like an imposing art tome, but it's actually a lovely, lightly written trip through what was once England's most important artistic community. Enjoyed it a lot.
51. The Final Reflection by John M. Ford
Among the best Star Trek novels. Very seriously written. This was published before a lot of Klingon culture was explored in Next Generation, so Ford was winging it and creating it here. HE took Klingon culture quite seriously and treated it in real depth. Wish they were all this good.
52. John Singer Sargent: His Portrait by Stanley Olson
A lot of important research expressed with an almost unbearable pomposity--and very little discussion of the actual paintings. Olson's judgment is fairly sound when he does discuss the art, but he spends far too much talking about Sargent's family (who cares?) and he's totally wrong about the portraits. Worth reading, but not great.
53. 3 Nights of the Perseids by Ned Balbo
Another one that just did not resonate with me. Well-crafted poems, certainly. But the subjects just left me unenthusiastic.
Some books I gave up on: The Face of the Unknown by Chistopher Bennett. Just too boring and elaborate. Every Tongue Got to Confess by Zora Neale Hurston (turns out this is just a rough draft of what became Mules and Men, and is boring and unnecessary if you've read that.)
*-denotes unabridged audio book.
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