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What Have You Read This Year?
You’ve all read at least one book this year. I know you have, since Ricochetti are famously literate — not the many-leatherbound-books type (though I have more than my fair share of those). I really enjoy learning what other people read; it’s an eyes-into-the-soul kind of feeling, and I always learn of a few more books to add to my list. So please, post your list of the books you’ve read in 2015!
Add commentary as you wish or not. If you feel extra generous, include Amazon links so we can add your recommendations to our own lists.
To assure the apprehensive that all types of books are accepted here, I will kick this off with my own list:
- Allan Bloom, Closing of the American Mind
- Pat Kirwin, Take Your Eye Off the Ball
- Several dialogues of Plato
- Michael Sacasas, The Tourist and the Pilgrim
- Charles Murray, American Exceptionalism
- Bart Scott, Ears of Steel: The Real Man’s Guide to Walt Disney World
- Be Our Guest
- Frederick Ferre, Philosophy of Technology
- Ira Stoll, Samuel Adams: A Life
- David Berlinski, The Devil’s Delusion
- Cory Doctorow, Information Doesn’t Want to be Free
Nice timing with this post, as I was updating my Wish List on Amazon – which is made up mostly of books – so looking back on the year almost over was easy.
It’s the usual eclectic assortment, with a lot more fiction than most folks seem to select, but the total is low by my standards.
Here’s what I read in 2015:
Anna Karenina – Tolstoy (the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation)
Just Kids – Patti Smith
The Patrick Melrose Novels – Edward St. Aubyn
Thinking Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahnemann
The Road to Character – David Brooks
Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari
Rites of Spring – Modris Ecksteins
Second Life – S. J. Watson
The Hot Gates – William Golding
Rule 34 – Charles Stross
Privilege – Ross Douthat
America Extinguished – Sam Francis
In the Shadow of the Sword – Tom Holland
Adios, America – La Diva (Ann Coulter)
The Greco-Persian Wars – Peter Green
Alien Nation – Peter Brimelow
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
The Celebrant – Eric Rolfe Greenberg
Bad – Paul Fussell
America in Retreat – Bret Stephens
African Genesis – Robert Awdrey
Memoir of a Superfluous Man – Albert Jay Nock
We Are Not Ourselves – Matthew Thomas
Lost for Words – Edward St. Aubyn
1491 – Charles Mann
Cover Her Face – P. D. James
Unchosen – Julie Burchill
In the Kingdom of Ice – Hampton Sides
On the Edge – Edward St. Aubyn
Flash Boys – Michael Lewis
The Seven Deadly Virtues – J. Last, ed.
Deep Down Dark – Hector Tobar
The Virgin’s Baby – Bevis Hillier
The Count of Monte Cristo – Dumas
The best novel (not counting Tolstoy or Dumas): “The Celebrant” – best baseball novel ever! Superior to even The Universal Baseball Association or The Art of Fielding.
The best non-fiction: “Rites of Spring.“
The Internet ought to count as reading. I’d actually been considering a post on how I read fewer books now, but in total, I’m actually reading more total material than ever before because of Ricochet, online magazines, and various blogs. I read a lot, it’s just that most of it is on a screen and in the form of shorter articles and posts now.
As for “real books”, I did a lot of re-reading. Re-read Dracula, Jurassic Park, and Dune this year. Dracula only gets better with age, Jurassic Park reminded me just how different it was from the movie, and Dune, while entertaining, just wasn’t nearly as impressive to my 46 year old mind as it was to my 15 year old mind. Also started on the Doc Savage pulp novels from the 30’s, with two down. My youngest boy likes me to read them to him at bedtime.
Originals, I read:
Should I link all my reviews? Nah. You can find the ones I posted here by looking at my started conversations.
Besides the ones I posted at Ricochet I wrote another 20 or so for other magazines or websites.
More frightening? For every book I review I read about four more, exclusive of the ones I read to research the books I write or for work. Yeah. I read fast.
Seawriter
I rank it the third best fantasy, shortly behind Narnia, which is behind LOTR. I rank it ahead of Harry Potter and Shanarra.
This is my list for 2016
https://theswabianbookreview.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/new-books-for-2016/
Everyone is so organised with these lists!
“There was and there was not” by Meline Toumani
And I re-read “Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady” by Florence King.
Burroughs is a lot of fun.
Oh, man … I miss her in the Review. Not that Lileks isn’t excellent, but “The Misanthrope’s Corner” proved calumny and vituperation to be high art.
I’ve never read any of the Tarzan books, but I’ve read the first three books of the John Carter of Mars series. Some of it was pretty entertaining.
I’m amazed at the length of the lists from frequent posters and commentators. I barely have time to scan comments at Ricochet, let alone read books! But what I managed this year were:
Coolidge, Amity Shlaes
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Eric Metaxas
Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey, David Horowitz
The Survivor, Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills
Fahrenheit 431, Ray Bradbury
Glass is Half Full: The Decline and Rebirth of the Legal Profession, Benjamin H. Barton
Dad is Fat, Jim Gaffigan
Seemed to be a year of biography for me.
Same here, and I also have Applebaum’s work on my night stand too.
2015 was a year of mostly fiction for me. I keep my book on my bedside table, and most non-fiction tends to keep me from sleeping.
I read the entire “Outlander” series by Diana Gabaldon, and all eight were 500-800 pages. I got less sleep than normal, because I had a hard time putting the books away.
Outlander
Dragonfly in Amber
Voyager
Drums of Autumn
The Fiery Cross
A Breath of Snow and Ashes
An Echo in the Bone
Written in My Own Heart’s Blood
I have to say, I learned a great deal of real history from reading those books, since the author really did her homework. Because of that, I plan to find something else to read about the “War of the Regulation” in the pre-Revolutionary South. (suggestions welcome)
I read all nine of the Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow series by Orson Scott Card. Yes, there are nine, including “Ender in Exile”.
I read the first two of the I-Robot series by Mickey Zucker Reichert, the third of which is due in 2016.
I-Robot, To Protect, and I-Robot, to Obey (both are history of Dr Susan Calvin, the progenitor of humanoid robots in Asimov’s Robot and Foundation novels)
I always read any new books by Daniel Silva, and the latest was The English Spy. I also read The Survivor, the partly-finished last novel by Vince Flynn, finished by Kyle Mills.
I did read Savage Continent by Keith Lowe, and I found it very disturbing. I consider myself lucky that my family members made it out of Europe before the Holocaust.
I just finished Rush Revere and the Star Spangled Banner by Rush Limbaugh, and I heartily recommend all the Rush Revere books to any parents out there wanting to teach kids what really happened in American history. Ray bought me a stuffed “Liberty, the talking horse” for Christmas.
Next on my list will be Dr. Rahe’s book on Sparta, and Symphony for the City of the Dead, by M.T. Anderson, about Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad.
My kids love the Rush Revere books.
FYI, next year you’ll be reading Grand Strategies.
Really enjoyed it. Every chapter is him interviewing a different comedian.
I only made it part of the way through the second one. Something about it just wasn’t working for me. Maybe I started too soon after finishing the first one.
Silva is one of my favorites.
Anything by Louise Penney
Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Style was entertaining and its advice is overwhelmingly solid.
Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille is radical pornography which won’t let you know if you’ll like it, but will let you know if you won’t. I wrote about it in the PIT.
That’s me times a hundred. Here are the ones I can remember:
The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz
All the Trouble in the World by P.J. O’Rourke
Give War a Chance by P.J. O’Rourke
Population Wars by Greg Graffin
Love thy Neighbor by Peter Maass
After America by Mark Steyn
Rushbabe, my other half is a huge Outlander fan. I haven’t read any of the books but I watched the TV show with her and like it so much I abandoned Game Of Thrones! I suppose because it offers this thing called ‘hope’ along with the pain.
This year I started reading Patrick Leigh Fermoor’s books. For those that don’t know, Fermoor was a British/Irish adventurer. Among other things, he walked across Europe on foot in the 1930s at the age of 19, and was part of a band of Greek mountain guerrillas that kidnapped a Nazi General during the war.
I have finished reading parts 1 and 2 of his recount of his European walk: ‘A Time Of Gifts’ and ‘Between The Woods And The Water’. I am now on part 3: The Broken Road.
In fiction, the standouts would be any/all of the late Kent Haruf’s books. I’m working my way through (and enjoying) the William Kent Krueger Cork O’Connor series, but his non-series story, Ordinary Grace, was good too.
Okay, good post – this finally got me to pull the lever and join. I’ve been thinking about it for months, but have mostly been concerned that I spend too much time on Richocet already, even without being able to see behind the curtain.
My books this year, non-fiction:
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph Ellis
James Madison: A Life Reconsidered, by Lynne Cheney – ★★★★
The Life of Andrew Jackson, by Robert Remini
An Interesting Narrative, by Olaudah Equiano – ★★★★
If This is a Man (Survival in Auschwitz), by Primo Levi – ★★★★★
A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of American Political Corruption, by Jay Cost
Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, by Robert Higgs
Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, by Harvey A. Silvergate
The Tyranny of Silence, by Flemming Rose – ★★★★
The ones that got away (on my wish list at the beginning of the year and still there):
Is Administrative Law Unlawful?, by Philip Hamburger
Republics Ancient & Modern: Volume 1: The Ancien Regime in Classical Greece, by Paul Rahe
Religion and spirituality:
Génesis
Éxodo
Levítico
Números
Deuteronomio
Josué
Jueces
Rut
Libro Primero de Samuel
Libro Secundo de Samuel
Libro Primero de Los Reyes (At least I expect to finish by tomorrow.)
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, by Immaculée Ilibagiza★★★★
Poustinia: Encountering God in Silence, Solitude and Prayer, by Catherine Doherty
Letters from the Desert, by Carlo Carretto★★★★
Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy, by Rumer Godden★★★★★
‘In the Beginning…’: A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Wisdom from the Western Isles: The Making of a Mystic, by David Torkington
Seeds of Contemplation, by Thomas Merton
Come Rack! Come Rope!, by Robert Hugh Benson★★★★
Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life, by James Martin
The Ear of the Heart: An Actress’ Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows, by Mother Dolores Hart and Richard DeNeut ★★★★
Morality: The Catholic View, by Servais Pinckaers, O.P.
And finally, fiction (part I):
A Dance to the Music of Time, by Anthony Powell
A Corpse in the Koryo, by James Church
Hidden Moon, by James Church
Ulysses, by James Joyce ★★★★
A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth ★★★★★
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens ★★★★
A Dance with Dragons, by George R.R. Martin
Remembering Babylon, by David Malouf
The Garden Party, by Katherine Mansfield (a re-read)
The Living and the Dead, by Patrick White ★
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe (a re-read) ★★★★
Half a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ★★★★★
Ancestral Voices, by Etienne Van Heerden
The Dark Child, by Camara Laye ★★★★
Chaka, by Thomas Mofolo
Untouchable, by Mulk Raj Anand
Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino ★★★★
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami
The Romantics, by Pankaj Mishra
The Emperor’s Pearl, by Robert Van Gulik
A Hero of Our Time, by Mikhail Lermontov
Some Prefer Nettles, by Junichiro Tanizaki
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, by Heinrich Böll ★★★★★
Man Walks Into a Room, by Nicole Krauss
August is a Wicked Month, by Edna O’Brien
Cat and Mouse, by Günter Grass
Billiards at Half Past Nine, by Heinrich Böll ★★★★
Blood of the Wicked, by Leighton Gage
Buried Strangers, by Leighton Gage
No One Writes to the Colonel, by Gabriel García Marquez (a re-read) ★★★★
The Ministry of Special Cases, by Nathan Englander
The Lost Steps, by Alejo Carpentier
Our Lady of the Assassins, by Fernando Vallejo ★
Deep Rivers, by José María Arguedas (a re-read) ★★★★
That’s such a wonderful book.
I’ve only read Tarzan of the Apes and A Princess of Mars, but found them equally entertaining. Wish I knew of them when I was 12.
Relatedly, I also started reading some of Robert E Howard’s Conan stories this year. They’re somewhat similar in style — with a lot more supernatural stuff — but I was downright shocked at how good the writing was. Not great, mind you, but good.
Fiction (Part II):
The Path to the Nest of Spiders, by Italo Calvino
The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan
Night, by Elie Wiesel ★★★★★
Misericordia, by Benito Pérez Galdós ★★★★
Rites of Passage, by William Golding
Flaubert’s Parrot, by Julian Barnes
Vertigo, by W.G. Sebald
Cause for Alarm, by Eric Ambler
Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light, by Ivan Klíma
The Quest for Christa T., by Christa Wolf
Living, by Henry Green
A Void, by Georges Perec
Never Go Back, by Lee Child
Surfacing, by Margaret Atwood
Black Water, by Joyce Carol Oates
Anagrams, by Lorrie Moore ★
The Tin Flute, by Gabrielle Roy
Timbuktu, by Paul Auster
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Heminway
The Love Hunter, by Jon Hassler ★★★★
The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje ★
Mother’s Milk, by Edward St. Aubyn
On the Black Hill, by Bruce Chatwin
A Ballad for Georg Henig, by Viktor Paskov ★★★★
Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne
Independent People, by Halldór Laxness
Dracula, by Bram Stoker
The Joke, by Milan Kundera
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, by John Le Carre
Jacques the Fatalist and His Master, by Denis Diderot
Time of Silence, by Luis Martín-Santos
Annie John, by Jamaica Kincaid (a re-read)
A Hero of Our Time, by Mikhail Lermontov
The Quiet American, by Graham Greene
The Blind Owl, by Sadegh Hedayat ★
Currently reading (may or may not finish by year end):
Alamut, by Vladimir Bartol
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
A note on my ratings:
★★★★★ – Excellent/important; everyone should read
★★★★ – I highly recommend
★ – I read this [coc] so you don’t have to
One of my favorites. You can just about smell the fog, the cheap cigars and the cheaper whiskey.
My hat’s off to you. I started this twice but couldn’t get through it. I did get further the second time, but still just couldn’t force my way through. Friends have said it improves once you get past the first two parts, which are just foundational. Just foundational. I am familiar enough with my Bible to understand the value of foundations of sand.
Goodreads provides a nice, graphical summary of my 2015 reading list here, complete with statistics. As you can see, military history is my primary interest. If I could figure out an easy way to export it in text format for posting, I would.
I’m away from home now, and my memory of the books I’ve read is a little spotty this year, since I’ve kept much busier than usual (my wife and I had moved for a sabbatical). But here are a few that I can remember off the top of my head:
T. H. White, “The Once and Future King” (Audible rcording)
—I had read the first volume, “The Sword in the Stone,” in high school, and it’s even better than I remembered it. Much better and with more material, of course, than they could ever have fit into the Disney movie. The later volumes go downhill. The Queen of Air and Darkness is still pretty good, but with more and more gruesome cruelty. The Ill-Made Knight is long and boring, has almost none of the wit and humor that made The Sword in the Stone such a pleasure to read, and we’ve just about given up on it at this point. Sir Lancelot is a really gloomy, depressed party-pooper.
Kip Thorne, “The Science of Interstellar” (Audible recording)
This is the scientist’s book to accompany the movie “Interstellar.” My wife is a general relativist, and she’s been using this book to design public talks on the subject of black hole and worm hole physics. It’s a good read.
Paul Brickhill, “The Great Escape” (Audible recording)
Wow! Just…wow. I’ve gotten inspired to design a course I might call “Survival Physics,” covering the kind of applied physics knowledge these POWs needed to know to tunnel out of Stalag Luft III, forge their documents, and navigate cross-country.
Kipling, “The Jungle Book” (Audible recording)
I’d seen two Disney versions, but I’d never read the book. I’m impressed.
Rowling, “Harry Potter” (Audible recording)
I read all of the books when they came out, but we’re just now introducing our younger daughter to them, and we have another long trip coming up.
Paul Nahin, “Inside Interesting Integrals”
I got this for Christmas this year and have been eagerly diving into it. Math was my hardest subject as a student (so I decided to become a physicist?), amd integration was my hardest part of math, and I’ve wanted to become good at it. This book is written by an electrical engineer, and it’s presented in a readable, funny, colloquial way. I’m hoping I can apply some of the tricks in the Electricity and Magnetism course I’ll be teaching this spring.
“The Lost Art of Finding Our Way”
This is the first and the best book I read this year. It’s by a Harvard astronomy professor, covering all the ways we can use of navigating and orienting ourselves. It’s not really from a physicist’s particular perspective. He was inspired to write it because he enjoys sea kayaking, and he was present one day when two girls were lost at sea in a fog. He goes into basic safety rules for hiking, how to find north, how Polynesian navigators would read the waves to find islands…all sorts of things. I recommend it for anybody who likes adventuring, exploring, sailing,or hiking. I’m taching several of the tips to my eight year old daughter now.
O’Brian, “Master and Commander” series, books…something like 8-12.
Trying to pace myself. There are only 21 of them, and they have to last a lifetime. But as a friend noted, these are books I cann easily read a second time.
Sansom, “Soveriegn.”
The third(?) in his Matthew Shardlake series, which began with “Dissolution.” The narrator and main character is a lawyer in the reign of Henry VIII, who gets caught up in various mysteries, often murder cases, while working on his mormundane property law practice. They’re all a lot of fun to read, and they’re well written, too.
I rarely finish books anymore, but I have several I’m poking around in.
The one I’ve made serious progress in is Jim Holt’s Why Does the World Exist?.
I’ve started the following:
Also: