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My 2020 Reading List
A few years ago my brothers and I started keeping lists of all the books we read during the year and sharing them with each other at year’s end.
Since I’m unlikely to start and finish a book before midnight, here’s this year’s list:
Brad Thor The Lions of Lucerne
Brad Thor Path of the Assassin
Brad Thor State of the Union
Brad Thor Blowback
Brad Thor Take Down
Brad Thor The First Commandment
Brad Thor The Last Patriot
Brad Thor The Apostle
Brad Thor Foreign Influence
Brad Thor The Athena Project
Brad Thor Full Black
Brad Thor The Black List
Dave Barry Lessons From Lucy
Herman Wouk Winds of War
Herman Wouk War and Remembrance
Hugh Lofting Dr. Doolittle’s Zoo
Ian Toll Pacific Crucible: War at sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 (Vol 1)
Ian Toll The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944 (Vol 2)
Ian Toll Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (Vol 3)
Jim Geraghty Hunting Four Horsemen
PG Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves
PG Wodehouse The Inimitable Jeeves
PG Wodehouse Something Fresh
PG Wodehouse Leave it to Psmith
PG Wodehouse Very Good Jeeves
PG Wodehouse Thank You Jeeves
PG Wodehouse The Code of the Woosters
PG Wodehouse Joy In The Morning
Robert Heinlein The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
Robert Heinlein Starship Troopers
Stephan Pastis Timmy Failure: Zero to Hero (Book 0)
Tom Clancy/Marc Cameron Code of Honor
Tom Clancy/Marc Cameron Shadow of the Dragon
Tom Clancy/Mike Maden Firing Point
Tom Wolfe Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers
Victor Mattus Vodka
William Craig The Fall of Japan: The Final weeks of WWII in the Pacific
William Shirer Berlin Diary
Zane Grey Riders of the Purple Sage
Published in General
Oh, believe me, between editing, polishing, etc. I read each about six times — which explains why, unless I have to for research, I never, ever read them again . . .that, and not wanting to revisit bad phrasing, bad grammar, and wrong predictions. My first book, written in 1984, is being republished in a special edition. I had to revisit it to write a Foreword/History. It may have been the most painful experience of my career. Where did I get all that misplaced confidence? Why was I such a terrible writer?
What a great list. If you liked the Brad Thor books, I think that you would also like the Vince Flynn series. Happy reading!
The best book that I read this year was “The Splendid and the Vile.” Here is my Main Feed Review of this book. https://ricochet.com/790562/the-splendid-and-the-vile/
My 2020 books are here, courtesy of Goodreads. 23 books (24 actually, but one wasn’t on Goodreads and I didn’t bother to add it). A bit of a mix last year, but no fiction at all.
I’m currently reading The Pan Am Clipper, which I got as a Christmas gift to accompany the Pan Am tabletop board game.
Great post idea! Due to lockdowns and working from home all the time, I read less than I usually do this year. Cabin fever forced me to spend my free time away from home where I read, as much as possible this year. Plus, the coffee shop I like to hang out at no longer allows indoor seating.
I finished my “read one biography on every president” goal this year, which my list reflects. I almost exclusively read history books. In no order:
Philip Bobbitt The Shield of Achilles
Stephen Kotkin Stalin Volume 1: Paradoxes of Power 1878-1928
Thomas Sowell Discrimination and Disparities
Scott Adams Loserthink
Aaron Clarey The Curse of the High IQ
Victor Davis Hanson The Case For Trump
Roy Strong The Story of Britain
Ron Chernow Washington: A Life
Paul Nagel John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life
Freeman Cleaves Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Times
Philip Klein President James Buchanan: A Biography
Homer Socolofsky The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison
David McCullough Truman
John Farrell Richard Nixon: The Life
Scott Kaufman Ambition, Pragmatism and Party: A Political Biography of Gerald R. Ford
John Harris The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House
Anne Applebaum Gulag: A History
I read The Splendid and the Vile partly on your recommendation. I wasn’t impressed.
Yes, they take place in the Ryanverse, although the more recent ones focus more on Jack Junior, “The Campus”, and Mr. Clark and company. They’re generally pretty readable. There are usually two/year, one in the summer and one in late fall. The shadow authors changed a couple years ago, they used to be Grant Blackwood and Mark Greaney.
I had a month working at home this year and obviously Covid shut down many entertainment options, so you would think I would have read more this year, but I read less.
My 2020 Books
Ministry Books:
Pure Scum by Mike Sares
When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
Honest Evangelism by Rico Tice
Vanishing Grace by Philip Yancey
Doing Life with Your Adult Children by Jim Burns
Worship by the Book by D. A. Carson
Strong and Weak by Andy Crouch
Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle
Moviemaking Books:
The Evil Dead Companion by Bill Warren
Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul Sammon
The Making of The African Queen by Katherine Hepburn
Profoundly Disturbing by Joe Bob Briggs
Other nonfiction:
Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living by Manjula Martin
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
Perry Mason novels:
The Case of the Worried Waitress by Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Haunted Husband by Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Sunbather’s Diary by Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Buried Clock by Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Crooked Candle by Erle Stanley Gardner
Other fiction:
The Man Who Came Uptown by George Pelecanos
The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean
Matchstick Men by Eric Garcia
Gee – and what are you reading for fun?
I’d guess the Frank J. Fleming books would be fun.
I’ve read so many books this year it would take me hours to compile the list. Sorry . . .
However, the book I’m currently reading is Fatal Mercy: The Man Who Lost the Civil War by Thomas Moore (full disclosure: I’ve met Tom, and he’s a great guy!). Here’s the link:
https://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Mercy-Man-Lost-Civil/dp/1947660195/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=fatal+mercy&qid=1609593762&sr=8-2
The book is a hefty tome and can’t be read quickly. Practically every sentence carries weight and something of importance to be pondered. Nonetheless it’s worthy of a read if you’re interested in that time period, and The War Between the States in particular.
I’ll check it out thanks. I started my own book group a few months ago and so far we’ve only been able to have our meetings via zoom. But it’s better than nothing!
And a few others that I don’t recommend.
I think it’s pretty balanced, at least for me. A third are fun (Fleming, Spade, Partridge, Quinn, and Wodehouse), a third religious, and a third classics. Plato was the most Not Fun.
I love seeing so much Wodehouse! I think we all needed a good laugh this year. Wodehouse never ever goes out. Ben Macintyre’s books are always good. He finds gems everywhere.
This idea of recording our books is a nice one. Let me see if I can put down a few of mine, in no particular order.
Kiss Myself Goodbye – Ferdinand Mount
Five Days Gone – Laura Cumming
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher – Kate Summerscale
Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl
Une si longue lettre (So long a letter) – Mariama Ba
Six Years at the Russian Court – Margaret Eager
An Impeccable Spy: Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent – Matthew Owens
The Flight from the Truth: The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information – Jean François Revel
Don’t Burn this Book- Dave Rubin
White Guilt – Shelby Steele
The Diversity Delusion – Heather Mac Donald
Black Culture Matters – Nick Pilgrim
The Iliad – Caroline Alexander translation
The Work of the Dead – Thomas W. Laqueur
Un amore – Dino Buzzati
Tales of the Unexpected – Roald Dahl
Art – Yasmina Reza
The Red-Haired Woman – Orhan Pamuk
I love Wodehouse. I used to read those books out loud to my mother in the car while she was driving, as one of our mother-daughter activities.
I’d plug my own books, but
the COCmodesty prevents me . . .I still laugh when I remember one of my favorite short stories, “Mr Potter Takes a Rest Cure”… “Are you they-ah, Mr. Pottah?” Such a good memory! So much fun to read out loud with others!