End of Year Reading List

I had a hard time locating the last reading list and mini reviews I made, but I thought I'd do another and maybe it will overlap.

• A Question of Loyalty, by Douglas C. Waller. The story of Billy Mitchell, popularly known as the father of the modern air force. The centerpiece of the story is his court martial, where he was tried for making disloyal statements when he wrote an over-the-top public critique of the state of the air corps. It was interesting to read about something I had never heard of before, but the book was a bit dry.


• Persistence of Memory, by Tony Eprile. Want to know what it's like to be a Jewish kid growing up in South Africa around the time when apartheid was coming down? Probably not, and neither did I by the time I was done with this book. In fact, I couldn't even remember why I was interested in the first place.


• An Unfinished Life, by Mark Spragg. Great story with engaging characters. I always hesitate to pick up a book that says "Now a movie from..." but I really enjoyed this story of a young, single widow and her kid who ends up going back to live with her crusty father-in-law. Takes place roughly in Wyoming, so it's a kind of modern western type of theme.


• Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons. This seems to be a re-release of an older book about a tough young girl whose mother dies and father tries to abuse her, but who knows what she wants in life and makes it happen. I liked this one quite a bit. It reminded me a bit of A Complicated Kindness that I got in Canada and which I now see in stores here.


• The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri. A story of what it's like for children of parents from India to be born and raised in the US. I work with many people from India, so to me this was interesting. Well written, fun to read. The main character ends up going to Yale, so it had that hook for me too.


• Harbor, by Lorraine Adams. The story of Arab immigrants in the US. Puts the human touch on the situation, with people escaping from really lousy and dangerous conditions to come to the US, as with many immigrants. Mixes it up with some terrorism-by-association and some real terrorism to paint a murky picture that is probably reflective of the difficult tradeoffs we all face between security and civil liberties. This book is a lot more enjoyable than I made it sound!


• Codex, by Lev Grossman. Lightweight mystery mixing computer games and rare books. I was glad it was over when I finished, but I did finish.


• The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth. I've read a few Philip Roth books over time, but this was by far the best. Chillingly realistic story that postulates that well known anti-semite Charles Lindbergh wins the election against Roosevelt ("It's war with Roosevelt or peace with Lindbergh!"). Off the country goes into its isolationist mode, figuring out clever ways to assimilate Jews into mainstream America for their own good. Great story, followed by details of what the real people in the story really said and did, because it's hard to tell reality from fiction at certain points.


• Blood Done Sign My Name, by Timothy B. Tyson. This non-fiction book centers around the killing of a young black man in Oxford, North Carolina in the early 70's. The author is about my age, and the book starts with his friend telling him that the friend's father "killed 'em a nigger last night." The book is told too much from the author's personal point of view perhaps, but the personal angle is also what gives the book much of its appeal, especially since I was about his age while a lot of the racial violence of the late 60's and early 70's was going on.


• Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford. Dara still doesn't believe me, but Ghengis Khan has really gotten a bad rap in history. Turns out he was a self-made man from lowly beginnings who overcame the tribalism of Mongolia and founded an empire based on free trade, meritocracy, and religious freedom. Of course, if you were not his faithful servant, you were a dead man, but hey, life was more difficult back in the 13th century. A bit dry as biographies go, but how often do you get to read about Ghengis Khan?


• Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson. I think this is one of those books that book reviewers love, but that nobody else does. The theme really is about the pull of being a "transient" in the lives of two sisters being raised by their wacky, wandering aunt. Takes place in the middle of nowhere in the west. I'm sure there was lots of symbolism and deep meaning I missed, so fill me in if you get it all sorted out.


• The Dogs of Bedlam Farm, by Jon Katz. Overly introspective middle aged white guy buys a farm in the middle of upstate New York for the express purpose of raising his three sheepdogs and contemplating the meaning of such a meaningless life and the role of dogs in it. Since I am a middle aged white guy who likes dogs, and I didn't like this book, I guess it is targeted at more introspective types.


• Arc of Justice : A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, by Kevin Boyle. Non-fiction story of a black doctor who buys a house in a white neighborhood in Detroit in the late 1920's. The "neighborhood improvement association" gathers people on the street in front to drive them out, one of the 11 people inside shoots into the crowd, killing one person and wounding another. All 11 are arrested and charged with 1st degree murder. Clarence Darrow, a few months off of the Scopes monkey trial, takes on the defense. Great story, well-paced, about a period of time I didn't know much about.

Enjoy!