Books in 2024

A few years ago, I began logging in my cell phone the books I read, including the title, author, and date I finished a particular book.  Why?  Part of it was vanity, I suppose.  Part of it, though, was it was easier for me make a book recommendation to a friend or colleague if I had the relevant information about a book easily accessible.

This year, I read 40 books, which might be a record for me. 

Just for fun, I traveled down the Walter Mosley rabbit hole, as I read - in order - all 15 novels in the Easy Rawlins series.  From Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) to Blood Grove (2021), I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one.  As a reader, it was interesting in a year's time to follow Easy Rawlins in Los Angeles as he grew from a young man in the late 1940's to a middle aged private investigator in the late 1960's.  In many ways, the city of Los Angeles was almost as much of a main character in the novels as Easy Rawlins.  Walter Mosley expertly weaved the changes in the city into each story, so much so that I felt as if I had lived in Los Angeles during the 20+ years from the first novel to the last.  

I enjoy plot driven thrillers, to be sure.  Walter Mosley compares very favorable to James Lee Burke, one of my favorite authors of the genre.  Easy Rawlins and Dave Robicheaux are similar protagonists.  Damaged as human beings.  Emotionally vulnerable but physically tough.  Hardened by life experiences, particularly from their childhoods.  Scarred by their experiences in war, Rawlins from World War II and Robicheaux from the Vietnam War.  Two sides of the same coin on many levels. 

In terms of straight fiction - literature as it were - my favorite was the first book I read in 2023, America, America by Ethan Canin.  Like all good novels, the characters resonated with me and I didn't want it to end.  A coming of age tale set in the late 1960's and early 1970's in upstate New York, the story was set against the backdrop of the 1972 presidential election.  I would re-read this one some day, which is something I rarely do.  It brought to mind Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe saga and Richard Russo, as well.  

Riverman.  An American Odyssey, by Ben McGrath, was the book that moved me the most in 2023.  It spoke to me in the same way Into the Wild (John Krakauer) did more than 20 years ago.  Similar true stories with sadly familiar endings.  I think Riverman was the book I gave copies of to the most friends in 2023, including to my sister, Tracy, for Christmas.

Salvage this World by Michael Farris Smith, proud resident of Oxford, MS, and running buddy of Wright Thompson, unexpectedly grabbed like no novel has in a while.  Set in the deep south during an apocalyptic weather event, it was reminiscent of Stephen King's The Stand, my favorite book of all time.

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman (Yvon Choinard) and Wild Idea (Jonathan Franklin), which I read back-to-back in October, inspired me and changed the way I look at the world.  What more can you ask of a book?  Strangely, Yvon Choinard and Doug Tompkins (the subject of Wild Idea) were best friends.  Choinard was present when Tompkins died tragically on an ill advised kayak trip on General Carrera Lake in Chile in December 2015.

I particularly enjoyed Jimmy Carter's Sources of Strength.  Mediations on Scripture for a Living Faith.  I picked it up on a whim while browsing one day in Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, TN, and I was glad I did.  Published in 1997, it's still timely 26 years later.  Somehow, it felt important for me to read it, and finish it, as Jimmy Carter has been in hospice care in Georgia for the past few months.  He's an incredible man.  If ever there was a good and faithful servant, Jimmy Carter is it.

The last book I read in 2023 was one of my favorites.  Romney.  A Reckoning, by McKay Coppins.  I got it from my sister for Christmas and read it in four or five days.  What made it so fascinating, I think, is the fact that Mitt Romney gave the author unfettered access to his private journal and e-mails.  Simply a fantastic and informative read.

There were other books, of course, but those are the highlights.  We're a reading family and it gives me great pleasure to see my boys reading regularly.  A love of reading is one of the greatest gifts Jude and I could give JP and Joe.