2024 Favorite Books

 

 My most interesting 2024 reads.

 

Non-fiction

Virginia’s Lost Appalachian Trail, Mills Kelly (2023)

Mills Kelly recounts the major relocation of the Appalachian Trail in southwest Virginia in the early 1950s and retraces the remnants and memories in the abandoned Trail corridor. Kelly’s narrative follows the original route and documents the people and decisions that established that route in the AT’s early years. Original correspondence, journals, local memories of the trail’s initial years and the hiker accounts add a depth to the description that demonstrates the trail’s attractions and how people saw and understood the trail. In Kelly’s words, the abandoned trail remains alive, even if largely forgotten by the larger trail community whose AT experience now lies miles to the north and many years past the days when the AT crossed what remains a wild and unique part of Virginia.

Silent Cavalry: How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta and Then Got Written Our of History, Howell Raines (2023)

Howell Raines traces his family history back to northern Alabama during the Civil War and anti-secessionist sentiment in that region in those years. In the process he discovers a largely unknown US cavalry unit composed of Alabama Unionists who accompanied William Sherman on his capture of Atlanta and subsequent March to the Sea. He also documents the 1^st Alabama Cavalry, USA contributions to those operations and the complete lack of any record of their service among Alabama’s official records. Following up on that omission, Raines shows how official Alabama and Confederate apologists in academia conspired to erase that history by creating the myth of the Lost Cause that exonerated enslavers from their crime and changed the way America came to assess the Civil War, a distortion that has only recently come under rigorous scrutiny.

Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, Heather Cox Richardson (2023)

History professor Richardson examines America’s present in terms of its past, laying out the contradictions built in to the nation’s social, economic and political system and the always present aspirations of those originally excluded from the system’s opportunities. Her analysis is a hopeful one, demonstrating that America has always been a work in progress and has weathered threats to its democracy in the past. Today’s inequality and dominance by an entrenched minority is little different from the slavocracy that controlled the federal government in support of the South’s “peculiar institution” leading up to the Civil War or the monopoly economy of the late 19^th /early 20^th century that preceded the Great Depression. In both instances the majority of Americans overcame that dominance. Same same with the excluded. Step by step, they demanded and worked for inclusion. In the end they rejected the argument that allowing more to participate in government that levied taxes to provide public benefits was socialism. Although Cox is hopeful, she cautions that fulfilling that hope required vigilance and determination.

Walk, Ride, Paddle: A Life Outdoors, Tim Kaine (2024)

Following his 2016 defeat for Vice-President, two years into the Donald Trump administration and turning 60 Virginia Senator Tim Kaine needed some “away time” for his soul. His solution was a multi-year Virginia outdoor triathlon consisting of hiking all 559 Appalachian Trail miles through the state, cycling the over 300 Virginia miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive, and canoeing the length of the James River from its source in Virginia’s western mountains to the Chesapeake bay. He did each leg in succeeding years, 2019 through 2021. He did all this during breaks in Senate sessions. The hike and canoe sections of his odyssey were the most interesting sections. Each took about 40 days to complete and provided ample opportunity for Kaine to marvel at the opportunity to be out in nature, experience nature in its many incarnations and reflect on his life, career and good fortune in his family and friends. In contrast, his bicycle trip lasted only eight days and required far less logistical planning (since he hired a guide/outfitter to support that effort). And although the hike and canoe trip were sandwiched between Senate sessions, Kaine’s account has all the character of a long-distance trip. Kaine’s frustrations, anxieties and weariness on the trail are very familiar to this AT thru-hiker. So are the moments of wonder and sheer joy of immersing oneself in nature.

Whiskey Tender, Deborah Jackson Taffa (2024)

A gritty memoir of a childhood navigating among the many challenges of growing up as a mixed-race member of a tribe with limited cultural history in a family where the parents are strongly focused on the children developing the knowledge and skills to function in the dominant white society. An added challenge is the family’s relocation to Farmington, NM adjacent to the Navajo Nation with its very strong cultural and traditional values. Deborah is a smart kid but, along with the normal childhood uncertainties, she often feels alienated from the many surrounding and often conflicting, influences in her life: parents, tribal identification, discrimination, and the sense that she is never good enough. Her alienation becomes especially acute as she seeks to understand and embrace her Native American roots, especially against her parents’ resistance. Despite all of the challenges, the author manages to graduate from high school which largely ends the narrative. A brief epilogue describes a career that begins working as a maid in Yellowstone National Park and continues through to a writing and academic success while becoming fully aware of and comfortable in her Native traditions as well as white society.

Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction, Fergus M. Bordewich (2023)

Although the South lost the Civil War, ex-Confederates were not willing to accept the new reality of newly freed slaves taking their place as full citizens. Form 1865 to 1869 hey had a sympathetic president in Andrew Johnson whose administration sparred with Radical Republicans in Congress over the terms of Reconstruction did little to protect Black Americans eager to pursue their rights, often at great personal risk. Any Black who sought to participate in civil life or even private economic endeavors, along with their white supporters were often subject to violence by vigilante groups largely organized under the banner of the Ku Klux Klan and similar white supremacist groups Following the election of 1868, the Grant administration was more willing to challenge the Klan its allies using a variety of laws that expanded federal authority to prosecute the perpetrators when state and local authorities (many of whom participated in the violence). The result was an effective reduction of the violence. In the end, however, the effort was undermined by national indifference to the plight of the former enslaved persons and white supremacy became the norm in the South following the end of Reconstruction in 1877.

Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail, Andrea Lankford (2023)

Former National Park Service ranger describes effort she and other volunteers made over several years trying to figure out what happened to three PCT thru-hikers who went missing in 2015-17. The narrative provides a lot of background on search and rescue operations and the emotional ties among the searchers and victims’ families. Also included are the experiences of the on-line communities that are helpful in finding volunteers and soliciting information but also attract trolls and other unhelpful individuals. Most difficult is knowing when and how to accept that missing persons, like the subjects of Lankford’s efforts, will likely never never be found. A very sobering book.

The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi, Boyce Upholt (2024)

Boyce Upholt documents and explains the history of North America’s largest river from pre-history to the present with a clear understanding of humans have lived with and tried to manage the Mississippi for their own purposes. Lots of hydrology and engineering is involved but throughout, Upholt is aware that economic and social goals are not always compatible with a river that moves according to its own imperatives and climatic conditions that affect its behavior. Upholt also brings a many local voices to the discussion, clearly illustrating the conflicts among human interests that must also contend with the natural forces inherent in a river that drains much of a continent. Despite the complexity of the forces and tasks involved in attempting to control such a fundamental force of nature, The Great River is easily readable and, in many respects, a metaphor for mankind’s relation to our home planet.

The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance That Won the War, Giles Milton (2002)

Based on extensive primary and secondary sources The Stalin Affair offers a detailed and fascinating look into the diplomacy, both official and personal, that allowed the United States and Britain to successfully co-operate with Josef Stalin’s Russia after that nation was invaded by Nazi Germany. Much of the narrative centers on US diplomat Averell Harriman, his daughter Kathy, and British diplomat Archie Clark Kerr. Winston Churchill and Stalin also figure prominently since they had more opportunity to meet personally, Franklin Roosevelt is more removed but his influence is always present. The most revealing aspect is the extent to which Harriman and Kerr forged a deep personal relationship with Stalin that not only convinced him of his allies’ trustworthiness but also revealed his far less familiar charming side, an engaging, well-informed individual. Also interesting are the descriptions of the public events, gala dinners in wartime Moscow that somehow seem unreal. Giles Milton presents this all in an easily readable narrative.

Holding the Line: Women and the Great Arizona Copper Strike of 1982, Barbara Kingsolver (1989)

Before she became a best-selling novelist Barbara Kingsolver was a freelance journalist assigned to cover a strike in the small Arizona mining towns of Clifton, Morenci and Ajo. The strike against Phelps Dodge, a pillar of the state’s economy, began in 1983 and lasted 18 months during a difficult times nationwide for organized labor. When the striking miners were barred by injunction from picketing, their wives came out in their place. Kingsolver got to know the women and the changes that overtook them as they took on new responsibilities during the strike. She learned about life in a company town and the cultural traditions that sustained workers and their families. She watched with the women as the governor sent in National Guard and state police to protect the “replacement workers” and authorities harassed the women with bogus claims of violence and trumped up charges. The writing is lively—much of it in the women’s own words—highlighting the their strength and resilience while providing lots of local detail and enough economics and labor history to help the reader understand the strike’s importance.

The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It, Corey Bretschneider (2024)

Ben Franklin said “a republic, if you can keep it” and America’s history demonstrates that keeping that republic is an ongoing task. Corey Bretschneider chronicles John Adams attempts to stifle free speech, James Buchanan’s support for expanding slavery, Andrew Johnson’s attempt to re-establish white supremacy after the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson’s promotion of racial segregation and Richard Nixon’s claim for presidential immunity above the law. In each instance presidential assertions were challenged by an emerging opposition that offered its own Constitutional arguments against those presidents. Sometimes success was achieved quickly—think Jefferson’s victory over Adams—but lasting success occurred only after continuing effort to cement those gains. It’s that latter effort that is essential and Bretschneider points out that that follow up was sidetracked by Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon, which left the door open for Donald Trump to lead his own assault on American democracy.

A Man of Two Faces, Viet Thanh Nguyen (2023)

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s memoir ranges from the highly personal experiences of his refugee background and struggle to understand his place in his adopted society and his Vietnamese heritage to America’s unspoken history of genocide, colonialism and exploitation. He wrestles with his family’s own history and how new life in the US separates him from that history and his parents. He fully respects their work ethic and the sacrifices they made for him while he becomes more American, less Vietnamese and very different from his parents. He casts a cold eye on what he calls AMERICA^TM and the impossibility of a non-white immigrant to fully participate in that dream no matter how hard they try. Written with dramatic breaks in the format that hurl the reader into the prose and with occasional irony and humor, A Man of Two Faces is as much a critique of Nguyen ‘s adopted country and colonialism/capitalism as the story of his life.

 

Fiction

 

The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead (2019)

In early 1960s Florida Elwood Curtis is both inspired by the emerging Civil Rights movement and on a trajectory to higher education when when he is detained as a passenger in a stolen car while hitchhiking. Sentenced to the Nickel Academy, a juvenile reformatory that is largely an institution of abuse, neglect and, in Jim Crow Florida, strictly segregated. Elwood soon experiences the horrors of a system that considers him and those like him to be disposable. Colson Whitehead vividly describes that system: its rules rituals, frequent midnight beatings and occasional disappearances in a compelling narrative that also illustrates consequences that linger long after Nickel Boys leave the “Academy”. 

 

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, James McBride (2024)

Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the mid-1930s is experiencing changing demographics; immigrants from eastern Europe and Blacks from the American South are increasing their numbers. Although most of the newcomers are largely confined to enclaves like Chicken Hill, older, longstanding residents regard them as an unwelcome change to their community. Moshe and Chona Ludlow straddle this divide ; he operates the town’s only integrated dance hall and Chona manages their Heaven and Earth Grocery Store in Chicken Hill where, unlike many of their their fellow Jews, they continue to live above the grocery store rather than move to nicer parts of town. Their continued presence in Chicken Hill creates a natural link between Blacks and Jews that offer mutual support against discrimination and the hostility of longstanding residents. It’s an engaging story with twists and turns and peopled by lively characters prone to human failings but also determined to assert their person-hood in the face of hostility.

James, Percival Everett (2024)

James is a retell of Huckleberry Finn from a different point of view. In this telling the enslaved person, Jim, is the protagonist and Huck is the companion. The story follows much of the original narrative but Jim has agency. Like the original, Jim is a runaway slave and Huck is escaping his abusive father. Both characters are fully developed and exercise agency but the action is driven by James’ efforts to escape bondage and find the funds to buy his wife and daughter from slavery. The story is engaging and makes for a compelling read.

Burma Sahib, Paul Theroux (2024)

Before he was George Orwell, Eric Arthur Blair was a 19 year-old junior officer serving in the British colonial police force in Burma. Taking the position to please his father, a retired official of the Raj (deputy opium sub agent or something like that), Blair is uncertain about his new career and how he fits into it. His uncertainties continue throughout the novel and are compounded by his growing realization that the whole idea of “benevolent colonialism “ is little more than a cover for white privilege and economic exploitation. The author does not provide any detail on his sources other than acknowledge excerpts from George Orwell’s Burmese Days but the story feels genuine and conveys Blair’s struggles with his own insecurities, cultural clashes, a growing self-loathing before finally escaping after five years to pursue his own path as a writer. It’s a fascinating book that conveys both the brutality and exploitation of British colonialism and a young man finding his way through a difficult passage.

I Cheerfully Refuse, Lief Enger (2024)

Set in a not entirely post-apocalyptic but definitely fractured not too distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is a story of desperate resistance to forces beyond individual control. The story takes place along Lake Superior’s Minnesota and Canadian shoreline and on the lake’s ocean-like waters. The main character, Rainier (“Rainy” for short) and his wife Lark have managed to carve out a tolerable life in a small community near Duluth. He is a bass player in a local band and she operates a small bookshop. A traveling stranger with a somewhat mysterious past and even present rents a room from them and becomes part of their life before abruptly disappearing. Not long after their life is dramatically overturned..Lark is murdered and Rainy becomes a fugitive on a sailboat seeking refuge on Lake Superior. The plot is complex but convincingly plausible with a great deal of information about sailing and the unique conditions of this inland ocean. Lots of unusual odd and a few dangerous characters appear as Rainy looks for refuge in a very ominous and uncertain time.

Devil Makes Three, Ben Fountain (2023)

Fiction. Matt Amaker is just about to begin breaking even running a a scuba diving business in newly democratic Haiti under the popularly elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Alix Variel, a member of Haiti's upper class, had convinced Matt that Haiti offered excellent dive opportunities and an emerging market for a dive enterprise and after considerable effort, Matt thinks that the business is likely to succeed. That confidence is shattered when Aristide is overthrown by a military coup. In short order, military forces seize the business a and evict Matt who finds refuge with Alix’s family. At the same time a US-led embargo shuts down Alix’s factory which leads him and Matt to pursue an opportunity to salvage cannons from a colonial-era wreck in partnership with US treasure-hunters. That enterprise attracts the military’s attention and Matt and Alex are detained, first in an absolute hell-hole and then followed by less onerous conditions. The plot also includes a US embassy attache/CIA agent who doesn’t quite go entirely native but does take a deep dive into Haitian culture. Alix is released for medical reasons but Matt’s detention continues as he becomes as reluctant dive master/consultant to the ruling Army chief. It’s a great tale that offers a compelling view of life in a country where the class and economic divisions are extreme and the political environment is unstable and deadly. Ben Fountain weaves together the international intrigue, Haitian politics and culture and characters just trying to survive it all.

North Woods, Daniel Mason (2023)

Two lovers escape from Puritan restrictions into western Massachusetts and build a rustic cabin. Years later French and Indian War veteran Charles Osgood turns to horticulture in search of the perfect apple which he discovers on that same plot of land, builds a house and begins cultivating an orchard. Duty calls again in 1776 and Osgood goes back to war and never returns. The property falls to his orphan twin daughters who manage the orchard until a romantic tryst leads to their death by murder and suicide. The property becomes the setting for a progression of seekers, entrepreneurs and descendants, most of whom fail at best or die at worst. The circumstances of their various fates are never fully spelled out, leaving the reader to conclude that the worst occurred. The occasional presence of some predecessors’ spirits strongly suggests that the site has otherworldly properties. The story is a litany of hopes and cruel reality playing out over two centuries. None of the characters carry through the entire saga but where they do appear they are fully realized and believable, even when they return as fleeting apparitions. A fascinating and interesting read .

Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge, Lizzie Pook (2024)

Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge begins and ends with a public hanging in mid-19th century London. Immediately following the first, the reader finds Maude Horton storming the British Admiralty demanding information about the death of her sister Constance, who disguised herself as a young man to serve as a cabin boy on the HMS Makepeace on a mission to locate the missing explorer, Sir John Frdanklin, lost while seeking a Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean. Rebuffed by the Admiralty, Maude continues her quest aided by Constance’s diary provided by a disgruntled Admiralty subordinate. The plot moves back and forth between diary entries describing Constance’s experiences in the Arctic and the many ways she kept her sex hidden from the Makepeace’s crew. Back in Britain Maude’s quest leads her to a likely suspect and a very neat climax punctuated by the final hanging. Along the way the reader is treated to lively and well-researched accounts of British naval operations in the Arctic, the grim realities of Victorian London and a few other public hangings in addition to the the two that bookend the story.

Favorite Books 2023

 

 

Another year, another list of books with the notes to remind me what each was about.  I would like to be able to summarize with the brevity and clarity of The New Yorker or Washington Post but I'm not that good; I just record my initial thoughts and let it go at that.  I do edit the selected summaries slightly when I post these year end favorites but that's mainly to slim down ones that ramble because I included more detail than really necessary.  

This year's list is heavy on non-fiction.  Most of my fiction selections, while generally entertaining, did not capture my attention that way non-fiction did in 2023.  Here's what stands out at year's end.

 

Non-Fiction

 

 

 One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder, Brian Doyle (2019)

 

Collection of essays published by friends and associates following Bryan Doyle’s death in 2017 at age 61. Doyle writes expansively and lyrically about most everything, from the wonder of hummingbirds and their rapidly beating hearts to the joys of using basketball skills of his youth to play a raucously chaotic nerf game with his young children. Nothing is too insignificant for extended examination that can easily and quite logically wander well beyond its starting point to offer insights on life, love, friendship, parenthood, nature and myriad other topics. Each essay stands alone. Together they reveal a talented, thoughtful writer who is well worth further reading.

 

Catching the Light, Joy Harjo (2022)

 

Part memoir, part reflection on her Native American heritage and part meditation on the role of poetry in her life, former US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo describes the many influences that took her from life on the Rez to the nation’s highest honor as a poet. The style is prose but presented in 50 short pieces the work has the lyrical feel of poetry and traces the many influences—personal, spiritual and natural—that informed and directed her life . At times hard-edged and gritty and other times expansive and hopeful, Harjo traces her unlikely journey with an energy that does indeed catch the light.

 

What If 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Randall Monroe (2022)

 The subtitle pretty much says it all. People submit entirely ridiculous questions and Randall Monroe explains the science that would apply to the situation. Usually, the result is something either catastrophic or simply personally dangerous. It‘s all very serious (or at least as serious as the answer to an absurd hypothetical question can be). The seriousness is also leavened by Monroe’s stick figure drawings that further convey some of the absurdity involved. The science is real, even if the question is entirely preposterous so What If 2 requires some careful but fascinating reading.

 

American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis, Adam Hochschild (2022)

 

Very readable account of the repression and violence unleashed in the US by America’s entry into what was then known as The Great War. A nation that was already hostile to organized labor, immigrants, socialists and Black Americans ramped up its hostility with legal and extra legal attacks against anyone who spoke out against the war or was even suspected of lacking appropriate enthusiasm for the effort. Racist president Woodrow Wilson had almost nothing to say about violence inflicted on these groups and supported repressive laws like the Espionage Act of 1917 (still on the books) which was used almost exclusively to suppress speech and not against spies. Following the end of hostilities, Hochschild shows how the victor’s peace imposed on Germany planted the seeds for WW2 barely two decades hence. At the same time, the US continued the repression and violence against Blacks, immigrants and socialists until the early 1920s.

 

The Wounded World: W.E.B. Du Bois and the First World War, Chad L. Williams (2023)

 

Although this book focuses on W.E.B. Du Bois’s attempt to write the history of Black Americans in WW1, The Wounded World provides an excellent overview the author’s work and times. By 1914, Du Bois was an established thought leader and advocate for Black Americans. As Americans debated entering the war, Du Bois argued for Black support and participation in the war with the expectation that their service would offer a path toward racial justice. The racism he encountered in pursuing that participation and the experience of Black GIs and officers in service and as veterans disillusioned him.

DuBois amassed a wealth of information, documents and first-hand observation to chronicle the service and heroism of Black soldiers, officer and enlisted, along with the discrimination they faced at the hands of the US Army. What began as a simple history continued to grow as Du Bois saw the events of 1914-1918 as part of a broad sweep of history that had systematically taken advantage of persons of color in the US and around the world. The expanded scope, along with the lack of funding for research and verification, Du Bois’s other work and the march of events overtook the effort which was never published.

The Wounded World fills that gap. It documents Black American’s WW1 service while recognizing a towering American intellectual, fully engaged in the issues of his time and the evolution of his thought.

 

A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South, Peter Cozzens (2023)

 

Peter Cozzens presents a thorough history of the American expansion into the deep South in the years following the Revolutionary War and its impact on the indigenous peoples of that region. Although the subtitle leads with Andrew Jackson, the general does not appear until Part Three which is preceded by a history of the Creeks and the split within that nation about accommodating or resisting the ongoing pressures of American influences and settlement. By the time Andrew Jackson appears on the scene traditionalist Creeks, known as Red Sticks, are at war with their more assimilated brethren who, along with other indigenous tribes such as the Cherokee, are willing to side with the Americans. Jackson’s influence is key in that not only shared the settlers hostility to hostile indigenous inhabitant occupants of the region but he also he forged an actual fighting force from a combination of regular army troops, militia volunteers and Native American allies. Cozzens lays out the history of the various contending forces and lays out a logical progression of influences among what would otherwise be a bewildering cast of Creek leaders, prophets other influencers. Overall, an excellent, readable history that presents a full spectrum of background and detail of a war that is barely a footnote, if that, in American history.

 

I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War against Reconstruction, Kidada E. Williams (2023)

 

A graphic refutation of the conventional wisdom that has held for much of the past century and a half that Reconstruction—policies intended to change the economic and social structures in the South to ensure the civil and political rights of newly-emancipated enslaved persons—failed. In this telling, Reconstruction did not fail, it was attacked and subverted by an organized resistance using violence and intimidation against any Black person who sought to exercise their political and economic rights. Based on the first-person accounts recorded in hearings and investigations conducted during Reconstruction and the accounts of survivors recorded by the WPA, I Saw Death Coming recounts the many ways Blacks and their white supporters were physically attacked, murdered, driven from from their homes and dispossessed. Author Williams demonstrates that many Blacks had achieved significant economic success and independence following emancipation only to be robbed of their gains by unreconstructed Confederates intent on preserving the social structures and customs that privileged them prior to the Civil War. The opponents of emancipation were aided in this effort by the indifference/hostility of the rest of the nation that either wanted to move on from the war or did not support Black civil rights. A powerful book that shows how how resistant the United States was toward Black emancipation, a problem that has persisted to the present.

 

Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon, Melissa L. Sevigny (2023)

 

In 1938 when few people had traveled the length of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, botany professor Elzada Clover and graduate student Lois Jotter became the first non-indigenous women to accomplish this feat. Their trip came about as a result of Professor Clover’s interest in the plant life of the American southwest and the opportunity to map one of the few places left to explore. The Colorado River in that era was considered too dangerous for women who were dismissed as wholly unable to contribute to the effort needed for a successful trip. Clover managed to conspire with Norm Nevills, an experienced boatman who wanted to but had not yet taken on the Colorado through the Canyon. Melissa Sevigny provides a dramatic and detailed account of the trip. Her descriptions of running major rapids are chilling as are the many difficult portages and environmental challenges along the way. In addition, she provides backstory information about the challenges women faced in academia at the time and much history of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon before, during and since Clover and Jotter’s historic trip. Brave the Wild River is a well-written and engaging tale of determination and perseverance.

 

Fiction

 

 

Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver (2022)

 

Barbara Kingsolver chronicles life on the margins in Appalachia through the eyes of Damon Fields, aka Demon Copperhead, the son of a drug impaired mother and already deceased father. The story begins with his difficult birth and follows Demon’s experiences as a ward of the state after his mother also dies (from an overdose), as he struggles to find his place in a small but difficult world. Along the way Demon finds himself exploited by foster caregivers and constantly looking for a place to simply be a kid in an environment that is stacked against him. Even when he finds something like that place, he falls into addiction and a downward spiral that threatens to kill him. Demon’s life is difficult but not without hope. Along with all of the challenges, Demon finds a few people and friends that help him deal with those challenges.

 

Night of the Living Rez, Morgan Talty (2022)

 

Short stories depicting the hard life on the the Penobscot Reservation in Maine. The stories follow narrator David’s family and friends over the years after he finds a jar that contains an old curse. Drugs, separation, youthful violence are all part of the story. So, too, is the endurance and perseverance of the characters. No matter what happens—and by the final story, told years later, the worse has come to pass—the family lurches on. 

 

Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus (2022)

 

Elizabeth Zott is a chemist at a research laboratory in the mid 1950s. Dismissed from the PhD program she was pursuing after reporting an attempted rape by her dissertation advisor, Elizabeth holds a relatively junior position and is the only professional level woman at the institute when she encounters Calvin Evans a brilliant chemist and the star employee of the institute. Despite an awkward introduction and their respective unstable and dysfunctional family histories, the two become lovers and intellectual partners, a relationship that engenders much gossip and hostility from other staff. Elizabeth is Calvin’s equal and entirely unwilling to accept the era’s limitations on and attitudes about women. When Calvin is killed in a freak accident and Elizabeth learns that she is pregnant, she is fired. Giving birth to a daughter and staring at unemployment entices Elizabeth to accept an offer to return to work at the institute. When she discovers that pay is less than before and her boss is using her so that he can publish her work as his own she resigns. A chance encounter with the single father parent of her daughter’s kindergarten classmate leads to an offer to host an afternoon cooking program on a local television station, a role that Elizabeth fills a with her unique perspective as a woman and a chemist. Lessons in Chemistry is a good story. Elizabeth is a likable, determined character and is accompanied by a believable cast of supporting characters.

 

Night Watch, Jayne Anne Phillips (2023)

 

Night Watch is set in the hills of West Virginia during and after the Civil War. The narrative opens in 1874 as a man seemingly abandons wife and child at the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Even as the reader is introduced to the event and characters, that initial impression is quickly dispelled as the story unfolds. The story shifts between 1864, when a medicine woman/midwife and two of her enslaver’s illicit children have escaped and found refuge from the war and slavery in Virginia’s anti-secessionist counties, and the events leading to the asylum ten years later. The bifurcated structure gradually adds the detail to the story, illustrating the main characters’ endurance and the risks, violence and loss that were a constant threat during those post-war years. The story is well-told and, once the reader gets oriented to the characters and time line, eminently engaging.

An Inconvenient Memory

Yesterday in traffic I noticed something odd hanging from the back bumper of a car in the adjacent turn lane as I approached an intersection. It was a grayish-green rectangular box with a convex curve and looked very much like a Claymore mine. When that lane got the green light I paid attention to the car as it passed and, sure enough, it was a Claymore mine. I could clearly read the "Front Toward Enemy" markings on the outer surface. I'm guessing that it was actually only the plastic exterior casing of the mine and did not include the 700 1/8 inch steel balls or the pound and a half of C-4 plastic explosive that makes a Claymore such a deadly anti-personnel weapon. On the other hand, in an America awash in deadly weapons, I wouldn't bet on it.

Most drivers probably would not recognize that item hanging from the back of a car as a weapon, although the fact that the wording says it is pointed at the  "enemy"--in this case the viewer--might suggest something not quite right.  I, on the other hand, am familiar with Claymore mines.  I carried one for months in Vietnam, setting it up outside my position when my company established its night defensive perimeter at the end of each day.  Most everyone else did so too.  At dusk we'd put out a trip flare and wire a little farther out beyond the Claymore.  The idea was that anyone attempting to infiltrate our perimeter would set off the trip flare and the guy on radio watch could detonate the mine and blow the fucker away.  

That only happened once and was probably an animal that was immediately scared off by the flare and long gone by the time the guy fired the Claymore.  We found no sign of any body or any thing.  The few other times I recall Claymores detonating were accidents that left us with casualties.  So, yeah, I have Claymore memories.  They came rushing back when I saw that plastic case on the bumper. 

People accessorize their vehicles to express something or other.  I wonder what hanging an anti-personnel mine (even if it is entirely inoperable) on one's back bumper is saying.  Seems a bit hostile to me.  Others may not get the message.  I got it loud and clear.

2022 Favorite Books

 

  

Non-fiction

Vivian Maier Developed: the Untold Story of the Photographer Nanny, Ann Marks (2021)

Well-told biography of street photographer Vivian Maier who created an extensive body of work that went largely unrecognized during her lifetime working as a professional nanny. Fills in the life behind the photographer whose work in New York and Chicago during the 1950s and 60s came to the world’s attention through a storage-unit auction]

There Is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21^st Century, Fiona Hill (2021)

Russian expert and British native Fiona Hill uses the trajectory of her own life as the daughter of a coal miner dispossessed by the closure of mines in northeast England who found opportunity and encouragement to succeed well beyond the expectations of her class and geographic origins to highlight the the ever-shrinking opportunity available to marginalized groups based on race, class, sex or geography in the 21^st century. Hill contrasts the opportunities and support she found along the way with polarization and limits within both the US and UK and recommends public and private sector policies that would address the barriers that leave people and entire regions forgotten and wholly on their own

Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution, Woody Holton (2021)

History professor Woody Holton delves deeply into the American Revolution to fill in the untold stories of women, enslaved persons, Native Americans and others who have been largely ignored in the conventional histories. Holton doesn’t overlook the major figures and events but shows rather how those major figures were assisted by these marginalized individuals and sometimes even changed their plans based on what they learned from them.

Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff, Calvin Trillin (2011)

A four -decade collection of commentary by columnist and poet Calvin Trillin on a wide range of subjects, including, but not limited to: media, politics, economics, language, literature, New York City and rich people.  No matter what the topic or year, Trillin’s columns, satirical poems and song lyrics are perceptive, clever, amusing and often laugh-out-loud funny.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, Nicole Hannah-Jones (2021)

An expanded version of material first presented in the New York Times Magazine, The 1619 Project examines the impact of slavery on the history, economics and institutions of the United States. The various essays present a convincing case that slavery was an integral part of Colonial America and was incorporated in many ways into the newly-formed Republic. The basic point is that Blacks were enslaved for almost 250 years, emancipated without any resources whatsoever, actively barred from achieving economic or political success and attacked if they ever did. It’s a compelling story that gives lie to the myth of racial progress.

The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, A Temptation and the Longest Night of the Second World War, Malcolm Gladwell (2021)

Malcolm Gladwell follows the development of strategic thought from the idea that precision bombing can end wars without mass casualties to the wholesale firebombing of Japanese cities in the last months of WW2. Along the way he provides interesting sketches of the various theories and technological developments that gave rise to the dream of precision bombing and the realities that led to the firebombing of Tokyo, followed by many other cities. Malcolm handles the technological aspects of with easily understandable prose and provides thoughtful detail on how the Air Force came to utilize aircraft in war. He even manages to (somewhat) humanize General Curtis LeMay.

E.B. White on Dogs, Martha White, ed. (2013)

Non-fiction. Spanning the years 1929 to 1984, this collection of letters, essays and the occasional poem chronicles writer E.B. White’s many dogs and his understanding of them. White experienced (suffered?) his dogs with some fondness but was always aware of that they had their own agendas. Fred--the  quick impression of a dachshund”-- is an early star in this cavalcade, sometimes warranting his own essay, other times simply making a passing appearance in a letter. His memory (or spirit) even shows up a couple of times after his death. Throughout, White is always affectionate, tolerant and warmly appreciative of the companionship his dogs provided. He understands that dogs are not always the most pleasant companions but he also understands that life wold be diminished in their absence.

Fiction

The Sentence, Louise Erdrich (2021)

Fiction. Tookie, an urban Native American in Minneapolis, gets busted for helping a friend move the friend’s ex-boyfriend’s corpse which also contained a substantial quantity of drug. Released after several years in prison and married to the (also Native American) officer who arrested her, she works in a bookstore owned and staffed by Native Americans and is haunted by the spirit of her most annoying customer. The setting is Minneapolis in 2020 and follows Tookie as she comes to terms with her neglected childhood, prison and coping with the turmoil of Covid, the George Floyd killing and the vexing presence of the bookstore ghost. Tookie is an imperfect but engaging character, shackled by memories and emotions from her difficult path but also willing to take some risks toward trust and future possibilities.

The Cold Millions, Jess Walter (2020)

Fiction. Lively tale of IWW organizing, capitalist hostility,working conditions and economic exploitation set in and around Spokane, Washington Itinerant workers serving in the logging camps and mines of the northwest create profit for the well-to-do and businesses of the region but their presence is less welcome when the radical IWW encourages the workers to demand better pay and conditions. The Cold Millions begins with violence against these “vagrants” and sets the tone for the entire novel: Wobblies arrested by the hundred for simply stating their demands, they endure squalid confinement and stage hunger strikes. The infamous 18-year-old IWW organizer Elizabeth Gurley is one of many believable characters in a cast that includes a variety of Wobblies, smarmy rich people, brutally indifferent cops, and an agent provocateur.  It all builds to an explosive end.

Horse, Geraldine Brooks (2022)

Fiction. Filled with characters drawn from history and the most famous race horse of the 19^th century, Horse tells a story that flows into the current century. The story begins in the 21^st century with the unlikely meeting of a Black Nigerian art historian and a Smithsonian curator from Australian over a “throwaway” painting of a horse before falling back to the antebellum South and the story of the racehorse, Lexington, and his fictional enslaved groom, Jarret. Well-researched, blending much historical fact seamlessly with fiction, Horse is compelling reading that explores racism in the 19^th century and now.

Forbidden City, Vanessa Hua (2022)

Fiction. Set in mid-1960’s China, Forbidden City, follows the trajectory of Mei Xiang’s life as she is selected from her rural village to serve as a dance partner to China’s Communist elite. At 16 years old, Mei’s entire life has been lived under Chairman Mao’s revolution; she experienced the revolutionary indoctrination and the hardships of the Mao’s changing policies during his first two decades in power.  Mei becomes Mao’s mistress and, steeped in revolutionary ardor, aspires to become a model revolutionary. Following her odyssey the reader gets a glimpse of life at the top and factional intrigue. Mei’s ardor encourages Mao to launch the Cultural Revolution, to purify the revolutionary spirit.  As the frenzy of denunciation grows, causing real harm to real people, Mei realizes how little Mao seems to care about the suffering of the people  Recognizing the falsehood of Chairman Mao and his cult  her to life-changing decision.