In 2022 I finished 20
books
spanning 15,801 pages. 3 more than I read in 2021, but about twice
the number of pages. 3 fiction and 17 non-fiction. Another ~30 started
but not finished.
I had a hard time reading books while I was trying to start my own
company. But I also discovered audiobooks. I would put on a book and
listen while I did my chores. Only 5 of the 20 books I finished were
physical (or kindle) books. The other 15 were audiobooks.
Non-fiction: 13 to recommend
After I started read Robert Caro's Master of the Senate I got hooked
on history and felt less daunted about larger books.
The only non-fiction I read in 2022 was US and UK history.
Here were my favorites:
- Master of the
Senate
by Robert Caro: Covering more than just Lyndon B. Johnson but the
history of the Senate and the Civil Rights movements in the US. This
book is now on my list of best
books.
- The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory,
1874-1932
by William Manchester: First in a three-volume series about
Churchill. He's an especially interesting guy to read about because
he served in UK politics 1901 to his retirement (for the second
time) as UK Prime Minister in 1955. He was First Lord of the
Admiralty in World War 1 before he, more famously, become Prime
Minister during World War 2. This entire series is on my list of best
books.
- The Autobiography of Martin Luther King,
Jr.:
Sad and revealing. Though it doesn't talk much about his legacy
since it only includes his writings.
- Passage of
Power
by Robert Caro: Covering LBJ's pathetic failed attempts at the
presidency before becoming JFK's Vice President, up to JFK's
assassination. Still a very good book. I can't wait for Caro's final
book to come out.
- Truman by David
McCullough: I always thought Truman was a lame nerd but he actually
had a very interesting life (and as I'd later discover, is far from
the lamest president. Wilson hands down takes that place.) And
unlike most other famous politicians I read about, he had a great
relationship with his wife. He was honest and respectable and was
the first US president to normalize relations with Mexico since the
Mexican-American War (that U.S. Grant and Robert E. Lee fought in in
the 1840s).
- The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone,
1932-40 by
William Manchester: The second book in the series. Pretty
depressing because it's a decade of Churchill noticing Nazi German
behavior and stressing UK preparedness and the UK ignoring him and
Nazi Germany.
- The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm,
1940-1965
by William Manchester: The final book in the series, covering his
Prime Ministership.
- Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 1: The Early Years,
1884-1933
by Blanche Wiesen Cook: Her background and many problems, as the
daughter of Theodore Roosevelt's brother and later husband of their
distant cousin, is pretty hard to relate to. Still it was quite
interesting to hear about her life and early activities how she
became such an outspoken progressive activist from being quite
conservative.
- Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume One by Michael Burlingame
- Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume Two by Michael Burlingame
- Grant by Ron
Chernow: Among famous generals of the Civil War, somehow Robert
E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson came to mind to me more readily than
Grant. I'm glad I read this book because the popularity of Southern
generals today seems like revisionism. This book makes strong
arguments that while Lee was a great officer, he could only think in
terms of short-term tactics and the Virginia region. Whereas Grant
was the first (US, anyway) officer to consider and command (via
telegraph) all theaters of war at once, every day. And this book
redeems his presidency somewhat. His progressive adoption of freed
Black people and work to make them equal citizens is highly
commendable. Even with the horror of what happened in the South
after the war ended.
- The Rise of Theodore
Roosevelt
by Edmund Morris: First in a three-volume series about the 26th
President. I read somewhere that it can feel impossible to read a
bad biography of Roosevelt because he was such an interesting
human. That may be true. This book didn't disappoint. Roosevelt
growing up in a townhouse in Manhattan, going to Harvard, buying a
farm on Long Island is all hard to relate to. His Puritanical morals
and machismo were also difficult to get past. But he was a very
interesting guy.
- Theodore
Rex by
Edmund Morris: Second in the series, covering the entirety of
Roosevelt's presidency. Like the first volume, a great read. I
always used to think Roosevelt was a pure war-monger. But he helped
avert war with the UK and Germany over Venezuelan debt-default. And
he later received the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating peace between
Japan and Russia in 1905.
Fiction: 1 to recommend
Of the three I read last year, I really enjoyed one:
- The
Leopard
by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa: A gentle piece of historical
fiction set during the 1860s in Sicily during and after the
unification of Italy. I learned about this book from a Rick Stein
episode in the Mediterranean Escapes series.
Feedback
As always,
please email
or tweet me
with questions, corrections, or ideas!