2023 Reading Round up #3
Including the essay collection everyone loves, a wild modern day treasure hunt, and my secret source for great non-fiction reads.
Hi friends! I am back with some more thoughts on books that I read last year! No duds in this batch — I recommend them all, even the two that deal with heavy topics.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
In this 2011 bestseller Yale Law professor Amy Chua presents her Chinese parenting philosophy in action as she steers her two daughters toward greatness. No playdates, no days off from piano or violin practice, no excuses. When the family travels, Chua calls ahead to secure time with a piano in the hotel lobby or nearby shop. Even when her girls are sick, she dispenses some Advil and sticks to the practice routine. Chua’s mother-in-law begs for an occasional afternoon of one-on-one time with her granddaughters, but schoolwork and the pursuit of musical excellence apparently leave no time left over for such things. Her wild parenting tales shock and entertain (at least for this American reader), but they raise legitimate questions about the flaws of Western child rearing, too. When her young daughter offers her a thoughtless, haphazardly created birthday card, Chua refuses to accept it, to the horror of most of my book club. Still, we agreed we would be annoyed at such a careless gesture from an adult child, so at what point do we stop cheering every middling effort from our children and hold them to a higher standard?
Chasing the Thrill: Obsession, Death, and Glory in America’s Most Extraordinary Treasure Hunt by Daniel Barbarisi
In the late 80s eccentric, wealthy art dealer Forest Fenn received a grim cancer diagnosis that inspired him to go out with a bang: he decided to create a riddle that would lead to a treasure chest and his own final resting place. Fenn beat the cancer, which eliminated the find-my-corpse aspect of his plan, but he still published a riddle and hid a box of valuable loot somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. A few years later, journalist Daniel Barbarisi gets sucked into the treasure hunt. He attends “Fennboree” where he witnesses both camaraderie and mutual suspicion among the self-described “Fenn hunters” as they swap theories about the location of the prize at their annual gathering. I was terrified the book would end without answering the many questions it raised. Has anyone found the treasure? Where? How did the “hunting” community and Forest Fenn himself react? The book does not resolve every single issue, but the wild finale supplies enough answers to feel satisfying.
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer
The University of Montana and the local justice system grossly mishandled rape cases for years, and Krakauer documents their staggering failure in this book. In a note at the end, he says that it was the revelation that someone close to him had been raped that led him to direct his investigative and story telling skills to this subject.
Krakauer writes with deep insight and care, but the content naturally made for a difficult read. Why did I even bother with this book? A partial explanation: it’s inexplicably important to me to complete the works of some of my favorite authors (or at least the ones who also have limited backlists like Jon Krakauer and Maggie O’Farrell). Arbitrary reading goal aside, a sense of responsibility to look hard at a frightening, complicated problem that will most certainly still exist when my children go to college also compelled me to grit my way through Missoula. Maybe the literary equivalent of consuming lima beans -- it didn’t feel great, but I’m better off for it. More people should read this.
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
This book is either universally likable or everyone I know is too gracious to criticize a work I so deeply adore while I’m within earshot. I’ve written about it before, but here are some highlights again:
In one essay, Green shares how he bonded with other bullied children in a chat room over their shared experience of the “night feeling,” the dread that consumed them each night as they feared what would happen at school the next day. In another, he defends the merciless Mario Kart beat down he delivers to his young son. Green also recalls working as a hospital chaplain when a badly burned child arrived in the ER -- this story had stayed with me.
Apparently the audiobook has an extra chapter that was not in the print version. We listened to it during book club because the audiobook people could not let the print readers miss out on the essay “Mortification” in which Green presents his deepest humiliations for our entertainment. This book is funny, sweet, sad, honest, and the premise (I won't ruin it here) is clever! An all-time favorite for me, and I’m so glad I reread it this year!
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
I lugged a stack of serious books to the beach then ignored them and downloaded the second (and best) book in the Court of Thorns and Roses fantasy romance series to read again. Such a good vacation read. And my subsequent search for read-likes led me to Fourth Wing, which was even better!
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
I collected audiobook recommendations ahead of my July trip to Seattle (which ended up as an overnight trip to the Denver airport after Southwest canceled the second leg of my flight – oof). A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson came highly recommended, but I didn’t love the audiobook narrator. Into the Wild is a true story from the 90s also with a nature focus: Christopher McCandless burned his savings and abandoned his middle class life to live in the wilderness shortly after finishing college. After drifting around for a few years, he moved alone into the Alaskan back country where he died during his first winter.
I liked this movie when it came out in 2007, and I figured the story would be even better experienced in Krakauer’s voice. His own connection to the subject elevates the book; Krakauer was similarly drawn to recklessness in the wilderness as a young man and wonders how close he came to meeting the same fate as McCandless. The answer: very close.
The Immortal Game: A History of Chess by David Shenk
I hate to play chess, but I love to read about it. This book traces the history of the game and returns in alternating chapters to a move-by-move analysis of a 19th century match, played casually during a tournament recess, which came to be known as The Immortal Game. The book is worth reading for the analysis of that game alone.
My favorite anecdote involved Benjamin Franklin abandoning his king against a British opponent:
I see he is in check. But I shall not defend him. If he was a good King, like yours, he would deserve the protection of his subjects; but he is a tyrant and has cost them already more than he is worth. Take him, if you please. I can do without him, and will fight out the rest of the battle en republicain.
Whoever curates the microhistories display at Barnes & Noble knows how to get my attention. I arrived intending to buy Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, but walked out with The Immortal Game instead. On the same trip, I found another winner on that same table: Longitude by Dava Sobel. Then a third microhistories gem made its way into my stocking for Christmas (I put it there): a National Book Award finalist… about octopuses. Barnes & Noble microhistories table, you never let me down!
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
The Hunger Games meets A Court of Thorns and Roses. Female protagonist at a dragon riding academy, enemies-to-lovers trope, and a great cliffhanger that had me putting the sequel on hold at the library months in advance. When is book three coming out?
The Art Thief: A True Story of Passion, Obsession, and a Monumental Crime Spree by Michael Finkel
This book filled the narrative nonfiction hole in my reading life left by Chasing the Thrill. Starting in the mid 1990s Stéphane Breitwieser and his girlfriend stole 239 of pieces of art from 172 small museums across Europe and used their spoils to decorate their attic apartment in the home of his blissfully/willfully ignorant mother. I repeatedly had to backtrack parts of the audiobook to confirm I heard the wild twists in the story correctly.
This book felt similar to The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson -- modern, bizarre crime with compelling criminals at the center. I’ve realized I like my true crime nonviolent. Art theft or corruption, absolutely. Murder? Pass. I will never read a book about an actual serial killer no matter how many people recommend it.
A Heart that Works by Rob Delaney
Rob Delaney moved to London with his pregnant wife and two young children to film the tv show Catastrophe, and then his son Henry was born. Henry was diagnosed with cancer around his first birthday and died about a year later. This loss leaves Delaney with a dark compulsion to ask other people to imagine their own children dead: “That is the one thing that grief does to me. It makes me want to make you understand. It makes me want you to understand.” Even though this memoir isn’t cheerful, it’s not grim either. Just authentic and vulnerable.
My sister Jillian loved his message to families expecting their first child, and so did I:
Listen, of course you’re nervous but here’s the deal: you’re ready for all the bad stuff. You’ve been very tired before. You’ve been in pain before… You’ve felt like an incapable moron before. So you’ll be fine with the difficult parts! You’re already a pro. What you’re NOT ready for is the wonderful parts. NOTHING can prepare you for how amazing this will be. There is no practice for that…You are about to experience joy that will blow your fucking mind apart.
Foster by Claire Keegan
Another short book by Claire Keegan. A little girl from a large, overwhelmed family in rural Ireland spends a summer in the care of another couple and understands for the first time what it feels like to be wanted and loved. I love Claire Keegan’s stories!
Longitude by Dava Sobel
I saw this book on the trusty microhistories table and then put the audiobook on hold at the library instead, personally embodying the reason that bookstores go out of business. But shockingly, I had to wait weeks to get my copy. This book came out in 1995! Who else is reading this? I bet they discovered the magical table at B&N, too.
Anyway, a few centuries ago the inability to determine one’s longitude at sea posed an enormous obstacle to naval navigation (measuring latitude was no problem), so the British Parliament said they’d pay a ton of money to anyone who could figure out a way to do it. John Harrison’s solution: a clock. If you set sail with an accurate clock set to Greenwich time, you could later determine the difference between the clock reading noon and the sun reaching its highest point at your location to work out your longitude. Piece of cake. The science and the politics behind the story of the first decent clock was fascinating (plus Harrison had a genuine nemesis, which is really lacking in modern life).
When I brought this book up to Michael, he asked if I had picked it up because of his suggestion. I asked, “What suggestion?” He swears he recommended it to me while he was reading it for a class in graduate school… 14 years ago.
Currently Reading…
I’ve read/listened to the opening pages of each of these and need to decide soon to finish some and abandon others as there’s an embarrassing number of books waiting for me on the library holds shelf at this very moment.
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer (nonfiction about the inherent tension in enjoying art created by truly terrible people)
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (my mother talked me into this one and she’s never let me down)
Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross (sequel to Divine Rivals which was good not great)
Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed
Thanks for being here! Happy reading!
I’m laughing out loud about Michael’s recommendation resurfacing 14 years later 😅 I read Life On Delay after your last newsletter and loved it! Adding some more of these non-fiction books to my list!