Best Books Read by Me This Year
It’s the moment that readers around the world didn’t know they were waiting for – The Johnny Bingo Awards! As a reminder here are the criteria for The JBs – actually, criterion – which I have slightly updated due to the fact that the Dick Clark reference was getting a bit dated:
This award too has only one criterion – for a book to be eligible, I had to have finished reading it this year. It could’ve been written by a blind Greek poet in the 8th century BCE or be an unpublished galley hacked from an MFA candidate’s MacBook in a Brooklyn cafe. As long as I read the last paragraph before the clock hits midnight on December 31, New York time, it is eligible for a JB.
In my quest to be as inconsistent as possible, this is (I think?) my first-ever Top 10 list. Also, for the first time this year, I'll list all eligible books at the bottom.
But first, I need to take my annual swipe at the Nobel Prize in Literature. This year’s winner was Jon Fosse. Heard of him? Me neither!
Apparently he is a Norwegian playwright/novelist who is largely unknown around the world. His Wikipedia entry, in a quest for accolades, can only come up with kudos like “the second most performed Norwegian playwright” and “ranked number 83 on the list of the Top 100 living geniuses by The Daily Telegraph”. Well, if this doesn’t melt your snow, I don’t know what will.
Cormac McCarthy, on the other hand, will never give an acceptance speech in Stockholm. He died this summer.
On to the winners!
Best Unexpected Read
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab
Sometimes I take a chance on a book based on the title alone. And I liked the name ‘Addie LaRue’. Glad I did! This is a delightful tale of a young Frenchwoman in 1714 who gains immortality, but at the cost of not being remembered by anyone who lays eyes on her. We follow her through the centuries to the denouement in present-day New York A fun read.
Best Series
The Hornblower Saga, C.S. Forester
Like many lovers of historical fiction, Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series is one of the greatest pleasures of my reading life. (And, a 2007 Johnny Bingo Award winner, the inaugural year of this prestigious prize)
The Hornblower Saga – 8 novels spanning the career of Horatio Hornblower from midshipman to Admiral – was an inspiration for Aubrey/Maturin. Less literary and more of an adventure tale, it covers nearly the entire span of the Napoleonic Wars. I highly recommend reading it in the order of Hornblower’s career, rather than the order in which it was published.
Best History Book by a Politician
The Naval War of 1812,Theodore Roosevelt
When Theodore Roosevelt was only 24 years old, he published the definitive history of the Naval War of 1812. It was not just a thorough account of the war, but an argument for the importance of sea power. The book was so well-received that a copy of it was placed on every ship in the United States Navy.
Fourteen years later he was named Assistant Secretary of the Navy, where he successfully lobbied for a build-up of naval strength. Five years after that he became President, and as President he sent the Great White Fleet on a tour of the globe – a friendly tour but one that said to the rest of the world, “Don’t mess with the US Navy.”
For three decades, nobody did. Then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. It didn't work out well for them.
Anyway, a first edition of this book will hopefully be the next valuable addition to my library.
Best History Book by a Journalist
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, Jon Meacham
The non-Presidential part of Andrew Jackson’s life is so fascinating, I thought a book focused just on his Presidency would be boring. I was wrong.
I bought this book while visiting the Hermitage, Jackson’s home outside Nashville. Like most great history books, it gives an insight into the world we live in today, and in particular how presidential power evolves, and is very different depending on who sits in the Oval Office.
And for this long time student of the Civil War, I was surprised to learn how that war nearly started 30 years earlier, and may well have if not for Andrew Jackson’s powerful belief in the Union.
Best History Book by an Actual Historian
Power and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages, Dan Jones
Jones is an actual historian - a first-class history degree from Cambridge and 10 history books to his credit, mostly about medieval England. But he's also a novelist, a TV presenter, a sportswriter...
Dan Jones is, above all, a story teller.
This account of the middle ages is the kind of book that might make the serious reader cringe a bit. The title, for example, is clearly trying to get the attention of Game of Thrones fans browsing the bookstore.
But his passion for the stories he is telling, and his skill at organizing large complex histories into a compelling narrative, is truly a gift. I'll be reading more of him.
Best Classic Novel
Things Fall Apart (African Trilogy, Book 1), Chinua Achebe
Kudos to Amazon, who consistently recommended this book to me in Kindle ads, so I finally took a shot. What an elegant novel about pre-colonial life in Africa, and how the arrival of European missionaries in the late 19th century shattered that.
Best Spy Novel(s)
Slough House series, Mick Herron
George Smiley, the chief protagonist of John LeCarre's novels*, has long been considered the ultimate anti-Bond. Where James Bond is a natty womanizer who defends England with his gun, Smiley is a homely cuckold who defends England with his brain.
Jackson Lamb, the weathered MI5 agent who leads the gang of misfit toys known as the Slow Horses, makes Smiley look like Bond. This is a wonderful series - legitimately good spy novels with earned comedy and excellent character studies.
I highly recommend the Apple TV series, with Gary Oldman having the time of his life as Lamb.
The Best Book Most Likely to Make My Wife Kick Me Under the Table
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein
I first gave this award out in 2020. Here's how I described it:
There's a certain kind of book - nonfiction, well-written, a colon in the title and a Big Idea at its heart - that will make me talk about it for months afterward. Eventually, I'm out to dinner with friends and rambling on for entirely too long about how ancient Romans used memory palaces to commit multi-hour speeches to memory and - thwack! - my wife will deliver a well-placed blow to my shin.
David Epstein was nominated for this award back then for The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance. But alas, he lost to Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (that's the book with the memory palaces).
Anyway, I'm sure he's thrilled to win this year's award!
Best Sports Book
A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers, John Feinstein
Bobby Knight's passing this year put this book on my radar, and lo and behold, the 25th anniversary edition was sitting on my son's shelf. So I swiped it.
In the preface to this edition, Feinstein addresses all of the theories as to why this book has resonated with people for so long (it was published in the mid-80s). The timing, the access he had, the way it was written. But Feinstein is right when he says what made this book so special is the unique character that is Robert Montgomery Knight.
This clip rather perfectly captures that perfect. RIP Bob Knight.
Best Book of the Year
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
Occasionally you come across an author, and after finishing the last page, you say to yourself, "Self, I'm going to read everything she ever wrote." Geraldine Brooks is one of those authors.
People of the Book is not one of her most lauded books, but a particularly timely one. This book is part scientific/literary detective story, part historical fiction, and part romance. But it's also a reminder of all the times in the past half millenium that the Jewish people faced existential threats - the expulsion of Jews from Spain, the Inquisition, Vienna in the 1890s, the Nazis, and more.
But it's also a tale of ecumenical hope. And we can all use a bit of that these days.
ELIGIBLE BOOKS FOR THIS YEARS JOHNNY BINGO AWARDS
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab
The Happy Return (Beat to Quarters): The Hornblower Saga #6, C.S. Forester
A Ship of the Line: The Hornblower Saga #7 C.S. Forester
Troy: Our Greatest Story Retold Stephen Fry
Flying Colors: The Hornblower Saga #8 C.S. Forester
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789 Robert Middlekauff
Hornblower and the Atropos: The Hornblower Saga # 5) C.S. Forester
A Test of Wills: Ian Rutledge Mystery #1 Charles Todd
The Captain from Connecticut C.S. Forester
The Gods of Gotham: Timothy Wilde #1 Lyndsay Faye
The Naval War of 1812 Theodore Roosevelt
Readings in the Classical Historians Michael Grant
Things Fall Apart (African Trilogy, Book 1) Chinua Achebe
Rules of Prey, Lucas Davenport #1 John Sandford
War of the Roses #1: Stormbird Conn Iggulden
Dead Lions, Slough House #2 Mick Herron
War of the Roses #2: Margaret of Anjou Conn Iggulden
Mr. Churchill's Secretary: A Maggie Hope Mystery (#1) Susan Elia Macneil
The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper, Travis McGee #10 John D. MacDonald
Mistborn: The Final Empire #1 Brandon Sanderson
D-Day: The Battle for Normandy Anthony Beevor
Joyland Stephen King
God Save the Mark Donald E. Westlake
Real Tigers: Slough House #3 Mick Herron
Innocent Scott Turow
The Hot Rock: Dormunder #1 Donald Westlake
Power and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages Dan Jones
Look Before You Leap (includes: And Then He Went Away) Donald E. Westlake
The Four Foundations of Golf: How To Build a Game That Lasts a Lifetime Jon Sherman
Act of Oblivion Robert Harris
Cloud Cuckoo Land Anthony Doerr
Henry V William Shakespeare
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder David Grann
War of the Roses #3: Bloodline Conn Iggulden
One Fearful Yellow Eye: Travis McGee #11 John D. MacDonald
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House Jon Meacham
Pale Gray for Guilt: Travis McGee #12 John D. MacDonald
Portrait of an Unknown Woman: Gabriel Allon #22 Daniel Silva
Desert Rose: Harry Bosch/Renee Ballard mystery Michael Connelly
Essex Dogs: #1 Dan Jones
War of the Roses #4: Ravenspur Conn Iggulden
The Commodore: The Hornblower Saga #9 C.S. Forester
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World David Epstein
Down the River Unto the Sea: King Oliver #1 Walter Moseley
Lord Hornblower: The Hornblower Saga #10 C.S. Forester
Hornblower in the West Indies: The Hornblower Saga #11 C.S. Forester
A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers John Feinstein
Spook Street: Slough House #4 Mick Herron
People of the Book Geraldine Brooks
Girl with a Pearl Earring Tracy Chevalier
