The Johnny Bingo Award - 2022

It is late December, and therefore time for the least-anticipated literary prize of the year – The Johnny Bingo Award!  I’m sure you all remember how this works, but just in case here is a cut-and-paste reminder of the rules:

This award too has only one criterion – for a book to be eligible, I had to have started 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 It could’ve been written by a blind Greek poet in the 8th century BCE or be an unpublished galley hacked from an MFA candidate’s MacBook in a Brooklyn cafe.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 first paragraph before Dick Clark’s puppeteer walks him through the New Year’s Eve Countdown, it can be a winner.

There is a significant difference between The Johnny Bingo Award and the slightly more prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature: there is a chance you may have heard of my authors!

The Nobel Prize for Literature should be renamed “The Nobel Prize for a Random European Author Nobody Reads”.  This year, it went to somebody named Annie Ernaux.  As is often the case with the Nobel Prize for Literature, after the winner is announced readers all over the world say “Who?”, then go to the person’s Wikipedia page, which has like one paragraph, and then try to buy the book, and find it is out of print.

This is not a new phenomenon for the Nobel Prize.  In the 19th century they skipped over Leo Tolstoy and Mark Twain – who were beaten out by such literary giants as Bjornstjern Bjornson, Jose Echeragay, Henrik Sienkiewicz, and Rudolph Christoph Euken.   In the 20th century, Joyce, Nabokov and Proust were defeated by Lagerkvist, Andrik, and Elytis.   

So Cormac McCarthy*, my old friend, you may have published some masterpieces, but you committed the unpardonable sin of being liked by Oprah, The Coen Brothers, and actual readers.  No Nobel for you!

* McCarthy published two novels this year, his first in 16 years.  But alas he is not eligible for a JB as Santa Claus (actually my son) gifted them to me 4 days ago, and I have yet to read them.

On to the Johnny Bingos!

Best Biography

Peter the Great: His Life and World, Robert K. Massie

When Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, some ill-informed TV talking heads said he wanted to bring back the glory of the Soviet Union – to be the next Stalin.  But well-informed historians said no – he wanted to bring back the glory of Mother Russia – to be the next Peter the Great.

Robert K. Massie is the preeminent English-language historian of the Romanov Dynasty, and his biography of Peter has sat on my shelf a long time.  I bought it not long after reading his thrilling masterpiece, Nicholas and Alexandra: The Classic Account of the Fall of the Romanov Dynasty.

Putin's blunder* finally inspired me to pull this one from the shelf, and it is well worth the 1000+ pages.  Like all great history, it illuminates our world while telling a thrilling story from the past.  

* By the way, remember how everyone thought the Russian army was going to roll through the Ukraine with ease?  Well, if you were reading Freetime you may have been more skeptical.  I wrote this piece the day before the invasion.  As I said above, history is almost always a better guide to the present than the TV news shouters.   

Best Newly Discovered Dead Writer*

John MacDonald

In a lifetime of reading mysteries and thrillers, not sure how John MacDonald slipped through the cracks.  Most famous for the Travis McGee series and his novel The Executioners (which inspired the two Cape Fear movies, the original with Robert Mitchum and the remake by Scorsese), MacDonald is a fascinating guy whose Wikipedia page is way more interesting than Annie...oh shoot I forgot her name already...

I like my serial private detectives (and McGee is kinda sorta one) to be resourceful and tough, but also flawed, intellectually-inclined, and a bit of a wise-ass.  I'm about 1/3 through the 21 McGee novels, and looking forward to the rest of them.

* if you're new to the Johnny Bingo Awards, you should know I just make up categories whenever I feel like it.  Speaking of which...

Best Book by a Newly Discovered Contemporary Writer

The Force, Don Winslow

When you read as much as I do, you sometimes worry you're going to run out of great books  But then one day you see a tweet about Don Winslow retiring from writing, and all sorts of book people with good taste are heartbroken about the retirement of Don Winslow, and I'm over here saying, "Uh, who is Don Winslow?"

So I did some research, and decided to read The Force by Don Winslow.  And I get why people are so upset.  Dude is good.  I am very much looking forward to reading The Cartel trilogy in 2023.

Oh, and I suspect he'll be back.  He's retiring from writing novels to make political videos opposing Trumpism.  Which seems like maybe not a long-term gig?

Best Book Recommended by a Friend

The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero, Timothy Egan

As a Civil War guy (not a buff), I was aware of Thomas Meagher as the general of the legendary Irish Brigade (or, The Fighting 69th).  But I had no idea that was only part of his extraordinary life.  

He was an Irish revolutionary, famous for his stirring oratory.  He was sent to the penal colony in Australia, from which he escaped in dramatic fashion.  A penniless immigrant in New York, he won the heart of a beautiful and wealthy socialite, who was devoted to him despite (or because of?) her family's disapproval.  After the Civil War, he became Governor of Montana, and died a mysterious death in the Old West.  And yeah, was one of the best fighting generals on either side of the Civil War.  

That, my friends, is a life.

(Hat tip to my bro-in-law Jocfun, who also recommended a Johnny Bingo runner-up, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz.)

Best Book by a Film Director

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino

This year I read two books by successful film directors, so let's make it a category!  Making Movies  by Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, The Verdict, and much more) is a highly readable, slightly dated book about how he makes movies.  From the script to working with actors to editing and lighting and so much more - it's a fine behind-the-scenes look at what it means to be a director.

But if you like QT movies as much as I do, I think you'll thoroughly enjoy his own novel based on his latest movie.  In part, it is a fleshing out of the story.  And in part, it is much more interior monologue from key characters.  But mostly it is an excuse for Tarantino, through his characters, to geek out on film.  

Best Book of the Year

A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

This was one of the first books I read in 2022, so the words to describe it don't come easily.  But it reminded me a bit of some of Mark Helprin's finest books.  

Helprin is, to my mind, the most underrated novelist of my lifetime.  He didn't start out that way...one of his early novels, Winter's Tale, received (on the front page of The New York Times Book Review, no less) one of the most gushing reviews ever written:

"I find myself nervous, to a degree I don't recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance".  Benjamin Mott

Mott was not alone.  His first few novels all received this sort of adulation.  But the literary world lost interest in Helprin, I think perhaps because some of his politics, particularly in regard to Israel and Palestine, were unacceptable to the literary elite.  

Anyway Helprin's best novels have a mix of history, magic realism, philosophy and poetry that really speak to me.  A Gentleman in Moscow is more realism than magic.  And it has a core of stoic philosophy at its heart.

But spending a few hundred pages with Count Alexander Rostov will make you feel better about humanity, and perhaps about your own life.  

Congratulations to all the winners!

n.b. All the links to books here are to Bookshop.org.  I like the convenience of Amazon as much as the next guy, but if you want to buy online and still support independent booksellers, please shop at Bookshop.org.  

The 2020 Johnny Bingo Awards

 It is time once again for the most prestigious, least-anticipated literary award of the year – The Johnny/Bingo Awards!

Most literary awards – the National Book Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature - have, if nothing else, consistency.  They are given out annually.  They have the same categories every year, with moderate changes.  They honor books that came out that year.  They might give a Lifetime Achievement to someone who has managed to produce a lifetime of work but is hopefully still alive.

But remember what Ralph Waldo Emerson – who is not eligible for any of those awards but IS still eligible for a Johnny-Bingo Award - said about consistency:  "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

We have no little statesmen or philosophers or divines on the Awards Committee.  We have only me.  And me has only one rule:

“All eligible books must have been finished by me in 2020. It could have 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 final paragraph before the calendar turns, it could be a winner.”

Beyond that..the awards change, the frequency is eccentric - heck, I'm not even sure if these are called "The Johnny Bingo Awards", "The Johnny-Bingo Awards", or "The Johnny/Bingo Awards".  

* if you care about the source of the name, go here

On to this year’s winners!

Best Historical Novelist

Bernard Cornwell

According to my book log I’ve read 30 Bernard Cornwell novels since 2001.  Which seems like a lot until you realize that Cornwell has written 60, so I’m only halfway through. In the ten years readers have been waiting for the next installment of A Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones) Cornwell has written a dozen novels.

Cornwell has a kind of formula which he deploys across several series: follow a major historical figure over a long period of time, through a fictional character.  

This year I read 3 more books in his Sharpe series, which follows British soldier Richard Sharpe through the Napoleonic wars.   And in the process learned quite a lot about the Peninsular War and the growing martial mastery of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington (he's the guy who beat Napoleon at Waterloo, but I'm sure you knew that already).

I also read the first four volumes of The Saxon Chronicles, which is the inspiration for the excellent television series “The Last Kingdom”.  If you want to learn a great deal about the birth of England and the historical importance of Alfred the Great while also enjoying lots of battles, sex, and political intrigue – I highly recommend The Saxon Chronicles and "The Last Kingdom".

Best Book I Didn’t Quite Understand

A History of Western Philosophy*, Bertrand Russell

I bought this book 20 years ago, made an unsuccessful run at it 10 years ago, started it again 3 or 4 months ago…and finished the last page on Sunday.

* If you're wondering how I can spend 3 or 4 months on one book and still read enough books to justify this globally-famous awards platform...I read books the way most people watch television.  I have several going at once.  I might knock off a crime novel in a week but something like this opus I'll read a chapter per morning, most mornings, over months

It’s an overview of, well, western philosophy – from the ancient Greeks to the medieval Christians to the moderns – from Pythagoras to William James.  Huge chunks of it were over my head – especially the parts involving mathematics.

But parts of it were utterly fascinating.  I was completely unaware of how Plato, and later Aristotle, shaped the theology of the Roman Catholic Church.  I was somewhat aware of how Nietzsche influenced Hitler, but less so of how the Romantics influenced Nietzsche.  The path from Byron to Hitler is particularly interesting when you consider Russell was writing in 1943.

I confess to skimming some chapters and skipping others entirely (I figured, since I never heard of the French philosopher Henri Bergson, I could skip that chapter entirely).  And if I had an exam on the book on Monday I’d struggle to pass.  But it was at times utterly engaging and certain chapters went very well with whiskey.

 

The Book Most Likely to Make My Wife Kick Me Under the Table

I gave this award for the first time last year (see, there is some consistency) and here’s what I said about it:

"There's a certain kind of book - non-fiction, well-written, a colon in the title, and a Big Idea at its heart  - that will make me talk about it for months afterwards.   Eventually, I'm out to dinner with other people and am 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."

But since the pandemic cut down that whole ‘out to dinner’ thing I’m going to temporarily rename this award the:

The Book Most Likely to Make My Wife Kick Me Under the Table, If There Was a Table, But Since There Wasn’t She Could Only Smile and Nod Along and Hope I’d Shut Up

The winner this year is (drumroll please, Ringo):

The Beatles: The Biography, Bob Spitz

This book is not for the casual fan.  It is an exhaustive history of the Fab Four.  How exhaustive?  Ringo doesn’t even show up until page 127.

But even as a serious Beatles fan I learned so much and my poor wife who…well, I’m not sure how this happened exactly but somehow I managed to fall in love with and marry and spend my life with someone who DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THE BIG DEAL IS WITH THE BEATLES ANYWAY!!!

And, what with the pandemic and all and the seriously depressed social life there weren’t many tables for her to kick me under so I shared with her every single detail of the Beatles that so utterly fascinated me and instead of kicking me she just politely nodded along…

“Did you know the Beatles were the first artist to include lyrics on an album?”

“Did you know the Beatles did the first music video?  You see, they had stopped touring because of the screaming fans and they needed to promote their new music so they invented the video!”

“Did you know that the length of ‘Hey Jude’ was what inspired FM radio to move from a talk radio to a music format?  You see…”

Truly a thrilling read about one of the greatest creative forces ever – where they came from, how they developed their craft, the almost insane innovation in a relatively short period of time, and how they blew apart.  

(and oh my God I can't wait for this)

Best History Book on a Subject I was Embarrassingly Ignorant About

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Jack Weatherford

I knew the name Genghis Khan.  I was also aware there was a guy named Kublai Khan.  I kinda sorta knew there were Mongol invasions.  Was pretty sure horses were involved.  And that’s about it.

But Weatherford makes a pretty good case for the second part of his book title.  

Consider this:  under Genghis Khan, the Mongol army conquered more lands and subjugated more peoples in 25 years than the Roman Empire did in 400.  If I may quote the dust-jacket:

"With an empire that stretched from Siberia to India, from Vietnam to Hungary, and from Korea to the Balkans, the Mongols dramatically redrew the map of the world, connecting disparate kingdoms into a new world order."

And his grandson, Kublai Khan, founded the Yuan Dynasty in China.  This new world order connected Asia to the Middle East to Eastern Europe, and allowed for an extraordinary spread of culture.  And it's a rip-roaring story filled with adventure, statecraft, warfare, and some truly epic family strife. 

Best Book(s)That Proves I’m Really Still Just a Nerdy 11 Year-Old

The Thrawn Trilogy, Timothy Zahn

I was 11 years old when "Star Wars" came out.  I loved it.  I saw the next two movies in the theater and loved those.  But then, like most normal people I moved on with my life.  I met people in college who were REALLY into Star Wars – would talk about the different colors of the light sabers and what they meant - and I said, thank God I’m not like them.  

But somewhere along the line I started to, um, become like them.  A big part of it was my son becoming a fan.  We were so excited about "The Force Awakens" that I picked him up at college after his last final sophomore year, and we found a theater between his college and home to see the movie.  We sat on line with headsets on so we wouldn’t hear any spoilers from exiting fans.

This year, thanks to "The Mandalorian" I completed the metamorphosis to full geekdom.  I started watching "The Clone Wars" animated series (in the proper order).  And after Admiral Thrawn was name-checked in the second season of "The Mandalorian" I decided to read The Thrawn Trilogy.

I know it’s Legends, not Canon, and it was occasionally jarring to see storylines in total conflict with the storylines of the sequel trilogy.  But it was still a fun ride.  I’m assuming we’ll see the blue Admiral in season 3 of "The Mandalorian" and I am ready for him.  Of course, by the time that comes out in 2022 I'll have watched all four seasons of "Star Wars: Rebels"...

A Fond Farwell

John LeCarre

As I mentioned last year, I do something I call subject-bingeing.  For example, while reading The Beatles book I subject-binged.  Listened to endless Beatles albums, scoured YouTube for interviews and other clips referred to in the book, watched the movie ‘Help’.  Even dug deeper into the solo careers of the Fab Four (damn those early McCartney albums are underrated).

And it so happened this is the year I binged on John LeCarre – or to be more precise, his most famous character, George Smiley.

I tried to read LeCarre years ago, but I wasn’t ready for him yet.  There was a depth and sophistication so far beyond Ludlum and Higgins and it sailed over my head.  But on a recommendation from a colleague I decided to start from the beginning.  

I read all of the Smiley books, including the early ones where he is sometimes only a minor character.  I read his masterpiece, “The Karla Trilogy”.  I watched the two brilliant BBC mini-series “Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy” and “Smiley’s People”, with the incomparable Alec Guiness*.  I rewatched the “Tinker” movie with Gary Oldman.  And I tried without success to find some of the early movies like “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold”.  I went full Smiley in 2020.

* Both of these series are available for free in their entirety on YouTube

If you are unfamiliar with George Smiley, the easiest way to think about him is as the anti-Bond.  He is not handsome or dashing.  He never shoots a gun.  He never beds a beautiful Russian spy.  There are no gadgets.  His wife constantly cheats on him.  And yet, if Bond and Smiley went up against each other, I have no doubt Smiley would walk away the victor.

John LeCarre was a spy novelist, but his spy novels were literature.  Plots mattered but character mattered more.  The great game of nation-states fighting for their preferred ideology mattered, but the sordid moments of a crumbling marriage mattered more.  And while all this was happening LeCarre was creating a language that future spy novelists would use.  Moles.  Honey-traps.  Pavement artists.  Because LeCarre had actually worked for British intelligence, everyone assumed he was using real lingo – but oftentimes he was a novelist making things up.

Not long after I completed the full Smiley journey, John LeCarre passed away.  RIP to the greatest spy novelist, and possibly the greatest observer of the Cold War, to ever put pen to paper.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Bill Bryson

I bought my first Bill Bryson book – The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way – 30 years ago.  I bought it on a whim but immediately recognized that this guy wrote the way I wish I could.  A seemingly effortless charm, lightly worn erudition, and a wry and optimistic yet not at all naïve worldview.

Here are the first few paragraphs of Bryson I ever read:

"More than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest, it sometimes seems, try to.  It would be charitable to say that the results are sometimes mixed.

Consider this hearty announcement in a Yugoslavian hotel: 'The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.  Turn to her straightaway.'  Or this warning to motorists in Tokyo: 'When a passenger of the foot heave in sight, tootle the horn.  Trumpet at him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage, then tootle him with vigor.'  Or these instructions gracing a packet of convenience food from Italy:  'Besmear a backing pan, previously buttered with a good tomato sauce, and, after, dispose the canneloni, lightly distanced between in a only couch.'

Clearly the writer of that message was not about to let a little ignorance of English stand in the way of a good meal.  In fact, it would appear that one of the beauties of the English language is that with even the most tenuous grasp you can speak volumes if you show enough enthusiasm-a willingness to tootle with vigor, as it were."  

I read his travel books, his memoirs, his Shakespeare book, even followed him as he ventured into science with A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body: A Guide for Occupants.  

Last month, the 68 year-old Bryson did something few writers do: he announced his retirement.  Who knows?  Maybe it won’t stick.  Maybe this will be like The Who announcing a farewell tour.  But for now at seems I need to bid a fond farewell to an author who has kept me company for 3 decades.  

And to thank him for all the words.

Congratulations to all of the winners.  We were going to have a live awards ceremony but due to COVID etc. etc. etc.   

The Johnny Bingo Awards - 2024

 My Favorite Books of this Reading Year

Once again, it is time for the least-anticipated literary awards of the year…The Johnny Bingo Awards!

These prestigious awards are awarded annually in a variety of categories that change constantly.  There is only one constant, one rule, which I've been using for nearly 20 years:

Eligible books are those I read this year (see below for full list). 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 ball drops in Times Square, it can be a winner.

The literarily literate among you understand that “the blind Greek poet in the 8th century BCE” refers to Homer, author of The Iliad and The Odyssey.  This week it was announced that the acclaimed director Christopher Nolan’s next project will be a movie version of The Odyssey, starring Tom Holland and Zendaya.  The social media reaction to this was filled with so much literary ignorance it made me want to strap myself to the mast…

On to this year’s awards!

Best Historian at Capturing BIG Subjects in a Single Volume

Andrew Roberts 

When it was announced that Ridley Scott would be making a film about Napoleon Bonaparte, I was nervously excited.  I knew from Gladiator that historical accuracy wasn’t exactly Scott’s strong suit, but still – the chance to see a master filmmaker put things like Austerlitz and the invasion of Russia on screen…

The film was awful but its release inspired me to brush up on my Napoleon and that’s how I came across Andrew Roberts.  His Napolean: A Life is a masterpiece.  Scott couldn’t skillfully fit 22 action-packed years into 3 hours of celluloid, but Roberts splendidly tells the entire story of Napoleon’s life and era in fewer than a thousand pages.  

It was so good I read his single-volume history of WWII, The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, and I can say with confidence it is the best single-volume history of this enormous subject I’d ever read.  It might be subtitled “Hitler Could Have Won the War if He Wasn’t Such an Ideological Idiot.”

I intend to work my way through Baron Roberts’ (yes, he is a Baron) entire bibliography over the next few years.  

Best Book by Someone I Hadn’t Read Yet

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Gabrielle Zevin

It seems much of the book-loving world has read Zevin’s Tommorow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – but I went back a few years and sampled one of her earlier works.  An absolutely charming book written by, about, and for book lovers.  

Best Old-Fashioned Novel by an Underrated Novelist

The Ocean and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story

Mark Helprin

Mark Helprin has had a curious literary career.  Early on, he took the expected steps of the Next Great Writer: acclaimed short story collections, regularly published in The New Yorker, the breathlessly reviewed debut novel (A Winter’s Tale), and the breakthrough novel (A Soldier of a Great War).

Then he seemed to fade from cultural view.  Partly it’s because he had politics well out of step with the literary gatekeepers – he is a passionate supporter of Israel’s right to existence (even served in the IDF) and was revealed to be a speechwriter for Bob Dole.  But it’s also because the next few novels didn’t live up to the promise of his earlier works. Often it seemed like a powerful literary gift was being wielded in the service of unworthy plots.

The Ocean and The Stars was, for me, a return to form.  It is  an old-fashioned novel about honor and courage and love, and a welcome respite from the cynical solipsism of the modern literary novel.

Best History Book About a Subject of Which I was Shockingly Ignorant

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

Michael Korda

Current historical events often influence my history reading.  For example, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 inspired me to finally pluck that unread biography of Peter the Great from the shelf (and it won a Johnny Bingo that year!).

The Israel-Hamas war had me brushing up on the origins of the Middle East’s manufactured map, and made my realize how little I knew of T.E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia.

I don’t know if Korda’s 2011 work is the best biography, but it is thorough, well-written, and has the advantage of being written late enough to capture some recent history.  (and, unlike earlier biographies, late enough to be frank about Lawrence's, oh what's the right word, unusual sex life).

There is so much to Lawrence's life.  He was a critical figure - for better and worse - in the making of the modern Middle East.  And you'll learn much about the unique situation the passing of the Ottoman Empire created, and how it led to the creation of problems that plague the world today.

But it is also one of the great adventure stories of all time, and perhaps a story about the first truly global celebrity.  At the heart of it is the endlessly fascinating figure of T.E. Lawrence.  If I ever get to host one of those ‘if you could invite anyone’ dinner parties, I’d be hard-pressed to not offer a seat to Lawrence of Arabia.

Best Book by the Best Writer

The Passenger

Cormac McCarthy

As I age, and my heroes pass, this blog runs the risk of turning into an Obituaries pages.  Two of my last three posts have been tributes to Pete Rose and Dickey Betts.  And yet, I never quite got around to writing an homage to my favorite writer, Cormac McCarthy, who passed in June of 2023.

In some ways, his career arc was the opposite of Helprin’s.  His first 5 novels were praised in obscure literary journals, but found no readers.  His fifth novel, the much-acclaimed Blood Meridian, had a small press run of 5000 copies.  

But then he went on a run.  His Border trilogy found a much larger audience, and the first book (All the Pretty Horses) was turned into a Matt Damon movie.  In 2005, No Country for Old Men became an Oscar-winning Coen Brothers movie, and 2006 The Road was picked for Oprah’s book club and won The Pulitzer.  This notoriously difficult writer had, against all literary odds, become a mainstream success story.

And that was it.  Or so it seemed.  For the next decade and a half Cormac fans waited.  And then, in late 2022, McCarthy published not one, but two linked novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.  Six months later he was dead.

One night, not long after McCarthy's death, I sat on my deck with a bottle of Basil Hayden, a Montecristo cigar, and Van Morrison’s Veedon Fleece album - and contemplated the career of Cormac McCarthy.  As the bottle emptied and the ashtray filled, my thoughts got more profound, and I was struck with an epiphany about the role of the artist, and how The Passenger and Veedon Fleece were sister works of art that encapsulated both of the careers of these Great Artists, and perhaps even explained Art.   I jotted a bunch of notes down in my phone, stream-of-consciousness style,  bursting with intellectual energy.

Apparently I didn’t save it.  Oh well.  

Hopefully my kids will remember that I have a first edition of Blood Meridian, and while I hope they pass it down through the generations, if they ever get in a tight financial bind, it might be worth something some day.

 Honorable Mention

Here’s the full list of books I read this year, along with some quick comments on other favorites…

Napoleon: A Life, Andrew Roberts

The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy

Two Nights in Lisbon, Chris Pavone

The 39 Steps, John Buchan

Running Blind (Jack Reacher #4), Lee Child

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle,Stuart Turton

Without Fail (Jack Reacher #6), Lee Child

Stella Maris, Cormac McCarthy

Dave Barry Turns 50, Dave Barry

The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, & Happiness, Morgan Housel

Sometimes I give out an award titled "The Book Most Likely to Make My Wife Kick My Shin Under the Table", because I go on and on about lessons learned.  This is one of those books.

The Power of the Dog: Power of the Dog Book 1, Don Winslow

The only reason I didn't honor Winslow again this year is that I gave his book The Force an award last year, and wrote about him with some length.  But this is even better than The Force.

The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton

Red Sparrow: Book 1 of Red Sparrow Trilogy, Jason Matthews

The Summer Game, Roger Angell

The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting, William Goldman

A great read about screenwriting and moviemaking - or at least, screenwriting and moviemaking in the 70s and 80s.  Particularly recommended if you loved Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

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

The 6:20 Man (6:20 Man #1), David Baldacci

The Innocence of Father Brown, G.K. Chesterton

The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, Andrew Roberts

Dress Her in Indigo: (Travis McGee #12), John D. MacDonald

The It Girl, Ruth Ware

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Gabrielle Zevin

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Daisy Jones & The Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid

A fictional oral history of a Fleetwood Mac-like band.  Excellent book, I should have given it a JB!

Swordpoint: The WWII Collection, Max Hennessey

Samuel Adams: The Revolutionary, Stacy Schiff

Adams is on the short list of Underrated Americans, and Schiff is on the short list of underrated historians.  For more on Schiff, see my previous post about the Benjamin Franklin series on Apple TV.

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls #1), Deborah Harkness

I'm two books into this series and I haven't experienced this kind of thrill around vampires since Anne Rice's heyday.

The Edge (6:20 Man #2), David Baldacci

The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, Sebastian Junger

The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett

The Resurrection Walk (Lincoln Lawyer #7), Michael Connelly

The Ocean and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story, Mark Helprin

Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, Noa Tishby

The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves, Keith Law

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, Michael Korda

Flashman (The Flashman Papers 1), George MacDonald Fraser

A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle #1), Ursula K. Le Guin

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King

Case Histories: Jackson Brodie 1, Kate Atkinson

In Sunlight and in Shadow, Mark Helprin

Think Twice: Myron Bolintar #12, Harlan Coben

The Lion's Game: John Corey #2 , Nelson DeMille

Not DeMille's best - it should be a few hundred pages shorter and perhaps have a more wrapped up ending.  But DeMille passed this year, and he gave me many hours of reading pleasure.  The outpouring of support on social media from the giants of thriller writers suggest he was also a beloved and generous man.  Long Island really produces some winners.

Shadow of Night (All Souls #2), Debora Harkness

The Collector (Gabriel Allon #23), Daniel Silva