Last year’s thread: https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-ten-books-of-2022/
As ever, doesn’t matter when they were published, but you read 'em and loved 'em this year. And please also tell us, in a sentence or two, why you liked 'em.
I’ll post mine shortly.
I read 50 books this year, just under my tally last year. Here are my Top Ten, in no particular order:
Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris - A collection of short stories by one of my favorite humor writers, focusing on his father’s health decline and death, and on COVID. Notwithstanding that, some good, often rueful laughs here.
The End by Ian Kershaw - A very interesting history of the last year of Nazi Germany, focusing on why WWII didn’t end like WWI in Europe: Hitler’s enduring personality cult, state terror, the lack of independent civic institutions like trade unions, and fear of the Soviets, most importantly.
The Bald Eagle by Jack E. Davis - A history of the bird itself, and Americans’ evolving view of it, from pest to valued national symbol, with sidelights on DDT, American Indian rituals and ornithology generally.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel - Sf novel about a temporal agent investigating anomalies in time and being drawn into them himself, despite being warned.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Sf novel about a terraforming project gone horribly awry and humanity’s ramshackle last starship trying to find a haven.
Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule - A Virginian, career Army officer and West Point history prof comes to grips with the Confederacy, Lost Cause mythology and the legacy of slavery.
Satchel by Larry Tye - Affectionate bio of the great Negro League, and late in his life Major League, pitching legend Satchel Paige.
Downfall by Richard B. Frank - Terrific history of the last year of WWII in the Pacific and the events which led to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel - Haunting tale of a beautiful but poor Canadian woman, her troubled brother, a Ponzi scheme and an escape to the sea.
The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson - Well-researched, very readable account of the first two years of the American Revolution.
Honorable mentions to Replay by Ken Grimwood (sf novel about a man reliving his life over and over again, changing his own and world history as he goes); Apollo Remastered by Andy Saunders (remarkable collection of photos of the Moon landings, many of which I’d never seen before); Sinkable by Daniel Stone (interesting history of shipwrecks generally, and the Titanic in particular); and Dreaming the Beatles by Rob Sheffield (a fanboy explores just why we love the Beatles, and why their music still has such enduring appeal to so many people).
What with cataracts and Covid and all and all, I’m down to just 64 this year.
Myth America: Historians Take On The Biggest Legends And Lies About Our Past, by Kevin M. Kruze, et al. I found it rather eye-opening. I thought I knew American history pretty well, but, turns out, I was kidding myself.
On Venus, Have We Got A Rabbi!, by William Tenn. My introduction to a short story writer with a marvelous sense of humor.
I Must Say, by Martin Short. Autobiography of the Canadian comic, and the power of friendship. Beginning with his start in the Canadian production of Godspell, which also included Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hare and Gilda Radner.
A People’s History Of The United States by William Zinn. I’ve known it’s considered a classic, but I didn’t see the real need to read it until I read #1 above.
The Last Adventure Of Constance Verity, by A. Lee Martinez. I am very fond of Martinez’s humor, and the way he parodies his own genre. This, by the way, is actually the first of three adventures of Constance Verity.
Marty Feldman by Robert Ross. Biography of the British comedy great. Appreciative without being fawning. It points out lots of little bits, including that it was often said that, at a meal, Marty would smoke between courses, and his wife would smoke between bites.
1927 by Thomas S. Hirshak. Great details, and given as a day-to-day commentary, which gives you more of an idea of how much interest there was in early plane flights, and what a big deal Lindbergh’s crossing was, and much, much more.
Roosevelt Sweeps Nation by David Petrusza. Petrusza’s latest detailed work, which fairly examines FDR’s first re-election, though the author’s conservative bias is evident.
A Religious Orgy In Tennessee by H. L. Mencken. The Scopes trial as covered by the master journalist, with additional background and biographical material from the editor.
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. Scalzi was working on his master novel when Covid struck the country (but not him). A year and more in seclusion, and his wife finally told him it just wasn’t coming. So he shelved the master novel for now, and this popped out of his head in a few weeks. It’s a nice, easy read from the author of Redshirts.
So far I have read 74 books, including novellas and manga, I’m trying to get A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher finished today.
My top ten, in no particular order:
The Saint of Steel series by T. Kingfisher. I love the humanity, snarky humor and merciless body count of this series. What happens to a group of God touched paladins when their God dies?
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. A fantasy world based on Pre Columbian Americas. The world building is beautiful, the characters were enjoyable, the plot is a little weak, and while I didn’t like the ending I still asked for the sequel for Christmas.
System Collapse by Martha Wells. Never imagined I could be so invested in the bromance between a bot pilot and a construct Security Unit, but here I am hanging on every word. I do love that the non-humans are the focus of the story and the ones that get the most character development.
Murder in Shades of Red by Ripley Hayes. Solving a murder in a foreign country is bad enough without also having your boyfriend in a coma from the same shooting. The author really dug into the trauma and pain and made me relive the worst year of my life.
The Passengers by John Marrs. The book took awhile to start since there were so many characters, but once it got moving, it kept me enthralled and even though I guessed some of the ending, there were some twists I did not anticipate.
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. Romance between the US President’s son and the younger English Prince. The book was funny and sweet with a nice ramp up to trouble at the end.
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher. This is going to be a reread, the world building was wonderful, I loved the characters, the humour and especially the bone dog.
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K. J. Charles, minor gentry and a smuggler find love and nefarious doings in Romney Marsh.
Swordheart T. Kingfisher (I read a LOT of her books this year) I just adore the Rat and all his followers. The book was sweet, and funny and angsty towards the end. Going to be a favorite of mine.
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley.(Second time reading it) One of those books that grabs you by the shirt and drags you along whether you want to sleep or not. The characters are so vivid and interesting. The world is familiar but not and the action well written.
Honorable mention to Ornamental by E. M Lindsay. I’ve lost track how many times I’ve read this one. Story of a man with Tourette’s rebuilding his life and finding a new love after a massive crash that left his career as an educator in ruins and his marriage dissolved.
Made my top ten last year. It’s just a FUN read.
Mine too, and agreed!
Nonfiction
Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent (Dipo Faloyin) Best book I read this year overall. Brilliant writing about heartbreaking history, plus one chapter about how non-Africans make movies set in Africa which was the funniest thing I read this year.
American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics (Kevin Hazzard) This book would have been my top choice of almost any other year. Fascinating history on this topic and the incredible people who made it happen.
Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of The Berlin Airlift-June 1948-May 1949 (Richard Reeves): Very interesting history about a subject I knew much less about than I thought. Includes a number of funny anecdotes, including what happened when the USO was going to do a show in Berlin that none of these pilots were going to be able to see until their CO threatened to tell the press—and Bob Hope—unless this was changed. (It was.)
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (Chip Heath and Dan Heath) Great anecdotes about how businesses, schools, and hospitals were transformed through the use of psychology.
Truck: A Love Story (Michael Perry) Brilliant use of language and characterization.
Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love With an Animal (Sarah Maslin Nir) Great anecdotes, great characterization, great writing.
Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution ([Menno Schilthuizen] Excellent writing about science and the urban setting.
Lev’s Violin: A Story of Music, Culture and Italian Adventure (Helena Attlee) More excellent writing and interesting historical anecdotes.
Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius (Nick Hornby) Very interesting historical anecdotes.
Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants (James Vincent). More interesting anecdotes.
Fiction:
The Mountain in the Sea (Ray Nayler): SF: Wonderful writing, plot, worldbuilding, characterization, and setting.
When a Sparrow Falls (Neil Sharpson) SF: For its use of language, characterization, and plot.
The Ballad of Perilous Graves (Alex Jennings) Fantasy: Setting, worldbuilding, language, and characterization.
A Desolation Called Peace (Arkady Martine) SF: Language, plot, worldbuilding, and characterization.
Something More Than Night (Kim Newman) Speculative/Mystery: Language, characterization, and setting.
Best of Connie Willis (Connie Willis) Speculative: Plots, characterization, and language.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick) SF: Worldbuilding and characterization.
Gingerbread (Helen Oyeyemi) Fantasy: Language, humor, and setting.
The Eighth Detective (Alex Pavesi) Mystery: Plot.
Moonfleet (J. Meade Falkner) Historical: Language, setting, and characterization.
Both: Impossible Histories: The Soviet Republic of Alaska, the United States of Hudsonia, President Charlemagne, and Other Pivotal Moments of History That Never Happened (Hal Johnson) Nonfiction/Speculative fiction: Excellent history combined with “what might have been”. Great writing with some humor.
Year’s Best Opening Sentence: “Melville, South Carolina was out of money, it was out of jobs, it was out of hope, and today it was out of astronauts.” Badasstronauts by Grady Hendrix
Have you read the sequels? They’re nearly as good.
I’ve been looking at reading Tchaikovsky. It’s good to know you enjoy him.
I often pick new reads from this list myself. Especially new authors.
I have read Stilleto and I have Blitz. I just have a hard time holding big books anymore…
Goodreads is saying I only read 16 books this year, which is not accurate. But I did read a lot of things I didn’t finish.
Here’s some things I finished that I liked:
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel. Am a big fan of the series. The book did not disappoint. It made a decidedly different point than the series, with an emphasis on different characters. It was hard to walk away from this book with anything but gratitude for the fleeting wonders we have.
Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer. So started my obsession with wilderness survival stories, this is a really incisive portrait of an odd young man who died way too early doing something incredibly stupid.
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer. Certainly the most moving of the Everest accounts that I have read, what makes this one unique is that Krakauer was one of the only survivors of the disaster he’s chronicling. Krakauer is raw with unprocessed grief and trauma throughout this narrative. Survivor’s guilt bleeds off every page.
The Murder at the Vicarage - Agatha Christie. I read a ton of Agatha Christie this year. A think A Murder is Announced is my favorite so far. Really I had no idea she was such an engaging writer.
Caliban’s War - James S.A. Corey. Book 2 of the Expanse series. I freakin’ love me some Expanse. Excellent book, plus this one introduced Chrisjen, and I mean, she may be one of the greatest characters in all of science fiction.
Everything Happens for a Reason And Other Lies I’ve Loved - Kate Bowler. A memoir written by a dying theologian. Sometimes very funny, sometimes very sad.
Worrying is Optional - Ben Eckstein. Was this the most fun one to read? No. But the advice is grounded solidly in research and the advice about ending rumination has made a significant difference in my life.
I can’t remember the title but I read a 1,000 page compilation of Ray Bradbury short stories, which was, of course, awesome. A few surprises, including a story about a 100-year-old man who got a hard-on and was so proud he invited all his ex-girlfriends over to see it. Another was about Black people leaving the planet en-masse which gave me Derrick Bell vibes.
Honorable mentions I started but haven’t finished yet:
Uniquely Human - Barry Pryzant. Possibly the best book about understanding autism that is on the market today. It’s a gentle and compassionate look at how autistic children experience the world, and it made me a better parent.
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas. Solid story but gets super freaking creepy and disturbing, and I don’t know if I’m going to finish it.
Hard to pick a Top Ten, but here goes…
Desert Star by Michael Connelly – Harry Bosch teams with young detective Renee Ballard to work the cold case files. When one such case reveals that two dangerous killers may still be on the loose, the stakes suddenly grow large for the two detectives. A typically fine work by one of the best crime/legal writers currently active.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – The title character was once a famous Hollywood starlet who used her body and her talent to rise to the top of her profession. Now in her golden years, she chooses a struggling young writer to pen her biography…but she has her nefarious reasons for doing so. This is a book that I would not have chosen on my own, but my daughter recommended it, and I’m glad she did, as I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian – A hungover flight attendant wakes up in a strange Bangkok hotel room with a dead man next to her, and she has no idea how it happened. But she’s got to figure it out before she’s jailed for murder in a foreign land. I chose this book because I watched and enjoyed the HBO miniseries. The series did a good job of following the book, which I always appreciate.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens – A young girl, living on her own in the marshes along the North Carolina coast, is accused of murdering one of the young studs of the village. Another young man helps her to clear her name. I, along with a million other readers, enjoyed this book, although I have yet to see the movie.
Women Talking by Mariam Toews – A group of women in an isolated Mennonite community in South America discuss their future as they recount their horrific experiences of being raped by young men who are their neighbors and fellow churchgoers. Based on a true story, this is a hard book to read, but I couldn’t stop once I started.
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn – Four almost-elderly female government-backed assassins who have been put out to pasture now find themselves targets of their former colleagues. An enjoyable and action-packed read with a fair number of humorous situations. A fun read with gory overtones.
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth – An alternate history book in which Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite Charles Lindbergh is elected President in 1940. I did not know of Lindbergh’s political leanings, but this book paints a chilling picture of what might have happened under different circumstances.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – When a young wife goes missing, her husband becomes the prime suspect in her disappearance. This is a long book with a large number of plot twists, and the reader is continually swayed as to who is the Bad Person. I listened to this book while on a road trip to the West Coast, and it certainly helped to roll across Utah and Nevada.
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann – I won’t say a whole lot about this book, except that if you haven’t read it, you should, and if you haven’t seen the movie, you should.
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy – I picked up this book because I saw and enjoyed the movie. Again, I was pleased to discover that the movie had followed the book almost perfectly. McCarthy is a gifted author.
I also read three books by John Sandford, two by Jonathan Kellerman, and one by Stephen King. These are three of my favorite authors, along with Connelly and Grisham.
In 2023, I read 62 books in their entirety, and attempted an additional 9 that I did not like enough to finish. These were the stand-outs:
Fiction:
Non-Fiction:
6. Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, and the Science of Success by Matthew Syed was the most motivating book I read this year. It really drove home the idea that innate talent is a myth and everyone who achieved success did it by taking advantage of the opportunities they were given and working insanely hard.
7. I Hear You: The Surprisingly Simple Skill Behind Extraordinary Relationships by Michael S. Sorenson is only 149 pages, and that’s what makes it so great. The author writes about the conversational skill of validation, and there is no marketing fluff or repetition here. Every page is either clear, actionable (and good) advice, or an example that does a great job of illustrating how to implement the advice.
8. The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society by Debra Soh - Soh, with her background as a sex researcher, explains the science behind sexual identity and gender identity. It was really refreshing to read a grounded, well-researched perspective on these topics amidst all the emotionally charged rhetoric that’s out there.
9. Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall - This book gave me a much better understanding of the inherent advantages and disadvantages different countries have, how they attempt to cope with the disadvantages, and with whom they align or oppose because their interests clash.
10. The Heart Speaks: A Cardiologist Reveals the Secret Language of Healing by Mimi Guarneri goes beyond the standard advice of diet and exercise to really explore what people lifestyle decisions/changes people can make to keep their hearts healthy. Each chapter is supported with solid research and fun-to-read anecdotes.
This thread is adding a lot to my to-read list, which is already in the triple digits…
Here we go
Michaelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling Ross King
Long and wonderfully detailed account of the famous series of paintings. More than just the story of the art itself, it goes into the volatile personalities of Michelangelo and Pope Julius II, as well as how the pigments were made and how the walls were prepared.
Eversion Alastair Reynolds
A sort of time loop sci-fi with the same group of explorers looking for a mysterious building in different periods of history. One of them begins to realize events are repeating themselves and tries to find the truth.
London Rising: The Men Who Made Modern London Leo Hollis
A history of the English capital from roughly 1640 to 1700, focusing on five men - John Locke, John Evelyn, Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren, and Nicholas Barbon - who contributed to the development of the city.
Cleopatra’s Needles Bob Brier
The intriguing history of the obelisks of ancient Egypt, from how they were quarried and moved (contrary to what you might see on pseudo-historical websites we know how it was done and it didn’t involve aliens or lost technology) to how they were looted by the Romans and then by France, Britian and the United States.
Interesting book about a cool topic. Lots of nice pictures too.
The Fifth Season N.K. Jemison
The Fifth Season is a fantasy novel set on a single large continent. The setup is that a small number of people are born as orogenes, wizards with the ability to cause or prevent earthquakes. They aren’t popular, and those that aren’t murdered as children are sent to a school for wizards in the capital city.
The novel adopts the Game of Thrones style by having several characters in several settings, with each chapter focusing on one character.
Ascension: A Novel Nicholas Binge (My #1 book of the year, without a doubt)
In 1991, a giant mountain suddenly appears in the Pacific Ocean. An expedition is sent to climb it, and all of them die or go insane. So, a second expedition is sent. Of course. As the members of the second expedition ascend the mountain, things get weirder and weirder…
Well-written and briskly paced, with some good plot twists and lots of psychological horror.
Mudlark: In Search of London’s Past Along the River Thames
Lara Makleim
A mudlark is a hobbyist who scours the shoreline of the river Thames in England looking for bits of historical detritus - coins, buttons, pottery, etc It seems like a very British thing to do. It also seems like a lot of fun. The author, a devoted mudlark herself, describes the various places she visits and things she finds, as well as reflecting on how her hobby fits into her own life.
The Underworld Susan Casey
The history and current state of research on the deep ocean.
Death and the Conjuror Tom Mead
A locked-room murder mystery set in 1930s London, where the chief investigator is a retired stage magician.
Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill Candice Millard
The true story of young Winstin Churchill during the Boer War. Desperate for military glory, he signed on as a correspondent, went to the front, was in an intense battle and taken prisoner. He then escaped and had to make his way across a hostile territory to freedom. Remarkable and well-written history.
I read several very bad books this year, but that’s a topic for a different thread.
The Lark’s Lament (Fools’ Guild, #6)
The Moneylender of Toulouse (Fools’ Guild, #7)
The Parisian Prodigal (Fools’ Guild, #8) (Gordon, Alan): I love the Fools’ Guild mysteries, which are set in the Middle Ages. Clever plots, fun dialogue, a certain amount of Shakespeare.
The Lady from Burma (Sparks & Bainbridge, #5) (Montclair, Allison): The author is, in fact, Alan Gordon, as above. This is an early-20th c. mystery series, also with great characters and wittiness. #6 will be published in July; #7 is in the works.
Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them (Brown, Nancy Marie)
The Lewis Chessmen (Robinson, James): Alternative theories about the origins of the Lewis chess sets. Iceland? Who can say.
Landlines (Raynor Winn): Third in a series about her walks with her husband, whose seemingly-fatal neurogenerative disease is held in check by strenuous long-distance hikes. Read The Salt Path first for a richer experience.
The Witness for the Dead (The Cemeteries of Amalo, #1) (Addison, Katherine): Set in the same world as The Goblin Emperor. I adore Addison’s characters and the tone of these books. I just received #2 as a gift.
The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike, #7) (Galbraith, Robert): Easier to follow than #6, which included texts, emails, and other media, sometimes simultaneously, which made the audiobook strenuous to follow at times. This one begins with epistolary content as background, then moves on. Perhaps overly complex, which is typical for this series, but I enjoyed it. The story focuses on a cult and will move a book on Rajneeshpuram toward the front of my queue. Narrated by Robert Glenister, whose voicing and delivery are delightful.
System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7) (Wells, Martha): It’s Murderbot! Not the best of the series, but Murderbot! Narrated by Kevin R. Free, whose slightly bored and aggrieved characterization is perfect.
I will hope for something new from Lois McMaster Bujold in 2024.
ETA:
Mudlark : In Search of London’s Past Along the River Thames
I’ve skimmed a different Mudlarking book, but now follow this author on Facebook.
I haven’t read nearly as much this year as I’d like, but I’ll just hit the high points:
1: Warrior Girl Unearthed, by Angeline Boulley. I can’t recommend this one highly enough, because everything about it just works, on every level. The main character is a teenage girl on the Sugar Island Ojibwe reservation in Michigan, and she’d be perfectly happy to stay on the island her whole life and live a carefree life hunting and fishing, but she finds herself drawn into the battle to repatriate Native American artifacts and remains. Plus there are live Native American women who are disappearing, and she might be next. It’s the same author as The Fire-Keeper’s Daughter, though I think it’s set a generation later (I didn’t read that one).
2: Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir. It’s not as good as the other two novels I’ve read by him (The Martian and Artemis), but that’s praising with faint damnation. It’s still a great scientific adventure story, about humanity venturing out to the stars for the first time, before we’re ready for it, because we have to, and then it turns into a great First Contact story, too.
3: Network Effect, by Martha Wells. It’s the first full novel in the Murderbot series, though not the first work (there were a couple of novellas). Murderbot (that’s what it calls itself, but only in its own internal monologue) is a security robot who’s hacked its governor module and has thereby developed free will, but is continuing in the same line of work because that’s what it knows, and is very, very good at, except that it made its own choice about what humans it wants to protect.
4: The Recluce series, by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. So far, I’ve read The Magic of Recluce, The Towers of the Sunset, and The Magic Engineer. It’s a fantasy, set in a world where magic is based on Order and Chaos. The magic system is fairly well thought out, and there’s an inherent Balance between the black Order magic and the white Chaos magic, but there’s not any sort of artificial symmetry.
5: The Island of Missing Trees, by Elif Shafak. It’s the story of a young starcrossed couple from Cypress, one Greek, one Turkish, and their daughter who was raised in England, narrated in part by the fig tree under whose branches they met, and which the father transplanted to England.
I’m not sure how many books I’ve read this year, but here are some of my favorites. I’m going in chronological order of how they show up in goodreads.
Lessons in Chemistry, about a chemist turned cooking show star in the 1960s or thereabouts. It’s a fun read.
Light from Uncommon Stars, which is such a weird book. It includes pacts with the devil, violin prodigies, and aliens. I kept having to take breaks to listen to the violin music referenced.
True Biz, which takes place in a school for the deaf in rural Ohio. It was such an interesting look into a subculture I knew very little about.
Sea of Tranquility, which has already been mentioned in this thread.
Lagoon, about first contact as experienced from a few different perspectives. It takes place in Nigeria. I listened to the audiobook and thought the accents used by the performers really enhanced the experience.
Translation State, which takes place in Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch universe. It’s told from 3 perspectives, but for me the most memorable is the perspective of a young man who believes he is human but might not be.
The Door-to-Door Bookstore, just because it was such a sweet little book. It’s about a man who delivers books and the community he builds through his work.
Happiness Falls, which describes the aftermath of a suburban father’s disappearance. It has footnotes (always a favorite) and interesting digressions into a potential methodology for quantifying happiness.
The Storyteller, which is Dave Grohl’s memoir. I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, but really enjoyed this.
The Cat Who Saved Books, which I honestly just picked up for its cover. It’s odd, but asks good questions about why we read.
I also read and enjoyed lots by T. Kingfisher, John Scalzi, and Martha Wells this year.
I also read a lot of fiction, but none of it really stood out.
Not sure I’ll get to ten (I don’t keep a list, which I should–maybe this year), but some of the ones I liked best:
–A reread: EL Doctorow, Ragtime. A wonderful-in-every-way novcel mixing fact and fiction in the early days of twentieth century America. I find that a lot of books I enjoyed as a teenager/young adult don’t hold up well; this was a definite exception.
–The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. A writer uses a plot he got from a jerk of a writing student. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
–John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany. I thought that this book was just terrific, even though the narrator was not always as admirable as he thought he was. Hits on many important themes and does so IMHO extremely well.
–Also by Irving, The Cider House Rules. An orphanage, controversies about abortion, migrant workers…but really a book about people doing the best they can. Good night, ye princes of maine.
–I did read a third book by Irving (all three new to me). A Widow of One Year was good, I thought, though not as good as the other two. Novelists, lots of sex, and ultimately a happy ending.
–David Grann’s The Wager has been mentioned. Shipwreck! Mutiny! Possible cannibalism! And all against a backdrop of world domination. I liked it a lot.
–I also liked Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon pretty well–murders, mostly pretty ghastly, race relations in early 20th century America, and “the birth of the FBI.” I thought it had a tendency to ramble, but I thought it was pretty good overall.
–Andrew Blauner’s The Peanuts Papers. Essays from cartoonists, writers, moviemakers, etc., about what Charles Schulz and Charlie Brown meant to them. More than a bit repetitive, but overall quite good and very interesting.
–Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve by Ben Blatt. A data-driven look at writing and the sorts of words and constructions that are used by famous literary authors, well-known mass-market writers, and the people who create fanfiction. I loved it.
–Joe Posnanski, Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments. Well, I do love baseball, and I did love this book. Definitely the top nonfiction book I read this year and up there with Ragtime and A Prayer for Owen Meany for top overall.
Is that ten? That’s ten! Fun to read other people’s ten-bests too.
I adored this one. It’s very moving but also very funny.
As requested in the OP, please also tell us, in a sentence or two, why you liked 'em.