My Book List

Not that you asked, but here’s a list of (most of) the books I’ve read in the past two years. Seems like I average one every 20 days.

The best or at least most memorable of the list? In no particular order: One Righteous Man; The Warmth of Other Suns; A Curious Man; Longitude; Jacksonland; The Faithful Executioner; The Fall of the Ottomans; Boom, Bust, Exodus; The Moor’s Account; History of the Jews; In the Kingdom of Ice; and The City & The City.

It’s mostly history, I can’t help but notice, and a bit sociological. And just two fiction books (and one of those was historical).

The Frozen Water Trade by Gavin Weightman

The Great Siege: Malta 1565 by Ernle Bradford

New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in… by Jill Lepore

The Beast Side: Living (and Dying) While Black in America by D. Watkins

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

Washington: A History of Our National City by Tom Lewis

Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads by Paul Theroux

One Righteous Man: Samuel Battle and the Shattering of the… by Arthur Browne

The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the… by Amy Chua

Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier by Hampton Sides

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great… by Isabel Wilkerson

Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy by Frank McLynn

The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and… by Thor Hanson

The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in… by Joel F. Harrington

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert… by Neal Thompson

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the… by Dava Sobel

Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost… by Peter Stark

Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America by John Waters

The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution… by Joseph J. Ellis

Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John… by Steve Inskeep

The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East by Eugene Rogan

Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy

Boom, Bust, Exodus: The Rust Belt, the Maquilas, and a Tale… by Chad Broughton

Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams by Charles King

No Way Out: Precarious Living in the Shadow of Poverty and Drug Dealing by Waverly Duck

The Moor’s Account: A Novel by Laila Lalami

History of the Jews by Paul Johnson

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest… by Hampton Sides

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage… by Hampton Sides

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

The Global Pigeon (Fieldwork Encounters and Discoveries) by Colin Jerolmack

The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels,

Tempered Zeal: A Columbia Law Professor’s Year on the Streets With the New York City Police by H. Richard Uviller

Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society: A Visual Guide

Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird by Andrew D. Blechman

The City & The City by China Miéville

Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey

American Homicide by Randolph Roth