Best Books Read In 2015
by Terry Hayes
by Helen Macdonald
by Ashlee Vance
Best Books Read In 2015
By Category
Non-Fiction:
Fiction:
Biography:
Sunday, January 24, 2016
100 Things I Want to Tell My Children and Grandchildren: #17
In1980, my friend
Paul Gongaware, AEG Live Co-CEO and
concert promoter for Bruno Mars, Bon Jovi, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Lopez,
Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Taylor Swift, and others, was at the time promoting
the Eagles The Long Run Tour. On the February night they played at the Frank
Erwin Center in Austin, Paul invited me to the after-party at The Driskill
Hotel. Having attended many such concert after parties, and needing to be at
work at The University of Texas bright and early the next morning, I didn’t
stay long, but several extraordinary things did happen while I was there.
First, I had a nice long conversation
with Don Henley, who was soft-spoken and very appreciative of my comment that
the audience at the Erwin Center had a great time. That’s what he was
interested in – that the audience had a good time.
At some point Joe Walsh walked in,
making a bit of a commotion - laughing joking, asking where the beer was - but
he did take a few minutes to stop by and meet me. Later, after I’d left, Paul
said Joe keep asking, “Where’s SueA-n-n-n-n?” in a parody of my west Texas drawl.
When Glenn Fry came over to join the
conversation between Don and me, I sort of resented the interruption and noted
that he was short and a bit arrogant. In telling this story I always mention I
thought Glenn Fry was a jerk. Now he’s dead, and honestly, I have no idea
whether he was or not.
So I want to say I’m sorry Glenn Fry,
for judging you. And I’m sorry you died so young. You were an exceptional
writer and singer, bringing immeasurable musical pleasure to many, and I’ll bet
you have the penthouse suite in the Hotel California in the sky.
The Yokota Officers Club: A Novel by Sarah Bird
Having put a decade between my first readings of a couple of
hometown-hero Sarah Bird’s books, I decided it was time for a re-read. I
started with The Flamenco Academy,
but that ended tragically one night when I stumbled into the bathroom in the
dark and unknowingly knocked the book off the bathroom counter into the commode
and then peed on it - twice.
Discombobulated, but
not deterred, I simply moved on to another Bird best-seller The Yokota Officers Club which is about
a large American family living the unique, nomadic military life, and what that
lifestyle and extraordinary immersion into world politics does to the family
dynamic. Having spent many summers traveling
to England, Spain, California and other far-fetched destinations to be with my
sister and her Air Force Captain husband and their five kids, I related
personally to Bird’s story, which is based closely on her own military brat
experience.
The Yokota Officers
Club takes place on Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, where former spy pilot Major Mace
Root and his road-weary wife Moe and their six kids struggle for identity
within the context of the controversial Vietnam War, life amongst the
dishonored Japanese, Okinawans demanding the military get out of their country, and
declining global respect for the “ugly Americans”.
Oldest daughter Bernie has just
returned from her first year of college stateside, where anti-war
demonstrations are being played out on every campus. Dad has been grounded to a
desk job, an administrative demasculinization. Mom, once the beautiful, model military wife, taking
the brunt of her husband’s demoralization, has surrendered to “prince valium”.
Bernie’s younger sister, Kit, has turned into an untethered and too popular
teen. The youngest, Bosco, has become the family doomsayer, and the boys are just running wild. The house is a mess since Fumiko their maid of many years was
banished (the story within the story), and the yard is unmowed. Military
regulations forbid disorder of any type, and the family is in peril of “reassignment”
to the American Military equivalent of a Gulag.
As the oldest, Bernie feels
compelled to fix her family, but it’s all just too much. At her mother’s insistence, she
enters and beats her prima donna sister in a dance contest, providing a brief
escape while she tours American bases in Japan with the contest host, a colorful
comedian/celebrity. While there, Bernie reunites with Fumiko and learns what
family tragedy really looks like.
There’s a certain safety to struggling
on your own soil and a certain bravery and dignity required to survive
struggles when you can’t go home.
Although the story of the Root family is fraught with drama, Bird (pictured), in
her inimitable style, entertains us and makes us laugh, and we relate to the
Root family because they do what all families do: They fear, fight, cry,
forgive, laugh and grow together. If you are from a military family, or any
family, or if you simply love a good story, you will enjoy The Yokota Officers Club.
Cluster Critiques
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihar
A group of young college graduates set up housekeeping in
NYC. We attach to their tenuously tethered friendships as they are buffeted by
life, and we impotently and painfully observe the unrelenting effect of
childhood trauma (the “little life”) on one of the dominant characters.
Yanagihar elegantly tells a tough and hopeless story.
M Train by
Patti Smith
Although this is the second book by Patti Smith I’ve devoured,
I’ve really only latched onto a few things about her. She has lived in New York
forever, she is a singer/songwriter (Because
The Night) and artist, was friends with Robert
Mapplethorpe and William Burroughs, and she can write you into another world.
When she wrote Just Kids, I was
stunned. With M Train, I was
nourished. Smith dishes out words, phrases, visuals and thoughts and concepts
different than anything I’ve ever read. Her alternately menial and momentous
mental and actual wanderings take you on journeys so hypnotizing you lose
track. I forget where I am, and don’t care. M
Train is a ride to relish.
A Thousand Naked Strangers by Kevin Hazzard
Kevin Hazzard, a talented wordsmith feeling emptied and
inconsequential as a journalist, impetuously decides to becomes a paramedic. In
the aftermath of his somewhat brief career diversion, he shares this
fascinating story of saving and not saving lives, and the crazy, crazy behind-the-scenes
emergency medicine craziness. A Thousand
Naked Strangers was fun, funny and interesting.
The Cartel by Don Winslow
The many
parallels between recent blockbuster movie Sicario
and Don Winslow’s new book The Cartel seem
to validate the truth of both stories about the Mexican-American
drug wars. I couldn’t summarize this book any better
than the following quote from the book, which will stay with me for a long
time. It’s a long quote, but worth your time.
“It infuriates him, this killing, this
death. Infuriating that this is what we’re known for now, drug cartels and
slaughter. This my city of Avenida 16 Septembre, the Victoria Theater,
cobblestone streets, the bullring, La Central, La Fogata, more bookstores than
El Paso, the university, the ballet, garapiñados, pan dulce, the mission, the
plaza, the Kentucky Bar, Fred’s—now it’s known for these idiotic thugs. And my
country, Mexico—the land of writers and poets—of Octavio Paz, Juan Rulfo,
Carlos Fuentes, Elena Garro, Jorge Volpi, Rosario Castellanos, Luis Urrea,
Elmer Mendoza, Alfonso Reyes—the land of painters and sculptors—Diego Rivera,
Frida Kahlo, Gabriel Orozco, Pablo O’Higgins, Juan Soriano, Francisco Goitia—of
dancers like Guillermina Bravo, Gloria and Nellie Campobello, Josefina Lavalle,
Ana Mérida, and composers—Carlos Chávez, Silvestre Revueltas, AgustÃn Lara,
Blas Galindo—architects—Luis Barragán, Juan O’Gorman, Tatiana Bilbao, Michel
Rojkind, Pedro Vásquez—wonderful filmmakers—Fernando de Fuentes, Alejandro
Iñárritu, Luis Buñuel, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro—actors like Dolores
del RÃo, “La Doña” MarÃa Félix, Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete, Salma Hayek—now the
names are “famous” narcos—no more than sociopathic murderers whose sole
contribution to the culture has been the narcocorridas sung by no-talent
sycophants. Mexico, the land of pyramids and palaces, deserts and jungles,
mountains and beaches, markets and gardens, boulevards and cobblestoned
streets, broad plazas and hidden courtyards, is now known as a slaughter
ground.
And for what?
So North Americans can get high.”
Winslow is a sometimes-exceptional writer and this is an
exceptional book about a topic uncomfortably close to home.
The Sports Gene:
Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein
You know what’s the first thing major-league teams test when
they’re considering hiring a hitter? Their eyes. Why? It’s not the 20/20 vision
they’re looking for. It’s more. They’re looking for the unique,
genetically-based capacity of some hitters to see, from 60 feet away the nuance
of a muscle twitch in a pitcher’s face or forearm just a nanosecond before they
throw a pitch--the tell that tells the hitter where the ball is going. They can
actually test that. Wicked, huh? David’s Epstein’s book somewhat spins off
writer/researcher Malcolm Gladwell’s theory, pitched in his best-seller Outliers, that puts forth 10,000 hours
of practice is the “magic number” dividing line between being very good, i.e. a music teacher or a minor league player, and an expert - world famous. But
Epstein goes deeper and discovers
it’s not just about practice. There are more than 20 genetic variants - and this doesn’t even count the genetic
mutations - that set some athletes apart (can you say X-Men). The clinical part
may sound a little dry, but the people in the studies make it juicy. I
loved it.
All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
McCarthy speaks my coveted language - almost none. I love
his minimalist expression, and I relate so personally to the topic, time, place
and culture of this book: Horses, West Texas
ranches, mid-twentieth century, Mexican/Anglo
relationships. This was a re-read for me
and worth every second. Here’s one of my many favorite quotes from the book.
“Ever dumb thing I ever done in my life
there was a decision I made before that got me into it.
It was never the dumb thing. It was always
some choice I'd made before it.”
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi
Coates
It seems to me that humans embrace the guilt of their
ancestors like the body of a recently-dead baby, showcasing shame as proof of
our own superiority and our “never again” evolution: slavery, genocide, child abuse, world
pollution, and violence in the name of religion. In this letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his adolescent son, he basically says “Bullshit”.
Coates believes we’re a species capable of never-ending horrific
rationalizations, and keeping Black people down is in the Anglo DNA.. This is a
brutal “calling” out we deserve, and very hard to read. But because it is so
well explained and written, you can’t really write it off as radical. This one will make you think about things you
may not want to think about but nevertheless should. Only one thing. What's the solution Mr. Coates?
A Brief History of Seven
Killings by Marlon James
This 2015 Man Booker Prize winner tells a
fictionalized oral history of the attempted assassination of Bob Marley, and the
violent history of Jamaica in the 1970s-80s. With the story jumping back and
forth between 70+ characters, I found it impressive but not really enjoyable.
Dietland by Sarai Walker
Main
character, 300-pound Plum, has spent her entire life planning to be thin. She
has a closet full of size 2 clothes. And while she saves
up for weight-loss surgery she leads a small life, robotically repeating mundane
daily activities, including her job responding to letters from teen girls to
the editor of a women’s magazine. And then “Jennifer” enters her life. But
Jennifer isn’t a warm and fuzzy friend or a lesbian lover. Jennifer is an underground terrorist organization handing out particularly brutal
vigilante justice to misogynists. And then, in the chaos and craziness that
ensues, we discover Plum, and so does Plum.
Lafayette in the Somewhat
United States by Sarah Vowell
Who knew Lafayette
was such an American groupie? Sarah Vowell, that’s who. In her unmatched style,
two-parts humor and one part history (all parts clever), she exposes this
heroic “almost” American rebel with a cause, as George Washington’s buddy and
King Louie 16th's benefactor. Desperate for a good fight on which to
hang his teenage machismo, and not really wanting to be a daddy (his wife is pregnant) Lafayette hustles off to America where his appreciation for the cause
and his French money are heartily embraced. This is Vowell doing what she does
best – exposing history, hysterically.
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in
America by Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer
You may think you
know what poverty looks like - the cause, the solution. Probably not. This book doesn’t take a rhetorical political side,
it just looks closely at the issues. Educational and depressing.
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg
I felt so removed by comedian Aziz Ansar and NYU sociology
professor Eric Klineneberg’s book I felt like a grandparent observing clever
child-play, and wanting to say, “That is so cute!” Digital dalliance is not
something I’ve engaged in but I can appreciate the nuances and politics of
putting something in writing – which is largely what this book is about – intimate
relationships platformed in technology. Wow. Skip a generation of dating
because you’re monogamous, and the dating world tilts. Ansar and Klinenberg take an
interesting clinical and sometimes funny look at “sexting” and the worldwide
trends of relationships - “89
percent of the global population lives in a country with a falling marriage
rate.” Meh.
Rising Strong by Brené Brown
When a friend shared the following Teddy Roosevelt quote,
which is the anchor for Brené Brown’s book, Rising
Strong, it made me want to read the book.
“It
is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man
stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit
belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust
and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and
again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; … and who at
the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”
In Rising Strong, Brown says, “A lot of cheap seats in the arena are filled with people who never venture onto the floor.” And in that way that the best of syllogists do, she challenges us to mine deep into our worst mistakes, take responsibility, learn, recognize the effort, forgive ourselves, and move on. It wasn’t fun. I found myself wanting to grind the book up in my garbage disposal. But Brown, not unlike a parent, metaphorically slaps the shit out of us, then hugs us and tells us she loves us and just wants the best for us. It was a interesting exercise and Brown is certainly an insightful observer, but I can’t say it was fun.
In Rising Strong, Brown says, “A lot of cheap seats in the arena are filled with people who never venture onto the floor.” And in that way that the best of syllogists do, she challenges us to mine deep into our worst mistakes, take responsibility, learn, recognize the effort, forgive ourselves, and move on. It wasn’t fun. I found myself wanting to grind the book up in my garbage disposal. But Brown, not unlike a parent, metaphorically slaps the shit out of us, then hugs us and tells us she loves us and just wants the best for us. It was a interesting exercise and Brown is certainly an insightful observer, but I can’t say it was fun.
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