Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Best Books Read in 2016



Of the 38 books I finished in 2016, below are the top five in four categories, fiction, non-fiction, biography/autobiography and honorable mention.  I would love to know your 2016 favorites, so please leave a comment. 

FICTION






(Click on Read More Below for Non-Fiction, Biography/Autobiography & Honorable Mention)

The Sport of Kings: A Novel by C. E. Morgan



The Sport of Kings is not about horseracing, it is about the gravity of pedigree, told within the context of several generations of Kentucky families (from the 1800’s to present day), and centered on a white landowner family and on the descendants of black slaves.

The book begins with Henry Forge Sr. homeschooling his son Henry Jr. on a mindset and culture that persist in our society like an incurable cancer – what Forge characterized as the importance of proper breeding and the superiority of the white man, as evidenced by his family’s heritage. Reading Henry Forge Sr.’s (Morgan’s) many oratories on these topics was simultaneously nauseating and intriguing.

The young Henry Forge becomes so consumed with the issue of lineage he eventually transitions the family corn farm to a horse farm to pursue an almost Frankensteining dedication to creating the perfect racehorse, and his own perfect human offspring.  He marries/mates a woman from the “right” family, and soon they produce a child, Henrietta. But time proves mom is a little too human, signaling to Henry her genes need to be bred out of their daughter to improve the bloodline. And yes, it is as sick as it sounds. Henrietta becomes the perfect pupil and victim of her father’s dogma and the privilege and entitlement that comes with the Forge brand. Although her mother’s humanity eventually surfaces in Henrietta, consistent with the theme for this book, author Morgan (pictured) doesn’t let any good come of it.  

(Click on Read More Below)

A Love Letter to Texas Women by Sarah Bird



In this pretty little gift book, Bird, in her uniquely charming and entertaining style, pays short but sweet tribute to iconic Texas women so recognizable they don’t even need last names, Lady Bird, Ann, Laura, Molly, Barbara, and to the rest of us Texas gals who are members of the noble club of women with unmatched grit and good hair.

Like many of the fabulous women who prop up the Lone Star, Bird wasn’t born in Texas, but she got here as soon as she could - as if there’s a special magnetic force pulling the best of our gender within the bounds of our huge, crazy, wonderful state of mind.

So here’s your unofficial official yellow rose Ms. Bird. Consider yourself Texas-womanized!

What I'm Reading Now


(All book descriptions are from Goodreads)

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
From a former Marine and Yale Law School Graduate, a poignant account of growing up in a poor Appalachian town, that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class. Part memoir, part historical and social analysis, J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy is a fascinating consideration of class, culture, and the American dream.

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl’s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That’s how this extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs.

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly 
Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South and the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program—and whose contributions have been unheralded, until now.

I Loved Her in the Movies by Robert Wagner
In a career that has spanned more than sixty years Robert Wagner has witnessed the twilight of the Golden Age of Hollywood and the rise of television, becoming a beloved star in both media. During that time he became acquainted, both professionally and socially, with the remarkable women who were the greatest screen personalities of their day. I Loved Her in the Movies is his intimate and revealing account of the charisma of these women on film, why they became stars, and how their specific emotional and dramatic chemistries affected the choices they made as actresses as well as the choices they made as women.

In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi
When the feminist writer learned that her 76-year-old father—long estranged and living in Hungary—had undergone sex reassignment surgery, that investigation would turn personal and urgent. How was this new parent who identified as “a complete woman now” connected to the silent, explosive, and ultimately violent father she had known, the photographer who’d built his career on the alteration of images?

Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Loves, Losses, and Liberation of Joan Rivers by Leslie Bennetts
Joan Rivers was more than a legendary comedian; she was an icon and a role model to millions, a fearless pioneer who left a legacy of expanded opportunity when she died in 2014. Her life was a dramatic roller coaster of triumphant highs and devastating lows: the suicide of her husband, her feud with Johnny Carson, her estrangement from her daughter, her many plastic surgeries, her ferocious ambition and her massive insecurities.


"Finding God at the bottom of all of our barrels" by Judy Knotts




Judy earned her doctorate in Educational Administration at Virginia Tech, studied at the University of Oxford, served as a National Advisory Board Member for Harvard University’s Principals’ Center, co-authored the book, Growing Wisdom, Growing Wonder, pens a religious column for the Austin American-Statesman, and is a cherished friend. The below was reprinted with permission.

This was dropped in my lap as I cruised along in my newly leased upscale, all-powerful, shiny vehicle that knows more than I do. The radio was doing its thing in the background. It was just white noise until these words leaped out at me - “You will find God in the bottom of the barrel.”

Barrel?  What barrel - yesterday’s barrel, today’s barrel?  Whose  barrel?  The bottom of my barrel? As I battle bronchitis for four weeks? As I grieve for my younger brother by five  years who died last month? As I realize that my son is more fragile than I am as a senior citizen. Will I find God here?

The bottom of your barrel? As I hear about a house that has not sold and the family is frantic. As I witness friends dueling with political swords and wounding each other gravely. As I talk to a woman in public housing who juggles bills like a Las Vegas dealer trying to decide who gets attention — the phone company, the utility company, the empty dog dish? Will I find God here?

The bottom of our barrel? As I realize that there is a man without legs who lives under the overpass, alone with his cardboard bed and Bible. As I watch once joyful relationships fade and die. As I try to navigate our new world with a divided nation, violence erupting in cities, and foreign countries fighting over land, religious dominance and economic control. Will I find God  here?

I am a master of out of sight, out of mind. Denial and escape are secret coping mechanisms for me and many of us, I suspect. In an imagined rain barrel full of water, the things that rise to the top grab my attention. These are the buoyant beautiful things that make me smile. So, I buy Christmas presents - toys for my young grandchildren and the new Glimmer Strings LED lights for the rest of the family. I relish Christmas carols and sing along. I bask in the banks of poinsettias and sparkling trees in church surrounding the manger scene. These are the easy things to grab and hold onto from my barrel.

For me, for you, for us, the buoyant beautiful things that float to the top of a rain barrel are much the same - new gadgets, sports, pets, parties, friends and family, entertainment, laughter, home, vehicles, food, celebrations, and the Internet.

Am I messing around with these lovelies floating to the top because I am reluctant to dig deeper to the bottom of the barrel where the force of gravity drags down things with weight? Here debris settles, the muck is thick, and everything is not so lovely. If I am brave enough to dig with bare hands, will I see the ugliness, the pain, the anger, the loneliness of the people unlike me and like me at the bottom? Will I see God as promised on the radio?

I know I avoid peering into the darkness at the bottom of the barrel because it is just too much to bear.  It demands excruciating focus on things I’d rather dismiss as not mine.  Still I hear the man on the radio saying: “You will find God in the bottom of the barrel” so I push myself and wonder:

Why did I walk past the person sleeping on the sidewalk with a bare foot sticking out of a dirty blanket while I hurried past to an upscale restaurant doing nothing, not even covering the foot in the freezing air?

Why did I hunker down at home and fret about my own minor illness, forgetting about those in hospitals, nursing homes and hospice  facilities?

Why did I paper over my personal failings while noticing and criticizing the arrogance and errors of other?

Why did I let impermanent things, the gifts, the lights and the music woo me into mere   amusement?

Still I’m trying. So I dig down almost to the bottom of the barrels - yours, mine, ours - finding rubble, wreckage, agony, despair, sickness, injury, brokenness, filth, lies, selfishness, abandonment and trash.

Now I’m digging deeper where there is guilt, forgiveness and hope. And I’m finding God.