2024: My Year in Books
TIME FOR MY ANNUAL ROUNDUP of the books I read over the last year.
As always, the books are in chronological order, not ranked.
1. The Yellow House, Sarah Broom
2. Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
3. The Physics of Climate Change, Lawrence M. Krauss
4. Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, Terry Teachout
5. The Great Mortality, John Kelly
6. Jack, Marilynne Robinson
7. A Journey with Jonah: The Spirituality of Bewilderment, Paul Murray, OP
8. Zen and the Art of Difficult People, Mark Westmoquette
9. Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, Chris Miller
10. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
11. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
12. Sachmo: My Life in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong
13. The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, Denis Johnson
14. Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks
15. Proust and the Squid, Maryanne Wolf
16. Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare
17. Shakespeare: The World as Stage, Bill Bryson
18. The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker
19. The Burnout Society, Byung-Chul Han
20. Walden, Henry David Thoreau
21. All the Kings Men, Robert Penn Warren
22. Katrina: A History, 1915-2015, Andy Horowitz
23. Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind, Yuval Harari
24. Spiritual But Not Religious, Fr. John Bartunek
25. A Christmas Memory, Truman Capote
26. No Logo, Naomi Klein
27. Richard III, William Shakespeare
Favorite book not by Shakespeare
The Corrections. Just well-written. Very, very well-written. Sometimes the gift of words overwhelms all (which is why there are two Shakespeare plays and a book about Shakespeare on the above list). This book is about a cartoonishly broken family that almost by accident manages to get together for one last Christmas dinner. Although the family is a complete debacle, Franzen reminds us that family ties can have value, no matter how frayed the connections. (And I am sure Mr. Franzen would detest the simplicity of this summary.)
Book that taught me the most (tie)
I can’t decide between Proust and the Squid and Katrina: A History. Proust is about the neurobiology of reading, and taught me a great deal about the cognitive process of reading long and reading deep (as opposed to skimming articles online). It strongly reinforced my belief that deep reading is very important in intellectual development, something I always suspected but never saw proven scientifically. I think the neuroscience of reading is so important that it belongs in medical school curricula, just as much as the science of exercise does.
But I think the edge goes to Katrina. This book is a review of all the political events over a 90-year history that contributed to the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina. Horowitz points out that disasters like Katrina (and today, like the Los Angeles wildfires) are usually not simply natural events, or “acts of God.” They are the result of decades of mismanagement that leads to vulnerability to disaster.
Katrian filled many gaps in my understanding of south Louisiana history. Although I grew up down there, I didn’t know much about the politics of oil, the city politics of New Orleans, or the crooked fiefdom of Leander Perez in St. Bernard that doomed Louisiana to a disaster, and probably has set it up for more disasters to come.
Funniest book
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden. Denis Johnson always had a gift for making the very sad feel light and amusing. Some would say making light of human misery isn’t a gift. I would say those people haven’t read Denis Johnson.
Worst Book
Zen and the Art of Difficult People. I didn’t find it helpful. At times, with its endless anecdotes, it was annoying.
My feelings about Sapiens are in a separate essay, but I found that book underwhelming as well.
Best Book for People Who Don’t Like to Read Much
Satchmo. Brief, but a fascinating window into the birth of jazz. As a fellow New Orleanian I have always been a Louis Armstrong fan, but did not realize the degree to which Armstrong was an eyewitness to the birth of jazz in New Orleans. This book tells a history that no other writer could have, because no other jazz great was there to see jazz emerge, and the other musicians who were there lacked the storytelling ability Armstong had to set it all down on paper. Jazz is more than just a style of music; it is a way of thinking that revolutionized every art form in the twentieth century, and continues to do so now. Satchmo should be required reading for high school students.
Book I Should Have Finished in High School But Only Got to Now, But It Was Worth the Wait
Walden. A long, slow read. But it rewards the patient reader with rich, beautiful prose — as good as any in the English language. The key to Walden is not to take it too seriously. Thoreau is not saying we should all abandon modern society to live in a shack in the woods. He is saying there is an alternative to the rat race, and just being aware that the alternative exists can make us more content and complete people. A true work of art, Walden asks us not to overturn our lives but to rebuild our imaginations.
