The Benefits of Retirement: The Return of the Book

 

2021 Reading and Listening List

When I retired at the end of 2020, one personal commitment was to get back to reading. Over the last several years as job demands became a 7-day/week burden, the joy of reading took a backseat. With a sudden windfall of free time at hand my hardcover, e-book, and audio book vociferous appetite and consumption returned. Why hardcover? In the case of military history, I study the maps depicting battles and I find the need to constantly reference the graphic description of the operations as the author describes the battle in detail. Audiobooks were a new experience and provided entertainment and education during daily walks and long drives. This year’s titles were dominated by nonfiction as I found myself reading and listening to multiple titles simultaneously. In the case of An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography and Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad these were chosen ahead of our visit to Rwanda to give me additional perspective on the country’s recent volatile history. The list below includes my personal ratings and the respective book format, in the case of Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of the Sopranos, the audiobook is a must as the content is lifted straight from the authors’ podcast. Enjoy!

 

Audiobook

·        Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben Macintyre. 3/5

·        Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne. 4/5

·        The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down by Colin Woodard. 3/5

·        Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War by S.C. Gwynne. 5/5

·        American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan. 4/5

·        An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina and Tom Zoellner. 2/5

·        The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Judy Batalion. 5/5

·        Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad by Michela Wrong. 5/5

·        The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell. 4/5

·        The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War by John “Chick” Donohue and J.T. Molloy. 2/5

·        Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. 4/5

·        The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Gann. 3/5

·        Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of the Sopranos by Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa. 4/5

·        We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption by Justin Fenton. 5/5

·        White Hot Hate: A True Story of Domestic Terrorism in America’s Heartland by Dick Lehr. 4/5

 

Kindle

·        The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis  4/5

·        Rock Me on the Water: 1974 – The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics by Ron Brownstein 3/5

·        Into the Abyss: An Extraordinary True Story by Carol Shaben. 3/5

·        Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe. 5/5

·        Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. 4/5

 

Hardcover

·        Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific 1941-1942 by Ian W. Toll. 4/5

·        The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands 1942-1944 by Ian W. Toll. 4/5

·        Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific 1944-1945 by Ian W. Toll. 4/5

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Secular American Jew and a Love for Israel

As many of you know, I have dedicated many postings to the State of Israel on a range of topics including: it’s history, the present day government, the Jewish-Palestinian question, and the region in general.   Growing up in a liberal conservative Jewish household (the oxymoron is quite common as American Jews were almost exclusively political liberals and the conservative branch of Judaism the most common) and attending Hebrew school as a kid you obviously build an affinity for the State of Israel.   I do not remember the Six-Day War of 1967, but I have vivid memories of celebrating Israel’s 25 th anniversary in 1973 and the Yom Kippur War later that year.   As a ten year old attending Yom Kippur services I saw the worried looks on my parents and the other adults at the shul as members of the congregation would periodically step outside to get news reports from car radios and transistor radios (We still drove and used electrical appliances during the high holidays, though several fam
Read more

September 10, 2001 was a Monday

Where were you on September 10, 2001?   What were you worried about?   What occupied your thoughts, worries, hopes, and dreams?   What were you excited about?   What were you interested in? September 10, 2001 was a Monday. Cindy and I were still laughing about the recent visit from the Three Amigas: Leah, Roseanne, and Valerie, and the adventures of Sedona, a certain screen door, a forgotten carrot cake, and breakfast for champions.   We were also dealing with a 1995 Chevy Blazer that seemed to be on its last legs, surviving our first Arizona summer, thinking about what to remodel in the house, dealing with the concept of a Home Owners Association, thinking that my best shot at a World Series game maybe with the fledgling Arizona Diamondbacks, and looking forward to a visit from Scott, Lori, and the boys. But what about America?   We knew nothing about a tiny town in Pennsylvania called Shanksville; Guantanamo Bay was the setting for A Few Good Men, and we still taped shows and listene
Read more

Sunni and Shia: So who are the bad guys again?

Baby faces vs. heals?   Cowboys vs Indians?   Good guy always where the white hat.   “Dig is he a good guy or bad guy?”   Bad guys always, looked, well, bad. You’re either with us or you’re against us.   Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are the axis of evil. Americans, for the most part, have a pretty simple outlook on conflict: just tell us who the bad guys are and we’ll know who to root against.   We tend to lump similar races and peoples into larger buckets, mostly due to the media’s inclination to treat us like potential Jeff Foxworthy competitors.   But the world is anything but simple and as I have written previously, the Middle East is as confusing and confounding place as you can find.   During the Iran and Iraq war of the 1980’s most Americans took the position that “…as long as they kill each other, I’m good.”   When civil war ravaged Afghanistan, we joined the side of the Mujahedeen because they were fighting the Soviets and the Soviets were our archenemy, a position they occupie
Read more