What I Read on My Summer Vacation (plus winter, spring, and fall)

Here are the books I read so far this year, some incredibly good and some not. With few exceptions I'm glad I read them all.

Fiction
Deception Point - Dan Brown
Quite the thriller – just one damn thing after another. I still don’t believe an F14 can fly non-stop from DC to the Arctic and back without refueling. Everything else? Totally believable.

The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
The Reef - Edith Wharton
Edith rules! House of Mirth is the best.

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Almost as unintelligible as when I last read it 30 years ago. It makes more sense in combination with King Leopold’s Ghost though (see non-fiction).

Interpreter of Maladies - JhumpaLahiri
Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
Lahiri is one of today’s best short story writers. Often poignant, sometimes depressing but especially interesting if you know a lot of people from India as I do. This is her complete opus to date.

Kingsblood Royal - Sinclair Lewis
Amazing how much has changed and how much hasn’t since the 1940s in terms of race relations.

White Teeth - Zadie Smith
A great book. Right up there with On Beauty.

Tubal Cain - Hal Burton
Under no circumstances should you ever read this alleged “book”. The hero’s eyes change from bright green to steely blue in the space of two pages. It’s self published. Say no more. I only bought it because I hiked the Tubal Cain Mine trail, which is where this abomination takes place.

Independent People - Halldor Laxness
A life-changing novel according to a reviewer on NPR. My life seems unaffected.

Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo
Straight Man - Richard Russo
Two great reads from Russo. I plan to read all of his books.

Very Good, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
Hilarious series of short pieces with Jeeves and Wooster. Got a vintage 1930s copy at the Seattle Library book sale for a buck.

Young Men in Spats - P.G. Wodehouse
Amusing enough but no Bertie Wooster and no Jeeves. WTF?

Indian Killer - Sherman Alexie
Kind of gross but lots of local Seattle color.

All the Little Live Things - Wallace Stegner
OK, but rather forgettable. It’s no Angle of Repose.

Emma - Jane Austen
As Grandma Ruth used to say, rereading a favorite book is like visiting old friends. Most definitely true with this masterpiece.

Non-Fiction
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
Not as good as Dreams From My Father. More of a political pamphlet.

A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
Very entertaining account of hiking the Appalachian Trail.

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Interesting, but Carl Sagan he is not.

King Leopold’s Ghost - Adam Hochschild
Amazing and disturbing account of what went on in the Belgian Congo in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And I always thought the Belgians were harmless. Not so much.

The Education of Henry Adams - Henry Adams
I thought I should read this since it’s so well-known. Nice period piece but almost as self-indulgent as this blog is.

1942 - Winston Groom
So-so description of the U.S. WW2 experience in 1942. Nice as always to see the Japanese Navy get what they had coming to them at Midway.

The Hemingses of Monticello - Annete Gordon-Reed
Fascinating story of Thomas Jefferson’s African-American family. A little too much mind-reading on the part of the author for my taste but very good nonetheless.

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers was very interesting. Tipping Point was mediocre. I’m done with Malcolm now.

In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan
Eat real food, mostly vegetables, not too much.

The Weather of the Pacific NW - Cliff Mass
Wonderful scientific explanations of our weather. I know why it was so cold earlier this month!

Born to Run - Christopher McDougall
We really were born to run. I may take it up again.