2019 Year In Books

I read 37 books this year. Every year I vow to review every book I read and every year I fall short. 

Books of the Year: This year, I am picking two books to share the book of the year award. The first is Rise and Kill First, an absolutely engrossing account of the Israeli secret services (Mossad and Shin Bet) from their origins before the founding of the nation until the present day. Ronen Bergman gives masterful tick-tock accounts of complicated missions the Israelis have pulled off over the last 70 years to preserve their nation. But Bergman’s book is not a fan boy account of plots so meticulous that explosive devices are inserted into spare tires hundreds of miles outside Israel’s borders and explode in the split second a target walks past them or drone attacks that can take out a single person and leave a person walking next to that person unharmed. No, his is a meditation on the unintended consequences of using targeted assassination as official national policy, of military leaders who become so impressed with their own ingenuity innocent people died and the danger that arises when you cease viewing others as humans and instead as threats that must be snuffed out. It is a book that stays with you and forces the reader to think, deeply, about the sacrifices and tradeoffs that must be made in the name of national security. 

The other book sharing this honor is Bad Blood, a must-read chronicling the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her medical start-up company, Theranos. What could be written off as a cautionary tale of a Silicon Valley darling that went belly up (think Pets.Com or GeoCities) is instead a more sinister, nefarious tale. The reporter John Carreyrou weaves a devastating tale of Holmes, who uses a combination of Steve Jobs-like leadership (minimalist clothing, nose-to-the-grindstone work habits), a compelling backstory (dropping out of Stanford to start her company), and a simple elevator pitch (eliminating veinous blood draws in favor of finger prick testing for a wide range of testing), to convince (mostly) older, wealthy, white men (including former Secretary of State George Schultz and then-Army General James Mattis) to invest in her to the point she briefly became (on paper) the world’s youngest billionaire. But what Carreyrou uncovers in a fast-paced tale that reads like a crime thriller, is fraud, deception, and the deployment of high priced attorneys (David Boies is a villain and ethically ambiguous character in the book) to threaten, cajole, and litigate against anyone who tried to blow the whistle on Holmes, whose technology never came close to meeting the promises she sold to her investors and corporations (like Walgreens) that partnered with her. 

Honorable Mention: A few other notable books. The first is the breezy Bachelor Nation, Amy Kaufman’s history of the eponymous TV show, dark underbelly and all. The second is The Library Book, where Susan Orlean uses a massive fire at a Los Angeles public library in the 1980s as a springboard for delving into the history of libraries in America and their unique (and important!) role in our communities. The third is Camelot’s End, Jon Ward’s outstanding history of the 1980 Democratic presidential primary race between Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy. The final honorable mention is Solid State, a fascinating, if melancholy, look at The Beatles as they break apart even as they create their final masterpiece, Abbey Road. 

Other Books I Really Enjoyed: Next, a few books that would make excellent additions to your personal collections. First, Guac Is Extra, But So Am I, an essential how-to guide from Sarah Solomon for young adults who want to know the finer points of everything from hosting dinner parties to starting retirement accounts, with important asides on proper ghosting etiquette, job interviewing, and keeping your social media 100 p. Second, K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner’s ode to the joys of baseball as told through its pitches - from Uncle Charlie to the split finger fastball and eight others in between. Third, Rocket Men, the story of the lesser-known Apollo 8 mission that orbited (but did not land on) the moon. It is not an easy thing to make a story whose outcome is known still feel like a pulse-pounding thriller, but Robert Kurson achieves it. Fourth, The Lost Gutenberg, is one of those lost-to-history stories I love. Margaret Leslie Davis follows a rare Gutenberg bible from the 1500s through its ownership by scoundrels, knaves, legitimate book collectors, and, ultimately, a Japanese conglomerate (because of course). Fifth, Norco ’80 is one of those books you expect to be turned into a Netflix series. Peter Houlahan’s telling of an infamous bank robbery in California is an adrenaline-filled page turner I had trouble putting down. Finally, Elvis in Vegas, Richard Zoglin’s wonderful history of that town’s co-dependent relationship with movie and music celebrity culture that reached its apotheosis (or nadir, depending on your point of view) when the King of Rock ’n’ Roll decamped to the desert in 1969 a lean, mean musical making machine and slunk out in 1976, a bloated, drug addicted lounge act. 

Solid Picks That You Will Not Regret: Best. Movie. Year. Ever. is a fun return to what Brian Raftery argues is a stand out year (1999) in the movies. We Are Never Meeting In Real Life, a collection of essays (the stronger ones are at the beginning) by Samantha Irby. Howard Stern Comes Again, another collection, this one of edited interviews by the King of All Media, shows Howard’s skills but the truncated versions of his sometimes hour-plus conversations might disappoint hard core fans. She Said, is two-thirds of a great book. Specifically, the book excels as the New York Times reporters Meghan Twohey and Jodi Kantor tell their own tale of reporting on Harvey Weinstein, but the final third (once their story breaks and Weinstein is taken down) is a hot mess that felt like filler to meet a page quota. Finally, Bill Bryson’s The Body, has the author’s signature attention to detail (if you ever wondered what helps make your poo brown, YOU’RE IN LUCK) but also felt bloated (a phenomenon he also explains) and in need of a firmer editorial hand. 

Best of the Rest: The Elephant in the Room (Tommy Tomlinson) is a mostly upbeat tale of a sports writer’s attempt to lose weight. Mortal Republic (Edward J. Watts) is a sometimes dense history of the fall of the Roman republic into dictatorship with not-so-veiled comparisons to America in the 21st century. I Like to Watch (Emily Nussbaum) is an uneven collection of essays by the television critic Emily Nussbaum. Dreyer’s English (Benjamin Dreyer) was the best of several grammar-related books I read this year but the author thinks he is more clever (or is it cleverer?) than he is (yes, I’m ending this sentence on a preposition, eat it!) 

In One Ear and Out the Other: The Death of Hitler, Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina. How to Hold a Grudge, Sophie Hannah. The Grandmaster, Brin-Jonathan Butler. If We Can Keep It, Michael Tomasky. You Could Look It Up, Jack Lynch. Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber. American Predator, Maureen Callahan. Wordslut, Amanda Montell. Republic of Lies, Anna Merlan. The Day It Finally Happens, Mike Pearl. Because Internet, Gretchen McCullough. Semicolon, Cecilia Watson.

Do Not Read: Duped, Abby Ellin. Okay, Fine, Whatever, Courtenay Hameister. A Lot of People Are Saying, Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum. Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell.

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