December 31

Today is the last day of the year, the last day of the decade. It has not been a good year, or decade for that matter. I do not expect next year (or decade) to be any better. If I make it, I will be retired 10 years from now, which will be nice, but if I'm being honest, I don't expect to make it that long. I guess we'll see.

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December 30

Christmas and New Year's Day landing on a Wednesday was a little wonky. I had to store up vacation time so I could take all of last week and today and tomorrow off, but I am pleased I did. It is cold and rainy and I am in a warm house watching NFL-related programming and tweeting instead of being at work and miserable. A small victory.

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December 29

I spent some time yesterday thumbing through my weekly planner (below). If you think this is depressing, that is where the really dark shit resides. Just page after page of unhappiness, frustration with my job, my life, the decisions I have made. There are maybe a handful of days where I log something positive in that book, which is not a great ratio considering I write in it every day of the year. 

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December 28

I exercised some restraint today. I did go into the office because I could not resist the temptation to see what was in my inbox (it was not terrible); HOWEVER, all I did was delete the stuff that I did not need to respond to and left the stuff that I do need to respond to until Thursday, when I am back in the office. Go me.

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December 27

I would probably get bored with it, but the routine I have slid into while on vacation is one I could get used to - leisurely breakfast followed by a morning gym class followed by lunch and a nap in the afternoon is just exactly perfect. Some TV through the evening and then in bed closer to 10 p.m. to start the cycle all over again. If only I did not have bills to pay, this could really work for me!

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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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December 25

There is a cable channel called "ME TV" that airs a lot of old shows from the 60s, 70s, and early 80s. One of the shows they air (although unfortunately only one episode a week) is Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. For ~ people of a certain age ~ like me, Buck Rogers was a big deal growing up. But memory is a funny thing. I remember the show running a lot longer (it was only 2 seasons). I definitely remember Princess Ardala (probably my first crush?) yet she was only in a handful of episodes (and only in the first season). I did not remember the cheesy special effects (which, even for 1981 were really bad) or the terrible story lines in season 2 (so stupid I am embarrassed to even describe them). And yet, there is something comforting in Gil Gerard's tuft of chest hair, Erin Grey's steely-eyed sexiness, and even the cornpone dialogue. There are only a couple of episodes in the really bad second season left to air before they cycle back to season 1, which will give me the full nostalgia trip.

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December 24

Today is shaping up to be a great day. I slept until about 5:30, got up, had breakfast, and will go to the gym for a 10:30 class. After class, I will come home and not leave for 48 hours because everything is closed for Christmas.

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December 23

I am officially over Christmas. Most years, I do not really notice it, but it is annoying that I have to skirt around this particular holiday that most of the country celebrates to do basic things like grocery shop while also being obligated to engage in "happy holidays" (or GASP MERRY CHRISTMAS) banter. Like, a month of this is enough. It is also weird to me that anyone thinks in any way that we are anything other than a Christian nation when everyone who IS NOT Christian gets a month of this bullshit shoved down their throats. 

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December 22

I had a little coffee 'date' yesterday. These are not 'dates' in the way that term was once used, they are more like Greg's 'pre-meeting' with Michelle Pantsil. You meet to determine whether there will be an actual date. In this case, as in most, there will not be an actual date. My 'date' was perfectly pleasant, a decent conversationalist, and we even had a few things in common, but there was nothing there, no spark (I believe reality TV dating shows call it a 'connection.') After about an hour, I got bored. 

This used to bother me, but now I realize that if you just randomly start talking to what is essentially a complete stranger the likelihood there will be a 'match' is remote.

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December 21

The diner was HOPPING this morning, even at 5:45 in the morning. Weird combination of club kids, holiday travelers, and regulars. Not my cup of tea (coffee), but it is the Saturday before Christmas. I was out early to the grocery store, totally avoiding the crowd and can now chill out for the rest of the day. 

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December 20

I have gone early-20th century, or maybe even 19th century, the past few days. We got hit with a cold spell and I have not turned on the central heating in my house, opting instead for using the gas fireplace which can competently heat the main level and upstairs provided the temperature does not drop below freezing. Well, the temperature dropped below freezing and the gas fireplace can only do so much. Thursday morning the thermostat flashed 54 degrees (it felt colder) and the fireplace could only get the temperature up to about 70 before I left for work. It was back in the mid-50s when I got home and topped out at about 72 when I went to bed. 

At about 3:45 I woke up to turn the fireplace back on and it was comfortable when I woke up around 6 a.m. (a rare "late" morning). Today is milder and it is going to warm even more over the next few days so I think I am out of the woods until New Year's. Why do I not just turn on the central heat? I don't know. The fireplace actually makes the house warmer so long as the outdoor temperature is not too bad and the basement can be cold and I can survive being down there with a space heater for short bursts.

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December 19

The new routine finds me up at 4:30 A.M. I wonder if this is what getting older looks like. I thought 5 A.M. was early and now that has been pushed up. The one upshot is having more time than I know what to do with until I have to go to work.

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December 17

The thing I am looking forward to in 2020 more than anything is the day, I believe it is April 1st, when my mortgage rate resets. I know, most people would hope for a new job or a promotion or meeting a new love interest, but none of those things will happen for me. Instead, I look forward to the day the mortgage company that holds my note has to recalculate what I pay it each month. 

A bit of background ... When I got divorced I had to refinance my mortgage. We could have sold the house but to do so would have dragged out the living together (not ideal) and also would have resulted in our eating all the equity we had in the house. We bought at the top of the market, but put down 20 percent, so even though we got divorced in the teeth of the recession, we were not underwater. Rather, the outstanding debt was about what the house appraised for. So I took the gamble of keeping the house and hoping things would rebound and I could also swing it financially long enough for that to happen. 

So, I refinanced, but since there was now no equity and I basically had no extra money, I had to get an adjustable-rate mortgage. ARMs lock you in at a lower interest rate for a set period of time and then resets (typically once a year) after the initial rate period is over. I got a 5-year ARM. In other words, for five years, the interest rate was really low and then it resets once a year for the rest of the term. I have been lucky, both because interest rates have remained low (this year was the first one when the interest rate was above 4%) and between raises at work, finishing alimony, and being frugal, I have been able to stay in the house for almost 10 years. 

I took almost the entire inheritance-out-of-nowhere I received earlier this year and paid down about 40 percent of the remaining principal on the loan. By my calculation, when my ARM resets in April (which will also likely go down if the interest rate it's based on stays around where it is), I will save somewhere between $500 and $600 a month. It is the equivalent to a roughly $10,000 raise which is not nothing for me. 

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December 16

I finished Watchmen today. I did not love it and the episodes were really dense (in terms of heaviness not obtuseness). At times, it felt like it was trying to be/do a couple of things at once and because of that, seemed more like a Frankenstein's monster of comic book fan service, social commentary, and super hero show. The social commentary story could have stood on its own - a dystopian future where white people get fed up with diversity and take up arms to the point where the cops need to wear masks is not far fetched when you think about Second Amendment sanctuary cities and the Bundy clan. Like, the next Democratic President is going to face obstruction on a level unseen, basically in the last 100 years. Would it shock me if white nationalists took up arms? Does the name Tim McVeigh mean anything to you? 

But this was all framed around the eponymous comic book that if you had not read (like me) would have helped to get some exposition at the beginning of the season, not the end. The writers abandoned the main plot for several episodes of fan service for comic book readers which kind of lost me and then got to an ending that tied everything together in a way that was marginally satisfying. I don't know, maybe I am not the ~ demographic ~ for the show.

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December 15

I started doing this dopey daily diary thing a year ago today. I started doing it in large part because I was reading a book at the time - The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen Age 83 1/4, a work of fiction (which I don't read much of) that tells the story of a pensioner in the Netherlands. It is a lovely little book, by turns sad and optimistic, mundane and hopeful, the meditation of a person living Jim Morrison's observation that the future is uncertain but the end is always near. 

I am not particularly happy with my results. On one level, this has been a good opportunity to vent the day-to-day frustrations and anxieties I have without the pressure of anyone reading what I am writing (most of my daily posts get 10-20 page views) but I also pull my punches a lot even though this is a completely anonymous blog. The really secret stuff, the dark stuff, is still largely unwritten. I do not know why I do this, maybe I am not willing to be that honest with myself or the few people who do read this blog, but that has been a bad job by me. I am going to keep writing, if for no other reason out of habit but also because it does give me an outlet for these petty little dramas and experiences, even if no one is reading.

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December 14

I handed out Christmas money to people in my life this week. Tips as they were. Artie Lange once observed that gift certificates are money that could be spent anywhere and converted into money that could only be used in one place. I used to give out gift cards and now I just give out money. Crisp $50 bills for the trainers I work with at my gym, the guy at my local diner who always knows my order, and my assistants. The amount seems insufficient and also indelicate, more transactional than I tend to like, but that seems to be the social protocol, so there it is. 

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December 13

Yesterday at work, a couple of the admins were futzing over a toy Santa that sings Christmas songs. They were having a good laugh over it and I did not pay it much mind. But as I walked past them, I was filled with a sense of annoyance. It is weird to me that we just accept the fact that there is a religious holiday that is celebrated for weeks, openly, and without any sense that not everybody believes in it. It is a blind spot, I suspect most do not even think about, and that is fine. Being a religious minority is something I am well accustomed to being, but when you hear people whining that they cannot properly "celebrate" I just want to tell them to kindly shut the fuck up. 

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December 12

Right after my ex wife moved out, one of my co workers warned me not to stay single for too long. She told me about her brother and how after he got divorced that happened to him. He became too set in his ways. Too resistant to letting anyone in. Too unwilling to compromise his time; his space. I did not pay it much heed because I did not think I would be single for that long. Turns out she was right and I was WAY wrong because I really do think I am done. Romance and love are just things I have now accepted I will not have for the rest of my life.

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December 11

I finished the single season of Mrs. Fletcher last night. As one who did not like the book, the show was better though the ending felt rushed. I ordinarily think shows tend to drag an episode or two longer than they should, but in this case, it felt like the opposite. There was not quite enough character development, the pinching of some story lines from the book became more noticeable (both Eve and her son were less sympathetic in the book than the show, there was more build up between Eve and her half-her-age co worker (with an underlying theme of employment discrimination threaded through)) and while the threesome that ended the season also occurred in the book, Eve's son didn't walk in on them. If there was a planned second season, I could see this making more sense, but it appears this was a one off. On the other hand, it did end on a note of ambiguity, which is something I think more shows should focus on. Something more open ended and less conclusive is not necessarily a bad thing.

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December 10

The weather has been lousy the past couple of days. Lots of rain and I have been out in it more than I would like. My mood has not been great, which does not help. I am just tired - mentally, physically, emotionally - I need some time away from the stresses of every day life and I can never seem to get it. 

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I Read 321 Books This Decade

2010 

1.  The Forever War, Dexter Filkins

2.  The Godfather Doctrine - A Foreign Policy Parable, John Hulsman & A. Wess Mitchell 

3.  Crash Course, Paul Ingrassia

4.  Hellhound on His Trail, Hampton Sides

5.  The Promise, Jonathan Alter

6.  The Big Short, Michael Lewis

7.  War at the Wall Street Journal, Sarah Ellison

8.  Lost Rights, David Howard (Book of the Year)

9. Mad Men and Philosophy, James B. South, Rod Carveth and William Irvin

10. Obama’s Wars, Bob Woodward

11. How to Become A Scandal, Laura Kipnis

12. The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate, Eugene Ehrlich

13. Griftopia, Matt Taibbi

2011

1. The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean

2. Tears of A Clown, Glenn Beck and the Teabagging of America, Dana Milbank

3. There’s A Word For It, The Explosion of the American Language since 1900, Sol Steinmetz

4. Quite Literally, Wynford Hicks

5. Endgame, Frank Brady

6. The Lover’s Dictionary, David Levithan

7. All Facts Considered, Kee Malesky

8. Rawhide Down, Del Quentin Wilber

9. Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words, Bill Bryson (2011 Book of the Year Finalist)

10. Mad as Hell, The Crisis of the 1970s and the Rise of the Populist Right, Dominic Sandbrook

11. At Home, Bill Bryson (2011 Book of the Year Finalist)

12. The Eichmann Trial, Deborah Lipstadt

13. The Lost City of Z, David Grann

14. The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson

15. In the Garden of Beasts, Erik Larson

16. Fraud of the Century, Roy Morris

17. The President and the Assassin, Scott Miller

18. Game Six, Mark Frost

19. The Last Gunfight, Jeff Guinn

20. The Speech, Senator Bernie Sanders

21. The President Is A Sick Man, Matthew Algeo

22. Sex on the Moon, Ben Mezrich

23. A Billion Wicked Thoughts, Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam

24. Destiny of the Republic, Candice Millard

25. Snoop, What Your Stuff Says About You, Sam Gosling

26. Should You Judge This Book By It’s Cover?, Julian Baggini

27. Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State, Andrew Gelman

28. That Used To Be Us, Thomas Friedman & Michael Mandelbaum

29. Boomerang, Michael Lewis

30. Why Read Moby Dick, Nathaniel Philbrick

31. Maphead, Ken Jennings

32. The Professor and The Madman, Simon Winchester

33. Back To Work, President Bill Clinton

2012

1. Just My Type, Simon Garfield (Book of the Year Finalist)

2. Confidence Men, Ron Suskind (Book of the Year Finalist)

3. Back To Our Future, David Sirota 

4. Worm: The First Digital War, Mark Bowden

5. Unsolved Mysteries of American History: An Eye Opening Journey Through 500 Years of Discoveries, Disappearances and Baffling Events, Paul Aron 

6. Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That? A Modern Guide To Manners, Henry Alford (Book of the Year Finalist)

7. Pity the Billionaire, Thomas Frank

8. The Fourth Part of the World, Toby Lester

9. The Lifespan of a Fact, John D’Agata & Jim Fingal

10. Monopoly - The World’s Most Famous Game, Philip Orbanes

11. Almost President, Scott Farris

12. Are All Guys Assholes?, Amber Madison

13. The FOX Effect, David Brock & Ari Rabin-Havt

14. The Tea Party & The Remaking of the Republican Party, Theda Skocpol & Vanessa Williamson

15. An Emergency in Slow Motion, The Inner Life of Diane Arbus, William Todd Schultz

16. The Plots Against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis and the Rise of the American Right, Sally Denton

17. Manhunt: The Ten Year Search for Bin Laden - From 9/11 to Abbotabad, Peter Bergen

18. Drift - The Unmooring of American Military Power, Rachel Maddow

19. Hubert’s Freaks, The Rare-Book Dealer, The Times Square Talker, and the Lost Photos of Diane Arbus, Gregory Gibson

20. The Escape Artists, Noam Scheiber

21. Do Not Ask What Good We Do, Robert Draper

22. Twilight of the Elites, Chris Hayes

23. The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg

24. Little America, Rajiv Chandrasekaran

25. The Violinist’s Thumb, Sam Kean

26. The Eighteen Day Candidate, Joshua Glasser

27. It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, Thomas Mann & Norman Ornstein

28. Superman, Larry Tye

29. How To Sharpen Pencils, David Rees

30. Several Short Sentences About Writing, Verlyn Klinkenborg

31. Spunk & Bite, A Writer’s Guide To Bold, Contemporary Style, Arthur Plotnik

32. The Gospel According to The Fix, Chris Cillizza

33. Ten And A Half Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said, Charles Wheelan

34. Confront and Conceal, David Sanger

35. Final Victory, Stanley Weintraub

36. Acquainted With The Night, Christopher Dewdney

37. All Facts Considered, Kee Malesky

38. Red Ink, David Wessel

39. The New New Deal, Michael Greenwald

40. The Story of Ain’t, David Skinner

2013

1.  What Are You Looking At? Will Gompertz

2.  On Saudi Arabia, Karen Elliott House

3.  The Books They Gave Me, Jen Adams

4.  A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson

5.  Good Prose, Tracy Kidder & Richard Todd

6.  Going Clear, Lawrence Wright (Book of the Year Finalist)

7.  Pound Foolish, Helaine Olen

8.  Quiet, The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain 

9. On the Map, Simon Garfield

10. Salt, Sugar, Fat Michael Moss

11. The Story of English in 100 Words, David Crystal

12. The Way of the Knife, Mark Mazzetti

13. The Unwinding, George Packer

14. 1969, The Year Everything Changed, Rob Kirkpatrick

15. Confessions of a Sociopath, A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight, M.E. Thomas

16. Banksy, The Man Behind the Wall, Will Ellsworth-Jones

17. Attached, The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find and Keep Love, Dr. Amir Levine and Rachel Heller

18. The Skies Belong To Us, Brendan Koerner

19. Lost Girls, An Unsolved American Mystery, Robert Kolker

20. Difficult Men, Brett Martin

21. Strange Rebels, Christian Caryl

22. This Town, Mark Leibovich

23. JFK’s Last Hundred Days, Thurston Clarke

24. Lapsing Into A Comma, Bill Walsh

25. Yes, I Could Care Less, Bill Walsh

26. Dallas 1963, Bill Minutaglio and Steven Davis

27. One Summer: America 1927, Bill Bryson

28. Double Down: Game Change 2012, Mark Halperin & John Heilemann

29. 1973 Nervous Breakdown, Andreas Killen

30. Hello, Goodbye, Hello Craig Brown

31. A Cruel & Shocking Act, Philip Shennon

2014

1.  The Squared Circle - Life, Death & Professional Wrestling, David Shoemaker

2.  A History of Britain in Thirty-Six Postage Stamps, Chris West

3.  Still Writing - The Pleasures and Perils of a Creative Life, Dani Shapiro 

4.  The Poisoner’s Handbook, Deborah Blum

5.  All The Time In The World, Jessica Kerwin Jenkins

6. A Short Guide to a Long Life, Dr. David Agus

7. The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander

8. Appomattox, Victory, Defeat and Freedom at the End of the Civil War, Elizabeth Varon

9. Network, David Itzkoff

10. Ping-Pong Diplomacy, Nicholas Griffin

11. Tomorrow-Land, The 1964-65 World’s Fair & The Transformation of America, Joseph Tirella

12. It’s Not You, 27 (Wrong) Reasons You’re Single, Sara Eckel

13. The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert

14. Flash Boys, Michael Lewis 

15. The Dylanologists, David Kinney

16. Talk to the Hand, Lynne Truss

17. You’re Not Special (and other encouragements), David McCullough

18. Divide, Matt Taibbi

19. Proof, The Science of Booze, Adam Rogers

20. On the Run, Alice Goffman

21. The Last Stand, Nathaniel Philbrick  

22. Bloody Spring, Joseph Wheelan

23. The Invisible Bridge, Rick Perlstein (Book of the Year nominee)

24. The Last Magazine, Michael Hastings

25. Show Your Work! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity & Get Discovered, Austin Kleon

26. The Doors, A Lifetime Of Listening to Five Mean Years, Greil Marcus

27. Thirteen Days In September, Lawrence Wright

28. How To Be Interesting (In 10 Steps), Jessica Hagy (Book of the Year nominee)

29. All The Truth Is Out, Matt Bai (Book of the Year nominee)

30. Daily Rituals, How Artists Work, Mason Currey

31. The Politics of Life, Craig Crawford

32. Seven Bad Ideas, Jeff Madrick

33. Stuff Matters, Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our World, Mark Miodownik

34. A History of America in Thirty-Six Postage Stamps, Chris West

2015

1.  The Lost Tribe of Coney Island, Claire Prentice

2.  The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure, C.D. Rose

3.  World Order, Henry Kissinger 

4.  Whatever Happened to the Metric System?, John Marciano

5.  Shot All To Hell, Mark L. Gardner

6. The Triangle, A Year On The Ground With New York’s Bloods & Crips, Kevin Deutsch

7. A Letter to My Cat, Notes to our Best Friends, Edited by Lisa Erspamer

8. Getting Back Out There, Susan J. Elliott

9. Citizens of the Green Room, Mark Leibovich

10. Mastermind, How To Think Like Sherlock Holmes, Maria Konnikova

11. The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion & The Dark Side of Cute, Zac Bissonnette

12. America’s Bitter Pill, Steven Brill 

13. So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, Jon Ronson

14. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Randall Munroe

15. David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell

16. Dead Wake, Erik Larson

17. Missoula, Jon Krakauer

18. From Clueless to Class Act, Jodi R.R. Smith

19. Bad Days In History, Michael Faquhar

20. The Smartest Book in the World, Greg Proops

21. The Almost Nearly Perfect People, Michael Booth  

22. Superpower, Ian Bremmer

23. When to Rob a Bank: And 131 More Warped Suggestions & Well-Intentioned Rants, Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt

24. The Death of Elvis, Charles Thompson and James Cole

25. Dog Whistles, Walk Backs, and Washington Handshakes, Chuck McCutcheon and David Mark

26. The Real Thing, Lessons on Love & Life From A Wedding Reporter’s Notebook, Ellen McCarthy

27. America 1908, Jim Rasenberger

28. The Perfection of the Paper Clip, James Ward

29. You Are A Badass, Jen Sincero

30. Magic Words, Tim David

31. One Man Against The World, The Tragedy of Richard Nixon Tim Weiner 

32. Showdown, Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America, Wil Haygood

33. 1944, Jay Winik

34. Killing A King, Dan Ephron

35. Works Well With Others, Ross McCammon

36. The Obstacle Is The Way, Ryan Holiday

2016

1. The Wilderness, McKay Coppins

2. Ghettoside, Jill Leovy 

3. Dreamland, Sam Quinones

4. F*ck Feelings, Dr. Michael Bennet and Sarah Bennett

5. The Confidence Game, Maria Konnikova (BoY finalist)

6. Dead Presidents, Brady Carlson

7. Too Dumb to Fail, Matt K. Lewis

8. I Never Knew That About New York, Christopher Winn (BoY finalist)

9. The Man’s Guide to Women, Douglas Abrams and John Gottman

10. Andy Warhol Was A Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities, Claudia Kalb

11. Life Reimagined: The Science, Art & Opportunity of Midlife, Barbara Bradley Hagerty

12. 50 Great American Places: Essential Historic Sites Across the U.S., Brent D. Glass

13. Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, Mary Norris

14. Evicted, Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew Desmond

15. We Were Feminists Once, Andi Zeisler

16. The Time Traveler’s Handbook: 18 Experiences From the Eruption of Vesuvius to Woodstock, James Wyllie, Johnny Acton, and David Goldblatt

17. Shrill, Notes From A Loud Woman, Lindy West

18. Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me, Steven Hyden

19. Seinfeldia: How A Show About Nothing Changed Everything, Jennifer Armstrong

20. The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck, Sarah Knight

21. The World According to Star Wars, Cass Sunstein

22. Life Moves Pretty Fast: The Lessons We Learned From Eighties Movies, Hadley Freeman

23. The Best Worst President: What The Right Gets Wrong About Barack Obama, Mark Hannah

24. How To Be A Person In The World, Heather Havrilesky

25. American Heiress, Jeffrey Toobin

26. The Art of Rivalry, Sebastian Smee

27. Sixty, Ian Brown

28. Blood in the Water, Heather Ann Thompson

29. Going Red: The Two Million Voters Who Will Elect the Next President & How Conservatives Can Win Them, Ed Morrissey

30. How To Be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use, Dr. Randy Paterson

31. Whistlestop, John Dickerson

32. The Fix: How Nations Survive & Thrive In A World In Decline, Jonathan Tepperman

33. The Lion in the Living Room, Abigail Tucker

34. Ike’s Bluff, Evan Thomas 

35. How To See, David Salle

2017 

1. Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall

2. Table Manners, Jeremiah Tower

3. The Emotionary, Eden Sher

4. The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City, Margaret Creighton

5. The Road to Little Dribbling, Bill Bryson

6. The African Svelte, Daniel Menaker

7. Future Sex, Emily Witt

8. A Path to Peace, George Mitchell with Alon Sachar

9. If Our Bodies Could Talk, Dr. James Hamblin

10. Arthur & Sherlock: Conan Doyle & the Creation of Holmes, Michael Mims

11. Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic, Jason Turbow

12. A Colony in a Nation, Chris Hayes

13. The One Cent Magenta: Inside the Quest to Own the Most Valuable Stamp in the World, James Barron

14. The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit, Michael Finkel

15. The Course of Love, Alain de Botton

16. The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge & Why It Matters, Tom Nichols

17. Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann

18. Word by Word, Kory Stamper

19. The Only Language They Understand, Nathan Thrall

20. The Descent of Man, Grayson Perry

21. In Search of the Lost Chord, Jeffrey Goldberg

22. Last Call, Daniel Okrent

23. Grocery, Michael Ruhlman

24. Mid-Life Ex-Wife, Stella Grey

25. Paths to Happiness, Edward Hoffman

26. Caeser’s Last Breath, Sam Kean

27. Make Trouble, John Waters

28. The Lonely City, Olivia Laing

29. Mrs. Fletcher, Tom Perrotta

30. The Thousand Dollar Dinner, Becky Diamond

31. Vanishing New York, Jeremiah Moss

32. Fear City, Kim Phillips-Fein

33. Get Capone, Jonathan Eig

34. The Asshole Survival Guide, Robert Sutton

35. A First Class Catastrophe, Diana Henriques 

2018 

1. The Rooster Bar, John Grisham

2. I’ll Have What She’s Having, Erin Carlson

3. Breaking Bad: A Cultural History, Lara Stache

4. Perfect, Lew Paper

5. A World Without Whom, Emmy Favilla (book of the year)

6. The Trouble With Reality, Brooke Gladstone

7. Uneasy Peace, Patrick Sharkey

8. The Year of the Pitcher, Sridhar Pappu

9. Timekeepers, Simon Garfield

10. Vacationland, John Hodgman

11. Playing with Fire, Lawrence O’Donnell

12. Heating and Cooling, Beth Ann Fennelly

13. The Encyclopedia of Misinformation, Rex Sorgatz

14. Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars, David Hepworth

15. On Power, Gene Simmons

16. Political Tribes, Amy Chua

17. The Secret Lives of Color, Kassia St. Clair (book of the year)

18. Twilight of the Gods, Stephen Hyden

19. Men & Manners, David Coggins

20. The Master Switch, Tim Wu

21. Us vs. Them, Ian Bremmer

22. Picasso and the Painting that Shocked the World, Miles Unger

23. Hope Never Dies, Andrew Shaffer

24. The Personality Brokers, Marve Emre

25. The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis

26. Broadway, Fran Leadon

27. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen Age 83 ¼, Hendrik Groen

2019

1. The Death of Hitler, Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina 

2. Bachelor Nation, Amy Kaufman 

3. Rise and Kill First, Ronen Bergman 

4. The Library Book, Susan Orlean

5. Camelot’s End, Jon Ward

6. Duped, Abby Ellin

7. How to Hold a Grudge, Sophie Hannah

8. The Elephant in the Room, Tommy Tomlinson

9. Mortal Republic, Edward J. Watts

10. The Grandmaster, Brin-Jonathan Butler

11. Dreyer’s English, Benjamin Dreyer

12. Okay, Fine, Whatever, Courtenay Hameister 

13. Bad Blood, John Carreyrou 

14. We Are Never Meeting In Real Life, Samantha Irby 

15. If We Can Keep It, Michael Tomasky

16. K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner 

17. Guac Is Extra, But So Am I, Sarah Solomon

18. The Lost Gutenberg, Margaret Leslie Davis

19. You Could Look It Up, Jack Lynch

20. Best. Movie. Year. Ever. Brian Raftery 

21. A Lot of People Are Saying, Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum

22. Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber 

23. Rocket Men, Robert Kurson

24. I Like To Watch, Emily Nussbaum

25. Howard Stern Comes Again, Howard Stern

26. Norco ’80, Peter Houlahan

27. American Predator, Maureen Callahan

28. Elvis in Vegas, Richard Zoglin 

29. Wordslut, Amanda Montell

30. Republic of Lies, Anna Merlan

31. Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell 

32. The Day It Finally Happens, Mike Pearl

33. Because Internet, Gretchen McCullough 

34. She Said, Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey 

35. The Body, Bill Bryson

36. Semicolon, Cecilia Watson

37. Solid State, Kenneth Womack