2022 Books

Here are the 13 books I read in 2022, and a 7-word synopsis of each. I have again starred my 7 favorite books of the year. To be honest, because I read only 13 books this year, applying these stars feels like an odd exercise, kind of like the NHL regular season, but I do want to let you know which books I enjoyed the most. About halfway through the year I lost my book-reading momentum, though I did finish every 2022 issue of The New Yorker and listened to quite a few good podcast series. Maybe social media and online reading have finally overtaken my ability to focus on long-form content? Let’s see what 2023 looks like.

Why a 7-word synopsis? Read my initial post for an explanation.

*Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene — New agent’s fake intel has real consequences

*Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life by David R. Montgomery — No tilling. Grow cover crops. Rotate them.

*Sea Trials: Around the World with Duct Tape and Bailing Wire by Wendy Hinman — A family survives–barely–four oceangoing years

Antigone by Sophocles — Family divisions lead to tragedy and death

*The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy — Present trauma forces past trauma to surface

The Collector; David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest by Jack Nisbet — Thousands of miles cataloging Pacific Northwest plants

*Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz — Two mysteries to unravel for an editor

Set the Controls for the Heart of Sharon Tate by Gary Lippman — Obsession devolves into chaos for a Sharonophile

The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather — Thea grows up, succeeds, as a singer

Fire in the Hole by Elmore Leonard — Life on the edge of the law

*The Power Line by Christopher Shaw — Adirondack fact and fiction merge during Prohibition

*Columbia: The Essential Guide to Customs and Culture by Kate Cathey — Facts, figures, history, and traditions of Colombia

BUtterfield 8 by John O’Hara — New York City society can be cutthroat

2021 Books

Here are the 29 books I read in 2021, and a 7-word synopsis of each. I have again starred my 7 favorite books of the year. Though you should know that I’m pretty picky about which books I pick up to read, and almost all of these were worthwhile.

Why a 7-word synopsis? Read my initial post for an explanation.

Mythology by Edith Hamilton — Ancient peoples making sense of the world

Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery — Civilizations’ fates rest on the unassuming dirt

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson — A doctor loses control of his experiment

*Across the Olympic Mountains: The Press Expedition, 1889-90 by Robert. L. Wood — Six months’ hard travel conquering the peninsula

The Health and Happiness of Your Old Dog by George D. Whitney — A vet distills a lifetime of wisdom (Someone should put this back in print.)

Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare — Deceptions–self-inflicted and otherwise–in upscale Manhattan

The River That Made Seattle by BJ Cummings — How we almost killed the Duwamish River

East of Eden by John Steinbeck — Family saga set amidst the Salinas Valley

*Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven Year Pacific Odyssey by Wendy Hinman — Couple sets sail on a life-changing adventure

Ants at Work: How an Insect Society Is Organized by Deborah Gordon — Ants have reasons for everything they do

Ballroom of the Skies by John D. MacDonald — Finding reason in a dystopian near future

Eve in Hollywood by Amor Towles — Eve, as seen through other people’s eyes

Growing Up by Russell Baker — An honest look back after many decades

*Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff — A queen’s life in love and war

The Last Wilderness: A History of the Olympic Peninsula by Murray Morgan — How a wild land was (somewhat) tamed

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara — These men fought, and died, at Gettysburg

*The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash — Anton finds his way in 1980 NYC

Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara — Chronicling a man’s self-destruction over three days

West of Here by Jonathan Evison — Finding their ways on the Olympic Peninsula

Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay — Discovering the how and why of colors

The Cactus Plot: Murder in the High Desert by Vicky Ramakka — Easterner goes west, solves mystery, finds career

Murder in the Smithsonian by Margaret Truman — Murder at a party exposes a scandal

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh — Eileen, unhappy, commits a crime and leaves

*The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas — Dueling, drinking, bantering, and battling across France

The Final Case by David Guterson — Burned-out writer tells us about his life

The Lost City of Z by David Grann — Trying to discover Percy Fawcett’s Amazonian fate

The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin — What Mary’s life might have been like

*Soul to Soul: A Black Jewish Woman’s Search for Her Roots by Yelena Khanga — Discoveries of self and family across countries

*The Stand by Stephen King — A plague visits humanity; people fight back

2020 Books

Here are the 30 books I read in 2020, and a 7-word synopsis of each. I have also starred my 7 favorite books of the year–and I went back and starred my 7 favorites in past posts as well.

Why a 7-word synopsis? Read my initial post for an explanation.

*Rules of Civility by Amor Towles — Party girl grows up and grows wise

On the Rocks by Sue Hallgarth — Willa and Edith solve an island mystery

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain — Insurance crime, betrayal, and a shared fate

*The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding by Robert Hughes — Eighty brutal years as England “settled” Australia

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain — Getting away with murder, then falsely convicted

*A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles — Under hotel arrest, aristocrat fashions new life

Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing by Robert Caro — How he documents great(?) men wielding power. (Alternately: Interesting…Please publish the last LBJ book)

Julian by Gore Vidal — We get to know Julian the Apostate

Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller — Crimes and passion — all because of EVOO

Wine of the Dreamers by John D. MacDonald — Violence: Aliens making mischief in our minds

*On Desperate Ground: The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War’s Greatest Battle by Hampton Sides — Inside a horrific advance and then retreat

The Hamlet by William Faulkner — The Snopes get involved and change everything

A Bullet for Satisfaction by Mickey Spillane and Max Allen Collins — Tough guy takes on corruption and wins

Walden by Henry David Thoreau — One year at Walden. Generations of insight.

Presidents of War by Michael Beschloss — Leaders getting into and out of conflict

The Last Stand by Mickey Spillane — Plane crash leads to treasure, and love

*Watership Down by Richard Adams — Rabbits: Unlikely heroes of an epic journey

Georgia O’Keeffe at Home by Alicia Inez Guzman — Where she lived, the artist she was

The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat by Ryszard Kapuscinski — Haile Selassie’s last days: testimonials and confessions

Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor — Bleak tale of displacement and religious obsession

*Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee — Sharing secrets from a life writing nonfiction

Moorish Spain by Richard Fletcher — Everything that happened between 711 and 1492

Utopias on Puget Sound 1885-1915 by Charles Pierce LeWarne — People just can’t cooperate well for long

Beartown by Fredrik Blackman — Hockey, violence, resilience in a small town

Edge of Taos Desert by Mabel Dodge Luhan — Socialite starts her life anew in Taos

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin — Describing the Black experience in the U.S.

*The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel — Spending 27 years alone–completely, utterly alone

The Covenant by James Michener — South Africa: Beautiful land, but tortured history

Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves — Traveling illuminates your view of the world

Logging in Grays Harbor by Brian Woodwick and Gene Woodwick — Images that celebrate logging and its people

2019 Books

Here are the 16 books that I read in 2019, and a 7-word synopsis of each. I have also starred my 7 favorite books of the year. My mom, who instilled in me a love of reading, passed away in February 2019, and I found it difficult to focus enough to read much around that time, so I ended up reading fewer books than in years past.

Why a 7-word synopsis? Read my initial post for an explanation.

*Henry Clay: America’s Greatest Statesman by Harlow Giles Unger — A lifelong fight to preserve the Union

*Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream if Becoming a World-Class Metropolis by Sam Anderson — OKC: Boom and bust, boom and bust…

A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey — Obsession with cars; breakup of a family

Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh — Don’t like them? These characters don’t care.

Wild Thyme in Ibiza by Stewart Andersen — Nostalgia for a lost time in Spain

*Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan — Anna grows up, family mystery is solved

Pueblo Peoples on the Pajarito Plateau: Archaeology and Efficiency by David E. Stuart — How they lived, why their time passed

The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco — Smuggling, brawling, and flirting in Port Townsend

*SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard — How the Romans lived, ruled, and died

The Quiet American by Graham Greene — Triangle: British, American, and Vietnamese — an allegory

Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr — Couple chooses Mexico for their final years

*The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald — Yearning for something just beyond your grasp

*Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Allan — Who was Jesus, the Son of Man?

*Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King — Lawyers fighting for justice in 1950s Florida

Dirty John and Other True Stories of Outlaws and Outsiders by Christopher Goddard — Everyday lives, not so ordinary up close

Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain — Mother and daughter, bound together, in opposition

2018 Books

Here are the 18 books that I read in 2018, and a 7-word synopsis of each. I have also starred my 7 favorite books of the year. I read fewer books in 2018 than in the past few years because I memorized 61 poems in 2018, and I have learned that it takes quite a bit of time to memorize poems.

Why a 7-word synopsis? Read my initial post for an explanation.

*Run with the Horsemen by Ferrol Sams —Hijinks and life lessons in the South

Ladies of the Canyon: A League of Extraordinary Women and Their Adventures in the American Southwest by Lesley Poling-Kempes — Reinventing themselves in the Land of Enchantment

*Mary Joyce — Taku to Fairbanks 1,000 Miles by Dogteam by Mary Anne Greiner — Pioneer and her dogs conquer the elements

White Corridor by Christopher Fowler — Impossible crime that still must be solved

The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World by David Jaher — Houdini tries to disprove a medium’s authenticity

*The Nix by Nathan Hill — Exploring the past reveals his mother’s story

*Being There by Jerzy Kosinski — His empty words, misinterpreted, lead to fame

The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes by Scott Wallace — Up the river well beyond civilization’s reach

Help I Am Being Held Prisoner by Donald E. Westlake — Practical joker goes to prison. Antics ensue.

*The Fat of the Land by Langdon Cook — A forager shares tricks of the trade

Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West One Meal at a Time by Stephen Fried — Family builds an empire by feeding people

The Dinner by Herman Koch — One crime—or two?—consumes two families

*The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande — This simple tool can solve many problems

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin — Immigrant torn between Old World and New

Taku: Four Amazing Individuals, Four Incredible Life Stories, and the Alaskan Wilderness Lodge That Brought Them Together by Karen Bell and Janet Shelfer — Taku Lodge bound together generations of Alaskans

The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government by David Talbot — Do you know who’s running our country?

*Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande — Making sense of the end of life

The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre — An intricate retelling of deception and counter-deception

2017 Books

Here are the 29 books I read in 2017, and a 7-word synopsis of each. I have also starred my 7 favorite books of the year.

Why a 7-word synopsis? Read my initial post for an explanation.

Wedding Bush Road by David Francis — Aussie goes home, where everything falls apart

*Snoqualmie Pass: From Indian Trail to Interstate by Yvonne Prater — Local history of people crossing the mountains

*Selkirk’s Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe by Diana Souhami — Abandoned, forgotten, found. How fact became fiction.

*Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman — Narcissistic liar leads followers to their doom

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan — Boy follows the waves, becomes a man

*The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power by Robert Caro — Assassin’s bullet–and everything changes for LBJ

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin — Evil lurks in men’s hearts in suburbia

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng — Grieving family and the secrets they hide

The Magus by John Fowles — Englishman becomes character in orchestrated drama…maybe?

*The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky — Culturing oysters and oystering culture in NYC

*Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre — Ingenious spycraft plus harebrained schemes ensure victory

A Time to Die by Tom Wicker — What happened behind the walls at Attica

The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict by Austin Reed — Memoir: Crime and injustice in the mid-1800s

The Watch by Rick Bass — Magic and mystery of the human condition

The Triumph of Seeds by Thor Hanson — How seeds work, how humans use them

*Ultimate Glory: Frisbee, Obsession, and My Wild Youth by David Gessner — Personal story: Ultimate’s growth–and his own

Trying Home: The Rise and Fall of an Anarchist Utopia on Puget Sound by Justin Wadland — The best intentions yield to human nature

The Berlin Conspiracy by Tom Gabbay — Maybe Dallas wasn’t the first assassination attempt

High Infatuation: A Climber’s Guide to Love and Gravity by Steph Davis — She lives to climb. Sometimes it costs.

Alaska by James Michener — Novelized history: Hard country and its people

Valle Grande: A History of the Baca Location No. 1 by Craig Martin — Land grant eventually becomes a National Preserve

West with the Night by Beryl Markham — Aviator reflects on flying and her life

Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter — Living on the edge in the Northwest

American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes, and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin — Abduction, conversion, shootouts, arrest. Conviction, renunciation, release.

Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca — Eight years of wandering and spiritual discovery

Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta — Unexpectedly, mother and son both reinvent themselves

Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard — Exploits and follies define a young man

The Pueblo Food Experience Cookbook by Roxanne Swentzell and Patricia M. Perez — Eating simply can return you to health

Some Do Not… by Ford Madox Ford — Wrenching societal changes during the Great War

2016 Books

Here are the 29 books I read in 2016, and a 7-word synopsis of each. I have also starred my 7 favorite books of the year.

Why a 7-word synopsis? Read my initial post for an explanation.

*Farm City by Novella Carpenter — Raising crops and livestock in inner-city Oakland

Straight Man by Richard Russo — Professor on the edge nearly topples over

A View of the Methow from Moccasin Lake Ranch by James C. Pigott — The valley. The people who settled it.

Eisenhower by Stephen Ambrose — He led the army, NATO, the country

Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz — They fought at Reichenbach Falls. Then what?

*Colossus by Michael Hiltzik — Hoover Dam rises to tame the Colorado

A Sudden Light by Garth Stein — Family secrets are unveiled in North Seattle

Drama City by George Pelecanos — Life on the street can be pitiless

*Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson — So many coincidences led to the sinking

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben McIntyre — Inside story of the consummate double crosser.

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles — The desert swallows up two lost Americans

*The Bridge by Gay Telese — The Verrazano-Narrows, and those that built it

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz — Watson reveals one final Sherlock Holmes tale

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon — Two cousins’ lives shaped by the comics

Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark — To make and spend an American fortune

Becoming Madison by Michael Signer — Future president rescues the republic, by argument

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan — Endurance and survival in the Dust Bowl

*Edible: An Adventure into the World of Eating Insects and the Last Great Hope to Save the Planet by Daniella Martin — Crickets and grubs and tarantulas, oh my!

*Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel — Cromwell masters the art of gaining influence

The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck — Modern journey of reconciliation, by covered wagon

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen — The war ended. The revolution did not.

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli — A how-to guide for anyone who leads

Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius by Niccolo Machiavelli — Like The Prince, but written for republics

*A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. — Presidential aide’s chronicle of the New Frontier

The Edge of Maine by Geoffrey Wolff — History and memories of Down East times

Dear Mr. M by Herman Koch — Classmates, a teacher, and a murder. Maybe.

Brat Pack America: A Love Letter to ’80s Teen Movies by Kevin Smokler — Everything about these movies, important and not

Everybody’s Fool by Richard Russo — Sully and friends and their new antics

A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter — Love and sex in France? Unreliably narrated…

2015 Books

Here are the 23 books I read in 2015, and a 7-word synopsis of each. I have also starred my 7 favorite books of the year.

Why a 7-word synopsis? Read my initial post for an explanation.

Perfidia by James Ellroy — Violence, profanity, corruption–Los Angeles in 1941

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan — Beginner’s guide to the art of cooking

*The Boy Who Shot the Sherriff: The Redemption of Herbert Niccolls Jr by Nancy Bartley — A boy, a crime, a life redeemed

Naturopathic Gardening by Jenn Dazey — How to grow in concert with nature

Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill — Six lives in Madrid while under siege

*Dragnet Nation by Julia Angwin — You are always being tracked. Yes, always.

Diet for a Hot Planet by Anna Lappe — Make food choices as a political statement

The Life of Herbert Hoover: Fighting Quaker, 1928-1933 by Glen Jeansonne — A committed defense of a maligned president

Mohawk by Richard Russo —  Intertwined lives in a New York town

*A Garlic Testament by Stanley Crawford — Life minutely observed, centered around Allium sativum

Indians of the Pacific Northwest by Vine Deloria Jr — A people’s history, from their own perspective

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey — Circular family drama in the Oregon damp

*Finding Everett Ruess by David Roberts — He walked into the desert and disappeared

FDR by Jean Edward Smith — Ambition. Polio. Depression. New Deal. World War.

The Lufthansa Heist by Henry Hill and Daniel Simone — The back story of a Goodfellas crime

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead — One last boyhood summer before adulthood arrives

In the Garden of the Beasts by Erik Larson — Inside the rise of the Nazi regime

When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning — How books helped win World War II

*Old School by Tobias Wolff — Secrets at prep school in the 1950s

Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides — An unromantic view of the West’s settling

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese — Ethiopian-born doctor on a journey of self-discovery

*In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick — Whaling voyage becomes an epic survival story

*Truman by David McCullough — Common man rises to lead the nation

2014 Books

Here are the 26 books I read in 2014, and a 7-word synopsis of each.

Why a 7-word synopsis? Read my initial post for an explanation.

Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris — A lifetime of adventures after the presidency

Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein – Spirits and memories haunt Jenna in Alaska

Dillinger’s Wild Ride: The Year that Made America’s Public Enemy Number One by Elliot Gorn — Man behind the myth, rumors and all

The William Howard Taft Presidency by Lewis Gould — Taft succeeds Roosevelt, but not very well

*Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon — Baltimore’s mean streets documented–an unflinching look

*All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren — Human comedy played out against Southern politics

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford — Love and jazz and the Japanese-American internment

Woodrow Wilson: A Biography by John Milton Cooper — Another president’s ambitions get sidetracked by war

The Final Club by Geoffrey Woolf — West Coast meets East Coast at Princeton

River Song by Craig Lesley — Danny navigates life between tradition and modernity

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss — Love to eat it, bad for you

The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan — You can survive all on your own

*Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark — Taming the Northwest exacts a heavy toll

Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation by Noel Riley Fitch — Writers, musicians, artists. Love affairs, feuds. Paris.

Thunderstruck by Eric Larson — Dual biography: mild-mannered murderer and obsessed inventor (I could not do better than the L.A. Times: “A ripping yarn of murder and invention”)

Warren G. Harding by John Dean — A Watergate conspirator polishes Harding’s tarnished legacy

All the Way Home by David Giffels — Rebuilding a home takes over Giffels’s life

*Last of the Robber’s Roost Outlaws: Moab’s Bill Tibbetts by Tom McCourt — An outlaw reforms himself in southeastern Utah

The Great Taos Bank Robber and Other True Stories by Tony Hillerman — Witty takes on New Mexico’s unique charms

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission by Hampton Sides — Wartime courage and cruelty in the Philippines

*Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather — One life, lived spiritually, in the desert

*The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking by Brendan Koerner — The rise and fall of 1970s skyjackers

Coolidge by Amity Shlaes — Silent Cal’s presidency took care of business

*Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver– Inspiration for growing, cooking, and eating locally

The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen L. Carter — What would have happened if Lincoln survived?

Look at Me by Jennifer Egan — A model, an accident, hidden identities revealed

Why a 7-word synopsis?

In 2014 I started crafting 7-word synopses for the books that I read, because I found that it helped me internalize the core message of the book if I forced myself to boil down the story to just 7 words. Originally, I was writing longer synopses, but then I read a biography of William Howard Taft, and when I wrote the synopsis, the first sentence that came to mind was, “Taft succeeds Roosevelt, but not very well,” which I thought captured the whole book better than anything longer could have. So I started limiting myself to 7 words, which is both challenging and, frankly, fun, because it takes more effort and imagination. To paraphrase Mark Twain or Winston Churchill, “Apologies for the length of this editorial note. If I had had more time, it would have been shorter.”