I “read” 74 books this past year. 29 of those were audiobooks. My daughter considers this a significant distinction, perhaps in part because she outread me in 2023 if I discount the audiobooks.
I think it all counts, and while you suckers are going about your daily lives being fully present, I’m getting books in my ears while at the grocery store, cooking dinner, etc.
A note on links: I’m including links from IndieBound so that you can order through your favorite local indie (shout out to People’s Book in Takoma Park, MD). I’m also including Amazon links. Amazon is cheap and convenient, and some of you will use it anyway. Also, one of my listed books can only be found there.
Disclosure: Amazon gives me a kickback if you make a purchase using these links. I’ve made $5.92 in the past two years this way. This shouldn’t be enough to buy my complicity in the destruction of American culture and growing income inequality, but it’s not nothing.
Here’s my list in no particular order:
Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us
Susan Magsamen (Twitter, Instagram) and Ivy Ross, IndieBound, Amazon
This one likely wins the award for the book my wife is most tired of hearing me talk about.
A lot of the content in here overlaps with what I do as a creative and as a teacher. I know from experience and other readings that smell and music stimulate memory. I know drumming can build community nonverbally. For me, writing helps me process emotions and build understanding. As an educator, I think about these things a lot. I try to provide my students with an environment and with opportunities that will help them to become creative, flexible, resilient, whole people.
This book synthesizes all of these far-flung bits and pieces I’ve read, intuited, or wondered about and organizes them into a coherent book. Even better, it points to brain science and describes specific physiological changes, improved health outcomes, and increased learning as a result of exposure to the Arts.
If you see me in person, be cautious about bringing up this title.
The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
Michael Finkel, Twitter, IndieBound, Amazon
Between 1994 and 2001 Stéphane Breitwieser stole 2 billion dollars worth of art from museums all over Europe. He did this while living with his mother who must have been willfully ignorant of, if not complicit with, his thefts. Breitwiser’s live-in girlfriend oscillated between taking a role as an active accomplice and passively admonishing his heists. Of course, the story ends with a court case and Breitwieser in prison.
I did a lot of research about art theft for my book Stealing The Scream, and one thing I learned is that art theft is usually gang related. Stolen art is used as a negotiating chip during sentencing or as a trophy in the underground crime world. Art thieves are not renegade aficionados.
Breitwiser is the exception. He was obsessed with beautiful works of art and hoarded priceless works under his bed, in his closet, and on the walls of his bedroom. He had a physical reaction when in proximity to it (See Your Brain on Art), and clearly, this ballooned into an addiction.
Of course, I loved all the art history woven into this book. However, the human relationships are what made the book fascinating. Breitwiser’s girlfriend and mother couldn’t stop him despite knowing how it would inevitably end.
The Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
Sy Montgomery, Twitter, Instagram, IndieBound, Amazon
This is the second book I’ve read by Sy Montgomery, and in both, she weaves enough of herself into the text that I feel like she’s a friend of mine. She’s not. She’s just a good writer, to the point that I’m confident I could pick up any of her books and enjoy them.
This book feels especially personal as Montgomery tells the story of raising a pet pig amidst the turmoil of caring for aging parents and balancing a freelance writing career. This story is about managing personal crises and building meaningful human relationships as much as it is about Montgomery’s beloved pet pig. Still, the pig is the central strand through all of it, the constant source of joy and amusement (and occasional crises of his own) that proves a wonderful distraction from human turmoil.
The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. The United States of America
Eric Cervini, Instagram, IndieBoud, Amazon
This book tells the story of the gay rights movement and focuses most specifically on Harvard-educated government astronomer Frank Kameny. Kameny was fired from his job in 1957 because of his homosexuality which, at the time, was thought of as a security risk.
I have my own biases that make me like one. First, the book is loaded with D.C. landmarks and neighborhoods, and being local, I love this. Secondly, I had a brush with Kameny’s greatness around 2010 when I talked to him about visiting my second-grade students. That didn’t happen, but he did end up speaking to the high schoolers.
It always irks me when people begin the timeline of the gay rights movement with Stonewall and Harvey Milk and skip right over D.C.’s Frank Kameny. This book solidifies Kameny’s rightful spot as a civil rights icon. It’s an impressively researched deep dive into all of the people, court battles, secret meetings, and conversations that made up the early days of the gay rights movement. Perhaps what I liked most about the book was that it also addressed Kameny’s shortcomings and missteps. He ultimately fell out of touch with the movement he helped create.
The Fighting Bunch: The Battle of Athens and How World War II Veterans Won the Only Successful Armed Rebellion Since the Revolution
Chris DeRose, Twitter, IndieBound, Amazon
I found out about this book while researching what life was like for veterans returning to the United States after serving overseas in World War II. McMinn County, Tennessee had fallen under the control of a corrupt political and law enforcement system devoid of the democracy central to American identity. Local veterans started their own non-partisan political party to take on the corrupt officials. This led to an armed rebellion come election time in Athens, Tennessee.
This was hard to read in 2023. Undoubtedly, the McMinn veterans displayed honor and courage in taking on corruption, violence, and oppression. Innocent people were being imprisoned, beaten, and killed to preserve the status quo and line the pockets of a privileged few, and it needed to stop.
At the same time, right now we are prosecuting January 6th insurrectionists who believed corruption and voter fraud determined the 2020 presidential election, and that the patriotic thing to do was to take up arms just like the veterans in McMinn County did.
This book made me think about how far is too far, and when is the right time to stand up against unjust laws or the unjust application of laws.
Devil In the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
Gilbert King, Twitter, Instagram, Indiebound, Amazon
All of what I knew about Thurgood Marshall before reading this book began with the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case. This story takes place several years earlier in Florida, “south of the South,” as Marshall works to defend four black men wrongfully accused of rape.
The historical facts about this case and the descriptions of constant violence in Florida that kept Jim Crow in place, are as gut-wrenching as you would expect. What I enjoyed were the detailed descriptions of Thurgood’s legal strategies, the story of gradual rise to prominence, and learning about the people who helped him along the way.
Also, just as The Deviant’s War gave an honest depiction of Kameny, this book paints Marshall as a hard-working, brave, yet flawed man. When we show our heroes as humans, it makes change seem more possible.
That wraps up my favorite nonfiction books of the year. Share yours or tear mine apart on my various social media accounts!
You can check out my 2022 fiction and nonfiction posts. Here is my 2023 fiction list.
