My best reads of 2019

Since all the newspapers and magazines are putting out their "best books of 2019" lists, I thought I would do the same. These are among the most memorable books I've read in 2019 and the ones I have recommended to all my bookish friends. Any one of them would make a great gift for your bookish friends and family. I did not link to Amazon as I encourage you to buy them at your local independent bookstore. I will report on my favorite garden books later this week.

“Frank and Al: FDR, Al Smith and the Unlikely Alliance That Created the Modern Democratic Party" by Terry Golway.

Perfect read for an Irish, Catholic, Democratic New Yorker like me. Smith had women advisors and in positions of power on his staff at a time when it was rare. He authored and signed legislation that became models for what FDR would later produce during his administration. Smith's encouragement of FDR after his polio attack put FDR back on his political feet. An excellent, informative, inspiring and heart-breaking read. Took lots of notes, and then watched episode 3 of the documentary "Long Journey Home," which is about Al Smith. When Robert Caro was interviewed in the New York Times on 4/1/2019, the reporter asked Caro if there were any other books he would’ve liked to have written? Caro replied: “A biography of Al Smith is the one that I’m sorry I’m not going to be able to do. The more you learn about Al Smith, the more you realize he is probably the most forgotten consequential figure in American history.”

"Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir" by Wm Zinsser.

I’ve read this at least once before but got interested in the topic again after starting to research my family history online. All the essays are good and there is a notable bibliography at the end. 

"Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland" by Patrick Radden Keefe. Of everything I've read in the past year, this is the one that haunts me. Here is my review of it from the blog. 

"The Current" by Tim Johnston. Two college girls traveling in winter to Minnesota to visit the ill father of one, go off the road and into an icy river. One of the girls dies but the other, a local girl and the daughter of the dying sheriff, reminds everyone of a ten-year-old murder case where a young woman was hit by a car and tossed into the same river. New questions, new evidence, new mysteries all come to the surface to make a riveting story with just enough but not too many surprises. Beautiful evocation of the landscape, seasons and small town life in the Upper Midwest. And surprisingly moving descriptions of being trapped in icy waters and under the ice. 

"Strangers in their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right" by Arlie Russell Hochschild.

Berkeley CA sociologist Arlie Hochschild spent five years visiting residents in Louisiana bayou country in hopes of understanding them and making a connection. She wanted to see if it was possible to cross America’s political divide and really listen and learn from and about the folks she might meet. She does meet them — housewives, preachers, mechanics, salesmen, factory workers — and spends time talking and traveling with them. Hochschild empathizes with their plight, but at the end of the book and the end of the day, the divide is there and it seems unlikely we can cross it to the betterment of our country.

The back of Hochschild’s book is thick with information on her research and sources of information. But the most telling section is Appendix C: “Fact-Checking Common Impressions” where facts, government census data, economic statistics and more prove that the people Hochschild spent all her time with are wrong in their assumptions and beliefs more often than not. What they sense is happening — loss of American industrial jobs, for example — is true but not for the reasons or with the results they infer.

The book is well-written and a compelling read but her conclusions are depressing at every turn. In the end Hochschild says that the other group of Americans, namely liberals and urban blue-state residents, have become strangers in their own land as well: the country we believed in and worked to achieve has morphed into something we don’t understand and are daily shocked and dismayed at. Not a light Christmas read but well-worth the time.

"A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father" by David Maraniss.

NYTimes said it best. The author's father, Elliott, hired me as a freelance columnist for The Capital Times when the alternative newsweekly I worked at folded in the recession of 1983. My life would have been entirely different if Elliott had not given me that chance at a daily newspaper. So this book had a lot of personal interest for me but it is a story that should be of great interest to a broad American audience. 

"Thick" by Tressie Cottom. I read most of her essays but not the entire book before it was due at the library. What a terrific writer: smart, funny, provocative and intense. But a very hard book to read. Makes me realize white privilege is so totally a part of us that it has to be considered in every aspect of our lives. 

"Five Days Gone: The Mystery of My Mother’s Disappearance as a Child" by Laura Cumming. This is the story of a little girl growing up in a small town in England. When she was three years old she was kidnapped from the beach by her home and was gone for five days. She never even knew this until she was middle aged and her own daughter started looking into her mother's murky past, which turned out to have more secrets than either of them anticipated. 

The author is a beautiful writer and a memoir her mother wrote as a 21st birthday present for her daughter (author Laura Cumming) is woven throughout the book as well. There is a family mystery and a silent community who won't reveal anything, but also consideration about how we look at photos and art and make deductions and assumptions; details about country life and just an engrossing story. 

Comments

[Kris P]

I need to read "Strangers in Their Own Land"! I've tried to understand the thinking of the handful of friends supporting the current administration bit I'm finding that increasingly difficult.

[Lisa at Greenbow]

Several here I will look up this winter. Thanks.

[Linda Brazill]

I felt more confused and depressed because it was clear people were making emotional decisions rather than factual or logical. They felt they were in line and moving forward on all fronts and then suddenly a woman got to go in front of them or a minority person or an immigrant. They did not think about all those still farther in line behind them nor did they feel that women, minorities etc. finally deserved a turn at moving up in the job/economy/political rights line.

Still hard to believe so many people continue to vote against their own interests and feel others are to blame rather than see corporations/tax policy etc. as the cause of so many of our problems.