THE BOOKS I READ IN 2020
Presented in the order I finished them (L to R).
My journey through Agatha Christie’s novels continues with this compilation of three short mysteries. The middle one, The Body in the Library is with Miss Marple and the other two are with Poirot. They’re good! Peril at End House is especially good.
2. Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now - Andre Perry
I know Andre as the Executive Director of The Englert Theater in Iowa City because my wife, Rebecca, is the Programming Director of FilmScene. FilmScene is movies, Englert is live performance and although they are different organizations - they are “best friend organizations.” Iowa City is the home of The Writer’s Workshop, and is a UNESCO City of Literature and so to that end, you will find many writers in Iowa City. Iowa City is to Writers as Chicago is to Comedians. I bought this book (signed copy - what-whaaaat?) at the Prairie Lights bookstore - which it should be mentioned is a very good book store.
I should clarify that I know Andre - but not well and so I took this as an opportunity to get to know essentially one of Rebecca’s co-workers better. This is an excellent collection of short essays that are (I think) highly autobiographical, very intimate, vulnerable, and filled with great observations that range from interpersonal relationships, to pop culture, to him sharing his unique experience being a black man in America - and more specifically in the Midwest. My favorite story he has in there is one he tells about when he moved out of an apartment in San Francisco, it’s funny, sad, poignant, weird - and for me, intensely visual. You don’t need to want to get to know Andre better to read this book, but after reading it you surely will. I’m excited to see what he writes next.
3. Everywhere You Don’t Belong - Gabriel Bump
Theeeeee New York Times did a thing on this book in early February and I bought the book (in hardcover) because the writer was from Chicago and because the write up was so intriguing. Great book - with powerful observations and a strong authorial voice; it’s an (I think) autobiographical travel through him growing up and going to school. It’s got a lot of mini stories along the way with some characters that stick with you - like his uncle character.
So, I’m listing books this year upon when I finished them, not started them, so I started this book about a global pandemic back in November, 2019 and because it’s 823 pages it took some time for me to finish. You don’t believe me - I know you don’t but I know my truth and I know that I started this book then and finished it around March / April (taking breaks for the above books).
I read this because, at the time of this writing, it’s Rebecca’s favorite book… when she was twenty. It’s fine - too long, I should have read it when I was twenty.
5. Appetite for Innovation - Maria Pilar Opazo
Creativity & Change at elBulli
We went to Portugal and Spain last year and ate some very good food and ate at some of the places that are off-shoots of ElBulli. If you’re a foodie and/or artist this is interesting to see how Ferran looks at creativity and how he (and the team at ElBulli) moved from it being a restaurant, to whatever ElBulli was, and the evolving into what it is now - this lab for creativity.
One of the good take-aways is reminiscent of Picasso’s “good artists borrow, great artists steal,” but in this book they quote chef Jacques Maximin, who says “creativity means not copying.” - sort of the opposite of borrowing or stealing, eh?
The best take-away is this pyramid of creativity that transcends food or culinary arts and is just great for basically anything - art or business. To explain it, I’ll work from the bottom of the pyramid to the top. He argues that you want to be going towards the top; but you could also look at this to understand where is what you are creating landing on the pyramid.
Reproduction - over the course of history, people combined food into combinations and then one day they wrote them down into a “recipe” but there was a discovery point somewhere that someone made that smashed up tomatoes and pasta are yummy together, they called that recipe: pasta al pomodoro (spaghetti with red sauce).
Evolution - now we live in a world of spaghetti with red sauce, but maybe where you live or what you have available means you can add certain different things to the dish and it morphs or evolves. Add basil, use ricotta instead of parm, or no cheese at all. When I was in Ethiopia I had the most amazing spaghetti with red sauce I’d ever eaten - and that was because they added Berbere spice, because that’s a very common Ethiopian spice. It’s still spaghetti with red sauce, but it’s evolved.
Combination - You can change up ingredients, like evolution step, and/or you are innovating now with new combinations and playing with let’s make the tomato sauce, and using science, turning into the noodles, what was the pasta, we’re going to purée with Berbere spice and reform those into spheres, the basil and parm we’re going to turn into crispy crackers — you wouldn’t look at this and be like “this is jus spaghetti,” but if someone was like - “wow, this tastes just like spaghetti with red sauce,” the chef would be like “yeah, pretty cool, huh?”
Conceptual Creativity - powered by the knowledge of 1-3, but uninhibited by the constructs of any of them is the space where true creativity can live. I have no idea what spaghetti with red sauce looks like in this step — it probably doesn’t exist.
6. Three Act Tragedy - Agatha Christie
Juicy one… actors… murder… true love…
7. Ten Days That Shook the World - John Reed
Russian revolution. He was like THERE when it happened and this is his book about it. Interesting, maybe sorta boring if I’m being honest. The Russian revolution comprised of a lot of MEETINGS. Warren Beaty made a movie about it called REDS - the movie also features a lot of MEETINGS.
8. The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
We’re like three months into the pandemic when I read this one… really trying to figure out how to live in quarantine. I quite liked this book, it’s about how and why we do things and really how little we are in control of our actions - we are, in fact, creatures of habit. Anyone should read this book and help to deprogram yourself from your habits.
9. An Incomplete Education - Judy Jones & William Wilson
Another book recommendation from a Fons, this time, Rebecca’s oldest sibling, Hannah - who read this when she was younger. It’s like everything you should have learned (or maybe remembered) from kindergarten to senior year of high school and every class in between all in one book - chemistry, music theory, physics, language, art, you name it, it’s in here. That might sound boring, but the writers have a great voice and each topic is lively in the writing and short enough so you walk away with a working knowledge of a lot. Recommended for those who like to make obscure references at parties… if I am at that same party, we can cross reference each other (did I just make a dad joke?).
10. The Big Con - David W. Maurer
I am working on becoming a con artist, as documented in previous year’s reading lists.
11. Mastermind - Maria Konnikova
How to think like Sherlock Holmes. I am now a consulting detective, if anyone has any crimes that need to be solved!
12. Ripley Under Ground - Patricia Highsmith
13. The Presidents Club - Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy
This book was given to me by Mr. Ian Mullen because he knows I like reading and politics. It’s good! It’s about how ex-Presidents interact with current Presidents to continue to serve the nation after they leave office. This book pre-dates Trump, and I have this weird feeling that DJT will not be welcomed into The Presidents Club with open arms.
14. Death in the Clouds - Agatha Christie
It wasn’t the bee… or maybe it was. I actually don’t remember. This is not one of the better Poirot mysteries IMHO.
15. The Looming Tower - Lawrence Wright
Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11
This one has been on the shelf for a long time. He’s a great writer and the research is incredible to paint the portrait of the people who attacked America. He works hard - and objectively - to provide insight into their perspective and plots the steps taken to carry out the attacks. It also does the same thing on the US side and the security forces tasked to catch them — and ultimately how and why they failed.
For those of you, who are too young to know what 9/11 was - I’ve gone through the trouble of googling it for you.
16. Characters & Viewpoint - Orson Scott Card
I was talking to Rudra on the phone about a creative project that I was working on and he mentioned this storytelling idea of the MICE quotient, which Orson Scott Card (of Ender’s Game fame) writes about in this book. As a filmmaker, I really enjoy reading books about other art forms and modes of expression and then try to take the lessons learned and apply them to filmmaking. This book
17. Three Seconds in Munich - David A. Sweet
If you google “Munich olympics” the first thing you will find is this - the massacre of Jewish Olympians by a group of terrorists - and rightly so. It was awful and changed the world. I actually gave up on google at page 18 of search results, because every result is about that, because this book is not about that (not really). So, if you search the same thing but add “basketball” to the search field you will find a fascinating and true story about the men’s final basketball game between the United States and Soviet Union - I won’t ruin it to say what happened.
The book deals well with showing how a basketball game helps to explain the world that we lived In in 1972 and how a terrorist attack weaves in and out of the lives of the people affected by it directly and indirectly.
18. The New Map - Daniel Yergin
Daniel Yergin is really good at making oil and energy policy interesting — which should get him the Pulitzer every single time. This book has the interesting distinction as being the first book I’ve read that was written during COVID - and so it’s hot off the presses — got some hot new info on how COVID led to the economic downturn and how that is going to affect long term energy policy and speed up (or slow down - I won’t tell, you’ll have to read it and find out for yourself!) the move to renewable energy sources away from fossil fuels.