As with last year, these are books that I finished in 2019 (i.e., they may have been started in 2018; by the same token, there are books that were in-flight at the end of '19 that will appear on the 2020 list). They are presented in the order I finished them.
The Secret Servant - Daniel Silva
This is a series my mom and stepfather turned me on to a few years ago. As stated in last year's blog, picture an Israeli Jason Bourne without the identity confusion. If you like Bourne, I bet you'd like these. Each book chronicles a new one of Gabriel Allon's challenges/adventures. They're a bit formulaic, but it is a formula I enjoy. I am not totally caught up on the series, but until I am I plan to continue to break off one or two a year. They are quick and fun.
Astroball - Ben Reiter
Oh boy. I feel considerably different about this one now than I did when I read it. At the time, it was a real treat to feel like I was peering into the inner sanctum of what made my team great and finally put it over the top. The 2017 Astros were my favorite local team of all time, ahead of the 1994 and 1995 Rockets due to the facts that A) as an adult, I have a better appreciation for the scarcity of a championship and, B) I'm just more of a baseball guy than a basketball guy. Of course, we all now know there was a MAJOR thing going on in 2017 that may have actually been what put that team over the top, and as I sit here in early 2020 my read of the public discourse is that the 2017 title is irreparably sullied whether or not it is formally stripped. I therefore do not think this book will age well. Maybe not Reiter's fault, but history will not look kindly upon this book that makes no mention whatsoever of the Astros' sheisty sign stealing practices. What I felt in November 2017 when Corey Seager grounded out to second was pure, and those memories/emotions live. But support of the Astros feels quite a bit different today.
Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism: Biography of Its Founders and History of Its Church - Pomeroy Tucker
In late 2018/early 2019 at some point - I forget when, exactly - we were visited twice at our home by some Mormon missionaries. It was my first semi-extensive exposure to them and made me feel like I was not terribly well-equipped to minister to them well; namely, I wasn't informed enough to be able to challenge them in a kind and winsome way. Pushing them on the Bible was a bit tough because they agreed with everything I had to say about my Bible; they just had a whole lot to say about their own scriptures, about which I was wholly unfamiliar except by name (Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, etc.). I read this book - which is pretty scathing - in order to attempt to educate myself on where Mormonism came from. Suffice to say, Tucker has little regard for Mormonism's founders and pioneers. In the interest of equal time, I probably ought to read something a bit more sympathetic. However, I cannot envision a scenario whereby I am convinced that Joseph Smith was anything other than a charlatan.
Numbers - Warren Wiersbe
Our community group read this commentary on the book of Numbers. Our study of the book was a bit disjointed, so I'd probably be well-served to re-read it on my own time and absorb the material at a better pace. There's really nothing about the experience of reading this that sticks with me.
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
As mentioned under the Great Expectations heading last year, I've launched a nebulous initiative to read classic literature as an adult that I either never read during my formal education, or read ("read") against my will. Treasure Island is a classic I just never was assigned. I really enjoyed it. I have not delved any further into the pirate genre - Robinson Crusoe, for example, but I thought TI was a fun read that helped me to place the culturally ubiquitous Long John Silver into better context.
The Classic Palmer - John Feinstein
This is a really quick read and is a picture book as much as anything, but it is a quick encapsulation of Arnold Palmer's career, largely in pictures. Arnie's prime was well before my golf consciousness, but his place in the game is securely in the top handful of most impactful ever. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any true student of the game who doesn't have Arnie in the Top 3 with Jack and Tiger, and some really smart folks would put him at #1. Not best, but most impactful. This book is just a surface scratcher.
Taming a Sea Horse - Robert B. Parker
Both my mother-in-law and my stepfather have directly or indirectly encouraged me to dig into the Parker books, be it Jesse Stone or Spenser. This was my first Spenser book, though it comes somewhere very much in the middle in the series' chronology. The Spenser books are much different subject matter than Silva's Gabriel Allon series, but compete with it for my attention in the genre of "fun, fast, escapist, suspenseful read about the ambiguously good guy who colors outside the lines to take out the demonstrably bad guys and has to navigate some crazy tight spots along the way."
Volume 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville - Shelby Foote
This is book one of Foote's exhaustive 3 volume anthology on the history of the Civil War, which is something I've had the ambition to tackle ever since my Uncle Ron - a real student of Civil War history - commended it to me over a decade ago. Admittedly, this book is so far in the weeds that I routinely lose track of where I am and where I'm going. There are so many names and theaters and battles that it is head-spinning. It is enjoyable, but you've got to gird up your loins and push through it. Not for the faint of heart.
The Godwulf Manuscript - Robert B. Parker
Another Spenser book, and actually the first in the series. I figure from now on if I'm going to read the Spenser series, I'm going to do it in order. It will bother me to do otherwise. No further commentary on the content of this one. Thus far, they're all the same, but there's a place for that when I'm in the mood. Sometimes you just feel like pizza and beer.
The First Major - The 2016 Ryder Cup - John Feinstein
Much of Feinstein's golf book corpus - maybe all of it, for all I know - is thorough behind-the-scenes looks at the inner workings of big golf events and/or moments. My first introduction to Feinstein was his walk through the 1998 major championships. This, like all Feinstein books I've read, is an enjoyable look at the backstory a broadcast can never get you. It places the 2016 Ryder Cup in a much broader context that I ate up as a golf fan. If you're into golf, and particularly into the RC, I commend it unreservedly.
That's it for the 2019 reading year. My volume was definitely down from 2018. A baby born in late 2018 will do that. On to 2020!
As always, comments welcome if anybody happens to stumble across this.
