My 2018 in Books

This is the fifth year that I’ve kept a running list of every book that I’ve completed for the first time and then shared that list here as the first thing I post on either the last day of the old year or the first of the new.

You can see the 2017 list here, the 2016 list here, the 2015 list here, and the 2014 list here. As always, I want to thank my friend David Daniel for the inspiration to do this.

I read 53 books in 2018, of various lengths and levels of complexity.

Two innovations in this year’s list: 1) I’ll put a “Top 4” immediately below for those who want to click away to other things; 2) Although the efficient list will look the same, in the analysis I’ll group like-themed works or series.

As I look back over 2018, which was a difficult year in every sense, knowing when I finished a certain book helps me to see where my mind has been. Perhaps in 2019 I’ll also start recording when I start reading a book, as that might be an interesting data point.

This list does not include re-reading familiar favorites that I turn to when I need the reading equivalent of comfort food, although it does include a couple of books that I first read long ago.

My Top 4 Books of 2018:

Barrett, Lisa Feldman. How Emotions are Made: the Secret History of the Brain.

Burns, Lawrence D. & Christopher Shulgan. Autonomy: the Quest to Build the Driverless Car—and How it Will Reshape our World.

Lee, Kai-Fu. AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, & the New World Order.

Lewis, Michael. The Fifth Risk.

 

The Efficient List:

1. Wolff, Michael. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Finished January 6.
2. Cornwell, Bernard. Fools and Mortals. Finished January 20.
3. Strauss, Neil. Motley Crue: The Dirt. Finished January 20.
4. Lee, Sharon and Steve Miller. Neogenesis (Linden Universe). Finished January 28.
5. Nichols, Tom. The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters. Finished February 5, 2018.
6. Kirkman, Robert. Invincible: Ultimate Edition, Volume 10and Volume 11. Finished 2/16.
7. Moon, Elizabeth.Into the Fire (Vatta series). Finished 2/20.
8. Thompson, Derek. Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction. Finished 3/3/18.
9. Mayer, Robert. Super Folks. Finished 3/6/18.
10. Sanford, John and Ctein. Saturn Run. Finished 3/10/18.
11. Lagercrantz, David. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye. Finished 3/14/18.
12. Sax, David. The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter. Finished 3/20/18.
13. Pink, Daniel H.When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. Finished 3/24/18.
14. Salecl, Renata. The Tyranny of Choice. Finished 4/16/18.
15. Comey, James. A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership. Finished April 20, 2018.
16. Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Finished May 5, 2018.
17. Cantero, Edgar. Meddling Kids. Finished May 9, 2018.
18. Scalzi, John. Head On: A Novel of the Near Future. Finished May 14, 2018.
19. Bujold, Lois McMaster. The Flowers of Vashnoi: an Ekaterin Vorkosigan Novella. Finished May 18, 2018.
20. King, Tom. A Once-Crowded Sky. Finished May 22, 2018.
21. Riordan, Rick. The Burning Maze: The Trials of Apollo Book Three. Finished June 3, 2018.
22. Clinton, Bill and James Patterson. The President is Missing. Finished June 14, 2018.
23. Auletta, Ken. Frenemies: the Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else). Finished June 18, 2018.
24. Hurwitz, Gregg. Orphan X. Finished June 22, 2018.
25. Hurwitz, Gregg. Nowhere Man: an Orphan X Thriller. Finished June 29, 2018.
26. Hurwitz, Gregg. Hellbent: an Orphan X Novel. Finished July 1, 2018.
27. Markell, Henning. An Event in Autumn: a Kurt Wallander Mystery. Finished July 6.
28. Snyder, Timothy. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Finished Jul 6.
29. Knox, Dave. Predicting the Turn: the High Stakes Game of Business Between Startups and Blue Chips. Finished July 10.
30. Card, Orson Scott. Pathfinder. Finished July 21.
31. Newman, Emma. Planetfall. Finished August 13.
32. Barrett, Lisa Feldman. How Emotions are Made: the Secret History of the Brain. Finished August 14.
33. Kirkman, Robert. Invincible Ultimate Collection: Volume 12. Finished August 16.
34. Barry, Max. Lexicon: A Novel. Finished August 19.
35. Newman, Emma. After Atlas: A Planetfall Novel. Finished August 29.
36. Stasheff, Christopher. The Warlock in Spite of Himself. Finished September 2.
37. Chabon, Michael. Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces. Finished September 6.
38. Woodward, Bob. Fear: Trump in the White House. Finished September 19.
39. Lewis, Michael. The Fifth Risk. Finished October 4.
40. Rutherford, Anne. The Opening Night Murder. Finished October 7.
41. Burns, Lawrence D. & Christopher Shulgan. Autonomy: the Quest to Build the Driverless Car—and How it Will Reshape our World. Finished October 14.
42. Gibbs, Stuart. Spy School Goes South. Finished October 15.
43. Rooney, Sally. Conversations with Friends: A Novel. Finished October 21.
44. Scalzi, John. The Consuming Fire. Finished October 27.
45. Messenger, Shannon. Keeper of the Lost Cities. Finished October 28.
46. Connelly, Michael. Dark Sacred Night: A Ballard and Bosch Novel. Finished November 8.
47. Kwan, Kevin. Crazy Rich Asians. Finished November 11.
48. Kwan, Kevin. China Rich Girlfriend. Finished November 16.
49. Kwan, Kevin. Rich People Problems. Finished November 19.
50. Aaronovitch, Ben. Lies Sleeping: A Rivers of London Novel. Finished Nov 30.
51. Lee, Kai-Fu. AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, & the New World Order. Finished December 17.
52. Messenger, Shannon. Keeper of the Lost Cities: Exile. Finished December 26.
53. Oates, Joyce Carol. Hazards of Time Travel: A Novel. Finished December 30.

And, for the curious or masochistic, here’s the really-it’s-rather-long-isn’t-it? version:

Books about Trump and our broken politics:

#. Wolff, Michael.Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Finished January 6. Blog post here.

#5. Nichols, Tom. The Death of Expertise: the Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters. Finished February 5, 2018.

#15. Comey, James. A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership. Finished April 20, 2018.

#28. Snyder, Timothy. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Finished Jul 6.

#38. Woodward, Bob.Fear: Trump in the White House. Finished September 19.

#39. Lewis, Michael. The Fifth Risk. Finished October 4. Blog post here.

Wolff and Comey are both extended gossip columns: Wolff is shameless about it while Comey’s narrative is also an exercise in self-justification.

Nichols’ book about the death of expertise (recommended by my friend Claudia Caplan) proceeds in a fractal way, tracing the pattern of how experts have gone from a trusted part of the dynamics of society to a weird collection of scarecrows and dog whistles that people reflexively distrust, and he does this by exploring the pattern across journalism, education and the internet. Along the way, he makes a series of worthwhile points about the differences between: explanation and prediction, experts who inform and policy makers who decide, critical thinking and emotion. He is, alas, stronger on the problem than the solution.

Snyder’s book about the nature of tyranny is brilliant and should be read in one sitting: I got derailed towards the end and my absorption of his arguments suffered. The down side of Snyder’s little book is that it won’t change a single mind, which is a useful test for just about any book.

Woodward’s “Fear” is not only the title of the book but also describes the frissons I frequently felt while reading it. It’s a journalistic gold standard version of Wolff’s gossip.

Actually, the scariest thing about Fear happened I as I was nearly done with it. I was chatting with a friend who is on the opposite side of the political aisle. He asked what I was up to, and I told him about the car-crash-can’t-look-away experience I was having with the book. “Well, it’s nice to have a book with no sources,” he said. That’s when I realized my friend watches Fox News, which issues a single response talking point to most of these issues that loyal viewers reflexively parrot, then fall silent when challenged. When I replied, “Woodward has a ton of sources; they’re just on deep background,” my friend had no response

(See also Vanessa Otero’s Media Bias Chart for a glimpse at the extent to which Fox News is propaganda.)

Michael Lewis’ The Fifth Risk is one of my top four books this year.

Lewis is such a remarkable writer that I sometimes find myself envious of his ability to forge a compelling story where there doesn’t seem to be anything. It’s useful to contrast The Fifth Risk with Woodward’s Fear. Woodward’s book ferrets out things that happened—crescendos of malevolence and arias of incompetence—unbelievable though they sometimes seem.

In contrast, Lewis’ amazing little book—it arrived Tuesday night and I finished it Thursday morning—takes as it’s starting point a series of startling non-events all involving the Trump administration. Since Trump didn’t expect to win, he didn’t take building a transition team seriously (and even thought that the money Chris Christie raised to fund a transition team was tantamount to stealing from Trump). Then Trump won, and still didn’t see the need for a transition team. (Full blog post here.)

Ungrouped…

#2. Cornwell, Bernard. Fools and Mortals. Finished January 20.

Brisk, enjoyable and historically rather convincing story of William Shakespeare’s brother Richard and the events of his life in 1595. Richard existed, but we know zero about him other than the fact that he was born and died and was several years younger than his playwright brother. In Cornwell’s telling, Richard runs away from an apprenticeship in Stratford as a young man, shows up at his dismayed brother’s lodging in London and becomes a player in the company where his brother is part owner. One of the things I like about the book is that Cornwell portrays William Shakespeare as a jerk, a terrible brother who dislikes and poorly treats Richard for reasons that never become apparent (one of the book’s few flaws). Recommended by my friend Peter Horan.

#3. Strauss, Neil. Motley Crue: The Dirt. Finished January 20.

My friend Jeff Rosenblum gave this to me, and it was a delightful romp through the most Rabelaisian excess ever. You don’t have to be a fan of the group (I’m not) to find this riveting.

#4. Lee, Sharon and Steve Miller. Neogenesis (Linden Universe). Finished January 28.

Always delightful space opera in a universe increasingly so populated with characters that I have trouble imagining a new reader starting the series from this point. The current book is a mosaic that brings together—and resolves—series of threads from the past six or so novels, setting up a new sequence of adventures on the final page.

Publishing Industry Note: Lee and Miller have been quiet pioneers when it comes to their business model: like Lois McMaster Bujold and Ben Aaronovitch (see last year’s list), Lee and Miller have a long series of conventional best-selling books (published by Baen) that they supplement with an even larger catalog of self-published books, short stories and chapbooks. The self-published titles expand the universe and their income, give fans things to buy between big publications, and build brand awareness. It’s an interesting symbiotic relationship between conventional and self-publishing, and they’ve been doing it longest.

Invincible:

#6. Kirkman, Robert. Invincible: Ultimate Edition, Volumes 10 and Volume 11. Finished 2/16.

#33. Kirkman, Robert. Invincible Ultimate Collection: Volume 12. Finished August 16.

I don’t usually include comics in this list, but I’ve been devoted to the Invincible series (there’s a TV adaption brewing) for several years now, and it was delightful to learn that I’d missed not one but two of the big, beautiful, hardback collections. Invincible is teenaged superhero storytelling in its purest form: imagine the earliest Stan Lee / Steve Ditko Spider-Man stories, only written with modern day, faster-paced storytelling conventions. Despite my best intentions, I inhaled both volumes in big, enthusiastic gulps in one day.

Then, a few months later, with the end of the epic saga, I once again inhaled—again, despite my best intentions—the whole thing in one greedy readathon.

Ungrouped…

#7. Moon, Elizabeth. Into the Fire (Vatta series). Finished 2/20.

As with Cold Welcome from last year’s list, this is a military SF thrill ride that starts just days after the previous entry ends. My objection from last year still holds, too, which is that with a gap of so many years between the previous entry and the new ones there wasn’t enough “who the heck were these folks?” character reminders.  A dramatis personae would have helped. Still great fun, though.

#8. Thompson, Derek. Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction. Finished 3/3/18.

A consistently interesting exploration of how hits work that denatures what Thompson calls “the sentimental story of hits.” The preface to the paperback edition is a worthwhile sneak preview of the thinking that follows, so I’m glad I got the paperback. This isn’t to say that the book is perfect: I think Thompson pays insufficient attention to the importance of face-to-face, shoulder-rubbing interaction, for example. And, there are moments when the implications of what he is saying is more interesting than the conclusions he draws. For example, he argues that “narrowly tailored hits are more likely to succeed,” but thinks that the reason is because people want to be “weird at scale,” which not only makes no sense but also avoids digging into the complex ragbag of overlapping Goffmanian identities that we wiggle around under our skins.

One reason that people like things like Star Wars is that when watching Star Wars we know who we are: identity is dynamic, but real-time experiences that bring a particular slice of identity into prominent focus are brief respites from the chronic “who am I right now?” questions that we face day to day… particularly these days as a) so many frames activate as we roam through our digital lives, and b) we have fewer concrete identity tags than previous generations.

#9. Mayer, Robert. Super Folks. Finished 3/6/18.

A rare re-read that I’m including in the year’s books, but in this case I first read it in 1977. It’s a combination satire of comic books, superheroes and 1970s culture (the protagonist is named David Brinkley, for example) and coming-of-middle-age story as Brinkley faces the waning of his superpowers at age 42.

My friend Benjamin Karney gave it to me for my last birthday both because it’s a terrific story (also oddly influential on comic book creators) and also because we read it as 9 year olds when it came out… or at least we started to read it until we made the mistake of sharing the racy bits with his mother who promptly took the book away and hid it.

As a lifetime book guy (scholar, reader, analyst, writer, editor) this isn’t the first time that I’ve watched my perspective on stories shift with the passing of time and my transitions into new life stages. The first truly memorable time was as I was finishing my doctoral dissertation about Shakespeare and I found my sympathies shifting: instead of identifying with Romeo the young lover I started to see things from the perspective of Capulet, Juliet’s father. With Super Folks, what was as crazy comedy has turned into a meditation on aging, albeit a funny one.

#10. Sanford, John and Ctein. Saturn Run. Finished 3/10/18.

Terrific “hard” science fiction in which two human spaceships—one American and one Chinese—race to Saturn because astronomers have realized that there’s an alien presence there. The POV shifts from character to character, and the story moves quickly even though the journey takes years in the novel. An exciting and fun read.

#11. Lagercrantz, David. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye. Finished 3/14/18.

As with Douglas Adams 5-part Hitchhikers series, famously, this is the fifth book in a trilogy… although in the present case entirely without humor or irony. The author took over from the late Stier Larsson. It is a perfectly serviceable continuation of a really good series. However, and this was true of the fourth book that I read last year, the characters are now nearly plot a function in service to a thriller narrative.

This is like what happened with the Sherlock Holmes stories later in Doyle’s career, where the great detective decayed into an idiosyncratic collection of narrative ticks. And you can also say this about the highly formulaic Law & Order TV episodes. That’s pretty much what’s happening here. Blomkvist and Salander are merely going through the motions set up in the original three books. I never would have read this book if I had not stumbled across it at the public library. It was worth that mild investment of time, but I’m glad I did not spend money on it. (See Michael Connelly, below, for a good contrast.)

#12. Sax, David. The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter. Finished 3/20/18.

Terrific, thoughtful, insightful. As we move into an evermore digital age, the resurgence of some analog practices (for example, papers books and vinyl records) is a curious exercise in defining our values. Sax’s book is a useful and always-interesting account of that exercise.

#13. Pink, Daniel H.When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. Finished 3/24/18.

Pink is a Gladwellian popular decanter of science. Like Gladwell, his work is consistently interesting. One useful implication of this book is that pretty much nothing is ever “meant to be.” There’s a high degree of contingency in just about everything. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.

#14. Salecl, Renata. The Tyranny of Choice.Finished 4/16/18.

An intriguing, wide-ranging and often flawed book that teases out the paradoxical nature of how choice works in modern society. Unlike works like Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less or Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, Salecl’s book is more philosophical and psychoanalytic in approach, with a dishearteningly frequent engagement with Lacanian thinking. It’s more like a work of “theory” than analysis that one can do much with.

For a book published in 2010, I also found it odd that the author did not engage with social media—or indeed the internet very much at all outside of online dating—in her analysis of how choice works.

There are many diamond observations, like how the belief in other’s belief is often enough to guide people’s behavior, a notion adjacent to Michael Suk-Young Chwe’s useful idea of “common knowledge,” when you know that other person knows something. Also, she is acute on how we can, through forced choice, feel ourselves to be “deprived of something we never had but still managed to lose,” which is similar to but not identical with the economic notion of opportunity costs.

#16. Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Finished May 5, 2018.

Remarkable book that helped me to rethink how I work and led to a break (even if temporary) with social media that proved fruitful the first day. The question at hand is to what extent I’ll be able to follow these rules and increase my focus. Time will tell. I look forward to his next book, due out in February.

#17. Cantero, Edgar. Meddling Kids. Finished May 9, 2018.

I saw this in a bookstore, was curious but not sufficiently bowled over to buy it, and then found it in the library. I should have gone with my first instinct. The premise is interesting. 13 years after their last case, a group of former teen detectives reunite to tie up loose ends. The group is explicitly modeled after the Scooby Gang, but Shaggy turns into Nate, a mental patient; Velma turns into Andy, a serious jock and sometime criminal who is in love with Kerri, the Daphne equivalent, who is a brilliant scientist and not sure if she wants to be in a lesbian relationship with Andy. Fred is dead of an overdose years before, although his ghost haunts Nate. Scooby is long dead, but his grandson Tim fills that role. The plot rolls along in a spritely enough way, but it’s unsatisfying because it violates the most basic rule of the Scooby-verse, which is that there are no supernatural beings. At the end of the day, EVERYTHING is a guy in a rubber mask. This novel exists in a different universe where there is lots and lots of magic (although, strangely, not enough for a talking dog: Tim doesn’t try to speak). A C+ experience.

#18. Scalzi, John. Head on: a Novel of the Near Future. Finished May 14, 2018.

Sequel to “Lock-In,” which I read last year and re-read in anticipation of this one. Very strong and fast near-future adventure story.

#19. Bujold, Lois McMaster. The Flowers of Vashnoi: an Ekaterin Vorkosigan novella. Finished May 18, 2018.

Any Bujold is a cause for joy, and a Vorkosigan story doubly so. Released today. Inhaled today.

#20. King, Tom. A Once-Crowded Sky. Finished May 22, 2018.

Also recommended by Benjamin Karney, this is another superhero novel that—in its theme about how superhero life and real life are incompatible and that age reveals this—is almost uncannily like Super Folks.

King is a well-known comics writer, so he nails the sensibility.

On the down side, man was it grim. Was there a single smile or laugh in the entire book? Why is it that when writers want to take superhero tropes seriously they so frequently do so by eliminating any humor or lightness?

#21. Riordan, Rick. The Burning Maze: The Trials of Apollo Book Three. Finished June 3, 2018.

I’ve read all of the Riordan Greek-mythology books: first when I was traveling nonstop for work and needed something light for plane rides; later, when my kids were reading them. My eldest has now outgrown these books, but my youngest is still reading them (for now). Riordan’s first-person narration from the point of view of a de-powered Apollo makes this more unified and enjoyable than some of his mosaic books.

#22. Clinton, Bill and James Patterson. The President is Missing. Finished June 14, 2018.

I inhaled this mostly in one gigantic sitting on a flight from Portland to Honolulu en route to Auckland, NZ. Terrific, compelling page turner.

#23. Auletta, Ken. Frenemies: the Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else). Finished June 18, 2018.

Enjoyable, gossipy read. Perhaps the most striking thing about it is that it was out of date the first day it came out, given Sir Martin Sorrell’s abrupt exit from WPP.

Orphan X series:

#24. Hurwitz, Gregg. Orphan X. Finished June 22, 2018.

#25. Hurwitz, Gregg. Nowhere Man: an Orphan X Thriller. Finished June 29, 2018.

#26. Hurwitz, Gregg. Hellbent: an Orphan X Novel. Finished July 1, 2018.

Solid thriller series, very Jason Bourne-esque, from Hurwitz. This is the third Hurwitz book I’ve read, and the least compelling of them. My favorite was the first I read, Crime Writer, about the amnesiac mystery novelist recovering from brain cancer who thought he’d murdered his girlfriend while sick.

The Orphan X series, in contrast, is more formulaic, but the books are fast-paced and enjoyable. I read all three in about 10 days and liked them, but not enough to have noticed (until today) that a fourth has come out. Maybe when I’m due for another long plane ride…?

Ungrouped…

#27. Markell, Henning. An Event in Autumn: a Kurt Wallander Mystery. Finished July 6.

I read this in one session at the gym because I forgot my iPad. It’s short and intense and atmospheric and altogether enjoyable. I had read one of these mysteries long ago and enjoyed it, but it never got around to reading another. It’s a happy accident that I forgot my iPad on this day. It’s also worth noting that the author has a lengthy afterword in which he talks about the history of the series, his writing process, and how as he ages his most important decision is to decide what not to do rather than what to do. Steve Jobs said something along these lines a long time ago, too.

#28. Knox, Dave. Predicting the Turn: the High Stakes Game of Business Between Startups and Blue Chips. Finished July 10.

Solid short business book about the relationship between big business and startups with regard to innovation. Dave is a friend, and his career has orbited the intersection of big business and startup innovation, so this is a useful read for anybody working across that intersection.

#30. Card, Orson Scott. Pathfinder. Finished July 21.

Well-plotted, interesting, totally characteristic YA novel by Card. Given to me by my friend Susan MacDermid. I enjoyed it, but not enough to go find the sequel.

Planetfall:

#31. Newman, Emma. Planetfall. Finished August 13.

#35. Newman, Emma. After Atlas: a Planetfall Novel. Finished August 29.

Planetfall is a beautiful, intricate blend of literary fiction and science fiction where the character arc of Ren, the protagonist, is intimately bound up with the puzzle of the world a collection of humans has colonized far from Earth.

This was also one of those experiences where the apparatus around the work unfortunately [SPOILER ALERT] alters the experience of the work. I ran across this title in a list of great recent SF, and when I investigated further I saw that this is part one of a series. That changed how I experienced this terrific little book, particularly the final few pages. The change isn’t necessarily bad, just different.

After Atlas: The technical term for this kind of book is “paraquel,” as it takes place at the same time as another story in the same literary universe but does not connect directly to it. This is another novel in the author’s “Planetfall” series, although it is hard to see much that is serial about it.

This might sound like a critique, but it is a wonderful book with a thoroughly imagined and visually conveyed world. The protagonist is unusual, intelligent, and strikes a noir torn without being as dark as most such protagonists.

When I finished reading After Atlas in August I was eager to read the third in this series to see if and how they all connect, but I haven’t done so yet.

Ungrouped…

#32. Barrett, Lisa Feldman. How Emotions are Made: the Secret History of the Brain. Finished August 14.

One of the top four: Pound for pound, it has informed my thinking more than any recent books since Joan Williams’ White Working Class and Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. It’s a remarkable pivot in how to think about emotion. I took many pages of notes, and wonder pressingly about the extent to which the de-environmentalization of our lives (with the magic mirrors we all carry around with us all the time) will impact the phenomena Feldman Barrett so compellingly describes.

#34. Barry, Max. Lexicon: A Novel. Finished August 19.

Interesting, thoughtful, oddly literary thriller about what is essentially a malevolent group of psychologists trying to take over the world. Recommended by my friend Lesley Ann Kent. Lots of fun.

#36. Stasheff, Christopher. The Warlock in Spite of Himself. Finished September 2.

This is a re-read, but it has been many years since I last read it. It’s a breezy read and still immense fun. A “romp” is the word on the cover of my tattered paperback, and it’s accurate about this blend of science fiction and fantasy.

First published in 1969, when I was one year old (I read it when I was 14), it shouldn’t surprise me all these years later that it’s a bit retrograde and sexist, although to the author’s credit the two most powerful people on the planet of the story (Gramarye) are both women, Catherine the queen and Gwendolyn the witch. I re-read it with an eye towards coaxing my 13 year old son to read it, but abandoned that plan given the sexism. #sigh.

#37. Chabon, Michael. Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces. Finished September 6.

I always feel guilty for not loving Michael Chabon. I like him. He’s a talented writer with a gem cutter’s eye for detail that I both admire and envy. But I should love him. He’s a Jewish intellectual dad living in Berkeley, for heaven’s sake. I guess he tends to walk along a line right between glib and profound, tending more towards glib. This collection of essays on fatherhood was enjoyable the way all Chabon’s work is enjoyable, but aside from Cavalier and Clay none of it really sticks with me.

#40. Rutherford, Anne. The Opening Night Murder. Finished October 7.

A fast-paced and enjoyable mystery set in the theater community in Restoration London. Theater geeks of all stripes will dig it.

#41. Burns, Lawrence D. & Christopher Shulgan. Autonomy: the Quest to Build the Driverless Car—and How it Will Reshape our World. Finished October 14.

One of the top four: this remarkable, insightful, useful book is “The Right Stuff” for the autonomous car story. I was honored to have a long conversation with the author shortly after I read the book. Anybody interested in the Future of Transportation should read this.

#42. Gibbs, Stuart. Spy School Goes South. Finished October 15.

Another of the series that I read with my son that answers the question, what would middle school be like if you were a full-time spy? Consistently enjoyable.

Note: I also admire both Gibb’s high-touch interaction with his young readers on social media as well as his perseverance in continuing to write after a year of personal tragedy.

#43. Rooney, Sally. Conversations with Friends: A Novel. Finished October 21.

Rooney is a very young Irish writer with a classic Dublin sensibility informed by the digital world in which we now live. Terrific literary fiction.

#44. Scalzi, John. The Consuming Fire. Finished October 27.

Sequel to The Collapsing Empire, which I read last year or the year before. Terrific, fast-paced, quick read. I started it at the gym one morning and finished it before 5pm that day while doing many other things. One review mentioned that it felt like a novella rather than a novel, which is a fair and accurate assessment. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable: it was.

Scalzi’s books are like episodes of pretty good sci-fi TV shows from before Babylon 5… think Quantum Leap. Lots and lots of plot, not a lot of interiority. In fact, it’s almost crazy that this is the next novel I read after the Rooney book, which was so much about inferiority that it’s hard to talk about.

Keeper of the Lost Cities:

#45. Messenger, Shannon. Keeper of the Lost Cities. Finished October 28.

#52. Messenger, Shannon. Keeper of the Lost Cities: Exile. Finished December 26.

My 13 year old has been obsessed with this series since I impulsively handed him the first one when he was in Fifth Grade. He re-reads the entire series before each new one comes out, which is an increasing endeavor as the seventh book came out this fall.

This is a Hogwartsian adventure series in which the superpowered protagonist is a girl named Sophie rather than a boy named Harry. There is, as my wife Kathi has noticed, a certain “Perils of Pauline” quality to how Messenger conveys Sophie’s emotions, but it’s perfect for the target reader.

It pleases me more than I can convey that my son shares my affection for science fiction, fantasy and superheroes, which is why I’m iteratively saying “OK!” to his frequent requests to read the whole series.

Ungrouped…

#46. Connelly, Michael. Dark Sacred Night: a Ballard and Bosch Novel. Finished November 8.

Connelly is the best noir writer alive right now. Harry Bosch has grown and matured over 20-plus novels (unlike most mystery story heroes), and the team-up with Connelly’s newer protagonist, Renée Ballard, is a welcome development.

Crazy Rich Asians trilogy:

#47. Kwan, Kevin. Crazy Rich Asians. Finished November 11.

#48. Kwan, Kevin. China Rich Girlfriend. Finished November 16.

#49. Kwan, Kevin. Rich People Problems. Finished November 19.

The first book is a completely delightful, albeit in a different way than the splendid movie adaptation. Indeed, one of the side benefits of having seen the movie first is to experience how thoughtful and shrewd the adaptation was when experiencing the more languid and periphrastic novel.

#2 was a “Bite. Chew. Swallow. Yum.” Experience. I read it in a day. Such trashy fun.

#3 is the weakest. It has a sloppily sentimental ending to a series that I like to describe as “Bitchy Jane Austen.” No spoilers here. It’s still a fun read. One of the things I realized as I neared the end was how masterful the movie adaptation is: the filmmakers realized that they could make three mediocre movies or one really fantastic one and they opted for Plan B. Eleanor Young, who in the series is ridiculous, in the movie was a magnificent character played in a tour de force performance by Michelle Yeah.

I don’t know how they’ll managed a movie sequel that resembles the books, and one is in development, but resemblance doesn’t really matter.

Ungrouped…

#50. Aaronovitch, Ben. Lies Sleeping: A Rivers of London Novel. Finished Nov 30.

The latest entry in this always-enjoyable magic-meets-police-work series. As with Michael Connelly (see #46), Aaronovitch’s characters change and grow over the course of the series. As with the Liaden series (#4), I don’t know how anybody could start this deep into the saga and have any of it make sense.

#51. Lee, Kai-Fu. AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, & the New World Order. Finished December 17.

Another recommendation by my friend Susan MacDermid, this book is not only fascinating and well-written, it’s also important. Anybody looking for a shrewd, insightful and sensible exploration of Artificial Intelligence (and particularly how the American and Chinese approaches differ) should start here. The last of my top four books of 2018.

#53. Oates, Joyce Carol. Hazards of Time Travel. Finished December 30.

To be frank, this was a disappointing book with which to end 2018. What at first looks like a compelling near-future dystopia, along the lines of The Handmaid’s Tale or 1984, winds up going nowhere. This is one of those books at the end of which I think, “what just happened?” Just… not in a good way.

Thanks for making it this far!

The two books that are first up for 2019 are Sam Schwartz’s No One at the Wheel: Driverless Cars and the Road of the Future and Marie Lu’s YA steampunk/cyberpunk novel Warcross.

Happy Reading in 2019!