Bonus Materials: Book Recommendations
I read a lot and on a wide range of topics. I read 68 books this year, and have read a similar amount for many years now. I’ve always wanted to do a year-end, recommended reading list, but didn’t have a platform until now. Most books on this list are not related to the topics Judex covers, so there is some bonus material for you. Every book on this list is excellent, though. I am listing only the best of the best, in no particular order. I promise, if you read something off this list, you will like it.
Govt. Cheese: A Memoir, Steven Pressfield. Steven Pressfield is essential reading for anyone trying to create something, whether it be in art or business. In this memoir, he describes his long road to a successful writing career. I also recommend The War of Art and Gates of Fire by Pressfield.
Scalia: Rise to Greatness, 1936 – 1986, James Rosen. This is the first of a two-volume biography of Antonin Scalia. Judex readers know how influential Scalia’s views are to the content here. This installment covers the experiences that shaped Scalia’s thinking prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court. The second installment, out next year, will cover his years as a Justice.
Rocket Men, The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon, Robert Kurson. The Apollo program was amazing, and Robert Kurson is a great storyteller. Read this book, but also do yourself a favor and read another of Kurson’s books, Shadow Divers.
Only the Dead, Jack Carr. This is the sixth book in a fictional series about former Navy Seal, James Reece. It has been adapted as a series on Amazon starring Chris Pratt. Light reading here, excellent storytelling with plenty of gratuitous violence.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann. For some reason I love shipwreck stories. The book, Endurance, by Alfred Lansing about the Shackleton voyage is probably the best shipwreck book out there, but this book holds its own in the category. David Grann is also the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a great book released this year as a Martin Scorsese film.
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, Timothy Egan. I read everything Timothy Egan writes, which means I would have read this book even if it weren’t set in Indiana. The Indiana connection is both heartbreaking and heroic. Egan is a wonderful writer. I also recommend The Worst Hard Time and Breaking Blue by him.
His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine, S.C. Gwynne. Another great writer in S.C. Gwynne, who makes history read like a novel. All his books are terrific. I especially recommend Empire of the Summer Moon, about the Comanches, and Rebel Yell, a biography of Stonewall Jackson that is a strong contender for the best biography I have ever read.
Fire Weather, John Vaillant. I am recommending this book, about a devastating wildfire in Canada, as well as two other John Vaillant books. I recommend John Vaillant all the time and nobody takes my suggestions because no one has ever heard of him. Stop being ridiculous. Read this book along with Vaillant’s other books The Tiger and The Golden Spruce.
Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill, D.J. Jaffe. The mental health industry, including the substance abuse industry as a subset, is quite broken. Jaffe is a journalist whose sister had a serious mental health condition. As her caretaker, he spent decades attempting to navigate the flawed system. This book accurately details the problems and offers solutions.
Grant, Ron Chernow and American Prometheus, Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin and Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson. I read these three huge biographies this year. Isaacson’s book on Musk is probably the best, but all three are captivating. American Prometheus is about Robert Oppenheimer. The Oppenheimer biopic released this summer was adapted from the book.
The People’s Justice: Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories that Define Him, Amul Thapar. Really great concept for a book here. Thapar takes the major U.S. Supreme Court decisions in which Clarence Thomas has played a prominent role, and tells the story of each case beginning with the facts on the ground that gave rise to the original dispute.
Working, Robert Caro. Caro is the greatest biographer of all time, hands down. He has written The Power Broker about New York City politico Robert Moses, and a four-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. A few years ago, I picked up the first volume of the Johnson biography, The Path to Power, and couldn’t put it down. I read straight through the next three volumes, 3,000 total pages, without reading a single thing in between. I have recommended these books countless times, and everyone turns their nose up at reading three-thousand pages about Lyndon Johnson. It’s not really about Lyndon Johnson, though. It is about American history and the nature of power. Caro’s book, Working, is a memoir of sorts that includes anecdotes about his work on the Johnson and Moses books. He is 83 years old. He is still working on a fifth and final installment of the Johnson series and plans to write a full memoir after that. I pray that he will be able to release the fifth volume before his death. I’m not optimistic about the full-length memoir. Thus, this short book on how he works and interesting stories from his career may be all we get.