Samantha announced to our family in the car yesterday that she was four books shy of her reading goal for the year and she was never going to finish if we didn’t stop interrupting her. I can relate–there’s nothing worse than hearing your name just as you start to concentrate and get momentum on a book. I don’t usually set reading goals (at least in terms of quantity), but I do find that at this time of year I am sprinting to the finish line. Maybe it’s because it’s getting dark earlier or because people are busy with their own stuff, but I try to take advantage of the quiet and the calm (and the travel times) to really do some reading. I hope you can do the same with some of the books in this month’s newsletter, as I really loved them. (Also, earlier in November I sent out a list of books I think make for great gifts for different types of people in your life, which might be of use to you.) In any case, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We’ve raised almost $200,000 for hungry families over at Daily Stoic, and if you’d like to pay forward all the things you’re grateful for this year, click here. And finally, I will be in Seattle this week (12/3) to give a talk and then Phoenix and San Diego in February. There are a few tix left, please do come–we’ll talk about books in the Q&A (which is my favorite part).
The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slaveryby Siddharth Kara I picked this up at Word After Word Books in old town Truckee, California (a delightful store that did not exist when I used to go there as a kid). I have raved about Adam Hochschild's Bury The Chains (an incredible and important book which inspired Part II ofRight Thing, Right Now) and this is basically a deep dive into one critical section of that book, the story of The Zorg, a cursed slave ship in 1781, which dumped dozens of slaves overboard in a desperate and evil attempt to recover their value in insurance money. It was the trial and later the publicity over this disaster that helped inspire Thomas Clarkson and the abolitionist movement. Like most great narrative non-fiction, The Zorg is a riveting story first and foremost, and then a means of exploring both the darkness of the human condition and the potential in each of us (as well as a chance to explore all the intersecting themes and events, from the American Revolution to the slave trade itself). As dark and terrible as Robert Stubbs and William Gregson are, characters like Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp and Oludah Equiano give you hope (and challenge you to do more, along the lines of another great book I liked recently, Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman). I thought this book was great and hope it’s a big hit.
1929: The Inside Story of the Greatest Crash in Wall Street Historyby Andrew Ross Sorkin This is the kind of book I was planning to save for later because I wanted to take my time, but I ended up reading right when it came out because Andrew was coming on the podcast (I did his show back last year). It’s really a magnificent book. The characters are great. The story is well-paced (it runs us through the crash in what feels like real time). It’s one of those books that’s both timely and timeless–or perhaps you could say it is so timely because it is rooted in timeless themes. It reminded me a lot of another book I love about this period, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, which also featured Herbert Hoover (but as the hero instead of the villain). Another great book in this genre is Bubble in the Sun about the Florida real estate bubble which significantly contributed to the Great Depression as well. Andrew signed a bunch of copies while he was in Bastrop, and you can grab those here before we run out.
Hope in the Dark: Untold Stories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit Reading about slavery or the Great Depression doesn’t exactly fill you with hope. That’s one of the problems of reading history–it’s not always fun. In fact, it’s often quite depressing. But if you look deep enough, if you push past this, you will also find much to be hopeful about. As I said, the tragedy of the Zorg is inseparable from the abolition of slavery. The market crash of 1929 led not only to essential financial reforms but it also forced America to reckon with its obligations to its fellow citizens. Anyway, if history makes you despair, you’re not doing the real work. That’s why I was excited to see this book, which, by the way, is itself a little historical. It was written in the run-up to the Iraq war, and yet it holds up. (Not all of it does, there are some NIMBY themes in here, for instance, that partly contributed to the political division and mess we’re in now.) But I found this book to be reassuring and encouraging. It’s worth a read.
History Mattersby David McCullough Where did I grab this book? I honestly can’t remember. Maybe it was in New York during the press tour for Wisdom Takes Work. In any case, I had no idea that this book was coming out but as soon as I saw it, I knew I needed to read it. I love McCullough’s biographies–especially Truman and The Wright Brothers–but I’ve also gotten a lot out of his shorter books of essays, including Brave Companions: Portraits in History, which is where I learned about Louis Agassiz, a fascinating and tragic figure, who I wrote about in two chapters in Wisdom. Oh man, this book is great. We cannot forget, he reminds us, that nobody lived “in the past.” Everyone lived in the present moment, or indeed, believed they were living in the cutting-edge future. Things did not have to go the way they went. Every action and decision was a choice. We study the past because it helps us with our own choices. And because, as he quotes Truman (whose full bio you must read) as saying, “the only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.” Great stuff on writing and life and craft here too.
Workingby Robert Caro After I read History Matters, I knew I needed to re-read this one. Working, which I promise is much shorter than Caro’s other books, was actually the first audiobook I’d ever listened to, which I downloaded back in 2019 when it was released. After reading countless pages of his writing (all the books in the Johnson series and, of course, The Power Broker), it was lovely to hear something in Caro’s actual voice (which happens to be a thick BROOKLYN? accent). It was also, other than the ones I listen to with my kids, the last audiobook I listened to. I just can’t do it. It’s not how I retain or process information. So now that I am in the middle of writing a big biography myself, I decided to give it another go. I didn’t need to buy it, I just walked downstairs and stole a copy off the shelf at The Painted Porch. I’m glad I did because it had some wonderful reminders and lessons for anyone in the middle of a creative project (and no small amount of wisdom about political power, which remains relevant today).
Kids We are down at the beach, so we readHot Dog together, which is a delightful book. It feels like a classic from my childhood and I am surprised each time to find out it was released in 2022. My wife remembered/rediscovered a book like that from her childhood that she excitedly read to us: The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood. My 9-year-old has been listening to Upside Down Magic as an audiobook, which he insisted I include here. He has also been carrying his copy of The Epic Guide to Dragon Masters by Tracy West everywhere. He loved that whole series and did most of them in audio.
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As always, I appreciate you supporting my bookstore, The Painted Porch. Please note that because a lot of the books we sell are backlist titles, there can sometimes be delays in stocking/sourcing. And with that, I hope that you’ll get around to reading whichever of these books catch your eye and that you’ll learn as much as I did. Whether you buy them at The Painted Porch or on Amazon today, or at your nearest independent bookstore six months from now makes no difference to me. I just hope you read!
You’re welcome to email me questions or raise issues for discussion. Better yet, if you know of a good book on a related topic, please pass it along. And as always, if one of these books comes to mean something to you, recommend it to someone else.
I promised myself a long time ago that if I saw a book that interested me I’d never let time or money or anything else prevent me from having it. This means that I treat reading with a certain amount of respect. All I ask, if you decide to email me back, is that you’re not just thinking aloud.
Enjoy these books, treat your education like the job that it is, and let me know if you ever need anything.