2021 Media Diet

For the fourth year in a row, I’ve kept a list of what I watched, listened to, read, and visited. Mainly what I read instead of watch since I figure people do not want me to rate individual episodes of 90 Day Fiancé or sports podcasts. In previous years, I did it by date or subject. This year I am changing it up again by listing by category to see if that makes it more readable.

As always, these posts are long so if you want the TL;DR here are my top five books from 2021:

1. The Father by Florian Zeller. My grandfather suffered from Alzheimer's disease for a decade before finally passing away in 2019. Those last couple of years were horrible, just horrible, to watch as a once proud and self-assured man slowly melted away. Not only is there no cure, there is no great manual or guide explaining Alzheimer’s in lay language. Somehow, this play in 60 or so pages does just that. I cried so hard reading this and it’s stayed with me and given me a greater insight into the sad last days my grandfather went through. If you’ve been affected by Alzheimer’s or dementia, I cannot recommend enough. (Also this YouTube video of how to talk to someone with dementia is a must-watch).

   
   

2. King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild. We finally got to take a honeymoon this year and on day 3 of the trip I was going through our resort’s assortment of left-behind books looking for a light beach read. Among the mass paperbacks and romance novels, there was this tome about the brutal mass slavery in the Congo. I then spent the next two days devouring a book that is the exact opposite of a light read because of how Hochschild spins the tale and the human stories that come out of his research. This book will make you angry and sad, but somehow by the end, it does make you a little hopeful and it will stick with you.

   
   

3. So Anyway by John Cleese. Cleese has famously been in therapy for decades and the level of introspection mixed with humor he weaves throughout this autobiography is really well done.

   
   

4. Troublemaker by Leah Remini. Morgan and I went on a Scientology kick and this book was the best of them (and also about 400 pages shorter than Lawrence’s Wright’s Going Clear). It helps an outsider make sense of how someone gets caught in a cult and how hard it is to escape. Plus, the chapter on Tom Cruise’s wedding is insane.

   
   

5. History 119: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era 1845–1877, (Yale Lecture Series) by David Blight. This 27-episode podcast is actually just 27 lectures of Professor Blight’s college course (I linked to the Youtube video version but it’s on every podcast platform too). Out of the 27 episodes, only four or so focus on the war. The main and most interesting episodes are the first 15 which focus on how the anger over slavery and the southerner’s anger of the northerner’s being angry at slavery lead to the start of the war.

Government and Espionage:

The Pigeon Tunnel by John Le Carre (A). Le Carre is at his best when his stories strewn close to his real life experiences, and this memoir is all about his real life experiences. A definite read for any Le Carre fan.

Sandworm by Andy Greenberg (B+). This book argues pretty convincingly that Russia has crossed the threshold into cyber warfare with its hacks on Ukraine.

The Path to Power by Robert Caro (B+). I did it! I made it through an entire Caro book! All 1,000 pages. I believe the Boundless Sea is a little longer but in that one you are able to jump to individual chapters and read in bits. Path to Power has to be read in order and in very close detail. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson’s quote, none wished for it to be longer but I also did not want it to end, if that makes sense.

The Dead Hand by David Hoffman (B). We came close to nuclear war a couple times but the story turns out to not be as tense as it sounds.

Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre (B). Not Macintyre’s best work but he’s still the best spy writer working today.

Iron Curtain: Crushing of Eastern Europe by Anne Applebaum (B). Like Macintyre, Applebaum is an amazing author (Gulag is one of my favorite books of the past 5 years) but this book is not up to that level.

Science

Grown Up Guide to Dinosaurs by Ben Garrod (A-). Believe this is just in audiobook format. It was quick, funny and informative about some types of dinosaurs I had no idea existed. A very good read for someone who likes dinosaurs but is not into dinosaurs.

Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (B+). Contained my favorite quote of the year: “Those who have not been trained in . . .medicine may not realize how difficult the problem of cancer treatment really is. It is almost — not quite, but almost — as hard as finding some agent that will dissolve away the left ear, say, and leave the right ear unharmed. So slight is the difference between the cancer cell and its normal ancestor.”

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe (B). Not as good as Keefe’s book Say Nothing but this one is guaranteed to make you angrier at the family and firm who almost single-handily began the opioid crisis.

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk (B). I struggled with ranking this one because some of the information is great, but having dealt with repressed memories in court cases, some of van der Kolk’s hypothesis are just too far out there for me. If someone is interested in trauma this is a good book but it shouldn’t be the only book.

Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs by Stephen Brusatte (B-). This one is for people who are into dinosaurs. A little dense and dry. Recommend sticking with the Garrod pick.Fentanyl Inc by Ben Westhoff (C). The Sackler’s may have started the opioid crisis but now it’s overseas governments and organized crime controlling it.

History

Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson (B). Just not a big Larson fan. Every one of his books comes highly recommended and I find them okay, but not gripping.

The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia (B+). Tough book to rank. Tough book to read (it’s a daunting 1100 pages). Some chapters are incredibly interesting. Others, especially at the beginning, are like written Ambien. Recommend picking chapter by chapter.

Going Clear by Lawrence Wright (B). Longer and much more detailed than Troublemaker but essentially makes the same point that Scientology is a cult.

The March by E.L. Doctorow (B). Read this because Professor Blight mentions it so much. It’s historical fiction based on Sherman’s diary. Pretty entertaining but I ended up wishing I had just read Sherman’s diary.

The Nazi Hunters by Andrew Nagorski (B-). There are much better books about chasing down Nazis than this one.

Business & Sociology

Flying Blind by Peter Robison. I thought Empire of Pain would be the angriest I would get reading a book this year, but nope! Flying Blind and the hubris of Boeing to try to keep its 737MAX in the air despite the issues with the MCAS takes the cake. The book makes a strong case that sometime in the mid-2000s Boeing went from being an engineer-first, safety-at-all-costs company to a cutting every corner for profit. Reading he story unfold and knowing how it will end makes you enraged at some of the former executives.

The Smartest Guys in the Room by McClean & Elkind(A). The downfall of Enron through hubris and a belief that the rules didn’t apply. Also recommend the documentary based on the book.

Dying of Whiteness by Jonathan Metzl (B). I read this wanting to understand why numerous individuals who are on Medicaid and food support, still support destroying those programs. In the end, I got a lot of tales of these people but am not sure I understand why they are so angry at everyone else (but not themselves) who gets government support.

You Can’t Teach Hungry by John Morgan (C+). Embarrassed to say not only did I read this, but I enjoyed reading it and finished it in an afternoon. The author is the founder of the law firm Morgan & Morgan (yes, of the billboards) and most of it is hokum, but still I always enjoy good lawyers telling entertaining stories.

Lawyer Games, After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by Dep Kirkland (C-). First of all, this book is only meant to be read if you have already read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and are familiar with the Williams trials. Second, the author is one of the former prosecutors on the case and so is admittedly bias. Third, even with all that, Kirkland expresses shock, SHOCK, that defense lawyers tried to muddy up facts and downplay evidence to get their client acquitted. What Kirkland describes as being outrageous is not, it’s what defense lawyers have to do, and in fact, are bound by the Constitution to do — fight for their client. Finally, even with those facts it would still be okay if it was interesting, but it is not. Kirkland does not weave a story, but instead describes plainly witnesses testimony and presents exhibits from the trial. It is like having a prosecutor do play by play for a court transcript. Do not recommend.

Arts

The Kid Stays In the Picture: Robert Evans (A+). Listen to the audiobook! Evans voice is amazing, as our some of his off-the-cuff quips, “They told me the movie would make more than Jaws. It didn’t do more than my jaw.” This was a re-read (re-listen?) which is why it’s not on the best-ofs.

Razzle Dazzle by Michael Riedel (A). This was my sixth best book of the year and a must read for anyone interested in theater and how Andrew Lloyd Weber and musicals for better or worse came to dominate Broadway.

On Bowie by Rob Sheffield (B). Sheffield is the best music critic of our time and I’ve gifted his book, Dreaming of the Beatles, to more people than any other book besides Man Search for Meaning. Here, written in the immediate aftermath of Bowie’s death, Sheffield tries to drum up the same feelings he has for the Beatles for Bowie, but it just does not come across as poignant. I’d only recommend if you are a serious Sheffield fan or a serious Bowie fan.

Final Cut; Dreams & Disaster in Making of Heaven’s Gate by Steven Bach (B-). I never got the sense that Bach, as the producer of the movie, was a reliable narrator in that the entire reason the movie was a flop was because of director Michael Cimino. Still, entertaining 1970s Hollywood gossip.

The Devil’s Candy by Julie Salamon (B-). Basically the 1980s version of Final Cut but about the film Bonfire of the Vanities. Have neither read the book nor seen this film but even me, as a lowly outsider, can see it was insane that the producers of this film thought that the key to success was turning the main characters, who in the book are unlikable entitled rich white Manhattan socialites who hit a kid with their car, into the sympathetic ones.

Singular Sensation by Michael Riedel (B-). Covers Broadway after the 80s into the 90s with Rent and all the Disney musicals. Not nearly as good as Riedel’s other book on this list.

Memoir/Biography

American in the Gulag by Alexander Dolgun (A). Another runner-up for one of my favorite books of the year. More than just the gulag tales of Solzhenitsyn (Dolgun was an inspiration for Ivan Denisovich) this out-of-print memoir spends most of its time on a very fact-by-fact retelling of what Soviet interrogation techniques were like and how Dolgun managed to survive some of the worst prisons ever known.

Working by Robert Caro (A). I was recommended to read the audio book of this one and glad I did. Caro narrates it himself and his voice is old-school New York gravy, as our his stories about his interviews with Robert Moses. Plus, at only 250 pages, you can say you read a Caro!

Barbarian Days by William Finnegan (B). I have never surfed so am not the audience for this book but still found the writing lyrical and the stories fun, even if I did not understand all the talk about the waves.

97,196 words by Emmanuel Carrère (B-). A collection of Carrère’s essays which don’t translate as well as his books. He may be the most talented author alive today but you wouldn’t know it based on this collection

It Would be so Nice if You Weren’t Here: Charles Grodin (B).

Travel

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (A). So good I read it twice! Including on audio book while driving the Shenandoah with Morgan. A great book about the good ol’ AT, and a great memory.

Crystal Horizon by Reinhold Messner (A). Messner documents the first solo-ascent up Everest. Almost gave up on this one because it’s told in an odd style with some journal entries, some newspaper clippings, entire chapters about other failed climbs. Glad I stuck with it though as Messner can write well and describe enormous difficulties in easy to read language.

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson (B+). If you like Bryson you’ll like this book about his trip to Australia a lot. If you don’t like Bryson’s style of humor or his several page tangents about mediocre dinners then you’ll want to skip this one.

The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin (B). Part travelogue, part poem, part memoir. Chatwin was the preeminent author of the overly-educated-brit-goes-to-far-off-land genre of the 1980s and while I enjoyed the book, I am not sure I learned anything about the Aborigine or their incredibly amazing system of travel using songs.

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson (B). Can you tell I like Bryson?

Over the Edge, Death in the Grand Canyon by Michael Ghiglieri (B). If you have hiked the Grand Canyon and know the trails, this an A++. If you have no interest in hiking or crazy deaths, then this is not the book for you.

Great Plains by Ian Frazier (B-). You can see the beginnings of what may be the single best travel book of all time but Frazier still had not perfected his style yet with this tale about his journey across the U.S.

No Mercy by Redmond O’Hanlon (B-). Amazon recommended this book about the Brit, O’Hanlon going by boat into the Congo looking for a lake monster. However, the story of white man describing the crazy Congo has not aged well and O’Hanlon spends too much time describing his own discomforts.The Moth and the Mountain. Ed Caesar.

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin (C -). Thought this would be a good beach read. Turns out it was not a good anywhere read.

Sports

A Good Walk Spoiled by John Fienstein (A). A wonderful book about several pro golfers trying to make it to the PGA tour and also a less wonderful bit about some very successful golfers competing over the Ryder Cup.

It’s Better to be Feared by Seth Wickersham (A). If you care about professional football over the past 20 years, you should read this book about the Brady/Belichick dynasty.

The Squared Circle by David Shoemaker (B). Back in the 90s my Uncle Tim would send us VHS tapes of WWF pay-per-views. To my knowledge he never got paid or even a thank you card from us. Well he should as he changed our childhood and made us life-long wrestling fans. I went on a nostalgia trip into wrestling this fall and this book is about my golden era of wrestling — the Monday night wars and the rise of the attitude era. Like any pro wrestling book, it’s got a lot of tragedy. In the end though, there was too much talk about what wrestling meant to the author instead of just stories letting me remember what it meant to me. If you’re interested in wrestling I instead recommend the Undertaker/A&E docs.

Fiction

Tourist Season by Carl Hiassen (A). I had never read Hiassen before but being a fan of noir and going to Miami I knew I had to read one of his books and I’m glad I chose this classic.

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen (B+). Maybe not a classic, but an entertaining quick beach read with a heavy helping of poking fun at the Florida socialite crowd.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashelle Hammet ( C ). I got a feeling reading this Hammet novel that I never experienced reading a Chandler novel — boredom.

The Day of the Locust: Nathanael West ( C ). I thought because I enjoyed Chandler I would like Hammet and I was wrong. Here, I thought because I like James M. Cain, I would like West. I was wrong.

Dune by Frank Herbert (No rating). Man oh man. I am not the target audience since I don’t read much science fiction but I liked the movie and so figured I would give the book a try and it was just not my thing. Not horrible but like J.R. Tolkien, I just have never been able to get into world-building books and this definitely was a world-builder.

— — — — — NON BOOKS — — — — — -

Television & Movies

Pick of the Litter on Netflix (A+). Watch watch watch this documentary about training seeing-eye dogs! It will make you very happy.

B-29 Frozen in Time (NOVA) on PBS (A+). I won’t ruin this documentary about rescuing a WW2 plane stuck in Greenland except to say watch it and be prepared for a roller coaster of emotions.

Sam Morrill (A++). The best standup comedian working right now and probably the most prolific. If you enjoy comedy check out one of his several specials on Youtube.

Inside: Bo Burnham on Netflix (A). The best art about the pandemic I’ve seen.

Sicario by Denis Villeneuve (A). Arrival is better than this but this might be Villeneuve’s second best film.

Reno 911 (B+). The gags on this show never stop being funny.

AP Bio (B). Really strong run for the first two seasons before losing steam in season three and really losing steam (ala Saved by the Bell) in season 4. The secondary characters, especially the teachers are great.