2023 Media Diet

So this year’s media list looks a bit different than previous years, because this year was different. From April to November I was ̶d̶e̶p̶l̶o̶y̶e̶d̶ rotated to Poland for work. 10 years ago, being in Europe for 8 months and getting to travel the continent would have been a dream come true. Now though, this meant leaving the family and especially Montgomery who was 10-months-old when I left.

I had known a year in advance this tour was coming up and all I had really wanted before leaving was to either be present to hear Monty’s first words or see his first steps. Turns out, I was there for neither and it really stung and I spent a couple months in a pretty deep funk. What got me out of it was partially travelling Europe, partially writing (I finished a Christmas movie spec script in case anyone is interested in buying it, because Hallmark definitely was not) but mainly the two times I got to see Morgan and Monty in Paris and in London.

While I thought the deployment would leave me a bunch of time and energy for reading books and watching interesting movies, in the end I did not. I spent more time traveling and working and when I wasn’t doing those things, more time Facetiming with the family or watching pointless Youtube videos. The novels I did read tended to be safety blanket types that I’ve read countless times before — hence a lot of Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie on this list. But no matter how I tried, i just could not get into the thick novels I had imagined myself devouring.

For example, Moby Dick. I had never read it before finding an old copy at my inlaws house in February this year, where I proceeded to tear through the first 50 chapters or so up until Ishmael meets Ahab after he finally emerges from his cabin. Then we finished the trip to the inlaws and I packed the book in my deployment bag and….there it sat until October, when I finally picked it up again, got to the right wale killing scene and stopped and ended up leaving the book in Poland. It was that kind of deployment.

So with all that being said, with an unusual year and me devouring some unusual media, I am including several top five lists instead of my usual one top five list. Hopefully, this will better encapsulate what I actually read and watched throughout 2023 than my normal list.

Top Five Books

Dreamland (Sam Quinones): I am extremely interested in America’s ongoing opioid epidemic but the last two books I read on it — Empire of Pain and Fentanyl Inc. did not scratch the itch. This book finally did and laid out in agonizing but incredibly interesting detail the link from early pill mills in the rust belt to a small town in Mexico’s smallest state Nayarit ending up controlling the U.S. heroin trade.

Numbers Go Up (Zeke Faux): The same way that Dreamland has been overshadowed by Empire of Pain, so has Zeke Faux’s excellent book about the cyrpto grifter world been overshadowed by Michael Lewis’s Going Infinite. While I bought Going Infinite I ended up not reading it because (1) the reviews made it clear that Michael Lewis had been duped by SBF, but (2) because I really didn’t have any more questions or need any more SBF schadenfreude after Numbers Go Up. More so, the author does some amazing legwork to show that despite what FTX and Binance and ads said, the only people who right now really need and use crypto are people engaged in human trafficking/slave labor in Asia and especially Cambodia.

A Swim in a Pond of Rain (George Saunders): For as much Russian non-fiction as I read (I will always recommend Travels in Siberia and anything Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn), I have never cracked into Russian fiction since trying and failing to make my way through Crime and Punishment and The Idiot in college. As discussed above, not being in the mood for long War and Peace-like slogs of novels, I ended up buying this book of Russian short stories and essays and was hooked. Apparently, the book is based on the class the author teaches and just like the Civil War podcast last year that was one of my favorite things, this book also reminded me of being in one of those classes in college that changes your life it inspires you so much and makes you think.

Travels (Michael Crichton): It must have been 20 years since I read a Michael Crichton book and until recently had never heard of this one — his only non-fiction travelogue. What I liked about it is that it is not in his fiction style at all. Instead, he writes in a very straight-forward way about some of his amazing trips such as hiking Kilimanjaro and being in Thailand, but also about being one of the first celebrity writers and getting disillusioned with Hollywood. Finally, there is also way way too much about his interest in the occult and supernatural but it is still fun to read in a ‘man people in the 80s really believed in bending spoons and weird stuff’ sort of way.

Flawless (Scott Selby): This is the book-length tale of one of my favorite magazine articles ever about the absolutely incredible Antwerp Diamond heist in 2003.

Honorable Mentions

Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting (William Goldman): While writing my screenplay, I went on a William Goldman kick. He being the writer of such movies as The Princess Bride and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Out of all the books I read of his, this was the best.

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism (Tim Alberta): If, like me, you were raised in the evangelical movement and have felt adrift the past decade as the “moral majority” has turned into a cult of personality, then this is a MUST read. I recommend starting with Alberta’s conversation with Terri Gross on Fresh Air. In short, Alberta postulates that the evangelical’s embracement of Trump is based on the belief that America is uniquely blessed by God and any affront to America is affront to God. If you believe that anything that changes or liberalizes America is not just changing the country, but the devil’s work against God’s chosen country, then the movement starts to make more sense.

Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catcher’s World COL(r) Stuart Herrington: I feel if I read this before joining the Army I would have wanted to go military intelligence. Turns out we did some cool stuff during the end of the Cold War.

Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier (Kevin Kelly): I highlighted more points from this little tome than any other book ever on my Kindle. Kelly asked people to summarize advice they’ve learned into small quotable nuggets. Some memorable ones I highlighted:— “You can’t reason someone out of a notion they didn’t reason themselves into.”— “Forgiveness is accepting the apology you will never get.”— “Instead of asking your child what they did today, ask them who they helped today.”— “The rich have money, the wealthy have time. It’s easier to be wealthy than rich.”There’s a ton of thoughtful quotes and advice like that. At worst, it reads like a fortune cookie. At best, it will have a quote that will stay with you for an hour or a day.

The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery (Witold Pilecki): During WW2, Captain Pulecki volunteered to be captured to go to Auschwitz, and then somehow managed to survive, and then somehow managed to escape! His story, which is very well-known in Poland, is virtually unknown here in America, and that is a shame because his book (which is actually just his report to his highers after escaping) is a no-frills, no-nonsense first-hand account of the camp.

Speaking of Auschwitz — I took a tour of Auschwitz while in Poland and my main takeaway was how unremarkable it is. You walk in expecting this horror house of a place and bracing yourself and then you pass the infamous ‘Arbeit macht frei’ gate and then it is…just some barracks. Not unlike barracks that are still all over Poland. Not unlike the barracks I was staying in. Then you walk past the barracks to the crematorium and it is so small and unassuming that if you were not looking for it, you could walk right past it. Yet over one million people died there! It was right then that one of the scariest thoughts I’ve ever had went through my head — it would only take a decent Army about three months to set up a similar camp. There is not too much to it and that is about the most chilling thing I can think of — how easy it would be to replicate.

Other Books in no particular order

Over Here (Raymond Seitz): B-minus

Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade (William Goldman): B

Four Screenplays with Essays (Applause Books) (William Goldman): B-minus

Hans and Rudolf (Thomas Harding): Read this after The Auschwitz Volunteer about the man who caught the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoss. Still recommend Auschwitz Volunteer over this book but they may change after I see Zone of Interest.

Four Seasons (Isadore Sharp): Read this after staying at the Four Seasons in Budapest and being blown away by the quality of service. This book is about the founder and how many things we take for granted in hotels today such as blow dryers and robes started from Four Seasons and how they keep the quality of service so high around the world.— Other hotels I recommend from having stayed in many of them in Europe:

Regent Hotel in Berlin: this is actually a former Four Seasons and remains excellent and as an IHG property, it was actually bookable at government rates! (2025- sadly now closed).

Le Grand Hotel in Paris: ditto being an IHG hotel! The most impressive public spaces of any hotel I’ve ever stayed at.)

Vila Foscarini Corano: an hour outside of Venice in the middle of wine country is this former count’s villa. If you can imagine staying with Italian royalty that’s fallen on hard times but still likes to host, then this is a great spot. Really, there’s a bunch of places like this in this part of Italy that you cannot go wrong.

The Wager (David Grann): I love Grann’s articles (Trial by Fire is the best article I’ve ever read) but his books leave me a little cold, including this one. (B)

Blood and Money (Thomas Thompson): I feel like this book about the murder of a Houston socialite would have been a better soap opera drama than a cold-hard-facts book. ( C )

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense (Lawrence G. McDonald): About the collapse of Lehman Brothers from one of Lehman’s former traders. I liked it even if I take everything he says about seeing the crash ahead of time with a grain of salt. (A)

Rough Sleepers (Tracy Kidder): Read the article below (in my top-5 articles of the year) instead of the entire book. (B)

Stalin (Sebag Montefiore): Starts with Stalin’s wife’s suicide and just gets more depressing from there. Very readable but I don’t feel I know Stalin the man anymore than before reading the book. (B+)

Emperor of Rome, Ruling in the Ancient World (Mary Beard): I can’t believe I never knew about Mary Beard until this year! I liked this book but am enjoying SQPR by her even more, which I’m currently still read. (A)

Prisoners of the Castle (Ben Macintyre): Better than Agent Sonya, not as good as a Spy and a Traitor. Overall, a good effort by the world’s best spy non-fiction writer (A)

American Prometheus (Kai Bird): While the inspiration for the movie Oppenheimer, I think Richard Rhodes Making of the Atomic Bomb which I read several years ago to be a much better book. (B)

The Vanishing Trial (Robert Katzberg): Eh. I’d maybe recommend if you have a strong desire to do white-collar criminal defense work in NYC. (B minus)

Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order (Robert Paxton): While I liked this book about the French Nazi enablers and how they were much more accepted and numerous than the French like to claim, it was work to get through. Paxton’s not a natural story-teller and there were parts I ended up having to skip or slap myself to stay awake through. This is an area ripe for a good readable book. (B +)

Top Five British Shows

Traitors UK: The single most addicting reality competition I’ve ever watched. The trick is unlike other reality shows where the “mole” or the “fake contestant” or the “false identity” is kept from the viewer, in this show they tell you at the beginning who the traitors are, and then it is just a personality drama for the next eight episodes. You will be shouting “I’m 100 percent faithful!” by the end.

Slow Horses: It combines the excitement of spying with the everyday doldrum office life of The Office with Gary Oldman prolifically farting (“better out than in!”) and each season gets better than the next.

Only Connect: The hardest trivia show in the world. When I get one answer per show, I feel like a genius.

Taskmaster: Morgan and I love this game show so much that we are now on Season 14. I’ve never seen Morgan laugh as hard at anything as she does this show. In the 5 minute clip below you'll be able to tell if you will love Taskmaster or hate it.

In Our Time: In this wonderfully British BBC Radio show that is available on most podcast apps, the host, Melvyn Bragg and his wonderfully posh RP accent, brings on three experts from Oxford or Cambridge in very archaic topics and then just lets them speak for an hour. The tone and setting is so informal that it feels like you’ve been invited toa cup of tea with some people who have this incredible knowledge in complex subjects such as Godel’s Incompleteness Theorems or The Barbary Corsairs.

Top Five Other Media

Bloomberg’s Cocaine Series: Best articles I’ve read this year about how Europe overtook the U.S. in terms of cocaine consumption and how a small group of sailors from Moldova basically accomplished it alone.

Rough Sleepers: The second best article I read this year about Dr. Jim and treating the homeless in Boston. Really describes the nitty gritty of homelessness in an uncomfortable but fascinating detail.

Fresh Air Archives: Did you know all 22,000 episodes of Fresh Air are available free online! And that they are all catalogued! I did not and this has been my number one podcast listen this year. Some recommendations:— Terri’s interview with Howard Stern— The interviews with John Le Carre— Lawrence Wright’s “Trip to Al Qaeda”

Trash Truck: I’m very partial to this children’s show since the protagonist, Hank, looks like the spitting image of Monty, but if your kids are tiring of Bluey, I recommend this.

**Arrival: How had I not seen this movie before! So good and easily the best full-length feature film I watched all year.

Top 5 Youtube Channels. As mentioned above, while deployed I spent way too much time watching Youtube instead of better or more serious works of art. That being said, I did find several channels that verge on actual works of art (or just sheer lunancy) and these are my top five smaller, unknown channels I recommend checking out.

Grand Illusions

Ben Feingold’s videos on St. Louis Chess club

Digging the Greats

Moses the Jeweler : This guy is the closest to real-life Uncut Gems (one of my favorite movies) I’ve found. Every episode you just feel like he’s about to get whacked or whack someone.

Secret Base

So that’s 2023 in a nutshell! Enjoy!!!