The books I read in 2019
I read 10 novels and eight non-fiction books in 2019. The novels were my favorites because they gave me a nice escape from the madness of real life. But I also enjoyed the non-fiction and learned a lot from everything I read.
My favorite: I loved “Fleishman Is In Trouble” by Tiffany Brodesser-Akner. It made me laugh out loud and then morphed into a thoughtful tale of marriage and ambition and parenthood. It’s one of those novels that immerses you so much that you feel like you’re living with the characters. The writing is so good that I highlighted my favorite lines.
Other great fiction — I also enjoyed ”The Most Fun We Ever Had,” a wonderfully written story about a suburban family. The characters felt very real to me. I also liked Colson Whitehead’s “Nickel Boys,” a powerful book about a black boy in Florida who ends up in a reform school, and “An American Marriage,” about a couple that gets split up when the husband is imprisoned. And I was captivated by “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine,” a British novel that gradually reveals its truths.
Back to the Future — The one book I re-read was “I am Charlotte Simmons,” a Tom Wolfe novel about life at a private college that very much resembles Duke. Reading it this time as a faculty member and the father of a recent graduate, I was reminded how Duke and other schools still need to deal with the problems of fraternity culture and sexual violence.
Great — and not so great — journalism — I really liked “She Said,” the account of the New York Times investigation of Harvey Weinstein by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. It was a gripping story of their reporting and an inspiring look at how investigative journalists do their jobs. I also read “Catch and Kill” by Ronan Farrow, which I found was the mirror image of “She Said.” Farrow’s book is a disturbing account of how NBC squashed the Weinstein story and forced him to take it to The New Yorker. I’m assigning both books for my spring journalism ethics course. I also read a good novel by CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, “Amanda Wakes Up,” her roman à clef about her time at Fox News.
The Rosenstiel trilogy (two-thirds of it, anyway): I’m a big fan of Tom Rosentiel’s Peter Rena books and I devoured the second and third installments, “The Good Lie” and “Oppo.” They are smart Washington thrillers that gave me some fresh insights into politics and journalism. I enjoyed both, particularly “Oppo,” which taught me new things about how politicians conduct opposition research.
The rest of the shelf: I also liked “The Library Book,” Susan Orlean’s meandering tour of the Los Angeles Public Library; “The Parade,” a short tale of how cultures clash by Dave Eggers; “Charged,” Emily Bazelon’s examination of the criminal justice reform movement; and Ashlee Vance’s revealing biography of Elon Musk.
