BEST BOOKS READ IN 2025 PART II

By Ruth A. Sheets

Here I am again ready to share with you the best books I read in the second half of the year.  Again, they are from a range of genre.  I hope you will try a few and let me know if I had made a good choice.  You might notice that I especially like non-fiction.  

1. Someone Has Led This Child to Believe by Regina Louise (Regina had a childhood first of being passed off from her father to mother and back, then when neither wanted to care for her, she went into foster care where she was abused, ultimately put into an institution for troubled teens, then to a mental institution where she was drugged heavily.  A system worker wanted to adopt her, but was never permitted.  She went to college and came to own a salon and to become a writer, against all odds.)  

2. Integrated, How American Schools Failed Black Children by Noliwe Rooks (The author discusses the case Brown v. Board of Education and its “intent” to integrate schools while what happened was conflict, closed schools so Black children could not attend, Black qualified teachers fired, Black students being relegated to the classes for poorly functioning children.  Now schools are often as segregated as pre-Brown.  The old segregated schools for Black children did have qualities of unity and support which often do not exist now. 

3. Who is Government, The Untold Story of Public Service ed. by Michael Lewis (I had no idea of what to expect with this one, but it was great!  The various authors present the stories of government workers who have done amazing things because they love their subject and are dedicated to the people of this nation.      Our government is “not designed to highlight the individual achievement of unelected officials,” but so many have done remarkable almost impossible things for the benefit of this nation (well, until Trump got his second term).

4. The Counterfeit Countess, The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust by Elizabeth B. White & Joanna Sliwa (This is a powerful book about a Jewish teacher who was able to get the ID of a Polish countess and use it to get food to the Poles at one of the concentration camps in Poland.  This book describes how violence, hatred, evil grow and will not stop by themselves.  This woman was so courageous and caring.  Everyone in this country should read this one to see what the Trump/Miller/Vance/etc. EVIL are capable of doing if not stopped, and how even one person can make a difference.)

5. Solidarity, The Past, Present, and Future of A World-Changing Idea by Leah Hunt-Hendrix & Astra Taylor (The idea of solidarity is huge.  It is a way of bringing people together for a critical cause that has serious implications for themselves and many others toward improvement of a life situation:  unions, Civil rights, government change, climate change, the arts, and so much more.)

6. Not Another Banned Book by Dana Alison Levy (Molly and her reading friends in her school’s book club learn the books they are reading are scheduled to be banned and the teacher/librarian who led the group was on probation.  The students decided to fight back and got an online program going to raise money to buy the banned books to put into the Little Free Libraries around town.  The quirky group is leaving 8^th grade for high school, each in their own place with their own style.)

7. Cults Like Us, Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America by Jane Borden (This amazing book describes the US from the beginning at Plymouth Rock, as a collection of people who saw working for the end times at the center of life.  She talks about how gaining money at the expense of others is part of this because it is about the individual doing his, sometimes her own thing as though they were the messiah, or sent by the messiah to announce the coming.  She included actual cults and there were plenty of them, utopian communities, corporations like Amway, religious groups, and others.  The groups demand conformity, complete subservience, and often permit the guy in charge to sexually exploit the other members.)

8. How We Learn to Be Brave, Decisive Moments in Life and Faith by Mariann Edgar Budde (This woman I admire describes her life as a series of experiences of learning courage, attempting to follow examples of others’ courage.  She is now the Episcopal Bishop of DC, and a strong, but as she describes, a far less than perfect person who tries to stand with the people to do what’s right.)  Note:  She is the priest who called on Trump to be kind and merciful as president the day after his inauguration.  He couldn’t hear such words.

9. In the Garden of the Righteous, The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews During the Holocaust by Richard Hurowitz (This book grabbed me from the beginning, presenting 10 stories of non-Jews who risked their lives to help Jewish people trying to escape the Nazis in different countries.  Some of the people saved hundreds, even thousands of people while others one or two, all important!      

10. Money Lies and God by Catherine Stewart (This was a walk through the right-wing pseudo-religion movement which is more about power than the Christianity it espouses.  The author shows the history and claims of this group of mostly white men but a few white women pumping out all sorts of lies about people not like themselves, then pushing their poison all over the world.  The author says action on the part of those against this movement is the best response to it. 

11. There is No Place for Us, Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone (This is one of the hardest books I have read in a really long time.  The author follows several families whose incomes are not sufficient to have a decent place to live due to outrageous rents.  They have children and move regularly as they can’t afford rents or car repairs, or any of the other expenses that arise.  All are working but even with 3 jobs can’t afford a place, often forced out of a home or job for being a few minutes or days late with rent.  So much needs to be done. )

12. On Savage Shores, How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe by Caroline Dobbs Pennock (I knew some indigenous Americans had been brought to Europe in the 16^th century and beyond, but didn’t realize that it was more than a few and to Spain, Portugal, and England mostly.  This is a hard book to read because of the cruelties involved:  the slavery, the dismissal of people’s rights (particularly in England), the diseases that killed so many when no one had a good idea of how to stop the epidemics.  Good book that should be widely read.)

13. One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome (A group of Black families from Nachez, MS set off for Nebraska where it is said there is land to be purchased to homestead.  The story is told from the viewpoints of the women and girl in one family:  daughter Letty, mother Silvy, and friend Philamena.  Hardships faced the people traveling west:  getting provisions, stranger violence, injuries, illness, and death.  The family arrives after 5 months of travel in a community of mostly Black homesteaders where they, now fatherless plan to make a life.  Gr.3-6 and older)

14. The Paris Deception by Bryn Turnbull (The story follows two women in the Paris art world during WWII:  Fabienne and Joan.  They tried to figure out how to keep the Germans from taking and/or destroying the art from the late 1800s onward.)

15. Eleanor, A Spiritual Biography, The Faith of the 20^th Century’s Most Influential Woman by Harold Ivan Smith (Using previous biographies of the Roosevelts, Eleanor Roosevelt’s own personal writings, and writings for newspapers and magazines, the author presents a portrait of a woman whose faith and acceptance of the faith and backgrounds of others was strong as she tried to follow the teachings of Jesus to love, to care for those who are poor, and to include everyone as children of God.)

16. The Capitol Ghost Mystery by Michelle M. Barone (Sylvy’s class goes on a trip to the Colorado capitol in Denver.  She was disfigured by an accident when she was younger and has no friends until she is paired up with a kid who had bullied her at school.  Together, they solve a mystery for the Capitol, for her family and for her friend’s family.  Fun for gr.5 and up)

17. Murder at an Irish Bakery by Carlene O’Connor (This was a twisted mystery  about a baking competition with all kinds of rivalries, even hatreds with lots of red herrings and good Irish humor.  All the books of the series are good!)

18. 8-Legged Wonders, The Surprising Lives of Spiders by James O’Hanlon (I loved this book about spiders, a critter I have found interesting, I think, since reading Charlotte’s Web,” and watching a spider spin her web across our front door when I was growing up, the same web night after night, catching bugs, but gone in the morning.  I find spiders remarkable and not deserving of the bad reputation they have.  Go spiders, natural pest control!)      

19. The Unquiet Grave by Sharyn McCrumb (This mystery brought to life an actual murder and trial in West Virginia in 1897.  A young woman marries a near stranger and is found dead at the bottom of stairs but the husband doesn’t want her body examined.  They exhumed the body and found evidence of strangulation.  The story is told in various voices.)  I really like Sharyn McCrumb’s mysteries!

20. Newsroom Confidential, Lessons and Worries from an Ink-Stained Life by Margaret Sullivan (The author writes of her life in various jobs writing for and managing newspapers over 40 years.  She discusses her various jobs, the people she worked with, the principles that guided her work, and her responses to the positives and negatives of reporting and writing for public consumption, angry that so much of what is put out is about making money rather than truth.)

21. A Protest History of the United States by Gloria Browne-Marshall (This book is one every high schooler should read with their teachers.  OK, the rest of America should read it too.    It is a great way to look at history from the point of view of those who did not like what was going on at a particular time and let the world know about it from the revolts of enslaved persons to anti-war protesters to constitutionalists to LGBTQ persons, women, and citizens of color.)

22. House of Sticks by Ly Tran (This is the memoir of an immigrant from Vietnam whose father had served with the Americans in the war and was a Prisoner of War of the Communist government for 10 years.  In 1992, he brought his wife and 4 kids to NYC. He was scared of the government, so would not permit his daughter to get glasses even though she could hardly see and was having trouble in school.  They were poor but a determined family and all of the kids became successful, attended college, and made a life for themselves, but it was tough.)

23. Small Acts of Courage, A Legacy of Endurance and the Fight for Democracy by Ali Velshi (The journalist MSNOW host describes the challenges of his family’s struggles for a better life and the trials of being forced out of countries because of their color.  Despite THAT, they made their mark wherever they were, changing lives wherever they went.  Beautiful!)

24. Hatchet Man, How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutors’ Code and Corrupted the Justice Department by Elie Honig (This was a trip through the second part of Trump’s first administration when Barr was Attorney General and used the position to get Trump off the hook several times for his “criminal” behavior, and used the office for his own purposes.  Anyone interested in politics will find this one interesting.)

25. Shadow Work, The Unpaid, Unseen Jobs that Fill Your Day by Craig Lambert (The author takes readers on a ride through many of the activities we do each day that once people were paid to do on behalf of corporations that now, don’t want to pay people to do, of course, while raking in the bucks:  ordering and serving ourselves at fast food restaurants, checking and bagging our own groceries, pumping our own gas, building our own unassembled furniture.  The author calls it “middle-class serfdom.”  He adds that it has undermined community as it keeps us from talking with those who used to do the work and made everything more personal. 

26. Night on Fire by Ronald Kidd (In this novel, Billie lives in Aniston, AL in 1961 when the Freedom Riders came through town on a Greyhound bus.  She is white but appalled at the way the riders were beaten and the bus burned just because white and Black people were sitting together.  That begins her transition into adulthood in a racist society. Gr.5 and older) 

27. A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson (This is a fictionalized autobiography of Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman to earn an international pilot’s license.  She had to go to France to get it since no Black woman could get such training here. The author presents a vibrant, ambitious, decent woman who needed to fly.)

28. Grant by Ron Chernow (This is a long book, but portrays a hero of American history not so much as a hero but as a man doing the best he could with what he had.  The parts I found most interesting are those describing his respect for Black Americans and the number of them he put in government positions, even ambassadorships when he was president.  He was not always a great judge of people and was betrayed rather often, but that did not lessen his belief in this nation and its people.

29. Coded Justice, A Thriller by Stacey Abrams (Avery, the hero of Abrams’ past books is asked to investigate a death at a medical research facility where AI is being used to provide medical care for veterans.  A fascinating look at AI’s potential as well as a challenging mystery.)

30. Future Face, A Family Mystery, An Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagner (Alex’s mother is Burmese and her father from Iowa with European ancestry.  She is an only child and wanted to find out the heritage of her family, visits the countries of origin, and takes the DNA tests to learn more.  This is an interesting and entertaining trip through her research.)  

31. The Indispensables, The Diverse Soldier Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware by Patrick K. O’Donnell (I really liked this book about a group of men from Gloster MA, that I knew only vaguely.  I knew about their major feats:  evacuating Brooklyn and Washington’s crossing, but not the many battles and skirmishes they participated in, their naval actions against British shipping, and so much more.  They were also multi-racial and a wide range of ages.)  

32. What Set Me Free, a True Story of Wrongful Conviction, A Dream Deferred, and A Man Redeemed by Brian Banks & Mark Dagostino (This is a powerful book about the inanities of our criminal justice system.  Brian was accused of a rape that never happened by a girl at his high school.  He was an up-and-coming football star and was tried as an adult, then imprisoned at different prisons in California.  He finally was released but served a 5-year parole with an ankle monitor which made it impossible for him to do much of any job.  The accuser was finally caught confessing that the whole story was a lie.  The CA innocence Project helped to exonerate him.  This is a great book for high school and older students.)

33. Cassandra Speaks, When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes.  By Elizabeth Lesser (The author takes the reader through Western history to look at the story from a woman’s point of view where she was scorned. Threatened, killed for her beliefs, and otherwise deprived of a recounting of her role in human history.  Women have been caught up in being excluded from the structures of power most of the time, which  The author suggests must be changed for women to take our rightful place.

34. Miracles and Wonder, The Historical Mystery of Jesus by Elaine Pagels (Theologian Pagels looks at the scriptures of Jesus life and those that explain the experience of a 1^st Century Rabbi who taught love, acceptance, caring for those who are vulnerable and how and why people all over the world have been drawn to Jesus and still are.  She looked at the Gnostic Gospels and other early writings to find more clues that helped shape early Christianity and the faith that has come to us today.)

35. Palaces for People, How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg (This was a fascinating book about how communities and housing complexes can be designed to make life better for the residents and the community as a whole.  People have to believe the owners care about the properties, there has to be a lot of light, clean public spaces, and other amenities that anyone should expect.

36. Untouchable, How Powerful People Get Away with It by Elie Honig (Ugh!  This book deals with the very rich and powerful and how difficult it is to bring charges for their many crimes and then to get them to stick:  bribery, threats, intimidation, prestige, as well as the challenges of gathering evidence against people who know how to hide things and make things hard for prosecutors, so often people like Trump are rarely indicted.  The author explains it, as a former prosecutor, then declares it wrong!) 

37. The Venetian Bargain by Marina Fiorato (Tera lives in Constantinople but is forced to flee to Venice when her father is ordered on a mission there by the Sultan in 1576.  She is a doctor and finds a place in the city in various jobs until she connects with a male doctor during the plague outbreak.)

38. The Frozen River, A Novel by Ariel Lawhon (Midwife Martha Ballard is brought into a case when a body is found frozen in the ice.  She meets the new doctor in town, an arrogant fool, and various other characters in an actual town in 1790 Maine, and helps solve the murder.  It is based on the life of a midwife who lived there and in all her work, lost no mother and a rare child when delivering over a thousand babies in her area during her career.)

39. Murder By Degrees, A Mystery by Ritu Mukerji (In Philadelphia in 1875, the police find a body in the river.  A woman doctor becomes involved in the investigation.  There is a mistaken identity, and a cast of unsavory rich folks who use the people around them.  Very well done.)

40. Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins, Lessons on Belonging from our DNA by Shoumita Dasgupta (This book presents what scientists know about our DNA, related to race, genetics, and gender, then points out that our biases are hiding as genetics.)

41. A Well-Trained Wife, My Escape from Christian Patriarchy by Tia Levings (Tia was raised in a cult-like set of groups that groomed women to be submissive  wives deserving of beatings by husbands who had been groomed to be abusers, all in the name of god, of course.  Tia tolerates it as long as she can, then just leaves and faces the struggles afterward.  Disturbing, but makes the reader aware of what is out in the world of patriarchal Christianity.)

 Yay!  You made it to the end of this.  Unfortunately, that only took us through November’s collection.  Well, if there are books I just MUST share from my December reads, I will send them later, maybe at the end of a blog.  I hope you enjoyed the variety of comments and brief descriptions of the books I included.  It was fun for me reading back over the terrific books I read this year.  I am already reading a couple of the books that will be counted in next year’s collection.

MY BEST BOOKS READ IN 2025 PART I

By Ruth A. Sheets

I read a large number of books in 2025, around 400.  They are in a wide range of genre.  I love to read and will not complete a book if I don’t like it except when I get too far into the book to give up.  That rarely happens, so here goes.  They are not in any order except the order in which I read them.  I’d like to know if you have read any of these books or plan to read them.  I’d love to discuss them with you. 

1. Alabama v. King, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Criminal Trial That Launched the Civil Rights Movement by Dan Abrams & Fred D. Gray with David Fisher (I knew nothing of this trial which happened in 1956 related to the bus boycott in Montgomery AL after Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to clear a row of seats for white riders.  Dr. King was accused of inciting an illegal boycott of the city’s buses.  He lost the case due to racism, but the case went to the Supreme Court where segregation on public transportation in this nation was declared unconstitutional.)

2. Shameless, Republicans’ Deliberate Disfunction, and the Battle to Preserve Democracy by Brian Tyler Cohen (This disturbing book looked at the Republican decisions to work to undermine our government and the efforts they used to do it, Trump only one of the many strategies.  Democrats and others need to develop more effective ways to get the message, the truth, out to people geared up for hearing only the most deplorable about the people they don’t care about or trust.)

3. Mena’s Matchbox, A Novel by Yoko Ogawa (a young girl whose father has died goes to stay with her cousin for a short time which turns out to be a year.  Mena is a unique child who has an extraordinary imagination and a weak constitution.  She collects matchboxes with pictures on them, then fills the inside of the boxes with stories of the pictures.  I really liked this one for its uniqueness.  There were no bad guys, not great adventures, just two young girls getting to know each other in a loving home.)

4. We the Poisoned, Exposing the Flint Water Crisis Coverup and the Poisoning of 100,000 People by Jordan Chariton (Every time I think I’ve read the most disturbing book ever, another one comes along.  This time it follows the saga of the Governor of Michigan forcing the town of Flint, mostly minority community, to get their water from the extremely polluted Flint River with none of the safeguards to keep the water from corroding pipelines.  The town was poisoned with lead and other heavy metals, then with Legionnaire’s Disease that killed over a hundred people.

5. Monarchs of the Sea, The Extraordinary 500-Million Year History of Cephalopods by Danna Staaf (I loved this book.  I know little about “cephs” but find them enormously interesting.  They live in all ocean waters and are quite diverse.  More and more fossil evidence is coming to light every year of the diversity and amazing abilities of octopuses, cuddle fish, Squid, nautilus, and the rest. 

6. The British Booksellers by Kristy Cambron (A parallel story of WWI and WWII, connecting people from both times, a love story that resumes in the second war and involves a daughter and the nephew of a German officer saved during WWI.  It takes place in Coventry where there was heavy bombing in November 1940.)

7. What the Tide Leaves Behind, A Novel of County Donegal by Malcolm McDowell Woods (On the death of his mother, Tom goes to her home village in Donegal and falls in love with the place where he finds friends, connections, and a new life and finds a dog companion.)

8. Friendship First, From New Sparks to Chosen Family, How Our Friends Pave the Way for Life-Long Happiness by Gyan Yankovich (We often either forget or don’t realize just how valuable friendships are.  After college, most people don’t make many new friendships.  The author encourages us all to do it for our physical and mental health.)

9. Stand Up Yumi Chung by Jessica Kim (Yumi is a child of immigrants whose big sister is a genius.  Her parents run a restaurant, but Yumi wants to be a comedian.  She accidentally goes into a comedy summer camp and assumes someone else’s identity.  She learns confidence as she negotiates the 2 weeks that summer.  Gr.4-7)

10. The Light Eaters, How the Unseen World of Plant intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoe’ Schlanger (I loved this refreshingly new to me look at plants and the ways they communicate with each other and the world.  This includes chemicals, bacteria, some kind of environmental intelligence, and more.  

11. The Algorithm, How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted, and Fired, and Why We Need to Fight Back Now by Hilke Schellmann (This was a disturbing book about the ways businesses have allowed AI to infiltrate every aspect of the business world from hiring through one’s entire life at a company.  It should be illegal, but somehow it has been decided at some point in the past that corporations own us while we are working for them.  Some corporations even monitor what people are doing off hours, when there should be little to no contact. 

12. Dear Sister, A Memoir of Secrets, Survival and Unbreakable Bonds by Michelle Horton (The author’s sister shoots her partner after years of unspeakable abuse.  The court prosecutors twist the case to make it look like he was the abused one despite masses of evidence to the contrary.  The author cared for her children until finally she was released 7 years after she was arrested.)

13. Mockingbird Summer by Lynda Rutledge (Corky (Catherine) turned 13.  She likes playing softball for her church.  She meets a girl from literally, “the other side of the tracks.”  America can run extremely fast and is a natural at softball.  She is Black and some white men in the town don’t want her on the team or anywhere else.  The girls become friends but the friendship fades due to the problems of racism.)

14. The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris (This memoir gave a better account of who Kamala Harris is than any of the media coverage during the last 2 campaigns.  It still breaks my heart to realize that racism and misogyny let the American people vote for an ignorant, evil old man with dementia over an extremely talented, caring, competent woman of color.)   

15. The Nurse’s Secret by Amanda Skenandore (This was an excellent fictional portrait of a life in late 19^th Century New York City.  Una Kelly, a pick-pocket decides to enter a nursing school at Belview to escape a murder charge for a crime she did not commit.  She finds she likes nursing, not always the rules and the arrogant male doctors she works for.  This turns into a mystery even though that was not obvious from the beginning.) 

16. **26. White Fragility, Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin Diangelo (This was a hard book to read, but essential.  I have discussed racism with my students frequently and acknowledged that I could make a racist comment or assumption, although I would do my best to avoid it.  The author says that is because we live in a society that is systemically racist.  Nearly every aspect of our society is steeped in the ideas of white superiority and the inferiority of everyone else.  Children drink this in from birth.  Pretending it is not real or that we are past it as John Roberts claimed in undermining the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is not honest.)

17. The Sisterhood by Helen Bryan (A convent in 16^th Century Spain is threatened with the inquisition, so sisters go to the new world and settle in the mountains of Peru.  In the early 1980s a child is rescued from a shipwreck who has a medal from that convent.  She is adopted by an American family.  She eventually goes to Spain to study an artist but connects with that original convent.  A unique feminist novel.)

18. Ruin their Crops on the Ground, The Politics of Food in the United States from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch by Andrea Freeman (Just the title should make every American weep.  I had to stop reading this at times because of the utter cruelty and indifference described.  There is so much in this short book to make us all wonder again, what does it mean to be American and how do we change our priorities from  rich white men to inclusion and concern?)

19. Black Women Will Save the World, An Anthem by April Ryan (This White House reporter describes the challenges Black women have always had and that they are seen as lesser in most settings.  However, it has been Black women who have been the foot-soldiers of the Civil Rights and Women’s movements, generally unsung, often behind the lines, doing what has to be done.) 

20. The Small and the Mighty, 12 Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement by Sharon McMahon (This book is about people we rarely hear of, but who made a big positive difference in American History:  Gouverneer Morris wrote the preamble of the Constitution; Clara Brown cared for people who settled in the West; Virginia Randolph educated thousands of Black children at the turn of the 20^th Century, training the whole child; Katherine Lee Bates, educator, feminist, poet wrote “America the Beautiful”; Inez Mulhalland, activist for women’s rights; and Claudette Culvin, refused to give up her seat on the bus, for example)

21. Under the Eye of Power, How Fear of Secret Societies Shaped American Democracy by Colin Dickey (This was a history of America through the “eyes” of secret societies, conspiracy theories, and more, most of them racist, male, and anti-immigrant, but each had its own allure, including the Know-Nothings, the KKK, Free Masons, and Q-Anon.)

22. The Time is Now, A Call to Uncommon Courage by Joan Chittister (Sr. Joan tells us that just doing religious formulas and practices is not sufficient for this day.  We need to be prophets, calling out people who are not caring for those who are poor, left out, ignored, and those who use and abuse others, claiming it is in god’s name.  Even if one is not religious, this book can have meaning and be a guide to action.)

23. The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear (This book in the Mazie Dobbs series is set in 1945 just at the end of WWII.  Mazie finds some “squatters” in a house a friend owns and finds they were trained to fight if the Germans had invaded Britain.  She also finds the son of a friend who had been killed in 1914.)

24. I Saw Death Coming, A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction by Kidada E. Williams (This was a heart-braking, infuriating book to read, but something any white American in a position of power should have to read.  When people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump with their toddler friends try to erase the history of anyone but whites and a few others whom whites approve of, it should be remembered just how horrific white men have been to Black Americans, as emphasized in this book about Reconstruction.)

25. The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard (A desperate American woman runs away, ending up In Costa Rica, at a hotel where she connects with a hotel owner who leaves the hotel to her.  Through ups and downs, she runs the hotel, cares for the people who help her, and comes to love the place as her home. 

26. Falsehoods Fly, Why Misinformation Spreads and How to Stop It by Paul Thagard (This was a terrific book about lies told in a variety of media and how to counter them.  The author uses highly recognizable examples like COVID 19 and vaccines, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Climate change.) 

27. More To the Story by Hena Kahn (Jamira lives in Atlanta with a close family.  They often frustrate her.  She wants to be a writer and writes for the school newspaper.  Her life changes when her father goes abroad for work and her little sister is diagnosed with cancer.  Gr.4-8) 

28. Life as We Know It Can Be, Stories of People, Climates, and Hope in a Changing World by Bill Weir (An excellent book in the form of a letter to the author’s son about how the world is changing and not necessarily in a good way, and things we can do to make life better for all of us.)

29. I Thought it Was Only Me, But it Isn’t!  Making the Journey from What Will People Think to I am Enough, Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame by Brené Brown (Everyone I know has felt shame, usually done to us deliberately or triggered by others.  Brown offers some different ways of looking at shame and how to respond when it is being pushed on us.  Everyone should read this one because men get shamed too, though for them it is usually about being seen as weak.

30. The Bletchley Riddle by Rta Sepetys & Steve Sheinkin (This was a great combination mystery and historical fiction.  It takes place in Britain at the start of WWII.  Jacob, a young man and his 14-year-old sister Lizzy are puzzle wizards and work at Bletchley, the code-breaking spot outside London. Gr.5 and older)

31. Threads of Life, A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle by Clare Hunter (This was a fascinating collection of stories of the ways needlework has been used to decorate, communicate, entertain, and challenge people over time, both the folks who did the work (mostly but not exclusively women). 

32. Magic Enough, Poems by Tara M. Stringfellow (I loved this collection of poems by an African-American poet who sees struggle all around for Black women, but finds ways to see magic in the world in Black women through all of it.  Best book of poetry I read this year, well, maybe 2 years.  Even her Acknowledgements section was like a poem.)

33. The Clockwork Universe, Isaac Newton, The Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick (Who would have thought I would have loved a book about 17^th and early 18^th Century scientists, but I did.  The author presents these geniuses as human beings with considerable talent.  Their rivalries and discoveries are fun to read about, and shock, I understood most of their ideas when presented in basic terms for us mere mortals.)

34. The Winds Knows My Name by Isabel Allende (Two stories of children separated from parents come together.  The first is a boy sent to England to get out of Germany.  The other is a girl separated from her mother at the border in 2018.  They ultimately become family for each other.)

35. In Sunshine or In Shadow by Rhys Bowen (In this Molly Murphy Mystery, molly goes to visit her mother-in-law to escape typhoid in NYC.  She makes a side visit to the women’s community where her friends Sid and Gus are spending the summer.  Sid’s family home is not far away, so they go to visit.  While there, a murder is committed.  Molly leads the search for the killer.

36. Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (Cooper, a 5^th grader, the only Black student in her class until near the end of the year, moves through the year learning about friendship, forgiveness, sisterhood, family, and more.  The story is told through verse.  Gr.3-6 and older)

37. Women of the Post by Joshunda Sanders (This is a fictional account of the Black women of the WAC that went to Britain in 1944 to sort mail for the service personnel and their families.  They faced discrimination but also appreciation for their amazing work.  The book follows 6 women, one of them the commanding officer Col. Adams.) 

I know, I know, it’s a lot, but, picking from the 200 or so books from the first half of the year was not easy.  Happy New Year!  I will send the second cluster of best books later this week.  Thanks for reading.

 

The BEST BOOKS I READ THIS YEAR – PART II

By Ruth A. Sheets

I love to read as you might know.  I read in a lot of genre because most subjects have at least something to ponder.  This is part II of my list of books I really enjoyed.  I didn’t have a specific set of criteria to follow, but included books I just loved reading.  Here goes!!

1. I Survived Capitalism And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt, Everything I Wish I Never Had to Learn About Money by Madeline Pendleton (The author had trouble finding a permanent job after college, so eventually started her own company locating, repurposing clothing, and original designs.  Until she took the issue of money seriously, she was barely surviving.  She changed her business model and everyone who worked with her received the same salary and perks.  By last year, all her 8 or so employees had cars that were not breaking down all the time and could buy a home if they chose and the company is still doing well.  Very inspiring and made me wonder why that is not the standard small business model, maybe even large business model.) 

2. Goldenrod, Poems by Maggie Smith (I loved these poems about life, family, nature, and more.  My favorites were “Animals” (response to harms done to immigrants to this country), “In the Grand Scheme of ?Things” (the way things don’t work as we expect when we think we are in control), and “If I Could Set This To Music” (imagining if there were music to recognize the world’s events that could let someone we love hear who we are).  Beautiful and approachable!    

3. Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Amanda Flower (In this first mystery in a series, Emily Dickenson and her “maid” Willa solve a murder at the time of the Underground Railroad and the rise of pre-Civil War tensions.)

4. The Russian Job, The Forgotten Story of How America Saved the Soviet Union From Ruin by Douglas Smith (From 1921-1923, Herbert Hoover and a lot of Americans went to Russia to bring food aid for a starving nation, saving millions of lives.  It is forgotten in Russia and here too.)  

5. How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi, Collected Works of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math for Nerd Night ed. By Chris Balakrishnan & Matt Wasowski (This was a fun collection of interesting quirky stories about the work of people in science etc. for the “Nerd Night” programs around the world.  They included all kinds of topics from human physiology to animal habits, to mortuary science, and other worlds.)

6. Our Hidden Conversations, What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity by Michele Norris (This was a collection of 6-word stories from the Racecard Project.  Thousands of people submitted their “stories” and some commented on them.  These pieces and the author’s commentary were fascinating and everyone should read them.)

7. The Golden Girls, A Cultural History by Bernadette Giacomazzo (“The Golden Girls” was an icon of TV about 4 older women living their lives together and separately, proving over and over how great and resourceful women over 60 are.)  -   

8. White Rural Rage, The Threat to American Democracy by Tom Schaller & Paul Waldman (This is an important book, although disturbing that explains white rural rage, and some of the white rage in general.  Politicians have seen the despair and maintain it to keep the scared, angry people  under their control by making loud promises, then never keeping them because it might make the people content and more self-reliant.  It is criminal and our DOJ should be acting in at least the worst cases, but doesn’t.)

9. A Sin By Any Other Name, A Reckoning with the South’s Past and Future by Robert W. Lee IV, (A descendant of Robert E. Lee tries to deal with the challenges of being white in a racist society.  He is an ordained Methodist minister who has been speaking for a reconciliation which he believes white America must initiate and push for since it is whites who created and continue to create the problems caused by racism.)

10. Planet Palm, How Palm Oil Ended Up in Everything and Endangered the World by Jocelyn C. Zuckerman (I knew palm oil was problematic, but didn’t know the treachery, deceit, and virtual enslavement that accompanies its production.  It is now being obtained all over the tropical and semi tropical world from Honduras to Malaysia.)

11. This Promise of Change, One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality by Joann Alice Boyce & Debbie Levy (Joann Allen was one of the teens who integrated the Clinton, TN high School in 1956.  The town was coming to accept their presence in the school until whites from outside the area  stirred up the anger and hatred that made it unsafe for the Black students to be in the school.  Of the 12 who started the year, only 6 finished that year in the school and only 2 graduated from Clinton HS.  The author’s family moved to CA where she graduated from high school and college.  Gr.5-8 and older – everyone should read this one)

12. An Unfinished Love Story, A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin (This was a fascinating book of two people who lived the 1960s:  Dick Goodwin, speech-writer for JFK and LBJ and campaign worker for Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy and Doris Kearns Goodwin who was a student, then teacher at Harvard as well as a fellow in LBJ’s White House and worked on his biography at his ranch after he left office.  They met and married in the 1970s, raised a family, and continued to work for a better more fair society.)   

13. Girls On The Line by Amie K. Runyan (In this novel, Ruby signs up to serve in Europe as a switchboard operator the last year of WWI.  She was from a Main Line family, engaged to a man who was socially “right” for her.  She finds true love while on duty.)

14. In the Shadow of Liberty, The Invisible History of Immigrant Detention in the United States by Ana Raquel Minian (For well over a century people coming to the US have been detained in prisons, jails, and other facilities, treated horribly, and most of the time, released into this country.  The claim is that the bad treatment is a deterrent; it isn’t when conditions in the countries the people left were far worse than those horrific situations immigrants encounter here.  We can and must do better!)   

15. Roll for Initiative by Jaime formato (a new middle schooler loves “Dungeons and Dragons” and accidentally starts a D&D group in her apartment complex’s laundry room with 3 friends.  Through the process, she learns to trust herself and depend on her friends as they come to depend on her.  Gr.4 and up and anyone who likes D&D and other role-playing games)

16. 1177 BC, the Year Civilization Collapsed Revised and Updated by Eric H. Cline (This was a fascinating book about the rise and fall of the civilizations around the Mediterranean from about 1500 to 1200 BCE and the ideas that surround what might have caused their collapse within a short period of time.  All the cultures were thriving and had trade among each other, but it looks like a combination of factors occurring over a short period may have led to the end of the Bronze Age:  severe drought, earthquakes, crop failures, invasions, internal turmoil, and other as yet unknown factors.)

17. Relinquish, the Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson (This book looked at the impact of adoption on the birth mother and the pressures those girls and women have on them to relinquish their child to someone else, often tricked into signing papers that would keep them from contact with their child and the adoptive family.)

18. How To Say Babylon, A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair (The author is a poet who grew up in Jamaica with an extremely strict, often violent father who was Rastafarian.  She faced a lot of prejudice and roadblocks but won scholarships and ultimately came to America to study, teach, and write poetry.)

19. Knife, Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie (Rushdie was nearly murdered by a religious fanatic at a writers’ conference.  He recounts his thinking and experiences after the crime, his hospital stay and rehab and his learning to live with the physical and emotional changes that resulted.)

20. The Hard Road Out, One Woman’s Escape from North Korea by Jihun Park & Seh-lynn Chai (Jihun Park was a daughter of a party member in Korea.  She had a pretty typical childhood in North Korea until the famine of 1990s broke up her family.  She was sold in China and sent back to Korea.  She escaped again to China and found a man who loved her and helped her get away to the UK.  She went through enormous suffering in the process.

21. The 6, The Untold Story of America’s First Woman Astronauts by Loren Drush (If you like reading history and biography, you’ll like this one.  The lives of the 6 women are described as they fit into the development of NASA and its programs beyond landing a person on the moon.  One of the 6 died in the Challenger in 1986.)

22. Say More, Lessons from Work, The White House, and The World by Jen Psaki (This was one of the best books I’ve read all year.  Psaki talks about how to effectively communicate on a large and small scale while describing her many life decisions, successes and her flubs.  High School and older readers)

23. The Edge of Anarchy, The Railroad Barrens, The gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America by Jack Kelly (I only knew in general about this uprising in 1894 beginning with the Pullman Company, but this book made me proud of the people who tried to stand up against big business.  They did lose the fight then, but they laid the groundwork for future labor efforts.)

24. The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende (Alma, a Jewish refugee from fascist Europe arrives in San Franscisco where she forms strong bonds with the children on her uncle’s estate, forming a love-bond with the gardener’s son and her cousin.  From her old age, the story of their love unfolds.)

25. The Playbook, A Story of Theatre, Democracy, and The Making of a Culture War by James Shapiro (This seemed like just an interesting piece of history, but as I read, I learned a couple of scared white congressmen set us on the road we are now on, attacking Communists and anyone who wanted to include Black Americans, women, and topics  those guys don’t like in the life of the nation.  It follows the Federal Theatre Project, part of the New Deal’s WPA and their production of over 1,000 plays that didn’t match their personal views.  They heard about the plays, didn’t see or read them, but condemned them, leading to the establishment of the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) which led to the McCarthy hearings and the nonsense now going on in the Republican-led House.) 

26. Shelterwood, A Novel by Lisa Wingate (Olive narrates a time in 1909 when children escaped into the woods to survive the men holding them to get the oil money their families had made.  In 1990, Val, a park ranger wants to figure out what happened to three children whose remains were found in a cave.  A whole mystery arises that she and the grown children help solve.(

27. They Came for the Schools, one Town’s Fight Over Race and Identity  and the New War for America’s Classrooms by Mike Hixenbaugh (This is a powerful book about how easy it is for right-wing Christian-nationalists to bring in a series of lies about public education  and how they can take over school boards and deny the racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and homo/transphobia among white students in the districts as they attempt to deny history, even sometimes, the very existence of people other than those who are white and male.)

28. The Deadline, Essays by Jill LePore (This collection covers the author’s career in magazine writing including pop culture, politics, the judiciary, and so much more.  She presents an historical perspective for each topic.  The essays are sorted by general topic.  I enjoyed the political ones most.)

29. The Bodies Keep Coming, Dispatches from a Black Trauma Surgeon on Racism, Violence, and How We heal by Brian H. Williams  (This is a powerful book about what it is like trying to save the lives of the many Black men and others who come into the ER with bullet wounds and other trauma and the toll it takes on the staff, families, and communities.  Dr. Williams is working hard to make changes that will enable more of the victims to live.)

30. Super Foods, Silkworms, and Spandex, Science and Pseudoscience in Everyday Life by Joe Schwarcz (When the book ended, my immediate comment was, “that was fun.”  This book covered a wide range of stories about common items and practices:  a brief history and the science or no science attached to each.)

31. Taming the Street, The Old Guard, The New Deal, and FDR’s Fight to Regulate American Capitalism by Diana B. Henriques (This was a fascinating book about the preliminary actions that led to The Great Depression and the various things FDR did to change Wall Street to keep such an event from happening in the future.  Unfortunately, there were many forces that got in the way.  It was great to read an economics history book by a woman.)   

32. Exotic Tales, A Veterinarian’s Journey by Steven B. Metz DVM (This was a collection of stories of a vet’s adventures with humans and animals, pets and wildlife.  This is a fun book if you love animals, have pets, or both, or if you just like a good story.  My favorite was the story of a 5-foot boa hiding in a guitar.)

33. On Call, A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service by Anthony Fauci (This was the story of an incredible life of service including:  school, college, medical school, residency, and choice to go into public service through the National Institutes of health, heading the Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases for decades.  He helped the country deal with HIV.AIDS, Evola, COVID, and so much more.  Well-worth reading this memoir!)

34. Baking Yester Year, The Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s by B. Dylan Hollis (This was a fun romp through the kinds of recipes people liked during most of the 20^th Century.  I ended up selecting 29 recipes I want to copy and try.)

35. Find me the Votes, A Hard-Charging Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal An American Electiion by Michael Isikoff & Daniel Klaidman (These authors present a play by play account of the shenanigans that went on in Georgia after the 2020 electiion.  Fulton Co. Prosecutor Fanny Willis was charged with getting to the bottom of what happened.  The case continues in 2024.)

36. Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books, A Novel by  Kirsten Miller (Lula fills her little free library with books she claims shaped her life.  They were all conservative, white books, so a girl in town put banned books inside the covers and hid the other books.  People began to read the banned books and appreciate them as their town began to change for the better. 

37. 100 Places to See After You Die, A Travel Guide to the Afterlife by Ken Jennings (This was a fun romp through various cultures’, religious, authors’, and film and TV artists’ ideas of what the afterlife is like, what one would encounter on arriving there, and some of the characters that inhabit those locations.  Highly recommended) 

38. The Power of Fun, How to Feel Alive Again by Catherine Price (I loved this collection of ideas for making life more fun, getting people to enjoy fun activities with us, and keeping track of what is fun for us, or what could be fun.  I also heard her presentation of this material live.)  

39. Keeping the Faith, God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted A Nation by Brenda Wineapple (This was a very interesting book about the Scopes “Monkey trial.”  The author presented the thinking that led to Tennessee making a law forbidding evolution being taught in schools.  John Scopes, a young temp. biology teacher agreed to be the defendant.  The fanaticism of the prosecution was amazing, including the KKK and preachers hanging out while the trial was going on.  The conclusion was already known at the beginning because the judge was also a religious fanatic, although it seems he did a bit of thinking about “free speech” and the 1^st amendment, but not much. 

40. True Gretch, What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, And Everything in Between by Gretchen Whitmer (This was a fun romp through Gov. Whitmer’s life, the interesting people she’s met and the more interesting things she has done.  Everyone should read this one.)

41. Lovely One, A Memoir by Ketanji Brown Jackson (I found this story not only compelling as an American success, but it was fun and interesting to read.  It has a bit of everything one would want in a memoir:  honesty, family, friendships, struggle, determination, a dream, and a seriously strong positive code of ethics/moral compass.)

42. What’s Next, A Backstage Pass to the West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service by Melissa Fitzgerald & Mary McCormack (Wow!  I loved this one probably because I loved “The West Wing.”  It was a great show and this book  looks at the various actors and their characters, what they were like on the show and the cast when not on camera.  What an amazing group of people.  I have attended several fund-raisers where they did “table reads” of parts of relevant episodes.  I would do it again in a minute!)

43. The Art of Power, My Story As America’s First Woman Speaker of the House by Nancy Pelosi (I loved this book about some of the activities of Pelosi as Speaker and the background to those actions.  The section on the lead-up to involvement in the Iraq War and January 6^th were particularly important.)

44. Connie, A Memoir by Connie Chung (This pioneering reporter had an amazing career despite the forces that tried to stop or slow her down, men and an occasional woman trying to get where she was.)

 

There are actually about another 10 books I could have included, but I am already stretching what is reasonable for a friend to read.  So, there you have it, my top 84 books out of the 380 I read this year, 44 right here.  Enjoy!  Happy New Year!

BOOKS OF THE YEAR PART II

Read and Selected by Ruth A. Sheets

Here is the second installment of my excellent books of the year collection.  I hope you like some of these too.

1. The Naked Don’t Fear the Water, An Underground Journey with Afghanistan Refugees by Matthieu Aikins (Matt left Afghanistan with his Afghan interpreter who wanted a life in Europe.  They used smugglers and scary strategies to get first to Turkey, then to Greece, then beyond.  They survived when many didn’t.  )

 2. Go Back to Where You Came From and Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American by Wajahat Ali (The writer describes growing up in CA and the biases against himself and his family even though he was born in America.  The book is funny, sad, and a peek into the lives of an immigrant family that has been here 50 years.) 

3. Making Numbers Count, The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath & Karla Starr (A great book about the way we can simplify number examples to make them more comprehensible and able to change minds:  3 of 10 instead of 30%, 1 every ____ minutes, on the 1^st yardline of the football field instead of 1%, using terms and sizes people can relate to.)  

 4. The End of Bias, A Beginning by Jessica Nordell (Everyone has biases and they are started early.  However there are many strategies we can use as a people to make those biases less harmful and destructive.  The book includes police departments working to change their culture of violence and businesses working to become truly inclusive.)

 5. A Christmas Legacy by Anne Perry (I loved this book about the rich getting theirs.  Gracie goes to sub for a friend at a rich house where the servants are like family but there is something wrong.  The old woman being nearly starved to death is the owner of the house.

 6. Until Justice Be Done , America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction by Kate Masur (So many Black Americans and their allies were working for their rights at this time, but being fought at every turn by white men who just couldn’t bear to imagine that Black people were equal to themselves.  A shameful history for this nation)

 7. The Best Strangers in the World, Stories From a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro (This is a great memoir of a really good broadcaster, describing some of his background, his life of interviewing people, and his caring nature, as well as his other talents like singing with an indy band and cooking.)

 8. Myth America, Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past by Kevin Michael Kruse & Julian E. Zelizer (These were essays about various events that didn’t happen as people often think:  Black people rarely protested before the 1950s and 60s, there was no “southern strategy” by the Republicans, the “Great Society” changed nothing.  All lies but people still believe them.)

 9. The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear (Eleanor White lived I Belgium during WWI when she and her older sister were recruited to work as spies for a WWII resistance group Because of her skills.  After the war, she tries to make a life for herself and gets connected with a crime family as she tries to save one of their former members.)

 10. A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg (A man with serious lung disease goes south to possibly recover.  He falls in love with the tiny Alabama town and the people who come to love him too.  Sweet and funny)   

 11. The Common Good by Robert Reich (On this second reading of this book, I found it is still relevant and important.  It looks at our need to pay more attention to working for the common good.)

 12. Nine Black Robes, Inside the Supreme Court’s Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences by Joan Biskupic (An excellent retelling of the transformation of an already-failing SC into the right-wing anti-American bastion of male arrogance and desires its conservatives  have become, even the female conservative justice.)

 13. Poverty by America by Matthew Desmond (A quick summary of the ways we the people maintain poverty in this country by what we buy, who we allow in our neighborhoods, who banks lend to or don’t, the way we permit landlords to keep people living in squalor while charging outrageous rents, etc.  well-constructed)

 14. Science and the Skeptic, Discerning Fact from Fiction by Marc Zimer (It is a positive to be a skeptic if one is a scientist, but not so much when the information supporting a theory or finding is overwhelming.  Good overview with good talking points.)

 15. Above Ground by Clint Smith (beautiful poems about fatherhood and the world his son would inherit and how he feels about it.)

 16. Paved Paradise, How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar (I never drove, but found this book fascinating and fun in places to see what people will go through to get a parking space and how much land is taken up with such parking spaces.)

 17. Off With Her Head, 3,000 Years of Demonizing Women In Power by Eleanor Herman (I loved this book that took the various misogynistic tropes like ambition, appearance, female hormones, shrillness of her voice, neglect of family, being a bitch that are used to tell women that they have no right to positions of power.  It’s been going on for so long even a lot of women have bought the nonsense and will vote for anyone but a woman and men and women will malign through social media any woman in power.)

 18. Viral Justice, How We Grow the World We want by Ruha Benjamin (This was a really good book about the way we can look at issues like racism and connect with others to find ways to change things where we are.  Ruha uses her own personal journey to illustrate.  Very hopeful.)      

 19. When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Land (This was a hilarious book about an angel and a demon that lived in early 20^th century Poland in a Jewish community who decided they should come to America to help protect the immigrants from their village while in America.  Lots of Jewish humor!

 20. The Teachers, A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable Important Profession by Alexandra Robbins (The book mostly follows 3 teachers and what it was like during 2021-2022 trying to recover from pandemic times with limited resources, sometimes support and appreciation, and interesting but challenging students.  The author mentions a variety of other teachers and their experiences as well.)  

 21. A Bit of Earth by Karuna Raizi (I loved this retelling of “The Secret Garden” as the story of an immigrant girl from South Asia coming to New York, trying to adjust and connect with the family who has taken her in and the community where they live. Gr.4-7 and anyone who loved “The Secret Garden”) 

 22. Weathering, The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society by Arline T. Geronius (an excellent  but scary account of how just living in a society that does not value certain people can “weather” them causing them to get serious illnesses, to die young, and to live a whole lifetime with chronic illnesses.) 

 23. The Wax Pack, On the Road In Search of After Life by Brad Balukjian (The author ordered a pack of baseball cards from 1985 and set out in 2015 to find and interview all the guys on the 14 cards in the pack.  He reached most of them.  Gary Templeton and Don Cardin were the most interesting to me.)

  24. Welcome to the Circus of Baseball, A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time by Ryan McGee (A fun book about a minor league intern and his adventures in Ashville, NC in 1994.)

 25. Accounting for Slavery, Masters and Management by Caitlin Rosenthal (When looking for accounts of how early American business records were kept, she is given a plantation account book from SC, the author realizes that slavery was not just something owners did out of habit, but for them was good business.  She cites records from account books and the information as well as what else was going on economically at the time. 

 26. One Fatal Flaw by ?Anne Perry (This is one of those writers that every book is a gem.  In this one, lawyer Daniel Pitt defends a woman in 2 arson/murder trials.

 27. The Librarian Spy, A Novel of WWII by Madeline Martin (Ava, a Library of Congress librarian is recruited to go to Lisbon to interpret French and German newspapers and letters.  In France, Helenne works on a printing press after her husband disappears.  She learns he was in the Resistance and she wants to help too.  The two women come together at a distance when Helenne tries to rescue a Jewish mother and son.  They finally meet after the war.) 

 28. Readme.text by Chelsea Manning (This is the memoir of a transwoman who did her best to do the male thing, even joining the military.  She released information about the ridiculous, harmful actions  in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, none that put people at risk, but the military went crazy in their treatment of her.)

 29. Finally Seen by Kelly Yang (Lena arrives in the US from China and finds that things are not as great as her parents wrote and told her they were.  She gradually learns English and to express herself, particularly through art and her courage.  Gr.4-7)

 30. The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy (Jackie Robinson was a complex person who believed deeply in human rights for all and loved baseball and its challenges for a Black man in a white sport.  He was an advocate for both baseball and civil rights for most of his life.)

 31. On Democracy by E.B. White with John Meacham (This was a collection of essays and letters to the editor by White from 1928 to 1976.  They are remarkably relevant today.  It is almost as though he predicted a lot of what is going on now, people pushing to end democracy without realizing what it would mean for them.)

32. The Swamp Fox, How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution by John Oller (Francis Marion was one of my heroes growing up.  This book let me know I was right to have him as a hero.  He and his men were all partisans surviving mostly on what they could steal from the British or what was donated by friends.  They harassed the British incessantly despite being betrayed several times by members of their crew and scared locals.)

 33. The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America by Thom Hartmann (In category by category, the author shows the ways presidents have appointed people to the Court who would ignore and twist the Constitution to fit their personal beliefs and do it with impunity.  He suggests some changes that could help fix this.) 

 34. Better Living Through Birding, Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper (The Black man who was threatened with the police when he demanded a woman put her dog on a leash as required in that part of Central Park presents a memoir of his life as a gay Black man who loves birding and nature in general.)

 35. Prequal, An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow (As a follow-up to her podcast “Ultra,” the book looks at the many people involved in the Fascist movements in this country leading up to WWII.  There were many members of Congress involved, including several prominent senators.  There were also people who did their best to stop them and hold them accountable.)

 OK, there are a few more than last week’s collection, but I was so fortunate to have read so many excellent books this year.  There were a bunch more too that just missed the arbitrary cut-off.  I hope you pick a few to peruse and enjoy.     Have a spectacular Christmas/Kwanza/winter holiday.  Make the New Year remarkable and special for as many people as you can.