It’s time for the 15th Annual Patty Awards given out to the best books I’ve read in the past year. All of the big celebrities are not here, due to Covid. Chuck Woolery cancelled, as did Meat Loaf. Air Supply will not be providing the music, and Tony Danza will not be able to host. Oh well, it’s’ fitting for a year that was pretty lousy for the whole world. And this year’s books, for the most part sucked. I was disappointed over and over again. Luckily, there were a few gems that made the Top 10. And here they are:
10-One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps by Andrea Pitzer
Well, you know it was a bad year when a book this depressing makes the Top 10 list. It is, however, a very good book and moves at a fast pace. We think of concentration camps as something that started from Nazi Germany, but they started with the Spanish concentration camps in Cuba during the Spanish-American War and eventually, the Americans, the British, and the French would have their own concentration camps. The book crosses the globe and deals with the Gulags of Russia, the rounding up of Native Americans, the camps where the Rohingya are currently suffering, the Killing Fields of Cambodia as well as the U.s. military camp in Guantanamo. From South Africa to Auschwitz, the book not only shows what a global phenomenon this has been, but it also has plenty of stories of survival and heroism. The reader really does end up learning a lot about various conflicts and important moments in history. It’s engaging.
9-The Border by Don Winslow
It seems every year Don Winslow puts out a novel and it makes my list. This continues a series about the U.S. War on Drugs with the main character having made his way from a DEA agent in the 70’s to the head of the DEA and Washington DC in this episode. As usual, the cartels are powerful, violent, and run circles around the politicians in Washington. It’s my least favorite in the series, which includes “The Power of the Dog” and “The Cartel,” but the exploration into how the cartels operate and the brave people trying to fight them are always interesting.
8-No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins
The definitive book on the rock band “The Doors” which provided a lot of the source material for Oliver Stone’s movie “The Doors.” They certainly are one of the most influential bands in rock history and Jim Morrison remains an enigma with an aura roughly 50 years after his overdose. Unlike the movie, this one shows Jim’s occasional soft side, although the book also makes it clear that Jim Morrison always had an odd sensibility and personality. He was highly intelligent, his poetry and lyrics were genuinely respected by experts, and the band’s exposure and familiarity with so many different genres of music from the 20th Century made their playing very sophisticated and complicated. Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger are still highly underrated musicians that were familiar with so many different styles of playing that it is a truism that nobody sounds like “The Doors.” It’s unfortunate Morrison died when he did, because the band seemed to be re-inspired on the last album. Morrison remains as hard to figure out as before you read the book.
7-Who Gets in and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions by Jeffrey Selingo. This is an absolute must-read for anyone getting ready to send their kid to college. Seligno spent a year observing the University of Washington (State School), Davidson College (Prestigious Private), and Emory (Mid-size elite) as they formed and admitted the Freshman Class. With colleges costing up to $70,000 per year in some cases, it is very much a money-making business full of scams, tricks, misleading information, and dishonest marketing. From the intentionally confusing Financial Aid Award letters to the priority given to donors, alumni and athletes; the book exposes how it requires much more than having excellent grades and being a good kid. It also shows how parents try to game the system and how the government and the student loan industry conspired to saddle the average kid with $20,000 or more of debt. Selingo also shows the toll this takes on the students. It’s not a negative book and American colleges are still the best in the world; but the whole thing is built on a house-of-cards business model that is completely unsustainable. The book shows how most school have to overwhelmingly favor the wealthy or the poorest of the poor who are getting government assistance. The middle class is a drain on colleges. As the book was released, Covid-19 erupted and any financially fragile colleges (which is virtually all but the top 20 to 50 out of 5,500) found themselves in serious trouble. Even Stanford with an endowment of $30 billion cut a number of sports permanently and the wealthy University of Michigan estimated a $90 million shortfall. This whole industry is going to be massively disrupted with severe downsizing and bankruptcies. Even though this book just came out, it’s already time to write a new and updated version. However, the admissions and acceptance process is filled with so many landmines, this remains a must-read.
6-Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
Originally in Dutch but now available in English, Bregman is a historian who believes that people are kinder and more humane than we think. He believes that media, religion, and our natural human tendency to concern ourselves with threats and dangers leads us to view humans as more evil and psychotic than they actually are. Using some very uplifting stories from throughout history (like the way the British acted during the London Blitz), he shows that many scientific studies that aim to show how selfish or easily programmable humans are for evil, were done incorrectly yet we’ve all bought into these findings. A lot of what Bregman says is true and it’s a healthy corrective to all the negativity. However, there are a lot of damaged people and evil and corrupt institutions that need to be accounted for–many right in our own communities. Not entirely convincing, but a healthy book for balance.
5-Columbus: The Four Voyages by Laurence Bergreen.
For all of his fame and infamy, Christopher Columbus is a pretty pathetic figure. Neither a psychopath or a noble Christian, Columbus was simply an obsessed guy with great sailing skills and a low E.Q. His dream was to prove that China was a quick sail away from Europe. No matter how many great “discoveries” he made (including the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Costa Rica, and many other places), none of it mattered to him if it wasn’t Asia and full of gold for the Catholic Kings of Spain. Each of his 4 voyages is covered in this book and Bergreen always makes history come to life by describing the fascinating tribes and cultures they encountered, the dangers of the sea, and the political intrigue and less than ideal motivations that made up these trips of exploration. The hero of the story is not Columbus, as much as it is this new giant landmass that would be named “America” after one of Columbus’s less accomplished rivals. On these new continents of North and South America were remarkable animals, trees, food, and people the Eurasian world had never seen. The book clearly makes the point that for the majority of human history, two sets of human civilizations lived across the ocean from one another, but not connected or aware of each others’ existence. A remarkable fact to contemplate in this day and age. Our “known” “connected” “one world” is only 500 years old.
4-Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe.
The conflict in Northern Ireland known as “the Troubles” are pretty confusing to any outsider. Using the story of a murder, Keefe tells the complicated story of the Protestants versus the Catholics in a way that helps to make sense of it all. The stories are gripping and it’s remarkable to see the amount of dangerous subterfuge that was constantly going on in Northern Ireland. It’s also a very vivid reminder of why when religion becomes a political ideology, it becomes toxic and ends up destroying itself. Lots of riveting stories of people constantly living on the edge.
3-City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth in Tehran by Ramita Navai.
Sometimes I get asked, what country that I have not been to do I most want to visit. My answer is always Iran. It’s a country that has loomed large on the world stage and in my life, but is often very misunderstood. There are actually a number of very good books on life in Iran, and City of Lies is the latest addition. Iran’s image in front of the world is as a religious and austere place, but the reality is that Persians are a joyous, rebellious, and lustful lot. They resemble the Indians and Italians more than the Saudis. With an extremely smart and youthful population, it’s more Kardashian deep down than Ayatollah Khomenei. Many books capture this element, but City of Lies gets right to that point. The various character you meet–vivacious, bright people caught in a legalistic system that the religious leaders don’t even believe in–are all people yearning to break free; financially, politically, sexually, and in every other way. All countries have their subterranean worlds, but Iran seems to be a country that is only a subterranean world. Fascinating book, fascinating country.
2-Paul McCartney: The Biography by Philip Norman.
Norman wrote the definitive Beatles biography Shout. Then he wrote the definitive John Lennon biography which won the Patty Award for best book 6 years ago. Now he has written the best book on Paul McCartney. It’s quite a feat that he can tell the story of the Beatles three times and each time make it just as exhilarating, but with all new stories and angles. Paul cooperated with this book and it covers his whole life up until the last couple of years, making it the only book that really delves into the Heather Mills years and up to his current happy marriage to a wealthy, successful American woman. The early Liverpool stories are great, the Beatles stories are great, and the relationship with Linda who died of cancer in 1997 is seen through a new light. McCartney’s life had been unusually charmed. Even amongst the Beatles, things tended to fall his way time and time again. Talented, brilliant, and very lucky, he lived a charmed life. This book, however, spends a few hundred pages covering the moment that his charmed life ended. Beginning with Linda’s death, McCartney enters into a period that is painful to read about. His time with the young, Linda-looking, Heather Mills was one of total emasculation by a highly manipulative and egotistical woman. Mills personality and delusions are pretty remarkable and they make Paul’s life a complete mess. He rebounds at the end of the book, but Norman is the first author to really show us Paul’s third-life: post-Beatles and post-Linda. All in all, he remains a lovely guy and far more grounded than most of us would be if we had had so many opportunities thrown at us. A pretty simple man, even at the height of his Beatles and solo fame, he preferred to live in small, old homes that barely had proper heating and water, preferring to do repairs and work the farm himself.
1-Natalie Wood: The Complete Biography by Suzanne Finstead: I was not particularly a Natalie Wood fan although I loved “West Side Story.” She mysteriously and tragically died after “falling off” of a boat she was on with Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken. This book claimed to bring light to the mystery of whether she was murdered or whether it was an accident. Old Hollywood was an interesting place and books about it are often surprisingly engaging. But I was not prepared for how interesting Natalie Wood’s life was beginning with her birth and early childhood in Russia! Wood was Russian and emigrated to the U.S. as a child with her controlling Russian stage-mother and ne’er do well Russian father. Wood became famous at an early age with the film “Miracle on 34th Street,” hung out with James Dean, Elvis, Frank Sinatra and many other huge names. Natalie Wood was actually highly-intelligent, sophisticated, and could have accomplished anything in life. She remained pretty grounded despite her massive fame and celebrity lifestyle. As interesting as her career and stardom are, Natalie Wood the person is even more fascinating. One feels like we lost someone very special that day on the boat off of Catalina Island. It says a lot that I chose this as number one over my beloved Paul McCartney.
Honorable Mention:
The New Geography of Jobs. A book about how American industries and the overall American economy began to center around a few key cities and corridors: NYC, SF, Seattle, Boston, Raleigh-Durham, Austin leaving many other cities like Detroit or St. Louis in the dust. It’s about the dynamism, synergy, and networks that develop around these intellectual tech hubs. It is also about the places being left behind. The book is from 2014 and Covid-19 is changing the environment somewhat. San Francisco and Silicon Valley are facing significant decline and places like Austin and some rural areas will have more of a shot in the future. So this is not a current book. However, the underlying dynamism of cities is important to understand and they will not go away. They will re-invent and outperform in the future too.
Biggest Disappointment:
Oh, so many this year. But this one stands out: 2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Re-Shape the Future of Everything. Sounds exciting! This book should have been called “2014.com” as it seemed totally behind the curve re-hashing things that could have been written about 6 years ago. Practically useless.
Well, that’s it for the 15th and final Patty Awards. The celebrities are being carted out on stretchers and wearing masks. The winner didn’t even zoom in. A disasterous year overall–even at the Patty Awards. Of course it’s not too late to buy 2020’s REAL best book of the Year: My memoir: No Religion Required: A Memoir of Faith, Doubt, Chocolate Milk, and Untimely Death. Do it now and make 2020 end on a positive note.