2019 BOOKS! What I filled my head with...

Last year I read twelve books of with a wide variety of subjects. In 2019 I continue to feed my brain and imagination with a variety of ideas.

I have a failed attempt to start this year. It is sad to me when this happens but with short story collections sometimes the stories just don't connect enough for me to make it through the entire book. That was the case with this first entry. I read about half the stories but it really started to feel like a slog to get through them so I set the book aside. Who knows maybe I will pick it back up later in the year.
The Year's Best Dark fantasy & Horror 2017 edited by Paula Guran - Really very little horror in the stories I read, a lot of classic motifs reworked into modern fantasy, and new versions of pulp weird tales that did not really capture my imagination. like I said I set this one aside and might try again at a later date.

The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham - A historian Meachem uses the past to explore our current American leadership quandary with insightful command of past presidents and political movements. Really a great read from a good writer. It felt a bit rushed at the end chapters after being truly inspiring in the early parts of the book. It is a hard difficult line to find that masterfully connects the past to the present so we can learn from it. Meachem does an admirable job here making the book entertaining while still bring the history as a lesson to learn from.

American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America by David O. Stewart
This book was a delight! The Story of Aaron Burr a patriot, statesman, politician and would be emperor.  History is alive in the bright and energetic writing of David O' Stewart as he weaves the tale of the man who would have split the territories west of the Appalachian mountains into its own independent country. If not for bad luck and a particular betrayal the man may have succeeded. After his attempt we see Burr a master lawyer and manipulator of media and public opinion weasel out of charges of treason. Just a incredible story and a wonderful read.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
  This fictional retelling of the Story of Jesus supposes that he had a brother named Christ who working with agents from afar constructed Jesus' travels and speeches into a narrative that could be the foundation for the Christian church. Straight forward in its approach and without the haughty melodrama and metaphor of some texts on the story, the book comes through with a story of how the man and the church are two different creations. Pullman leaves us with a couple questions: "...if you could go back in time and save that man from the horrible death by crucifixion, would you or not? And if you think it would be better to let him die, how different are you from Judas?

Tibetan Peach Pie by Tom Robbins - I have been a fan of Tom Robbins most of my life. I have read all his books and enjoyed each and every one. Tibetan Peach Pie is not a novel but instead a collection of stories from Mr. Robbins life. Now past eighty years old the author recounts times from childhood through his writing career with the same wit, wonder and joy for life that comes through in every novel he has written. I had this idea that maybe I would reread Another Roadside Attraction prior to heading to Seattle this summer for my baseball weekend. I am both loving the idea of being on a Robbins journey but also fearing to see how much I have changed since I read last. I think I was 20 yrs and you know sometimes books don't hit you the same way years later. You have changed and thus your experience with a book changes too. It is like when I read Stephen King. When I was younger I would just blister through his books, but now all I do is wish they had spent more time editing them. So maybe I will try this but maybe not.

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston - My daughter bought this book for me thinking it would be something I would enjoy. She was right in that th
ought. This is a book right up my alley. The story of a team of journalists, archaeologists, enthusiasts, and the Honduran government who using new technology mapped and found the fabled "Ciudad Blanca" the White City. Told from the point of view of journalist Douglas Preston it is an amazing story of how an  emerging technology, lidar imaging was used to find a lost city in the middle of the Honduran jungles. I found this book so compelling I burned through it is a couple weeks. Preston brings not just the facts of the story but a rich sense of the history of the country, the political environment, the controversy created when new technology is brought into a field it has never been used in, and the person side of how the people on the expedition fought bugs snakes and disease to find the ruins of a civilization that was once great but long ago faded into history. The personal toll the trip took on those who participated is also an introduction into the spread of disease as more than half the members of the party developed a little known but virulent form of  Leishmaniasis. The writing is great the story fascinating so I can definitely recommend this book.

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano -  After getting into central America in that last book and reading about some of the exploitation of the region I sought out a book that tracks more in depth the intervention of Central and South America interested in learning some of the history of those areas. In this book Galeano explores this history not by region but by tracking the different commodities that have been exploited over time. From the first time European explorers first set foot in the new world the line of greed and exploitation has been a fixture throughout Latin America.  Gold and fine metals, coffee, lumber, slaves, oil over time all the natural resources have been stolen from the peoples of Latin America and Galeano does a great job of tracing that history. Written in the 1970s this book is still as pertinent today as when it was written. While reading I started thinking about the US role in the hemisphere and you can still see what was true 500 years ago with the Spanish is true today. Latin America is seen as a source of wealth but the powers that be mean to exploit it and take that wealth and through governmental manipulation leaving the region poorer and without the resources that could have improved the lives of the people. A good read but a bit of a slow one for me it did spur me to think about the role of my own country and how our absolute control of the world economy is built on the blood sweat tears and wealth of other nations. It gave me insight to the current effort the United States is making to destabilize Venezuela as we seek to steal the oil right from under their ground. Very interesting read glad I took it up.

The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela by Dan Kovalik - "Open Veins" got me thinking about about the US, our current government's role in the Latin America and how we continue to approach left leaning governments in our hemisphere. The Trump administration continues a long history of  bullying, exploitation and regime change tactics to make sure there is no successful leftist governments on this side of the planet. This book written with mostly old official US government documents non official sources, newspaper articles, other books and left leaning writers like Noam Chomsky but lacking any real proof other than observation. This weakness of the book is probably because our government classifies just about everything top secret and it will be 50 years before we will see the documents that could prove the books argument one way or the other. Although I found the book interesting the writer Dan Kovalik seems to be a real advocate for socialism and vilifies all that interfere with its success. The other weakness is the writers passion that comes across as a bit conspiratorial but of course if he is correct in his argument there is a giant conspiracy here so I can't too critical. I enjoyed the book which is easy to read and very thought provoking.

Doctor Who: The lost adventure by Douglas Adams - Shada by Gareth Roberts. Taking a break from more serious subjects I picked up a couple of my favorite things, Doctor Who and Douglas Adams. In this wonderfully completed story by Gareth Roberts, who used notes and draft scripts from Douglas Adams we get an adventure in the depth of a book that is very much in the voice of Adams. It is a fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) story where he, Romana, and K-9 with the help of Professor Chronitis and a couple of humans fight for free will to remain in the universe versus the evil Skagra. Skagra who sees the entropy of existence too unbearable has hatched a plan to control the minds of all beings in the universe in order to get everyone pulling in the same direction to combat the natural entropy that exists. He develops a collective mind that his will runs capturing the minds of all he has contact with regardless of  the choices of those beings. I love living in the world of the 4th doctor and this will also spur me into watching the Shada television episodes again since the book has a different ending.

Mr. Know It All by John Waters - Having just seen John Waters live at the Salem Horrorfest I was excited to pop on and get the latest book by the Pope of trash. We sort of got the abbreviated version of this latest book in the hour and a half monologue that Waters did in Salem but it left me wanting more. Maybe I should have paid for the Meet and greet part but I had already sunk so much money into events that I could not bring myself to do it. This book is a delightful romp through Waters life after finding commercial success.  It delves into the details of where Waters is in the world of entertainment post Hairspray with his energetic storytelling and a flare for the dramatic. I really like Waters as a film maker and appreciate that there is still such a subversive voice out there. It was a pleasure to see him live and the book is wonderful so go out and buy it.