The Wide Wide Sea, Hampton Sides
I love books like this. A subject I’m not too familiar with (Captain James Cook, and his final voyage) and then have Hampton Sides telling it. Tremendous … a masterful work of narrative history. Drawing on extensive research, including the journals of Cook's crew and the oral histories of Indigenous peoples, Sides crafts an all-encompassing, high-stakes adventure. The book chronicles Cook's third voyage, launched in 1776, as he searched for the legendary Northwest Passage
Both Flesh and Not, David Foster Wallace
This book is a posthumous collection of Wallace's essays that showcases his blend of high-octane intellect and profound human empathy. The collection captures Wallace’s evolution from a self-conscious "would-be writer" in the late 1980s to the cultural giant who wrote the title essay, "Roger Federer as Religious Experience”… a masterclass in sportswriting. Other highlights, such as "The Nature of the Fun," provide an intimate, vulnerable look into the writer's psyche, while W
Stella Maris, Comac McCarthy
Published in late 2022, Stella Maris serves as the final literary novel from Cormac McCarthy, released just months before his passing. The novel has an intellectual ambition and it’s a departure from Cormac’s traditional grit. Written entirely as a series of transcripts between a math prodigy, Alicia Western, and her psychiatrist, the book acts as a philosophical vessel for McCarthy’s lifelong obsessions with quantum physics, the nature of language, and the intersection of m
Every Love Story is a Ghost Story, D.T. Max
A biography on the life of David Foster Wallace offers a profound examination of a writer whose work wrestled with the most pressing existential concerns of late 20th and early 21st-century America. Wallace was relentless, even desperate, search for sincerity and meaning in a culture soaked with irony and media. This took toll a philosophical struggle took on Wallace, whose own life, marked by depression and addiction, became the primary focus for his ideas. The man lived w
Guns N Roses at 40, Martin Popoff
This book is less a traditional biography and more a chronological guide, curating 40 pivotal moments that shaped the career of GNR The book takes readers from the early days on the Sunset Strip, detailing how the original lineup of Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin, and Steven Adler converged to deliver one of the best hard rock albums of all time, Appetite for Destruction . Popoff’s text is informative, offering a documentary-like view across five acts…from the
Finding Grace, Loretta Rothschild
This is a rom-com in books, not my usual grab, yet it must have come from NY Times Books? It was on my list, so what the hell, I read it. Her debut novel, Rothschild explores the depths of grief, the nature of family, and the harsh power of secrets, all narrated through a unique perspective. The story opens with Honor, a woman consumed by her desire for a second child. But a tragedy in Paris leaves her widower, Tom, shattered and raising their infant son, Henry, alone… a bab
So Far Gone, Jess Walter
Walter’s novel centers on Rhys Kinnick, a reclusive environmental journalist forced back into society by family crisis. Rhys, who has spent years in self-imposed exile wrestling with regret, trauma, and intellectual separation, finds his world upended when his daughter, Bethany, sends her children to stay with him, fleeing the dangers of their stepfather's ties to a Christian Nationalist militia. I liked how Walter's characters are deeply drawn and real: Rhys is neither hero
We Should All Be Birds, Brian Buckbee
This, for me, was an example of how the mind can completely ruin your life if you let it. This memoir is raw. Its an exploration of chronic illness, grief, and the unexpected salvation found in a humble pigeon. Stricken by a mysterious and debilitating illness (eventually diagnosed as ME/CFS) that left him constantly isolated and tormented by unrelenting headaches, Buckbee’s former life as an adventurous athlete and teacher dissolved. The book begins at his lowest point, gri
Replaceable You, Mary Roach
Mary Roach's Replaceable You delivers her blend of meticulous research, dark humor, and relentless curiosity that her fans have come to love, making the quest to repair and replace human body parts fascinating. As usual, she humanizes highly technical and often nauseous subjects, covering everything from the history of prosthetic limbs and early skin grafts to the cutting-edge science of 3D-printed organs and xenotransplantation (pig-to-human parts). Roach takes readers into
Mailman, Stephen Grant
Stephen’s book offers a moral reflection on identity, service, and community, grounded in the rural landscape of Southwest Virginia. After losing both his marketing job and sense of purpose during the pandemic, Grant took on the role of a mailman in Blacksburg, VA. Through keen observations… like watching how a small gesture (coffee left in a freezing mailbox) becomes a ritual of mutual recognition, Grant explores how seemingly menial labor reveals value and dignity, pushing
