Book of the Year 2023

 A bunch of stuff happened in 2023.  I went to Omaha twice but didn't see Warren Buffet in a monastary-themed steakhouse, impersonated an Uber driver in Sioux Falls (accidentally), had a hip problem and a rotator cuff problem (both healed, but I'll never hit 95 on the radar gun again...or ever), and I read some books.  

One of the highlights of my 2023 was seeing the band Jawbreaker.  This band broke up in 1996 and then decided in the last few years to try to get along and play some shows.  They might be old and struggle to get along with each other, but they put on a really good show.  Which is a lot like the the murder-solving-olds in The Thursday Murder Club.  Four friends in a retirement community outwit/manipulate the police and solve a murder in a pretty fun who-dun-it (or is it who hath done this?).  I say pretty fun because I rank it number 10 for 2023, but I don't have any plans to read the other 6 or 20 books in this series.

On the other end of the concert spectrum was when I stumbled across a Styx cover band while hanging out with my high school friends in Miami.  A Styx cover band is a great way to fully prove that most of the Styx songs were, in fact, quite terrible.  Then I was punished by the universe as Styx was everywhere I went for the next 3 months.  The best thing I can say for this band is that they reference (I assume) Charles Dickens with the title of their song "The Best of Times".  Or else it is unintentional.  But they don't even achieve the best song to reference Dickens.  Or even the best song that references Dickens that I saw performed live in 2023 (Gaslight Anthem's Great Expectations).  But Charles Dickens himself (or Chuck D as he is known in my house) made the list.  I didn't love Tale of Two Cities as much as David Copperfield or A Christmas Carol (or Great Expectations), but it was good enough to be number 9.  As always, Dickens provided some great comedy - like everything involving Cruncher, the part-time porter and part-time "resurrection man" (grave robber), but I didn't love the book through and through. 

I also voted twice for mayor in Houston, not in the Chicago-style "vote early and often", but there was a general election and a runoff.  Neither was close.  And there weren't any murders associated with it.  And no one jumped out of a window.  Which just goes to show how superior fiction is to real life.  Pleasantville, a fictional account of murder and politics in Houston takes home spot #8.  Many of the sites in this book are part of my daily life, which added to the experience.  This book is pretty ambitious and doesn't quite get all the way home on everything, but it does enough to be a really good read.

In May, I made a weekend trip to San Marcos, Texas for a baseball tournament, which was fun and successful.  It did, however, conflict with the Duran Duran show in Houston, so I was unable to go...and possibly missed my last chance to see this band.   Although I have been wrong about such predictions in the past.  I went to see The Rolling Stones in the Astrodome in 1989 because it was absolutely the last chance to see that band...except that they have toured fairly regularly for the past 35 years and are going out on tour again in 2024.  Keith Richards might be as dilapidated as the Astrodome, but they both keep hanging around.  At any rate, I may have missed the show, but I did read Rob Sheffield's Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, which is is personal narrative about some of the music in his life.  I really liked this book and laughed out loud several times.  Fantastic book - number 7 for the year.

Maybe the strangest thing about 2023 was that I really should have gone viral for my performance in the saltine eating challenge, but I didn't.  Somehow, the teenage misfits in Now is Not The Time to Panic did, but way before YouTube and TikTok.  This is a funny coming of age story with a pretty unique plot.  I probably don't read enough YA - this book was a really fun ride and an easy read.  Solid #6.

You might have heard of Bright Lights Big City and you might think it is a book about a guy struggling at work while drinking and snorting his way through New York.  You would be right, but also wrong.  If you read this book, you will immediately notice that it is written in the 2nd person, and "you" are making a lot of terrible choices.  If you are like me, you will find this to be a very effective literary device as you are uncomfortable the whole time with what "you" are doing.   Towards the end of the book, it is clear that this book is so much more than a guy failing at everything except partying.  This book is short and actually finds some sweetness - I really enjoyed it and found it to be an impressive piece of writing.  You would rank this book number 5.  

I was also very impressed by Fathers and Sons.  I like the Russians, but I don't want to read a 600 page book, so the last two years I've picked the most well-regarded short Russian novel to read and been rewarded twice.  This book is about the difference in philosophies between two generations, but it's also about a charming asshole who stirs the pot.  I thought Bazarov was more asshole than charming, but he was the character who made this book go, mostly by fighting with everyone.   The younger generation in this book were described as "nihilists" and this book popularized the use of that term for the philosophy that would be adopted by the Bolsheviks.  Drop that little fact in your next conversation and everyone will think you are smart...or at least a charming asshole.

Passing is number 3.  This book is only 200 pages, but it is some of the most thought-provoking fiction I have ever read.  Nella Larson's story about secrets, race, and relationships in New York in the 1920's is so good.  Could have been number 1, except that...

The 90s is number 2.  I really like Chuck Klosterman.  In other books he has explained the Guns N Roses video trilogy (Don't Cry, November Rain, and the other one), how the Lakers and Celtics rivalry of the 80's can completely define a person, and why Saved the Bell mattered.  This book is a history of pop culture in the 90's and covers a lot of ground.  The Waco siege of 1993 is discussed, but not in the way I remember it.  I went there with a friend to do a project for my Texas Politics class, without any plan of what angle we were going to take on the project.  But then we saw a guy riding a homemade bike who told us he was going to mediate a settlement and let the children ride out on the bike, our project became a comparison of the rational behavior inside versus outside the compound.  This book reminded me of a ton of things (I had conflated Ralph Nader and Ross Perot into the same person who ran for president; I forgot how I went into the decade without an email address and left with a cell phone) and of course had all sorts of weird and funny movie and music references.

So what is number 1?  Well, prior to this year, I had been completely unexposed to John Irving.  I had read zero of his novels and somehow avoided The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules.  Not intentionally, but I missed it all.  This year I read A Prayer for Owen Meany and was blown away by how good it is.  There were some great characters in the books this year, but none of them are as great as Owen.  His voice, his morality, his toughness, his other-worldly abilities...all of it.  Much like Passing, it is a great and entertaining story that does a lot to stir up thoughts about important concepts.  

That's it.  Pretty good year for books.