The New Year is upon us and, as I did last year, I want to
look back on the best books I read over the past year. As I have done in the past, these lists will
be divided into three separate posts – history/biography, fiction and
ministry/faith-oriented books.
I read a lot of book history/biography books this year. I always have at least one book in this genre
going at all times. Here are the best
(listed in no particular order), and at the end of the post, the rest.
Paris 1919 by
Margaret McMillan. World War 1 ended in
November, 1918, but that did not mean the fighting stopped. It just moved inside. McMillan’s book is a fascinating account of
the political machinations behind the treaty that formally ended World War
1. She carefully crafts portraits of men
like US President Woodrow Wilson, British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George and
others. Especially interesting to me were the discussions and decisions about dividing up Eastern Europe, the Middle East
and the defunct Ottoman Empire.
How the West
Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph
of Modernity by Rodney Stark. I am a
Rodney Stark fan, and in this book he has served up another historical treatise
seemingly meant to drive the political correct crowd nuts. Looking at history from a sociologist’s
viewpoint, he gives a convincing picture of why the West is modern and other
cultures are still catching up.
The Bully
Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William
Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin. This is a fascinating book about 2 US
Presidents and the ground-breaking journalists of McClure’s magazine who
covered them. The contrast is stark
between Roosevelt, who was a favorite of those journalists and shared their
progressive views, and Taft, who was unable to relate to the press and as a
result, got skewered by them on a regular basis.
Into the
Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the
Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis.
Probably the best history book I read this past year, it is the story of
the multiple attempts by British mountaineers to conquer the highest peak in
the world. The grit and determination of
these men, even in the face of tragedy and death, was unbelievable.
In the Kingdom of Ice
by Hampton Sides. Hampton Sides’ ability
to tell a story just gets better and better.
This is the story of the polar voyage of the USS Jeannette, their effort
to reach the North Pole and their dramatic struggle to survive after the
sinking of their ship. Powerful story –
just don’t read it in the winter. BRRR!
Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of
the Nazis by Tim Townsend. Townsend tells the tale of Henry Gerecke, a Lutheran pastor and US Army Chaplain who was
assigned to provide spiritual care to the worst of the Nazi war criminals
during the Nuremberg trials. As Gerecke
leads some of these men back into communion with the church, the book explores
the meaning of repentance and forgiveness for some of the worst offenders in
history.
Paradise Lost: Smyrna 1922, the Destruction of Islam’s City
of Tolerance by Giles Milton.
Usually when I read a history book, I have some basic knowledge of the
story being told. Not with this book. Milton tells the story of Smyrna, a city in
western Turkey that had long been an example of true tolerance between Christians,
Jews and Muslims. In the aftermath of
World War 1, ignorance, greed, militant nationalism and intolerance led to its
destruction. Paradise Lost is a sad
story with real life application today.
2nd Tier Reads – very good, not great.
Gold Diggers:
Striking it Rich in the Klondike by Charlotte Gray
The Lost Patrol: The Mounties’ Yukon Tragedy by Dick North
The First
Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius
Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles
Lost in Shangri-La by
Mitchell Zuckoff
A Hanging
Offense: The Strange Affair of the
Warship Somers by Buckner F. Melton Jr.
The Monuments Men by
Robert Edsel (much better than the movie)
The Wolf by
Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen
Curse of the Narrows by
Laura M. McDonald (Canada's greatest disaster)
Carnage and Culture:
Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power by Victor Davis Hanson
Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette and the Friendship the
Saved the Revolution by David A. Clary
The Envoy: The Epic Rescue of the Last Jews of Europe in
the Desperate closing Months of World War 2 by Alex Kershaw
A Savage War of
Peace: Algeria 1954-62 by Alistair Horne
Catherine the
Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert
K. Massie
Shooting
Victoria: Madness, Mayhem and the
Rebirth of the British Monarchy by Paul Thomas Murphy
Dark Invasion: 1915, German’s Secret War and the Hunt for
the First Terrorist Cell in America by Howard Blum
Escape from North
Korea: The Untold Story of Asia’s
Underground Railroad by Melanie Kirkpatrick
Failure in the
Saddle: Nathan Bedford Forrest, Joseph
Wheeler and the Confederate Cavalry in the Chickamauga Campaign by David A.
Powell
Cavalryman of the
Lost Cause: A Biography of J. E. B.
Stuart by Jeffry D. Wert
3rd Tier Reads – books I finished, but were
mildly disappointing.
The Abacus and the Cross: The Story of the Pope who Brought the Light
of Science to the Dark Ages by Nancy Marie Brown
When America First
Met China by Eric Jay Dolin
Vanished: The Sixty-Year Search for the Missing Men of
World War 2 by Wil S. Hylton
Prairie Fever: British Aristocrats in the American West by
Peter Pagnamenta
Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the
Civil War by Tony Horwitz
Killing Patton by
Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (not sure I buy their ultimate premise)
Wild Bill Donovan by
Douglas Waller
Alexander II – the
Last Great Czar by Edward Radzinsky
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