Reading List: Q3 2024
This list has evolved from pure cardinality (hey, look at my library backlog) to a graph of reading connections and referrals. I have made the shift from update and cadence to professed allegiance and potential signal amplification. With the increased competition for attention, content spend and the scarcity of proper marketing for books, my low-gain repeat of authors’ signals is my contribution to the cause. If it helps those authors earn a living wage, or explore their next projects, it is rewarding in multiple aspects.
This quarter: much less sci-fi, more sports, murder mysteries set on Long Beach Island, poetry (!!) and an excellent primer on creating safe spaces.
13 “How To Watch Basketball Like A Genius,” Nick Greene, sports, finished April 19
Drawing inspiration from artistic and academic geniuses, Greene also weaves in the history of basketball and some useful exposition on how creativity impacts long lived institutions. From the invention of dribbling to the 3-point line to the triangle offense, his research is superb and observations makes this a fun book and a nice complement to Pete Carril’s “The Smart Take from the Strong.”
14 “A Wrinkle In Time,” Madeline L’Engel, sci-fi, finished April 24
For early, young adult sci-fi, it’s eye-opening. For some reason, in 4th grade when I was handed a copy by the school librarian (bless you, for introducing me to Robert Silverberg and Robert Heinlein) I never made it past the first chapter yet the book echoed around me as I consumed nearly every other classic and then emergent author. In the mold of most sci-fi of the day, there are political, religious and Holy Trinity/redemption themes woven through, albeit very little world building or physics holding this together. But – and a big but – this is a monumental book in shaping what sci-fi could be, at that time, for a generation of young readers, and done so with primarily strong women characters. It stands up fairly well as our standards have evolved.
15 “Barnegat Dark,” Daniel Waters, fiction, finished April 28
The third installment in this series and the one I enjoyed the most (although I’ll read them all before the actual summer down the shore rolls along). I picked up the series because of my long association with Long Beach Island, and this book zeroes in on 1970, when Viet Nam war protests, a nation divided over Kent State, and a charged racial landscape were front and center in the news; I strongly remember the social and political context for this book. Coupled with the return of some Rosencrantz and Guildenstern style characters, the main characters develop into people I may have known (as amalgams or individuals) and familiar sites – especially Old Barney and the flying beach banners – are the central plot devices in the story.
16 “Shore Crimes,” Daniel Waters, fiction, finished May 3
I appreciate the effort authors put into both character development and fictional world-building. The fourth book in the “Mickey Cleary” series remains set on Long Beach Island, but the organized crime has shifted from Mafia to Russian and the plot twists are subtle and truly add to the intrigue. Writing from the perspective of the last few years, you can swear Waters has modeled some of unseen but loud characters on contemporary figures who would have been active in the just pre-casino era Jersey shore, and his culture references are perfectly timed like the backbeats of the songs and lyrics he deftly weaves into the book.
17 “Dunes Til Dead,” Daniel Waters, fiction, finished May 7
The fifth (and final?) book in the Mickey Cleary series, like the final Ray Donovan movie, shares some of the Cleary backstory with a peek under the surface of abuse, violence and misogyny that we all subtly knew in the mid-1970s but didn’t discuss out loud. While this is a visceral and violent book at times, it’s also perhaps the best of the series, using strong real life events and places to anchor the action; I can smell the “Wizard of Odds” each time the story’s antique store sets the scene.
18 “Dancing On The Page,” B. Elizabeth Beck, poetry, finished May 9
I sat and read the entire collection cover to cover on a plane, and there will be two or three more readings as summer tour approaches and I am again searching for the secret chord of old friendships and new reasons to dance. The subtlest of song lyric references create a frame across which her words float, transporting me back to playing “Sweet Jane” on a dormitory step or spinning round and round with friends in the pit. Yes, the Velvet Underground, Phish and the Grateful Dead are the major notes in the minor keys of loss, relationships, and growing older. I had the opportunity to discuss the pieces with Beck, and hear her read her own work at the Phish Studies 2.0 conference, making this all the richer.
19. “Til Human Voices Wake Us,” Rebecca Roque, fiction, finished May 11
A debut YA novel that is as good as Robin Cook or Scott Turow’s first offerings. While technically aimed at YA readers, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and plot twists, and appreciated the more current look into the Petri dish that is American high school. Roque takes an idea that could have fantastical or horror elements and instead unwraps each skeleton carefully, planfully, and with just enough misdirection to make you question everyone’s motivation or intentions.
20. “The Jazz of Physics,” Stephon Alexander, science, finished May 26
A deep dive into particle physics, string theory, acoustics, improvisation, innovation and cosmology. Alexander is a true innovator in physics research and answers the “where do you get your ideas” question with a beret tip to the jazz greats that broke musical convention in the mid-20th century. While I thought I was fan-boying a bit, especially with half a chapter devoted to Princeton’s David Spergel, serenity put me in a beer line behind Spergel as I was concluding the book and he confirmed that Alexander’s thinking is as grand and unified as it comes across in print.
21. “Making Spaces Safer,” Shawna Potter, non-fiction/business, finished June 7
A how-to guide to identify and intervene in public place harassment. Potter is one of the guiding forces of GrooveSafe, a call-to-action group that asks for concerts to be safe spaces for all attendees, free of unwanted touching, verbal harassment or unwanted attention. While aimed at music and show venues, there are lessons and techniques applicable to the workplace and public city spaces.
22. “The Animals in That Country,” Laura Jean McKay, sci-fi/dystopian, finished June 23
What if animals could talk, and instead of Mr Ed like aphorisms and gentle wit they see us as food, threats, rank smells and overwhelm us with their chatter? That’s the premise of McKay’s Arthur C Clarke award-winning story of a pandemic that enables humans to hear the animals and then find other species divisions around which to build fences and dissent. Not an easy read, as it takes a while to glean the animals’ syntax and phrasing, but it’s a core part of the wild intent of the book.
[Ed Note: At this point, I was reading 2 books in parallel, using my new Kindle Scribe and trying to get through some paper books with multiple long haul plane trips on the work travel horizon. More in the Q3 update!]