God'll Cut You Down, And The Rest Of My Year In Books

One of the reasons I started this blog was to spare you.  That is to spare you from my constant nagging about something amazing I read that you just have to read! I've decided to just do it all at once and give you a years worth of  badgering about my favorite books of 2014.

Notice you won't find any novels on my list of favorite books of 2014. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy a good novel, but who has time for a novel while we still have folks like John Krakauer and Malcom Gladwell.

C.S Lewis said "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me"

Amen, and happy reading in 2015!


Five Days At Memorial - Sheri Fink

In the chaos of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Memorial Hospital is trapped in rising water and with it hundreds of patients, staff, their families and pets. Days pass with no help as the generators fail, sewers back up and food runs out. Soon windows are smashed for fresh air, pets are euthanized and more desperate people arrive by boat. Five days later, by the time the last person is finally rescued, forty five patients are dead. Twenty three of the corpses show high levels of morphine and other drugs. Did they die because the machines that kept them alive quit, or did someone help them on their way? Is it homicide or did the staff do what they could in the middle of crisis? Fink's investigative writing style coupled with a story that won't disappoint makes this book one of my highlights of the year.  

The Boys In The Boat - Daniel James Brown

Written much like Laura Hillenbrand's amazing "Unbroken" this book captures many of the same themes of that time.  Nine boys become men as a crew team at the University of Washington in the years leading up to the 1936 Olympics.  Along with the likes of Lou Zamperini and Jessie Owens these nine men go to Germany to compete in Hitler's showcase of his "new Germany".  The book digs into the personal lives and backgrounds of this ragtag group of kids that mold into the single organism that makes a crew team special.  If you liked "Unbroken" this is a book for you.

Going Clear- Lawrence Wright

I love a good cult story!  If you find yourself in that category then this book will be one you can't put down.  Much like John Krakauer's deep look at Mormonism in "Under the Banner of Heaven" (a must read), Wright digs deep into The Church of Scientology.  He manages to weave together L. Ron Hubbard's beginnings of the group with modern day Hollywood and its ties to Scientology.  Power, mixed with religion and a dose of crazy always make for a great story, and this one does not disappoint.

Flash Boys- Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis is best known for his books turned movies "The Blind Side" and "Moneyball", about football and baseball respectively.  He has however written extensively on Wall Street's impact on the Great Recession of 2008.  His third book with that focus is "Flash Boys", a story about the race to get to our money faster and rip us off quicker.  It's a different book then most of us read to be entertained but he artfully manages to make what might seem like a mundane topic of high frequency trading into a "who done it" type mystery.


Little Failure- Gary Shteyngart

Probably the best book I read in 2014 "Little Failure" blew me away!  I thinks it is the incredible honesty with which Shteyngart tells his story.  Born a Russian Jew in Leningrad and immigrating to Queens in the middle of the cold war, Shteyngart tells a tale that is so raw, funny and poignant (sorry I couldn't help it) that you want to cry and laugh at the same time.  Do yourself a favor and read "Little Failure".


God'll Cut You Down- John Safran

What do you get when you mix rural Mississippi, a white supremacist, a young black man, murder and an Australian guy together?  You get "God'll Cut You Down", by far the most bizarre and fascinating book I've read in a while.  Mix in southern politicians, race baiting newspaper reporters, a few straight up crazy people and some rumors about sex and you've got yourself a book.  Safran's book will leave you shaking your head and wanting to take a road trip to the dirty south.


What have you read that you would bug me about over a beer?  Please! I need a reading list for the year ahead!