Newsletter: August 2023
This will be the last newsletter linked to the “old” vaughnstackofbooks. My lovely niece, Katharine Pinney, has reshaped the site into a radically improved, in EVERY sense, Substack space … same title, entirely different space. There will be a few of the bells and whistles that you are familiar with on other more “updated” sites. Thank God for Katharine’s initiative as I may have kept promising a more user-friendly experience for an indefinite period of time … like, forever.
Meanwhile, books get published, reviewed, and read. The books linked below have been added to my site prior to the “conversion”. A couple of the door stopping history books include long “cheat sheet” notes that capture all or part of the ideas and facts I found most compelling. This effort at cliff noting was begun a while back with the 17th century tome, Global Crisis. It is mostly a crude curation of my marginalia. I figured that many readers might understandably hesitate before embarking on a 700-page history course. Life is short and feels shorter each day.
A note on summer reading before I get to the linked list. There are some titles I suspect might fit neatly into the remnants of our summer. First and foremost are the Audible versions of the two related Colson Whitehead novels, Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto. They are read by the award-winning voice of Dion Graham. While I remain an unsure Audible user, I admit that these readings are irresistible. I read much of Harlem Shuffle before listening to Dion and, no smack on the brilliant Whitehead, these novels are better heard than read.
Peter Heller is the Audubon of crime writers. His style is both deeply descriptive and very compact … Hemingway gone native. I enjoyed The Guide and think the more recent, The Last Ranger, is even better. I will read some of his earlier books. Light, substantive, short and almost painfully topical, sit with Heller for a minute and see if he is your cup of tea.
I suggested to our oldest daughter that she read the thought-provoking set of essays by Claire Dederer, Monsters. By “mistake”, she read Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur. She loved it, calling it a literary romp. I read a chunk of it and wholeheartedly agree. It will be on my plane, beach, train and delayed in airport list for the next two months. In the same category is Knustlers in Paradise by Cathleen Schine. Read and recommended by good readers and critics, it is apparently in that sweet spot of summer reading few books access. To round out the list of books I hope to read before the clocks switch (if they do), it seems that Anne Patchett’s new book, Tom Lake, is a gem and that Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane might not only be his shortest but his best (and a great Audible option). I can hear the limb of unread books beginning to creak, so I will stop here.
The following is my linked list.
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer … great essays linked by the most compelling of themes and the most compelling of memoirists. A cultural feast …
Power and Thrones by Dan Jones … maybe not a “new” but a very engaging history of The Middle Ages
Armada by Martin & Parker … gorgeous, dense book on that hinge moment in history – the Spanish Armada.
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann … read it before the movie comes out … read it before the movie comes out …
Purity by Jonathan Franzen … another plug for Franzen … love his books and his ambition
Real Tigers by Mick Herron … the “Slow Horses” tv version may be better but it is a close race
Brief Lives by Anita Brookner … the first of what I suspect will be many plugs for this terrific late 20th century writer … a writer’s and a readers’ writer in equal measure
Two books on Dunkirk … if you like the movie, if you are still enthralled by the story, pick one of these … or both!
Featherhood by Charlie Gilmore … if birds (particularly crows) are your thing, this might be your book of the summer
The Lock-Up by John Banville … he is getting better at merging his serious mind and talent with the crime novel genre … good moody Irish stuff
The Price of Time by Edward Chancellor … the history of interest rates … and where we are today … you will learn a lot if you only read the first 80 pages
Enjoy the rest of the summer … good luck with the heat, the planes, and the news. Thank God people are returning to the movie theaters. Part of the reason cinema exploded in the Twenties was that theaters were among the very first places to offer AC in a sweltering summer. The more things change …
Peter
This will be the last newsletter linked to the “old” vaughnstackofbooks. My lovely niece, Katharine Pinney, has reshaped the site into a radically improved, in EVERY sense, Substack space … same title, entirely different space. There will be a few of the bells and whistles that you are familiar with on other more “updated” sites. Thank God for Katharine’s initiative as I may have kept promising a more user-friendly experience for an indefinite period of time … like, forever.
Meanwhile, books get published, reviewed, and read. The books linked below have been added to my site prior to the “conversion”. A couple of the door stopping history books include long “cheat sheet” notes that capture all or part of the ideas and facts I found most compelling. This effort at cliff noting was begun a while back with the 17th century tome, Global Crisis. It is mostly a crude curation of my marginalia. I figured that many readers might understandably hesitate before embarking on a 700-page history course. Life is short and feels shorter each day.
A note on summer reading before I get to the linked list. There are some titles I suspect might fit neatly into the remnants of our summer. First and foremost are the Audible versions of the two related Colson Whitehead novels, Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto. They are read by the award-winning voice of Dion Graham. While I remain an unsure Audible user, I admit that these readings are irresistible. I read much of Harlem Shuffle before listening to Dion and, no smack on the brilliant Whitehead, these novels are better heard than read.
Peter Heller is the Audubon of crime writers. His style is both deeply descriptive and very compact … Hemingway gone native. I enjoyed The Guide and think the more recent, The Last Ranger, is even better. I will read some of his earlier books. Light, substantive, short and almost painfully topical, sit with Heller for a minute and see if he is your cup of tea.
I suggested to our oldest daughter that she read the thought-provoking set of essays by Claire Dederer, Monsters. By “mistake”, she read Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur. She loved it, calling it a literary romp. I read a chunk of it and wholeheartedly agree. It will be on my plane, beach, train and delayed in airport list for the next two months. In the same category is Knustlers in Paradise by Cathleen Schine. Read and recommended by good readers and critics, it is apparently in that sweet spot of summer reading few books access. To round out the list of books I hope to read before the clocks switch (if they do), it seems that Anne Patchett’s new book, Tom Lake, is a gem and that Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane might not only be his shortest but his best (and a great Audible option). I can hear the limb of unread books beginning to creak, so I will stop here.
The following is my linked list.
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer … great essays linked by the most compelling of themes and the most compelling of memoirists. A cultural feast …
Power and Thrones by Dan Jones … maybe not a “new” but a very engaging history of The Middle Ages
Armada by Martin & Parker … gorgeous, dense book on that hinge moment in history – the Spanish Armada.
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann … read it before the movie comes out … read it before the movie comes out …
Purity by Jonathan Franzen … another plug for Franzen … love his books and his ambition
Real Tigers by Mick Herron … the “Slow Horses” tv version may be better but it is a close race
Brief Lives by Anita Brookner … the first of what I suspect will be many plugs for this terrific late 20th century writer … a writer’s and a readers’ writer in equal measure
Two books on Dunkirk … if you like the movie, if you are still enthralled by the story, pick one of these … or both!
Featherhood by Charlie Gilmore … if birds (particularly crows) are your thing, this might be your book of the summer
The Lock-Up by John Banville … he is getting better at merging his serious mind and talent with the crime novel genre … good moody Irish stuff
The Price of Time by Edward Chancellor … the history of interest rates … and where we are today … you will learn a lot if you only read the first 80 pages
Enjoy the rest of the summer … good luck with the heat, the planes, and the news. Thank God people are returning to the movie theaters. Part of the reason cinema exploded in the Twenties was that theaters were among the very first places to offer AC in a sweltering summer. The more things change …
Peter
