Mostly Books in a Pandemic Year

 Well, 2020 (thankfully) is in the rearview mirror but its slimy tentacles still hold us in thrall. The coronavirus pandemic continues to rage with a new variant, B.1.1.7, that appears to be more transmissible. Here in Los Angeles County, the news is grim with cases, hospitalizations, and deaths all rising at a rapid clip. The Christmas surge is appearing and hospitals are forced in some cases to put patients into gift shops as they have filled all other spaces. Across the United States and in other countries too, irresponsible people continue to party as though there is nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, while we have developed safe and effective vaccines, the final step (getting vaccine into people’s arms) has faltered because of… lack of federal leadership. Here in California, the state has received (as of 31 December) 1.48 million doses, of which 300,696 were administered. There is a long way to go and the Biden administration has lots of work ahead.

 And what of Donald Trump, soon to be ex-president and a respondent to an unknown number of indictments and subpoenas? He continues his lunatic raging that he actually won the election, has been joined by his batshit crazy Republican cult, continues to incite sedition and violence, and has followers massing for thuggish violence in D.C. on 6 January. We have to navigate what is likely the most perilous time in his miserable presidency. 

So much for my rant. I looked at the list of books I read in 2020. Books are my go-to to relax, escape, explore and that was especially true this past year. Goodreads totted up 89 books with 31,885 pages. It was more because a lot of the books in hardbound or paperback were not entered into the list. Here are some of my favorites from the year:

• Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 by Ian Toll. This is the final volume of Toll’s trilogy of the Pacific War and it is easily a great stand-alone read. I do encourage you to read all three volumes for a great understanding of how the United States won a long and bloody series of battles. Long but worth the time for history buffs.

• The Second Most Powerful Man in the World: The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt’s Chief of Staff by Philips Payson O’Brien. This one was recommended to me by my friend Bob Pendleton from the LWV. My guess is that most people today have no idea who Leahy was. I knew something of his role in the Navy and as FDR’s intimate adviser but the details here are astonishing. Literally the first real presidential chief-of-staff, O’Brien notes how his mark on the function of the White House and the military has remained to this day. 

• Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live by Nicholas A. Christakis. Christakis, a physician and sociologist at Yale, explores the coronavirus pandemic with deep insights not only into its medical and epidemiological implications but also its psychological and sociological ones. There will obviously be much more to come as humanity grapples with this plague. Christakis puts it nicely in historical context here.

• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly. I enjoyed this one on many levels. Ms. Shetterly was born and raised in Hampton, Virginia, and this story took me back to my final duty station in the Navy, a joint command located at Fort Monroe. There is pain here: set primarily in the Jim Crow era, I flinched at the treatment of Black people. I also flinched realizing how their talents could be wasted. The talents of these Black women were not wasted. They helped to win both the Second World War and the Space Race with brains and courage. I have not yet watched the movie, but that too is on the list. Don’t let this one pass by.

• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. This was perhaps the best book of the year for me. Wilkerson links the caste systems of India and Nazi Germany with the United States and shows the parallels between all three. There will be a Netflix movie, produced by Ava DuVernay, but my advice is read the book first. I think it will be a classic.

• 1877: America’s Year of Living Violently by Michael A. Bellesiles. Bellesiles teaches history at Central Connecticut State University. 1877 was a bloody year in America with depression, labor unrest, white supremacy, and racial strife combining to make a true annus horribilis. During the pandemic and political upheaval of 2020, it was somehow comforting to know this was not the first time America has endured a really bad year. One page particularly caught my attention, the Reading Railroad Massacre. I hesitate to think how many times in my childhood and adolescence in Reading that I walked past this spot and had no idea of the deaths that occurred here. The railroad cut still exists from what I can see on Google Earth. Sobering.

• The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. The final book of the Wolf Hall trilogy, and the longest, has Mantel tying up all the loose threads of Thomas Cromwell and the court of Henry VIII. I thought the prior two books in the trilogy were better but this was a necessary addition to wrap up the saga of an interesting man who definitely lived in interesting times. 

• And finally for this post, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump Ph.D. Fitting to close with this one since I began this blog entry with the chaos he thrives in and leaves us with as he is (hopefully) on his way to many court dates as intermediate steps to prison. He will sadly take a place in American history but certainly not one of honor. I wonder how history will treat him. Mary Trump among others points the way.

Looking forward to a better year in 2021 for all of us. More later.