Book #40. Clearly taking off from Slotkin’s “Myth of the American Frontier” trilogy but without the film/literary references and with much more anger. Really, really good stuff.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #39. Not as tight as “Everybody Knows,” but still damn good. The nastiness a little too baroque and ripped-from-today’s-headlines.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #38. Interesting and lively life and times of Offa, King of the Mercians (757-796).
Christopher Holbrook
Book #37 Brilliant. Traces the very long careers of five Labour lefties. Three of whom who were (nearly) undone because of England’s bizarre Third Man-like hunt for anti-Semite’s everywhere. Worth adding that Corbyn’s runs brought millions more Labour votes than Blair or Starmer.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #36* This sycophantic, hagiographic “history” of the CIA during the Cold War was 100% written with the complete guidance and support of said agency. This one paragraph is basically the tenor of the entire book. Brutal.
*Full disclosure: I finally bailed on pg 665 of 893.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #35 Walking the path of Princip in 1914. Interwoven with the author’s memories and experiences of covering the war in Bosnianin the 90s. Very good.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #34. I love me some Khalili in the LRB but this was a total dud albeit mercifully short. Slapdash, disorganized, disjointed, and superficial.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #33. Sunken German subs off the coast of New Orleans. Neo-Nazi/white supremecists running around trying to locate said sub. Robicheaux somewhat tediously toeing the line. ≈200pgs longer than others in the series and you feel it.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #32. So densely packed it often left me intellectually floundering. Easily one of the best, most illuminating books I’ve read.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #31. An odd book. Always interesting and informative but often disjointed and borderline incoherent.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #30. My first Hillerman. Good stuff.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #29. Far from the best of the “Parker” books but hardly a disappointment.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #28. Nothing but a chore.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #27. It’s often hard to think of things America got right. Anywhere. Ever.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #26. Probably not Radden Keefe’s main intended takeaway but for me it was: whatever faith one may have in authority or the system, lose it.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #25. Fun, has a reasonably authentic feel, and best of all, under 300pgs.
Christopher Holbrook
Book #24. Pittsburgh’s decades long boom and bust relationship with steel and coke. Cycle has been forever broken but the continual searching for “the next big thing” in many ways persists.
Perhaps of interest @dameshek.bsky.social and @brianralexander.bsky.social
