It seems like each year, I tweak the categories slightly to fit in all of the titles I want people to know about. The Books of the Year are coming - one non-fiction and one fiction standout above all the rest.
In the meantime, however, I read some interesting non-fiction this year.
I learned about this book from a profile of Tom Hanks that said he was so taken with the book that he looked up the editor/compiler Becky Brown to tell her it was one of the most fascinating things he'd ever read. That endorsement piqued my interest. In Blitz Spirit, Brown compiles excerpts in date order from ordinary British people who submitted their diaries to the Mass-Observation program during World War II. Brown pored through the million-plus pages archived at Sheffield University and pulled representative paragraphs. The reader sees a brief line identifying the person by a 4-digit ID number, gender, job, and location. In these snippets, they discuss their experience of the war, which may have rather little to do with what's happening at the front. Here, we mainly see the war's impact at home: blackout curtains, rationing, evacuees, perceived unfairness when people skirt the rules commonly adopted to serve the greater good. The observations range from English stiff-upper-lip to philosophical to catty and funny. In reading through them, I learned what to expect from certain diarists - a tone, a theme, a common complaint. The entries run exactly as long as the war itself and describe its arc in everyday life. I read through this book here and there as a palate cleanser between other books. Deeply enjoyable and unique. I couldn't find it in my local library system, which is most rare. I bought a copy and will happily lend it.
I heard about this book in conversation with my brother-in-law Graham. He wasn't recommending it per se, but he mentioned things about how Wang covers China here that piqued my interest. Wang sets out that China prizes engineers for government leadership positions while the US prizes lawyers. Having emigrated from China with his parents to Canada as a child and then to Bucks County, Pennsylvania as a teen, the journalist and now Yale law professor Wang speaks from both professional and personal experience. Early on, his distinction between the fast-building engineering state and the obstruction-happy lawyer state looks bad for the US of A. As the book progresses, however, Wang identifies how the engineering state can miss as easily as hit. When they wander beyond building bridges and cities, which they often do, into social engineering, their performance gets shakier. One child policy and draconian Covid lockdowns, anyone? Breakneck provides a fascinating contrast between the strengths and weaknesses of these two cultures. While Wang's lens focuses on China in depth here, his references are solidly American. Having lived and worked in both countries, he slides between his broader themes and his own family's experience deftly. Since the decisions affect people, the effects on those closest to him surely represent many others' experience. I feel like I understand our much larger counterpart power because of this book. Such knowledge may come in handy when.. .you know.
My friend Cassie Christopher recommended this book to me. I took note because she mostly recommends novels. Once I started reading, I saw that this non-fiction book moves with the energy and character development of a novel. It's hard not to think about a movie adaptation while reading the book. Although there is a movie called "Art Thief" with the lead actor delivering a horrible Boston accent, no movie has yet been released about the European art thief Stephane Breitwieser. Michael Finkel spent ten years researching his book about this bold person whose addiction is stealing art from museums. He involves his girlfriend in the heists as a lookout or even to carry pieces in her handbag. Although Breitwieser fancied himself a gentleman crook who would steal to keep the pieces, not to sell them, his crimes did in fact harm the museums and their patrons. Finkel manages the tension of the story perfectly. I knew the thief must eventually get caught, but the author doles out the details in essentially chronological order, preserving the suspense. In the end, it's a mind-blowing tale of potential lost, of skill devoted to selfish ends.
Honorable Mentions
Supercommunicators; How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, Charles Duhigg, 2024
Weapons of Math Destruction; How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, Cathy O'Neil, 2016
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