My 2024 Reading list

I often go in cycles with my reading. I delved into the Beatles and Bob Dylan during the first part of the year also reading about Chuck Berry, Robyn Hitchcock, and Joni Mitchell. I couldn’t help but read German filmmaker Werner Herzog’s memoir with a title like “Every Man For Himself and God Against All.” I thought Monsters was an interesting book to contemplate those artists we love who have done awful things and how we live with or reject such art.

I also became interested in autocracy and international relations and post-colonialism. This took me to the Congo, Indonesia, the Philippines, Germany, and Central America. I also enjoyed delving back into Reconstruction which to me is one of the most fascinating and tragic periods of American history. I read a biography of the great educator Mary McLeod Bethune that follows this era. The era of Indian Removal, stolen land, and our nation’s response was the focus of Rebecca Nagle’s book which was a compelling story of recent legal situations and past history.

I also tried to make sense of where we are today delving into immigration, social media and smartphone impact on youth mental health, the rise of the populist right, and the role of shame, pride, and resentment in our current politics and the rural/urban divide. Nancy Pelosi’s memoir was less personal and more political – no surprise – but I think she is one of the most effective politicians and Speakers of the House ever  so interested to read how she strategized and influenced change. Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Message” was powerful and thought provoking and challenged me to think anew about the Israel-Palestine conflict and more.