2021 Book Log (Final)

I kept a book log in 2019 and 2020. I did the same in 2021.

1. Harlem Shuffle – an excellent novel from Colson Whitehead. Nickel Boys is still my favorite book by Whitehead.
2. Falling – debut novel from a career flight attendant about a high-jacked transcontinental flight.
3. Wild Rescues – terrific auto-biography from FF/paramedic Kevin Grange about his work in Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Teton National Parks.
4. The Last Protector – a secret service agent goes on a secret mission to avenge his father.
5. Project Hail Mary – as good or better than the Martian.
6. The Night Watchman – historical fiction about the Turtle Mountain tribes fight against termination in the 1950s.
7. Under Color of Law – an LAPD detective investigates the homicide of an LAPD academy recruit.
8. IQ – LA neighborhood man solves crimes with brain not braun.
9. Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital – In-depth look at the loss of life inside a New Orleans hospital in the five days after Hurricane Katrina.
10. Dark Matter – instead of a cube a box opens the multiverse.
11. The Enigma Cube – an alien object leads a scientist and special forces commando on a time-bending race to save the world.
12. Two Spies in Caracas: A Novel – historical fiction about the reign of Hugo Chavez in Venezuala.
13. New York 2140 – post-melt climate change fiction imagines the social and economic complexities in New York City after 50 feet of sea level rise.
14. Tribe – a short book by Sebastian Junger about the benefits of group, communal living. After hearing Junger on the Press Box podcast I thought this book was going to be about hiking the railways of the northeast. But that book is “Freedom”
15. Water Memory: A thriller – a secret agent goes for a “vacation” on a cargo ship and things go haywire.
16. When the White Pine Was King: A History of Lumberjacks, Log Drives, and Sawdust Cities in Wisconsin – just as the sub-title says. A great read for my living and traveling in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
17. The Broken Circle – a memoir of a grade school age girl and her three siblings escaping Afghanistan in the early 1980s.
18. Vitals: The True Stories of EMS – a Marvel written and illustrated comic about AHN paramedics and EMTs for EMS Week 2021
19. Becoming a Person of Influence: How to Positively Impact the Lives of Others – John C. Maxwell book on leading, mentoring and empowering.
20. Tangled up in blue: policing the American city – a fantastic account of becoming a reserve police officer for the Metropolitan (Washington DC) Police Department.
21. Nomadland – Reminder about how too many of us are just a medical emergency or job loss away from not being able to afford housing.
22. Find Me – a crime thriller about a serial killer. Quite disturbing. Book 1 in the Inland Empire series.
23. Talking to Strangers – Malcolm Gladwell on what we should know about people we don’t know.
24. I thought you said this would work – an Amazon Prime reading book for the month of April. Cross-country road trip brings two old friends back together.
25. The Infinite Game – Simon Sinek compares finite (sports) and infinite (business, life) games.
26. Broken – a collection of six short novels by Don Winslow.
27. The Intuitionist – the 2000 debut novel of Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys (my favorite book read of 2020)
28. The Shell Collector – an after the oceans rise love story about shell hunting by Hugh Howey, author of the enjoyable WOOL/Silo Trilogy.
29. If it bleeds – a collection of Stephen King short stories.
30. Prodigal Son – the sixth book in the Orphan X action series.
31. A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance) – legal thriller from John Grisham.
32. The Plague Year – not a book per se but as a 30,000-word article, it took me several sittings to read this early history of COVID-19 in the U.S. by Lawrence Wright. You can also listen to Wright discuss the article on this episode of the New Yorker podcast.
33. The Border: A Novel – the 3rd book in the incredible Power of the Dog Book series by Don Winslow. I read most of this book in 2020, but needed a library renewal to finish.
34. Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live – a history so far of the COVID-19 pandemic through August 2020. Comprehensive examination of social, biological, and political factors that have contributed to the spread of the virus, economic disruption and loss of life.