Some of the latest books I’ve read in the past few months. I’m always reading and have about 5 going at any time, of various genres.
Recent Books:
- Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives, Siddarth Kara
- Knife Fights, John A. Nagl
- Absolute Friends, John le Carré
- Enchantment, Orson Scott Card
- The Sleeping Dragon, Joel Rosenberg
- The Scions of Shannara,, Terry Brooks
- The Anglo-Saxons, Marc Morris
- The Road, Cormac McCarthy
- Saturn Run, John Sandford
- Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
- Cold Storage, David Koepp
- Need to Know, Karen Cleveland
- Agent Running in the Field, John le Carré
- Grant, Ron Chernow
- A Foreign Country, Charles Cumming
- No Man’s Land: The Trailblazing Women Who Ran Britain’s Most Extraordinary Military Hospital During World War I, Wendy Moore
- The Art of Memoir, Mary Karr
- Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today, Valerie Bertinelli
- Dead Wake, Erik Larson
- Shatner Rules, William Shatner
- Red War, Vince Flynn
- Dear Cary, Dyan Cannon
- Our Kind of Traitor, John le Carré
- Silverview, John le Carré
- A Delicate Truth, John le Carré
- The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
- Axiom’s End, Lindsay Ellis
- Soundtracks, John Acuff
- If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, Tim O’Brien
- The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, Richard P. Feynman
- Face the Music: A Life Exposed, Paul Stanley (KISS)
- Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life, Terry Brooks
- In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisse and the Birth of Modernist Art, Sue Roe
- Black Ice, Brad Thor
- The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
- Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
- Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
- Brat: An ’80s Story, Andrew McCarthy
- 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, Elliott Ackerman, Admiral James Stavridis USN
- The Singer’s Gun, Emily St. John Mandel
- Designated Mourner (podcast), Wallace Shawn
- Kill Shot, Vince Flynn
- Growing Up Amish, Ira Wagler
- Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albom
- Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
- American Assassin, Vince Flynn
- We Will Not Be Silent, Russell Freedman
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
- While Mortals Sleep, Kurt Vonnegut
- Total Power, Kyle Mills
- The Wolves, Alex Berenson
- 15 Seconds, Andrew Gross
- The Deceivers, Alex Berenson
- The Last Flight, Julie Clark
- The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher
- Shakespeare Saved My Life, Laura Bates
- Uncanny Valley, Anna Wiener
- When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
- The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel
- Artificial Condition, Martha Wells
- Dark Matter, Blake Crouch
- The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
- The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
- Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert
- I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story, Anthony Daniels
- Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King
- The Institute, Stephen King
- Churchill – Walking with Destiny, Andrew Roberts
- Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick
- The Republic of Plato
- The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
- On Writing, Stephen King
- The Mistborn trilogy, Brandon Sanderson
- Love in a Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
- Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
- Resurrection, Leo Tolstoy
- The Stand, Stephen King
- Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
- The Passage, Justin Cronin
- Moby Dick, Herman Melville
- I’m Your Huckleberry, Val Kilmer
- Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell
- One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
- The Wright Brothers, David McCullough
- Catherine the Great, Robert K. Massie
- Martin Luther, Eric Metaxas
- Lord Foul’s Bane, Stephen R. Donaldson
- A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
- The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina George
- Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
- Verbal Judo, George J. Thompson
As an educator, designer and just generally interested person, I am curious about so many things from history, other cultures, languages, cooking, travel, relationships and so much more. Dale Carnegie said, “Today is life – the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.”
Soccer
I have a daughter on a club soccer team that takes us all around the midwest, and am on a city league myself, and we watch a lot of soccer. It truly is the “beautiful game.”
Reading
I don’t understand people who don’t read or even listen to audiobooks. The world of publishing and storytellers has provided endless entertainment and learning through reading, and to not take advantage of that is, well, there aren’t … words.
Running
Running is physically rewarding and mentally. There’s no better way to see a place than to run a few miles around it, which I was finally able to do recently when I ran around Central Park in New York City as well as a few miles of the old stretch of Route 66 in Shamrock, TX.
History / War Sites
My life has afforded me amazing opportunities to visit fascinating places, from medieval castles to walking through the remains of World War 1 trenches at Verdun, France. I have a great personal World War 1 library and study everything to do with that conflict in my free time, especially as it relates to my relative Earle Freeman Howe who died in France in April 1918.
Tennis
I’ve been playing tennis since I can remember. I love watching it and playing it.
Railroads
The Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 locomotive rolled through and stopped overnight 45 minutes away down in Van Buren, AR, and I was sure to get there to see it pull in. Dad and I used to go down to Ridley Park in Philadelphia and watch the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1s and always seek out old roundhouses or railroad traces.
Aircraft
I love aviation, especially wartime or armed forces aircraft of all sorts. I’m a big fan of two local aviators, award-winning and aviation pioneer Louise McPhetridge Thaden, of Bentonville, AR, and World War 1 Ace Field Eugene Kindley, from Prairie Grove, AR, who counted as one of his victories the downing of Lothar von Richthofen, brother of the Red Baron.
Weather
If I were to jump over to another career, it would be something to do with weather. I look forward to rainy days or snow days, as I constantly notice what’s happening with the atmosphere around me and what’s coming my way. Also, I’m a pluvophile and a ceraunophile.
Art
Don’t tell my fellow highbrow art colleagues, but I have some favorite artists that are probably out of fashion, cancelled or embarrassing, but nonetheless here they are: Caspar David Friedrich (the ruins, the gloomy contemplation, aah), J.M.W. Turner (the exploding skies and sunsets and fires, the Fighting Temeraire and the end of an era, aaaah), Mary Cassatt (a favorite of my girls) and contemporary Utah artist Paige Crosland Anderson.
Favorite Movies
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
- Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School
- White Nights
- The Rewrite
- Far From the Madding Crowd (2015)
- About Time
- Sing Street
- Little Women (2019)
- Amadeus
- Midnight in Paris
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- The Family Man
- Serendipity
- Contact
- Arrival
- Interstellar
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Reign of Fire
- Tangled
- Serenity
- Galaxy Quest
- My Dinner With Andre
- The Ghost Writer
- Henry V (1989)
- See my list of favorite Cold War movies
Best movie scenes and clips:
The first two minutes about these actors seeing an amazing and daring act of support for this great country during the Cold War, behind the Iron Curtain. This.
