Blog Post
What I’m Reading Now: The End of the Year List
When I was in law school, Professor Regan, my criminal law teacher, told us that we went to law school because we were good readers, and for a lot of us, the last book for pleasure we would read was the one we finished right before the first day of law school classes.
He urged us to read a book every month and suggested we keep a list of what we read. I have done so ever since.
In Professor Regan’s memory, I always start my new list in September, the beginning of the new academic year.
At this time, I also look back on what I’ve read in the last year. It’s a good way to take stock.
My favorites last year were Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel, Apostles of Disunion by Charles Dew, and Roger Williams: The Church and the State by Edmund Morgan. Wolf Hall is a novel that sees the English Reformation through the eyes of one of its most contemptible characters. Apostles of Disunion looks at the propaganda put out by the Southern states during the 1860 Secession Crisis, conclusively proving that the Civil War was all about slavery. And Edmund Morgan’s classic intellectual biography of Roger Williams is a tour de force of the historian’s art.
Worst book? Atlas Shrugged. No contest.
Anyway, here is the list of all the books finished. Just click on the links if you want my thoughts on them.
25. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson
24. John Winthrop: America’s Forgotten Founder by Francis Bremer
23. Custerology by Michael Elliot
22. The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Littlebighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick
21. American Passage: The History of Ellis Island by Vincent Cannato
20. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 by Mary Beth Norton
19. Roger Williams: The Church and the State by Edmund Morgan.
18. Night by Elie Weisel.
17. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.
16. Champlain’s Dream by David Hackett Fischer.
15. American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson by Eve LaPlante.
14. The Sovereignty and Goodness of God by Mary Rowlandson.
13. Einstein by Walter Isaacson
12. The Possessed by Elif Batuman
11. Apostles of Disunion by Charles Dew
10. The Renaissance At War by Thomas Arnold
9. Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America by Allen Guelzo
8. Lincoln: Speeches and Wriitings 1832-1858 by Abraham Lincoln
7. Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan
6. Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns
5. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
4. Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel
3. The Third Reich at War by Richard J. Evans
2. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
1. A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books by Alex Beam
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