johnhgardner.bsky.social
Lifetime goal for reading: all winning books (fiction and non-fiction) for Pulitzer, National Book Award, Hugo, Nebula and Locus. Gamer since Atari 2600 days.
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Fortunately, my Audible membership has it included in their library. Adding it now.
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Nope, I haven’t read anything by Wolfe. Nonetheless, from what I learned from this bio, I can believe your characterization. I should probably pick it up considering that it is in the public domain.
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Patti Smith also referenced Thomas Wolfe staying at the Chelsea Hotel in her memoir, Just Kids.
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This will continue a streak of such artists in 2025: Walt Whitman, now Thomas Wolfe and I recently acquired Leon Edel’s 5 volume work on Henry James, to be followed by RWB Lewis’s work on Edith Wharton.
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Book 10: Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe by David Herbert Donald (1988 Pulitzer Bio). Recommended. Referenced in other works (e.g. Styron’s Sophie’s Choice), I needed this background on this literary figure.
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Correction (as I was thumbing through past reads): the subtitle is An American Story (vs Tragedy)
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Book 9: Darwin’s Radio by the late Greg Bear (2001 Nebula, 2000 Hugo finalist). Recommended. While I felt it lost a step in the 3rd act, this was nonetheless compelling. I had the audiobook narrated by George Guidall, who I’ve enjoyed listening to since his rendition of Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.
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Book 8: Personal History by Katharine Graham (Pulitzer Bio 1998). Recommended. An autobiographical account, highlighting everything from her childhood to her relationship w/ Phil Graham, leadership of the Washington Post, dealings in the Pentagon Papers, Watergate and the mid 70s pressman’s strike.
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Congrats on finishing Bester’s book. I actually liked elements of The Demolished Man, having sort of a Minority Report aspect about it, but can understand the difficulty of working through it. Good luck on the rest of the Hugo journey!
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Just finished Katharine Graham’s account of Watergate in her Personal History; she comes through with the applicable quote here: “It was a conspiracy not of greed but of arrogance and fear by men who came to equate their own political well-being with the nation’s very survival and security” (504).
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Book 7: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Finalist Nebula 1995) Highly recommended. An excellent things-fall-apart story. This is my first read of her work, which I picked up for free on Audible, before I read the sequel, Parable of the Talents, later this year.
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I will add that while the first two could be read stand alone, the third novel in the trilogy makes much more sense with those first two read.
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Book 6: Earthquake Weather by Tim Powers (Locus Fantasy 1998), concluding the Fault Lines series. A lot of the supernatural was a bit lost on me. Not that it detracted from the novel: it always seemed that Powers is tautly operating within the boundaries of an arcane occult rule book.
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Book 5: Uprooted by Naomi Novik (2016 Nebula, Locus Fantasy winner, Hugo Finalist). My first read by this author. While listening, it reminded me when I played one of my all time favorite games, The Witcher 3, which shouldn’t be surprising considering both are based on Polish folklore.
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Noted in your appended image, his Going After Cacciato, the 1979 National Book Award winner, is also quite good.
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PSA: Audible Plus members can listen to her Parable of the Sower as part of their membership. Midway through it myself.
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Shhhh! Go Irish!
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Scrolled down in your timeline to find this post announcing your accomplishment and great list. You have my favorite in Chabon’s work.
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Congratulations on that accomplishment! A little over halfway through that goal myself. And agreed - it’s hard to beat Updike.
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Usually no more than 5. That gives enough TBR to push me to attempt a chapter / section of each per day.
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Oops - edit: "Profound and original" not ONLY applies here...
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Again, kudos to Audible in making this available to its members. I’ve been able to amply supplement my 12 books a year with many ‘included in membership’ offerings. The referenced The Fiery Trial was also one of those offers.
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Book 4: The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861 by David M. Potter, completed and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher (1976 Pulitzer History). Highly recommended. Will be one my books of the year. Eric Foner’s NYT testimonial graces the cover. “Profound and original” not applies here but Foner’s later Pulitzer.
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For those so interested, Emory Holloway does attempt to address Whitman's sexuality, during the course of this narrative. Treatment of this and later attempts by professor Hollway are best addressed by the late professor Joann P. Krieg and her article found here: pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/wwqr/article...
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Book 3: Whitman: An Interpretation in Narrative by Emory Holloway (Pulitzer Biography 1927). This is a relatively short biography, which covers Whitman’s adult life. It is certainly more narrative-driven than previous Pulitzer bios that tend to rely more on a concatenation of correspondence.
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It sandblasts away history, which is far more interesting. From Dr. Davis’s book (pg 49)
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Heinlein’s The Moon is Harsh Mistress? I can’t exactly remember if there was formal union but the wheat farmers of the moon were a de facto guild union, using the terminology of the blog post.
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Smith’s memoir Just Kids is an excellent account of those day jobs (like hers at Scribner’s) and dentistry (including Mapplethorpe’s impacted wisdom teeth).
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That’s great and a worthwhile accomplishment. I’m still about halfway through the fiction myself. Any particular favorite?
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Did you complete your Pulitzer goal? If so - congratulations!
Also, have to agree with you on that particular Faulkner - A Fable is a slog.
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Impressive feat -good luck!
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Agreed. I thanked you on the old service, but here again on Bluesky, I’ll thank you for writing this wonderful account of this driven individual. One of my favorite reads from last year. Your retelling of funding an effectively private army in Nicaragua is worth the price of admission.
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Book 2: Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson (1935 Pulitzer Fiction) Highly recommended - completely surprised by this gem. Concise and brutal, this is effectively post-apocalyptic fiction, prefiguring both John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
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Book 1: Just Kids by Patti Smith (2010 National Book Award NF) Recommended - this is where the lifetime goal delivers. A memoir of Smith and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe that normally, I would not have read, but so glad to have been “forced to”.
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Good luck and my apologies for going on - one other recommendation for your theme: The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack E. Davis (2018 Pulitzer In History).
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Actually, you’ve got the right idea going with what you fancy at the moment (in this case H2O). Follow your whims! Understood you’ll encounter some slogs along the way (Demolished Man isn’t one of the stronger Hugo offerings), but glad to see another reader attempt this worthwhile goal.
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If you’re looking to combine your earlier-stated Hugo goal (wishing you good luck there) with this theme, Startide Rising by David Brin (1984 winner) is a decent offering. Another is the sacredness of water found in Herbert’s Dune (1966 winner).
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Continued good luck in your Hugo reading project!
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Oops forgot one that have really had - and continue to have - fun with: 7 Days to Die (Fun Pimps)
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I like your rating system. Agree on several, including Warren’s book.
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Finally, my increase in reading came at a cost in gaming. Still, I did have a few games I enjoyed this year:
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (MachineGames)
Mafia: Definitive Edition (Hangar 13)
Redeemer–Enhanced Edition (Sobaka)
Blasphemous (The Game Kitchen)
Bramble:The Mountain King(Dimfrost)
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The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
Last Call by Tim Powers
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Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, by David Zucchino
Growing Up by Russell Baker
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
Accelerando by Charles Stross
Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth
Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
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Seeker by Jack McDevitt
The Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner
Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky
Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson
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Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The Age of Jackson by Arthur M Schlesinger, Jr.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne
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Second, my liked / recommended books of 2024 (no particular order)
The Snow Queen by Joan Vinge
Mating by Norman Rush
The North Water by Ian McGuire
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer
Rabbit is Rich by John Updike
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson