Books I read in 2017

Some of the books I read in 2017 and what I think of them now:

Eddie S. Glaude Jr: Democracy in Black (2016) – where Black America is and where it is going. Says little will change until Whites change. Translation: it is going to get worse before it gets better.

Andrew J. Bacevich: Washington Rules (2010) – how the US became addicted to a war economy in the Second World War and has yet to kick the habit. The US learned almost nothing from the Vietnam War. Thus Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jonathan Schell: Observing the Nixon Years (1989) – pieces he wrote for the New Yorker when Nixon was in power. As bad as he thought Nixon was, Nixon was worse.

Rebecca Skloot: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010) – about Henrietta Lacks and how her cancer cells, taken from her on her death bed without her family’s knowledge or consent, have changed science.

Harper Lee: Go Set a Watchman (2015) – “To Kill a Mockingbird” before her New York editor changed it up. Scout makes her peace with White racism. Ugh.

Jonathan Schell: The Time of Illusion (1975) – how nuclear weapons shaped the Vietnam War and caused the downfall of Nixon. Excellent.

Donald P. Ryan: Ancient Egypt on 5 Deben a Day (2010) – time-travel tourism. Wonderful.

Colin McEvedy: Cities of the Classical World (2011) – short articles on 120 cities of Greek and Roman times, from Londinium to Babylon.

Naguib Mahfouz: Miramar (1967) – I read this because Mahfouz won a Nobel Prize and Alexandria is one of my favourite cities I have not visited. The book now forms most of my picture of present-day Alexandria.

Herge: Tintin in the Congo (1946) – as bad as it sounds.

H.G. Wells: The Time Machine (1895) – I love time travel stories but what a downer!

W.E.B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk (1903) – since high school I have heard such good things about this book that I felt embarrassed for not having read it. Some chapters are great, but some are cringetastic. Du Bois (trained as a scientist) lacks the clean, moral outrage of James Baldwin (trained as a preacher).

Carter G. Woodson: The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933) – about how Eurocentric US education is, making university-educated Blacks too brainwashed to be of much use.

Margot Lee Shetterly: Hidden Figures (2016) – about the Black women who helped to put the US in outer space. Enough for a miniseries – and without Hollywood’s White gaze. Shetterly is a treasure.

Michael Hastings: The Operators (2012) – Hastings’ behind-the-scenes look at the War in Afghanistan in the first years of the Obama Era. Mike Flynn is in it. Confirms Bacevich and Schell.

Lauren Slater: Prozac Diary (1999) – I read this because I love how she writes. The most interesting part was how she felt about her sex life.

I also read half of (and have yet to finish!):

Tolstoy: War and Peace (1868) – about rich Russians and Napoleon’s invasion of their country. Long, but good (so far).

H.G. Wells: Outline of History (1920) – the most interesting parts are where he tries to talk about religion from a historian’s point of view.

Timeline of when books were written:

• before 1950: 6
• 1950s:
• 1960s: 1
• 1970s: 1
• 1980s: 1
• 1990s: 1
• 2000s:
• 2010s: 8

– Abagond, 2018.

Source: Images mainly from Goodreads.

See also:

• books
  • Books I read in 2018
• 1949 media diet – during August, when I read Wells, Herge, Du Bois, and Woodson
• posts that came in part from these books:
  • Black Liberals
  • military-industrial complex
  • Watergate
  • Vietnam War
  • Egypt in 1275 BC
  • Henrietta Lacks
• Mike Flynn
• James Baldwin
• Iraq
• Afghanistan
• Yemen

549