Reading Lists

I try to alternate between fiction and non-fiction. My fiction tends toward literary works, and my non-fiction toward history, theology and biography. Of late, I have focused on antebellum studies and American biographies as research for my Nation of Laws Trilogy.

Below are my reading lists from the past several years, with notes. I have marked those works that I read every year with an asterisk. These titles are also in bold (as are some other works that I particularly liked). You will never be able to read everything, so why not mine more deeply the works that have truly spoken to you? This quote of a quote summarizes my feelings well:

A list of books that you reread is like a clearing in the forest: a level, clean, well-lighted place where you set down your burdens and set up your home, your identity, your concerns, your continuity in a world that is at best indifferent, at worst malign.  Since you, the reader, are the hero of modern literature, the existential loner, the smallest denominator of moral force, it behooves you to take counsel, sustenance, and solace from the writers who have been writing about you these hundred or five hundred years, to sequester yourself with their books and read and reread them to get a fix on yourself and a purchase on the world that will, with luck, like the house in the clearing, last you for life.

On “Rereading Books” from The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, by Alan Jacobs, p. 130, Quoting poet L.E. Sissman (d.1976).

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” – Mortimer J. Adler

2025:

1. The Bible*
2. Absalom, Absalom!*, William Faulkner
3. Told You So, Leane Slade
4. Every Valley, Charles King
5. The Saddest Words – William Faulkner’s Civil War*, Michael Gorra
6. Beauty Will Save the World, Brian Zahnd
7. Always the Bridesmaid, Clark, Lovely
8. Be Ready When the Luck Happens, Ina Garten
9. The Civil War: Manassas to Perryville, Shelby Foote
10. The Unsettling of America, Wendell Berry
11. The Cause, Joseph J. Ellis
12. You Can’t Kill a Man for the Books He Reads, Brad Snyder
13. It’s Always Been You, Part I, Lauren Blakely
14. American Creation, Joseph J. Ellis
15. Once Upon a Crime, Brynn Kelly
16. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
17. “Romeo and Juliet”, William Shakespeare
18. The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
19. Who Is Government?, Michael Lewis
20. Shakespeare, Bill Bryson
21. Misdirected, Lucy Parker
22. Becoming Faulkner, Phillip Weinstein
23. Islands in the Stream, Ernest Hemingway
24. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
25. The Morning Watch, James Agee
26. Someday the Plan of a Town, Todd Boss (poetry)
27. Pitch, Todd Boss (poetry)
28. The Best Wrong Move, Lily Parker
29. Born Blind, Jackson Riddle
30. The Tender Bar, JR Moehringer
31. A Potter’s Vessel, Jackson Riddle
32. The Old Curiosity Shop, Charles Dickens
33. The Anatomy of Us, Leah Hazard
34. Better Luck Next Time, Cara Bastone
35. Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders
36. I Am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe
37. From Bauhaus to Our House, Tom Wolfe
38. Kingdom of Speech, Tom Wolfe
39. 1861: The Lost Peace, Jay Winik
40. The Sportswriter, Richard Ford
41. American Republics, Alan Taylor
42. Later the Same Day, Grace Paley
43. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Problem with Lincoln, Thomas DiLorenzo
45. A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway
46. Persuasion, Jane Austen
47. American Scripture, Pauline Maier
48. Rich Girl Summer, Lily Chu
49. Art of the Cover Up, Ron Zimmerman
50. Bloody Crimes, James L. Swanson
51. The Wood Between the Worlds, Brian Zahnd
52. Unconditional: The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness, Brian Zahnd
53. Dream Work, Mary Oliver (poems)
54. Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
55. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
56. All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, Larry McMurtry
57. Letters to a Young Poet, Ranier Maria Rilke
58. House, Tracy Kidder
59. Astor, Anderson Cooper
60. Without a Hitch, Portia MacIntosh
61. Rumors of Glory, A Memoir, Bruce Cockburn
62. Postcards from Babylon, Brian Zahnd
63. The Book of Hours, Ranier Maria Rilke (poetry)
64. American Covenant, Yuval Levin
65. Letter to the American Church, Eric Metaxas
66. Shoeless Joe, W. P. Kinsella
67. On Antisemitism, Mark Mazower
68. Getting Real, Emma Chase
69. We the People, Jill Lepore
70. Granted!, Todd Boss
71. Deconstructing Zionism, Bryan Hatcher
72. March, Geraldine Brooks
73. The Human Scale, Lawrence Wright
74. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
75. Travels with Charley in Search of America, John Steinbeck
76. The Correspondent, Virginia Evans
77. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
78. God Save Texas, Lawrence Wright

2024:

1. The Bible*
2. Absalom, Absalom!*, William Faulkner
3. Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
4. Big Envelopes, Aaron and Will Eisenberg
5. The Saddest Words, William Faulkner’s Civil War, Michael Gorra
6. Meet Me at the Lake, Carley Fortune
7. The Whispered Word, Ellery Adams
8. Lincoln on the Verge, Ted Widmer
9. Starter EX, Mia Sosa
10. Larry McMurtry: A Life, Tracy Daughtery
11. The Morning Watch, James Agee
12. Happily Never After, Lynn Painter
13. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J. K. Rowling
14. Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
15. The New York Game, Baseball and the Rise of a New City, Kevin Baker
16. Foreign Affairs, Allison Lurie
17. Differ We Must, Steve Inskeep
18. Hemingway’s Boat, Paul Hendrickson
19. Save Me the Plums, Ruth Reichl
20. The Tender Bar*, JR Moehringer
21. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
22. Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene
23. Open, Andre Agassi
24. American Visions, Edward L. Ayres
25. The Hamlet, William Faulkner
26. The Second Founding, Eric Foner
27. Text Appeal, Kylie Scott
28. The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, Tim Alberta
29. Behind the Scenes, Elizabeth Keckley
30. The Demon of Unrest, Erik Larson
31. The Freaks Came Out to Write, Tricia Romano
32. Call Me Maybe, Cara Bastone
33. Sweet Talk, Cara Bastone
34. Seatmate, Cara Bastone
35. The Inside Game, Keith Law
36. The Apprentice, My Life in the Kitchen, Jacque Pepin
37. How the Best Did It, Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents, Talmage Boston
38. Same Time Next Summer, Annabel Monaghan
39. The Great Indoors, Ginny Hogan
40. “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”, Lorraine Hansberry (play)
41. The Glitch, Leanne Slade
42. Sneakerhead, Amanda Eyre Ward
43. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
44. Be Mine, Richard Ford
45. “Hamlet,” William Shakespeare
46. “Julius Caesar” William Shakespeare
47. Look Away! A History of the Confederate States of America, William C. Davis
48. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
49. “Othello”, William Shakespeare
50. A Christmas Carol*, Charles Dickens
51. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
52. “Paradise Lost”, John Milton

2023:

1. The Bible, Gateway.com: Through the Bible in a Year
2. Absalom, Absalom!*, William Faulkner
3. A Wicked War, Amy Greenberg
4. Who Decides? Judge Jeffrey Sutton
5. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D. H. Lawrence
6. The Comeback, Lily Chu
7. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
8. Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner
9. Stoner, John Williams
10. Love at First Psyche, Cara Bastone
11. Taste: My Life Through Food, Stanley Tucci
12. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
13. Carbs and Cadavers, Ellery Adams
14. John Quincy Adams, Harlow Giles Unger
15. The Crooked Path to Abolition, James Oakes
16. 51 Imperfect Solutions, Jeffrey Sutton
17. The Morning Watch*, James Agee
18. The Tender Bar*, JR Moehringer
19. No Property in Man, Sean Wilentz
20. Divided We Fall, David French
21. A Country of Vast Designs, Robert Merry
22. Faith in Cities, Chris Lozaro
23. Shoeless Joe, W. P. Kinsella
24. The Wedding Proposal, John Swansiger
25. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
26. Travels with Charley in Search of America, John Steinbeck
27. Break it Up, Richard Kreitner
28. The Nation that Never Was, Kermit Roosevelt
29. Yellowrocket, Todd Boss (a poet you may never have heard of but should definitely read)
30. Pitch, Todd Boss
31. Letters of James Agee to Father Flye, (published 1962)
32. Building Up and Tearing Down, Reflections on the Age of Architecture, Paul Goldberger
33. A Hole in the World, Amanda Held Opelt
34. Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of Texas Borderlands, Andrew Torget
35. The Words That Made Us, America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, Akhil Amar
36. The Second Founding, Eric Foner
37. The Quartet, Joseph J. Ellis
38. Madness Rules the Hour, Paul Starobin
39. Hemingway’s Boat, Paul Hendrickson
40. Islands in the Stream, Ernest Hemingway
41. Chili Con Corpses, Ellery Adams
42. Down, Erin Elizabeth Smith
43. A Marriage of Inconvenience, Penny Reid
44. The Nation that Never Was, Kermit Roosevelt III (2nd reading)
45. Still Hung Up on You, Liz Maverick
46. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, Joseph J. Ellis
47. Ours was the Shining Future, David Leonhardt
48. Bobby Kennedy, Larry Tye
49. The Takedown, Lily Chu
50. The Secret, Book, and Scone Society, Ellery Adams
51. The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, ed.
52. On a Night Like This, Liz Maverick
53. Built, Roma Agrawal
54. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

2022:

1. The Bible* – after taking a year off, I am back to reading through the entire Scriptures in the calendar year. This year I am following a new format, a chronological one. The determination is subjective, of course, but I am finding the approach interesting. https://www.biblegateway.com/reading-plans/chronological/next.
2. Absalom, Absalom!* – William Faulkner
3. The Tender Bar,* – JR Moehringer
4. The Redhead By the Side of the Road – Ann Tyler
5. Proof – Dick Francis
6. Once Upon a Wardrobe, Patti Callahan
7. Traveling Light, Eugene Peterson
8. 1861: The Civil War Awakening, Adam Goodheart
9. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
10. The Myth of the Lost Cause, Edward Bonekemper
11. Diamonds: The Evolution of the Ballpark, Michael Gershman
12. The English Patient, Michael Odaatje
13. The U. S. Constitution and Secession, A Documentary Anthology of Slavery and White Supremacy, Dwight Pitcaithley, ed.
14. The Broken Constitution, Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America, Noah Feldman
15. The End of the Myth, From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, Greg Grandin
16. Shoeless Joe, W. P. Kinsella
17. Bricking It, Nick Spalding
18. Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey
19. Burr, Gore Vidal
20. Tennessee Secedes, Dwight Pitcaithley
21. The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783, Joseph J. Ellis
22. The Key to Deceit, Ashley Weaver
23. The Constitution: An Introduction, Michael Stokes Paulsen and Luke Paulsen
24. Lincoln, Aaron Vidal
25. All The Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
26. Free to Move, Ilya Somin
27. Is Atheism Dead? Eric Metaxas
28. Hello Darkness, My Old Friend, Sanford Greenberg
29. The Miranda Obsession, Jen Silverman
30. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance
31. Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
32. The Problem with Lincoln, Thomas DiLorenzo
33. The Painted Word, Tom Wolfe
34. The Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain
35. Persuasion, Jane Austen
36. Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl
37. Stealing Home, Sherryl Woods
38. The Hamlet, William Faulkner
39. The Town, William Faulkner
40. The Mansion, William Faulkner
41. The Saddest Words, Michael Gorra
42. Becoming Faulkner, Phillip Weinstein
43. Neither Wolf Nor Dog, Kent Nerburn
44. The Broken Constitution, Noah Feldman
45. Summoned to Glory – Lincoln’s Audacious Life, Richard Striner
46. Jefferson Davis – The Man and His Hour, William C. Davis
47. Moneyball, Michael Lewis
48. Thomas Jefferson, A Biography of Spirit and Flesh, Thomas S. Kidd

2021:

1. Absalom, Absalom!,* William Faulkner (still the greatest American novel, after at least a dozen readings)
2. On Augustine, Rowan Williams (dense but profound in many respects)
3. Living Wisely With the Church Fathers, Christopher Hall
4. Summoned to Glory, The Audacious Life of Abraham Lincoln, Richard Striner (author is audacious, too)
5. The Tender Bar*, JR Moehringer (a pinnacle of the memoir genre for American writers)
6. Without Precedent, The Life of John Marshall, Joel Richard Paul (predictably admiring of Marshall, and surprisingly critical of Jefferson, but Paul makes a compelling case for both opinions.)
7. Apostles of Disunion, Charles Dew (eye-opening historical record)
8. The Mansion, William Faulkner (my favorite of the Snopes trilogy)
9. Fish Out of Water, A Search for the Meaning of Life, Eric Metaxas (I met and spent time with the author a few years ago; his is a very important voice in America today, but I am not yet sure what to think of this work.)
10. The Morning Watch*, James Agee (a nearly perfect novella, in my opinion; I am grateful to Patrick Gahan for introducing me to this work.)
11. A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway (still trying to decide about Hemingway’s true place in literature’, but this work is a good sample for one wanting to understand his approach to the craft of writing)
12. Calhoun, American Heretic, Robert Elder
13. The War Before the War, Andrew Delbanco
14. Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene
15. Lincoln on the Verge, Ted Widmer
16. Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey (someone who is deeper than you think; keep watch)
17. The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, Mark Noll
18. The Saddest Words, William Faulkner’s Civil War, Michael Gorra
19. History of the Lost State of Franklin, Samuel Cole Williams
20. My Reading Life, Pat Conroy
21. Decision in Philadelphia, J. Collier and S. Collier
22. A Potter’s Vessel, Riddle (pre-publication review)
23. The Coming Fury, Bruce Catton
24. Light in August, William Faulkner
25. Polk, The Man who Transformed the Presidency and America, Walter Borneman
26. Woke, Inc., Vivek Ramaswamy
27. John Tyler, The Accidental President, Edward Crapol
28. The Problem with Lincoln, Thomas DiLorenzo
29. Break it Up, Richard Kreitner
30. James Madison, America’s First Politician, Jay Cost
31. Rebels in the Making, William Barney
32. John Stott: A Summary of His Teaching, E.A. Schroder
33. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (some part of it appears in almost all of my writing)
34. Madness Rules the Hour: Charleston, 1860, Paul Starobin (a fascinating exploration of the small group of men who drove the secession movement)

2020:

1. The Bible (I try to read/listen through it every year)
2. Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner (first book I read every year)
3. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe (better than I remembered)
4. The Tender Bar, Moehringer (just added to my annuals)
5. Caffeine, Pollan
6. David & Goliath, Gladwell
7. These Truths, LePore
8. The Impending Crisis, Potter
9. Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney, Simons
10. Lincoln and the Decision for War, McLintock
11. Robert E. Lee, Blount, Jr.
12. The Road to Disunion, Freehling (best work on the topic)
13. Law and Gospel, Zahl (grace always wins)
14. Ratification, Maier (very informative)
15. We the States, VA Comm (would like to know the history behind this publication)
16. The Morning Watch, Agee (read each year during Lent)
17. Lady First – Sarah Childress Polk, Bumgarner (interesting ladies – subject and author)
18. History of the Supreme Court, Irons
19. The Soul of Baseball, Posnanski (Hard not to be romantic about Buck O’Neal)
20. Born Blind, Riddle (about 5x, preparing for publication)
21. Beloved, Morrison
22. The Real Lincoln, DiLorenzo (I like his counter-thinking)
23. When we are older, Part 1, Riddle
24. The Givenness of Things, Robinson (dense but interesting)
25. A Pitcher’s Storý, Angell
26. Sweet taste of Liberty, McDaniel
27. Tracer, Barthelme
28. Worst. President. Ever., Strauss (irreverent, but mostly accurate based on my own research of the 15th president)
29. Midnight Rising, Horowitz (we will miss Tony Horowitz)
30. Travels with Charly, Steinbeck (I always learn from it, although Steinbeck goes up and down in my estimation)
31. Presidents of War, Beschloss
32. Riddle in the Sand, Riddle (preparing for re-publication)
33. Camino Winds, Grisham
34. In the Garden of Beasts, Larson
35. Disease of the Public Mind, Fleming
36. The Vast Southern Empire, Karp
37. “Precepts of Men,” Riddle (preparing play script for publication)
38. The Life of William Faulkner, Vol. 2, Rollyson
39. The Saddest Words, Gorra (partial)

2019:

1. Bible
2. Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner
3. Reckless Daughter, Yaffe
4. Riddle in the Sand, Riddle
5. The Tender Bar, Moehringer
6. Hillbilly Elegy, Vance
7. Precepts of Men, Riddle
8. Kierkegaard – A single life, Backhouse
9. Farewell to Mars, Zahnd
10. There There, Orange
11. Abraham, Feiler
12. The Road Back to You, Cron
13. To the Hilt, Francis
14. Travels with Charly, Steinbeck
15. Wait Till Next Year!, Goodwin
16. Unconditional, Zahnd
17. A Fable, Faulkner
18. Garden of Eden, Hemingway
19. Educated, Westover
20. Our Man in Havana, Greene
21. All the Little Live Things, Stegner
22. Confederates in the Attic, Horowitz
23. The Right Stuff, Wolfe
24. Spying on the South, Horowitz
25. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens
26. Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues, Harper
27. Working, Caro
28. Envy on 30A, Rine
29. Ballpark, Goldberger (I was enamored, I wrote a collective review of these next 3 books: https://babesbaseball.wordpress.com/2019/08/02/reading-my-future-through-mlbs-past/)
30. The Universal Baseball Association, Coover
31. For the Good of the Game, Selig
32. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
33. Cemetery Road, Isles
34. Treasure Island, Stevenson
35. Draft #4, McPhee
36. We Have The War Upon Us, Cooper
37. Natchez Burning, Isles
38. The Impending Conflict, Potter
39. Lady First, Greenberg
40. The Unvanquished, Faulkner
41. Secession on Trial, Nicoletti
42. Gone with the Wind, Mitchell
43. The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner
44. The Bondwoman’s Narrative, Crafts
45. Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, Chiaverini
46. Top 100 Constitutional Law cases
47. We Hold These Truths, Adler
48. San Antonio Tricentennial, Miller
49. Steely Dan FAQ, Robustelli
50. A Christmas Carol, Dickens
51. Matchmaking for Beginnners, Dawson
52. Autobiography of Frederick Douglass

2018:

1. Absalom, Absalom!,Faulkner (the greatest American novel)

2. The Town, Faulkner (Faulkner’ trilogy is underappreciated in his canon)

3. Scalia Speaks!, Antonio Scalia (even RBG listened to him)

4. Riddle in the Sand, Riddle

5. The Tender Bar, Moehringer (a very skilled writer, with an interesting story)

6. Moving on, McMurtry (the anti-epic, but I can’t stop reading it)

7.  Travels with Charly, Steinbeck

8. Treating People Well, Berman/Bernard

9. Shoeless Joe, Kinsella

10. Late Night, Early Morning, Weir

11. Tennis and the Meaning of Life, Jennings (painfully insightful, every time I read it)

12. Soul of the World, Scruton

13. Two Stories of Everything, Miller

14. Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me, Cron

15. Shoe Dog, Knight (well-told story, with the aid of JR Mohringer)

16. The Girl on 30A, Rine

17. A Moveable Feast, Hemingway

18. The Judiciary’s Class War, Reynolds

19. Paul, A Biography, Wright

20. Around the World in 80 Days, Verne

21. Etymylogicon, Hagen

22. Tennis and the Meaning of Life, Jennings (so true)

23. Hemingway’s Boat, Hendrickson (brought me new appreciation for Hemingway)

24. Reflex, Francis

25. The Art of the Con, Amore

25. The Morning Watch, Agee (a nearly perfect story)

26. A Whole Different Ballgame, Miller (a fascinating guy about whom I found much to say:

https://babesbaseball.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/love-your-enemies-part-2-marvin-miller-and-bud-selig/)

27. The Mansion, Faulkner (better than I remembered it)

28. The Second McPhee Reader, McPhee (just read his sentences and forget about the topic)

29. Hardball, Kuhn (he brought lawyers a bad name, if that is possible)

30. We, the Corporations, Winkler

31. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald (still not sure it deserves its reputation and endurance)

32. From Bauhaus to Our House, Wolfe

33. When We Are Older, Riddle

34. The Soul of America, Meachem

35. A Pirate Looks at Fifty, Buffett (the guy can write, period)

36. The Big Short, Lewis

37. The End of the Affair, Greene

38. West with the Night, Markham

39. The Nick Adams Stories, Hemingway

40. Giovanni’s Room, Baldwin

41. The Tender Bar, Moehringer (2d time)

42. Grammar Boot Camp, Curzan

43. History of the Christian Church, Jesus to Constantin, Ehrman

44. Proof, Francis

45. What the Dog Saw, Gladwell

46. Collected Stories, Faulkner

47. On Writing, King

48. The Mayor of Castorbridge, Hardy

49. Islands in the Stream, Hemingway

50. The Long Season, Brosnan

51. Failure is an Option, Benjamin

52. Unconditional, Zahnd (a life-changing book if you are holding any grudges)

53. Beauty Will Save the World, Zahnd

54. Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut

55. Unvanquished, Faulkner

56. Rabbit, Run, Updike

57. The Reckoning, Grisham

58. Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Morison

59. Becoming Faulkner, Weinstein

60. Them, Sasse

2017:

1.  Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner

2.  Who Am I?, McKnight

3.  Reading Faulkner, Marius (written by my old Western Civ. prof., very interesting guy)

4.  RARE Leadership,

5.  The Undoing Project, Lewis

6.  A Sacred Silence, Kinsell

7.  Washington, Chernow

8.  News of the World, Pauelette Jiles

9.  The Morning Watch, Agee

10. Into Thin Air, Krakauer

11. The One Inside, Sam Shepherd

12.  The Son, Philipp Meyer

13.  Falling Upward, Richard Rohr

14. Team of Rivals, Kearns Goodwin

15. Capture, Kessler

16. Lube Jobs, McLeods

17.  Intruder in the Dust, Faulkner

18.  A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bryson

19. A Good Life All the Way, Ryan White

20. The Vanishing American Adult, Sasse

21. The Spectator Bird, Stegner (still trying to decide about Stegner – this one really puzzles)

22. Heart of Darkness, Conrad

23. Wallace Stegner and the American West, Fradkin

24. Camino Island, Grisham

25. Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, Stegner

26. Between the World and Me, Coates

27. On the Road, Kerouac

28. All the Light We Cannot See, Doerr

29. Shoe Dog, Knight

30. A Moveable Feast, Hemingway

31. A Truck Full of Money, Kidder

32. The Education of Henry Adams, Adams

33. Coal Black Horse, Olmstead

34. Open, Agassi (profound in such a way that you can’t believe Andre wrote it; did he? or was it JR Mohringer? Either way, very much worth reading)

35. Precepts of Men, Rose

36. Travels with Charly, Steinbeck

37. Return of the Native, Hardy

38. Catcher in the Rye, Salinger

39. The Tempest, Shakespeare

40. A Street Cat Named Bob, Bowen

41. The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner

42. The Tender Bar, Moehringer

43. The Road Back To You, Cron

44. Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me, Cron

45. Willie, Moehringer

46. Constellations, Nick Payne

47. Disgraced, Ayad Akhtar

48. Martin Luther, Metaxas

49. Etymologicon, Forsyth

50. The Hamlet, Faulkner

51. The Bear, Faulkner

52.  The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, McCullors

53. A Christmas Carol, Dickens

54. Windows to the Soul, Gahan

55. The Rooster Bar, Grisham (I have been involved in legal matters similar to this plot)

2016:

1.            Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis

2.            Rebel Yell, S. C. Gwynne

3.            America, America, Ethan Canin

4.            Wild Palms, Wm. Faulkner

5.            Travels with Charley, Steinbeck

6.            David’s Sling, the History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art, Coates

7.            The Morning Watch, Agee

8.            Go Set A Watchman, Lee

9.      A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway

10.    “As you like it,” Shakespeare

11.    Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

12.      Hamilton, Ron Chernow

13.   Confessions of an Original Sinner, John Lukacs

14.   Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky (partial)

15.      100 Years of Solitude, Marquez

16.      Moving On, McMurtry (partial)

17.     To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee

18.    The Last Tycoon, Fitzgerald

19.   “The Tempest,” Shakespeare 

20.   Everyday by the Sun, D.F. Wells

21.   Goodbye to a River, Graves

22.   Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Doyle

23.   Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

24.   The Art of Fielding, Harbach

25.   Myself and the World, Hamblin

26.   Late to the Ball, Marzorati

27.   Cannery Row, Steinbeck

28.  Shoeless Joe, Kinsella

29.  If you can keep it, Metaxis

30.  Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner

31.  Sanctuary, Faulkner,

32.  Morning Watch, Agee (2d time)

33.  Riddle in the Sand, Rose

34.  “Precepts of Men,” Rose

35.  Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Rowling

36.  Light in August, Faulkner

37.  A First Rate Madness, Ghaemi

38.  Impossible People, Guiness

39. Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck

40. Democracy in America, de Toqueville

41.  Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison

42. Hillbilly Elegy, Vance

2007:  (bold: recommended; bold italics: highly recommended) (“aloud” indicates that I read them aloud to my children)

1. The Hamlet, William Faulkner
2. The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, William Barton
3. Grace in Practice, Paul Zahl
4. Cross of Christ, John Stott
5. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J. I. Packer
6. Salvation, Earl Radmacher
7. The Reivers, William Faulkner
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling
9. The Town, William Faulkner
10. Dead Ex, Harley Jane Kozak
11. Travels with Charly in Search of America, John Steinbeck
12. Sons and Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
13. Handel’s Messiah, Ralph Ballard
14. True to the Flag, Heity Caloud

2006:  (bold: recommended; bold italics: highly recommended) (“aloud” indicates that I read them aloud to my children)

1.         Light in August, Faulkner (476 pages)

2.         Knowing God, Packer (279 pages)

3.         Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, Packer (126 pages)

4.         Salvation, Radmacher (250 pages)

5.         The Adventures of King Arthur and His Knights, Pyle (259 pages)(aloud)

6.         Palace Thief, Canin (206 pages)

7.         The Raven, A Biography of Sam Houston; James (457 pages)

8.         Walking the Bible, Feiler (406 pages)

9.         The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway (257 pages)

10.       Faulkner: The Story Teller, Labatt (185 pages)

11.       Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, Greenblatt                             (409 pages)

12.       Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowling (309 pages)(aloud)

13.       “Part I, Henry IV”, Shakespeare

14.       Dragons of Eden, Sagan (248 pages)

15.       Soldier’s Pay, Faulkner (319 pages)

16.       Revolution, Barna (140 pages)

17.       A Pirate Looks at Fifty, Buffett (458 pages)

18.       History of the English People, Johnson (partial, 300 pages)

19.       Robert E. Lee, Thomas (404 pages)

20.       At Home in Mitford, Karon (416 pages) (aloud)

21.       Behold the King, Toussaint (partial)

22.       The Sermon on the Mount, Stott (partial)

23.       Rhoda: A life in stories, Gilchrist (300 pages)

24.       The Unvanquished, Wm. Faulkner (246 pages)

25.       A Little Princess, Burnett (201 pages) (aloud)

26.       A Confederacy of Dunces, Toole (partial)

27.       Sailing Alone Around the Room, Collins (100 pages)

28.       A Serious Way of Wondering, Price (146 pages)

29)       A Man in Full, Wolfe (742 pages)

30)       The Penderwicks, Birdsall (247 pages)(aloud)

31)       Reading Faulkner, Marius (185 pages)

32)       A Promise to Catie, Holt (253 pages)(aloud)

33)       The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald (221 pages)

34)       A Separate Peace, Knowles (195 pages)

35)       The Boy Who Saved Baseball, Ritter (219 pages)(aloud)

36)       Architecture, Anyone?, Huxley (partial)

37)       Wrestling with God, Marius (146 pages)

2005:

1)         One Matchless Time – Biography of William Faulkner, Parini (457 pages)

2)         Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift (partial, 166 pages) (aloud)

3)         Sound and the Fury – Faulkner (257 pages)

4)         The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (275 pages) (aloud)

5)         The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Friedman (465 pages)

6)         The Known World, Jones (450 pages)

7)         Collected Stories, Stegner (partial, 175 pages)

8)         Following the Equator, Twain (partial, 400 pages)

9)         Dating Dead Men, Kozak (350 pages)

10)       Dating is Murder, Kozak (338 pages)

11)       The John McPhee Reader (377 pages)

12)       The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck (partial)

13)       National Velvet, (partial)(aloud)

14)       Buried Treasure, Schroder

15)       Basin and Range, McPhee (216 pages)

16)       All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, McMurtry (286 pages)

17)       Crossing to Safety, Stegner (341 pages)

18)       How to Stay Christian in College, Bouzweski (185 pages)

19)       Lord of the Flies, Golding, (248 pages)

20)       Don’t Waste Your Life, Piper

21)       Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang, Fleming (124 pages) (aloud)

22)       Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rowling (652 pages)

23)       Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne (162 pages) (aloud)

24)       Personal Memoirs, U.S. Grant (590 pages)

25)       Mountains Beyond Mountains, Kidder (304 pages)

26)       LIVING through Crisis, Taliaferro (currently reading)

27)       “Taming of the Shrew,” Shakespeare

2004:

1)         Sartoris, William Faulkner (430 pages)

2)         The Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling (440 pages) (aloud)

3)         “Julius Caesar”, William Shakespeare

4)         Living in Christ’s Church, Clowny (112 pages)

5)         American Girl – Felicity (90 pages) (aloud)

6)         The Old Man and The Sea, Hemingway (127 pages)

7)         In the Tennessee Country, Peter Taylor (225 pages)

8)         Abraham: Journey to the Heart of 3 Faiths, Feiler (227 pages)

9)         Atonement, Ian McEwan (349 pages)

10)       Little Town on the Prairie, Ingalls Wilder (256 pages)(aloud)

11)       Isaac’s Storm, Erik Larsen (325 pages)

12)       Jimmy Buffett, The Man from Margaritaville Revealed; Eng (322 pp)

13)       A Shropshire Lad; A. E. Housman (64 pages)

14)       Visions of Jazz, The First 100 Years; Giddons (selected sections)

15)       The Goblet of Fire; Rowling (735 pages)(aloud)

16)       In Patagonia; Chatwin (120 pages)

17)       Moneyball; Lewis (304 pages)

18)       Moving On, McMurtry (794 pages)

19)       Roger’s Version; Updike (329 pages)

20)       Great Expectations; Dickens (aloud, partial)

21)       West With The Night, Markham (297 pages)

22)       On the Banks of Plum Creek, Wilder (279 pages) (aloud)

23)       Good Poems, Keillor, editor (400 pages)

24)       Inward Light, Schroder (180 pages)

25)       Dating Dead Men, Kozak (326 pages)

26)       All Creatures Great and Small, Herriott (395 pages) (aloud)

27)       Men At Work, Will (400 pages)

28)       Absalom, Absalom! Faulkner (440 pages)

29)       The Order of the Phoenix, Rowling(842 pages) (aloud)

30)       A Christmas Carol, Dickens (142 pages)

31)       A Salty Piece of Land, Buffett (462 pages)

2003:

1)         From Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas Friedman (575 pages)

2)         Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnik (470 pages)

3)         Walking the Bible, Bruce Feiler (450 pages)

4)         Peace Like a River, Leif Enger (315 pages)

5)         Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery (320 pages) (aloud)

6)         Rabbit, Run, John Updike (400 pages)

7)         Sailing Alone Around the Room, Billy Collins (175 pages)

8)         The Bible Jesus Read, Yancey (175 pages, partial)

9)         Ernie Pyle’s War, Tobin (360 pages)

10)       The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Wilder (235 pages)

11)       Black Beauty, Sewell (300 pages)(aloud)

12)       The Return of the King, Tolkein (330 pages)

13)       Lonesome Dove, McMurtry (843 pages)

14)       Life of Pi, Martel (319 pages)

15)       John Adams, McCullough (650 pages)

16)       History of Christianity in North America, Noll (currently reading)

17)       Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowling (315 pages) (aloud)

18)       Philokalia, Cairns (currently reading)

19)       The Education of Henry Adams, Adams (currently reading)

20)       For the Union of Evangelical Christendom, Guelzo (404 pages)

21)       A History of the Jews, Paul Johnson (partial)

22)       One Palestine, Complete; Tom Segev (250 pages)

23)       The Trumpet of the Swan; E.B. White (200 pages, aloud)

24)       Johnny Tremain, Esther Forbes (235 pages, aloud)

25)       Tom Sawyer; Mark Twain (partial, aloud)

26)       Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling (600 pages)

2002:

1)         Fair Ball, Costas

2)         To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee

3)         The Hobbit, Tolkein

4)         Art of the Novel, Kundera

5)         Franny & Zooey, Salinger

6)         Cat Stories, Herriot (aloud)

7)         For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway

8)         Oxford – City of the Imagination, Horan

9)         The Bears Upstairs, (aloud)

10)       Encounters With the Archdruid, McPhee

11)       A Pirate Looks at 50, Buffett

12)       Tarpon Quest, Coles

13)       The Last Navigator, Thomas

14)       Chronicles of Narnia (entire Books I-VII) (aloud)

15)       Coming into the Country, McPhee

16)       A Life of John Calvin, McGrath

17)       Reign of the Servant Kings, Dillow (partial)

18)       As I Lay Dying, Faulkner

19)       Constantine’s Sword, Carroll (partial)

20)       The Secret Garden, Burnett (aloud)

21)       The Two Towers, Tolkein

22)       From Beirut to Jerusalem, Freidman (partial)

23)       A Fable, Faulkner (partial)

24)       Wild at Heart, Eldredge