Ryan's Reads 2012

Time for my annual "What did I read and what do I recommend" post. Its been another busy year with work, Sam, and little Luke in our life,  but I still found some time to read, and even read a little more than the year before. I've started more books than this but I don't finish a book if I don't like it (Cheyn is the opposite).  This year I averaged a book and a half a month, and I hope again  to read at least a book a month.  So here is what I finished this past year:

• Behind the Beautiful Forevers
• The Signal and the Noise
• Under the Black Flag
• Understanding the Book of Mormon
• How will you measure your life?
• The Rush Limbaugh Story
• The Book of Mormon:A Biography
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
• The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
• Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations
• Rules For Radicals
• The Mormon People
• Coming Apart: The State of White America
• The Swerve
• Life's Lesson Learned
• To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion
• In Heaven as it is on Earth
• The 4 Hour Workweek
• Absolute Monarchs
• 
  

     Here is what I especially recommended grouped by topic:

      Nonfiction/History

Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Made the NY Times Top 10 Books of 2012 list.  Probably in the running for the best book of the year IMO, will will a pulitzer, already won the national book award.  Expect it to hit a lot of book groups in the next year or two.  So, its a nonfiction account of life in a Mumbai slum.  Its very well written, not too flowery, and really gives a peek into a contemporary place vastly different than most of what we experience.  I loved it, though it was heartbreaking and helped me really appreciate all of the comforts us fully developed nation types have.  Don't read it if you are clinically depressed. The story is fascinating, it reminds me of the book City of Joy from about 20 years ago.  You feel different after reading it.

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Another episode in the life of Lyndon Johnson, this one is from about 1959-1964.   This is a great book because the historian who wrote it is a maestro.  Its not just about Lyndon Johnson.  Its about  time, and power, and deserves to be in all the top book list like it is (This ones in the NY Times top 10 as well).  Every page is packed and the author is in no rush, trying to cast a detailed portrait of the man especially focusing on his motives, drive, and inner experience.

To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion
Not a perfect book, but this history is a look at the build up and battles of WW1 focusing just not on the military leaders, but focusing on the war protesters and pacifists from the perspective of the English side.  I learned a lot about the modernization of warfare.  The main questions the author focuses on  in this book are "What is the point," "What happened," and "What was gained?"

Under the Black Flag
A quick history written in the 1990's about Piracy in the Caribbean, Colonies, Europe, and Africa.  The author focuses on pirates as portrayed in fiction and how their exploits compare to what piracy was really like hundreds of year before.  Fun to read about Blackbeard off the coast of North Carolina and all the thugs down in the Caribbean.

Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations
You have to love the radical mouthpiece of the revolution.  What I didn't know about was his life after the American Revolution, and the afterlife body-napping.  This is a great read.  I'm not sure if this is the best bio around for him , but I loved it.

   Mormonism

The Mormon People

A great general introduction to the LDS movement.  It focuses on the history of the Church, theology, adaptation, and contemporary Mormon practices.  A great book to give to an interested friend if they wanted to know about the church from an academic type perspective.

  Mormonism-Devotional
Understanding the Book of Mormon
A narrative analysis of the authors in the Book of Mormon.  Great to read why you are reading the Book of Mormon.  Helps you see the people in the book more as complex souls, making you think about Lehi's Family, Alma, Mormon , and Moroni in all new ways.   Its a dense book, makes a great reference for the book shelf.

Life's Lesson Learned
This book is written by Elder Oaks of the twelve about things he's learned during his lifetime from his upbringing, Church Service, and time as an academic and BYU president.  Its not regurgitated conference addresses. It has short chapters and is a thin book  full of great advice and conclusions from his experiences.

So there we go.  Now how about you?  Any recommendations you have from what you've read this past year?