Nate’s Book Reviews
106 books, compiled from 149 Power Naps
107 Days
Kamala Harris
I enjoy reading political memoirs. I find that they help me humanize people in a politics that is very much dehumanizing. That said, this one was pretty bad. It reads more like she’s getting ready to run again.
11/22/63
Stephen King
Not a typical Stephen King book in that it is not scary. It’s about a man living in Maine in 2011 who, with the help of a friend, finds a way to go back in time. He decides to use the power to try and stop the assassination of JFK and set the USA on a better course to avoid Vietnam, MLK Jr. assassination, etc. The beginning and the ending had me engrossed. It did get a bit long in places in the middle.
1929
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Big ARS fan. I met him at a restaurant in Charleston one time. This book chronicles the market crash and Great Depression of the 20’s and 30’s. Enjoyable if you like history. Dovetails nicely with House of Morgan — a lot of the same players show up.
2666
Roberto Bolaño
This book ranked high on the NYT best books of the century list — number 6 on the critic’s list and number 64 on the reader’s list. It’s long and sweeping (900 pages). It’s five loosely connected stories that in one way or another involve Santa Teresa, a fictional Mexican town on the US border, where hundreds of women are violently killed over a period of years. I can see why it’s critically acclaimed: there is not much else like it. It’s INSANELY dark with lots of violence, particularly towards the end. I don’t think I can recommend it in good faith.
The 6:20 Man
David Baldacci
Total mindless page turner. But those are good from time to time. Here is the plot: a former Army Ranger takes the 6:20 a.m. train every day into Manhattan to work at a high-powered investment firm. But when a coworker is found dead under suspicious circumstances, he is pulled into a web of corporate corruption, government secrets, and deadly conspiracies. As the mystery unfolds, his military background resurfaces, and it’s clear that his job on Wall Street isn’t just about crunching numbers—it’s part of something much bigger and more dangerous.
The Age of Picasso and Matisse
I found that our library system has a lot of art books. They are fun to flip through with the kids, and I like learning about the artist’s bios. Upside: Almost all pictures! In this one, I liked Joan Miro and Visily Kandinksy.
Age of Vice
Deepti Kapoor
Deftly shifting through time and perspective in contemporary India, Age of Vice is an epic, action-packed story propelled by the seductive wealth, startling corruption, and bloodthirsty violence of the Wadia family—loved by some, loathed by others, feared by all.
All Systems Red
Martha Wells
Part 1 of the Murderbot Diaries. Novella (3 hours listening) that involves a series of mysteries in a future world where scientists survey planets to determine their suitability for life or mining resources. The main character (and narrator) is a robot. I couldn’t get into it.
The Art of Spending Money
Morgan Housel
I enjoy Morgan Housel’s books and I think most people would benefit from hearing his personal finance advice. Psychology of Money remains, in my opinion, his best if you were to read only one.
Asymmetry
Lisa Halliday
Two novellas stapled together. One is an intimate, semi-autobiographical relationship between a young editor and a much older, famous writer. The other is about an Iraqi-American economist detained at Heathrow. They don’t relate. I very much enjoyed the first one, and the second one was ok. But I liked this joke found in the second one: “When I was a kid, I told everyone I wanted to be a comedian when I grow up, and they laughed. Well, they’re not laughing now.”
The Atlas Six
Olivie Blake
Book one of a trilogy. Once every ten years, six exceptional magicians are recruited for the secret Alexandrian Society, tasked with protecting the Library of Alexandria. Entrance into the Society promises all they ever dreamed of, and more, but of the six, only five will go on, and in order to do so a great sacrifice must be made.
The Banker’s Wife
Cristina Alger
Chat GPT told me I’d like this novel that delves into the shadowy world of offshore banking and political corruption. The story follows two women—one a widow, the other a journalist—as they uncover dangerous secrets tied to a mysterious plane crash and hidden off-shore bank accounts. It wasn’t bad.
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025
Jaime Green & Susan Orlean
I enjoyed listening to many of these. Topics ranged from: a woman who could smell Parkinson’s before medicine could detect it to do animals perceive death to a first hand account of the Hawaii wildfires to what it’s like to camp in the hottest place on earth to wild animals in New York City and more. If I didn’t like one, I just skipped it. Interesting if you like this kind of thing.
Birds of Prey
Wilbur Smith
No, it’s not about birds. Book 1 of 23 (!) in a fiction series that follows the Courtney family from the 1660s through until 1987, mostly in Africa. It was good! Sort of intimidating in length (about 700 pages), but it reads quicker than that. I will read book 2. Thanks to Boykin and Thomas Anderson for the rec!
View on Amazon →* (link not independently verified — please double-check)*
The Cairo Affair
Olen Steinhauer
I thought I’d enjoy this spy thriller that mostly goes between Budapest and Cairo, but I did not. I listened to it, which was maybe why I kept getting confused on which character was which — makes it tough in a double-agent, espionage, whodunit type of book to really follow the plotline.
The Cartographers
Peng Shepherd
Last year, Nate read another of Shepard’s books “the Book of M,” which he really liked. The Cartographers is about Nell Young. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the cartography field and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn’t seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map. But when her dad is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence…because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.
The Cellist
Daniel Silva
Spy book. When a Russian dissident dies under suspicious circumstances, an Israeli spy uncovers a web of oligarch money laundering, Western corruption, and disinformation campaigns, with a gifted cellist at the center. It had a somewhat weird secondary plot involving January 6th and the presidential transition, which I felt detracted rather than added to the main plot. If nothing else, I listened to Haydn’s cello concertos while reading. They are excellent.
Chaos: Making a New Science
James Gleick
This is a math/science/biography deep dive into the hidden patterns of apparent disorder (sometimes called The Butterfly Effect). I was able to understand most of the math/science despite not having much of a background in it. I loved learning about fractals, which have infinity perimeters but finite areas (think about that for a second! If you had a pencil fine enough, you could draw a line that never ends on a sheet of paper).
Contact
Carl Sagan
This 1985 novel follows a scientist who detects a radio signal from a distant planet carrying instructions for building a mysterious machine. Explores the tension between science and faith — whether empirical evidence and religious belief can coexist, and what counts as “proof.” It was excellent. Reminded me of In Ascension, Stories of Your Life, and Andy Weir books (The Martian, Project Hail Mary). Like all great alien books and movies, it’s not about aliens at all. Highly recommended.
Damascus Station
David McCloskey
This was a highly touted spy thriller that takes place in Syria. It was just ok. I could see it being a better movie.
The Dark Forest & Death’s End (Three-Body Problem)
Liu Cixin
Parts II and III of the Three Body Problem series. This was the sci-fi series Netflix adapted (and I also enjoyed). I enjoyed the trilogy overall. It’s definitely heavy on the “science” part of “science-fiction,” but if that’s your thing then you will likely enjoy it.
Demons of Unrest
Erik Larson
I tend to like Erik Larson’s books: The Splendid and the Vile, The Devil in the White City, Dead Wake — I’ve read and enjoyed them all. This one is about the five-month stretch between Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861. I liked it because (1) I like anything about Lincoln, who is, in my opinion, the greatest American, and (2) much of the action takes place in Charleston around Fort Sumter, so it was cool to read about places I see and go often.
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky
Garrett M. Graff
An oral history, meaning it tells its story through first-hand accounts stitched together rather than a single authorial voice explaining events like a narrator. Compared to a normal history book, oral history is messier and more human: overlapping memories, technical obsessions, blind spots, and moments where no one fully understands what they’re building. This was the first one I’ve ever read, and I enjoyed it. In particular, this book’s strength is its fixation on the engineering and logistics of the atomic bomb—materials, timelines, construction, logistics, and coordination. Not just the science behind the bomb (it has that too), but everything else it took to pull it off.
Dominion
Tom Holland
Non-fiction book that provides a broad overview of Christian history, starting in pre-Christianity and continuing to present day. It’s not crazy long, so when covering 2500 years+, he understandably gives little time to certain people/events. That said, I learned a ton since there are large (like hundreds of years) gaps where I know next to nothing about the history of Christianity. His basic thesis: Western morality, values, and social norms ultimately are products of Christianity. I feel like to really digest it, I’d either (a) need to reread it or (b) read another book on the same subject matter.
East of Eden
John Steinbeck
Whoa. Now this was a proper book. Aron looks pure, but he’s fragile because he depends on keeping the world clean. Cal knows too much and his struggle feels more honest, and strangely more redeemable. And real goodness has to wrestle; it has to see clearly what it’s capable of and choose differently anyway. And then there’s Lee, the servant. Steinbeck hides the wisest man in the room in plain sight. For me, strong contender for “The Great American Novel.”
The Elements of Marie Curie
Dava Sobel
I liked this book. It gave an introduction to Curie’s life and work, something I knew very little about. I also liked learning about radium and half-life decay (I had to ask GPT some questions to get a handle on a lot of this). I don’t read many scientific biographies but perhaps I should.
Endurance
Alfred Lansing
Earlier this year, Nate read (and reviewed in the Power Nap) the Wager, a book about a shipwreck and subsequent survival off the coast of South America. Power Nap reader Anna Moffett suggested he check out “Endurance,” which tells the story of Ernest Shackleton’s incredible journey over Antarctica. Nate liked Endurance more than the Wager, mostly because he liked Shackleton more than Cheap (the captain in the Wager). But he’s probably done with survival books for a while.
The English Understand Wool
Helen DeWitt
Nate discovered this book, both tiny and quirky, and has already gifted it to a friend. An heiress is kidnapped and raised in a Moroccan riad. He said it was hilarious, both making fun of and admiring the aristocracy, The best part: designed to be read in one sitting.
The Feather Detective
Chris Sweeney
Biography of Roxie Laybourne: the “world’s first forensic ornithologist” (that is: the first person to use bird feathers in forensic investigations) working largely at the Smithsonian Institution. I didn’t finish the whole thing. I did enjoy the parts about birds.
The Fifth Risk
Michael Lewis
As far as Michael Lewis books go, this one was not great. It’s about the risk a society runs when it falls into the habit of responding to long-term risks with short-term solutions. I did learn some about the National Weather Service.
Five Mere Christians
Jordan Raynor & Kaleigh Cox
Powernapper Kaleigh Cox was one of the authors of this book containing five brief biographical sketches to show how ordinary believers have lived out their faith in practical, often unexpected ways. I most enjoyed Mr. Rogers and poet/playwright Hannah More. I loved Mr. Rogers life motto (on his tombstone): “Life is for service.” Paradoxically, if that’s your perspective life is actually pretty great most of the time. It reminds me of C.S. Lewis saying: “If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.”
Fooled by Randomness
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nate reread this book and was reminded of how good it is. The book’s basic message is that rare events (black swans) are unappreciated and that we attribute too much of success (ours and others) to skill. A lot of the time, it’s just luck (i.e., randomness). Nassim Taleb, the author, and a Wall Street options trader turned philosopher, can come across brash, but I think he’s right most of the time.
Gambler
Billy Walters
This was an auto biography by “the greatest and most controversial sports gambler ever.” Like The Times, some parts were interesting – Phil Mickelson gets a lot of print. But I didn’t care as much about his personal life or upbringing, I wanted to hear about the gambling strategies lol.
A Gentleman in Moscow
Amor Towles
It follows a Russian aristocrat sentenced to house arrest at a fancy Moscow hotel. It’s slow, but thoroughly enjoyable. My prediction is Towles will be remembered as one of our generation’s best writers. From Amazon reviews: “Gentleman” is eloquent, witty, thought provoking, poetic, and meaningful. It is a welcome relief from and an antidote to a world drowning in tweets, click journalism, hypocrisy, and selfies.
The Greatest Sentence Ever Written
Walter Isaacson
Short (like 50 pages) book on the history of the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Good if you like history. Heck, even if you don’t, maybe worth reading this year as it is the 250th anniversary of those words being written.
The Guns of August
Barbara Tuchman
This history book, which won the Pulitzer in 1963, re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict. The writing is wonderful — it was funny, which is not often said of a history book. But it got a little too deep into the military intricacies for me. I made it about 3/4th of the way through.
Harriet Backer: Every Atom is Colour
Art book on Norwegian artist Harriet Backer. She painted a lot of interiors, mostly of homes and churches. My takeaway (which I told Kate): We need to bring color back. There is too much white in houses these days (our house is no exception). That trend has to be reversing here soon, right? She uses the color green really well.
Hatchet
Gary Paulsen
I read this classic kids survival story after Johnny finished it and asked if I’d like to read. I liked it! Very appropriate for elementary/middle schoolers. Plot keeps moving, etc.
The Hidden Life of Trees
Peter Wohlleben
Wohlleben wrote this book in 2016 that discusses how trees communicate, feel, and live in social networks. I read it at the time and really liked it, so when I saw he converted it into a graphic novel, I bought it to see if the kids would like it. Overall, it’s good; though probably a little too “old” for elementary schoolers. Coolest thing I learned: beeches and oaks will dramatically slow down seed production for multiple years to try to thin out the animal species that eat their seeds. Then, once they’ve gotten rid of the animals (by starving them), they make tons of seeds! The way trees “think” (is that the right word?) long-term is incredible. Like I tell Kate, it’s the tree’s world, we are just living in it.
The Historian
Elizabeth Kostova
I first heard about this book from JD Greear probably 10 years ago and absolutely loved it. From our submitter: “Part thriller, part travelogue, part detective story, part love story. Not a short, fast read, but a book you can get lost in.” Plus they are galavanting through Eastern Europe. What could be better?
History Matters
David McCullough
Power Nap reader Meredith Vilarello of Simon & Schuster very kindly offered to send me a few books (thank you, Meredith!) of which this was one. Brief collection of McCullough’s essays, talks, etc. I have read a number of McCullough’s books over the years: Wright Brothers, Truman, John Adams, 1776, The Pioneers, Mornings on Horseback. This is a great little book for history lovers, with lots of excellent quotes I underlined. History remains underrated. As DM said: “I would be happy writing fiction. Real life, though, is so often so much more remarkable.”
The History of Sound
Ben Shattuck
Kate’s mom Berta recommended this one to me. It was a series of short stories that all take place between 1700-present day in and around Nantucket and the surrounding areas. The stories sort of overlap but aren’t really connected. I loved it! I think short stories are underrated. The writing was excellent, and there was a large nature component: birds, trees, flowers. There is something I love about reading about New England winters.
The Holly Gibney Series (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End of Watch, The Outsider, If It Bleeds, Holly)
Stephen King
I read all six this summer: Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End of Watch, The Outsider, If It Bleeds, Holly. My favorite was The Outsider. Great plot line and twist. If you’d rather watch the HBO Mini-Series from a few years back with Jason Bateman, it too is excellent. Next favorite was Finders Keepers. This book reminded me of The Goldfinch in that in both books a kid acquires something of tremendous value (in the Goldfinch, a painting. Here, an author’s unpublished manuscript to a famous trilogy.) and the kid has to figure out how to get rid of it (hopefully for $$). Of course, the Stephen King book also involves a murderer hunting him down.
The House in the Pines
Ana Reyes
Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they’d been spending time with all summer. Seven years later, her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank. How’s he doing it?
House of Morgan
Ron Chernow
Chronicles the rise, dominance, and eventual fragmentation of the JP Morgan banking empire. If you are one of the six people reading this who would like to read a 750 page history of the United States from post-Civil War to the 1980’s through the eyes of bankers, then this is your book.
How to Raise an Adult
Julie Lythcott-Haims
Written by a former dean of admissions at Stanford. While he’s not sure he’d recommend the book on the whole (like most books, he felt it was too long), he thought it did have some good principles, such as:
1.The primary danger for well-meaning parents in our society is not “under-parenting” (i.e., neglect), it’s “over-parenting,” never putting our kids in situations where they are likely to fail, face adversity, or be in danger. The best thing we can do for our kids is not to prevent them from failing, it’s to walk with them through failure so they learn the right lessons.
2. Giving kids self-directed, unstructured time to play apart from parents’ watchful eyes is good for them in the moment, and it develops their character and thinking ability. In other words, being bored is good for kids.
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies
Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares
The core thesis is: if even one actor succeeds in building a truly superhuman/general AI under present paradigms, humanity’s survival is extremely unlikely. I do think there is something to notion that if we build something 100x smarter than us than can inhabit robot bodies we are unlikely to be able to contain it. But I didn’t find the scenario given in the book to be that persuasive.
In Ascension
Martin MacInnes
I read this book last summer and liked it so much I decided to reread it. In my top 10 and highly recommend it if you like sci-fi. It follows a marine biologist who escapes a troubled childhood in Rotterdam to study ancient life at the bottom of the ocean and investigates a deep marine trench. Her work leads her to engineer algae for a top-secret space mission, and she eventually joins a spacecraft journey toward an anomaly beyond Pluto—only to encounter a cosmic twist that reframes her entire understanding of life’s origins.
In Ascension
Martin MacInnes
In the Bahamas, Nate read this book. It was one of the best books he’s read in the last few years. It’s a sci-fi novel that follows a Dutch scientist from deep sea to deep space as she explores where life came from and where it is going. The best parts were the moving descriptions of the life forms in the ocean — “The smallest of things and the vastest of things prickle with wonder.” Great if you, like all Hobbits, “love things that grow.”
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Susanna Clarke
A 2004 novel. Set in England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars, its premise is that magic once existed in England and has returned with two men: Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange. It was fairly long, but excellent, and listening was great since everyone has an English accent.
King: A Life
Jonathan Eig
Everyone knows the basic facts about MLK, but I learned a ton from this biography. What stood out most was how complicated “greatness” actually looks up close. King could be funny, irritable, terrified, strategic, and brave. His personal life was messy, too, and it’s hard not to imagine how he would have fared in the social-media age, where every flaw gets magnified. By the end, I realized he was both far more human and far more extraordinary than the simplified version I grew up with.
Kolymsky Heights
Lionel Davidson
Nate recently read this book. This is a somewhat obscure spy novel that is now out of print. A Russian scientist heads a research center in Siberia so secret it doesn’t officially exist; once there, the scientists are forbidden to leave. It’s about how that scientist can get a secret message to the one man who can help him, and how that man can get to the research center and back again without being caught. Takes you from Canada to Japan to Russia. Excellent. Can’t believe they haven’t made this into a movie.
The Last Samurai
Helen DeWitt
Nate recently finished this book. Her most recent book — the English Understand Wool — was one of his favorites of the past few years, so when he saw her name on the Best 100 list, he ordered it. Samurai was strange and not the easiest book to read (there is a lot of science and various foreign languages that fill pages and pages). It’s not for everyone. At its core, the story is about a single mom and her prodigy son and the son’s attempt to discover who his father is (and who he wishes it could be). The characters in the novel reminded him of a Dickens book — everything is taken to the extreme, but in an original way. Nate would like to meet Helen Dewitt. He thinks she must be half bonkers to write these kinds of novels, but to quote Lewis Carroll, here’s a secret: all the best people are.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
Kiran Desai
This book was a finalist for the Booker Prize (best fiction written in English). Someone I respect called it the “best book of the decade.” It’s about India, familial relationships, class, America, and more. There’s also a social satire running underneath: intellectual pretension, elite education, moral signaling, and the cruelty of people who believe they’re enlightened. I must say though—I keep trying to read these Booker finalists and, frankly, they are just kind of boring. Long. Maybe it’s going over my head? I don’t think I could recommend this one.
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry
Written in 1985, it’s a story about friendship, duty, and aging, carried brilliantly by the bond between Captain Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae—two retired Texas Rangers as different as can be, yet bound by loyalty. Their dynamic—Call’s stoic, unbending sense of honor and Gus’s wit and emotional depth—gives the novel its soul. It’s a rare book that’s both an adventure and a meditation on life, and it earns every page. To quote one review I read: “If you only read one Western your whole life, make it Lonesome Dove.” I highly recommend.
The Magicians
Lev Grossman
The front cover had a quote from George R.R. Martin (writer of Game of Thrones) that said: “The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. . . . Hogwarts was never like this.” That caught his eye, but Nate came away underwhelmed. There are two sequel books, but he isn’t going to read them.
The Mandibles
Lionel Shriver
This novel imagines a not-so-distant future where the U.S. economy collapses under the weight of debt and a new global currency regime takes hold. It follows four generations of a wealthy Northeastern family as their world crumbles. Honestly, I could see this being a good TV show. I would say I liked it but didn’t love it.
The Ministry of Time
Kaliane Bradley
I really liked the premise of this book. And I really liked the first 2/3rds or so. It’s part time travel, part romance, part spy thriller. But the ending just didn’t quite come together for me like I’d hoped. That being said, the last line was very good: “Forgiveness, which takes you back to the person you were and lets you reset them. Hope, which exists in a future in which you are new. Forgiveness and hope are miracles. They let you change your life. They are time-travel.”
The Name of the Wind
Patrick Rothfuss
Book 1 of 2. Reread (read this probably 10 years ago and was highly recommended at the time). It’s the story of a gifted but orphaned street urchin who becomes a master of magic, music, and myth, navigating a world of danger, secrets, and destiny. I don’t read a ton of fantasy but this one is very good. There used to be a rumor it was being made into a movie with Lin Manuel doing the music (the protagonist is a lute player). One can hope.
The Name of the Wind
Patrick Rothfuss
Recommended to me by my buddy Babes years ago. Takes place in an alternate universe. It’s long. But I remember being gripped by the story the same way I was gripped reading Harry Potter or the Hunger Games — I could not put it down.
The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, a Lifetime of Exploration
Darrin Lunde
A biography of TR, but from the perspective of his role as naturalist/outdoorsman. Teddy had a lifelong fascination with natural history and this book digs into his exploits in New England, the West, Africa, and more. Good if you like this kind of thing.
Never Flinch
Stephen King
The seventh edition in the “Holly Gibney” series, and I think it’s time to wrap it up. They seem to be getting worse as they go on. But some of them were quite good. If you only read one — and you don’t have to read them in order — read The Outsider.
Night Shift
Stephen King
Early collection of King’s short stories. I enjoyed them, like I enjoy most everything by Stephen King. It reads quickly. Some of them are definitely meant to be scary.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Neil Gaiman
Good but not great for me on a reread. I really appreciated how short and tightly told it is. In it, a middle-aged man revisits his childhood home and recalls a strange, magical summer when a mysterious girl and her family protected him from dark supernatural forces that slipped into his world. Interestingly, I found it more powerful as an audiobook than on the page—something I rarely say. Something about visualizing everything with my eyes closed, I think.
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
After LOVING East of Eden, I wanted to read another Steinbeck, and this one was short, plus I’d heard of it. Where East of Eden wrestles with big moral questions and human complexity, this one seems to be making the point that the American Dream is fragile for people at the bottom. From GPT: Steinbeck is asking “whether mercy is sometimes the only dignity left in a world that doesn’t offer much of it.” I never really got into it the same way I did with Eden.
Old Filth
Jane Gardam
Follows Sir Edward Feathers—nicknamed “Filth” for “Failed In London, Try Hong Kong”—a retired barrister whose tidy life hides a childhood marked by abandonment and quiet grief. Sent away from colonial Malaya to England as a “Raj orphan,” he builds a brilliant legal career but remains haunted by the emotional damage of empire and exile. It was funny and absurd in a way that reminded me both of Helen Dewitt’s The Last Samurai and The English Understand Wool and Dickens’ David Copperfield.
On the Calculation of Volume, Books 1-3
Solvej Balle
The first three of seven (short) books currently being translated into English. A French antique bookseller involuntarily steps off the train of time: in her world, November eighteenth repeats itself endlessly. She no longer experiences the changes of days, weeks, months, or seasons. I read it quickly. It is a hypnotic style of writing that I enjoy, reminding me a bit of another of my Scandinavian favorites: Karl Ove Knausgaard. Book 4 comes out in April.
Orbital
Samantha Harvey
Meditation set over 24 hours aboard the International Space Station. Lots of poetic language; too little plot for me. Try In Ascension if you are looking for something in this genre.
Original Sin
Jake Tapper & Alex Thompson
Details Joe Biden’s decline and ultimate decision not to run for President. I enjoyed this book a lot, mostly because I was able to remember all the events and it was interesting to hear a researched “inside scoop” of what was going on behind the scenes as decisions were made. Definitely not flattering to Joe or his entourage.
Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago
Another one. Some overlap with The Age of Picasso. Still enjoyable. If anyone has any tips on great art or art history books, send them my way.
The Paper Menagerie
Ken Liu
I told ChatGPT some books I like and then asked it what I should read. This is what it said. It’s a collection of short stories with a general sci-fi bent. I would say I liked it, but didn’t love it. Ted Chiang is better. Some of my favorite short stories in this collection: State Change and The Regular.
A Perfect Spy
John le Carré
Spy novel about a high-ranking British intelligence officer who disappears, triggering a manhunt that uncovers his complex, deceptive life shaped by his con-man father. This was highly recommended, but I could not get into it. Maybe it was because I listened (not read), but I could not keep up with all the backstory.
Personal History
Katharine Graham
Really enjoyed this autobiography. Graham is an interesting woman (if you remember the movie The Post, Meryl Streep plays her). She grew up very affluent in DC. Her father owned the Washington Post. Her husband took it over, and was a brilliant guy, but also a manic depressive before much was known about depression. He committed suicide and so she took over the Post in the 1970’s (when it was very rare for a woman to be running a large corporation). Ran the Company through Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, etc. Great friends with the Kennedys, with Lyndon Johnson, with Warren Buffett, and more. Her family sold the Post to Jeff Bezos in 2013, but took the proceeds and started a family run, publicly-traded company called Graham Holding Company (Ticker GHC). Nate went to the GHC annual meeting last summer. Big Graham family fan.
Picasso and Paper
Takeaway: Picasso was very odd.
Post-Impressionists Masterworks
Samuel Raybone
Features work by Cezanne, Gauguin, Manet, Seurat, Van Gogh, and others. Very basic overview of their philosophies and lives. Sort of hard to follow in parts (the parts about painting styles).
The Price of Time
Edward Chancellor
A history of interest rates. That sounds boring, and for most people it probably is. But I thought it was fascinating. I particularly enjoyed reading about the various booms and busts of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, most of which I knew little about.
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir
Nate flew through this one. Andy Weir’s other books (The Martian – you may know the movie with Matt Damon) and Artemis (about a heist on the moon) were good, but Nate liked this one the best. Project Hail Mary is about a lone astronaut who must save the Earth from disaster. Looks like they are making a movie of this book too – this time starring Ryan Gosling.
The Quiet American
Graham Greene
I’ve been meaning to read Greene for a while. The Quiet American follows a news correspondent in Vietnam and, on one level, it’s a love triangle, but it’s also about loneliness and aging, selfishness, and the damage done by people convinced they are helping. Overall: enjoyed. Deep, funny, and worth reading.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
David Epstein
Like most of these types of books, he thought it was too long. But the premise is interesting: while most “experts” push us and our kids towards specialization (“pick a sport, instrument, college major, etc. as early as you can”), a closer look at the research indicates that in most cases it’s generalists, not specialists, that are primed to excel.
Recursion
Blake Crouch
Nate continued his science fiction bender with this book. He read Crouch’s Dark Matter last year. Both deal with altering time. Recursion in particular involves an epidemic that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth—and in a remote laboratory, neuroscientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery. Together, Barry and Helena need to figure it out before they, and the world, are trapped in a loop of ever-growing chaos. 4/5 stars.
Run
Blake Crouch
A man, his family, a sudden catastrophe, and a nonstop flight across the American Southwest while something very bad hunts them. Once it starts, Run does exactly what the title promises. Short chapters, constant motion, zero downtime. Pure page-turner. Not my favorite Crouch book, but, like his others, it keeps you interested.
Same as Ever
Morgan Housel
I’m a big Morgan Housel fan. He has a special talent for exploring how emotions, psychology, and personal experiences shape financial decision‑making far more than technical knowledge ever could. I would recommend Psychology of Money over this one. Also, he has a new book that just came out called The Art of Spending Money that I am on hold for it on Libby.
School of Night
Karl Ove Knausgård
One of my favorite authors, this is book four in his “Morning Star” series. But you do not have to read books 1-3 to understand it. A very dark book about a Norwegian photographer in London who makes a Faustian bargain. A supernatural tale of ambition and its consequences. Like all of his books, not much seems to happen and yet I cannot put them down.
Sea of Tranquility
Emily St. John Mandel
Fun little time travel book. I liked it more than Ministry of Time, not as much as Stories of Your Life. I’ve also read two of her other books: The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven. Both good.
The Secret of Secrets
Dan Brown
The sixth and final Robert Langdon book (Tom Hanks in Da Vinci Code, if you’ve seen the movie). I love Dan Brown’s books: mystery, history, usually a big twist. This one drew me in quickly but then it sort of dragged. So hard to keep the quality of these types of “series” going. If they make a movie, I’ll still watch it.
The Serviceberry
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Argues that our economic system is out of alignment with the natural laws of reciprocity. Uses the serviceberry—a tree that feeds birds, animals, and humans alike—as a metaphor for what a “gift economy” might look like if we paid attention to how ecosystems actually work. Much of this sounds great in theory, but I think the devil may be in the details as to how this could feasibly be put into practice. I didn’t enjoy it.
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Carlo Rovelli
At 81 pages, it was brief… and good. Explaining things like relativity and quantum physics in a few pages isn’t easy. Nate’s favorite line was also – fittingly – brief: “Genius hesitates.” Recommend if you like science.
The Shadow of the Wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
I genuinely enjoyed this book. It’s a mystery that layers suspense, romance, and history in post WWII Barcelona.
Shantaram
Gregory David Roberts
This book takes you from an Australian prison to the Bombay slums to the caves of Afghanistan. It explores love, justice, forgiveness, friendship, and regret. Long, but very good. “The choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.”
Some Trick
Helen DeWitt
Nate loves Helen Dewitt (The Last Samurai, The English Understand Wool). But could not get into this collection of short stories. Didn’t finish.
The Sparrow
Mary Doria Russell
The story of a Jesuit mission to a newly discovered planet where music signals intelligent life. I really liked the build-up and the two timelines, going between the mission to the planet and the aftermath with a solo survivor making it back to Earth. The characters are well developed. The book is attempting to weave moral questions into the story: Does God care? Like most good stories, it leaves you with more questions than answers.
The Stand
Stephen King
Nate’s favorite book of 2022 was a 70 page novella titled The English Understand Wool. His favorite (so far) of 2023,was the Stand by Stephen King, coming in at just shy of 1200 pages. First published in 1978, the book is about the survivors of a superflu that kills almost everyone. But it’s much deeper than that. To quote one review, it has “adventure, romance, prophecy, allegory, satire, fantasy, realism, apocalypse.” Ultimately, it’s about good and evil, right and wrong, and what binds us together. 5 stars.
Stories of Your Life and Others / Exhalation
Ted Chiang
He loved these short story collections. Chiang explores topics like time, memory, religion, free will, and others using little “what-if” universes. One story is about a man climbing the Tower of Babel; another on what if you had the ability to jump forward or back in time 20 years to talk to yourself; one was the basis for the Oscar winner movie “Arrival.” Highly recommend if you like science.
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Theo of Golden
Allen Levi
This was probably the most-recommended book I’d ever gotten on the Power Nap. It’s about a man who comes to live in a small Southern town igniting personal stories, friendships, and a whirlwind of community connection. If I’m honest, I thought the first 3/4ths were very slow. But I loved the ending. And I would love to be more like Theo. This quote was probably worth the whole read: “His decision to live small made him larger than life.”
The Third Realm
Karl Ove Knausgård
Knausgård is an interesting guy. This is the third book about a bright star rising in the sky over Norway. Like the first two, it weaves together the lives of various characters in a somewhat confusing timeline. Not a lot happens but somehow I’m super glued into it and can’t put it down. To me that’s the sign you are reading a great writer. Here is GPT’s snarky review, which captures it well: “If you ever wondered what it’s like to read about someone buying Pepsi Max while the world teeters on the edge of supernatural collapse, this is your book.” I assume there’s another book coming — and I can’t wait!
The Times
Adam Nagourney
Tells the history of the New York Times over the last 40 years. Some parts were interesting: like how the paper made editorial decisions around things like 9/11. Other parts got a bit too into the weeds for me.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Gabrielle Zevin
Usually Nate wouldn’t be intrigued by a book about two kids who make video games. But that’s a sign of great writing: you can take a subject matter he wouldn’t normally be interested in, and he gets glued. He liked this one.
Trust
Hernán Díaz
This Pulitzer winner is unique in its structure. It took me a while to figure out the structure the author was using. It explores wealth, power, and perception through the intertwined narratives of a mysterious financier, his elusive wife, and the woman the financier hires to write his autobiography. As the book unfolds through multiple texts within the novel, it reveals how truth can be manipulated by those who control the narrative.
Unreasonable Hospitality
Will Guidara
This came recommended to me by multiple people. Story of how a New York restaurant is transformed from very good to world-class by obsessing—not over food—but over how guests feel. The “plot” is a series of concrete stories about going wildly out of the way for people, then systematizing that mindset into a culture that compounds. It’s part memoir, part management manual. Good, particularly if you like restaurateuring or run your own business.
The Unwinding
George Packer
Packer writes for the Atlantic and I recently read a (long) essay of his on migrants crossing the Darién Gap (a 60-mile stretch of roadless rainforest that connects the American continents in Colombia and Panama). I decided to read one of his books and enjoyed this one. The book uses lots of short biographies — everyone from a real estate agent in Tampa to Newt Ginrich to a factory worker in Ohio to Jay Z — as a means of discussing important forces in American history from 1978 to 2012. I thought it was solid, the short bios kept me engaged.
The Wager
David Grann
Non-fiction story of a British vessel (called the Wager) that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. It wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built a flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then, six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. Nate thought the first half was sort of slow, but it got better as the story progressed.
Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel
This also showed up on both lists (14 on readers, 3 on critics). It is historical fiction and the first in a trilogy. It follows Thomas Cromwell, who worked for Henry VIII. Lots of people I’d heard of but didn’t know much about show up in the book: Anne Boleyn, Thomas More, Thomas Cranmer, Tyndale, Luther, Pope Clement, Catherine of Aragon, Cardinal Wolsey, and more. Overall, I think I liked this. In retrospect, I wish I would have read it instead of doing an audio book. It was sort of hard to follow in spots (lots of people named Thomas, Ann, Mary, etc.).
The Wood at Midwinter
Susanna Clarke
This was a short novella (I read it in probably 30 mins) by the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (which I loved). It was not very good.
Wool (Silo, Book One)
Hugh Howey
Nate read this book for a book club he’s in and really enjoyed it. They have made a TV show on Apple Plus based on the book called Silo, which he hasn’t seen but has heard is good. Here’s the summary (paraphrased from Amazon): In a ruined and toxic future, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. But a series of fateful decisions means that the silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper: uprising. 4/5 stars.
The World for Sale
Javier Blas
This book lifts the lid on one of the least scrutinized corners of the world economy: the commodity traders who buy, hoard, and sell the earth’s resources including oil, gold, grain, cocoa, and more. Lots of stories, some of which were interesting.
Your Name Here
Helen DeWitt
Dewitt’s The Last Samurai (not the Tom Cruise movie) is, I believe, my favorite book. Her The English Understand Wool is in my top 5. But boy is her new book bad. Way too outside the box. Come back in the box, Helen. At least come back around the box. DNF (did not finish). Dewitt was featured in the last “Weird but Great” here at the Power Nap.
