It's impossible to begin the new year without mentioning the ten best books I read last year. There is no particular order here except for my top choice, which turned out to be one of the best books I ever read.
Here's the list:
1. Believe by Eric Le Grand. I'm always on a quest for books that will inspire teenage boys, and this is my pick for last year. Le Grand is a paraplegic who became crippled while playing American football for Rutgers. He was a promising athlete, but his true character emerged since this heartbreaking accident. His positive attitude through all adversity and his determination to walk again puts this on my list of top ten inspirational books. When Le Grand's coach, Greg Shiano, became the head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a professional American football team, Shiano drafted Le Grand as a free agent even though he could not play.
2. The Sugar Barons Family, Corruption, Empire, and War in the West Indies by Matthew Parker. Last year I read a lot of non-fiction for a project I'm working on, and this was a riveting read. The Sugar Barons examines West Indian history from the point of view of the development of the sugar industry. This is mostly the story before African slaves.
3. Thoughts Without Cigarettes by Oscar Hijuelos. One of the best autobiographies I read last year was this one by the famous Cuban-American writer best known for his novels Our House in the Last World and The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. Hijuelos documents his own writing journey with poignancy. He says, "I seem to recall having a sense that writing books was a noble pursuit, akin to bringing some light into the world..."
4. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. This is a classic I had never read because I always felt that bibliophiles had spoiled the ending for me. Everyone knows that Anna threw herself in front of a train at the end of the book, but there is still something shocking to discover about that act. Anna Karenina is a remarkable read. The tension and elegance of this novel is simply unbelievable.
5. Columbus The Four Voyages by Laurence Bergreen. Historians tell the same story over and over again, but this piece of history, like the Sugar Barons, looks at a time from an entirely different angle. Historians tend to focus on the destruction that Columbus's voyages brought. Bergreen examines the harsh, physical environment of the West Indies as the Spanish navigated their way in a New World.
6. Flight to Freedom African Runaways and Maroons in the Americas by Alvin O Thompson. The author manages to transcend the myths and misinformation about maroon societies while presenting an important and interesting part of West Indian history. All three of the history books on this list should be on the reading list for Cape Caribbean History students.
7. The Black Count-Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss by Alexandre Dumas. The author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo based his stories on his father, who was the son of a black slave mother and fugitive white French nobleman from Saint-Domingue (Haiti). He rose to the position of a general in Napoleon's army, but fell out of favour with Napoleon and was subsequently executed. This is a spellbinding biography of Alexandre Dumas's father.
8. The Life of Ian Fleming by John Pearson. This is my first Kindle read that I've added to a list. Pearson brilliantly dissects the character of Fleming in this detailed biography that reads like an excellent piece of journalism. (The author worked as a journalist under Fleming). Piecing together Fleming's notes, the author's own reminiscences, and interviews with Fleming's family and friends, Pearson creates a multi-tiered look at why Fleming created Bond and how the creation of that character affected Fleming's life and untimely death.
9. True Compass a Memoir by Edward M Kennedy. Written while Teddy Kennedy knew that he was dying, True Compass is both a bittersweet reflection of his life and a map of history that covers his life from his boyhood days of seeing a future president grow up through the Civil Rights Movement, Watergate and many decades of important US history. The writing reflects Kennedy's wry wit and charm.
10. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. This is the best book I read last year, and it's now on my all-time list of top five favourites. Ivey tells the tale of a lonely couple living in self-imposed exile in Alaska after the death of their child. One day, they make a snow child, and shortly after, a real child appears. Ivey bases her novel on an old Russian folktale which has many, alternative endings. Nearly every page will change your mind on whether or not the snow child is real. After you finish reading this novel, it will haunt you for weeks.
That's my top ten reads for last year. Here's to a brand new year of reading.