Mark Kurlansky
Amazon: Paperback | Audio
416 pages | 13.75 hrs

David Ogilvy
Amazon: Paperback
192 pages

Ryan Holiday
Amazon: Hardcover | Kindle | Audio
336 pages | 11.8 hrs

Terence Rattigan
Abebooks: Hardcover | Kindle | Audio
128 pages

Edmond Rostand
Abebooks: Hardcover
80 pages

In Romantics, Edmond Rostand reimagines the cliché star-crossed lovers tale via a hilarious three-act comedy. Percinet and Sylvette, teenage neighbors in love, take turns secretly reading Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to one another day after day. Their situation is tragically similar, with their two backyards separated by a tall brick wall, built out of mutual hatred shared by their fathers.

But in the opening act's twist, we the audience learn that the fathers are actually best friends, ones who've staged this charade and built the wall in an elaborate plot of reverse psychology. They want their son and daughter to marry, and think that the rebellious youth will fall for one another only if it's forbidden and the chances of being together are sufficiently bleak.  ​

Read my full recommendation for Romantics here.
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Alston Chase
Amazon: Hardcover | Paperback
486 pages

Mary Shelley
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle | Audio
288 pages | 8 hrs

2018 marks the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein. I'm not sure what's more impressive — that to this day, it consistently ranks in the top 100 novels of all time across the world, or that Mary Shelley was only eighteen when she completed it.

Don't let the cliche halloween costumes fool you--Frankenstein is a cerebral and haunting exploration of the angels and devils inside both Dr. Frankenstein, and his Creation. I also loved the epistolary format of the text; the events are told through letters, diary entries, and oral testimonies.

You can my full recommendation for Frankenstein here.
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David Bellos
Amazon: Hardcover | Kindle | Audio
336 pages | 12.2 hrs

This is the best biography I've ever read—and it's about a book. The book with the biggest deal of its time. The book with the most translations and adaptations to this day. Les Misérables.

In "The Novel of the Century," David Bellos explores its ideation, creation, publication, and marketing with both broad and delicate Hugo-esque brushstrokes. I've never taken more notes on a book than this one. "I do not know whether [my book] will be read by all, but I wrote it for everyone," Hugo said in his time. "The sores of the human race, these running sores that cover the globe, don't stop at red or blue lines drawn on the map. Wherever men are ignorant and desperate, wherever women sell themselves for bread, wherever children suffer for want of instruction or a warm hearth, Les Misérables knocks on the door and says, 'Open up, I have come for you.'" And Bellos shows that it's come for the 21st century too. 

You can read the rest of my recommendation for The Novel of the Century here.

Jennifer Ackerman
Amazon: Hardcover | Kindle | Audio
345 pages | 12 hrs

There are roughly 400 billion birds on earth. That's 80 per human. And yet, for as plentiful, resourceful, and resilient as the feathered species are, author and "bird nerd" Jennifer Ackerman contends we still know very little about them—and worse, largely dismiss them. "Our language reflects our disrespect. Something worthless or unappealing is 'for the birds.' An ineffectual politician is a 'lame duck.' To 'lay an egg' is to flub a performance. To be 'henpecked' is to be harassed with persistent nagging. 'Eating crow' is eating humble pie. The expression 'bird brain,' for a stupid, foolish, or scatterbrained person, entered the English language in the early 1920's because people thought of birds as mere flying, pecking automatons, with brains so small they had no capacity for thought at all. That view is a gone goose."

Birds make tools. They count. They imitate behaviors of other birds and even humans. They invent new solutions to old problems. They remember where they put things—especially the Western scrub jay which can recall up to 33,000 winter food caches. They can anticipate and guard against storms. They exploit opportunities. They make nests according to certain esthetic standards, even in the absence of females and the chance of mating...These incredible feats and others suggest profound mental capacities and abilities, ones comparable to those found in some primates.

Weighing it at a featherlight 250 pages, The Genius of Birds is rich with eight self-contained chapters, that explore a trove of anecdotal observations, neurological studies, fascinating experiments, and lots of open questions.
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I finished this book sitting on a bench overlooking Lake Rancho Santa Margarita at sunset. A Canadian goose honks from the distant bank at a man, until joined by what might be its mate. And across the water, closer to me, a chorus of bold sparrows sing atop a pair of swaying palm trees and the adobe roof slats of the local Starbucks. I will never look at or listen to a bird the same way again.

You can read the rest of my recommendation for The Genius of Birds here.

Jordan Peterson
Amazon: Hardcover | Kindle | Audio
409 pages | 15.8 hrs

The internet's pre-eminent father figure (and SJW nemesis), Dr. Jordan B Peterson, has written an unconventionally inspiring and instructive manual for dealing with life, career, romance, family, and personal meaning. I've found a tremendous amount of practical insights from his analysis of biblical and archetypal stories, his mining of history to courageously look at mankind in its worst moments, and his synthesizing of biological and psychological research to understand how societies fail and function. Because of Peterson, I'm not as lazy, messy, bitter, resentful, angry, and pitiful. I see the implications for such chaos a bit more clearly. I hope others begin to help themselves too. 
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Michael Crichton
Amazon: Hardcover | Kindle | Audio
409 pages | 15.8 hrs

John Lewis Gaddis
Amazon: Hardcover | Kindle | Audio
409 pages | 15.8 hrs

Yale Professor and Cold War expert John Lewis Gaddis' On Grand Strategy is a masterclass in leadership. Organized into ten self-contained, tightly-bound chapters, the book serves as a primer on grand strategy with historical examples from ancient China, Greece, Persia, and Rome, up through medieval Europe, Elizabethan England, Napoleon's Europe, Lincoln's Union, and leaders of the 20th Century. With spectacular flourishes, Gaddis weaves together the war meditations of Clausewitz and Sun Tzu with Machiavelli's discourses on statecraft, FDR's geo-political maneuvering, and Tolstoy's employment of interconnected narratives, mapping the mindset needed to achieve great ends. ​

You can read the rest of my recommendation for On Grand Strategy here.
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Ian Fleming
Amazon: Hardcover | Kindle | Audio
409 pages | 15.8 hrs

Lawrence Anthony
Amazon: Hardcover | Kindle | Audio
409 pages | 15.8 hrs

In South Africa, rogue elephants are shot. So when Lawrence Anthony, "the Indiana Jones of conservation," was asked to take in a whole herd in 1999—a herd who had tried to escape from their owners many times and seen their leader killed by humans, he knew his answer was the animals' life or death sentence.
Fighting off desperate poachers, building electric fences from scratch, protecting other creatures on the reserve, treating various sicknesses—Anthony's obstacles were endless. And perhaps most difficult of all was achieving what few humans ever have with rogue elephants: heal their trust in humans.

You can read the rest of my recommendation for The Elephant Whisperer here.
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Margaret Atwood
Amazon: Hardcover | Kindle | Audio
409 pages | 15.8 hrs

Watership Down began as a story told by a father to his two daughters on a long car ride through the English countryside. Riveted by the adventures of a band of desperate, heroic rabbits trying to survive, the daughters convinced their father to finish it. Richard Adams did two years later. Three publishers turned it down, but the fourth, Rex Collings, took a chance on the mythological, anthropomorphic tale, despite the genre having fallen out of fashion by the early seventies. Within three years though, it had sold over a million copies worldwide. Nearly fifty years later, it remains a bestseller. 
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I first cracked open this book in Mrs. White's 8th Grade English class at Stetson Middle School in West Chester, PA. I loved Bigwig's bluntness, Dandelion's nighttime stories, and Hazel's leadership then. And now, sixteen years later and 3000 miles westward, I still bemoaned Fiver's seizure-visions, excitedly devoured the hero-myths of El-ahrairah, the cleverest rabbit of them all, and nail-bit my way through General Woundwart's orderly, yet dystoican vision of the world. 

Far from merely childish or escapist fantasy, Watership Down with its cast of creatures explores the universal needs, desires, and fears of humans, and spotlights them with a fresh, heightened sense of wonder. The friendship of Bigwig and Hazel, the terrifying danger of a black cat in the night or a group of men with a bulldozer, the gathering and telling of old stories to face the storm outside, the longing for a distant dream and the discipline to reach it, the mysteries of death and the afterlife—all these events and themes stitch together this beloved odyssey of rabbits and help map our own. ​[JG]
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{*} "The scent of apple blossom was plain enough. Then he picked up the fainter smells of buttercups and horses. Mingled with those came another. Although it made him uneasy, he could not tell for some moments what it was. A dangerous smell, an unpleasant smell—a totally unnatural smell—quite close outside: a smoke smell—something was burning. Then he remembered how Bigwig, after his reconnaissance on the previous day, had spoken of the little white sticks in the grass. That was  it. A man had been walking over the ground outside." 

{*} "By early afternoon, there was a stillness of hear, and a head of cows from the higher fields slowly grazed their was down into the shade." 

{*} "Love the animals. God has given them rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Don't trouble it, don't narrow them, don't deprive them of their happiness, don't work against God's intent." — Dostoyevsky, The Brother's Karamazov

{*} "A great hrududu (car) came into the field from the lane. It wasn't the one the men came in. It was very noisy and it was yellow—as yellow as charlock: and in front there was a great silver, shining thing that it held in its huge front paws. I don't know how to describe it to you. It look like Inle (death), but it was broad and not so bright. And this things—how can I tell you— it tore the fields to bits. It destroyed the field." 

{*} "The Black Rabbit spoke with the voice of water that falls into pools in echoing places in the dark." 
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In most parts of Africa, rogue elephants are shot.

So when Lawrence Anthony was asked to take in an entire herd of rogues in 1999, he knew his answer meant a life or death sentence to the pachyderms. Even if he did adopt the elephants, Anthony and his team would have to overcome great obstacles to safeguard them. They would have to fight off desperate poachers, build electric fences from scratch, fend off other animals on the reserve, treat various sicknesses; most importantly, Anthony would have to do what few humans have ever have with damaged elephants: heal their trust in humans. Or else. 

Thula Thula, Anthony's game reserve, means "peace and tranquility," but it was a flurry of activity and worry in the two weeks leading up to the drop-off. Helicopter herding, not-strong-enough-tranquilizer guns, trucks breaking down in knee-high mud, infiltrating poachers and sellout-staff-members, electric power outages, stampeding matriarchs—the early months were rough-going. But there on the plains of South Africa, over the course of twelve years, Anthony slowly earned the trust of Frankie, Nana, Mnumzane, and the others. In The Elephant Whisperer, Lawrence Anthony recounts: 
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• The time the daughter elephant of the previously killed Matriarch, Frankie, nearly killed Anthony on a quad bike out of fear; a year later she was parading her healthy calf to him outside his home.
  
  
• The herds' curiosity with metal texture, especially on cars. They pull on antennas, slobber on windshields, and run their trunks over the brushed smooth Jeep hoods.
  
  
• How Anthony's 5 oz. newborn kitten chased the herd away from the fence; only to then be charged herself, sniffed, and fanned by flapping ears. 
  
  
• When fires threaten the entire reserve and man, dog, elephant, and crocodile alike bond at the river together. 
  
  
• The disturbing tendencies of bullying and power-maneuvers amongst elephants, alongside the familial loyalty and commitment. 

The Elephant Whisperer recounts these harrowing and uplifting experiences and others via a page-turning, afternoon-sized commitment that left me daydreaming about my own African adventure and browsing for flights. [JG]

Originally published in the fall of 1988 through early '89 via a series of ten black-and-white episodes, V For Vendetta has been reborn since then in brilliant full color—and eventually onto the silver screen. The anarchist hero, V, gracing his iconic Guy Fawkes mask has become a familiar face in pop culture's pantheon.

Since the early 2000s, they've also been worn not just on Halloween but at countless political protests cross the globe by individuals on both the left and the right. The mask, I think to most people, represents rebellion against real or perceived oppressions—with a dash of theatrics and sinisterness mixed in. I've always found this fascinating—that it's adopted by so many different crusaders. And so, I wanted to meet the man behind the mask. 

Reading V's legend written by  Alan Moore (Watchmen, Miracle Man, The Swamp Thing) and brought to life with the gritty, stylized visuals of David Lloyd was surprisingly philosophical; much more so than the movie adaptation made it out to be. Darker too. The dystopian world V is plotting to bring down—a fascist England that has criminalized various "deviant" behavior and watches everyone via its network of cameras, bugged phones, and patrolling finger-men—was probably my favorite aspect. The villain was embodied via the Supreme Leader and his henchmen, but the power of the system was oozing from every page, on every dimly-lit street corner and in every home's telephone and TV. The sense of dread, not knowing who to trust, if you're being watched, how you'll ever have a private moment or conversation or differing opinion, and the feeling that it was all inescapable—or worse, that people stopped seeing it after a while—was fantastic characterization of the landscape. By building up the system, V's mask shines that much brighter, promising to get the last smile. [JG]