It's been sixteen years since discovering the novel Eragon and almost stumbling into the real life fairy-tale surrounding its publishing. Back in August 2002, my best friend Dan's family and I road-tripped from Philadelphia to a small town in Montana called Paradise Valley near Yellowstone National Park. Somewhere during the bison-induced traffic jams, altitude sickness, and late-night Nerts marathons, I managed to drag Dan downtown and into a dusty bookstore. There, to our amazement, we learned from the owner that a local boy named Christopher Paolini, who was not much older than us, had self-published a novel about a sapphire blue dragon.

​Already the local celebrity, Paolini was on the cusp of hitting the national stage, thanks to another young boy, the son of writer Carl Hiaasen, who had bought a copy to read during his own family's road trip to Yellowstone. Surprised by his son's sudden interest in reading, Hiassen passed it along to his editor at Random House. Fast forward through not one but four #1 New York Times bestsellers and a painfully long, seven-year hiatus, Paolini has returned, finally, to his teenage creation.

The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm is a dazzling constellation of short stories set in the magical world of Alagaësia. Rather than continue linearly from The Inheritance Cycle's ending, the stories sample from all four corners and cultures of the map, delving into Dwarf cave-ins, soaring into Urgal mountaintop myths, trekking the southern terrain via the series' most complex character, and even excerpting from the childhood adventures of our favorite witch. Returning to Alagaësia after so long and spending an afternoon wandering alongside both new and familiar characters made me feel like a kid again and woke in me a deep sense of gratitude for Mr. Paolini and all the real-life magic of that road trip with Dan to Montana. If this one isn't in the cards for you, maybe it's the perfect New Years kick-in-the-pants needed to finally revisit your own stack of childhood favorites. I'll be sure to do the same.

Wherever you land, happy reading and cheers to 2019! [JG]

"In my dreams I always do it right."

— Mace Windu, Shatterpoint

In the climax of Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Senator Amidala find themselves trapped in the Circus of Horrors on the planet Geonosis. They're each chained to their own execution column facing down three monsters charging toward across the blood-red sand. Each one is as lethal as the next. The killings are seconds away and the arena, packed with thousands of spectating Geonosians, erupt in cheers. High up in a private balcony, Count Dooku looks on with malice, joined by Jango Fett, the most deadly bounty hunter in the universe, along with some other worm-like conspirators. These leaders are on the eve of launching a secret attack that will shatter the Galactic Republic, which has stood for a thousand years. In a purple flash, Mace Windu ignites his lightsaber beneath Jango's neck. 

The Jedi Master has snuck into the arena to save his friends. He does, and kills Jango Fett easily, but Dooku and the other conspirators escape. It's this missed opportunity that haunts Mace Windu when Shatterpoint begins six months later. The Battle of Geonosis was a resounding victory for the Grand Clone Army of the Republic, but one that incurred too many Jedi casualties, and, Mace believes, one that he could have entirely prevented. If instead he had dropped a bomb to kill the Separatist leaders, his friends included, the entire galaxy would have been spared from civil war. Or, if he had infiltrated the arena box and instead twitched his lightsaber to kill not Jango, but Count Dooku, he would have prevented the future deaths of millions by giving his own. "The Jedi are keepers of the peace, not soldiers," Windu had said earlier in Episode II, but now, every Jedi is needed for the war effort—because of his errors.

Windu's regrets extend to his former padawan, Depa Billaba, who has since been sent to the jungle planet Haruun Kal to help train and local tribes and lead them in a guerrilla war against the Separatists. Billaba seems to have completed her mission, but after the enemy withdraws from the system she has mysteriously not returned to Coruscant. Worse, a hologram shows what appears to be a civilian massacre with corpses bearing the kill-wounds of a lightsaber.  Master Yoda tasks Windu with ascertaining the truth, and if necessary, arrest Billaba and return her to be tried and sentenced for war crimes. 

Windu's Heart-of-Darkness-like journey into the mountains and jungles of Haruun Kal is a dramatic tale that single-handedly expands George Lucas' universe greater than any other Star Wars fiction I've come across. The deep, psychological maturity that Stover uses to characterizes Windu, his allies, his enemies, and the majestic yet deadly planet of Haruun Kal is spellbinding. And the philosophy and moral code of the Jedi is explored and dramatized powerfully by the events, bolstering the prequels' one-line aphorisms. I first picked up Shatterpoint when I was thirteen or so, just after Episode II was released, and (re)reading it again this month had me feeling like a kid again. The Force is strong with this one. [JG]
 ​

The internet's pre-eminent father figure, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, has written an unconventionally inspiring and instructive manual for dealing with 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.

Perhaps my favorite section of the book was "Rule 7: Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)." This chapter speaks to one of the most ancient stories, Cain and Abel, and its ideas of competence, envy, and destruction. The tragic tale of two brothers, the competent Abel and less-so Cain, who comes to resent God because his offerings are not as favored as Abel's own, finds, Peterson contends, significant relevance in our current culture of entitlement with its cries for equal outcome and fetish for emotional offense. "Long ago, in the dim mists of time, we began to realize that reality was structured as if it could be bargained with," and if reality finds your offerings wanting, resentment can only lead to destruction of oneself and others. "Not all sacrifices are of equal value," Peterson writes, and we should forget this ancient wisdom at our own 21st century peril.

Structured into eleven more harrowing, yet at-times humorous chapters, ​​Twelve Rules for Life distills the author's clinical work, university teachings, and other life experiences in order to map a path for sorting out one's strengths and weaknesses, setting one's own house in order, and improving the world that much more because of it. Peterson's message of personal empowerment through humbling self- and historical-knowledge is the call to action that much too much of us need, but many still want. [JG] 

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.
​

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.
​

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.
​
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. 
​

Michael Crichton
Amazon: Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle | Audio
466 pages | 4 hrs

John Lewis Gaddis
Amazon: Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle | Audio
388 pages | 11.2 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.
​

Ian Fleming
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle | Audio
283 pages | 7.9 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.
​

Margaret Atwood
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle | Audio
311 pages | 11 hrs