Tag: books

Reading and Watching in 2025 – Stuff I Liked

Reading

I read a couple dozen books this year. There were no duds in the bunch but these five books were the cream of the crop.

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow is a 1,000 page biography of America’s “first celebrity”. I’ll admit it helped that I had toured the Twain house in Hartford, Connecticut recently, but the book stands on its own.

Truman by David McCullough. Another 1,000 page biography by the master of popular American history. It deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize.

James by Percival Everett. This is a re-telling of the Huckleberry Finn (which I also reread in preparation). Very clever and insightful.

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. A history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century. Absolutely riveting. It literally gave me nightmares.

Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller. Miller is “stuck” after a failed romantic relationship. To get unstuck she researches the life of a remarkable scientist with an uncanny ability to overcome tragedies. What she learns about him, about American society, and about herself is mind blowing.

Watching

Looking back I was surprised at how many good shows, movies, and other things I watched in 2025. Here’s an abbreviated list of the best.

The American Revolution – A six-part, twelve-hour miniseries on how the US came to be. Another gem from Ken Burns with collaborators Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt.

Say Nothing – A nine-part miniseries based on the book of the same name (see above). Excellent but disturbing and depressing.

Andor Season 2 – Star Wars for grown ups. The prequel to Rogue One (which I also watched). Way better than that sounds. Featuring Diego Luna, Fiona Shaw, Stellan Skarsgard, Andy Serkis, Forest Whitaker, and Adria Arjona.

Michael McIntyre, Showman – A Netflix stand up special. Absolutely hysterical.

American Primeval – A tail of blood and hate and deliverance from director Peter Berg. Taylor Hirsch, long left in the dust after playing Tim Riggins in Berg’s Friday Night Lights, makes a stellar protagonist.

Train Dreams – The life of Robert Grainger, a logger, a railroad worker, and a hermit who’s story runs from the late nineteen century into the 1960s in the northwestern US. Absolutely wonderful. Great acting (Joel Edgerton, William H. Macy, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, among many others), great cinematography, great editing, great score.

A House of Dynamite – Kathryn Bigelow’s latest masterpiece about the 19 minutes after a nuclear warhead is launched toward the US. It is told from three perspectives: the military, the White House, and the President. Whoa.

Baseball. I watched dozens of Washington Nationals games, both in person and on TV. Utterly depressing how a team with such promise utterly failed to deliver. Fortunately, my interest in baseball was redeemed by an absolutely amazing World Series and The Comeback: Red Sox 2004, a three-hour documentary about the 2004 Red Sox post season with commentary from (among others) Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Affleck’s memories matched mine to a T.

Marching toward Natchez 2025

Reading

Truman by David McCullough. I had been reluctant to tackle this nearly 1,000-page biography only because of its enormity. I am a huge fan of McCullough both on the written page and from his work on PBS. (He narrated The American Experience and Ken Burns’s The Civil War.) This book took him ten years to write and it is a masterpiece. I’m sorry I waited so long to read it. Sadly, there remain only two McCullough books left for me to read.

The Greater Journey – Americans in Paris by David McCullough. So, I read one of them. This book chronicles the artistic, scientific, and diplomatic lives of Americans who lived in Paris in the nineteenth century. It bogs down in places as the author describes paintings and aspects of sculpture for pages on end. Still, I learned a lot about how art is made. The cast of characters is a who’s who of America. Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and dozens more. Not McCullough’s best but well worth the time.

Watching

While Democracy Turns – My wife and I have been watching the coverage of national politics on The Rachel Maddow Show, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, and The Daily Show. It seems amazing that we are only a couple of months into the madness of King Donald.

Daredevil – Born Again – For those of you (like me) who have felt that Marvel Studios has jumped the shark, think again. DBA is absolutely terrific. There are reports that the lead actors and at least one supporting actor insisted that scripts be re-written. The producers, to their credit, listened and the result makes for intense viewing. Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin are back. Oddly, most of the plot takes place in courtrooms and offices. Fight scenes are intense but brief and very violent. And each episode has a shocker in it that makes you want to watch the next one.

Tour Aotearoa – Mat Ryder and his trusty American sidekick John rode Aotearoa (New Zealand) from top to bottom in about a month and a half. Check it out.

Baseball – The Washington Nationals are back on the field to try to regain the glory of the 2010s. I’ve watched their first three games and let’s just say glory will be a couple of years in the future.

Riding

Most of the month I have been consumed with pre-tour anxiety. Is my 69 1/2-year-old body up to the task for riding nearly 500 miles in a week? Time will tell. Pray for tailwinds.

I rode 987 miles this month. I included seven long and long-ish rides (77, 63, 54, 53, 53, 50, and 44 miles), many of which were deliberately hilly affairs. The second 53-miler was today’s ride to take in the cherry blossoms in the Kenwood neighborhood of Bethesda. The ride back into a stiff headwind put the hurt on me. I only rode 36 miles indoors so I think it’s time for Big Nellie to come out of the basement. I am on track for 9,892 miles for the year.

The Trace awaits and The Mule abides.

January 2025 – Watching and reading and riding in a polar vortex

Watching

The Holdovers – Director Alexander Payne’s second collaboration with Paul Giamatti (the first was Sideways) about those left behind during Christmas break at a New England boarding school. Terrific.

American Primeval – A tail of blood and hate and deliverance from director Peter Berg. Mormons, the U. S. Cavalry, settlers, Shoshones, and Paiutes contest the Utah territory. Incredibly violent. Taylor Hirsch, long left in the dust after playing Tim Riggins in Berg’s Friday Night Lights, makes a stellar protagonist. Great cast, cinematography, and direction. Written by Mark L. Smith who also wrote The Revenant.

Michael McIntyre, Showman – A Netflix stand up special. Absolutely hysterical.

Rams – Disease breaks out among sheep herds in Australia. Flocks must be destroyed but one man keeps a ram and three ewes in a back room of his small house in defiance. Interesting tale staring Sam Neill (who is an actual sheep farmer in real life). We had trouble figuring out if it was meant to be a comedy.

Mat Ryder’s Tour of Aotearoa (New Zealand) – Mat’s at it again riding from the northernmost point in New Zealand all the way to the southernmost. Here’s the first five days, but the video series precedes his departure from Wales.

Football – I watched several NFL playoff games in preparation for the Super Bowl, otherwise I would not have a clue beyond Taylor Swift and such.

A nearly nightly binge of coverage of Trump’s first 100 days on MSNBC, CNN, and The Daily Show.

And the month ended with a horrific mid-air crash near National Airport. It brought back memories of a gloomy night, March 3, 1972, when a Mohawk Airlines turboprop flew over my head and, about a mile away, crashed into a house.

Reading

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman. The man who brought you The Thursday Murder Club is at it again with a new series about three unlikely (Osman’s stock in trade) crime solving partners. This is my first book of 2025, having waited three months so that my wife could buy it for me for Christmas. Well worth the wait. Witty. Clever. Loads of interesting characters. Someone is killing social influencers and the blood of Amy (one of the “We”) is found at the site of each murder. Who done it?

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Hadn’t read this since I was a tween. I got lost in the dialect back then. Liked it much more now but found some of the escapades went on ten pages too long. Precursor to reading James.

James by Percival Everett. A re-telling of the story in Huck Finn (mostly) from the perspective of Huck’s companion Jim. a runaway slave. I say “re-telling” because this book’s plot, especially in its second half. diverges from Twain’s narrative. James is worthy of all the praise heaped on it last year when it was published.

A Firing Offense by George Pelicanos. The first book by the much praised DC author. It’s a private eye novel set in DC in the early 1990s. Pelicanos captures the vibe in DC at the time to a t. A pretty impressive first novel. Half way through, I ordered his next two books which continue the boozy adventures of Nick Stefanos.

Nick’s Trip by George Pelicanos. The second Nick Stefano book by Pelicanos. Like the first one Nick takes on a case and solves a second for personal reasons. A literally incredible amount of alcohol is consumed by the characters who mostly remain functional and coherent despite their drinking. Still, this captures the vibe of the time and places (DC, southern Maryland).

Any Road Tour by me. I was between books so I decided to read the journal I created out of the nightly blog posts during my 2018 bike tour from Mount Vernon, Virginia to Portland, Oregon. It could use a little editing and a handful of photos are missing but it’s still not a bad read, if I do say so myself. I found that my memory had mixed up sequences and locations of events. Also, I seemed to think that I had far fewer headwinds than the entries suggest.

Riding

I managed a pretty decent month of riding despite snow and ice and the infamous polar vortex. I clocked 775 miles, riding 29 of 31 days. I rode indoors for 12 days on Big Nellie for the equivalent of 256 miles. Most of the rest was on The Mule at 398 miles. The switch to platform pedals really paid off this month. My feet are secure and I don’t have to find a way to jam them into toe clips. Also, the Catalyst pedals are proving to be well worth the money.

Reading 2023

As usually I read about two books per month, mostly when baseball was not being played. I am pretty pleased with my choices and those of my wife and daughter. I could have done without Ancestor Trouble though. I met David Goodrich at a book signing event and was glad I did. His On Freedom Road raised my awareness of the underground railroad in north central New York State through which I bike toured in June. The Winners, the final (I suspect) book in Fredrik Bachman’s hockey town series didn’t do much for me.

My top ten are in bold. Small Mercies was pretty good too.

January

American Lion: John Meacham

The Winners: Fredrik Bachman

Riverman – An American Odyssey: Ben McGrath

Dickens and Prince: Nick Hornby

Station 11: Emily St. John Mandel

February

The Secret Life of Bees: Sue Monk Kidd

Educated: Tara Westover

On Freedom Road: David Goodrich

Rough Sleepers: Tracy Kidder

March

A Hole in the Wind: David Goodrich

A Voyage Across and Ancient Ocean: David Goodrich

The Great Bridge: David McCullough

July

Your Inner Fish: Neil Shubin

August

American Ramble: Neil King, Jr.

Killers of the Flower Moon: David Grann

Small Mercies: David Lahane

September

Ancestor Trouble: Maud Newton

Crooked: Cathryn Jakobson Ramin

The Way Out: Alan Gordon and Alon Ziv

The Wager: David Grann

October

The Last Devil to Die: Richard Osman

An Immense World: Ed Yong

November

Brave Companions: David McCullough

December

The Path Between the Seas: David McCullough

A Truck Full of Money: Tracy Kidder

Mornings on Horseback: David McCullough

On the Street: Bill Cunningham

The Mystery Guest: Nita Prose.

Reading Season: Books and Blogs

Winter is a time for rest. I learned this as a distance runner in New England many years ago. Over time your body will thank you for not going out on a 20 degree day and trying to grind junk miles through gusting winds.

And baseball season is 85 days away.

So I read.

Mrs. Rootchopper gave me two books for Christmas: Michael Lewis’s The Undoing Project and Jeff Passan’s The Arm. I’ve read all but one of Lewis’s books. (Lewis is one of my go-to authors. Others are Nick Hornby, David McCullough, David Lodge, Tracy Kidder, John McPhee, Tom Wolfe, and Jon Krakauer.) This one is about the bromance between two academic psychologists who flipped economics on its ear by noticing that people do not behave rationally, and they are irrational in predictable ways. I finished this book on Friday while riding Big Nellie in the basement. (I read faster when my legs are moving. I swear.)

Passan’s book is an investigation into the epidemic of torn ulnar collateral ligaments among baseball pitchers. These pitcher have what is known as Tommy John surgery. Long- time baseball fans will remember that the orthopedic kiss of death for pitchers used to be a torn rotator cuff in the shoulder. Not anymore. So Passan’s book looks at the inane history of baseball and sports medicine. (For a while, it was thought that sore arms were caused by infections from the mouth. So injured pitchers had some teeth pulled. I am not making this up.)

I am also reading blogs. I have a long list on the right that is in no particular order. My favorite blogs these days include:

BlissfulBritt: I have become addicted to this one about a twenty something perpetual college student and erstwhile barista in Seattle. Britt’s bliss is often illusive but the quality of her writing and photography is ever present. And I’d kill to go on a hike with her.

My Year with Kerouac: Michelle is another twenty something blogger who coordinates events for our local bike advocacy organization. She loves the beats and tats and cats. And writes wonderfully. Somewhat like Britt, she’s in search of something more profound in her life than the daily grind. (Ooh, a pun.) She’s a banquet.

Wakeupshakeup: Katie is between successes as they say. She quit her job after feeling worn down and disrespected. What next? For now it’s odd jobs and writing gigs and interviewing “responsible adults” for insights into how to get on board the train to happy success or successful happiness.

Revrunner: I have no idea who this blogger is but (I think it’s a woman) she takes great photos mostly of the DC area (the DMV) and occasionally other places. She has a great eye for making the mundane look intriguing.

Smilecalm: Whenever I feel the need to get my woo woo on, I read Smilecalm. Half the time I don’t have a clue what it’s about. Other times it strikes a chord in me. The photos are wonderful.

And since I live in DC and ride a bike, there are three go-to bloggers I read regularly.

Chasing Mailboxes: Mary’s writing and photography captures her inner being, the one every distance runner and cyclists has a running mental conversation with. Her inner child often makes an appearance between the lines or in a picture (especially when she jumps for joy). She sometimes writes about long distance running and it evokes strong memories in me of my running days some 30 years and one knee pop ago. Mary, as the superhero Coffeeneur, runs two annual friendly competitions: the Coffeeneuring Challenge and the Errandonnee. Originally intended as a DC thing, they quickly went global. Try them. But you must follow the rules!

Tales from the Sharrows: Brian is a notorious rule-phobe who started this blog as a blow-by-blow account of his bike commutes across DC. How he remembered the details of his rides is beyond me. In recent years, he’s written more broadly but always with quirky wit. He also writes a bicycle advice column for the local free weekly newspaper. It’s called Gear Prudence. Feel free to submit a question.

The Washcycle: From time-to-time this blog has gone dormant, but it has started kicking its heels up again. Washcycle posts are in depth reports of interest to the DC cycling advocacy community. Lord, that sounds dull. It’s not. I don’t know where he gets his material from but there are maps and annotated photos and links galore to help you get your inner bike advocacy wonk on.

Finally, I read  Adventure Cyclist and National Geographic from cover to cover. I highly recommend National Geographic’s latest issue on Gender. It’s especially interesting if you are or have been or plan to be a parent.

Okay, time for me to head into the basement for some active reading on Big Nellie.

Feel free to recommend blogs or books to me in the comments section. I am always looking for new ground for my eyes to cover.