I have always been a voracious reader even though I tend to read slowly for physical reasons. I also have a habit of reading several books simultaneously which helps to keep me from losing interest in any one of them. Rarely do I set a book aside and fail to complete it but sometimes I may set it aside for a year or more before I pick it back up.
Since I retired as a school superintendent on June 30, 2017, I have had an appetite for historical works and in particular biographies. I learned from an author that reading biographies is a better way to learn about our history since it becomes more personalized. Great biographical authors will detail events as they were interacted in, with, or by the principle subject. So far, I have found that to be true.
There are other topics that I take an interest in that are included in the list below. Some are related to my passion as a local historian, others to my continuing interest in our public education system. For better or worse, here is my list which includes at the end the three books I'm currently reading. And just a note, regardless of how it looks reading is certainly not the only activity I'm engaged in but it is certainly one I enjoy.
Part I: Books I have read since 7/1/17 (not necessarily in order):
Ullrich, Volker. Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939
McAfee, Andrew. Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing our Digital Future
Termin, Peter. The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejidice and Power in a Dual Economy
Formisano, Ronald P. Plutocracy in America: How Increasing Inequality Destroys the Middle Class and Exploits the Poor
Kelly, Kevin. The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces that Will Shape Our Future
Callahan, David. The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Guilded Age
Wadhwa, Vivek. The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future
Lewis, Michael. The Undoing Project: A Friendship that changed Our Minds
O’Reilly, Bill. Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence
Avlon, John P. Washington’s Farewell: The Founding father’s Warning to Future Generations
Orvell, Miles. The Death and Life of Main Street: Small towns in American Memory, Space and Community
Anderson, Sherwood. Poor White
Davies, Richard O. Main Street Blues: The Decline of Small-Town America
Vance, J.D. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
Kirk, Stephen. First in Flight: The Wright Brothers in North Carolina
Sobel, Robert. Coolidge: An American Enigma
Lewis, Sinclair. Main Street
Whyte, Kenneth. Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times
Stampp, Kenneth M. America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World
Hilton, George. The Electric Interurban Railways in America
Grant, H. Roger. Electric Interurbans and the American People
Chernow, Ron. Grant
Cooper, William J. Jr. The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics
Meijer, Hendrik. Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century
Lewis, Sinclair. It Can’t Happen Here
Hitchcock, William I. The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s
Greenberger, Scott S. The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur
Illich, Ivan: Deschooling Society
Merry, Robert W. President McKinley: Architect of the American Century
Hutchinson, Alex. Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance
Gave, Keith. The Russian Five: A Story of Espionage, Defection, Bribery and Courage
Caplan, Bryan. The Case Against Education: Why the Education system is a Waste of Time and Money
Dintersmith, Ted. What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers across America
Robinson, Ken. You, Your Child, and School: Navigate Your Way to the Best Education
Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick. Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us about Raising Successful Children
Burcar, Colleen. It Happened in Michigan: Remarkable Events that Shaped History
Lewis, Tom. Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life
Borneman, Walter R. Polk: The Man who Transformed the Presidency and America
Meacham, Jon. The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels
Fallows, James M. Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America
Churchwell, Sarah. Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream
Rosen, Jeffrey. William Howard Taft: The American Presidents Series: The 27th President, 1909-1913
Mayer, Milton Sanford. They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45
Jeffers, H. Paul. An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland
Strauss, William. The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us about America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny
Potter, David M. The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861
Socol, Ira; Moran, Pam; Ratliff, Chad. Timeless Learning: How Imagination, Observation, and Zero-Based Thinking Change Schools
White, Ronald C. Jr. A. Lincoln
White, Richard. Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
Lewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me
Hoock, Holger. Scars of Independence: America’s Violent Birth
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden
Cooper, John Milton Jr. Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
Beschloss, Michael R. Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from 1807 to Modern Times
Stoddard, Francis R. The Truth about the Pilgrims
Baker, Bruce D. Educational Inequality and School Finance: Why Money Matters for America’s Students
Halberstam, The Fifties
Boles, John B. Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty
Westover, Tara. Educated
Hetherington, Marc. Prius or Pickup? How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide
Meltzer, Brad. The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington
O’Reilly, Bill. Killing the SS: The Hunt of the Worst War Criminals in History
Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Dourcet, Armand. Teaching in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Standing at the Precipice
Luxenberg, Steve. Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey from Slavery to Segregation
Philbrick, Nathaniel. The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Part II: Books I am currently reading as of 4/11/19:
Philbrick, Nathaniel. Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution
Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
Kelly, Joseph. Marooned: Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a New History of America’s Origin