41 Books For Your 2023 From My 2022 Reads
So my pandemic-fueled days of reading have passed, and while I still managed to crest over 100 books read last year, I’m nowhere near the 200 I read in 2020 or the 150 I read in 2021. But it’s not about quantity, is it? It’s about the ones that stay with you. From the 120 or so that I read in 2022, here are the 41 I think you should consider, arranged by category.
Investigative Journalism (5)
Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion Gary Webb — The book on the CIA helping to deal drugs and its hand in the crack epidemic in the US. It’s a long read, but one more example of how the US government and its agencies are out of control and accountable to no one. Audible Audio. Goodreads review.
Guilty Admissions: The Bribes, Favors, and Phonies behind the College Cheating Scandal Nicole LaPorte — A lot of the backstory behind “Operation Varsity Blues,” the investigation that revealed the pay-for-play world in college admissions from sports recruiting lies to test-taking fraud. This book indirectly asks the question: when will the obsession with attendance at 4-year universities in America end? Bookshop. Goodreads review.
The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket Benjamin Lorr — I recently read G.K. Chesterton’s The Napoleon…