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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 of Notting Hill and it reminded me of why I enjoyed Lorr’s book so much: the grocery store of every age is a little miracle and we so often take for granted that we can waltz into a building and come out with the ingredients we need, sourced from all around the world, to make our meals. Lorr takes us behind the curtain, and you won’t like what you see. Bookshop. Goodreads review.
The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth about Food and Flavor Mark Schatzker — This was a book I have gifted to multiple people since I’ve read it and like many of the best food books I’ve read in my life, has caused changes in my diet. Animals don’t read books about diet or nutrition, but somehow have a sense of what to eat and when to eat it. Did you know that humans do too, and that we can blunt that sense by too often consuming some of the frankenfoods we eat today? Bookshop. Goodreads review.
