2025 Books

 

The Hacking of the American Mind by Robert Lustig

About sugar and addictions. Now I always notice when I or someone else urge treats on young kids, like evil drug dealers. 

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

based on the Diary of Martha Ballard, which was also studied by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

re-read

The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne

a top read

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Sage read this for school. Helped me get inside the head and heart of a contemporary Black American man. 

Rough Stone Rolling: A cultural biography of Mormonism's founder by Richard Lyman Bushman

Book club with Mike, Oak and Shar. I find Joseph Smith's confidence stunning and sobering. 

Vision by David S Tatel

Autobiography of Judge David Tatel, insight into how the the US Court of Appeals works, which impressed me greatly, the process for choosing law clerks and judges, progressive blindness, analysis of the current political-legal situation in the US, Voting Rights Act, Clean Air Act, Major Questions rule. 

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt  

Yes

Chip War by Chris Miller

Why semiconductors are the new oil, and the necessary intertwining of our fates as countries if we can't continue to find ways to work together. Humans are building a modern-day pyramid together - something unbelievably difficult and requiring a concerted effort by thousands of people. 

Habits of a Peacemaker by Steven Collis

practical 

Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed

I picked this up because Joyce read it for school. Memorable.  

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 

Finished in a tent at Hancock Flat; tears running down my face, of course. 

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Classic book to have finished just the day before Nana and Gramps had their own memorable "inheritance" family meeting.

Stowaway by Karen Hesse 

Listened with Joyce on the other AirPod on the way home from Bear Lake.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K.Rowling

Continues to be our Saturday-morning-clean-the-house series. 

The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan

Made me doubt my education, or, at least, realize that it was a partial and "western" education. This book re-focuses world history with Central Asia at the epicenter (the five "stans," Afghanistan, eastern Iran). 

Awareness by Anthony de Mello

interesting to contrast with Nonviolent Communication

The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre

Some real momentum at the end, boy.

Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber

right here in Denver

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

My heart went out to her mom 

Matrescence by Lucy Jones

My top read of the year. I felt very understood as I read this book. 

How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong

About building intentional, non-traditional familial relationships.

Lincoln and the Bardo by George Saunders

I picked this up because Sage is reading it for school. Speculative fiction based on historical accounts of Lincoln taking his son's body out of the crypt in the middle of the night to grieve. I wouldn't recommend this book to most people I know, but I will say that liked the ending very much. 

I, Claudia by Claudia Lauper Bushman

It might now look like a real page-turner to you, but I could hardly put this book down.