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Asd 3, 11 Great Books You Probably Haven't Read

11 Great Books You Probably Haven't Read

Ah my bookshelves are so disorganized, must re-catalog soon.

But there's no time because Pizzamas starts in 6 days. Good morning

Hank, it's Tuesday. Let's talk about books.

Specifically some great books you probably haven't read,

beginning with some fiction. Want to spend some peaceful

hours enjoying a great mystery series? Crash Course

co-founder Stan Muller introduced me to Ann Swinfen's

novels, this book the Bookseller's Tale is the first in my favorite series.

It's set in Oxford in 1353 and the world of Medieval book

making is just such a great backdrop. If you want to belly laugh and

be truly astonished by linguistic acrobatics I recommend Tuff by

Paul Beatty. Beatty is more famous for his book The White Boy

Shuffle and the Booker Award Winning The Sellout. But I first

read this book 20 years ago and I've been thinking about it ever since.

A book that makes me both sob and feel hopeful? Jacqueline

Woodson's Miracle Boys. This novel is ostensibly for kids 10

and up, and I know many kids who've loved it, but I am a 44

year old person and I also love it. It's about impoverishment

and grief and surviving loss but above all it is about brothers and

Hank, as you know, I love a book about brotherhood and

this one might be my favorite. Ok, onto infectious disease

because that's where my brain always goes. I really love the book

the Black Death by Rosemary Horrox. It's a collection of first person

accounts of the 4 year period in which approximately half of all

Europeans died of plague. Another disease book I love is

Frank Snowden's Epidemics and Society. It helped me understand

that disease has always been one of the most important historical

forces. Like we think about Alexander the Great and Cleopatra

and whatever, but it's mostly microbes. And the book also explores how

racism and other forms of discrimination shapes disease burden,

which in turn shapes history. It's a reminder that disease does

not treat people equally unless society treats people equally.

A physics book: I love the Disordered Cosmos by Chanda

Prescod-Weinstein. This book taught me that we don't know why there is

matter in the universe. From which I have not recovered. It also helped

me understand the big bang and dark energy and lots of other stuff

even though I have like a 4th grade level of physics,

but it is also a book about gender identity and race and lots of other stuff.

It is just brilliant I have never read anything like it.

Another book that acknowledges that we are not like observers of

reality but participants in it: Phosphorescence by Julia Baird.

It is about living with cancer, and creatures that make their own

light, and the science of human joy, and it is so so good. Alright, a sports

book. I realize I'm biased here, but All Together Now by longtime

AFC Wimbledon CEO Erik Samuelson is so enjoyable.

I mean it is the greatest underdog sports story of all time, told by one of the

people who made it happen. Essays? I know Mary Oliver is

famous for her poems, but I love her essays, especially the ones

collected in Upstream. I dog-eared almost every page in this book but

one quote especially stuck with me: “I read the way a person might swim,

to save his or her life.” Speaking of that kind of reading: I love Pilgrim

Bell the new book of poems by Kaveh Akbar. He writes the kind

of poems that get richer and more interesting the more time

you spend with them. And in the last month I have read this

book over and over and it just keeps giving me new gifts.

Lastly, you have probably not read this 1945 cookbook, How

to Cook and Eat in Chinese by Buwei Yang Chao, a chinese physician

who emigrated to the United States in the 1920s. This book has been

out of print for decades but it is a wonderfully post-modern cookbook

like one of the first sentences is, “I did not write this book.” It is also

hugely historically important, it introduced many Americans to Chinese

cooking techniques and coined English language terms like stir-fry and

potstickers. And it is full of these piffy witticisms like “you know

how it is with modern daughters and mothers who think we are modern.”

Somebody put it back in print! What are some books that I

probably haven't read that you would recommend me? Let me

know in comments. Also, I made a Bookshop.org list with all of these

books if you're interested, plus a couple other recommendations

link in the dooblydoo below. Hank, I will see you on Friday

and then you will see me on Monday.


11 Great Books You Probably Haven't Read 11 grandes libros que probablemente no haya leído 11本你可能还没读过的好书

Ah my bookshelves are so disorganized, must re-catalog soon.

But there's no time because Pizzamas starts in 6 days. Good morning

Hank, it's Tuesday. Let's talk about books.

Specifically some great books you probably haven't read,

beginning with some fiction. Want to spend some peaceful

hours enjoying a great mystery series? Crash Course

co-founder Stan Muller introduced me to Ann Swinfen's

novels, this book the Bookseller's Tale is the first in my favorite series.

It's set in Oxford in 1353 and the world of Medieval book

making is just such a great backdrop. If you want to belly laugh and

be truly astonished by linguistic acrobatics I recommend Tuff by

Paul Beatty. Beatty is more famous for his book The White Boy

Shuffle and the Booker Award Winning The Sellout. But I first

read this book 20 years ago and I've been thinking about it ever since.

A book that makes me both sob and feel hopeful? Jacqueline

Woodson's Miracle Boys. This novel is ostensibly for kids 10

and up, and I know many kids who've loved it, but I am a 44

year old person and I also love it. It's about impoverishment

and grief and surviving loss but above all it is about brothers and

Hank, as you know, I love a book about brotherhood and

this one might be my favorite. Ok, onto infectious disease

because that's where my brain always goes. I really love the book

the Black Death by Rosemary Horrox. It's a collection of first person

accounts of the 4 year period in which approximately half of all

Europeans died of plague. Another disease book I love is

Frank Snowden's Epidemics and Society. It helped me understand

that disease has always been one of the most important historical

forces. Like we think about Alexander the Great and Cleopatra

and whatever, but it's mostly microbes. And the book also explores how

racism and other forms of discrimination shapes disease burden,

which in turn shapes history. It's a reminder that disease does

not treat people equally unless society treats people equally.

A physics book: I love the Disordered Cosmos by Chanda

Prescod-Weinstein. This book taught me that we don't know why there is

matter in the universe. From which I have not recovered. It also helped

me understand the big bang and dark energy and lots of other stuff

even though I have like a 4th grade level of physics,

but it is also a book about gender identity and race and lots of other stuff.

It is just brilliant I have never read anything like it.

Another book that acknowledges that we are not like observers of

reality but participants in it: Phosphorescence by Julia Baird.

It is about living with cancer, and creatures that make their own

light, and the science of human joy, and it is so so good. Alright, a sports

book. I realize I'm biased here, but All Together Now by longtime

AFC Wimbledon CEO Erik Samuelson is so enjoyable.

I mean it is the greatest underdog sports story of all time, told by one of the

people who made it happen. Essays? I know Mary Oliver is

famous for her poems, but I love her essays, especially the ones

collected in Upstream. I dog-eared almost every page in this book but

one quote especially stuck with me: “I read the way a person might swim,

to save his or her life.” Speaking of that kind of reading: I love Pilgrim

Bell the new book of poems by Kaveh Akbar. He writes the kind

of poems that get richer and more interesting the more time

you spend with them. And in the last month I have read this

book over and over and it just keeps giving me new gifts.

Lastly, you have probably not read this 1945 cookbook, How

to Cook and Eat in Chinese by Buwei Yang Chao, a chinese physician

who emigrated to the United States in the 1920s. This book has been

out of print for decades but it is a wonderfully post-modern cookbook

like one of the first sentences is, “I did not write this book.” It is also

hugely historically important, it introduced many Americans to Chinese

cooking techniques and coined English language terms like stir-fry and

potstickers. And it is full of these piffy witticisms like “you know

how it is with modern daughters and mothers who think we are modern.”

Somebody put it back in print! What are some books that I

probably haven't read that you would recommend me? Let me

know in comments. Also, I made a Bookshop.org list with all of these

books if you're interested, plus a couple other recommendations

link in the dooblydoo below. Hank, I will see you on Friday

and then you will see me on Monday.