Well, I didn't quite manage to publish twelve "Book of the Month" posts. I shall have to attempt to be more consistent in 2024.
In order to console all five readers of this blog for missing so many of my sparkling recommendations, here is a brief list of twenty of my favorite reads of 2023. When strangers ask me what I do with my free time, the answer will probably involve some of these. They are in no particular order. Some of them appeared as a Book of the Month, some didn't--but I think they are all worth your time. I've added a few flyaway thoughts to each. If you want further musings on any of them, feel free to ask. There are few things I like talking about more than what I'm reading.
Happy New Year to you all, and let's see what this next one brings. (Hopefully, a lot more books!)
- Wordsmithy by Douglas Wilson. Always great, particularly if you have anything to do with crafting thoughts into words--which is most of us.
- De Senectute ("Of Old Age") by Cicero. Trans. W.A. Falconer. This used to be a widespread classic. With the percentage of our population aging into the sunset, it should be again. Lots of choice bon mots, and quite a bit of pithy wisdom.
- Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern America by Michael Hiltzik. Pulitzer-prize winning history of the leading railroad financiers from Vanderbilt to Morgan. Far from being woke DEI-pushing pansies, businessmen in Old America used to actually build things. And they weren't quite as evil as modern textbooks love to paint them. If you've got the time or interest, take a look.
- Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician by Anthony Everitt. One of the single best ancient biographies I've ever read. This is a great resource on late-Republic Rome, as well as on old Tully particularly. It's well-written, accessible, and informative; the author obviously spent a lot of time marinating in Cicero.
- Beau Geste by P.C. Wren. A rousing tale of the French Foreign Legion and an insoluble mystery. If your sons like G.A. Henty, they'll love this. The Gary Cooper movie is also pretty good.
- The Liberal Arts Tradition by Ravi Jain and Scott Clark. A highly-expanded third edition of their manifesto for classical Christian education. If you really want to dive deeply into the newish movement that is CCE, this is the one book I would hand you. Best for teachers and highly motivated parents. It should dispel any notions that the liberal arts have nothing to do with math!
- Oliver Cromwell by John Buchan. I had long desired to read a good biography of Cromwell, and valued this one—Buchan pays dues to Cromwell’s faith while not excusing his faults, and is enough of an early 20th C author to value details a modern would not. I had not realized the length of the Protectorate was as short as it was (just under five years). As we head into our own messy political time, this might be good preparatory reading.
- Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (trans. John Doberstein). A classic on Christian community; I think he would have liked a lot of our life here in Moscow. Worth rereading many times.
- Thoughts for Young Men by J.C. Ryle. Short and pithy, and very good. That said, don't hand it to just any young man--Ryle presumes a common knowledge of Christian stories and principles that is sadly insufficient for our day. Many of his allusions and illustrations that would be clear to a bitter atheist in 1886 will go right over a Christian modern's head.
- The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. An unusual combination of historical study and murder mystery, and quite as good as Peter Hitchens said it was.
- Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J. Deneen. A cogent, well-reasoned, and penetrating look at the problems with modern liberal democracies (particularly in the United States). Better at diagnosis than cure (he doesn't really present one). I would argue that his missing ingredient here is Protestant Christianity—it was the glue that held together the fundamentally paradoxical nature of liberalism for so long, and now that we’ve dissolved it, it is unravelling rapidly. Of course, as a Romanist Integralist, I doubt Deneen would agree with me...
- Ab Urbe Condita I-X by Livy. Translated by B.O. Foster (Loeb). It was fun to get to read all the Roman legends in the original, though I think parts of his work on Hannibal are superior. After you're done here, pull out Lord Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome to really get the full flavor. Ferte signa in hostem!
- Discourses on Livy by Niccolo Machiavelli. Much longer than his more famous Prince but also, in my humble opinion, much better. That said, this book is a standing advertisement for why you should pursue classical education: unless you have read (at minimum) Plato's Republic, Plutarch, Livy, and Xenophon's Cyropadeia you will miss most of his main points here. Don't jump into a conversation halfway.
- Mr. Standfast by John Buchan. His best I've read—a straight up WWI spy and soldier novel, with a strong flavoring of Pilgrim’s Progress. Never forget that it was Christians who invented most literary genres of the modern world, including the spy thriller.
- Dragon and Thief by Timothy Zahn. Book 1 of the Dragonback series. I throw this one in for any of you who have teenagers that devour books faster than you can buy them. This is a six-book series, so it will last them at least a week. Aimed at the 10-14 year old crowd, and it's a lot of fun.
- Julius Caesar by John Buchan. In an age where people like to compare the TV star Donald Trump to Hitler, it's instructive to see what a real demagogue and strong man could accomplish in a state coming apart at the seams. This is a short work that focuses heavily on Caesar’s personality and less on his accomplishments. It's also less credible of his reputed vices than the average modern study, which was refreshing. An excellent introduction for high-school students.
- It’s Good to Be A Man by Michael Foster and Dominic Bnonn Tennant. There are thousands--perhaps millions--of boys aged ten to forty who never actually learned how to be what they were supposed to be from their fathers. Handing them this book is a great first step to recovering the wealth we've lost in the last two generations.
- The Case for Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolfe. This one needs a blog post of its own, but I would say that some parts are very good, and parts of it are either embarrassing (i.e. his bungling of Cicero in De Republica) or unprovable (i.e. life in Eden was political). If you're not in the mood to slog through a 500 page book, you can find it in audio on Canon+ (which you really ought to be subscribing to anyway).
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Very good, particularly in her craftsmanship of the minor characters—I’ve definitely met some of these people. I would rate it her second best, after Pride and Prejudice. The story isn't quite as good, but the secondary characters are way better.
- Paul and First-Century Letter Writing by E. Randolph Richards. Fascinating. This has deep and important implications for how we think about things like inspiration, infallibility, canon, and New Testament Christianity. You won't read the NT the same way again--in a good way. Thanks to Toby Sumpter for the recommendation.
Hope that keeps you occupied through Spring Break. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a book to finish.
