Great Reads for December
Ahoy,
It feels pretty good to be writing “December” in the subject line. It’s been a long, weird year with plenty of ups and downs. I hope you’re keeping well and that no tragedies have befallen you or your kin. If that sounds like Game of Thrones BS, it isn’t. I’m genuinely glad we all didn’t blow up or die of a pandemic or fall into an economic death spiral - yet.
I’d wax philosophical in this issue, but I’m a bit under the weather so I’ll leave that for January. I just hope you all are having a cozy and safe holiday season.
A reminder that I’m running AI training for writers based on a course I prepared for NYU. I’m working on with my buddy Pete Pachal and we’re more than happy to Zoom or visit your team. I’ll be in Europe at the beginning of January - around the 11th - if you’d like me to stop into your office and run a course. Please don’t let the cost dissuade you as we’re happy to work with you on the price. AI is going to upend a lot of stuff next year, so it helps to be prepared.
Further, I’ve relaunched my AI writing app in the form of SublimeWire.com. This new app streamlines the content creation process immensely and is great for blog posts, LinkedIn announcements, and the like. It rewrites news stories and press releases in a unique way. You’ll notice there are sliders to control the voice and style of the story as well as ways to inject your prompts into story creation. Please give it a try and let me know what you think.
Have a great holiday and much love. If you’re going through anything or need to talk, I’m always here. Respond to this email or WhatsApp me at +16468270591.
And now, on to the books.
The Secret: A Jack Reacher Novel
Andrew Child
I love Jack Reacher novels. Lee Child recently retired and his brother, Andrew, is writing these things now, and the results are pretty much as expected: a rollicking book that runs from start to finish. If I’m being honest, I already forgot what this book was about. This one was very much akin to the Slow Horses series in that Reacher had to work with a bunch of misfits to solve a mystery. I’m saying it’s a good book and you should read it, but at this point Reacher novels are paint-by-numbers.
The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Small-Town America
I’ve been trying to find a book like this one, one that doesn’t hyperbolize about the Midwest or valorize (or demonize) its subjects. In short, what Robert Wuthnow has done is humanize a group of people who have long been maligned in the American conversation. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and spent my summers in Martins Ferry, outside of Wheeling. I recall with fondness those long afternoons wandering the woods down by the river or listening to my grandmother talk to her old friends on the porch. I miss that kind of camaraderie and comfort. That said, I’ve found it again in Brooklyn where, in the heart of a teeming city, we’ve essentially recreated a walkable, small-town life.
Wuthnow does a good job at making us understand what’s happening in small-town America. The book is strong if a bit cursory, but it’s worth a read. I especially like this bit:
My message for fellow academies and "producers of knowledge" in the liberal elite is that rural America is not crazy. To be sure, they live in a world constructed by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News and Donald Trump. They overwhelmingly vote Republican, in many instances like they have for decades. Some of them participate in rallies where people scream invectives at Democrats and the media.
Some of them publicly condone racial slurs and homophobia. Most of them do not. Their outrage is quieter. It remains hidden most of the time. It is built into the conversation at the coffee shop and the co-op. It surfaces at odd moments in candid interviews and sometimes with surprising vehemence.
While I’m not about to condone any kind of bad behavior, it’s worth understanding the root of the anger.
Pompeii
Mary Beard
I was on a history kick recently and picked this book up because Mary Beard is a great writer. The book itself is written around a TV show, so it consists of various sections about life in ancient Pompeii. You can skip the sections you don’t like - politics and religion, mostly - and revel in the stories of food preparation, brothel-going, and graffiti.