One of my favorite feelings is tearing through a book. Like when you get hooked and you feel like you can’t stop. Just a few more pages, you tell yourself. I’ll read to the next chapter. Closely related is the feeling–which is compounded when you are researching–when you find exactly the book you were looking for. How did this author read my mind? How did they know I needed this? It’s like that line from James Baldwin about how you think what you’re going through or thinking about is so unique and special and then you read and discover it’s actually an experience that connects you to countless other people. I had both those experiences this month with multiple books (I’ll tell you which ones below). I used to get that experience more when I was younger, but I cherish it more now that I am older. I am also lucky enough to get to give that experience to other people as part of my job–the joy of having a bookstore and social media and this email. So let’s do it! Before we do though, two quick housekeeping notes: the boxset of my Stoic virtues series is out. You can grab them all in one place for the first time here (signed copies). And then I’m hitting the road to talk Stoicism next month. Come see me at the Revolution Hall in Portland and the Toni Rembe Theater in San Francisco. I’ll be in a bunch of other places–including Australia!–after that. Grab your tickets here.
Over the Beach: The Air War in Vietnamby Zalin Grant I’ve been raving about James Salter’s The Hunters recently, which I re-read on a lark. It’s a Hemingway-esque novel about a fighter pilot trying to make Ace in Korea, written by a criminally underrated writer (and real-life fighter pilot). I read Over the Beach after, which is basically the nonfiction, Vietnam version of this same book. It was exactly what I was looking for in my research for the Stockdale project I am on and I was riveted by every page. I literally had to stop at times because I was taking so many notes. It follows Squadron 162, flying off the USS Oriskany at Yankee Station in the South China Sea. Zalin Grant interviewed the pilots during the war and then checked in with them some twenty years later when he decided to write the book–so there is the perfect amount of detail and reflection. Ignore the subtitle, it makes it sound like a history when really it feels more like narrative nonfiction. It’s an amazing book–very “New Journalism”–one that I hope to bring back to a wide audience as I’ve done for some other books that I stumbled upon (like Night of the Grizzlies).
So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan Ok, so I read Small Things Like These last year and was blown away. I’ve raved about it many times since. Maybe it was so perfect that I was a little intimidated to pick up anything else by Claire Keegan, but I finally got over it and read this one on my wife’s recommendation. I started it at lunch and finished it over dinner. The first story, I immediately texted Ramit Sethi about and told him he needed to read. The second, I texted Steven Pressfield about and told him he needed to read. And the third? I called my wife and said, WHAT?!? Is there anyone who can, page for page, match Keegan’s little books? They are so short…but man, do they pack a punch. Here’s a little video I made about the book you might like.
In The Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means To Be A Man: A Memoir by Tom Junod You might not know Tom Junod…but you do. You have almost certainly read an article of his over the years because he’s one of the great longform journalists of our time. His famous piece on Mr. Rogers? That got turned into the Tom Hanks movie. His piece on that famous, heartwrenching 9/11 photo. Well, he spent the last two decades or so working on this book. It’s a memoir–an investigation really–into his father, a complicated, twisted, tragic figure. I don’t know how to describe this book really, except that it’s profoundly personal and moving…and also unfolds like a mystery within a mystery within a mystery. You get to read Tom Junod turn his considerable skills on himself. You just gotta read it. Also, related recommendation, if you had issues with your father: Kafka’s Letter to the Father is a very underrated, short little book. I asked Tom if he read it and he co-signs on this recommendation. Tom came to the store and signed a bunch of copies when we filmed an episode of The Daily Stoic Podcast (coming soon), you can grab those signed copies here.
Light Yearsby James Salter Another Salter book? Yup. This is Salter’s portrait of a marriage slowly coming apart. But before it does, you get some of the most beautiful passages you will ever read about family life (of course you will, Salter is writing them!). As it happens, there is a great passage in the book…about great passages! “The book was in her lap; she had read no further. The power to change one’s life comes from a paragraph, a lone remark. The lines that penetrate us are slender, like the flukes that live in river water and enter the bodies of swimmers. She was excited, filled with strength. The polished sentences had arrived, it seemed, like so many other things, at just the right time. How can we imagine what our lives should be without the illumination of the lives of others?” Reading this book, I kept thinking of Yates’ Revolutionary Road, which my wife and I talked about recently. That idea of putting plans–dreams–off to the future, well, it can be a mortal blow to a marriage. Then again, so can naivete and selfishness. That’s sort of the theme of both these books. Great fiction hits you hard, doesn’t it?
The Arcadianby Steven Pressfield I have the final page of Gates of Fire on the wall in my office–the actual final page from the original manuscript. It was a gift from the great Steven Pressfield, but I stop and read it sometimes and get the chills. I was very excited to hear about his new book of historical fiction, because I have read every one of his novels, including the first one in this series, A Man At Arms. Set in Spain, it follows Telamon, a warrior condemned in a past life to fight the same battles over and over again as a penance. If you have a dude in your life that doesn’t like to read fiction, turn him onto Gates of Fire or The Arcadian or A Man At Arms (actually start him with a signed copy–Steven signed a bunch when he was at the Painted Porch this month). Podcast episode coming soon (subscribe here so you don’t miss it) but in the meantime, you’ll love this book!
From Steven Pressfield's recent visit to The Painted Porch
Misc I raved about The Best and the Brightest (which holds up extremely well given what we are lurching towards in Iran at the moment) but one of the things that struck me as I was reading it was that it wasn’t Halberstam’s first book on Vietnam. In fact, he wrote a book called The Making of a Quagmire in *checks notes*...1965! He was so early! The war was only beginning in earnest…and yet…I also read Gov Gavin Newsom’s book Young Man in a Hurry in anticipation of appearing on his podcast (I grew up in Sacramento). I brought my son and the Gov was very sweet to him. (You can listen to that here). I too was (is) a young man in a hurry…but I’m working on it. I’ve read a lot of political memoirs–most are terrible. This was good. I did a video about How to Hide an Empire that blew up online–if you haven’t read the book, you should. It too will help you understand what’s happening in the world right now and the mistakes we are making. Will Guidara whose book Unreasonable Hospitality I loved, has a new workbook out which is beautifully designed.
As always, I appreciate you supporting my bookstore, The Painted Porch. Please note that because a lot of the books we sell are backlist titles, there can sometimes be delays in stocking/sourcing. And with that, I hope that you’ll get around to reading whichever of these books catch your eye and that you’ll learn as much as I did. Whether you buy them at The Painted Porch or on Amazon today, or at your nearest independent bookstore six months from now makes no difference to me. I just hope you read!
You’re welcome to email me questions or raise issues for discussion. Better yet, if you know of a good book on a related topic, please pass it along. And as always, if one of these books comes to mean something to you, recommend it to someone else.
I promised myself a long time ago that if I saw a book that interested me I’d never let time or money or anything else prevent me from having it. This means that I treat reading with a certain amount of respect. All I ask, if you decide to email me back, is that you’re not just thinking aloud.
Enjoy these books, treat your education like the job that it is, and let me know if you ever need anything.
