It is certainly tempting to write about the next four years of the United States of America, with its 51 states, and 2 new territories, but enough people will be doing that today, so I will avoid the temptation and write about something equally timely – the 20 or so books I read in 2024 to which I gave an A rating. I think 20 A rated books is quite a lot – I read 65 books altogether, and 20/65 = about 30%.

So here goes:

(1) The Threat by Andrew McCabe. Andrew McCabe, one of Donald Trump’s enemies, who was for two years acting Director of the FBI, and a career long FBI agent, gives an account of how the agency operates, of his background, training and early assignments, and then working on various Trump related investigations. McCabe comes across serious and well intentioned and successful in his career. Trump not so much. [Goodreads: 4.17]

(2) Our Unfinished March by Eric Holder. This is a relatively short book about voting rights in the United States. About their history, and about today’s shortcomings, along with suggestions for the future. Very well done, I thought. [Goodreads: 4.30]

(3) Britain and the Jews of Europe by Bernard Wasserstein. We hear a lot about how the U.S. refused to open its borders to Jews during the Hitler years, and this book – by a British born University of Chicago professor emeritus – gives the companion story of what happened in the United Kingdom. I found it very interesting. [Goodreads: 3.50]

(4) The Sign and the Seal by Graham Hancock. I have read this book several times over the past twenty years because I find it so fascinating, and I recommend it so often. Graham Hancock, after viewing the sculptures on the exterior walls of the Cathedral in Chartres, became interested in what happened to the Ark of the Covenant, which had disappeared from the Bible without explanation sometime before the sacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. In tracing the possible journey of the Ark, Hancock gives you history lessons that will change the way you look at much of the world. [Goodreads: 3.94]

(5) Winter Journal by Paul Auster. Auster died on April 30, 2024, shortly after I finished reading this 2012 book. What I remember about it is not so much the details of what ran through his mind as he wrote about his life, past and present, but just how good the writing is. Period. [Goodreads: 3.90]

(6) Disloyal by Michael Cohen. Say what you like about former Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen, but it is hard to despise him after reading this book. His rather unusual background growing up, his underhanded ways to make a living as a lawyer and investor in New York taxi medallions, his relationship with Donald Trump, his time in prison, and his conversion to upstanding citizen. Well written, and very informative. [Goodreads: 4.09]

(7) News is Where You Find It by Frederick Wile. I wrote about this in a blog post. Indiana born, Jewish newspaper correspondent who spent time as a reporter in Germany during the Weimar and early Hitler years, and had to be sneaked out of Germany, perhaps just in time. Written in the 1930s, and not reprinted, it is very difficult to find. Goodreads knows nothing about it. Unfortunately.

(8) Jamaica Inn by Daphne DuMaurier. This is another re-read, and it was as good this time as the first time. A young orphaned girl goes to live with her aunt on the moors of Devon and finds things not at all to her liking. [Goodreads: 3.90]

(9) The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. This is a British mystery, but a very odd one. The main sleuth stays in bed with a bad back, and the question is whether or not Richard III murdered his way to the English throne. If this one sentence description discourages you, ignore the description and read the book anyway. [Goodreads: 3.90]

(10) The Invention of Russia by Arkady Ostrovsky. The story of Russia from Gorbachev to Putin, this book has won many awards. Published in 2015, it will give you a good background that you might want to really understand that strange country. [Goodreads: 4.03]

(11) American Emperor by David Stewart. All of Stewart’s American history books are good and this one, about Aaron Burr, is no exception. [Goodreads: 3.92]

(12) The 1619 Project. Depends what side of the issues you are on? I hope not; it shouldn’t. This book, as you probably know, contains a serious of serious essays by prominent thinkers on a number of topics related to Black America and its history. You may argue with a little of (I did), but the vast amount is history and factual description, not opinion. You will be glad you took the time to read through it. Everyone should. [Goodreads: 4.62]

(13) Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Ben-Ghiat. Like Madeleine Albright’s book Fascism, which I read last year, this book does a very good job talking about the commonalities and appeal of “strongmen” and their differences. [Goodreads: 4.24]

(14) Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney. I wrote a blog post about this one as well. A detailed story of the investigation into Donald Trump. Should be read, even though…… [Goodreads: 4.58]

(15) The Quest for Corvo by A.J. A. Symonds. This is a third re-read, a 1934 quest/biography about author Frederick Rolfe, the mysterious Baron Corvo. It is both a biography, and the story of how Symonds went about obtaining information about the mysterious, and already dead, author. [Goodreads: 3.96]

(16) Verdict of Twelve by Raymond Postgate. Another unusual British mystery that talks not only about the crime and the trial, but digs into the lives of the twelve jurors and follows their thoughts until the verdict is reached. Published in 1940. [Goodreads 3.78]

(17) The Nixon Memo by Marvin Kalb. A fascinating book putting yet another spin on Richard Nixon. This book shows how, in a concentrated and purposeful manner, Richard Nixon, post-presidency, re-created himself as an important and closely listened presidential foreign policy advisor. [Goodreads: 4.00]

(18) Germany Puts the Clock Back by Edgar Mowrer. Mowrer published this book in 1938, tracing Germany from the end of World War I, through the ill fated days of the Weimar Republic, through the Nazi ascendancy and the first five years of the Hitler regime. Kristallnacht had not yet occurred. Read this and you will learn a lot about how and why Hitler was able to come to power. [Goodreads: 4.14]

(19) Moses Hess on Religion, Judaism and the Bible by Svante Lundgren. Finally, still another that was the subject of a recent blog post. Hess was a 19th century German Jewish thinker who was decades ahead of his time. Friend of Marx, Engels, Herzl and everyone else. Read my post so I don’t have to repeat it here. This book is listed on Goodreads as published in 1992 (I think it was probably his doctoral dissertation), but there are no reviews listed, and no rating.

That is it for A’s. Without description, here are my B+ ratings, with Goodreads ratings, as well: The Island of Crimea by Vasiily Aksyonov [3.81], The Generations of Winter by Aksynov [4.17], The Wife of Ronald Sheldon [3.60], In America: Tales from Trump Country by Catriona Perry [3.79], America in Retreat by Bret Stephens [3.87], Silver Seas and Golden Cities by Frances Parkinson Keyes [no Goodreads rating], The Nude Spins (The Lady Vanishes) by Ethel Lina White [3.74], Six Curtains for Stroganova by Caryl Brahms and S.J. Simon [3.68], and Through the Russian Revolution by Albert Rhys Williams [4.04].