Ed note: My friend and publisher Greg Shaw has deep roots in Oklahoma, Washington DC and Seattle. Greg is in the midst of an eclectic career–speech writer, Microsoft Director, Walla Walla Sweets baseball team owner, publisher (Clyde Hill Publishing), former Crosscut CEO and now author of a book of poetry (Rust in August). Here are his reading suggestions.
Better late than never. Here are the books I most enjoyed reading last year.
Reading is a very personal experience. For this reason, you will notice that I’ve included a few stories about why these books resonated with me.
Stealing a book by Margaret Verble (bookshop.org)
A reviewer compared this novel with To Kill A Mockingbird – a drama built upon legal and social justice. The author of Stealing is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, and her setting is northeastern Oklahoma where I once worked as a journalist, including for the Cherokee Advocate tribal newspaper. This is a sweet and then terrifying story of a young Cherokee girl who ends up in the nightmare that was Indian boarding schools. I can imagine some saying, why read something so depressing? My response: this novel is about the greatness of the human spirit and the beauty that is Cherokee community culture.
In my early twenties I was a speechwriter for the Secretary of the Interior, a cabinet position focused on our public lands and the environment. During that brief time, I read every naturalist and environmental book I could get my hands on. It’s a rich bookshelf. Brinkley, one of the most engaging historians in generations, brings to life the Long Sixties, stretching from the late 1950s into the 1970s. This is the story of activists, including scientists but also artists, pushing America toward environmental reform is as strategic as it is inspirational.
Harold a book by Steven Wright (bookshop.org)
Steven Wright has for a very long time been my favorite comedian. Deadpan and cerebral, he can make you think differently about the world in only a few sentences. Harold is the story of bright boy with a load of insights and a load of laughs. Ideas arrive on the wings of birds, literally. Readers may or may not agree with me, but it reminds me in some ways of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner) a book by Hernan Diaz (bookshop.org)
If you love literature, read this. Genius. Diaz explores truth and deception behind unfathomable wealth and the writing of a bestselling novel from 1937, Bonds. Winner of the Booker Prize for 2022.
The Covenant of Water (Oprah’s Book Club) a book by Abraham Verghese (bookshop.org)
If you love literature, read this, too. Verghese is a treasure. Set in Kerala, India, the novel tells the story of three generations in which at least one family member dies of drowning. In this region, water is everywhere. It is a beautifully told story with the medical insight you would expect from this professor of medicine at Stanford University. It’s an Oprah’s Book Club chose this for 2023. Oh, and the audiobook is narrated by the author who has a stunning range of voices and accents! (Continue for more great suggestions)