Slower reading month than usual, mostly due to a much more active life. I was invited to some Goodreads group called #nonfictionnovember, which just turned out to be a lot of people not terribly interested in discussion, but I got a couple good recommendations out of it though.

Anyway, here’s what I read in November (asterisks are books I’d recommend):

Fiction

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout: didn’t really work for me. Love the writing but didn’t care for the book

* The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi: Excellent Gibson-esque cyberpunk dystopia stuff. 

* Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell: Liked this more than I expected, and it’s on my mind a lot as I read Romeo and Juliet with my teenager. I think this one will make a lasting impression.

Mimi’s Tales of Terror by Junji Ito: Subpar stories for Ito, but excellent illustration as always. Inessential. 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon: Read with my kid for English class. Holds up really well. 

* Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee: Loved this. Weird, funny and sad. Definitely a reread. McGhee is a terrific writer and I can’t wait to see what’s next. 

* The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut: Blew me away. Endlessly creative, overflowing with ideas. One of the best of the year, without hesitation.

* Baumgartner by Paul Auster: Sad and lovely. Reminiscent of Julian Barnes. The more you know about Auster, the better the book will land.

Non Fiction

* The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander: Eye opening, essential reading. 

* Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman: almost 40 years later, his insight and ideas are still 100% relevant.

* Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon: If you’re at all interested in his work, this book has all the seeds of the work that followed it. The effort and result are both incredible.

Who Killed Ty Conn? By Linden MacIntyre: Good but overwritten book about failures in the Canadian childcare and justice system.

Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson: Entry-level progressive history of the US. Wasn’t really written for me. 

The Master Switch by Tim Wu: If you’ve read his later work on antitrust or advertising, this is a fun history but nothing more. 

* The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates and the Unravelling of a Wall Street Legend: A great example of the genre, just jaw-dropping stuff.