John H Gardner

The Many-Colored Land by Julian May (1982 Locus SciFi winner, 1982 Hugo and Nebula finalist) Nelson tour on the cover

Book 12: The Many-Colored Land by Julian May (1982 Locus SciFi winner, 1982 Hugo and Nebula finalist). I’m unsure why I need to give the year with that perm on the cover. My first read by this author of this time travel tale. It is the first book in the series.

Even though this book was written almost 40 years ago, I believe it still holds relevance today. The audiobook I listened to was had a 2001 update, in the light of 9/11, Oslo Accords and Second Intifada, representing a 15 year gap from original publication.

Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land by David K. Shipler (1987 Pulitzer General Nonfiction)

Book 11: Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land by David K. Shipler (1987 Pulitzer General Nonfiction). Recommended. Along the same lines of colleague Thomas Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem (recognized by Shipler as a reviewer), the author delves into stereotypes in a diverse culture.

In nonfiction - Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan.

Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer (2022 Pulitzer for History)

Book 10: Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer (2022 Pulitzer for History). Recommended, especially the 20th century portion. This is a great bookend to US imperial aspirations found in Stanley Karnow’s In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines (1990 Pulitzer History)

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (Hugo 1963)

Acknowledgements of The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick, including William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Book 9: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (Hugo 1963). Recommended - finished my first novel by this author. Any fan of the past couple Wolfenstein games should appreciate this work. Also glad to see use of Shirer’s National Book Award-winning book published 2 years previous to this one.

Thanks for the heads up - purchased!

I have no issue with this as we owe you for Mancini.

Witch King by Martha Wells (2024 Locus Fantasy)

What I liked about Wells’s novel was her ability to draw me into her complex creation, without dumbing it down, but providing me the necessary information to nicely move along the story.

Admiral of the Ocean Sea by Samuel Eliot Morison (1943 Pulitzer Biography)

7. Jan 29th - Admiral of the Ocean Sea by Samuel Eliot Morison (1943 Pulitzer Biography) Rear Admiral Morison provides a balanced history of Columbus, recognizing his egregious faults but his qualities as an explorer.
8. Jan 29th - Witch King by Martha Wells (2024 Locus Fantasy) - more below.

Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee (2022 Locus)

Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen

5. Jan 16th - Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee (2022 Locus). The Green Bone Trilogy satitisfyingly concludes, spanning Lee’s wonderfully created, multi-generational world.
6. Jan 21st - Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen. Not for the faint of heart with this chilling account of the end of the world.

A Canticle for Lebowitz by Walter Miller (1961 Hugo)

The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (2022 National Book Award Fiction)

3. Jan 11th - A Canticle for Lebowitz by Walter Miller (1961 Hugo). I had heard of this post-apocalyptic tale and it did not disappoint.
4. Jan 14th - The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (2022 National Book Award Fiction). I’m unsure if it’s my 5 years in South Bend, but I really appreciated this book.

Mary Chesnut’s Civil War by C. Vann Woodward (1982 Pulitzer History)

Edith Wharton: A Biography (1972 Pulitzer Biography) by R. W. B. Lewis.

1. Jan 5th - Mary Chesnut’s Civil War by C. Vann Woodward (1982 Pulitzer History). Ken Burns drew from this source material for his Civil War documentary.
2. Jan 7th - Edith Wharton: A Biography (1972 Pulitzer Biography) by R. W. B. Lewis. A great companion to Leon Edel’s Henry James bio.

A little late into the new year in starting this thread, so summarizing January reads in a few posts. It was productive reading month, with 8 books finished, including 3 nonfiction. I would recommend all except maybe the first one and even that has merits through Woodward’s editing and footnotes.

2026 Reading Book Thread - a log of the books read during the year. Monthly goal: 4 books from the Pulitzer, National Book Awards, Hugo, Nebula or Locus lists. Will also include non-goal books read. 🧵

This is aside from your main point, but the best historians acknowledge and avoid Roth’s stated pitfall. A good example of this is found in Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers, regarding the “inevitable” march toward WW1.

This is a good article. Also recommended is Robert Worth’s book, mentioned at the end of the article, A Rage For Order.

Shelby Foote, the Paul Finebaum of the Confederacy.

I was much more impressionable when I read it ~35 years ago as a junior in high school, but Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men continues for me to be the saddest par excellence.

Appropriate this broke today, on MLK Day. MLK Jr, a 1964 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, took his award as a call to action to do even more. MLK Jr reminds me of a similar reaction of George F Kennan, upon receiving the lesser known Albert Einstein Peace Prize: again, aspire to be better & do more.

Also, I should disclose that I’m partial to Bellow, especially in light of his earlier effort, the Bildungsroman The Adventures of Augie March, which I highly recommend and has a much more sympathetic main character.

Saul Bellow’s Herzog.

This is in my immediate TBR (my copy below) and I’ll keep this post bookmarked to come back to after I’ve read it. I will say that the intro by Roth reminds me of Mickey Sabbath of Roth’s Sabbath’s Theater, a degenerate character if there ever was one, but such a well-written novel.

Finished listening today - you did a great job!

Finishing up Edith Wharton’s biography by RWB Lewis. She had a number of works never finished. She also took a hiatus from writing novels, during WW1. Of course, she then released Age of Innocence.

Good opportunity to recommend following Joachim and frequenting his site. He’s provided a number of good recommendations to me over the past few years which I’ve enjoyed thoroughly.

spongebob and patrick are standing in front of a red ship Alt: SpongeBob and Patrick talking smack about Texas.

I am about to go to Sandy Squirrel on this.

Closed the year with Robert Kennedy and His Times by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and my first book of 2026 will likely be Mary Chesnut’s Civil War by Mary Chesnut, edited by C. Vann Woodward.

Overall Totals Books Total Books Read Pages Total Pages Read Pulitzer Biography 110 35 78367 26795 Pulitzer Nonfiction 68 21 36440 11726 Pulitzer History 109 35 73084 23773 Pulitzer Fiction 99 63 40410 27666 Pulitzer Memoir / Autobiography 3 0 926 0 National Book Award Nonfiction 157 26 86472 16295 National Book Award Fiction 83 44 32400 20378 Hugo Novel 82 68 30449 25480 Nebula Novel 61 45 22657 17451 Locus Novel (SciFi + Fantasy) 102 73 47967 36233 Totals 874 410 449172 205797 Remaining 464 243375 Percentage Complete 46.911% 45.817% Percentage Remaining 53.089% 54.183%

Kicking off 2026. Should be able to get halfway to the lifetime goal later this year.

History:
The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861 by David M. Potter (completed and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher)
Honorable mention: Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer
Biography:
George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis
Honorable mention: Henry James (5 volumes) by Leon Edel
(2/2)

Closing this thread with best of 2025:
Fiction:
Now in November by Josephine Johnson
Honorable mention: The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
Science Fiction:
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Honorable mention: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
(1/2)