Jen’s Favorite Reads of 2022

Watergate : a new history by Garrett M. Graff
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky, the first definitive narrative history of Watergate, exploring the full scope of the scandal through the politicians, investigators, journalists, and informants who made it the most influential political event of our modern era.

Hollywood ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence by Ken Auletta
A biography of the disgraced Hollywood mogul looks at both his meteoric rise and how he used his position to indulge his sexual appetites for decades before facing a swift and dramatic downfall.

Last Call at the Hotel Imperial : the Reporters Who Took on a World at War by Deborah Cohen
Married foreign correspondents John and Frances Gunther intimately understood that it isn’t only impersonal, economic forces that propel history, bringing readers so close to the front lines of history that they could feel how personal pathologies became the stuff of geopolitical crises. Together with other reporters of the Lost Generation–American journalists H.R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson–the Gunthers slipped through knots of surveillance and ignored orders of expulsion in order to expose the mass executions in Badajoz during the Spanish Civil War, the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, the millions of dollars that Joseph Goebbels salted away abroad, and the sexual peccadillos of Hitler’s brownshirts. They conjured what it was like to ride with Hitler in an airplane (“not a word did he say to any soul”); broke the inside story about Mussolini’s claustrophobia and superstitions (he “took fright” at an Egyptian mummy that had been given to him); and verified the hypnotic impression Stalin made when he walked into a room (“You felt his antennae”). But just as they were transforming journalism, it was also transforming them: who they loved and betrayed, how they raised their children and coped with death. Over the course of their careers they would popularize bringing the private life into public view, not only in their reporting on the outsized figures of their day, but in what they revealed about their own (and each other’s) intimate experiences as well. What were intimate relationships, after all, but geopolitics writ small?

The Palace Papers : Inside the House of Windsor–the truth and the turmoil by Tina Brown
The author of The Diana Chronicles takes readers inside the British royal family since the death of Princess Diana, showing the Queen’s stoic resolve as family drama raged around her.

The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bill Durham : home runs, bad calls, crazy fights, big swings, and a hit by Ron Shelton
Bull Durham, the breakthrough 1988 film about a minor league baseball team, is widely revered as the best sports movie of all time. But back in 1987, Ron Shelton was a first-time director and no one was willing to finance a movie about baseball-especially a story set in the minors. The jury was still out on Kevin Costner’s leading man potential, while Susan Sarandon was already a has-been. There were doubts. But something miraculous happened, and The Church of Baseball attempts to capture why. From organizing a baseball camp for the actors and rewriting key scenes while on set, to dealing with a short production schedule and overcoming the challenge of filming the sport, Shelton brings to life the making of this beloved American movie. As he tells the story of Bull Durham, Shelton also explains the rarely revealed ins-and-outs of moviemaking, from a film’s inception and financing, screenwriting, casting, the nuts-and-bolts of directing, the post-production process, and even through its release. But this is also a book about baseball and its singular romance in the world of sports. Shelton himself spent six years in the minor leagues before making this film, and his experiences resonate throughout this book. Full of wry humor and insight, The Church of Baseball tells the remarkable story behind an iconic film.

Wish it Lasted Forever : Life with the Larry Bird Celtics by Dan Shaughnessy
Drawing on unprecedented access and personal experiences that would not be possible for any reporter today, Shaughnessy takes us inside the legendary Larry Bird-led Celtics teams, capturing the camaraderie as they rose to dominate the NBA. Fans can witness the cockiness of Larry Bird (who once walked into an All Star Weekend locker room, announced that he was going to win the three-point contest, and did); the ageless athleticism of Robert Parish; the shooting skills of Kevin McHale; the fierce, self-sacrificing play of Bill Walton; and the playful humor of players like Danny Ainge, Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell, and M.L. Carr.

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
Between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways. Right off the coast of South Carolina, on Mallow Island, The Dellawisp sits-a stunning cobblestone building shaped like a horeshoe and named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. When Zoey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment on Mallow Isalnd, she meets her quirky and secretive neighbors, including a girl on the run, two estranged middle-aged sisters, a lonely chef, a legendary writer, and three ghosts. Each with their own story, Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn’t written yet.

Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
The best-selling author offers a new collection of satirical and humorous essays that chronicle his own life and ordinary moments that turn beautifully absurd, including how he coped with the pandemic, his thoughts on becoming an orphan in his seventh decade, and the battle-scared America he discovered when he resumed touring.

Julie & Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen by Julie Powell
Recounts how the author escaped the doldrums of an unpromising career and lackluster Queens apartment by mastering every recipe in Julia Child’s 1961 classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a year-long endeavor of humor and accomplishment that transformed her life. 150,000 first printing.