My Favorite Books of 2013

What a great year for books! I think I enjoyed more noteworthy books in 2013 than in any recent year that I can think of. I normally restrict this list to just five of my favorite books, but in this year it was hard to cut the list down.

2013′s list of books was heavily influenced by my new job at George Washington’s Mount Vernon (hence #4, 5, and 6). My use of the fantastic Audible.com app on my iPhone greatly expanded my “reading” time this year, allowing me to consume more titles during my daily commute. I also picked up a new Kindle Paperwhite – by far the best book reading device out there – light, fast, backlit, and easy to read outside.

With no further ado, here’s the list of my 2013 favorite books. As with previous years I tend to include just recent books in this list – ones published in 2013 or in the years just before it.

#1 A Higher Call by Adam Makos

Audible.com Audiobook

At the top of my list is a book that I really didn’t want to read. While trolling the Amazon Books history lists I noticed this new book that seemed to be focused on an interesting encounter between a World War 2 B-17 Flying Fortress and a magnanimous Luftwaffe fighter pilot in a BF-109. As someone who has a real love of military aviation narratives, I thought that this story would be a cutsy look at an outlying aerial event during the war – nothing serious, nothing expansive. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

After seeing all the five star reviews piling up I decided to give this book a try as an audiobook. While the book’s central moment is the fateful December 20, 1943 encounter of Charlie Brown’s riddled Ye Olde Pub with Franz Stigler’s BF-109 fighter over the skies of Germany, the book covers far more historical ground both before and after this remarkable meeting. To me the most interesting aspect of this book is the combat flying career of Franz Stigler. While far from the top of the Luftwaffe Experten lists, Stigler saw much of the aerial war and with some of the most fabled squadrons of the war. He flew with JG-27 and Hans-Joachim Marseille – the Star of Africa. He met Johannes “Macky” Steinhoff while in Italy. And by the end of the war, Stigler is flying the revolutionary Me-262 jet fighter in the famed JV-44 with such notables as Adolf Galland, Gerd Barkhorn, and Walter Krupinski.

Much more than just a well-done aviation history, A Higher Call is a powerful account of how Brown and Stigler struggled with the horrors and indignities of the aerial war. What they witnessed and how they preserved their humanity in the face of terrible odds is what makes this a book worth recommending. And the conclusion (I won’t spoil it) is just a most perfect ending to my favorite book of the year.

#2 The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

Audible.com Audiobook

With my son entering his third year as a rower in the Langley High School Crew Team, I was interested in this book for multiple reasons. Not only was I on the hunt for a non-military book to balance out my reading list, but I was also interested in this well-publicized account so that I might know more about the sport my son has fully adopted. Well, I am so glad I pushed this book to the top of my reading list. The Boys in the Boat is not only a great account of the famous University of Washington heavyweight crew team that won the gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, but is also a classic Depression-era story of struggle and ultimate victory.

The audiobook, wonderfully narrated by Edward Hermann, weaves together the up and down stories of Joe Rantz, Bobby Moch, Washington coach Al Ulbrickson, the legendary shell maker George Pocock, while a whole host of other interesting characters and personalities. The story of this crew’s challenges in defeating not only the Eastern elite schools, but also Nazi Germany’s finest is riveting. My only wish is that so much of the early story didn’t have to involve the narrow defeats of my alma mater – the University of California. Oh well. Its a great story, one that would appeal even to those who don’t have sons who pull oars.

#3 The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson

Hardback Book

An Army at Dawn, The War in North Africa 1942-1943 rightfully won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for History. Atkinson’s second book in the Liberation Trilogy, The Day of Battle, was also a top notch history. Despite the acknowledged greatness of the first two books in the trilogy, I was really worried about this third installation. How could Atkinson fit into one volume the Battles of Normandy, the Breakthrough, Market-Garden, Operation Anvil, the Battle of the Bulge, and all the rest of the significant actions that made up the final year and a half of the Western Theater of World War II? No way! You can’t do it. You would need a whole other trilogy to do it justice. In a way Atkinson didn’t do it. If you are looking for a detailed narrative of the battles between June 1944 and May 1945 you should look elsewhere, but if you are looking for a first rate strategic overview of the campaign to liberate Europe then this is a book you should grab (after reading the first two).

Despite being well read in this category, I loved all the human detail that Atkinson highlights in his account. The personality struggles between Eisenhower, Montgomery, Bradley, Churchill, Marshall, De Gaulle, and Patton will give you a whole new appreciation of the essential role that Dwight D. Eisenhower played during the conflict. I also thought the consideration of logistics and the enormous challenges facing the Allies on the supply front were enlightening. As with each of Atkinson’s other books, this account is exceedingly well written and reads fast.

I’m sad that this World War II trilogy is now at an end, but I am very excited to hear that his next series will be on the American Revolution.

#4 The Men Who Lost America by Andrew O’Shaughnessy

Hardback Book

As a new employee at George Washington’s Mount Vernon I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Andrew O’Shaughnessy during one of his spring visits to Mount Vernon. In preparation for a short video interview that we had scheduled, I purchased Andrew’s new book and scanned a few chapters of interest so that I would have a better sense of what interview questions to ask. Well, I tried to put the book down after reading the chapter on Earl Cornwallis, but to no avail. I was truly sucked in….and happily lost in a sea of rich biographical detail.

The Men Who Lost America is a book comprised of insightful biographical chapters on most of the top British political and military leaders during the American Revolution. The more I read the more I realized that many of my notions of King George III, Lord North, John Burgoyne, Lord Cornwallis, Earl of Sandwich, Admiral Rodney, William Howe, and others was laced with unfortunate stereotypes and misinformation. This was no stiff-necked B-team sent to deal with a bunch of rascally rebels. O’Shaughnessy does a great job of highlighting the many strengths, experiences, and human flaws that each of these military leaders brought to the war. You see a combative and unusually well-informed George III insisting that the war continue after Yorktown. You’ll learn of William Howe and his strong affinity for America and Americans – a factor that strongly influenced his strategy. You’ll witness the many political challenges facing North both at home and in America. And you will read of defeated British generals and admirals who produced important victories in other theaters after their defeats in America. In the end I was left with the notion that maybe the war against American independence was just an unwinnable war for the British – an interesting thesis to ponder, especially in the context of more modern wars.

Check out our video interviews with Andrew O’Shaughnessy here: Video Interviews

#5 Revolutionary Summer by Joseph Ellis

Hardback Book

I was fortunate that right after joining Mount Vernon in the Spring of 2013, I had the chance to meet with Joe Ellis, the Pulitzer winning author of Founding Brothers and a host of other excellent Revolutionary era books. His newest book, Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of Independence was not only something that I needed to read in preparation for my meeting, but its subject matter was of immediate interest to me. This book focuses on the fateful moments during the summer of 1776 – a time when the Second Continental Congress decided to declare formal independence from the British crown and a time when George Washington and the Continental Army faced imminent disaster during the New York Campaign of 1776. Of those two pillar subjects, its the New York campaign which proved the most compelling to me. Few Americans really understand this military action that coursed over land that is now covered by the urban metropolis of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Ellis does a masterful job of describing the serious flaws in the American military plan and in their overall direction of the battles – not a banner moment for George Washington! One also learns of the nuanced thinking behind the British strategy employed in August of 1776. The Howe brothers – Gen. William and Admiral Richard – seek victory over the wayward Americans, but they are also earnestly searching for a victory that will lead to a reunion of the two sides. The interplay of the Declaration of Independence with the larger military situation and the natural strengths of the American cause are all interestingly considered in this well done book.

Check out our video interviews with Joseph Ellis here: Video Interviews

#6 Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Audible.com Audiobook

I must admit upfront that I’ve not been the biggest Jefferson fan. Was it the recent revelation of Thomas Jefferson’s liasons with his slave Sally Hemmings? Maybe it was his profligate spending and debt-ridden patrician lifestyle that bothered me? What about his attempts to rewrite the Bible into some new secular guide? Or maybe it was his underhanded political attacks on George Washington and other rivals that soured me on this man. Anyway, I questioned whether I should spend time reading this new and well-respected biography of Thomas Jefferson by Jon Meacham. Despite recognizing in myself that I had become a quiet Jefferson-hater, I was drawn to this account.

What I learned – or re-learned – in Meacham’s magnificent biography is that Jefferson is indeed worthy of our respect. Was he a flawed man? Maddeningly so as Meacham points out. Despite these many shortcomings, Jefferson was truly a force that shaped the United States during its formative stages. His resistance to all things smacking of monarchy probably saved the fledgeling United States from abandoning key democratic principles. His acquisition of the Louisiana Territory – a truly remarkable achievement and a curious example of how to work effectively outside of established political norms - is a landmark moment. His foresight in sending forth the Lewis & Clark explorations is indisputable. His stature and ability to wield effective political power helped to stabilize a young nation that always seemed to be at risk. And later, his founding of the University of Virginia – my wife’s alma mater – proved to be one of his final acts worthy of lasting praise.