You Know I'm Right: The joys of reading

By some strange coincidence, both of my regular readers happened to be getting their morning caffeine at Village Coffee (where the service homemade pastries are superb) when I walked in for a blueberry muffin. I was immediately accosted. They demanded to know my weight loss secrets. With the muffin in my hand, I could hardly explain the importance of good eating habits so I diverted the conversation to good reading habits. (We also discussed Caitlin Clark.)

Those of you who remember my reading recommendations in my column of Jan. 7, 2023, (which I hope you have kept a copy of) will know that I prefer detective novels, sea stories and humor. But I also get recommendations from others. You never know what is going to pop up. I happened to be in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1972 when a young English girl handed me "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome as I boarded the train for London which is still my favorite book; I have reread it many times. (How I got to Lausanne is another story for another time.)

A fellow officer candidate handed me his favorite book, "The Wake of the Red Witch," by Garland Roark, as we parted company after commissioning. I stuck it in my backpack and carried it around for a couple of years. Much later, I found myself on leave in La Porte City, Iowa, located in the same state as Caitlin Clark and my hometown. I somehow got the flu and was confined to my bed desperate for something to read. With the Red Witch at hand, I dove in. I loved this book! Thirty years later I got it from Amazon and started to reread it. Couldn’t get into it at all. So, there you go.

I finished "The Wager" by David Grann recently and can’t recommend it enough. Everything that guy writes is amazing. "The Art Thief" by Michael Finkel was highly entertaining and got me interested in reading about art. I followed it up with "Get the Picture" by Bianca Bosker, which was not what I expected. If you don’t "get" abstract art, read it. She does but it took a while.

For American history buffs, "American Scoundrel" by Thomas Keneally is not to be missed. You will learn a lot about a unique character who lived an eventful life. OK, I’ll tell you one small detail about Dan Sickles, the subject of the book. He got his leg shot off at Gettysburg and kept it as a souvenir.

The latest Robert Galbraith (actually J.K. Rowling) novel in the Cameron Strike series, is "The Running Grave." These are the best crime novels I have read, and I’ve read a lot.

"Sailing the Graveyard Sea" by Richard Snow is a superb true sea story. The captain hung the son of the Secretary of War while at sea for mutiny. Let’s just say it wasn’t a great career move. At that point I took a break from reading to watch Caitlin Clark, a fellow Iowan, play basketball.

I returned to reading with "The Music Shop" by Rachel Joyce, a sweet little story recommended by a new friend in South Carolina, the home state of Nikki Haley who I think should be president. Then I got into a book chosen by the family book club, "The Glass Ceiling" by Jeannette Walls, who is lecturing tonight at the Charleston Library. I’ll let you know how it goes. I would not have chosen the book myself, but it was really excellent.

I also read "The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel" by Doug Brunt. Very, very interesting nonfiction about the engineer who the invented the diesel engine.

So that is it for now. Hopefully Caitlin Clark will write a book about her season with the Hawkeyes. You know I’m right.

Don R. Haven is a retired Naval Officer and retired high school teacher, who splits time between Granville and South Carolina. He can be reached at 740-504-8793 and [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: You Know I'm Right: The joys of reading