Top 10 Book List

Our Top Ten Books List

By Jim Vail 

When you find the right book to read it can be a gem. It opens a whole new world that you get sucked into.

I live for reading wonderful books, it is food for the soul! Because there are so many books out there, how do we find the right one for me. I like to read the recommendations of people I trust. But you are the ultimate judge of what is best. Like I tell my students, when it comes to reading wonderful books, never settle for something that doesn't grab you!

We here at Second City Teachers recommend the following Top 10 Books of 2020!

In terms of new books, the two outstanding ones I just finished would be The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, about a family whose mother left them as children and the relationship that developed between the brother and sister and the history of the big house they lived in. It is an amazing journey into the depths of the human heart, and how the loss of family, or the replacement of another speaks to the horrors of abandonment, and the joys of overcoming those obstacles. Truly an amazing writer who I first heard about from a columnist in The Chicago Tribune. You can check out the audio book online through Libby with the Chicago Public Library. It is read wonderfully by Tom Hanks.

The other new book this year I recommend is The Trump Women by Nina Burleigh that Jeffery St. Claire and his Counterpunch team recommended. It is well written, and has good insight to the women who surrounded Trump. I found especially intriguing Trump's family history ties to Germany, and how his father to the day he died denied being German, said he was Swedish because of the anti-German hysteria during the war. How his father Fred once remarked that it wouldn't be bad if his son and wife went down in a plane crash. Ivana's history with Czech secret police and her connections to get out during the Cold War was interesting. The writer gave a clear description of growing up in a Soviet satellite country. The story on Trump is a unique look into the psyche of a billionaire and how he built his fortune, which is a story pretty much of any billionaire, except they would prefer to be kept out of the limelight. What power, sex and money mean in order to be President!  

I'm reading for fun right now a very engrossing sexual murder mystery by David Lindsey called Mercy. He has an amazing ability to write every little detail, and recreate conversations that make his characters come alive. I still can't shake living out the horrors of pedophelia thru the eyes of a 10 yr old girl and how she must live her life. It makes evil come alive and become understandable when people choose to murder, and murder again!

Here is our Top Ten List for 2020!

No. 10  The Trump Women by Nina Burleigh

No. 9    The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

No. 8    The Management of Savagery by Max Blumenthal  

(An amazing look into the crazy regime change foreign policy of this country where the U.S. will team up with crazy Jihadists in order to rule the world!)

No. 7    On the Road by Jack Keroauc 

(A wonderful road trip book that reads like listening to abstract modern jazz that will take your breath away!)

No. 6    Mr. Capone by Robert Shoenberg

(A must read for any native of Chicago who needs to know how this city was once ruled by the No. 1 Mafiosi King world reknown!)

No. 5    Mercy by David Lindsey

No. 4    The City Game by Pete Axthelm

(Imagine reading Dostoevsky in a modern sports story about playing street basketball in New York City in the 70s!)

No. 3    Going Postal by Mark Ames

(My former journalist colleague from Russia wrote the modern day workers plight that ties workplace shootings to slave rebellions. Powerful!)

No. 2    The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx & Frederick Engels

(Now more important than ever to make sense of the modern day insanity we are living in!)

No. 1    Experience & Education by John Dewey

(We are an education website, after all, and Dewey is one of the best!)

Happy New Year's!