chriskade.com Chris Kade
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109 books

109 ... and counting!

I have spent a lifetime reading books and they have been a source of joy, inspiration, intellectual challenge, and emotional growth for me. I can think of few greater gifts to give my children and grandchildren (and anybody else who comes across this list) than to share the books that have meant the most to me. If they have even half the impact on them that they have had on me, it would be gratifying indeed. This is a work in progress and I will be adding to it over time … until I run out of time!

It is obvious at a glance that I have a strong preference for nonfiction, which has been true from my teen years onward. (That’s at least partly due to a childhood pal who turned me on to Barbara W. Tuchman, one of the greatest popular historians of our time.) I have, however, read many beautiful and moving works of fiction and I don’t mean to shortchange the magic of entering imaginary worlds that only fiction can provide.

I give credit to my parents, both avid readers in their day, and especially to my Aunt Kathryn, who was a career-long librarian in Hennepin County, Minnesota. My inclusion of “Stuart Little” is a nod to a gift she sent to me in my childhood. I am also grateful for the many times that Kathryn pointed me to the ALA’s banned books list and exhorted me to “read as many as you can.” She hated the very idea of book-banning.

Anyway, without further ado, here is my list. I hope these books provide a roadmap of inspiration and exploration for many others long after I am gone.

Note: Books whose titles are underlined are linked to further information and comment. That too is a work in progress.

American Civil War (5 books)

If you’re a devotee of history, I can’t imagine not being interested in the War Between the States of 1861-65. So many aspects of that war inform discussion of all subsequent wars: the shocking number of casualties; the horrendous impact of new weapons, particularly artillery; the punishing of civilians (as in Sherman’s march to the sea) as a war tactic; and the seeming endlessness of the conflict. If you want to understand the wars of the 20th century, you need to start with the American Civil War in the 19th.

Biography and Memoir (22)

Biographies and memoirs take up a full 13 shelves in my home library, more than any other category. The categories, of course, are entirely of my own devising (as this list makes clear). But if I were to do some re-categorizing, biographies and memoirs would still stand out above any others. I love people’s life stories. I love them small (such as Hua Hsu’s exquisite “Stay True”) and I love them big. Robert Caro’s multi-volume (and ongoing) biography of Lyndon Johnson is one of the great literary achievements of all time.

Civil Rights Era (4)

Fiction (23)

Holocaust (7)

Interwar and World War II (6)

JFK Assassination (6)

Miscellaneous History (15)

Music (2)

Philosophy and Ethics (5)

Science and Medicine (5)

Vietnam Era (6)

World War I (3)