Tim’s top 8 favorite books read in 2023

No surprise here. My most liked books are almost always nonfiction. In no particular order, here are the great books I’ve read or listened to lately.

1) Collision of Power by Marty Baron reveals that as President, Donald Trump solicited a meeting with Jeff Bezos and Washington Post editors in an effort to persuade them to give him positive press. It also explores Bezos’s decision to buy the Post. Excellent.

2) Heaven and Hell is Don Felder’s personal story of how he became a rock star and wrote the Eagles’ greatest song, Hotel California. And how Felder’s bandmates stole credit for the song and then kicked him out of the band in connection with a massive lawsuit. Felder still owns a third of the Eagles rock band although he is no longer a performing member. Excellent.

3) Cuba by Ada Ferrer is the ultimate story of the history of Cuba and the American destruction of its society through economic strangling for decades. Excellent.

4) Scattershot by Bernie Taupin is the personal story of how lyricist Taupin teamed up with Reginald Dwight in London in the 1960s and together became the great musical act, Elton John. A lot of name-dropping indicates that rock star Taupin is often starstruck himself. Very good.

5) Bloody Mohawk by Richard Berleth describes the early white settlement of the Mohawk River valley in upstate New York and the brutal fighting between Europeans and the Iroquois Indians. Some dry segments. A good read.

6) Beneficiary by Janny Scott is the story of how her father inherited a fortune and a massive suburban country estate outside of Philadelphia from his family, the Montgomerys and Scotts of the Main Line blue blood families. The estate was the setting for the movie The Philadelphia Story. Janny Scott portrays the good and the bad in a family full of riches. There is also a wonderful connection to a former plantation in South Carolina. Excellent. Must read.

7) Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe explains how the notorious Sackler family developed Oxycontin and then peddled it to unsuspecting Americans through paid doctors causing death and financial destruction across a wide swath of America. A fascinating story that'll make your blood boil because the Sacklers, although socially disgraced, are still holding billions of dollars in profits from peddling their highly addictive pain medications. Excellent. Must read.

8) American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Still going on this long read. How the genius lead developer of the atomic bomb had such an unusual social life is a wonder. Excellent read.

Some are printed books. Others are audio books.