Iwan W. Morgan's 3 favorite reads in 2023

This is an amazing history of how the University of Washington rowing 8 formed the US team that won gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. 

It tells how a group of working-class young men were molded into a winning team that triumphed against the odds. No knowledge of rowing is needed to understand this great story of human endeavor. Extremely well written, it reads like a novel but is based on massive research. 

I found it absolutely gripping, so much so that I did not want to say goodbye to the real-life characters who can teach us the values of putting team above individual ambition and working hard for each other. 

This is a superbly plotted novel about the Cold War that begins in 1950 but whose main developments take place in 1969. 

It brilliantly weaves fiction into real history and places entirely believable characters into its very well-paced, suspenseful narrative. I loved it for dealing with events around the time I was born and then focuses on developments that shaped my youthful view of the world at age 21. But it is more than a trip down memory lane. 

It is very moving on father-son relationships, has believable male and female leads, gives a very good account of life in Cold War Prague, and gets readers into the mindset of the spy. I found it unputdownable and would wake in the night wanting to read a bit more of it.

This historical thriller, set in New Orleans in 1919, features a black female detective and Louis Armstrong appears in the beautifully plotted fictionalized events. 

It has a great sense of place and time, its biggest selling feature for me as a historian. The interlinked rise of Jazz and the Mob at the heart of the action was also riveting.

When I finished reading the novel, I wanted to begin all over again because I did not want to let go of the characters, but they all reappear in three follow-up books in the brilliant City Blues Quartet – Dead Man’s Blues (set in Chicago in 1928), The Mobster’s Lament (New York 1947) and Sunset Swing (Los Angeles 1967). I read them all one after the other – and will reread them all in the coming year!