#GMGReads

I know lots of people suddenly find themselves with both unexpected time at home—and a desire to escape. So what better way to do that than through some immersive books?

So every night through this weird time, I’m going to tweet out a list of #gmgreads, my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online.

March 16, 2020: Edition #1 (Short Novels in a Very Specific Place)

Our first (very specific) #gmgreads theme: Short novels about being in a very specific place—and tonight I’ll start with my own local indies in Vermont, Phoenix Books and NorthShire Bookstore.

1) Olga Grushin’s amazing THE LINE, a book about the very specific Russian practice of waiting in line, for who knows how long for something that may never happen.

2) Howard Norman’s THE MUSEUM GUARD, a small book about the life of a museum and the paintings on its wall that transform lives.

3) Robin Sloan’s magical MR. PENUMBRA’s 24-HOUR BOOKSTORE, about the oddest bookstore of all—and the quest to understand what it’s really selling.

4) Justin Cronin’s THE SUMMER GUEST—one of my favorite books of all time—about a dying man and his fishing camp in Maine.

5) And then my very favorite novel about a very specific place: Calvin Trillin’s hilarious TEPPER ISN’T GOING OUT, about a man and his parking space. If you need a hilarious read, grab this. I dare you not to read it in a single sitting.

March 17, 2020: Edition #2 (Biographies About People You Wish You Knew)

I love reading biographies of people I know either little or nothing about and then being wowed by the lives they lived, so tonight’s theme is “biographies about people you’ll wish you knew,” all for sale through my old indie DC haunt Politics & Prose.

1) Jason Fagone’s biography, THE WOMAN WHO SMASHED CODES, about Elizabeth Friedman, America’s original and most bad-ass codebreaker, made me green with envy as a writer.

2) Samantha Power’s biography of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN enjoy killed in the Baghdad embassy bombing, is IMHO her greatest book, and one that changed the way that I look at power and the world (and it’s soon to be a Netflix movie).

3) Alexander Stille’s biography EXCELLENT CADAVERS, about two mafia-fighting Italian magistrates, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, is a testament to the power of the human spirit and the importance of the rule of law.

4) Scott Anderson’s biography, THE MAN WHO TRIED TO SAVE THE WORLD, about a swashbuckling Texan, Fred Cuny, who became the world’s “Master of Disaster” is an incredible tale with a puzzle of an ending.

5) I’ve read a lot about 9/11 in recent years, and no biography stuck with me like HEART OF A SOLDIER, about Rick Rescorla, a Vietnam vet-turned-British paratrooper-turned-Morgan Stanley’s security director whose dedication on 9/11 saved hundreds of lives.

March 18, 2020: Edition #3 (Fascinating Professional Memoirs)

Tonight’s theme is “fascinating professional memoirs,” well-written books about people’s unique jobs and experiences that teach you about a world you didn’t know, all for sale through the legendary Powells, which today more than any day needs every ounce of help it can get.

1) You’ve probably seen or heard about Anna Weiner’s new memoir, UNCANNY VALLEY, about working in tech—it’s wonderfully written and its insights are incisive. This was the most fun book I’ve read in a long time.

2) Edward Conlon’s richly detailed BLUE BLOOD is about his time as a cop in the NYPD and is the best cop memoir I’ve ever come across.

3) I’ve read two remarkable memoirs of being a firefighter, Zac Unger’s WORKING FIRE about being an Oakland firefighter and Jason Ramos’ SMOKEJUMPER, about being an elite wildland firefighter.

4) Salman Rushie’s memoir JOSEPH ANTON, about his time in hiding, while facing an assassination fatwa from Iran, is remarkable—and an incredible journey through what a life in hiding is like.

5) If you’ve never read it, Ruth Reichl’s memoir of her time as the NYT food critic, GARLIC & SAPPHIRES, is both charming and insightful about the business of food writing.

March 19, 2020: Edition #4 (Great Books About Hard Times)

This is a hard time for the US—but America has weathered a lot of hard times and many Americans face challenges on a daily basis. Tonight’s theme is great books about hard times, and tonight’s indie is Raven Book Store in Lawrence, KS, which is offering $1 “pandemic shipping.”

1) Isabel Wilkerson’s A WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS, about black Americans’ search for freedom during the Great Migration, an incredible chapter of American history I knew little about.

2) Timothy Egan’s THE WORST HARD TIME is an epic book about the Dust Bowl and the hard lives of the Depression, the real-life version of Steinbeck’s great tales.

3) Two about the challenges of everyday poverty: Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s RANDOM FAMILY, the most unrelenting book I’ve ever read, and Jason DeParle’s AMERICAN DREAM, which will change the way you think about welfare.

3A) Also don’t miss Matthew Desmond’s EVICTED, about the challenges of housing in America.

4) And then two classic books about the opioid crisis: DREAMLAND by Sam Quinones and and Beth Macy’s DOPESICK.

5) Lastly, a much more uplifting book about America rising: James and Deb Fallows’ fascinating and inspiring book, OUR TOWN, about what truly makes America great and how cities and towns are adapting to new realities.

March 20, 2020: Edition #5 (On Writing and Editing)

Tonight’s theme is great books about writing and editing—the books that have inspired me and taught me a lot about what makes smart writing—and tonight’s indie is Emma Straub’s Brooklyn Books Are Magic, which is offering 99 cent shipping.

1) My favorite writerly biography is A. Scott Berg’s EDITOR OF GENIUS, about Max Perkins, the Scriber Books editor who brought us Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Marguerite Young, and more.

2) When I was an editor, I kept a shelf of copies of Anne Lamott’s BIRD BY BIRD to hand out to writers and visitors. It is packed with wonderful, meaningful advice about writing & life. I think of this book and its advice probably every week.

3) Stephen King’s ON WRITING is a must-read, even as someone who has literally never read a single one of his books.

4) The collection of Marjorie Williams’ work, WOMAN AT THE WASHINGTON ZOO, is as perfect a collection of essays and profile as has ever been assembled.

5) Thomas Kunkel’s biography of the New Yorker’s visionary editor, Harold Ross, GENIUS IN DISGUISE, is a great, fun tale of what makes an editor masterful.

March 21, 2020: Edition #6 (Short Novels)

For years, I used to give one small novel for Christmas gifts every year to close friends—often a translation or novella, but always a book to be consumed in a single sitting or afternoon. Here are five of my favorite short novels, and tonight’s indie is Strand Book Store.

1) Gregoire Bouillier’s MYSTERY GUEST, about a man inexplicably invited to a party five years later by an ex.

2) Julian Barnes’ SENSE OF AN ENDING, about a man considering his legacy.

3) Adolfo Bioy Casares’ THE INVENTION OF MOREL, the transfixing basis for the movie “Last Year in Marienbad.”

4) My college friend Ceridwen Dovey wrote an evocative book, BLOOD KIN, about four people caught in the aftermath of a coup.

5) Denis Johnson’s TRAIN DREAMS manages to pack an epic tale of the west into a novella’s 116 pages.

March 22, 2020: Edition #7 (Fascinating Subcultures)

I just read Joe Posnanski‘s new book, THE LIFE AND AFTERLIFE OF HARRY HOUDINI, a delightful romp through the world of magic, so tonight’s theme is books on fascinating Christopher Guest-esque subcultures. Our indie tonight is Wellesley Books.

1) Colson Whitehead’s charming book NOBLE HUSTLE, and his own tour through the strange world of high-stakes poker championships.

2) Joshua Foer went deep inside the world of memory and accidentally became the national memory champion along the way in MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN.

3) There are two books about the subculture of Civil War buffs, Andrew Ferguson—who has to be one of the nation’s most entertaining writers—penned LAND OF LINCOLNS and Tony Horwitz’s classic CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC.

4) Jane Kramer wrote a great book in the 1990s, LONE PATRIOT, about the world of anti-government militias, a movement that’s just as relevant today as ever.

5) Lastly, Ted Conover has done some amazing immersive reporting—including his book on being a prison guard at Sing Sing, NEWJACK and his book about riding the rails with America’s hoboes.

March 23, 2020: Edition #8 (Food Books)

We had takeout for dinner tonight (hi and thanks @henwoodvt1!), and I feel fully rejuvenated and reenergized, a reminder of how food can give not just physical nourishment but spiritual as well. So let’s talk tonight about favorite food books, and celebrate Harvard Books.

1) Legit one of the most important books of my life, one that changed the way I approach every meal everyday, is Tyler Cowen’s AN ECONOMIST GETS LUNCH, about how to think of eating and especially meals out at restaurants (ha!) differently.

2) Two great memoirs by acclaimed food writers, Ruth Reichl’s (@ruthreichl) TENDER AT THE BONE, and Jeffrey Steingarten’s THE MAN WHO ATE EVERYTHING.

3) Barbara Kingsolver’s ANIMAL VEGETABLE MIRACLE would be an especially delicious book to read right now and celebrate the changing of the seasons.

4) My friend Eric Felten has written one of most fascinating (and tasty!) histories of cocktails and drinking in America, HOW’S YOUR DRINK? Lastly, two great books by roving gourmands, Jim Harrison wrote an all-time favorite, THE RAW AND THE COOKED and famed political writer RW Apple was also an incredible food writer, as evidenced by FAR FLUNG AND WELL FED.

March 24, 2020: Edition #9 (Epic, Sweeping Novels)

So we’re now into week two of something that will last somewhere between 14 days and forever. It really feels like we’re living in an epic story, where we don’t know how the story ends here. Tonight’s theme is just that: epic, sweeping novels.

1) Don Winslow’s (@donwinslow) THE CARTEL is just a fabulous big book, packed with everything one could want in a good story.

2) Two great works of multi-generation history are Philip Meyer’s THE SON, a story of a young Texan and the Comanche, one of most evocative books I’ve ever come across, and Kurt Andersen’s (@KBAndersen) HEYDAY is a delicious read.

3) Two incredible epics of Vietnam that will make you feel the tension, the jungle, and everything about that war: Denis Johnson’s TREE OF SMOKE and Karl Marlantes’ MATTERHORN.

4) I wasn’t sure whether I liked Richard Ford’s CANADA until I reached the very final page, a page that shaped my whole philosophy about life.

5) Lastly, this is sort of a cheat, but when you’re talking about books that pack a ton of history and life into it, it’s hard to find a nonfiction example better than Laura Hillenbrand’s UNBROKEN.

March 25, 2020: Edition #10 (Investigative Biographies)

I’m hoping over the quarantine to read George Packer’s OUR MAN, about Richard Holbrooke, and I love what I’d call “investigative biographies,” books that mix the writer and the quest to understand a subject. So here are my favorites, with my hometown indie Bear Pond Books.

1) Anyone who hasn’t read Casey Cep’s (@cncep) FURIOUS HOURS, about Harper Lee and the murder case she hoped would be her own IN COLD BLOOD, please drop everything you’re doing and go get it.

2) RANGER GAMES, by Ben Blum (@benzblum), didn’t get a lot of attention when it came out, but it was an excellent read—a tale of how a family member ended up in the midst of a bank robbery.

3) Kai Bird (@kaibird123) wrote an amazing biography, THE GOOD SPY, about one of the most important-and-least known US intelligence operatives of the last half century, Robert Ames, who was killed in the Beirut embassy bombing.

4) Shane Harris’ (@shaneharris) THE WATCHERS is a great tale of the rise of American surveillance and the career of Admiral John Poindexter.

5) I thought Matt Bai’s (@mattbai) ALL THE TRUTH IS OUT was one of the best books on politics of the last decade, tracing a direct line from Gary Hart to our modern circus. It really made me think about what the modern media has wrought.

March 26, 2020: Edition #11 (Foreign Lands)

Every night all this strangeness continues, it seems like we’re increasingly venturing in bizarre, foreign territory—so tonight’s theme are some of my favorite novels about far-off foreign lands, both literal and figurative.

1) David Mitchell’s THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET is a tale of going to the end of the earth in the 1800s, a story of a Dutchman in the trading city of Nagasaki.

2) Mohsin Hamid’s EXIT WEST is just one of the best books I’ve ever read, hands down, full stop, a story of emigration and displacement.

3) Tomas Eloy Martinez’s TANGO SINGER, a novel of magical realism set in Argentina (obviously!) mixes Borges and opera in the hunt for a singer rumored to be better than Carlos Gardel.

4) Ann Patchett’s BEL CANTO is the story of a South American hostage crisis and the relationships between the terrorists and their hostages.

5) Evelyn Waugh’s SCOOP is one of the great journalism novels of all time (and the first novel I really read as an adult) about foreign correspondents competing in the golden age of journalism.

March 27, 2020: Edition #12 (Fun to Read)

At the request of @BetsOnTech, tonight’s theme is simply books that are just fun to read—not heavy, not big, not dark, just fun. Here are some of my favorites.

1) Brock Clarke’s book title is pretty self-explanatory, AN ARSONIST’S GUIDE TO WRITERS’ HOMES IN NEW ENGLAND, and it’s exactly as enjoyable as you’d think it would be.

2) Two fun satires-of-sorts, Robert Littell’s tough-to-find DEBRIEFING, about the oddities of intelligence: and Joshua Ferris’s THEN WE CAME TO THE END, about a place we used to go called the “office.”

3) German defense attorney-turned-crime writer Ferdinand Von Schirach has two really good and surprising books of short stories, CRIME/GUILT and THE COLLINI CASE.

4) The cover of Denis Johnson’s very fun NOBODY MOVE is not made for reading in public, which makes it perfect for quarantine reading.

5) I have rarely found a book as creative and entertaining as BJ Novak’s (@bjnovak) ONE MORE THING.

And then, lastly, literally anything by Christopher Buckley, though both BOOMSDAY and THEY EAT PUPPIES DON’T THEY seem to have special relevance now.

March 28, 2020: Edition #13 (The Amazing World Around Us)

Weeks ago, my friend @nicco sent me Robert MacFarland’s UNDERLAND, about the world under our feet, saying it “enthralled” him. I’m reading it now and agree—so tonight’s theme is “books about the amazing world around us,” from @CityLightsBooks in SF.

1) Susan Casey’s (@caseymaui) THE WAVE is a great study of the amazing power and mystery of the oceans.

2) Lewis Thomas’s classic LIVES OF A CELL opened my eyes to the wonder of science years ago.

3) Carlo Rovelli’s SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS ON PHYSICS literally blew my mind with its description of the interplay of heat and time, along other easy-to-understand lessons.

4) Alan Weisman’s WORLD WITHOUT US is a fascinating thought experiment about the footprint we’re leaving in the physical world.

5) And, lastly, literally anything by John McPhee is a gift in terms of curiosity and learning about the world around us. Pick up something like this reader if you’re looking to start: or dive into his book on ORANGES, yes, oranges.

March 29, 2020: Edition #14 (How Washington Really Works)

In recognition of DC finally agreeing on its $2T initial rescue legislation, tonight’s theme is my favorite books on how Washington really works. And tonight we’re back to supporting @Powells, which just announced it’s able to hire back 100 (!) of its staff due to a surge in online orders. So keep the orders coming! Save a job! Expand your mind! Buy a book! (koin.com/news/portland/…)

1) Evan Thomas and @WalterIsaacson‘s classic THE WISE MEN is the definitive portrait of the tiny, elite, Ivy-educated circle who shaped the post-World War II world.

2) My friend (and editor!) Nick Thompson (@nxthompson) wrote a great book, THE HAWK AND THE DOVE, about two of the legends of the Cold War, George Kennan and Paul Nitze (a legend who also just so happened to be Nick’s grandfather).

3) John Bloom (@johnibloom) wrote what might seem like an esoteric tech history, about the rise and fall of the Iridium satellite network, ECCENTRIC ORBITS, which surprised me to be a detailed portrait of how lobbying shapes Washington behind-the-scenes.

4) And then two memoirs by two of the DC’s most critical eyes, Katharine Graham’s LIVING HISTORY and Meg Greenfield’s WASHINGTON.

5) One of the most classic inside-the-sausage-making tales of Washington is SHOWDOWN AT GUCCI GULCH, about how the Reagan era tax bill came to be, by @alansmurray and Jeffrey Birnbaum.

6) Plus one bonus, fun read, that’s all-too-true—the book that spawned a saying and a thousand knowing-glances, Mark Leibovich’s (@MarkLeibovich) THIS TOWN.

March 30, 2020: Edition #15 (On Invention)

As we enter a third week of quarantine and #GMGReads—and the world races to figure out a vaccine so we can reemerge—here are my favorite books about inventions. @sarvay has suggested @FountainBkstore in Richmond, so that’s who I’m featuring tonight. Buy a book! Save a job!

1) Dava Sobel’s LONGITUDE remains one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read, a tale of a leap of logic and invention that seems so commonplace we forget how long it stymied humankind.

2) Jacob Soll’s RECKONING, a surprisingly interesting history of accounting (yes, accounting!), will convince you that double-entry bookkeeping is one of the most important inventions of all time.

3) Richard Rhodes’s THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB is a tour du force of physics, history, and narrative reporting.

4) Annie Jacobsen’s (@AnnieJacobsen) OPERATION PAPERCLIP, the story of how Nazi scientists with horrible pasts helped the US win the space race, will leave you wondering whether the moral trade-offs were worth it.

5) Last summer, I chanced into reading David McCullough’s WRIGHT BROTHERS and found myself amazed at how much of the story of flight I didn’t know (France was really that important?!!?)

March 31, 2020: Edition #16 (On Emotions and Behavior)

I think everyone is feeling a lot of anxiety and uncertainty right now, so tonight I want to feature interesting books about human emotions and behavior. @c18913 suggested featuring @farleys in PA, so that’s your indie of the night!

1) Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison’s EXUBERANCE is just a great read about how passion plays out in the world.

2) No matter how much or little anxiety you may have in your regular life, you’ll enjoy the tour offered by Scott Stossel (@SStossel) in MY AGE OF ANXIETY.

3) Eric Felten’s (@ETFelten) LOYALTY: THE VEXING VIRTUE explores something that’s easy to give, but hard to find in life.

4) Morra Aarons-Mele’s (morraam) HIDING IN THE BATHROOM offers an introvert’s guide to getting out in the world and helped shape my understanding of my own work patterns.

5) Annie Duke’s THINKING IN BETS, a guide written by a professional poker player, was a fascinating tour of how to be comfortable with uncertainty.

April 1, 2020: Edition #17 (Presidential Biographies)

Tonight, in honor of a @WIRED essay I wrote yesterday about leadership in a time of crisis, I thought I’d feature some of my favorite presidential biographies (not including Lincoln or Washington—they’ll be future lists on their own).

1) Two biographies of FDR, HW Brands’ TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS and then Doris Kearns Goodwin’s NO ORDINARY TIME, about FDR and Eleanor together.

2) Ron Chernow’s GRANT is an obvious masterpiece—it’s so, so good—but if you really want to understand Grant’s place in US history, you should read Joan Waugh’s US GRANT: AMERICAN HERO, AMERICAN MYTH.

3) Writing about presidents in near real-time is hard, but two writers who have done it well are John Harris (@harrispolitico) with his book on Clinton, THE SURVIVOR, and then Lou Cannon, who wrote ROLE OF A LIFETIME about Reagan.

4) Evan Thomas’s IKE’S BLUFF will make a strong case that Eisenhower deserves far more greatness in our presidential pantheon than we typically give him.

5) And of course everything Robert Caro has written about LBJ — each volume of which is fascinating and which together serve as the best portrait we’ve ever gotten of a president. Start here with PATH TO POWER.

April 2, 2020: Edition #18 (Oral Histories)

I’m interviewing for my @WIRED living oral history of the Covid-19 pandemic—a new chapter publishes tomorrow!—which has me thinking about translating spoken words to printed words. Tonight, we’re featuring @onemorepagebooks & my five favorite oral histories, with a little twist.

1) The best oral history I’ve ever come across is actually fictional: Max Brooks (@maxbrooksauthor) WORLD WAR Z, about the zombie apocalypse. I’ve given it over the years to several writers to help them learn the oral history form.

2) George Saunders’ LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, another fictional oral history, might be the best book I’ve ever read. I wish I could read this book again for the 1st time. I spent a lot of time while writing ONLY PLANE IN THE SKY thinking about Saunders’ craft.

3) If you’ve never read Studs Terkel before, you’re missing out on one of the quintessential American writers, telling a quintessential American story. Start with WORKING, but he’s also done THE GOOD WAR, HARD TIMES, and others.

4) Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize in Literature for her collected stories of Russian voices. I’ve read SECONDHAND TIME, about the end of the Soviet Union, and heard great things about THE UNWOMANLY FACE OF WAR.

5) If you liked the movie “1917” or “They Shall Not Grow Old,” you should pick up Peter Englund’s THE BEAUTY AND THE SORROW, an “intimate history” of the First World War.

April 3, 2020: Edition #19 (Easy-to-Devour Nonfiction)

We did it! It’s Friday! Time to try to kick back and relax with some more light reading—tonight’s #GMGReads theme is just good, easy-to-devour narrative nonfiction.

1) Mark Bowden’s best known for BLACK HAWK DOWN, but if you watched “Narcos,” you should read the real tale of KILLING PABLO.

2) I didn’t get around to reading John Carreyrou’s (@JohnCarreyrou) BAD BLOOD, about Elizabeth Holmes and the fall of Theranos, until this winter, but it’s just as good as everyone says.

3) Candace Millard’s DESTINY OF THE REPUBLIC is the book you never knew you wanted to read about James A. Garfield.

4) Sebastian Junger’s THE PERFECT STORM is still an excellent and harrowing read, even years later.

5) Hampton Sides’ HELLHOUND ON HIS TRAIL, about the assassination of MLK and the hunt for his killer, will make you realize how you know about that chapter of history.

April 4, 2020: Edition #20 (Classic Narrative Nonfiction)

I wanted to follow-up last night’s list of great, easy-to-devour narrative nonfiction (quoted here, if you missed it) by featuring some more classic narrative nonfiction—great deep tracks of reportage that will transport you.

1) Norman Maclean’s YOUNG MEN AND FIRE is a fascinating reconstruction of the 1949 Mann Gulch tragedy, when 15 elite smokejumpers was overrun and lost 12 of the crew.

2) Speaking of firefighting, Dennis Smith’s REPORT FROM ENGINE CO 82 is a first-hand account of being a firefighter in the South Bronx in the 1960s and ’70s.

3) If you loved “The Wire,” you have to read a key part of its inspiration: Edward Burns and David Simon’s (@AoDespair) THE CORNER, the story of drug dealing and life on the streets of Baltimore through a year on the corner of Fayette & Monroe Streets.

4) Tom Wicker’s 1975 classic A TIME TO DIE about the Attica prison uprising is tremendous (and if you want more, in 2016, Heather Ann Thompson won a Pulitzer Prize for revisiting the horrific incident in BLOOD IN THE WATER).

5) Lastly, if you’ve never read Teddy White’s MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT 1960, get it immediately. The first fly-on-the-wall political book, it launched an entire genre and yet it’s still better and teaches you more than almost any subsequent imitators.

April 5, 2020: Edition #21 (Favorite Writing Books)

In honor of the quarantine write-a-thon my publisher @avidreaderpress hosted today for its new @poetswritersinc COMPLETE GUIDE TO BEING A WRITER, here are some of my favorite writing books (as opposed to my more editing-heavy #GMGReads Thread No. 5)

(Aside: Here’s the link to the @poetwritersinc book, which publishes on Tuesday! Available at tonight’s indie-of-choice, right in the midst of the publishing world, @mcnallyjackson🙂 (mcnallyjackson.com/book/978198212…)

1) When I taught magazine writing at Georgetown with @denisewills, one of our beloved core texts was WRITING TOOLS by Roy Peter Clark (@RoyPeterClark), excellent advice and thoughtful tips for anyone doing any kind of writing.

2) Speaking of prose, two great “Prose-themed” books: I also always love Tracy Kidder’s GOOD PROSE and Francine Prose’s READING LIKE A WRITER.

3) If you want to peak into the world of publishing itself, read Boris Kachka’s (@Borisk) HOTHOUSE, about the colorful and erudite history of @fsgbooks.

4) Similarly, it’s really hard to come by, but you if you ever want a treat track down Carol Polsgrove’s IT WASN’T PRETTY FOLKS, BUT WE SURE HAD FUN, about @Esquire, the rise of New Journalism, and some of the best writers of the 20th century.

(Hint: There’s at least one copy available of the book right there at the link! buy it now! it’s legit hard to find! buy a book! save a job!)

5) Terry McDonell’s ACCIDENTAL LIFE is a rich history of his time editing @outsidemagazine, @esquire, @SINow, and @RollingStone, what makes writing work, and—equally important—what makes writers work.

5A) I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve heard lots of good things about DREYER’S ENGLISH, Benjamin Dreyer’s (@BCDreyer) guide to utterly correct style and clarity. I’m sure he’d have a thing or so to say about the atrocious punctuation of my thread tonight.

April 6, 2020: Edition #22 (On Faith)

This Sunday, I’ll listen—as I have every Easter for 13 years—to my college minister Peter J. Gomes’ 2008 sermon, “Morning People.” So in honor of Holy Week and Passover, I wanted to feature five favorite books revolving around faith.

1) Reverend Gomes wrote two fabulous books, THE GOOD BOOK and THE GOOD LIFE, that had a profound impact on the way I live my life.

2) Christopher Hitchens’ fiery GOD IS NOT GREAT is a challenging and persuasive argument from one of the great writers of the modern era.

3) Anne Lamott’s TRAVELING MERCIES, her explanation of a big-hearted faith, is a classic.

4) Jon Krakauer’s UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN is part-history, part-investigative reportage of Fundamentalist Mormons.

5) Then two great novels: Neil Gaiman’s fun AMERICAN GODS and Graham Greene’s THE POWER AND THE GLORY featuring one of the greatest characters in literature, the whiskey priest.

April 7, 2020: Edition #23 (History-Shaping National Figures)

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how leaders shape history—positively and negatively—and so tonight thought I’d share five great books on history-shaping national figures. Tonight’s indie is right down the road from me in Shelburne, VT, the whimsical @FlyingPigBooks:

1) Anna Fifield’s (@annafifield) impeccably researched GREAT SUCCESSOR will convince you that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is actually much savvier than he’s often perceived (and leave you wondering how she researched it so well!).

2) Adam Hochschild’s KING LEOPOLD’S GHOST, about Belgium’s conquest of Africa, will horrify you—both in terms of its brutality and in terms of how much you realize you don’t know about African history.

3) Maria Arana’s (@aranama) BOLIVAR, an epic about the South American general and liberator, will also remind you how little you know about that continent’s history and how Simon Bolivar freed six countries from Spanish rule: (bookshop.org/books/bolivar-…)

4) @Susan_Hennessey and @benjaminwittes wrote a really important book this winter, UNMAKING OF THE PRESIDENCY, arguing that Donald Trump’s imprint will reshape the presidency for a long time to come.

5) William Taubman wrote two easy-to-access biographies of two key Soviet leaders, GORBACHEV: and KHRUSCHEV, both of which are critical to understanding the world in which we live today.

April 8, 2020: Edition #24 (Humans and Disasters)

I wrote a piece for @POLITICOMag this week about the challenges of confronting COVID-19 with the myriad vacancies in the US government right now, which got me thinking about books about the links between humans and disasters—both natural and man-made: (politico.com/news/magazine/…)

1) Two books on the human causes behind urban disasters: @joe_flood‘s THE FIRES traces the misunderstood algorithm that burned the South Bronx in the 1970s and @EricKlinenberg‘s HEAT WAVE is about the 1995 Chicago heat wave.

2) Everyone right now seems to be reading John Barry’s history of the Spanish Flu, GREAT INFLUENZA (which I’ve never actually read) but I was amazed by his book on the ’27 Mississippi flood, RISING TIDE.

3) Similarly, while many of you have probably read Daniel James Brown’s BOYS IN THE BOAT (which I’ve also never read!) he also wrote an impressive—and at times disturbingly graphic!—history of a massive 1894 Minnesota firestorm, UNDER A FLAMING SKY.

4) One of David McCullough’s earliest books was the story of the JOHNSTOWN FLOOD, one of the great preventable tragedies of the Gilded Age.

5) Simon Winchester’s CRACK IN THE EDGE OF THE WORLD explores the California earthquake of 1906 and what it taught us about the geology and fragility of the west.

April 9, 2020: Edition #25 (The Institution of the US Presidency)

Tonight, I’m featuring some favorites about the institution of the US presidency—not presidents per se, but how the office and its trappings operates, who holds the power, and how that power is used.

1) David Greenberg’s (@republicofspin) REPUBLIC OF SPIN and Craig Fehrman’s (@craigfehrman) AUTHOR-IN-CHIEF are great ways to think about the ways that presidents interact and shape the American public and political debate.

2) Two books on hidden institutions of the presidency: David Priess’s (@DavidPriess) PRESIDENT’S BOOK OF SECRETS and INSIDE CAMP DAVID, by one of its former commanding officers.

3) THE PRESIDENT’S CLUB, about the world’s most elite fraternity of presidents and former presidents, is hands-down the most interesting book on the presidency I’ve come across in years, by Nancy Gibbs (@nancygibbs) and Michael Duffy (@mrwduffy).

4) Kate Brower (@katebrower) has written a whole series of behind-the-scenes books on the presidency, the White House residence, First Ladies, and, most recently, the vice presidency in FIRST IN LINE.

5) Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) traced the entire sweeping history of wartime presidencies in PRESIDENTS OF WAR. Plus, if you don’t follow him on Twitter, he tweets out amazing, often topical historical photos all the time.

April 10, 2020: Edition #26 (Foreign Thriller Writers)

We did it! It’s another Friday—my fourth in quarantine, maybe your third or fifth? If you’re looking for something to relax with and dive into this weekend, here are some of my favorite foreign thriller writers and their thriller series:

1) Boris Akunin’s thriller series starring a Moscow detective Erast Fandorin and set against the Great Powers competition of the late 19th century is just sublime (and they’re short!). Start with WINTER QUEEN and then read them all.

2) Dame Stella Rimington is the former head of MI5-turned-novelist, who debuted her character Liz Carlyle in AT RISK.

3) John Le Carre is an icon and obvious master of the thriller field; try THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD or TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY.

4) Graham Greene has long ranked as probably my favorite author, and while I’d recommend nearly all of his works, if you’re looking for a fun thriller try his OUR MAN IN HAVANA.

5) I don’t read much Scandinavian noir, but if you’ve not picked up Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series, it’s worth reading. The first book is THE BAT.

April 11, 2020: Edition #27 (Journeys Through the History of a Place)

As we’re all entering our second month stuck wherever we are, I thought I’d share some of my favorite books about exploring a place, either physically or historically—not travelogues per se, but journeys through the history of a place.

1) Rinker Buck, in addition to having the perfect name for writing a book that involves traveling cross-country in a wagon, actually did just that for his hugely surprising history THE OREGON TRAIL.

2) Speaking of cross-country journeys, Sarah Vowell’s ASSASSINATION VACATION is a delightful (and fast) read about presidents and their assassins.

3) Charles King (@charleskingdc) wrote a fascinating history of the most fascinating hotel in the world’s most fascinating city, MIDNIGHT AT THE PERA PALACE, about Istanbul and the rise of modern Turkey.

4) And speaking of the meeting of east and west, if you’ve never read Orhan Pamuk’s ISTANBUL, it’s stunning and evocative and beautifully written.

5) Lastly, if I ever have to choose to go on a family vacation with another family, I’d pick Nathan Hodge (@nohdoge) and Sharon Weinberger (@weinbergersa) who traveled the country for A NUCLEAR FAMILY VACATION.

April 12, 2020: Edition #28 (The Dark Side of US Capitalism)

As we contemplate the epic job losses of the last month, I thought I’d go back over past financial crises and some favorite books on the poison, egos, and outright fraud at the heart of US capitalism, featuring The Eloquent Page in St. Albans, VT, a favorite haunt for used books.

1) Bethany McLean (@bethanymac12) and Peter Elkind (@peterelkind) painted an incredible, captivating, and head-pounding portrait of Enron in THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM that reads like a super crazy novel.

2) Anand Giridharadas’s (@AnandWrites) WINNERS TAKE ALL is a challenging portrait of the ecosystem inhabited by the global elite.

3) Michael Lewis has written all sorts of good books on this topic, but if you’ve never read his original LIAR’S POKER, it’s well worth the read, and THE BIG SHORT, about the latest financial crisis, will make you good and angry: (bookshop.org/books/the-big-…)

4) Speaking of the latest financial crisis, Bethany McLean (@bethanymac12) also teamed up with Joe Nocera (@opinion_joe) to write what I think is the best book on the 2008-2009 collapse, ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE.

5) Jane Mayer’s (@JaneMayerNYer) portrait of the Kochs and other GOP donors and the corruption of the political ecosystem, DARK MONEY, is a story as much about business as it is about politics.

April 13, 2020: Edition #29 (On India)

Tonight, I wanted to share some of my favorite books, fiction and nonfiction, about India—but also would really love suggestions for this category. It’s been years since I’ve read books on India, so what are your recent favorites?

1) Suketu Mehta’s nonfiction MAXIMUM CITY explores the unfathomable scale of Bombay.

2) Kate Boo’s BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS is one of the most amazing and haunting pieces of reporting you’ll ever encounter. Seriously, if you haven’t read this, get it now.

3) Aravind Adiga’s novel THE WHITE TIGER is a tale of the caste system.

4) Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy, including RIVER OF SMOKE, is a masterpiece.

5) Jhumpa Lahiri’s THE LOWLAND is a multi-generation family epic.

April 14, 2020: Edition #30 (Reads Like a Good Documentary)

Tonight, in honor of #TigerKing, I wanted to share some favorite “books-that-read-like-great-documentaries,” including the legit book you’ll find about tigers, all for sale at @oldtownbooks in Alexandria, where I did a great event in October last year. Buy a book! See the world!

1) John Vaillant (@johnvaillant), who is just an incredibly talented writer and reporter, wrote the greatest book you’ll ever read about tigers, THE TIGER, about the Siberian Tiger and the wilds of Russia.

2) Julian Rubinstein’s (@julian_rubinste) BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER is an amazing tale of a hockey player-turned-bank robber in Budapest.

3) Candice Millard’s RIVER OF DOUBT is the tale of Teddy Roosevelt’s greatest adventure-gone-wrong.

4) Michael Finkel’s (@MikeFinkel) THE STRANGER IN THE WOODS is, as its subtitle promise, the extraordinary story of the last true hermit in Maine.

5) Lisa Taddeo’s (@lisadtaddeo) THREE WOMEN is an astonishing feat of a decade of reporting, mapping the desires and lives of three women.

April 15, 2020: Edition #31 (On Combat and War in Vietnam)

I’ve read a lot over the last two years about the Vietnam War, prior to which I knew very little about. Over the next two nights, I wanted to share some of my favorite books on Vietnam—beginning tonight with stories about combat and the war itself. PS: I’ve previously featured in #GMGReads two of the great epic novels to come out of the war, MATTERHORN and TREE OF SMOKE, both of which I also recommend.

1) Joe Galloway’s book, with General Hal Moore, WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE … AND YOUNG is a classic about the early combat in 1965 at Ia Drang that really launched the war.

2) Philip Caputo’s A RUMOR OF WAR is a powerful war memoir and similarly James Webb’s novel FIELDS OF FIRE is as good a ground-level perspective on the war as you’ll fine.

3) Michael Herr’s DISPATCHES is some awe-inspiring war reportage, harkening back to the glory days of @esquire.

4) While we normally think of Vietnam as all jungle fighting, Mark Bowden’s HUE 1968 describes the incredible urban combat in the imperial capital that made up the war’s biggest battle.

5) Tim O’Brien wrote not one but two incredible, deeply memorable and almost poetic books about the war, THE THINGS THEY CARRIED and GOING AFTER CACCIATO.

April 16, 2020: Edition #32 (On the Political Side of Vietnam)

Tonight’s Part II of my favorite books about the Vietnam War, this time focused on the politics and Washington side of the war. Last night was focused on stories of the war itself.

One caveat to my list before I begin: I haven’t read @MaxBoot‘s ROAD NOT TAKEN and I’m just about to start @brian_vandemark‘s ROAD TO DISASTER, both of which come highly recommended, so you should check those out, even if I’m not able to “officially” recommend them.

1) Anyone who ever says the phrase “The Best and the Brightest” without irony hasn’t read the book by David Halberstam, because the actual lesson is quite the opposite—the best and brightest fumbled their way into a tremendous world of trouble.

2) Neil Sheehan’s classic A BRIGHT SHINING LIE, about John Paul Vann’s life’s work in Vietnam, is equal parts inspiring and heartbreaking, and a great microcosm of the promise wasted in the war.

3) David Rudenstine wrote a good readable history of the Pentagon Papers case, THE DAY THE PRESSES STOPPED, that’s worth contemplating today as the free press is under threat.

4) Robert Timberg’s tour du force THE NIGHTINGALE’S SONG traces the long shadow of Vietnam through the lives of Naval Academy grads John McCain, James Webb, Oliver North, Robert McFarlane, and John Poindexter.

5) Before he was Trump’s national security advisor, HR McMaster wrote a fascinating and damning book DERELICTION OF DUTY about the generals who failed to stand up to LBJ. Read into that what you want.

April 17, 2020: Edition #33 (Exciting Additions to GMG’s Queue)

Since we made it to Friday, I wanted to mix it up: In honor of my publisher @AvidReaderPress‘s first novel, @EmilyGould‘s PERFECT TUNES—which I’m excited to dive into—here are five new books I just ordered from @bookshop_org and am excited about reading: (bookshop.org/books/perfect-…)

1) WHY FISH DON’T EXIST by Lulu Miller (@lmillernpr) looks really good. The fact that @susanorlean blurbed it carries a lot of weight, because she’s quite sparse with praise: (bookshop.org/books/why-fish…)

2) I love Civil War books (forthcoming next week in #GMGReads!) and I love writer’s obsessions, so IN THE WAVES by Rachel Lance (@UnderwaterLance) looks excellent.

3) And after two nights this week of #GMGReads on Vietnam War books, all from the US perspective, I’m excited to read the novel THE MOUNTAINS SING told from the Vietnamese side, by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai.

4) I also ordered THREE HOURS IN PARIS by Cara Black (@carablack) because I’m a huge fan of Alan Furst-style noir spy novels.

5) Lastly, I ordered FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL by Sheri Fink (@sherifink), which several of you recommended after my “manmade-disasters” #GMGReads thread last week.

April 18, 2020: Edition #34 (Classic and Overlooked Thrillers)

I’ve been trying on the weekends to feature slightly more fun reads, so tonight I wanted to share five favorite classic and sometimes overlooked thrillers.

1) Long before he wrote his CARTEL trilogy, @donwinslow penned one of my favorite thrillers, CALIFORNIA FIRE AND LIFE, about a wayward arson investigator and the Russian mob.

2) Speaking of California thrillers, Gerald Petievich’s 1980 book about a counterfeiter, TO LIVE & DIE IN LA, is a great, fast read.

3) Frederick Forsyth’s DAY OF THE JACKAL, published in 1971, about an assassin’s hunt for General De Gaulle, is the definition of a classic thriller and deserves every accolade.

4) Written decades before it became the Denzel Washington movie, AJ Quinnell’s hard-to-find MAN ON FIRE is a heart-racing story of corruption and vengeance.

5) Similarly, long before it became the hit movie series with Matt Damon, the Jason Bourne trilogy by Robert Ludlum—first published in 1980!—remains one of the best characters and thrillers ever created.

April 19, 2020: Edition #35 (Classic Espionage)

Tonight, after last night’s classic thrillers, I wanted to offer my favorite classic espionage books—dramatic tales of spy v. spy and one BONKERS story about Ross Perot.

1) He’s largely forgotten to all-but counterintelligence historians now, but John Walker’s spy ring was one of the most damaging ever, a tale recounted admirably by Pete Earley in his hard-to-find FAMILY OF SPIES.

2) THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN, the story of friendship and a 1970s Russian spy, is one of the great classics of espionage.

3) While we mostly only remember Ross Perot for his wacky on-again off-again presidential run in ’92, the tale of how he broke two of his employees out of an Iranian prison in the 1970s is crazy, told in ON WINGS OF EAGLES. Seriously, you won’t believe it.

4) Elaine Shannon and Ann Blackman’s THE SPY NEXT DOOR is arguably the definitive account of the worst FBI traitor in history, Robert Hanssen.

5) The movie was good, but the book CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR is even better, an amazing, richly reported tale of how a rogue CIA officer and a congressman changed the course of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

April 20, 2020: Edition #36 (On Engineering Marvels)

Can you believe we’re into week six of this? I was reading this weekend a biography of Enrico Fermi, THE LAST MAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHING, the father of the nuclear age, and it got me thinking about my favorite books on engineering marvels—all available at @booksaremagicbk.

1) Tonight’s whole category of engineering marvels could just be David McCullough books—I’ve mentioned WRIGHT BROTHERS before—but two stand really out: First, his PATH BETWEEN THE SEAS, on the building of the Panama Canal is captivating and enlightening.

2) Second, you’d be hard-pressed to find a story of more inspirational grit than THE GREAT BRIDGE and the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

3) Stephen Ambrose’s NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE WORLD, about the transcontinental railroad is a testament to the wondrous advancements in technology that seem so utterly mundane later.

4) Annie Jacobsen’s (@AnnieJacobsen) history of the most intriguing military base in the world, the Rhode Island-sized AREA 51, didn’t uncover aliens, but it’s a history of secret marvels just as revolutionary, from nukes to supersonic flight.

5) On a trip to Asheville in 2015, I visited the Biltmore and was just amazed by the enormous, decadent mansion—the history of which is is recounted in Denise Kiernan’s (@DeniseKiernan) THE LAST CASTLE.

April 21, 2020: Edition #37 (The Civil War)

Tonight, I’m kicking off a three-night event—books about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln, among my favorite history topics. Tonight, books on the war itself, all available at @CityLightsBooks, which was saved by an awesome GoFundMe campaign. Keep it up! Buy a book!

1) Adam Goodheart’s beautifully written and deeply researched book “1861” argues that the first year of the war represented a moment as important to American freedom as 1776.

2) Drew Gilpin Faust’s REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING, about how American culture changed during the Civil War, is one of the finest and most illuminating works of American history I’ve ever read.

3) Burke Davis’s classic SHERMAN’S MARCH is an interesting, readable narrative of one of the defining moments of the war.

4) Last year saw two great new books: Elizabeth Varon’s ARMIES OF DELIVERANCE, a political study of the war, and SC Gwynne’s (@scgwynne) HYMNS OF THE REPUBLIC, a colorful and eye-opening narrative of the final year of the war.

5) Nicholas Lemann’s (@nicholaslemann) REDEMPTION, about the period after the war, makes clear how the south—and white supremacists particularly—kept fighting viciously after the war and, frankly, managed to win another century of black oppression.

PS: If you’ve never about Reconstruction generally, the brutality is horrifying. That’s also the subject of Heather Cox Richardson’s (@HC_Richardson) new book this month HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR, which is part of my next order from @Bookshop_Org.

April 22, 2020: Edition #38 (On Lincoln Himself)

Tonight is my second of three nights featuring favorite books about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln, among my favorite history topics. Tonight, books on Lincoln Himself, all available at @CityLightsBooks. Here was last night’s list on the war itself.

PS: Two caveats before tonight’s list: Doris Kearns Goodwin’s TEAM OF RIVALS will appear tomorrow night, with books on world around Lincoln—so don’t @ me—and I’ve already mentioned George Saunders’ LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, in a previous #GMGReads.

1) David Herbert Donald’s LINCOLN is just a masterful one-volume biography. Start here if you’re just diving in.

2) Douglas Wilson’s HONOR’S VOICE paints a portrait of just how unexpected Lincoln’s rise to power truly was.

3) Fred Kaplan (not @fmkaplan, the other one) examines Lincoln through the lens of his most important voice—his writing—in his captivating LINCOLN: THE BIOGRAPHY OF A WRITER.

4) Gore Vidal’s novel LINCOLN, one of his Narratives of Empire books, is just an engrossing and meaty portrait of the president and the era, despite it being fiction.

5) Two important arguments about Lincoln’s nuances: @haroldholzer‘s LINCOLN PRESIDENT-ELECT, arguing he was more thoughtful than you think thru the secession winter & Mark Neely’s FATE OF LIBERTY, about Lincoln and civil liberties.

April 23, 2020: Edition #39 (Lincoln and the Civil War)

Welcome to the third night of favorite books about Lincoln and the Civil War! Tonight, books about the Civil War and the world around Lincoln. Night 1 was books about the war itself and Night 2 featured books about Lincoln himself.

1) Doris Kearns Goodwin’s TEAM OF RIVALS, on Lincoln’s cabinet, is as magisterial as you’ve heard and spawned a whole new way of looking at leadership (mostly by people who haven’t read the book, internalized its lessons, and realized how poorly it went).

2) @JoshuaMZeitz‘s book LINCOLN’S BOYS is a vital profile of his closest aides, John Hay and John Nicolay, and how they watched over his life and legacy.

3) Then two books with very similar titles but different themes: David Herbert Donald’s WE ARE LINCOLN MEN, about Lincoln’s friendships: and William C. Davis’s LINCOLN’S MEN, about his relationship with his troops.

4) Amanda Foreman’s (@DrAmandaForeman) A WORLD ON FIRE examines Britain and the larger geopolitical context of the Civil War.

5) Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t single out the greatest novel written about the Civil War, Michael Shaara’s epic of Gettysburg, KILLER ANGELS.

PS: I’ve also previously mentioned two fantastic and important biographies of US Grant that are worth highlighting again.

April 24, 2020: Edition #40 (From City Lights Books)

Yesterday was National Book Day evidently, so what better way to end this week than buying some new books?!?! Buy a book, expand your world, save a job—all in one act! I just ordered these five books from @CityLightsBooks‘s storefront on @Bookshop_Org.

1) Ben Hubbard’s (@NYTBen) new profile of the leader of Saudi Arabia “MBS” looks like a vital guide to one of the world’s most influential rising autocrats.

2) For obvious reasons, I’m a snob about FBI books—I’ve read almost all of them—and it’s been years since I’ve been as excited to read one as much as David Rohde’s (@RohdeD) IN DEEP, which came out this week.

3) It’s not quite as new, but when I was asking Twitter earlier this week about the best book to understand the modern anti-gov militias and modern white supremacists, the universal consensus was Kathleen Belew’s (@kathleen_belew) BRING THE WAR HOME.

4) I’m also really interested in reading Heather Cox Richardson’s (@HC_Richardson) HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR that traces the ashes of the Confederacy to the radicalism of the right today.

5) Lastly, Lawrence Wright’s (@lawrence_wright) oddly prescient novel, THE END OF OCTOBER, about a pandemic that spreads out of Asia, comes out on Tuesday—and I can’t wait to read it.

April 25, 2020: Edition #41 (Espionage Thrillers)

I’ve tried to have a bit more fun on weekend lists, so tonight I wanted to feature five of my favorite espionage thriller writers and some specific recommendations from their oeuvres.

1) Fletcher Knebel is best known for SEVEN DAYS IN MAY but you should also check out his political thrillers DARK HORSE and NIGHT AT CAMP DAVID: (powells.com/book/-97805255…)

2) David Ignatius (@IgnatiusPost) is prolific and his books are always on the news (look for THE PALADIN next month!), but his novel SIRO is—in my humble opinion—perhaps the best espionage novel ever written.

3) Robert Littell has written all manner of great spy books—some of which I’ve recommended before—but his novel about the CIA, THE COMPANY, is a great epic, an amazing history book, and a tour of the shadowy world espionage all wrapped together.

4) Charles McCarry is a master of literary thrillers too, one who clearly knows DC and intelligence deeply; try almost any of his books, like OLD BOYS, TEARS OF AUTUMN, or CHRISTOPHER’S GHOSTS.

5) Lastly, if you’re in the mood for DC books and like noir, then check out almost anything by George Pelecanos, like THE MARTINI SHOT or WHAT IT WAS.

April 26, 2020: Edition #42 (DC Satire)

Here are some of my favorite political satires; life in Washington often inspires ridicule—my friend @JessicaYellin wrote one just last year, SAVAGE NEWS, and @MarkLeibovich‘s THIS TOWN makes one wonder if any fiction is funnier than real-life in DC.

Some of these are DC satires real deep tracks—three date back to the Reagan years—so buckle up and snap up these used copies—they’re hard to find! The good news is that DC satire stands the test of time, since, well, life in DC is just as absurd as always. So here we go.

1) Long before she was Second Lady, Lynne Cheney co-authored a “Weekend at Bernie’s”-style 1988 satire of what happened if the VP died and no one noticed, THE BODY POLITIC, with Vic Gold.

(Total aside: In 2000, I was interning for @ABC when Cheney was tapped as Bush’s VP, and I tracked down a copy of BODY POLITIC, read it overnight, and Peter Jennings spoke on-air my one-sentence summary of the book. It was, at that moment, the highlight of my journalism career.)

2) Christopher Buckley is the king of DC satires, and his THANK YOU FOR SMOKING and WHITE HOUSE MESS are among his most classic.

3) Anyone who has ever worked in DC will recognize the truth and absurdity of Peter Benchley’s 1986 satire Q CLEARANCE, where a random White House staffer accidentally gets a top clearance he shouldn’t and accrues power simply by appearing in-the-know.

4) Two books about campaign life: Peter Lefcourt’s THE WOODY in which a US senator is shaken down by a maple syrup kingpin, and @jenniferclose‘s THE HOPEFULS, about a campaign romance gone awry.

5) Lastly, Garrett Epps’ 1985 novel THE FLOATING ISLAND, a truly rare find, is one of the best DC send-ups you’ll ever come across.

April 27, 2020: Edition #43 (1970s Radicalism and Unrest)

Tonight, some favorite books recounting the crazy unrest and political radicalism of the 1970s—a period where we often forget just how much violence and turmoil ruled America’s headlines. All of tonight’s books are available from @FountainBkstore in Richmond, VA!

(Two caveats: I’ve not read Michelle McNamara’s supposedly awesome book on the Golden State Killer, I‘LL BE GONE IN THE DARK, nor @JeffreyToobin‘s AMERICAN HEIRESS, on Patty Hearst, but they both fits tonight’s genre too.)

1) Bryan Burrough’s (@bryanburrough) DAYS OF RAGE is a jaw-dropping tour of the underground extremists of the 1970s, from the Weather Underground to FALN to the Black Liberation Army.

2) Betty Medsger’s THE BURGLARY shows how a sneaky break-in at a Pennsylvania FBI office upended the politics of the decade and rewrote J. Edgar Hoover’s legacy: (fountainbookstore.com/book/978080417…)

3) Rick Perlstein’s (@rickperlstein) NIXONLAND shows how Nixon exploited the unrest of the 1960s to win his 1972 landslide and give birth to the fractious, divisive politics of today.

4) Simon Reeve’s ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER grippingly tells the story of the terror attack on the Munich Olympics that shocked the world.

5) Brendan Koerner’s (@brendankoerner) THE SKIES BELONG TO US recalls the crazy (and frequent—like weekly!) hijackings of the 1970s that became almost a joke in the US—until they weren’t.

April 28, 2020: Edition #44 (Turning Points in the Cold War)

Tonight, I thought I’d offer some favorite books about turning points in the Cold War, both the moments that did change history and those that might’ve.

Before we dive in, if you want a general overview of the Cold War, look no further than John Lewis Gaddis’ brief and readable COLD WAR: A NEW HISTORY, and then, without further ado, the list.

1) Anne Applebaum’s (@anneapplebaum) deeply researched IRON CURTAIN shows the descent of Soviet oppression across Eastern Europe.

2) Michael Dobbs’ (@michaeldobbs) ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT is as close to a seat-of-your-pants thriller as you’ll find in history, as he relates the wild, scary, and tense turn-by-turn tale of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

3) To understand the military underpinnings of the conflict, you’ll find no better guide than Neil Sheehan’s FIERY PEACE IN A COLD WAR, about General Bernard Schriever and the arms race that unfolded decade after decade.

4) Margaret Macmillan’s NIXON AND MAO zeroes in on the historic opening of China by the least likely of American presidents.

5) Mary Elise Sarotte’s (@e_sarotte) book THE COLLAPSE is the incredible human tale of the accidental (?) opening of the Berlin Wall that unwound the Cold War.

April 29, 2020: Edition #45 (On Hacking and Cybersecurity)

I’ve been trying to highlight new good books, so check out the Thomas Rid’s (@RidT) brand new ACTIVE MEASURES, about disinformation—and which inspired tonight’s theme: The best recent books on hacking and cybersecurity, all available at @northshirebooks.

1) Andy Greenberg’s SANDWORM was the first book to really put together all the pieces surrounding Russia’s 2016 attack on the US and the GRU team that did it. I couldn’t recommend this one enough and am very jealous of Andy’s reportage and scoops.

2) Kim Zetter’s (@KimZetter) COUNTDOWN TO ZERO DAY, the story of the first major cyber attack, Stuxnet—where the US and Israel targeted Iran’s nuclear program—is so impeccably researched that I was confounded about how she knew some of what she did.

3) For some broader history and thinking on the cyber world, try Fred Kaplan’s (@fmkaplan) very accessible DARK TERRITORY and David Sanger’s (@SangerNYT) excellent PERFECT WEAPON.

4) And for a tale that’s just a wild cops-and-robbers read, check out Nick Bilton’s (@nickbilton) story AMERICAN KINGPIN about the mastermind behind the infamous Silk Road website that spun far beyond his wildest imaginations.

5) Lastly, if you’re interested in some more provocative and ultimately frightening reads, try Bruce Schneier’s (@schneierblog) CLICK HERE TO KILL EVERYBODY or Shoshana Zuboff’s (@shoshanazuboff) THE AGE OF SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM.

April 30, 2020: Edition #46 (Novels About 9/11)

Tonight, I’m doing a virtual book club with @AvidReaderPress about THE ONLY PLANE IN THE SKY, so apropos of that, I wanted to share my favorite novels about 9/11, mostly available at @mcnallyjackson right in downtown Manhattan.

1) Amy Waldman’s THE SUBMISSION deals with the complicating mixture of grief, politics, and identity after 9/11.

2) Frédéric Beigbeder’s WINDOWS ON THE WORLD is not for the faint of heart, but it’s the only novel I’ve come across where the attack itself is the centerpiece, rather than the backdrop of the book.

3) Jay McInerney’s classic THE GOOD LIFE explores the need for human connections in the wake of the attack.

4) Two books about the aftermath of that day: Joseph O’Neill’s almost whimsical NETHERLAND and Claire Messud’s THE EMPEROR’S CHILDREN both wrestle with how life seemed afterward to exist in suspended animation.

5) Mohsin Hamid examines the complex American political and military reaction and over-reaction to the events of 9/11 in his breezy THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST.

AMay 1, 2020: Edition #47 (On the 9/11 Attacks)

Last night, for my @AvidReaderPress book club, I featured my favorite novels about 9/11 and promised tonight I’d share the most important books about the 9/11 attacks itself—all available from @BookPeople in Austin, to honor @lawrence_wright‘s new novel.

1) Steve Coll’s (@stevecollny) GHOST WARS is a sweeping history of the US involvement in Afghanistan, from the 1980s up to September 10th, a book he followed up with a biography of THE BIN LADENS.

2) Lawrence Wright’s (@lawrence_wright) THE LOOMING TOWER remains the classic, definitive story of the lead-up to 9/11 and what went wrong inside the US government.

3) The 9/11 Commission Report itself might just be the most readable and dramatic government report of all time—and I worry regularly now that we’re ignoring its lessons.

4) Peter Bergen’s (@peterbergencnn) HOLY WAR INC., about the rise of bin Laden, was uniquely prescient—in part because Bergen produced the first TV interview with bin Laden himself. He started the book long before 9/11 and published just two months after.

5) John Miller, who also interviewed bin Laden pre-9/11, worked with two other authors to tell the story of THE CELL, about the strand of Islamic extremism that aimed at New York City beginning with the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.

May 2, 2020: Edition #48 (Russia and Soviet Politics)

I watched the hilarious “Death of Stalin” movie recently, which had me thinking about books with Russia and Soviet politics as their backdrop. If you’re not quite ready to dive into Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s life’s work, here are some breezier reads:

1) David Benioff’s CITY OF THIEVES is a movingly human tale of life amid the horror of the siege of Leningrad.

2) I’ve recommended her novel THE LINE before, but Olga Grushin’s (@olgagrushin) THE DREAM LIFE OF SUKHANOV, her debut, is a fascinating portrait of the imagined inner-life of one of the many who made moral trade-offs amid the Soviet Union.

3) Amor Towles’ (@amortowles) A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, about a man “exiled” to live indefinitely in a fancy Moscow hotel is warm, charming, and yet also an unforgettable window into a disturbing time.

4) Martin Cruz Smith’s GORKY PARK is one of the great, classic thriller/mysteries of all time, mixed with a dose of Cold War geopolitics.

5) Tom Rob Smith’s THE SECRET SPEECH imagines the drama of coming to terms with Stalin’s reign of terror: (bookshop.org/books/the-secr…) PS: I don’t usually do this, but I should add one more to this list:

6) THE STALIN EPIGRAM, by Robert Littell, about the infamous dictator and one of the few artists who wouldn’t bend to his desires, based on a true story: (bookshop.org/books/the-stal…)

May 3, 2020: Edition #49 (True Crime Stories)

Tonight, I thought I’d share from amazing true crime stories, all, as they say, ripped from the headlines.

1) Long before “Breaking Bad,” Mark Bowden’s DOCTOR DEALER tells the story of a regular Philly physician who built a massive cocaine empire.

2) She’s best known for her writing on Russia and Putin, but Masha Gessen (@mashagessen) also wrote a fantastic—and worrisome—book about the unanswered questions behind the Boston Marathon Bombing.

3) Dick Lehr and Gerald O’Neill teamed up in BLACK MASS to investigate the case of Whitey Bulger and his corrupt partnership with a Boston FBI agent.

4) Patricia Clin Cohen’s (@clinecohenp) MURDER OF HELEN JEWETT recreates perhaps the first tabloid true crime sensation in America, the lingering mystery behind a case from 1836.

5) If you’re interested in getting into money laundering, definitely check out Ann Woolner’s WASHED IN GOLD, a wild tale of money laundering that gets into the real nuts and bolts.

May 5, 2020: Edition #50 (Favorite Books of All Time)

So evidently we’ve made it all the way to Numero Five-Zero—and into week eight! I’ve been thinking all day about a list that seems apropos for a milestone night, so here are my five favorite books of all time (which is semi-cheating since I’ve mentioned some before).

1) Anne Lamott’s (@annelamott) book on writing, BIRD BY BIRD, contains (nearly) all the life advice you need to thrive.

2) My college freshman-year writing teacher, after doing battle with me all semester, prescribed me to read Frank Conroy’s BODY & SOUL, which proved hugely important to me.

3) Graham Greene, overall, far and away, is my favorite author, and THE END OF THE AFFAIR, set against WWII, and THE QUIET AMERICAN, in the early days of the Vietnam War, top my list, along with THE POWER AND THE GLORY, which I’ve mentioned before.

4) The campaign classic THE BOYS ON THE BUS, by Timothy Crouse, was a huge inspiration toward being a journalist, as was Evelyn Waugh’s novel SCOOP, the first novel of my adult life.

5) Lastly, two classic books that captured such beauty in language: W. Somerset Maugham’s RAZOR’S EDGE and Gabriel García Márquez’s LOVE IN A TIME OF CHOLERA.

May 6, 2020: Edition #51 (New Books and Authors)

Today’s a big day of book releases, so I want to recognize five new books and authors I’m excited about—all available from @booksaremagicbk, whose owner @emmastraub herself has a new novel out today, ALL ADULTS HERE.

1) My friend and former colleague Brooke Lea Foster (@brookeleafoster) is a debut novelist today! Her SUMMER DARLINGS tells the story of a nanny’s summer caring for a wealthy family on Martha’s Vineyard in 1962.

2) Molly Ball (@mollyesque), who is just one of the smartest and most eloquent political writers out there, has a brand new biography out today, PELOSI, the first in-depth look at one of the most vital politicians of our era.

3) David Ignatius (@IgnatiusPost), who mixes incredible real-life intelligence reporting into his prolific thrillers, has a new cyber novel out, THE PALADIN. If you’ve never read him, his novels are more true than most nonfiction.

4) I’ve also ordered and am excited to read @alastairgee and @Dani_Anguiano‘s FIRE IN PARADISE, about that devastating California wildfire in 2018.

5) Lastly, Jennifer Weiner (@jenniferweiner) is one of my favorite @nytopinion writers—and we share an intense passion for “The Bachelor”—but she’s obviously best known as a novelist, and her latest, BIG SUMMER, is out today too.

May 6, 2020: Edition #52 (Favorite Campaign Books)

Tonight, since we’re sort of still in the midst of a presidential race, I thought I’d go back over my favorite campaign books of all time. Two caveats: I’ve already listed two of the genre’s best, BOYS ON THE BUS and THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT 1960, and I largely stopped reading campaign books post-2008, so I’ve not read Katy Tur’s (@KatyTurNBC) UNBELIEVABLE, which has gotten great reviews.

1) Joe McGuinness’ bombshell of a book SELLING OF THE PRESIDENT 1968 was the first to herald the change in how candidates are marketed.

2) Richard Ben Cramer’s WHAT IT TAKES is certainly one of the best campaign books ever written (and has a large chunk about Biden so is relevant still today).

3) TRAIL FEVER, about the 1996 presidential race, might be Michael Lewis’ least-known book, but man is it fun—this was actually the first campaign book I ever read, as a teen, and it made me fall in love with the genre.

4) Joe Klein’s (a.k.a. Anonymous’s) novel PRIMARY COLORS, about a fictionalized Bill Clinton race is also just a delicious book to read.

5) Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) might be the sharpest observer of politics today and her book BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY will make you sad you never got to watch her cover a Hillary Clinton administration.

Before I go: Teddy White’s MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT 1960 is his best, for sure, but all of his campaign books—1964, 1968, and 1972—are vital histories of those eras too. What he did that most other campaign writers skip is to tell the story of America, not just the candidates.

May 7, 2020: Edition #53 (Histories of Washington, D.C.)

Tonight I wanted to share my favorite histories of Washington, D.C., all available from @Powells.

1) Harry Jaffe (@harryjaffe) and Tom Sherwood (@tomsherwood) wrote the definitive classic of DC politics, DREAM CITY—read it if you want to understand just how strange the ’70s’ and 80s’ were: (Sam Smith’s CAPTIVE CAPITAL is also good, but hard to find.)

2) Gore Vidal’s novel WASHINGTON, D.C. isn’t exactly history, but it’s a fun read and feels like you’re reading history.

3) Margaret Leech wrote a classic, REVEILLE IN WASHINGTON, about the city during the Civil War.

4) David Brinkley’s WASHINGTON GOES TO WAR has some incredible details about the city’s transformation from small town to global city during World War II.

5) Frank Rich’s (@frankrichny) charming memoir of growing up in the DC theatre scene, GHOST LIGHT, is just a fantastic read, in part because it seems such a surprise.

May 8, 2020: Edition #54 (Short, Fun, Historical Fiction)

We made it to another weekend! At last! What’s on your reading list right now? I’m jealous of everyone I see reading and finishing Hilary Mantel’s Tudor trilogy, but if you’re not quite ready to bite off such a huge commitment, here’s some short, fun historical fiction.

1) Barry Unsworth’s LAND OF MARVELS tells the story of a British archeologist in the last days of Mesopotamia.

2) Caleb Carr’s THE ALIENIST is wild tale about murder and Teddy Roosevelt—it’s fictional, but you’d never know that from reading it.

3) Try on almost anything by Alan Furst, who is a wonderfully evocative and mood-inducing writer, usually about espionage and the backdrop of World War II. Try THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT.

4) Mayra Montero’s DANCING TO ALMENDRA mixes a hippo, Cuban politics, and murder.

5) And Elizabeth Kostova’s HISTORIAN mixes history and Dracula. Those are tonight’s #GMGReads. What are you reading this weekend? I’m diving into—get it?!— Rachel Lance’s (@UnderwaterLance) book about solving the mystery of the first Confederate submarine, IN THE WAVES. It’s really fun!

May 9, 2020: Edition #55 (About Letters Themselves)

In keeping with my weekend themes of lighter, more fun reading, I thought tonight I’d feature books about letters themselves—the art of letters and the pleasure of reading, all available at @Powells or through @Bookshop_Org.

1) LETTERS OF NOTE, collected from @LettersOfNote, is one of the most fun books I’ve ever come acros— a collection of odd, important, wry, whimsical, and unexpected letters from all walks of life and personalities.

2) Simon Garfield’s book TO THE LETTER is a wonderful meditation and history on letter-writing and the art of letters (and has a ton of fun postal history!)

3) Susan Orlean’s (@susanorlean) THE LIBRARY BOOK is a delightful history of libraries and reading, set against a devastating arson case in Los Angeles.

4) Novelist Robertson Davies’ letters have been collected into FOR YOUR EYE ALONE, which is just as much of a hoot as his actually books.

5) E.B. White’s POEMS AND SKETCHES is easily digestible, scene by scene, and just a wonderful collection of rich language.

May 10, 2020: Edition #56 (The Intersections of Life, Dream, and Writing)

I want to read Lily King’s (@lilykingbooks) WRITERS AND LOVERS, which looks at the perils of those transitional phases in life, but it’s right up my alley and I thought I’d feature books with that theme—the rich intersections of life, dreams, and writing.

1) Lauren Weisberger’s DEVIL WEARS PRADA defined an age and—I really believe—stands the test of time. It’s a deliciously fun book to read and has a wealth of insight into magazine life.

2) Jay McInerney’s BRIGHT LIGHTS BIG CITY is perhaps the classic coming-of-age writer novel.

3) As the sole nonfiction entry on tonight’s list, Tina Brown’s (@TinaBrownLM) THE VANITY FAIR DIARIES tells of her time arriving in the US and learning the art of a major magazine. PS: I’ve previously recommended Ruth Reichl’s (@ruthreichl) literally delicious GARLIC & SAPPHIRES, about her time as the NYT’s food critic, which also sort of fits this theme.

4) As fun as beginnings are, the transitions with an ending make for interesting reading too, so: I’ve been raving about his MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT, but Teddy White also wrote a great novel about the fall of a magazine, THE VIEW FROM THE FORTIETH FLOOR.

5) Similarly, Tom Rachman’s THE IMPERFECTIONISTS is a wonderful pointillist character study about the end of a storied newspaper.

May 11, 2020: Edition #57 (On China)

I can’t believe we’re into the ninth week of #GMGReads! Tonight, I moderated a fun (virtual) @PoliticsProse conversation with @IgnatiusPost about his new book, THE PALADIN, which got me thinking about books on China, so here are some suggestions, available at @politicsprose.

PS: This is a category where my recommendations aren’t comprehensive by any means; what would you add? What are the best books you’ve read on China? I’ve never read Jung Chang’s two masterpieces, WILD SWAN or MAO, for instance.

1) One of my quarantine reads has been Daniel Kurtz-Phelan’s (@dankurtzphelan) THE CHINA MISSION, about George Marshall’s attempt to negotiate a peace in China post-World War II, which was fascinating—a chapter of history I knew literally nothing about.

2) Liz Economy’s (@LizEconomy) THE THIRD REVOLUTION is a sharp, insightful recent history about Xi Jinping and his consolidation of power (which has only gotten worse since she wrote).

3) There are few writers I’m so consistently envious of as Evan Osnos (@eosnos), and if you want to read Exhibit A of “Reasons I Hate Evan,” read his richly reported AGE OF AMBITION, surely one of the (if not the) best modern western book on China.

4) @IgnatiusPost‘s last novel, THE QUANTUM SPY, is probably the most accurate depiction of Chinese intelligence that exists, nonfiction or fiction.

5) Kai Fu Lee’s (@kaifulee) recent AI SUPERPOWER clearly and thoughtfully lays out the next battleground between the west and China, for supremacy in artificial intelligence.

May 12, 2020: Edition #58 (Boats and History)

Before diving in, I want to say how sad I was by news @simonschuster CEO Carolyn Reidy passed away. She was a giant, a wonderful leader, and a loving reader. Readers may have never known her name, but she made all of our literary lives richer.

Anyway, I read this weekend @underwaterlance‘s new history of the Confederate submarine Hunley—a wonderful book, filled with fun characters and science—so tonight thought I’d share some books that mix boats and history.

1) Paul Hendrickson’s HEMINGWAY’S BOAT is incredibly eloquent, a biography of the writer told through his relationship with the water and his boat Pilar.

2) Sara Vladic (@surfinsara) and Lynn Vincent’s masterful history INDIANAPOLIS, about the tragic sinking of the famed battleship, is so beautiful that I literally choked up in one scene.

3) Lucy Jago’s NORTHERN LIGHTS mixes the science of the Aurora Borealis with the quest of the man who solved their mystery.

4) If you’ve somehow made it this far in life and never read ENDURANCE, the wild story of Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic adventure, man I don’t know about your priorities.

5) Evan Thomas’s biography JOHN PAUL JONES tells the story of the the “founder” of the US Navy and the dawn of America’s nautical ambitions.

May 13, 2020: Edition #59 (DC Institutions)

I was sad to see Nick Kotz passed away; he was a great writer on DC, from bombers to MLK. His book on the B-1 (@oriana0214‘s favorite plane!) is one of the best ever on the military-industrial complex, so I’m featuring tonight books on DC institutions. PS: Kotz’s book on the B-1 is WILD BLUE YONDER, if you’ve never seen it.

1) Neil Irwin’s (@Neil_Irwin) THE ALCHEMISTS is surely the best book written on central banks and the Federal Reserve, as he dove into how Ben Bernanke and other central bankers handled the last financial crisis.

2) James Bamford wrote the original—and then earth-shattering—history of the NSA, THE PUZZLE PALACE, an agency so secret that its very existence was classified for decades.

3) Tim Weiner’s (@timweiner3) LEGACY OF ASHES is a prize-winning comprehensive history of the CIA, while Evan Thomas’s THE VERY BEST MEN tells of the agency’s early years.

4) Kate Brower (@katebrower) is one of the first writers to treat the White House as a living institution, and her history of THE RESIDENCE is a deep looks at the professional staff who run the executive mansion regardless of who is in the Oval Office.

5) The Supreme Court is a terrifically hard place to cover, and two of the best are Linda Greenhouse’s (@greenhouselinda) BECOMING JUSTICE BLACKMUN and Jan Crawford Greenberg’s SUPREME CONFLICT.

May 14, 2020: Edition #60 (Food Industry Memoirs)

I wrote for @WIRED last week about how the pandemic is devastating small businesses—and, in particular—restaurants. It’s just been heartbreaking to watch our favorite restaurants in such pain. So tonight, I thought I’d do food industry memoirs.

1) I’ve recommended a few of her other books, but there are still more to celebrate: Ruth Reichl (@ruthreichl) is just a master writer and her COMFORT ME WITH APPLES explores her transition from cook to critic.

2) It seems such an obvious choice to recommend Anthony Bourdain’s KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL, but the book really is that good and it’s surely one of the most influential food books of all time.

3) Kingsley Amis’ colorful and witty cocktail writing is distilled (get it?!) into EVERYDAY DRINKING.

4) Calvin Trillin’s food writing, in ALICE LET’S EAT, is a delightful collection of food and a loving marriage.

5) Debra Ginsberg’s WAITING, her confessional of her time as a waitress, came long before the Food Channel transformed the food world and is still well worth the read.

May 15, 2020: Edition #61 (Literary Thrillers with an International Flavor)

Another week complete! I’ve been trying to do lighter reading suggestions for the weekend, so tonight some well-written literary thrillers with an international flavor.

1) I discovered British writer Gerald Seymour only relatively recently, but find his books excellent. Try DENIABLE DEATH.

2) Chris Morgan Jones’ AGENT OF DECEIT is an excellent, globe-trotting thriller, focused on Russian money laundering.

3) It’s sort of been lost to history, but Allan Folsom’s DAY AFTER TOMORROW was a huge sensation when it came out in 1994—it sold for $2 million at the time—and is still well worth the read.

4) Dan Fesperman (@danfesperman) is a journalist-turned-thriller writer, and his THE SMALL BOAT OF GREAT SORROWS, about the long shadow of history in the Balkans, is just so well-written.

5) The New York Times said Ted Mooney’s literary thriller SAME RIVER TWICE—about Paris, smuggling, and art—proves “it is perfectly possible to find a novel that has it all,” and I agree.

May 16, 2020: Edition #62 (Pop Culture)

I feel like everyone on Twitter is watching more Neflix and Hulu than normal right now, so—since it’s Saturday night, time for another big night in—here are some of favorite books on pop culture.

1) Jennifer Armstrong’s (@jmkarmstrong) SEINFELDIA, about “how a show about nothing changed everything,” will have you reaching for your remote to rewatch some classic funny scenes.

2) I BOUGHT ANDY WARHOL, by Richard Polsky, about the famous icon and the art world is a lesson about how $100,000 doesn’t go as far as you think it will.

3) Glen Weldon’s (@ghweldon) deeply thoughtful and very smart CAPED CRUSADE traces the interconnection of Batman and the rise of nerd culture.

4) Masha Gesson’s (@mashagessen) WORDS WILL BREAK CEMENT, about Pussy Riot, shows the political power of culture.

5) I think that Steven Johnson (@stevenbjohnson) is just one of the most brilliant thinkers I read, and his EVERYTHING BAD IS GOOD FOR YOU really changed my understanding of modern life and modern culture.

May 17, 2020: Edition #63 (The Kennedys)

I’m going to do some specific presidential biographies this week, and thought I’d start with some of the best books on JFK and the Kennedys, some of which are rare and out of print, but thanks to the magic of the internet all are available at @strandbookstore.

A caveat: My reading on JFK has focused around his foreign policy & assassination, so I’ve not read two more personal biographies of him: Doris Kearns Goodwin’s FITZGERALDS AND THE KENNEDYS and Sally Bedell Smith’s GRACE AND POWER.

1) Two close Kennedy associates wrote sweeping biographies of their one-time boss: KENNEDY by Ted Sorensen, and A THOUSAND DAYS by Arthur Schlesinger.

2) Two other associates wrote more intimate versions: Ben Bradlee’s CONVERSATIONS WITH KENNEDY and Kenny O’Donnell’s JOHNNY WE HARDLY KNEW YE.

3) Richard Reeves’ PRESIDENT KENNEDY: PROFILE OF POWER is excellent and more of a historian’s biography.

4) Longtime political writing legend Adam Clymer authored the definitive biography of Ted Kennedy, simply EDWARD M. KENNEDY.

5) And Evan Thomas wrote a great biography of Bobbie, ROBERT KENNEDY: HIS LIFE.

May 18, 2020: Edition #64 (The Progressive Era)

Welcome to our 10th week! A #GMGReads reader pointed to me to a rare first edition copy of Ida Tarbell’s IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF LINCOLN on Etsy, which just arrived in the mail, so I’m sharing other great books about the progressive era, like her memoir: ALL IN A DAY’S WORK.

1) Doris Kearns Goodwin’s THE BULLY PULPIT weaves together Teddy Roosevelt, muckracking journalism, and William Howard Taft.

2) John Barry’s (@johnmbarry) history of the last pandemic, THE GREAT INFLUENZA, is actually the unexpected story of the triumph of the progressive age and science.

3) Daniel Okrent’s (@okrent) LAST CALL, the history of Prohibition, an aborted and little-understood chapter of history, is fascinating.

4) Elaine Weiss’s (@efweiss5) THE WOMAN’S HOUR, about the suffrage movement, makes clear how much of a fight it was for women to vote, even well into the 20th Century.

5) Jacob Riis’s HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES, about the New York City slums, was an eye-opening stunner when it came out in 1890—and remains a heartwrenching read over a century later.

May 19, 2020: Edition #65 (New Books from Bookshop)

It’s Tuesday—and did know almost all books in the US are published on Tuesdays? I’ve tried to highlight great new books being published in this strange time, like my friend Kate Brower’s (@katebrower) TEAM OF FIVE, on the club of living presidents. So tonight here are five other brand new and new-ish books I ordered today from @bookshop_org, which helps supports indie bookstores across the country.

1) I am very excited for Bart Gellman’s (@bartongellman) DARK MIRROR, out today, about Edward Snowden and his interactions with America’s surveillance state, which sounds fascinating and vital and is by an awesome reporter.

2) I also purchased Jia Lynn Yang’s (@jialynnyang) new history over America’s epic struggle over immigration, ONE MIGHTY AND IRRESISTIBLE TIDE, which I’ve been looking forward to this spring.

3) I’ve also had several friends enjoy Lily King’s (@lilykingbooks) WRITERS & LOVERS, about transitional moments in life—it evidently has a great section on the writing process and how books come to life.

4) Joanne McNeil’s (@jomc) LURKING fills an important void in tech writing, offering a user’s perspective and history of the rise of the internet and how “people” were transformed into “users.”

5) Deirdre Mask’s (@Deirdre_Mask) THE ADDRESS BOOK looks at how geography is destiny, and how in what purports to be a free, open nation of opportunity our street addresses actually betray a great deal about our race, wealth, and power.

May 20, 2020: Edition #66 (Deep Tracks Cyber)

Last night @NatSecGrok said he’d read most of my cyber book recommendations, so here’s a special “deep tracks cyber” edition of #GMGReads.

1) Steven Levy (@StevenLevy) is the original god of computer writing and internet history, and his classic HACKERS traces the wild west days of the computer age.

2) Katie Hafner (@katiehafner) wrote two of the great books about the early internet, WHERE WIZARDS STAY UP LATE, with Matthew Lyon, and CYBERPUNK, with John Markoff.

3) Cliff Stoll’s CUCKOO’S EGG was really the first book to dive into hacking crimes—and it inspired a man named Robert Mueller to start the first computer crime unit at the Justice Department around 1990. The book is still given to new cyber prosecutors.

4) Slightly more recently, Joseph Menn’s (@josephmenn) FATAL SYSTEM ERROR follows a computer hacking case in the early 2000s that leads right to the Russian mafia.

5) Mark Bowden’s book WORM is even more recent, but traces one of the great early scares of the newly global web.

May 21, 2020: Edition #67 (The Promise and Peril of the Internet)

In keeping with last night’s cyber theme, I thought I’d do some good books tonight on the promise and peril of the internet, including the perils of using the internet and social media as it’s designed.

1) Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) examined how the internet has changed—and shaped—modern protest movements in TWITTER AND TEAR GAS. Aside: She’s also brilliant and a great Twitter follow if you don’t know her.

2) Jaron Lanier, one of the original shapers and original minds of the computer age, announced his fears about our wired world in YOU ARE NOT A GADGET.

3) Franklin Foer’s (@FranklinFoer) WORLD WITHOUT MIND is a cogent argument against social media.

4) Cathy O’Neil (@mathbabedotorg) warned of the dangers of algorithms in WEAPONS OF MATH DESTRUCTION.

5) Justin Peters (@justintrevett) explored one of the great tragedies of the digital age in the case against Aaron Swartz, THE IDEALIST.

May 22, 2020: Edition #68 (Techie Thrillers and Novels)

We made it to another weekend—a long one in fact! Hooray! In keeping with my theme of the last few nights of tech books, I thought tonight I’d feature techie thrillers and novels—you know, fun books to relax with and worry about something other than daily life.

1) Neal Stephenson’s CRYPTONOMICON is probably the quintessential tech thriller, an epic ranging from World War II to the modern data wars in Asia.

2) Ernest Cline’s READY PLAYER ONE is just a phenomenal, fun, breath-taking read.

3) I read ENDER’S GAME, by Orson Scott Card, way back in high school and it was just electric.

4) Two more novel-ish encounters with tech in modern life, are Dave Eggers’ THE CIRCLE and SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY by Gary Shteyngart.

5) Daniel Suarez’s (@itsdanielsuarez) INFLUX wonders whether the world is actually more advanced than the government allows us to be. PS: It’s actually a memoir, but I’d be remiss not to re-mention UNCANNY VALLEY by @annawiener in this list, since it reads like a tech novel.

May 23, 2020: Edition #69 (Collected Works of Literary Nonfiction)

It’s Saturday night in America, so I thought I’d take my inspiration from @susanorlean and feature some great collected works of literary nonfiction, all available from @strandbookstore, the hometown of several of the books featured tonight.

1) Susan Orlean is in a category almost her own for literary nonfiction, and her SATURDAY NIGHT explores all manner of American life on Saturday nights (back in an era where, you know, America went out on Saturday nights).

2) John McPhee’s GIVING GOOD WEIGHT is a wonderful collection of his essays, including the title essay about New York’s greenmarkets, but there’s also some pinball in this book.

3) Joseph Mitchell’s UP IN THE OLD HOTEL approaches magic in the way that he captures and evokes life in the dwindling remnants of “old” New York.

4) Martha Gellhorn is best known as a war correspondent, but she did some amazing peacetime reporting too, collected in THE VIEW FROM THE GROUND.

5) Norman Mailer’s remarkable political writing, from some of the most important conventions of the 20th century, is collected in SOME HONORABLE MEN.

PS: I’ve never read Joan Didion’s famous WHITE ALBUM, but given what an iconic work it is, I feel remiss not to mention in this category too.

May 24, 2020: Edition #70 (The Human Cost of War)

I recently finished Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s (@nguyen_p_quemai) THE MOUNTAINS SING, a Vietnamese perspective on that war, and it has me thinking about the human cost of war—which seems an appropriate theme for Memorial Day weekend.

1) I was gifted SAVAGE CONTINENT, by Keith Lowe (@KeithLoweAuthor), a number of years ago and remember being just stunned by its exposition of Europe’s rebuilding after World War II and the horrific conditions across the continent.

2) Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) is surely one of the most important historians of our time, and her chronicle RED FAMINE exposes the true, stunning cost of Stalin’s war of extermination in Ukraine.

3) Kurt Vonnegut’s novel SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE is based on his own experiences amid the horror of the fire-bombing of Dresden.

4) Harrison Salisbury’s THE 900 DAYS traces the brutal, long, human toll of the siege of Leningrad.

5) It’s much less well-known than Anne Frank’s, but ZLATA’S DIARY, the first-person memory of 11-year-old Zlata Filipovic as the Bosnian War breaks out all around her.

May 25, 2020: Edition #71 (Novels About the Wars in Iraq & Afghanistan)

Well, amazingly, welcome now to Week 11. I never imagined on March 16th when I started this nightly ritual that we’d all still be (mostly) hanging out at home come the end of the May—and now, it appears, through most of summer. What about you? Now it’s Memorial Day. To mark the holiday, I’m featuring books this week on America’s recent wars—starting with novels about wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, all available at @rjjulia in Madison, CT, which I was thinking of today and how lovely, someday, it’ll be browse inside again.

1) Kevin Powers’ YELLOW BIRDS, a finalist for the National Book Award, is a heartbreaking story of two soldiers caught together in the madness of war.

2) Michael Pitre’s FIVES AND TWENTY-FIVES has stuck with me for years, the story of a road repair and explosive disposal unit amid the Iraq War. I seriously think of this book almost every time I get out of a vehicle—read it and you’ll know why.

3) Phil Klay’s (@PhilKlay) REDEPLOYMENT, which did win a National Book Award, is an incredibly powerful, pointillist perspective on war, through a collection of short stories. PS: Speaking of short stories, I’ve not read Siobhan Fallon’s (@siobhanmfallon) collection YOU KNOW WHEN THE MEN ARE GONE, but it’s also supposed to be fabulous.

4) Ben Fountain is one of the only writers I’ve ever fan boy-ed in person, and his BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK is one of the few novels to focus on the disconnect between war and our reflexive, dismissive “Thank you for your service” culture at home.

5) Elliot Ackerman (@elliotackerman) is a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan and his novel GREEN ON BLUE focuses on an Afghan orphan amid the war.

May 26, 2020: Edition #72 (Reportage on the Wars in Iraq & Afghanistan)

Tonight, continuing our Memorial Day week theme on modern wars, and last night’s novels of the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan, here are my favorite books of reportage to emerge from Iraq.

1) As a starting point, you should read Michael Kelly’s powerful chronicle of the first Gulf War, MARTYR’S DAY, which argues eloquently and vividly the everyday brutality of Saddam’s regime.

2) Anne Garrels’ (@annegarrels) wrote a great first-person about covering the initial invasion for NPR, NAKED IN BAGHDAD.

3) Tom Ricks (@tomricks1) wrote probably the two definitive books about how the occupation went south, FIASCO and, later, about the surge, THE GAMBLE.

4) David Finkel’s THE GOOD SOLDIERS is a heart-wrenching portrait of a unit at war.

5) Anthony Shadid’s NIGHT DRAWS NEAR, about the Iraqi people, is one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read; when it came out in 2005, I knew we were in way over our heads.

PS: It’s worth noting that as we remember the huge human cost of this war, two of these writers—Michael Kelly and Anthony Shadid—died covering the Iraq War and the unrest that it spawned. If you read their books here, you’ll see how much the world misses their writing.

May 27, 2020: Edition #73 (First-Person Memoirs of Fighting Those Wars)

Tonight, continuing this week’s Memorial Day theme of books on modern wars and following up on last night’s novels of Iraq/Afghanistan, here are my favorite first-person memoirs of fighting in those wars, all available from Iowa’s @prairie_lights.

One aside, it’s not a book, but if you’ve never seen @AlexHortonTX‘s essay “Reading ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ in Baghdad,” take the time and read it now.

1) Nate Fick’s (@ncfick) ONE BULLET AWAY, about being a Recon Marine, is probably the closest we have to a genuine “classic” of Iraq/Afghanistan memoirs.

2) John Crawford’s THE LAST TRUE STORY I’LL EVER TELL follows how one National Guardsman unexpectedly found himself on active duty, invading Iraq, and then patrolling Baghdad for a year.

3) Craig M. Mullaney’s UNFORGIVING MINUTE mixes the perspective of Army training for firefights in Afghanistan with Mullaney’s return to teaching new officers at the Naval Academy. PS: Two memoirs I’ve not read but that have been highly recommended are Kayla Williams’ LOVE MY RIFLE MORE THAN YOU, Jess Goodell’s SHADE IT BLACK, about her time with a Marine mortuary affairs unit in Iraq.

4) I’m biased since he’s a friend, but Jason Whiteley’s FATHER OF MONEY is a powerful first-person narrative of a superpower lost in the mess of Iraq.

5) The start of the war in Iraq feels like a 1000 years ago, but it came as blogs first took off, and two of the most original voices to emerge were “mil-bloggers,” Colby Buzzell, who wrote MY WAR. Matt Gallagher, who wrote KABOOM.

May 28, 2020: Edition #74 (Best Reportage Out of the War in Afghanistan)

I’ve spent this Memorial Day week featuring books on America’s modern wars, and after last night’s best memoirs of the war, here’s the best reportage to come out of the war in Afghanistan.

1) The best book I’ve ever come across about the war in Afghanistan is Jake Tapper’s (@jaketapper) incredibly reported THE OUTPOST, which is surely the BLACK HAWK DOWN of the war.

2) Sebastian Junger’s (@sebastianjunger) WAR, about a platoon in the heart of the Korengal Valley, is an amazing tale of a small unit in a lonely place (and became a great documentary too).

3) Hands down the best modern war writer is CJ Chivers (@cjchivers), who has probably gone more places and seen more than any other modern war correspondent. His THE FIGHTERS pulls together some of his best reportage from Iraq and Afghanistan both.

4) Gayle Tzemach (@gaylelemmon)—my first-ever boss in journalism!—uncovered an amazing tale in ASHLEY’S WAR, chronicling the surprising story of women inserted into special ops teams in Afghanistan.

5) One of the defining aspects of Afghanistan has been the front-line role of CIA officers, and Gary Schroen tells the wild story in FIRST IN of that first wave of officers post-9/1.

PS: This list makes me realize I’ve never read another classic of the Afghanistan war, Doug Stanton’s (@dougstantonbook) HORSE SOLDIERS, now retitled 12 STRONG, but that’s also worth checking out.

May 29, 2020: Edition #75 (Race and Policing)

I, like many, have just been heartbroken by the events this week in Minneapolis, one of my favorite cities in the US. Tonight, I want to feature the best books I’ve read on race and policing—most of which are available at @magersandquinn, my favorite bookstore in Minneapolis.

1) Radley Balko’s (@radleybalko) RISE OF THE WARRIOR COP was a prescient early warning about a militant Rubicon America’s police quietly slipped across without the country noticing.

2) DON’T SHOOT, by my former college professor David Kennedy (@davidkennedynyc), recounts his story in combatting violence in Boston and a national-path-not-taken in how police there worked with the community to stop inner-city violence and save lives.

3) Michelle Alexander (@thenewjimcrow) painted an indelible portrait of a broken, racist system in THE NEW JIM CROW.

4) Joe Domanick chronicled the attempted reform of the LAPD in BLUE.

5) James Forman Jr. (@jformanjr) won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for his portrait of the complicated, interconnected history of mass incarceration and the rise of a generation of black mayors, LOCKING UP OUR OWN.

May 30, 2020: Edition #76 (The Spanish Civil War)

Tonight, I want to feature books about the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, which was such a hinge in history—filled with historic visions of romance, great writers, and the first stage of the titanic battle to come between fascism and democracy just a few years later.

1) Antony Beevor’s THE BATTLE FOR SPAIN is probably the strongest single-volume narrative history of the war.

PS: If you’re looking for something shorter, but equally strong as history, Helen Graham’s THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION is supposed to be great.

2) Adam Hochschild’s has written incredible books on some of history’s most traumatic moments, and his SPAIN IN OUR HEARTS, focusing on the Americans drawn to the moment and cause, inspires awe (also, it’ll make you never shop at a Texaco again).

3) Part of what makes the Spanish Civil War so incredible in history is the rogues gallery of writers it attracted, including George Orwell’s nonfiction HOMAGE TO CATALONIA and Ernest Hemingway’s novel FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.

4) Few works about this period (and few writers) are more captivating though than Martha Gellhorn and her memoir THE FACE OF WAR.

5) Richard Rhodes, the author of the definitive books on the atomic bomb, wrote HELL AND GOOD COMPANY, a technological history of the war, which foresaw so much of the tactics of World War II.

May 31, 2020: Edition #77 (A More Honest American History)

The events of this last week have underscored that America has a more complicated (and less all-around noble) history than the story we like to tell in elementary school. Here are my favorite surveys of American history, all available at @magersandquinn in troubled Minneapolis.

1) Jill Lepore’s THESE TRUTHS is a massive book, but arguably one of the most important of this last decade—a frank assessment of a nation whose history on civil rights, human rights, and democracy is a lot more checkered than we like to admit.

2) America today will make more sense when you read Kurt Andersen’s (@KBAndersen) FANTASYLAND. Our current “fake news” era is more the norm than the exception, from the Salem witch trials to PT Barnum, America’s long been home to fantasists and fabulists.

3) Colin Woodward’s (@WoodardColin) AMERICAN NATIONS argues remarkably convincingly that we’re not a united land, split “only” by red-blue, but actually eleven distinct regions, with identifiable characteristics and unique values.

4) John Steele Gordon’s AN EMPIRE OF WEALTH and Michael Lind’s LAND OF PROMISE both put our nation’s economic desires—and our intrinsic greed—as the center of our national drive.

5) Heather Cox Richardson’s (@hc_richardson) HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR follows how the nation’s move westward kept alive the ideology defeated by the north’s Civil War victory, taking root in the land of Barry Goldwater, and leading up to now.

June 1, 2020: Edition #78 (The American Debate Over Justice and Equality)

As I begin the fourth month of #GMGReads tonight, I’m just sick for America—there’s so much sadness and pain across the US in so many cities I hold dear. It’s hard to know where to begin.

Tonight, I want to feature books about America’s long debate over equality and justice. I’d also encourage you to shop tonight at Fulton Street Books (@fultonstreet918), a black-owned bookstore working to improve intergenerational literacy in Tulsa. You can go there and get any of tonight’s books—or any book—through @Bookshop_Org: (fultonstreet918.com)

1) Two books on the challenges and vision of the Constitution, Ganesh Sitaraman’s (@GaneshSitaraman) THE CRISIS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS CONSTITUTION and Akhil Reed Amar’s AMERICA’S CONSTITUTION: A BIOGRAPHY.

2) Eric Foner’s classic THE STORY OF AMERICAN FREEDOM.

3) Tony Horwitz’s history of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry and his attempt to jumpstart the war to free the slaves, MIDNIGHT RISING.

PS: I haven’t read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s (@chimamandareal) THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK, about learning the limits and promise of America as an immigrant, but it fits with the theme tonight too.

4) Few reporters have covered the current moment as well—or driven as much progress through their own work—as Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery), who chronicled Black Lives Matter in THEY CAN’T KILL US ALL.

5) Richard Wright’s novel NATIVE SON broke new ground when it was published and remains a classic today.

PS: I also featured Michelle Alexander’s THE NEW JIM CROW the other night, but the endorsement bears repeating.

June 1, 2020: Edition #79 (Newish Books by Writers of Color)

I’ve been struggling all day about whether to feature a #GMGReads tonight, or just fall silent amid the awfulness of this moment. This has been the saddest week of my life as an American and my heart aches for the pain in so many places across the country.

In the end, it’s Tuesday—the day of new books in publishing—so I decided to feature an appropriate list for the day and the time, new-(ish) books by writers of color, all available at @bookshop_org through the black-owned @SemicolonChi in Chicago.

1) Brit Bennett’s (@britrbennett) new novel, out today, THE VANISHING HALF follows a Louisiana family navigating race amid the 20th Century.

2) Also out today, Wayétu Moore’s (@wayetu) THE DRAGONS, THE GIANT, THE WOMEN is about fleeing Liberia’s civil war and dislocation amid arriving in America.

3) Poet Claudia Rankine used her book CITIZEN: AN AMERICAN LYRIC to collect observations on being black in America.

4) Sarah Broom’s (@sarahmbroom) memoir THE YELLOW HOUSE, about growing up in New Orleans, won the National Book Award last year.

5) I was really excited last year to get Marlon James’ BLACK LEOPARD RED WOLF (at @magersandquinn actually) so I’m finally going to get his A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS too.

June 3, 2020: Edition #80 (Race and Immigration in America)

After featuring writers of color last night, I wanted to feature books tonight on race and immigration in America—several of which focus on the Latinx border experience. Order them from @thelitbar, owned by an Afro-Latina & only book store in the Bronx: (bookshop.org/shop/thelitbar).

1) I competed against and envied the reporting of Jose Antonio Vargas (@joseiswriting) for years and never realized he was an undocumented immigrant. He told his story in the eye-opening and moving DEAR AMERICA.

2) This spring, I had the chance to read DEPORTATION MACHINE by Adam Goodman (@adamsigoodman), which comes out later this month, and it’s a phenomenal and groundbreaking study of how—surprise—immigration enforcement has always been about race.

3) Jia Lynn Yang’s (@jialynnyang) ONE MIGHTY AND IRRESISTIBLE TIDE, which came out last month, is a whole chapter of immigration history I didn’t know—and ultimately a hopeful note that while America gets things wrong, we work to make them right over time. P

S: Erika Lee (@prof_erikalee) has a book, AT AMERICA’S GATES, about the slightly earlier dark period of America’s Asian exclusion laws, 1882-1943.

4) I read Richard Rodriguez’s memoir HUNGER OF MEMORY in high school—it might well have been the first book I ever read by a Hispanic writer—and it’s stuck with me ever since.

PS: I’ve previously mentioned @IsabelWilkerson‘s WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS, about the internal American immigration of blacks northward in the Great Migration and it deserves re-mentioning here.

5) Lastly, three books stand out to me about the border: Francisco Cantú’s (@_franciscocantu) THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER explores the complex relationship with race along the border, where he, a descendent of Mexican immigrants, joined the Border Patrol.

Then there’s Luis Alberto Urrea’s THE DEVIL’S HIGHWAY and Jason De Leon’s THE LAND OF OPEN GRAVES, which both trace the high human cost along the border.

June 4, 2020: Edition #81 (Fighting for Rights and Justice)

Tonight, I wanted to feature books about the never-ending challenge of fighting for rights and justice. You should order as many of these books as you can here at @SemicolonChi, Chicago’s only black-woman owned bookstore: (bookshop.org/shop/Semicolon…)

Before I get started, I also want to share this great reading list today from Civil War historian @UnderwaterLance about non-whitewashed histories of that time. I found it super interesting and added a few books to my lists to read.

1) Jonathan Harr’s A CIVIL ACTION follows a David vs. Goliath story as a man takes two powerful corporations in the courtroom, accusing them of killing children with their contaminated water.

2) I was always proud of my home state Vermont for leading the way on civil unions, and David Moats recounted how that unfolded in CIVIL WARS. PS: I’ve not read Jo Becker’s (@jo_becker) newer book on the broader fight for marriage equality, FORCING THE SPRING, but it’s supposed to be terrific.

PPS: If you’re looking for a broader book on the gays right movement, try THE GAY REVOLUTION by Lillian Faderman (@lillianfaderman).

3) Two good works on the heroic efforts of defense lawyers and officials to fight the stain of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay: Karen Greenberg’s (@KarenGreenberg3) THE LEAST WORST PLACE and Jonathan Mahler’s THE CHALLENGE.

4) Anthony Lewis wrote two tremendous books about court cases that made America more just: GIDEON’S TRUMPET, about a poor defendant who changed America’s courtrooms, and MAKE NO LAW, about the First Amendment.

PS: Also speaking of the courts, Renee Knake Jefferson (@reneeknake) and Hannah Brenner Johnson (@hannahbrenner) have a new book, SHORTLISTED: out last month, that’s a biography of nine women who were considered for the Supreme Court and never made it.

5) Public Defender Amy Bach’s ORDINARY INJUSTICE challenges our view of how courts work—arguing that too often conveyor-belt assembly line justice means that defendants don’t get the fair treatment they deserve.

June 5, 2020: Edition #82 (Forthcoming Summer Books by Black Authors)

Tonight I want to do something a bit different: One of the little-known facts in publishing is that “pre-order” sales make a huge difference to authors—strong pre-sales encourage publishers to promote books more heavily and print more copies, bookstores to order more copies. … and all those pre-sales are then counted in your first-week totals, giving books a better chance of hitting bestseller lists.

So tonight: Five forthcoming summer books by black authors you should pre-order right now, via The Lit Bar: (bookshop.org/shop/thelitbar)

1) Nathasha Tretheway (@ntrethewey), a breathtaking former poet laureate, has a memoir coming out, MEMORIAL DRIVE, reckoning with the murder of her mother and how that trauma changed her life.

2) SA Crosby’s new July thriller BLACKTOP WASTELAND has received a trifecta of raves from Lee Child, Dennis Lehane, and Michael Koryta. It stars a car mechanic and former getaway driver pulled into a diamond heist gone wrong.

3) I’ve recommended Isabel Wilkerson’s (@isabelwilkerson) WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS before and she happens to have a new, timely book out this summer, CASTE, about the unspoken system that sorts and drives American life.

4) Editor Morgan Jenkins (@MorganJerkins) has a nonfiction book, out in August, WANDERING IN STRANGE LANDS, about her family’s Great Migration and how it changed America and her family.

5) Alaya Dawn Johnson’s (@alayadj) July novel, TROUBLE THE SAINTS, follows an assassin in New York’s underworld at the start of World War II and the life that unfolds after. @PublishersWkly called it a “literary firecracker.”

June 6, 2020: Edition #83 (Quick Novels That Will Linger Longer)

It’s been a long week, so I wanted to suggest some relatively easy reading: Tonight’s theme is small classics—quick novels that will stick with you for a long time, available from @magersandquinn in Minneapolis and @MahoganyBooks in DC.

1) Robertson Davies’ small novel FIFTH BUSINESS is just a transformative reading experience, a recommendation to me years ago originally from @nicco and one that launched me on a hungry quest to read the rest of Davies.

2) What can one say about Zora Neale Hurston’s THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD other than you’ll never forget reading it?

3) French writer Michel Houellebecq imagines in his controversial novel SUBMISSION a Muslim victory in the 2022 French presidential election and all that unfolds after.

4) I don’t read a ton of magical realism, but Ismael Reed’s novel FLIGHT TO CANADA about the Civil War mixes up America’s past and present in a wild and memorable story.

5) It’s famous as a Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle movie, but Walter Mosley’s DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS is an excellent dive into 1940s Watts.

June 7, 2020: Edition #84 (Culture and Role of the US Military)

There’s been a tremendous amount of ink and debate in the last week of the correct role of the US military in a democratic society, so I thought I’d share the best books I’ve read on the culture and role of the US military:

1) Rosa Brooks’ (@brooks_rosa) HOW EVERYTHING BECAME WAR AND THE MILITARY BECAME EVERYTHING is one of the most impt books to understand modern America, the military’s role in our broken politics, and how the US sadly now has few tools beyond the Pentagon. (Honestly: If I could get everyone in politics to read a single book on modern government, it would be @brooks_rosa‘s book. Read it!) (bookshop.org/books/how-ever…)

2) Eliot Cohen’s classic on wartime leadership, SUPREME COMMAND, isn’t solely American-focused but it’s a thoughtful examination of the role of civilian leadership.

3) Tom Ricks’s (@tomricks1) MAKING THE CORPS is a fantastic tour of the unique culture of the Marines and why it stands apart in our services: (powells.com/book/making-th…)

PS: I haven’t read it, but if you want a female perspective on the same subject, Kate Germano (@kate_germano) wrote FIGHT LIKE A GIRL about the Marines’ training of women: (bookshop.org/books/fight-li…)

4) Mark Perry has written a lot about the military, and his FOUR STARS traces the historical tension between the Joint Chiefs and the Pentagon’s civilian leadership. PS: If you want a deeper and broader version of the topic of the civil-military divide, Kori Schake (@KoriSchake) and Jim Mattis (!) edited a volume called WARRIORS AND CITIZENS.

5) There are two great histories on West Point, ABSOLUTELY AMERICAN, about a modern post-9/11 class, and THE LONG GRAY LINE.

June 8, 2020: Edition #85 (On American Prisons)

First: Wow, we’ve made it to the 13th week. It’s clear this weird time isn’t ending anytime soon—and may only get weirder and more sad. I don’t have an endless number of book picks, so I’m planning to wind up #GMGReads in 2 weeks and 2 days, with #101. So let the countdown begin!

Tonight, as much as the national debate in recent weeks has been over policing reform, cops are only a slice of a very broken criminal justice system, so I wanted to offer some of the most powerful and educational books I’ve read about the horrors that are our prisons:

1) David Oshinsky wrote a wonderful (and troubling) history of the brutal Mississippi prison Parchman State Penitentiary, WORSE THAN SLAVERY. PS: Parchman also figures prominently in Jesmyn Ward’s novel SING UNBURIED SING about families unfortunately tied to the prison.

2) Understanding the inequities of the justice system also involves looking at what crimes are under-prosecuted—and who gets away with things. Jesse Eisinger’s (@eisingerj) CHICKENSHIT CLUB traces how DOJ gave up prosecuting white-collar crime.

3) Joseph Hallinan’s book GOING UP THE RIVER was one of the first to examine in depth the prison-industrial complex.

PS: I’ve previously mentioned Ted Conover’s NEWJACK, his immersive journalism book about being a Sing Sing prison guard.

PPS: I read only his @motherjones article about it, not the later book, but @shane_bauer went undercover more recently in a private prison too for AMERICAN PRISON.

4) Emily Bazelon (@emilybazelon) has done some of the most vital reporting on the pressing need for criminal justice reform, with her book CHARGED PS: I’ve not read JUST MERCY by Bryan Stevenson, but it’s another call to arms about the injustice of the justice system.

5) None of these are new issues, so it’s worth highlighting an older classic, Fox Butterfield—a giant in criminal justice writing in the 20th Century—and his ALL GOD’S CHILDREN about the inextricable links between slavery and crime for one black family.

June 9, 2020: Edition #86 (On Inequality)

Inequality and systemic injustices has been a key part of the protests of recent weeks, and while I’m not going to pretend that I’ve read Thomas Piketty’s book (my wager is most people who bought it never did!) here are other good reads on inequality.

1) Robert Putnam’s best known for his BOWLING ALONE, but his tour of how we’ve left a generation of children adrift, OUR KIDS, is a bracing tale of lost potential.

2) David Shipler’s book THE WORKING POOR makes clear the systemic injustices that lead to the most common experience of poverty—people who are actually working quite hard, but can’t get ahead. PS: I’ve previously mentioned EVICTED, which is excellent and relevant too.

3) Deirdre Mask’s (@Deirdre_Mask) new THE ADDRESS BOOK examines how where we live shapes so much of our lives, access to services and government, & prosperity; her chapter on US streets named after Martin Luther King Jr. is one you won’t soon forget.

4) Richard Rothstein’s THE COLOR OF LAW shows how segregated communities weren’t an accident so much as the result of clear government policy. PS: I’ve not yet read the RACE FOR PROFIT, by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (@KeeangaYamahtta), which was a finalist this year for this year’s Pulitzer, but it traces how banks and the real estate industry robbed blacks of the promise of home ownership.

5) If you want a lighter look that will still make you mad, the talented Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland)—now the deputy prime minister of Canada—wrote a 2012 book PLUTOCRATS about the rise of the super-rich and, as she says, “the fall of everyone else.”

June 10, 2020: Edition #87 (Histories of Journalists Witnessing History)

We’ve seen a lot over the last two weeks how journalists end up witnessing and recording history as it unfolds, so tonight I want to feature five great histories of journalists making and witnessing history.

1) Nan Robertson’s GIRLS IN THE BALCONY is the story of the fight by the women of the New York Times for equal rights and treatment within the paper.

2) Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff co-wrote an incredible, eye-opening book, THE RACE BEAT, about the reporters who covered the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

3) Ben Bradlee’s memoir A GOOD LIFE is a rollicking recounting of his decades in journalism, including the Pentagon Papers and Watergate.

4) Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud’s THE MURROW BOYS follows the ground breaking reporters who brought World War II home to Americans.

5) Janet Malcolm’s JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER is a thoughtful, philosophical examination of the ethics of reporting and writing history.

PS: I only discovered this spring this biography of pioneering investigative journalist Ida B. Wells, but it’s now on my reading list too.

June 11, 2020: Edition #88 (Newspaper Dynasties)

Following up last night’s journalism histories, I wanted to share some books tonight on newspaper dynasties and the powerful publishers of the 20th Century.

1) Alex S. Jones and his wife Susan Tifft wrote an amazing family history of the Kentucky media moguls, the Binghams, and their family bickering that led to the sale of their empire, THE PATRIARCH.

2) There are two notable histories of the New York Times, Gay Talese’s colorful KINGDOM AND THE POWER and the exhaustive THE TRUST, also by Jones and Tifft.

3) Sarah Ellison (@sarahellison) did the nearly impossible, covering the implosion and open warfare of her own owners and tells the story in WAR AT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

4) My grandfather worked for years at the legendary New York Herald Tribune, whose storied history is told in THE PAPER. 5) Carol Felsenthal wrote a history of the Washington Post, POWER, PRIVILEGE, AND THE POST, starring Katharine Graham.

PS: I’ve previously mentioned Graham’s own memoir, LIVING HISTORY, which deserves its own read.

June 12, 2020: Edition #89 (Civil Rights Movement in 1950s and 1960s)

As we close out two momentous weeks of change and unrest in the US, I thought I’d offer some favorite books on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, from @magersandquinn in Minneapolis and @MahoganyBooks in DC.

1) Paul Hendrickson’s SONS OF MISSISSIPPI is a fascinating, literary portrait of what racism and segregationists looked like up close.

2) Taylor Branch’s (@taylorbranch) magisterial three-volume history of America in the King years is amazing and—although I haven’t finished all three volumes—it reads much faster than you might worry. Start with PARTING THE WATERS.

PS: Peniel Joseph (@PenielJoseph) has a brand new-ish, revisionist dual biography about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. that seems worth reading, THE SWORD AND THE SHIELD.

3) Diane McWhorter won the Pulitzer in 2002 for her portrait of Birmingham amid the Civil Rights Movement, CARRY ME HOME.

4) James Baldwin’s contemporaneous THE FIRE NEXT TIME helped bring national attention to the Civil Rights Movement at the time.

PS: If you want a slightly different approach to a first-person account, @repjohnlewis wrote a multi-volume graphic novel, THE MARCH: (mahoganybooks.com/9781603093002)

5) Nick Kotz, who died away a couple weeks ago, profiled one of the climatic moments for civil rights, in his book on MLK and LBJ, JUDGMENT DAYS.

June 13, 2020: Edition #90 (About the Caribbean)

Tonight I wanted to feature some favorites about the Caribbean, both fiction and nonfiction, all available at @magersandquinn in Minneapolis. 1

) Jonathan Katz’s (@katzonearth) deeply-reported and first-person experience in THAT BIG TRUCK THAT WENT BY chronicles the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the flood of foreign intervention that didn’t do a lot of good.

2) Speaking of Haiti, Tracy Kidder’s MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS, is a wonderful and emotional book about Dr. Paul Farmer and his quest to combat tuberculosis in that country over many years.

3) THE BLACK JACOBINS, by C.L.R. James, retells the story of the Toussaint L’Ouverture, the brutality of slavery on the islands, and the San Domingo Revolution and opened a whole new study of the Caribbean in history.

4) Brooke Newman’s DARK INHERITANCE, about the British and slavery in Jamaica.

5) Jamaica Kincaid is just an incredible writer, and she’s written two powerful books on Antigua, ANNIE JOHN and A SMALL PLACE.

PS: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a couple of other Caribbean-themed novels, including two of Graham Greene’s classics, the uproarious OUR MAN IN HAVANA and the dark THE COMEDIANS. I’ve not read Tiphanie Yanique’s novel LAND OF LOVE AND DROWNING, a family memoir of multiple generations in the Virgin Islands, but it’s supposed to be good and lastly Marlon James’ (@marlonjames5) THE BOOK OF NIGHT WOMEN, a novel about Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation.

June 14, 2020: Edition #91 (Barack Obama and His Presidency)

Tonight, after featuring a number of different presidential bios and histories, I wanted to feature the best books on Barack Obama and his presidency I’ve come across so far.

1) CONFRONT AND CONCEAL, by David Sanger (@SangerNYT) is a great portrait of the complexity of the Obama administration’s foreign policy, from Iran to North Korea to cyber.

2) Michael Grunwald’s (@MikeGrunwald) THE NEW NEW DEAL is an illuminating and deeply-reported study of Obama’s domestic policy and the response to the financial crisis, and will convince you it was a more effective response than you likely recall.

3) Jodi Kantor’s (@jodikantor) THE OBAMAS is a great book on Barack and Michelle, their relationship, and their family.

PS: It’s not quite a full full history of his presidency, but Peter Baker’s (@peterbakernyt) THE CALL OF HISTORY is a great first crack at assessing the sweep of the presidency.

4) David Remnick’s THE BRIDGE is the best Obama biography to emerge yet. PS: I’ve not read most of the “Obama staff memoir” genre of books, but if I was going to read one of them, I’d pick WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA? by Alyssa Mastromonaco (@AlyssaMastro44). Also fun fact: She got her start in politics in Vermont!

5) If you’ve never read it, Obama’s own DREAMS OF MY FATHER is really fascinating, the rarest of rare—an innocent memoir written long before a presidency, free of much of the paralysis that comes with knowing you’re writing for history.

June 15, 2020: Edition #92 (Science and Nature Books)

I mentioned last week that I’m going to be stopping #GMGReads at #101, which means we’re down to the final ten, and so I’m going to end up hopping around a bit over the next few days. Tonight: Favorite science and nature books.

1) Sam Kean’s (@sam_kean) VIOLINIST’S THUMB is a fascinating exploration of genetics.

2) Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors—especially as an audio book on car rides—and his SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, basically a history of all of science and the natural world, is superb.

3) Elizabeth Kolbert’s (@elizkolbert) THE SIXTH EXTINCTION is as worrisome as it is readable; it’d be a delight of a book except for its message of human-caused doom.

4) Two really good books about science in the Cold War: Audra Wolfe’s (@ColdWarScience) FREEDOM’S LABORATORY, about science and scientists as key weapons for peace, and Tom Wolfe’s classic epic THE RIGHT STUFF, about the space race.

5) Tracy Kidder’s SOUL OF A NEW MACHINE is also a classic, about the early age of computing.

June 16, 2020: Edition #93 (Modern Geopolitics of the Middle East)

Tonight, I want to feature good books on the modern geopolitics of the Middle East, all available through DC’s unparalleled @politicsprose.

1) The NYT’s Beirut bureau chief Ben Hubbard (@NYTBen) has a terrifying and illuminating biography out, “MBS,” about Saudi Arabia’s new leader and his hunger for unchecked power.

2) David Crist’s eye-opening TWILIGHT WAR is all the history you didn’t know you needed to understand about what is really a thirty-year-long, low-level, but deadly conflict between Iran and the US.

PS: In thinking about Iran, you should also read Mark Bowden’s GUESTS OF THE AYATOLLAH, about the 1979 hostage crisis, which taught me a lot about constructing books writing-wise.

3) Two really good books on Syria and the modern tensions in the Middle East: Kim Ghattas’ (@kimghattas) BLACK WAVE about the Saudi-Iran split and how it’s played out in the Syrian civil war and NO TURNING BACK by Rania Abouzeid (@Raniaab), who was early to covering the Syrian Civil War and rise of ISIS and has done some of the best reporting anywhere.

4) Then two deeply personal books about actually living the conflicts of the Middle East, Anthony Shadid’s almost elegiac HOUSE OF STONE and Jeffrey Goldberg’s (@JeffreyGoldberg) story of his unlikeliest of friendships, PRISONERS.

5) Lastly, Michael Oren’s (@DrMichaelOren) SIX DAYS OF WAR about the 1967 war is critical to understanding today’s landscape and geopolitics broadly.

PS: Relatedly, I haven’t gotten around to reading Ronan Bergman’s (@ronenbergman) RISE AND KILL FIRST, about the Israeli Mossad, but it’s supposed to be superb.

June 17, 2020: Edition #94 (Cold War: First-Hand Windows Into American Power)

I’m going to spend the rest of this week on recommendations around the Cold War and the nuclear age, where for obvious reasons, I have a lot of thoughts. First up, tonight, first-hand portraits and windows into the peak of American power.

1) David Lilienthal was the first head of the Atomic Energy Commission and the second volume of his journals, THE ATOMIC ENERGY YEARS, is a surprising delight, a window in the earliest post-war years and the conundrums of the nuclear age.

2) Robert Gates’ FROM THE SHADOWS, his first memoir, written after his time at CIA, is the best book I’ve ever found about how the Cold War actually ended and the pressure the US applied on the Soviet Union across a wide spectrum of fronts. Read this one.

June 18, 2020: Edition #95 (Nuclear History and War)

Before the official list, a quick plug for my publisher @AvidReaderPress‘s new book, by Chris Wallace, COUNTDOWN 1945, which I’m excited to read and examines the first days of the atomic bomb.

1) Michael Dobbs’ (@michaeldobbs) SIX MONTHS IN 1945 examines how the end of World War II transitioned into a new Cold War.

PS: I’ve already mentioned Richard Rhodes’ masterful must-read MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.

2) DARK SUN, his book about the invention of the hydrogen bomb, is equally fascinating and another tour du force of research and writing.

3) Similarly, while most people read it for the Trump gossip, FACTS AND FEARS by James Clapper is, viewed in another lens, the best portrait and explanation of the rise and creation of the American intelligence community ever written.

4) McGeorge Bundy’s memoir-slash-history DANGER AND SURVIVAL, about the decisions the nation and its leaders made around nuclear weapons over five decades, is an informed and forthright examination of a very hard subject.

5) Lastly, I want to highlight George Packer’s biography of Richard Holbrooke, OUR MAN, which is just one of the most remarkable books I’ve ever read—a literary, rakish, and highly observant portrait of a unique, tough figure. You’ll be wowed by this one.

June 19, 2020: Edition #96 (Pivotal Figures in the Nuclear Age)

Tonight, continuing my series of books on the Cold War and the atomic age, here are some favorite books on pivotal figures of the nuclear age.

1) David McCullough’s TRUMAN is a delight of a book, the first biography to argue the fundamental greatness of America’s accidental post-war president.

2) Herman Kahn epitomized a certain breed of nuclear hawk—and was roundly mocked for it in DR. STRANGELOVE—and you need only read his own famous treatise ON THERMONUCLEAR WAR to see the twisted logic of that era.

3) Two great books on the fallen arc of the one-time whiz kid Robert McNamara, he of the Cold War and Vietnam: Deborah Shapley’s deep biography PROMISE AND POWER and Paul Hendrickson’s more literary LIVING AND THE DEAD.

4) Frances Fitzgerald’s WAY OUT THERE IN THE BLUE is a deeply insightful and provocative portrait of Ronald Reagan and his Star Wars initiative.

5) John Lewis Gaddis’ biography GEORGE F. KENNAN is the 800-page biography of the central diplomat of the Cold War that you never knew you wanted to read.

PS: I’ve previously mentioned @nxthompson‘s THE HAWK AND THE DOVE, a dual biography of Kennan and Paul Nitze, which is excellent and a lighter read if you’re not ready to commit to Gaddis’s monster.

June 20, 2020: Edition #97 (Books with Armageddon in the Title)

Tonight, wrapping up a week of Cold War-themed titles, books about every stage of the Cold War, from start to finish, with “Armageddon” in their title.

1) Max Hastings’s ARMAGEDDON tells the story of the fall of the Third Reich.

2) Alice George’s (@Alicelgeorge) AWAITING ARMAGEDDON is a surprisingly fun and deeply researched cultural examination of how Americans reacted to and lived the Cuban Missile Crisis.

3) Dee Garrison’s BRACING FOR ARMAGEDDON is a portrait of the Cold War at home in America and how civil defense efforts floundered.

June 21, 2020: Edition #98 (Modern Russia and Putin)

I’ve done a whole bunch of lists touching on various aspects of Russian and Soviet history, fiction, and so forth, but tonight wanted to mention some favorites about understanding modern Russia and Vladimir Putin, all available tonight from @politicsprose.

(Note: It’s worth noting how dangerous writing about modern Russia can be, which is why we should honor those who do it so well. Two of these authors, Anna Politkovskaya and Paul Klebnikov, were murdered for their reporting.)

1) Bill Browder’s (@Billbrowder) RED NOTICE is written as a real life thriller about the lengths to which Putin’s Russia goes to corrupt the basic tenets of the rule of law: (politics-prose.com/book/978147675…)

PS: If you’re following the nutty news from John Bolton’s book, you might have seen how prominent Browder plays in Putin’s mind.

2) Masha Gessen (@mashagessen) has written two fantastic books about Putin’s Russia—a biography of him, MAN WITHOUT A FACE, and a broader book about the return of totalitarianism in Russia, THE FUTURE IS HISTORY.

3) Paul Klebinov’s GODFATHER OF THE KREMLIN is really helpful in understanding the rise of the oligarch in the 1990s.

4) A trio of interesting and insightful books on the Russian people, psyche, and wrestling with its Communist past: Oliver Bullough’s (@OliverBullough) LAST MAN IN RUSSIA, David Satter’s (@DavidSatter) IT WAS A LONG TIME AGO AND IT NEVER HAPPENED ANYWAY and Peter Pomerantsev’s (@peterpomeranzev) NOTHING IS TRUE AND EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

5) Then two fantastic broader histories of modern Russia: Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) & Susan Glasser’s (@sbg1) classic KREMLIN RISING and Anna Politkovskaya’s PUTIN’S RUSSIA.

June 22, 2020: Edition #99 (Tough Leadership Decisions in Geopolitics)

Tonight, I want to feature histories about leadership and how the toughest decisions in geopolitics get made—why they go well and why they go poorly.

1) Barbara Tuchman’s study of the geopolitical inertia that led Europe to stumble into World War I, GUNS OF AUGUST, is surely one of the most majestic (and cautionary) books on leadership ever written.

PS: Christopher Clark wrote another thoughtful look at the same topic, THE SLEEPWALKERS.

2) There are two really good books inside the Kennedy White House’s thinking during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Graham Allison’s ESSENCE OF DECISION and Robert Kennedy’s own THIRTEEN DAYS.

3) Brian Vandemark’s ROAD TO DISASTER pairs the narrative of failures of the nation’s leaders amid Vietnam with psychological understanding of why they screwed up in their decision-making.

4) Doris Kearns Goodwin distilled the leadership lessons of her various biographies of Lincoln, FDR, LBJ, and Teddy Roosevelt in the engaging and illuminating LEADERSHIP.

5) Lastly, Robert Caro has written some of the best books ever on the utilization of power, and his portrait of New York public works king Robert Moses, THE POWER BROKER, is a figurative and literal giant of a book.

PS: I’ve previously mentioned Caro’s LBJ biographies, which are just some of the greatest nonfiction ever written. I wish he’d hurry up and finish the last volume so we can find out how LBJ’s presidency goes!

PPS: One final book that’s not exactly about leadership but focus on lessons in decision-making: My friend Chris Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator, wrote what has basically become the gold standard of negotiation books, NEVER SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE.

June 23, 2020: Edition #100 (Books on the Horizon)

Well, we’ve done it. We’re 100 days into this weird, strange, sad spring—or, as of Saturday, actually summer. I had no idea this list would go this long and, appearances to the contrary, don’t have an endless supply of book recommendations, so tonight’s the penultimate #GMGReads.

It’s Tuesday, the day I’ve been traditionally featuring new books, and today especially is exciting for me as the US pub date for Catherine Belton’s (@CatherineBelton) PUTIN’S PEOPLE about how Putin and the KGB recaptured Russia. And so, keeping with the typical Tuesday theme, for our hundredth and second-to-last #GMGReads, I wanted to feature an expanded list of books I’m looking forward to reading this summer and fall when they publish—preorder today!

PS: Before I start, here’s a thread (way back at #82!) I did about great upcoming books by Black writers. Please check these out too.

1) Rick Perlstein’s (@rickperlstein) REAGANLAND brings his vital, deeply researched trilogy about American conservatism up to 1980 and will surely be a hugely important read to understand the fall election.

2) Few people remember that Hot Springs, Arkansas, was once organized crime USA, but David Hill’s (@davehill77) THE VAPORS dives into its old culture, a southern family, the New York mob, and the rise and fall of America’s “forgotten capital of vice.”

3) Kimberly Drew (@museummammy) and Jenna Wortham (@jennydeluxe) have amassed what looks to be a captivating multi-media and multi-format collection of stories in BLACK FUTURES.

4) Ravi Somaiya’s (@ravisomaiya) THE GOLDEN THREAD, an investigation into the mysterious death of UN chief Dag Hammarskjold in the midst of the Cold War seems like it’s going to be a fantastic window in a long forgotten story.

5) I had the chance to read this spring Tim Weiner’s (@timweiner3) forthcoming history of Russia and America’s political warfare, THE FOLLY AND THE GLORY, and its history will knock your socks off.

6) The book I’m honestly most looking forward to this fall is THE MAN WHO RAN WASHINGTON, the biography of DC’s archetypal power broker, James Baker III, by Susan Glasser (@sbg1) and Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt).

7) James Baldwin has been on a lot of minds in recent weeks and Eddie Glaude’s (@esglaude) BEGIN AGAIN translates his message to modern day.

8) Two intriguing books on modern geopolitics: Anne Applebaum’s (@anneapplebaum) TWILIGHT OF DEMOCRACY, about the lure of authoritarianism. … and AN OPEN WORLD, about America’s role in the 21st century, by two super smart observers, Mira Rapp-Hooper (@MiraRappHooper) and Rebecca Lissner (@RebeccaLissner).

9) Jon Meacham’s forthcoming biography of John Lewis (@repjohnlewis), HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON, seems perfectly timed for an important moment in history.

10) Brian Stelter’s (@brianstelter) HOAX about the toxic codependency of Donald Trump and Fox News.

June 24, 2020: Edition #101 (Remaining Favorites)

And so we come to the end. Edition #101 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird time, I’ve been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online. Tonight we wrap it up (for now). I want to thank everyone who has helped make this project fun; I never expected to write some 20,000 words of book recommendations when this started, stretching across more than 600 books.

But beyond sharing what I’ve already read, it’s opened my eyes to just how much more there is to read in the world, both authors and topics! Knowledge is that rare quest where the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know. Thanks to your suggestions, I’ve added more than 120 books to my already long “books-to-read” list—so that’s like another three years or so of reading for me to power through just to catch up on your new suggestions! I really appreciate it.

I’ll hope to do future #GMGReads from time to time, as subjects arise. I still have another dozen or so categories I sketched out that I never did, so some may come as the summer unfolds. There are a bunch of my favorite books I never even mentioned (TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY!)

1) The whisky priest in Graham Greene’s THE POWER AND THE GLORY has to be the most troubled soul I’ve ever inhabited as a reader.

2) I’ve never come across a character I’ve hated as passionately as the stepmom in Ann Patchett’s DUTCH HOUSE. Why oh why is Andrea so mean?! She seriously kept me up at night stewing in my own agitation.

3) Two remarkable cautionary examples of the perils of ambition: The pianist in Frank Conroy’s BODY & SOUL and the iconic Sammy Glick in Budd Schulberg’s WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN.

4) If you ask me which fictional character I’d most want to have dinner with, hands down it’s author Maurice Bendrix from Greene’s END OF THE AFFAIR.

5) George Smiley, from John Le Carre, surely has to be the greatest spy in all of literature.

6) If I ever find myself in trouble, I hope either righteous drifter Jack Reacher, from Lee Child, or detective Erast Petrovich Fandorin, from Boris Akunin, will come to my aid.

PS: Speaking of thrillers, Olen Steinhauer’s Milo Weaver is one of the great thriller characters of modern times and the network of “Tourists” a great conceit. Start with THE TOURIST: (northshire.com/book/978125062…)

7) One book stands out to me for its group tapestry of characters: Ann Patchett’s BEL CANTO.

8) Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, from Amor Towles’ GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, is about as good an example I’ve found of a character’s life well and honorably lived: (northshire.com/book/978014311…)

9) To read Virginia Woolf’s novel inside the head of Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares for her party is to never forget her.

10) Lastly, two of the most crotchety but lovable people in literature: Ove, from Fredrik Backman, and Murray Tepper, from Calvin Trillin.