炉边阅读

南加州的天气仍然很冷, but fireside reading seems more appropriate for mid-October. I have three non-fiction and five fiction books to recommend, each superb. 享受!

第五法案艾略特·阿克曼

The history of America’s war in Afghanistan will be written for years to come, but an important first-hand account comes from Elliott Ackerman, 海军军官, 成为畅销书作家, 他曾在阿富汗服役. 第五法案 都是他个人的经历吗, including heart-rendering depictions of bravery and friendship among both Americans and Afghans, as well as a clear-headed analysis of the strategic and tactical mistakes we made over twenty years. 第五法案 是尖锐的、痛苦的、扣人心弦的、悲剧的吗. We come away with admiration for those who served, and anger at those who ordered them there.

水门事件:一段新的历史——加勒特·格拉夫

又一本yabo亚博网站登录首页水门事件的书? 真的? 是的，而且非常棒. We all know most (but not all) of the details of one of the most extraordinary events in American history, 我们都知道结局如何. 但格拉夫在这部扣人心弦的戏剧中提供了一丝不苟的细节. Each of the characters come to life in fresh perspective. The brazen bigotry and law-breaking did not start or end with Watergate, 和来的太迟, both the president and his party chose the honorable path, 类似的, 与此形成鲜明对比的是, 到最近的事件. 对我们这些经历过水门事件的人来说, or for those who only read about it in American history class, 对水门事件的叙述将会使人激动和振奋.

缔造罗马帝国的战争——巴里·施特劳斯

My knowledge of Antony and Cleopatra comes primarily from Shakespeare. 好消息是，莎士比亚的很多事实都是正确的. Barry Strauss gives them depth of character and puts their relationship in context with both Julius Caesar and his grand-nephew, 屋大维. 1 .政治阴谋^st century BCE Rome is astounding, with allies and enemies shifting frequently. 但这是安东尼的三角关系, 克利奥帕特拉和屋大维, 和屋大维的妹妹, 奥克塔维亚, 经常添加到混合物中, 这是事件的核心. Cleopatra comes across as perhaps the most extraordinary political woman in history. 她和安东尼获胜了吗, the center of the Western world would almost certainly have shifted to Alexandria, 罗马帝国就会转向东方, 不是西方, and history would certainly have taken a different path. 施特劳斯将这一切无缝地结合在一起, demonstrating how he is our finest historian of ancient Rome extant.

内塔尼亚胡的约书亚·科恩

伟大的莎士比亚学者, 哈罗德•布鲁姆, recounted a story to Joshua Cohen of hosting Ben-Zion Netanyahu and his family when Bloom taught at Cornell. Ben-Zion Netanyahu was the father of the future Israeli prime minister and a scholar of the Spanish Inquisition. Cohen could only tease some details from Bloom before he died, so Cohen invented the rest. 在某种程度上, 这本书很搞笑, as the Netanyahus impose themselves on the Blooms (Blum in this telling), with three young boys (including Bibi) that ransack their home, 欺负布鲁姆妻子的妻子, and Ben-Zion who has nothing but disdain for the simple minds of the college where he is seeking a job. 他问布鲁姆, 例如, of one professor they meet if he is a liar in a college of fools or a fool in a college of liars. 这是一种让人联想到的幽默 笨蛋联盟尽管是通过一个非常不同的角色. 在另一个层面上, 虽然, 通过本-锡安的讲座和布鲁姆的沉思, the book asks profound questions of identity and belonging and suffering. It probes the values of American Jewry and its relationship with both Israel and America, 但同样适用于任何少数群体. 今年普利策奖当之无愧的得主， 内塔尼亚胡的 是非常有趣，深刻和挑衅.

十字路口——乔纳森·弗兰岑

弗兰岑的一些小说非常出色修正)，其他人则步履蹒跚(纯度). 十字路口 是聪明的, highlighting why no one constructs a sentence like Franzen does on every page of this novel. Russ Hildebrandt is an associate pastor in a Chicago suburb in the early 1970s, struggling to remain faithful to his wife and to his religion in an era where social mores are challenged by a new generation. 他嫉妒一个年轻人, 管理教会青年小组的资深初级牧师, 在罗斯和他的四个孩子之间留下了空白. The big questions Franzen raises are about free will and the impact of religion on family, but the true beauty of this book is the memorable characters, 一些中心, 故事的一些次要内容, each with a complexity and empathy that haunts and attracts and will be long-remembered.

水的甜蜜——内森·哈里斯

在内战结束后的日子里, 两个以前的奴隶, 兄弟, wander onto the adjacent property in rural Georgia and are employed, 并成为朋友, 白人地主. This causes conflict with the whites of the town who may acknowledge their side lost the war but have not accepted that their way of life should change. Tensions build as the 兄弟 and their employer navigate their free legal status, modestly enforced by the presence of a Union general nearby, 一个动荡不安的社会. 情节扣人心弦。, but it is the depiction of rural life in the immediate aftermath of war and the complex relationships among its inhabitants that makes this book so compelling. 这是一部非凡的处女作.

水星电影公司安东尼·马拉

Artie Feldman runs Mercury Pictures, a B-studio in 1940s Los Angeles. Maria is his assistant who rises to president of the studio, 尽管她的性别使她沦为, 正式, 阿蒂的助理. 玛丽亚有逃离墨索里尼统治下的意大利的背景故事, 离开她的父亲, a prominent defense attorney imprisoned for defending socialists. 阿蒂与他的兄弟争夺工作室的控制权, and fights the US Senate on charges that the studio is promoting US involvement in the war. 这部小说部分是yabo亚博网站登录首页法西斯恐怖的, 部分原因是移民的经历, 和大多, 我认为, yabo亚博网站登录首页现实的本质. 诡计无处不在:在好莱坞, 很明显, but it is equally present in the hypocrisy of Washington politicians as well as in the propaganda from Mussolini’s Rome. 阿蒂是个爱表演的人, 最卓越的, and the words Zevin gives him dazzle with wit and the downright hysterical. But behind the laughter is tragedy, which is what makes this book so remarkable.

明天，明天，明天加布里埃尔·泽文

这是一部非凡的处女作. Sadie and Sam meet in a children’s hospital in LA and strike a friendship over video games. They reunite in college where each is studying creating games and they decide to build a game together. Over the years they find success and failure, but this novel works on two levels. 第一个, Zevin conveys the artistry of the coders and developers of video games in a way I have not seen before. She has me convinced that they are the artistic equal to the movies we so celebrate. 其次, 更重要的是, 这是一个美丽的, 有缺陷的, 悲剧的爱情故事，让我们笑过哭过.