Recommended Reading: Non-fiction

NONFICTION

1. The Ends of the Earth: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia, a Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy, by Robert Kaplan
I’ve read all of Kaplan’s stuff, but this one is my favorite. He starts his journey in West Africa, then leaps over to Iran, then travels thru India, and then leaps over to Cambodia. His interest in this book is exploring “the frontiers of anarchy”. He’s a great writer, a great thinker, and he lets the anecdotes speak for themselves. He meets people along the way, he talks to cab drivers, teachers, students, people on the street. He also talks to diplomats, politicians. But the real strength of this book is in the stories, the people you meet in its pages. It’s a travel journal, yes, but it’s also a socio-political manifesto. Robert Kaplan is a seer. He really is. In this book, he has predicted the world that we now live in. Read it. Read all his stuff.

2. The Soccer War, by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Any time great “war journalism” is discussed, or compiled, this book is on the list, and usually it’s in the top 5. For good reason. Kapuscinski was a foreign correspondent from Poland during the 60s and 70s, one of their only foreign correspondents at the time. (Or maybe he was their ONLY foreign correspondent … not sure). He reported on 3rd world revolutions, and they are all compiled in this book: Africa in the 60s, Latin America in the 70s … He wrote about Iran. Ethiopia. Angola. Liberia. He used his stories about OTHER totalitarian systems as an indirect way to criticize the Soviet Union, under which Poland suffered, obviously. Once the Soviet Union collapsed, Kapuscinski was finally able to write about that, as well. He’s a great writer. Soccer War is his best.

3. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, by William Shirer
A towering achievement. Still unmatched. Masterful. And to have written such a book without decades of perspective is even more astonishing. I also recommend (I know I’m cheating by listing two books here) Shirer’s diary of his time in Berlin called Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934-1941. I like that book almost as much as Rise and Fall. It is his personal account of living in Berlin from 1934 to 1941; he describes his growing horror, as he watches Germany and fascism spiral out of control. It’s the observation-on-the-street thrust of the book which gives it its power. I have read Rise and Fall numerous times, and there is still a certain mystery to WHY. HOW could this have happened? WHAT was going ON? Berlin Diary is an answer (sort of) to some of those questions.

4. Colin Thubron’s “Russia” trilogy.
Now I’m really cheating, listing 3 books under one heading, but they go together and are all quick reads, too. They are travel journals, covering 3 separate journeys through the Soviet Union and its conquered territories. But, as with all good travelogues, they touch on the character of the countries traveled thru, by using personal anecdotes, man-on-the-street comments about what is going on. If you hate this kind of writing, then these books are not for you. The titles of the books, in order, are: <Among the Russians (his tale of traveling through “White Russia” in 1980), In Siberia (taking the train across Siberia, directly following the collapse of the Soviet Union), and The Lost Heart of Asia, which is my personal favorite. If you only want to read one of those books, then I recommend The Lost Heart of Asia. Thubron travels through all the “stans” in 1991 or 1992, soon after the USSR meltdown, and observes stuff like growing Islamic fundamentalism, growing totalitarianism in their own bogus leaders, resurgences of long-buried nationalisms hinting at coming dangers…But really, the reason to read these books is that Thubron is a marvelous writer, a marvelous collector of anecdotes. You will not forget the characters you meet. I think The Lost Heart of Asia is a minor masterpiece.

5. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster, by Jon Krakauer
I know everyone probably read this book already, but that will not stop me from putting it on this list. A terrifying read, heart-wrenching.

6. I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941 (Modern Library Paperbacks), by Victor Klemperer (volume 2 is here)
This is a 2-volume journal, written by a German Jew during the 1930s and 40s, who lived in Dresden. To be honest, I have only read the first volume more than once. These journals are so valuable, priceless accounts of the day-to-day tightening of the noose for the Jews. At what point do you realize that the water is boiling and you will be scalded? When do you decide: Okay, NOW things are really bad, and now I must leave? Klemperer was tormented by these questions. My favorite part of these books is his analysis of the Language of the Third Reich. He analyzes what fascism does to language. He analyzes it AS it is happening, as he fears for his life every day, as he watches all of his Jewish friends, one by one, disappear in the night for … nobody knows where. One caveat about the book: In the paperback version, the typeface is so small that it is a bit difficult to read.

7. My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams
The compiled letters of Abigail and John Adams, who, as a married couple, spent more time apart than together. Such was the price Abigail paid for marrying a Founding Father. Oh my God. These letters, these letters. They give me goosebumps. First of all: it’s a great love story. They are passionate letters, lonely letters … John says stuff like, “Your letters are like laudanum”. She moans, “I am living like a nun.” But alongside of that, is John’s firsthand accounts of the Second Continental Congress, the signing of the Declaration of Independence … Abigail chiding him, “Do not forget about the ladies!” An absolutely exhilarating read. And MAN, could people write back then!

8. An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan, by Jason Elliot
This is Jason Elliot’s first book. It came out in 1999. It is his chronicle of his decades-long love affair with Afghanistan. The book is one of those right-time-right-place stories. He had never written a book before, and suddenly, after September 11, you COULD NOT get this book. Bookstores could not keep the book on the shelves, you had to order it. He was in Kabul when the Taliban took over. He traveled with the Mujahidin during their war against the Soviet occupation. He obviously romanticizes Afghanistan, he writes so lyrically of the place, the landscape, the people, the famous hospitality of Afghans, and the “unexpected light” in the air. This is the book which taught me the long long history of that country (besides what I already knew) – going back to Alexander the Great. Again, though, the real strength of the book is not its topic, but the WRITING. I have read this book again and again, savoring Elliot’s prose.

9. All the President’s Men, by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
No lie, I probably have read this book every other year since my first time reading it, which was in junior high. I read it because I had seen the movie, which I find quite amusing, in retrospect. One of my first memories as a child is seeing Nixon on TV, sweaty and grumpy and obviously very important. I remember saying to my mother, “He always looks so mad.” Anyway, tangent aside: This is one of my favorite books. I love every page. I love every word. I will read it over and over again. It is a great who-dun-it, a real page-turner. I can’t get enough.

10. Lindbergh, by A. Scott Berg
My obsession with Charles Lindbergh came through my love of his wife’s writing. I had read all of her journals, and I still read them. I got to know him through her eyes. Berg’s biography, which set a new high-water-mark for biographers everywhere, is a stunning accomplishment. Scott Berg won the trust of Anne Lindbergh, a famously reticent woman (except for those journals!) – and she opened up her life to him. She gave Berg boxes of unpublished letters, her unpublished journals, Charles’ unpublished notes for his speeches, his own books. It is a dense book, a wealth of information. It is tremendously well-written. The Prologue, a description of Lindbergh’s landing in Paris, and what it was like that day, and what it meant, gives me chills every time I read it. It’s an unflinching look at Lindbergh’s anti-Semitism, but it does not throw out the baby with the bathwater. It is a full look at the life of this extraordinary man. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

AND LASTLY:

The following book is usually placed under “Fiction”, but it’s a true story and therefore deserves to be counted here as well.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.
You know how there are entire sections in book stores devoted to “True Crime”? Capote invented the genre. This is a phenomenal book. If you have not read it, then all I can say is: RUN, do not WALK, and pick it up. It’s one of my all-time faves.

And here is the link to my Recommended Fiction