There should be more books about the Middle East given the two wars in the region. For a list of good books on the Middle East visit http://apellicon.blogspot.com/2009/12/middle-east-books.html.
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What to Read Now. And Why
We know it's insane. We know people will ask why on earth we think that an 1875 British satirical novel is the book you need to read right now—or, for that matter, why it even made the cut. The fact is, no one needs another best-of list telling you how great The Great Gatsby is. What we do need, in a world with precious little time to read (and think), is to know which books—new or old, fiction or nonfiction—open a window on the times we live in, whether they deal directly with the issues of today or simply help us see ourselves in new and surprising ways. Which is why we'd like you to sit down with Anthony Trollope, and these 49 other remarkably trenchant voices.
Jun 27, 2009 | Updated: 2:28 p.m. ET Jun 27, 2009
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THE WAY WE LIVE NOW The title says it all. Trollopeís satire of financial (and moral) crisis in Victorian England even has a Madoff-before-Madoff, a tragic swindler named Augustus Melmotte. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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THE LOOMING TOWER Perhaps no two questions are as important in the early 21st century as the ones Wright answers: how 9/11 happened, and why. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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PRISONER OF THE STATE Chinese officials are confiscating copies of this memoir by the party chief who was ousted for opposing military force in Tiananmen Square. They have reason to be nervous. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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THE BIG SWITCH You've heard of "cloud computing," but let's be honest, you really don't know what it means. Or why it's going to change everything. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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THE BEAR A boy comes of age in the 1880s by learning the ways of the fast-disappearing Mississippi forests. The best environmental novel ever written. BUY AT AMAZON |
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WINCHELL Before there was Rush Limbaugh-or Us Weekly-there was Walter Winchell: gossip columnist, commentator, McCarthyite, radio celebrity, has-been. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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RANDOM FAMILY It took LeBlanc 10 years immersed in the lives of one Bronx family to produce this gripping, cinematic account of urban poverty and its causes. It will take you two days to read it. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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NIGHT DRAWS NEAR While the book is about the run-up to the Iraq War and the immediate aftermath, its strength is its insight into how Iraqis really think, which is instructive as we head for the exits. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL Overturns the notion that we weigh pros and cons logically. Read it to understand why we obey honor codes-and other irrational behaviors. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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GOD: A BIOGRAPHY Miles, a journalist and former Jesuit, treats the God of the Bible as a literary protagonist-and discovers infinitely human depths. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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THE UNSETTLING OF AMERICA First published in 1982, this book-length argument for the family farm-and against agribusiness-is simply the most thoughtful book on modern agriculture. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND Stories of the New South, Christ-haunted and out of control, are as scary as they were when published in 1955. "Shut up, Bobby Lee, it's no real pleasure in life." BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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UNDERGROUND Critics love Murakami's surrealist fiction, but this collection of interviews with victims and perpetrators of Japan's 1995 sarin-gas attack is a useful study of modern terror and its aftermath. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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DISRUPTING CLASS The Harvard Business School professor who introduced the idea of disruptive innovation in The Innovator's Dilemma applies the same principles to education, with provocative results. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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AIR GUITAR A seamless blend of criticism, personal history, and a deep appreciation for the sheer nuttiness of American life, with essays on Norman Rockwell, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Perry Mason, to name a few. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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LEAVES OF GRASS There's no better season to read the Great American Poem than summer, and no better place than the outdoors for savoring its charms, both contemplative ("I lean and loafe at my ease") and ecstatic ("Mad naked summer night!"). BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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THE TROUBLE WITH PHYSICS Smolin covers string theory and other topics in modern physics as no other has dared: showing that scientific advances are as much about personalities as data. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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CITY: REDISCOVERING THE CENTER Using years of painstaking research, Whyte proved that the way to make a city work lies in the details-the width of a park bench, the height of a subway step. BUY AT AMAZON |
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DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? Before Wall-E, there was this penetrating parable of the grim future of technology and life on an Earth without animals (and the basis for Blade Runner). BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN A model biography: pithy, wise, and-despite its brevity-complete. Franklin emerges as a quintessential hero of his time, and ours. BUY AT AMAZON | SEE LIVINGSOCIAL USER REVIEWS |
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