Great list. The Comedians is particularly dark given Haiti later history. All are worth are re-reading. Thank you for putting the list together. For truly uninspiring leadership check out Agamemnon in the Iliad and based on the Rest is History podcast he doesn’t improve in Euripides.
My day job involves prion & neurodegenerative diseases, so Ice 9 is close to my heart. Should probably also read The Sirens of Titan for co-President Musk ;\
Or you could post books where an elected leader suffers from mental decline and the country is led by a team with an undemocratic agenda, or what happens when a leader is so loved by his spouse that she forgets her marital vows, keeps her husband in power and the people rebel, or the dangers of taking the country on a path they don’t want, but you keep at it because you know You are right, or better yet forgetting about the middle class and the fact that they bear the majority of the tax burden, or forgetting our veterans, or dismissing the parents of daughters who play in girls sports but are injured by boys. The possibilities are endless. Or what does a “country” without a border really mean? What are our obligations to our citizens— our poor, our hungry?
That’s a great question. I just finished Jay Newman’s UnderMoney, and have started to ask the perennial question of what makes great literature and am about to subscribe to several of your slow reads. Also embracing Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall with Simon Haisell and Crime and Punishment beckons as well.
We live in an almost equally divided world and just don’t think the constant overamplification serves anyone well.
I think the wheels have come off personally.
My heartbreak comes from soldiers’ suicide and the senseless violence.
I applaud you for listing Roth's "The Plot against America." Trump bears a sickening and uncanny resemblance to the Lindburg of Roth's novel. Of course, they are both fascists. But they also have what I would call Hollywood skills; they use the media and gadgets and lights and gimmicks to stimulate public acclaim for their idiocy. I will have to check out the other books you listed.
BTW, here is my take on the coronation -- I'm sorry. I meant to say inauguration
Yes! Great list! A Graham Greene title, All the President's Men, and The Autumn of the Patriarch were all the ones I was looking for as I read through the list.
And Trump certainly isn't the first president to not be a big reader. I think often of the anecdotes in David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest (Trump used that phrase in his 2016 victory speech, by the way; even recently he promised to appoint the best and the brightest to his cabinet. Halberstam [if you don't know] coined the phase and he meant it ironically, referring to the elite morons who brought on the Vietnam era):
"[B]efore he took office Lyndon B. Johnson would boast of how little he read. Hugh Sidey of Life, who had written of Kennedy’s reading habits, decided to do a similar article on Johnson’s. He started with George Reedy, who told him that yes, Johnson was an avid reader. What books? Sidey asked. All Reedy could think of was Barbara Ward’s The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations, a book on how the rich should help the poor which Johnson had liked because it was similar to his own ideas. From there Sidey went to see Moyers. Yes, said Moyers, he was an avid reader. What books? Well, there was Barbara Ward’s book The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations. And from there to Valenti, who said Johnson read more books than almost anyone he knew. What books? Valenti hesitated and thought for a moment, then his face lit up. Barbara Ward’s The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations . . ."
The two I've read, the Roth and the Penn Warren, were both excellent. A very interesting list. Thank you.
Thank you Sarah!
Great list. The Comedians is particularly dark given Haiti later history. All are worth are re-reading. Thank you for putting the list together. For truly uninspiring leadership check out Agamemnon in the Iliad and based on the Rest is History podcast he doesn’t improve in Euripides.
Thank you Diana - and nice idea to look right back to Ancient Greece.
Cat's Cradle?
Good thought! Such a strange, brilliant book . . .
My day job involves prion & neurodegenerative diseases, so Ice 9 is close to my heart. Should probably also read The Sirens of Titan for co-President Musk ;\
Sinclair Lewis tried to warn us.
Or you could post books where an elected leader suffers from mental decline and the country is led by a team with an undemocratic agenda, or what happens when a leader is so loved by his spouse that she forgets her marital vows, keeps her husband in power and the people rebel, or the dangers of taking the country on a path they don’t want, but you keep at it because you know You are right, or better yet forgetting about the middle class and the fact that they bear the majority of the tax burden, or forgetting our veterans, or dismissing the parents of daughters who play in girls sports but are injured by boys. The possibilities are endless. Or what does a “country” without a border really mean? What are our obligations to our citizens— our poor, our hungry?
Thank you Theresa. I appreciate this selection is biassed. It's hard not to have an opinion, isn't it? What titles would you put on the list?
That’s a great question. I just finished Jay Newman’s UnderMoney, and have started to ask the perennial question of what makes great literature and am about to subscribe to several of your slow reads. Also embracing Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall with Simon Haisell and Crime and Punishment beckons as well.
We live in an almost equally divided world and just don’t think the constant overamplification serves anyone well.
I think the wheels have come off personally.
My heartbreak comes from soldiers’ suicide and the senseless violence.
Excellent selection.
Great choices for today , Henry
Thanks Susan!
These books are relentlessly cynical. I like it.
I applaud you for listing Roth's "The Plot against America." Trump bears a sickening and uncanny resemblance to the Lindburg of Roth's novel. Of course, they are both fascists. But they also have what I would call Hollywood skills; they use the media and gadgets and lights and gimmicks to stimulate public acclaim for their idiocy. I will have to check out the other books you listed.
BTW, here is my take on the coronation -- I'm sorry. I meant to say inauguration
https://davidgottfried.substack.com/p/trumps-ascension-to-power-means-luigi
I deeply appreciate this, Henry. Thank you. What about the addition of Parable of the Sower?
What a list ! I want to add to my TBR list… ah to find the time. May source the audio books.
Yes! Great list! A Graham Greene title, All the President's Men, and The Autumn of the Patriarch were all the ones I was looking for as I read through the list.
And Trump certainly isn't the first president to not be a big reader. I think often of the anecdotes in David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest (Trump used that phrase in his 2016 victory speech, by the way; even recently he promised to appoint the best and the brightest to his cabinet. Halberstam [if you don't know] coined the phase and he meant it ironically, referring to the elite morons who brought on the Vietnam era):
"[B]efore he took office Lyndon B. Johnson would boast of how little he read. Hugh Sidey of Life, who had written of Kennedy’s reading habits, decided to do a similar article on Johnson’s. He started with George Reedy, who told him that yes, Johnson was an avid reader. What books? Sidey asked. All Reedy could think of was Barbara Ward’s The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations, a book on how the rich should help the poor which Johnson had liked because it was similar to his own ideas. From there Sidey went to see Moyers. Yes, said Moyers, he was an avid reader. What books? Well, there was Barbara Ward’s book The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations. And from there to Valenti, who said Johnson read more books than almost anyone he knew. What books? Valenti hesitated and thought for a moment, then his face lit up. Barbara Ward’s The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations . . ."