Beach Books for Wonks

Looking for some good summer reading? We asked our favorite contributors to suggest what books to pack along for a sunny afternoon.

JUNE 10, 2011

Gary J. Bass, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University:

Joseph Lelyveld, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India. An epic account of Gandhi's unfinished struggles against racism, Hindu-Muslim hatreds, caste, and poverty. Evocative, humane, incisive, and beautifully written.

David Rohde and Kristen Mulvihill, A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides. A super-sad true love story by the New York Times reporter who escaped from Taliban captivity, and his wife, who struggled to save him. A propulsive and harrowing read, packed with hard-won lessons about the Taliban, journalism, and bravery.

Petina Gappah, An Elegy for Easterly. A collection of lyrical, accomplished stories about lives in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Full of compassion, satire, and wit.

 

Aaron David Miller, public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars:

Raymond Chandler's classic detective novel The Big Sleep. A book filled with life lessons for foreign-policy practitioners and analysts, as well as normal human beings. It's a cautionary and complex tale of deception, ambiguity, and illusion with real resonance for our current predicament in the Middle East.

Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History. Still the best take on the folly that America can (and should) run the world.

 

David E. Hoffman, Foreign Policy contributing editor and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Dead Hand:

Ben Macintyre, Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal. A story of espionage and betrayal during World War II, brilliantly told and perfect for the beach.

Tom Rachman, The Imperfectionists. For those who feel nostalgia or just plain curiosity about the wonders of daily newspapers and the life of journalists abroad, this is one you won't put down.

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 SUBJECTS: FUN STUFF
 

PAPICEK

10:09 AM ET

June 11, 2011

@ Tom Ricks:

Fiction does indeed use the brain differently than direct exposition. Somehow, we are wired to learn through storytelling more than anything else. This doesn't have to be a novel; even a 30 second ad spot can tell a powerful, resonant story:

"At 3 AM, a phone in the White House rings . . . ."

If you've a sense of where that event is coming from (in some far-off land an event has occurred in which a piece of hardware, or even a crucial piece of information has changed hands, triggering a sequence of events) in which the councils of the great will be disturbed) and where the event leads (a struggle of biblical proportion unfolds as those utterly dedicated to the struggle between warring cultures gear up for another round), then you've got a complete story. Basically, that's the Tom Clancy storyline.

We're wired this way. Can't help it. Which doesn't mean that every theme easily lends itself to a narrative form. Takes some imagination to envision how the powerful theme in your head translates to characters, setting and plot with equal power.

 

PATRICIAMOORE

10:34 PM ET

July 10, 2011

RE: An Elegy for Easterly

My favorite story, though, has no real humor. It's called 'Something Nice from London' and tells of a family waiting at the airport for the twice-weekly flight from London. The title refers to the hope that relatives in the UK will either return or send back money or gifts for their families. With the collapse of the economy, a few UK pounds is millions of Zimbabwe dollars, and can help a family to survive. But it gradually becomes clear that what this particular family is waiting for is the coffin of their son, Peter. And what follows is a tragic, drawn-out description of the anxious waiting for weeks and weeks, interspersed with explanations of what brought Peter and the family to this point, all the sacrifices and mistakes solar water heaters and disappointments. It's important that the body returns because the whole extended family is staying at their house awaiting the funeral, and they literally can't afford to feed them much longer.

It's probably not a representative story to pick - the others, as I said, had more humor mixed in with the tragedy, and I think it's that mixture that makes the book successful. But this particular story really got to me more than all the others. There's just a real power to that image of the family waiting at the airport, surrounded by all the other people waiting for 'Something nice from London' while they are waiting for the coffin of their son.