The solstice has come and gone, and the Fourth of July is around the corner. We’re well into the season of beaches and barbecues—which means it’s high time that we ask our readers for summer reading suggestions that might be of special interest to journalists.
We’ve asked for book recommendations before—either for a hot summer day or a cold winter night—and you’ve always come through with lots of great ideas. So we want to hear from you again: Which reads should we be packing for the beach this summer?
Spoon Fed - How Eight Cooks Saved My Life by Kim Severson
#1 Posted by Michael Tune, CJR on Tue 29 Jun 2010 at 06:40 PM
City, Save Thyself! by David Wylie
It's a quick read that deals with the intersection of nuclear disarmament and global citizenship. Not only does the author make a compelling argument, but he provides a blueprint for individual civilians to follow in order to seriously impact the nuclear debate.
The author also maintains a topical blog at http://thewylieblog.blogspot.com/
#2 Posted by Anthony, CJR on Wed 30 Jun 2010 at 11:37 AM
"Solar" by Ian McEwan, exhilarating prose and hilarious.
Summer I always reread something classic - this year it's "Moby Dick"
#3 Posted by Cathy Cranston, CJR on Wed 30 Jun 2010 at 04:22 PM
"The Death and Life of American Journalism," by McChesney & Nichols
#4 Posted by Justin, CJR on Thu 1 Jul 2010 at 11:15 AM
"The Imperfectionists" by Thomas Rachman...ruefully true about journalism
#5 Posted by Dick Polman, CJR on Thu 1 Jul 2010 at 11:29 AM
"I.O.U. Why Everyone Owes Everyone and Nobody Can Pay" by John Lanchester.
This is a great book about the mortgage and market crash for folks who don't follow business every day. The book is particuarly good at explaining how things like credit default swaps and securitization worked and went terribly wrong. It's also very strong on explaining the rise of banks and bankers over the past 30 years and how they lost touch with the world they exist to serve.
#6 Posted by Aaron Elstein, CJR on Thu 1 Jul 2010 at 11:59 AM
My current favorite fiction for all seasons and especially journalists is Tom Rachman's "The Imperfectionists." (Imagine my delight when I later discovered that he was a J-School '98.) It's the best novel about newspaper people (from publisher down) I've encountered in decades.
#7 Posted by Judith Christ, CJR on Thu 1 Jul 2010 at 12:27 PM
Conservatives Without Conscience, John Dean
Family of Secrets, Russ Baker
The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein (previously suggested but for those who missed it)
The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the
Heart of American Power, Jeff Sharlet
The Tyranny of Oil, Antonia Juhasz
With God on Their Side, Esther Kaplan
Blackwater, Jeremy Scahill
Bad Moon Rising: How Rev Moon Created the Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right, and Built an American Kingdom, John Gorenfeld.
Republican Gomorrah, Max Blumenthal
Murder City, Charles Bowden
#8 Posted by Skeptic, CJR on Thu 1 Jul 2010 at 01:06 PM
"My Ears Are Bent" by Joseph Mitchell
#9 Posted by Lauren, CJR on Thu 1 Jul 2010 at 02:18 PM
Low Life, by Luc Sante, is a beautifully written history of criminality and seediness in Old New York. It's thematically similar to Herbert Asbury's Gangs of New York, but much more believable.
Lost Joy is a collection of reviews, essays, and short stories by the music writer Camden Joy. "Camden Joy" is a pseudonym, and as a whole his work here is best taken as a fictional character study of a music obsessive who exists in a state of simultaneous bliss and desperation. The effect is hypnotic, and occasionally beautiful.
Zioncheck for President is Phil Campbell's account of his experience managing an ill-fated city council campaign in Seattle. I know and like Phil Campbell, but I would recommend this book even if I didn't; it's really, really funny, and a great read for anyone interested in politics, grassroots or otherwise.
#10 Posted by Justin Peters, CJR on Thu 1 Jul 2010 at 03:12 PM
The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan
I'm currently reading A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
#11 Posted by Thikra, CJR on Thu 1 Jul 2010 at 03:29 PM
I'll follow the immortal guidance of Mr. Justice Holmes, who declared that whenever he was presented with a new idea, he went back to Aristotle and Plato to learn which of them had said it first. I do not go back nearly that far, but suggest two novels of classical density. One is the trilogy by John Dos Passos, USA, which describes our country in the throes of earlier crisis and may have something of value for our understanding of the present. The second is Andre Malraux's vision of the early stages of the Chinese Revolution, which raises questions of human purpose and historical constraint (Man's Fate is the title/)
#12 Posted by Norman Birnbaumsxd, CJR on Thu 1 Jul 2010 at 08:15 PM
agree with ""The Imperfectionists" by Thomas Rachman...ruefully true about journalism" although that makes it mildly depressing.
Or James Lever's Me Cheeta. Brilliantly funny faux memoir that ensures any further showbiz memoirs are redundant
#13 Posted by Michael Bodey, CJR on Fri 2 Jul 2010 at 12:34 AM
May I immodestly suggest "Free For All: The Post-Soviet Transition of Russia," which tells the story of the transition of the Russian political and economic structures after Communism, through Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin. It examines the role of the KGB, the GRU and the other security organizations in effecting and controlling these transitions and explains the important roles played by Russian organized crime in this business as well as foreign corporations engaged in 'tolling'. It describes the rise of the oligarchs, the siloviki' and the labour movements. The primary focus is the Russian metals industry and the personal experiences gained during the building of the logistical and political infrastructure for the Russian aluminium industry across Russia. It represents the personal experiences and insights gained in years of engagement in Siberia and the Russian Far East.
#14 Posted by Gary Busch, CJR on Fri 2 Jul 2010 at 03:37 AM
A couple historical reads, neither of them new: take Ta-Nehisi Coates's advice and read James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom, especially the opening third or so on the political developments leading up to the Civil War. Fascinating stuff. Also Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm, which is written like a piece of journalism -- reads like a (really long) magazine feature story.
Meanwhile -- I can't necessarily say I'm recommending it, but if anyone's interested in reading The Manchurian President just stop by CJR offices -- we've got about a gazillion copies waiting to be pulped.
#15 Posted by Greg Marx, CJR on Fri 2 Jul 2010 at 11:35 AM
I liked the under-appreciated "Confidence Game," by Bloomberg's Christine S. Richard, about how Bill Ackman challenged and ultimate exposed one of the pillars of our now-discredited financial system, not to mention the (still-unreformed) rating agencies and other Wall Street enablers. To watch how the SEC turned not on the fraudsters but against credible critics is all you need to know about the agency's priorities during that era.
#16 Posted by Dean Starkman, CJR on Fri 2 Jul 2010 at 11:49 AM
Tyler Cowen's Create Your Own Economy. Despite its unfortunately self-help-y title (yeah: if you read it in any public place, you might want to remove the dustjacket), it's actually a delightfully salty look at the effects of web culture on social interactions, courtesy of the delightfully salty author of the econ blog Marginal Revolution.
The Road, Cormac McCarthy. Not so much beach reading -- unless your idea of beach reading involves post-apocalyptic scenarios (actually, come to think of it...) -- but it's haunting, moving, thought-provoking, beautiful...all the things you want good literature to be.
#17 Posted by Megan Garber, CJR on Fri 2 Jul 2010 at 12:21 PM
All the King's Men is a remarkable read - beyond political, it's a stunning and poetic look at a man (a journalist) whose soul is torn between power and rightness.
#18 Posted by Adam Glenn, CJR on Fri 2 Jul 2010 at 07:35 PM
I just finished Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna (she won the orange prize for it). While it lagged a wee bit in parts, the great parts (which made up most of it) made me want to go to Mexico City, cook, read Trotsky's autobiography, and maybe most importantly, really think about the day-to-day of McCarthyism. Are there any classic novels of McCarthyism (not the metaphorical ones - the ones that actually describe the men in suits arriving at your neighbour's house to 'ask a few questions.'?)
#19 Posted by ann rogers, CJR on Mon 5 Jul 2010 at 11:38 PM
The Wallander series by Henning Mankell. Swedish literary thrillers are all the rage, I know, but I found Mankell by accident. I told a colleague who knows this stuff and he said this was like saying I had discovered a baseball player named Dimaggio. Anyway, Mankell's Detective Wallander balances out Stieg Larsson's cartoonish characters. Wallander worries about eating too many hamburgers and about his daughter and about the drift of his country. He has the occasional hangover. He is kind of naive, yet remarkably intuitive. He's real.
#20 Posted by Mike Hoyt, CJR on Tue 6 Jul 2010 at 09:47 AM
"The Big Short," by Michael Lewis. It's a great read, focusing on the outsiders that could see what was happening, and profit from it, recognizing the nuttiness of what the Wall Street firms were doing. Journalists, as outsiders, can be inspired by what you can find by doing a little digging.
"The Black Swan," by Nicolas Talib, will give you more reasons to expect the unexpected. That can only lead to good story ideas.
#21 Posted by Ken, CJR on Tue 6 Jul 2010 at 10:24 AM
"The Big Short," by Michael Lewis. It's a great read, focusing on the outsiders that could see what was happening, and profit from it, recognizing the nuttiness of what the Wall Street firms were doing. Journalists, as outsiders, can be inspired by what you can find by doing a little digging.
"The Black Swan," by Nicolas Talib, will give you more reasons to expect the unexpected. That can only lead to good story ideas.
#22 Posted by Ken, CJR on Tue 6 Jul 2010 at 10:25 AM
The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman.
Torture the Artist, by Joey Goebel.
Richistan, by Robert Frank.
#23 Posted by Chine, CJR on Tue 6 Jul 2010 at 11:06 AM
"The Meat You Eat" by Ken Midkiff and Wendell Berry
#24 Posted by Daisy, CJR on Tue 6 Jul 2010 at 11:27 AM
The Hearts of Darkness, by Milton Allimadi.
#25 Posted by Dazzanna, CJR on Tue 6 Jul 2010 at 03:55 PM
Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell -- Recounts the loss of political innocence by one of the English language’s greatest writers of modern times. The early idealism of joining up to fight fascists in Spain ebbs away in the face of Stalinist machination and the cynicism of the western democracies that are too blinkered to see the Nazi danger about to engulf them.
#26 Posted by Alex Ferguson, CJR on Tue 6 Jul 2010 at 04:57 PM
"Nixonland" by Rick Perlstein.
Not only is it a well-referenced text and an amazing read but it also makes an excellent use of records to show just how good Nixon was at manipulating the Press. All journalists should read this book. Hell, everyone should.
#27 Posted by Darius Dixon, CJR on Wed 7 Jul 2010 at 06:38 PM
I liked "The Imperfectionists," too, but if I may indulge in some shameless self-promotion, I would also recommend my own new book, "Capturing the News." It's a memoir about my experiences in print and TV news, in Europe, Russia, the Mideast, and Washington, including the crazy early days at CNN, and it's also a critique of American journalism today.
#28 Posted by Tony Collings, CJR on Sun 11 Jul 2010 at 09:41 PM