The Road From Ruin: How to Revive Capitalism and Put America Back On Topby Matthew Bishop and Michael Green
Two expert economists offer a bold plan for fixing the current financial crisis and avoiding the next one.
When it comes to financial meltdowns, everything old is new again. That’s the idea behind The Road From Ruin, in which Philanthrocapitalism co-authors Matthew Bishop and Michael Green reunite to examine the fallout of the fall 2008 onset of the current recession and devise a game plan for reshaping capitalism to prevent future collapses. Using the example of previous financial collapses, from the Great Depression to the Tulip Craze as their guide, these veteran economists sift through the endless spin and lay out real strategies for securing the U.S.'s financial future. With a clear-eyed assessment of the financial world before and after the crash, Green and Bishop have earned the endorsement of their fellow economists including Lords of Finance author Liaquat Ahamed, who calls the book “a lucid and lively account of the underlying factors that brought the world economy to the brink of collapse.”
Shadow Tag: A Novel by Louis Erdrich
A power couple unravels as they cope with pressures of family and identity.
The Plague of Doves author is back with another expertly crafted novel exploring the pressures of Native American identity, this time in the context of a family on the brink of implosion. Erdrich gives the reader a painfully honest look at Irene and Gil, a married couple, as they grapple with their position as high-profile, successful Native Americans, and slowly face the reality that their image as a power couple belies a fractured, alcoholic marriage. Their already-struggling relationship takes a darker turn when Irene realizes that Gil has been reading her diary, and retaliates with calculated entries about an affair he imagines her to be having. As the tension between Gil and Irene works its way to a boiling point, Erdrich builds a novel that The Washington Post called “a tense little masterpiece of marital strife.”
The Fourth Assassin: An Omar Yussef Mysteryby Matt Beynon Rees
A veteran Middle East reporter’s latest Palestinian crime thriller.
Few crime writers have credentials like Matt Bryon Rees—before turning to fiction, Rees reported throughout the Middle East for Time and Newsweek, laying the groundwork for his intelligent and suspenseful stories of crime in Middle Eastern communities. Rees has already gained international acclaim for his Palestinian crime series The Collaborator of Bethlehem and other mysteries set abroad, but The Fourth Assassin stays a little closer to home. Rees’ latest follows erstwhile detective Omar Yussef as he travels to visit his son living in a Palestinian enclave in Brooklyn. Yussef soon finds his son’s roommate murdered, and he must untangle a mystery that expands beyond U.S. borders. Rees paints a meticulous portrait of the post-9/11 community of Little Palestine and the tension of cultures trying to co-exist. The New York Times dubbed the only Palestinian mystery series “astonishing” and The Washington Post heralds Rees for his “vivid portrait of Palestinian life today.”
Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood With Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hourby Lynne Olson
The behind-the-scenes story of how the United States forged its wartime alliance with Britain.
Citizens of London is the behind-the-scenes story of how the U.S. forged its wartime alliance with Britain, as seen through the stories of three American men: Edward R. Murrow, the dashing, chain-smoking head of CBS News in Europe; Averell Harriman, the millionaire businessman who ran FDR’s Lend-Lease program in London; and John Gilbert Winant, the shy, idealistic U.S. ambassador to Britain. Olson’s engaging history opens in March 1941, the bleakest period of the war for Britain, and depicts the dramatic personal journeys of these men and the close ties they formed with Winston Churchill and his family. The relationships grew so intense that each man became romantically involved with members of the prime minister’s family: Harriman and Murrow with Churchill’s daughter-in-law, Pamela, and Winant with his favorite daughter, Sarah. More than the story of these Americans and the world leaders they influenced, Citizens of London is also a rich tale of two cities: Washington D.C., a quiet Southern town slowly turning into a hub of international power, and London, a class-conscious capital forever altered by the Blitz. “Her book is a triumph of research and storytelling,” says Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein. “It’s history on an intimate level.”
The Patience Stoneby Atiq Rahimi
A portrait of everyday life for an Afghan woman under the oppressive weight of fundamentalism.
Sang-E Saboor, according to ancient Persian folklore, is the name of a magical black stone that absorbs the plight of those who confide in it. Legend holds that the day the stone explodes from having taken in too much hardship and pain, the world will end. In the award-winning novel by exiled Afghan writer and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi, the “syngue sabour” is not a stone but rather a woman’s husband lying brain-dead with a bullet lodged in his neck. Against the backdrop of war, the woman speaks to her Sang-E Saboor, never really knowing if her husband hears. She confesses deeply held secrets, confronting her darkest, most repressed thoughts about everything from religious subjugation to sex. “For far too long, Afghan women have been faceless and voiceless,” Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Sons, writes in his introduction to the novel. “With The Patience Stone, Atiq Rahimi gives face and voice to one unforgettable woman—and, one could argue, offers her as a proxy for the grievances of millions….it is a rich read, part allegory, part a tale of retribution, part an exploration of honor, love, sex, marriage, war.” The woman’s admission—which reveals her love and anger toward a culture that never offered her respect or kindness—ends with the most shocking revelation of all.
