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mastcomm · 5 years ago

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Joseph Shabalala, Ladysmith Black Mambazo Founder, Dies at 78

Joseph Shabalala, the gentle-voiced South African songwriter whose choir, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, brought Zulu music to listeners worldwide, died on Tuesday in a hospital in Pretoria. He was 78.

The cause was not immediately known, but his health had deteriorated after he had back surgery in 2013, said the group’s manager, Xolani Majozi, who announced the death.

Mr. Shabalala began leading choral groups at the end of the 1950s. By the early ’70s his Ladysmith Black Mambazo — in Zulu, “the black ax of Ladysmith,” a town in KwaZulu-Natal Province — had become one of South Africa’s most popular groups, singing about love, Zulu folklore, rural childhood memories, moral admonitions and Christian faith.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s collaborations with Paul Simon on his 1986 album “Graceland,” on the tracks “Homeless” and “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” introduced South African choral music to an international pop audience.

In 1987, Mr. Simon produced Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s first major-label album, “Shaka Zulu,” which won a Grammy Award. The group went on to enjoy global recognition, including four more Grammys, decades of extensive touring and guest appearances with Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, Josh Groban, George Clinton and many others.

Nelson Mandela called Ladysmith Black Mambazo “South Africa’s cultural ambassadors to the world.”

Joseph Shabalala — his full name was Bhekizizwe Joseph Siphatimandla Mxoveni Mshengu Bigboy Shabalala — was born on Aug. 28, 1941, near the town of Ladysmith, where his parents, Jonathan Mluwane Shabalala and Nomandla Elina Shabalala, worked on a white-owned farm.

In 1958 he left to find factory work in the port city of Durban, about 200 miles to the southeast. There he sang with the group Highlanders before returning to Ladysmith and starting a group, the Black Ones, with some of his brothers and cousins in 1960.

Mr. Shabalala often said that a series of dreams he had in 1964 had led him to reshape the music of the group, which became Ladysmith Black Mambazo. He refined an a cappella Zulu choir style called isicathamiya — “stalking style” — which had grown out of song-and-dance competitions in hostels for migrant mineworkers, an urban adaptation of rural traditions.

Mr. Shabalala’s version of isicathamiya was built on plush bass-heavy harmonies, call-and-response drive and dramatic contrasts of soft and loud passages, along with choreography that included tiptoeing moves and head-high kicks.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo triumphed at local competitions in the 1960s. In 1970, it performed for a live radio broadcast from Johannesburg. That performance soon led to a recording contract, and the group released dozens of albums on South African labels, adapting Zulu traditional songs.

The group was invited to perform at festivals in Germany beginning in 1980, and it appeared in “Rhythm of Resistance,” a documentary about South African music by Jeremy Marre, which is where Mr. Simon first heard them. When he met Mr. Shabalala in Johannesburg, Mr. Simon invited him to collaborate.

“He came to me like a child asking his father, ‘Can you teach me something?,’” Mr. Shabalala recalled of Mr. Simon in the liner notes to the expanded 2016 reissue of “Graceland.” “He was so polite. That was my first time to hug a white man.”

The group recorded “Homeless,” merging Mr. Simon’s material with a Zulu wedding song, at Abbey Road Studios in London in 1985. The next year, in May, Ladysmith Black Mambazo performed the song, which had not yet been released, with Mr. Simon on “Saturday Night Live.”

The group recorded “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” with Mr. Simon while in New York and joined his international “Graceland” tour in 1986 and 1987.

The group resumed its own recording and touring career with vastly expanded opportunities. Through the next decades, Ladysmith Black Mambazo appeared on “Sesame Street” and “The Tonight Show.” It performed when Nelson Mandela received his Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and a year later at Mr. Mandela’s inauguration as president of South Africa.

The group appeared on Broadway providing music for a 1993 play about apartheid, “The Song of Jacob Zulu,” and Mr. Shabalala collaborated with the Steppenwolf Theater Company of Chicago and the playwright Ntozake Shange on a musical based on one of his songs, “Nomathemba.”

Ladysmith Black Mambazo also recorded steadily, collaborating with pop and rock musicians on the 2006 album “Long Walk to Freedom” and reaching back to Mr. Shabalala’s childhood with “Songs From a Zulu Farm” in 2011.

He announced his retirement from Ladysmith Black Mambazo in 2014; three of his sons — Sibongseni, Thamsanqa and Thulani — are in the current lineup of the group.

Mr. Shabalala’s wife of three decades, Nellie, was murdered in 2002. In addition to his three sons, his survivors include his wife, Thokozile Shabalala; two daughters; four more sons; and 36 grandchildren.

Lynsey Chutel contributed reporting from Johannesburg.

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l4deeznuts · 5 months ago

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Headcanon nellis all you have!!!

omg i’ve been meaning to respond to this i’m so sorry it took me literally forever..

but omg.. here’s me talking about nellis (kinda nsfw..)

- so basically in my lil l4d universe ellis and nick become a thing by finding alcohol in an abandoned house and getting sloshed almost immediately (empty stomach plus everything else the apocalypse sucks out of you) and well one thing led to another.. two wasted men who haven’t had sexual relief in a very long time.. sloppy gay things were just bound to happen

they wake up jumbled over each other, half their clothes off and just lookin rough. they put two and two together, freak out at first, but lowkey realize they feel better in some weird natural way

realizing they need to get a nut out every now and again, they will secretly venture off and get drunk and fuck

outside of this, they act like nothing is up. treat each other how they usually do, it’s like nothing is going on.. but because to them it really doesn’t mean anything

but.. when you’re intimate with someone, let alone in such an environment, and that person’s life is in your hands daily.. it’s natural to develop feelings

and that’s basically what happens to them. as time went on in the apocalypse, protecting and saving each other, being vulnerable in multiple ways, etc.. add in sticking their dicks in each other, of course they’re gonna fall in love smh

BUT.. it’s not that easy to admit nor accept. they’re dumb men

so they just.. continue their apocalyptic lives with this newfound family, trying to survive

- i don’t see ellis as the typical naive kid. is he immature and dumb? yes.. BUT he’s a young southern man.. he isn’t innocent

i bring this up bc throughout the years the overall nellis trope has been nick being solely a mysterious jackass and ellis solely a childish shy boy. very yaoi-esque lol

ellis is a rough and tough born and raised southern boy! just cuz he got choked up on his words with zoey doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be confident in anything else (and i mean it’s zoey… who wouldn’t fumble their words)

so i just don’t see the “nick pushes ellis against the wall and he’s all blushy and shy and doesn’t know what to say”

he would either be like oh hell yea right on brother i’m down for this.. or he would punch nick in the face

- ellis definitely brings out the goofball in nick. it took him a minute to crack those old walls but once he did he realized nick actually can be a fun normal human being

- nick is definitely a gossiper and surprisingly so is ellis (but yet not that surprising bc he is from the south lolol) (ALL 4 OF THE L4D2 SURVIVORS WOULD BE BIG GOSSIPERS IMO LOL)

- it actually took them a very very long time to actually have penetrating sex. they never had been with men before, so they were virgins technically. for a while all they did was oral, handjobs, etc. they had to slowly make their way to third base lol.. and when they did i think that would be where the genuine feelings truly blossomed between them

um um um i have way more headcanons but i have 2 brain cell so if you wanna hear more i would need to get asked like.. specific topics LOL

#l4d #l4d2 #left 4 dead #left 4 dead 2 #nick l4d2 #ellis l4d2 #nellis #nellis l4d2 #headcanons #any excuse to yap about thems :3

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its-lifestyle · 5 years ago

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Mid-century modern architecture. Japanese shou sugi ban wood exteriors. Wall-to-wall block-print wallpaper. Shabby chic crystal chandeliers. These aren’t features in a Los Angeles home, but the kind of amenities in some of the US city’s more elaborate chicken coops.

In a town obsessed with design and indoor-outdoor living, it makes sense that pet owners want to keep their chickens in high-style comfort. In addition to giving them a chance to personalise their living spaces, urban homesteading offers a taste of pastoral life that’s elusive in a city of over four million.

As backyard fowl continue to make news in California after recent cases of Newcastle disease, it’s worth noting that tending chickens can be traumatic. Free-ranging can be deadly. Coyotes, raccoons, hawks and mountain lions will prey on hens. And extreme heat can overwhelm them because chickens don’t sweat.

Something as simple as an avocado can be fatal to chickens too. So why do urban homesteaders endure heartache, illness and loss? Because chickens are like any other pet: They make folks happy.

“It’s extraordinary to have chickens and fresh eggs, and engage with them,” says gardening consultant Lauri Kranz, author of A Garden Can Be Anywhere: Creating Bountiful And Beautiful Edible Gardens.

“I love visiting clients with chickens. They’re so happy to see me, but I always have a serious talk with clients who want them. When you raise chickens, you’re engaging with the natural world in a whole different way. No matter how well your coop is built, it still runs the risk of predators,” says Kranz.

“They’re more than cute, sweet and fun. It’s a huge responsibility,” she says. So, here are six urban homesteaders and how they personalised their coops in budgets from US$750 (RM3,140) to US$14,000 (RM58,640).

Mid-century Modern

Ellen Marie Bennett and “the ladies” of Echo Park.

Inspired by the clean lines of mid-century modern architecture, Casey Caplowe and Ellen Marie Bennett wanted a coop that would complement the lines of their home in Echo Park. “We wanted an Eames-inspired coop,” says Bennett, founder of the culinary goods brand Hedley & Bennett.

In a nod to the 1950s, Caplowe, co-founder of Good magazine, built a slant-roof coop and painted it a vibrant yellow. The colour palette augments the home’s animated interior, highlighted by a yellow Bertazzoni range, aquamarine heath tile and an orange sliding barn door.

At the bottom of a terraced yard filled with drought-tolerant plants, edibles and decomposed granite pathways, the midcentury-style hen house is home to a group of silkies that Bennett refers to as “the ladies”.

Olive Oil is the sole survivor of a flock that died during a heat wave in 2018. She now chooses to live in a backyard tree, visiting the coop for meals when not socialising with Oliver, the family’s 90kg pig, on the upper deck.

“Olive Oil has laid eggs in his pig hut,” says Bennett, a former chef. “I like the idea that when people come over, they can go outside and enjoy the ladies. It’s fun to show people where their food comes from.”

Urban modern

Irwin Miller’s coop befits its Bel Air address.

As a design director at Gensler, the largest architectural firm in the US, Irwin Miller has overseen everything from Eataly marketplace in Century City to TV producer Shonda Rhimes’ new office across from Paramount Studios in Hollywood.

So, it’s not surprising that Miller’s coop is a distinctive structure on a property steeped in Hollywood lore (Apocalypse Now screenwriter John Milius lived here). The lush compound at Beverly Crest is home to several small structures: a 84sqm main house, a 37sqm studio, a detached “man cave” for Miller’s two sons, and a “she shed” for wife Heidi.

Miller built the coop in an enclosed patio underneath an enormous grapefruit tree. The emerald green coop has a mathematical sensibility, incorporating a triangle theme that continues throughout the compound’s dwellings.

At night, the family can sit outside and enjoy the four silver-laced cochins, their sweet labrador Olive, and a nearby hot tub. A surplus of vines keeps the coop cool, and a motorised door that Miller detailed with red and green stripes opens and closes automatically when the family isn’t around.

Miller also hung a sparkling, shabby chic-style chandelier from the centre of the coop. “The crystal is a nice touch,” he says with a wink. “It exudes good energy.”

Farmhouse

Kate Richards with Princess Vespa.

For Kate Richards, whose Drinking With Chickens website encourages readers to interact with their birds while enjoying a “garden-to-glass” cocktail, living well means ending the day outdoors with husband Jonathon Ragsdale, their 10 fowls, and a lavender-infused tequila sunrise on their Sierra Madre property.

In eight years of keeping the flock, Richards has designed seven coops. Her latest, a fully insulated enclosure she built with Ragsdale and her father Rich Richards, is stylishly decorated with planters, pink and coral painted stripes, and vinyl peel-and-stick botanical block-print wallpaper.

The wallpaper (by Sarah Treu for Spoonflower) may seem extravagant, but Kate says it “camouflages poop on the wall and is easy to wipe down”.

She originally wanted her hens – which average 10 eggs a day – to roam free, but after they foraged everything in her yard, she installed the coop in a 4.5m by 7.6m enclosed garden at the back of her property.

There, they can exercise in a run made of pressure-treated wood, while vines and shrubs protect them from hawks and owls. The run rests on 30cm-deep permeable pebbles, so Kate can sweep and hose the path when necessary. Meanwhile, a comfortable seating area, outfitted with lounge chairs and custom iron wine-glass holders, and an adjacent cocktail bar provide ample room for guests and entertaining.

“It’s very tranquil out here,” says Kate, whose book Drinking With Chickens is due in 2020. “Chickens are funny and entertaining creatures. They’re filled with joy. All I’m doing is encouraging people to take a moment to enjoy them.”

Bohemian

Trish and Roe Sie have an AC installed for their fowls.

Since launching their homesteading store, the King’s Roost, five years ago in Silver Lake, Trish and Roe Sie have offered goods and classes suited to LA’s DIY culture. So when it was time for their own coop, they got a Western red cedar roll-top walk-in structure from Urban Coop (starting at US$4,700/RM19,700).

Designed for 20 chickens, the coop arrived in 12 flats and took them a week to assemble on their Los Feliz property. They also personalised it with framed photos of roosters above the roost area, along with an image of a lone hen.

When the temperature hit 40.5°C last summer, they added a generator and an AC unit. Flowering trumpet vines, which shade the roof, also help cool the coop. The couple judiciously prune the vines, which are poisonous.

“Trish is the rooster,” Roe adds with a laugh. “She’s the only person I’ve ever known who has had a flock of chickens name her.”

Outside the door to the coop, a wooden dust bath filled with clean ash wards off parasites. And when a neighbour greets the family over the fence, Trish emphasises the need to be respectful of their community.

“We make sure our neighbours are OK,” says Trish, director of the film Pitch Perfect 3 and the forthcoming The Sleepover. “We’re tidy. We share our eggs. We made sure the coop is the legal limit from the house.”

Abundant seating and electrical outlets allow the family to work outdoors and be near their pets. Ruby, their Rhode Island Red, even watches casting tapes with Trish. “The worst thing about travelling for work is not being with them and my family,” says Trish. “I’ve thought about having them as companion pets.”

Minimalist

Alison Hersel with her kids (Abby, Nellie and Nathan).

At Plumcot Farm, Alison Hersel’s 2.8ha property in Malibu, everything is small batch, from the honey to the more than 100 types of edible medicinal crops she’s grown on the organic farm. She added chickens five years ago because she wanted to demonstrate regenerative farming to her three kids in a hands-on way.

The 9.3sqm wooden coop is a large, minimal structure that provides the chickens room to roam while allowing Hersel the chance to share information with the public. “Recently, in a cooking class, one of the kids cracked a fertilised egg,” Hersel says. “Chickens prompt you to have conversations about the cycle of life.”

The structure is lined with 1.6 sq cm chicken wire that goes down almost 1m deep and surrounds the perimeter. The coop also features an interior space for egg boxes, and an exterior where the birds can meander in a protected environment (Hersel allows them to free-range outside the coop under supervision).

Shou Sugi Ban

Meeno Peluce, Ilse Ackerman, daughter Mette Peluce and chicken Maeve.

When Ilse Ackermann describes herself as a “chicken consultant to the stars”, her tone is tongue-in-cheek. But she has the non-disclosure agreements to prove it.

Her job, which involves 24-hour “fowl consultations” for anxious clients with broody birds, stems from her years living on Skyfarm, an urban farm in Lincoln Heights which she shares with her husband, photographer Meeno Peluce, their two daughters and 25 animals.

She may design custom coops for Hollywood’s A-list, but her own is more modest, built of inexpensive wood and a galvanised roof from Home Depot that she estimates around US$1,000 (RM4,195). By contrast, the coop’s black charred exterior stands out in an orchard filled with colourful plants and edibles.

“Shou sugi ban style is super chic and you don’t have to do anything to it,” Ackermann says of the ancient Japanese technique. “It’s great because it’s bug- and weather-resistant.” – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service

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thisdaynews · 5 years ago

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What Politicos Are Reading This Summer

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What Politicos Are Reading This Summer

From the frenzy of the 2020 presidential field to Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony to the unremitting tweets of @realDonaldTrump, summer 2019 has shown no signs of slowing down. But for those who can pry their eyes away from the news, even briefly,Politico Magazinehere presents our annual summer reading list. We asked some of the most interesting people in politics—writers, activists, lawmakers, scholars and more—to tell us what book is at the top of their reading list and what they’re packing as a guilty pleasure on vacation. (We asked all the Democrats currently running for president for their reading recommendations; those not listed below declined to respond.) Ranging from histories of America’s past, like Rick Atkinson’sThe British Are Coming, to poignant modern memoirs like Tara Westover’sEducated, to bestselling novels like Tomi Adeyemi’sChildren of Blood and Bone, this year’s selections span a variety of genres and forms.If you’re itching to fit in some reading this summer, grab your drink of choice and pair it with one of the following.

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James Comey, former director of the FBI:

Right now, I’m readingThe British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777, by Rick Atkinson. As for a guilty pleasure suggestion, I would recommend that Republicans read the Mueller report, maybe concealing it inside the cover of the latest work by a Fox News broadcaster so they aren’t judged negatively by their colleagues.

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Jay Sekulow, chief counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, religious liberty advocate, author and member of President Donald Trump’s legal team:

I’ve just finished volume two, and am starting volume three, of Winston Churchill’s six-volumeThe Second World War. My fun read isPhotograph, by Ringo Starr.

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Gretchen Carlson, journalist, author and advocate for sexual harassment survivors:

These are at the top of my reading list:The Moment of Lift, by Melinda Gates, inspiring stories from around the world about women rising up and the greatness that happens when we do;Educated, by Tara Westover, an unbelievable journey of one woman to educate herself that inspires all of us to rekindle that fire in our belly to make the most of our lives (and it happens to be my son’s required reading this summer with parents!);Maid, by Stephanie Land, an empowering story of a woman determined to pull herself up in life through which we all feel stronger; andThe Sun and Her Flowers, by Rupi Kaur, a book of poems, with one of my favorites being:

I stand on the sacrifices of a million women before me thinking what can I do to make this mountain taller so the women after me can see farther.

My beach read isThe Most Fun We Ever Had, by Claire Lombardo, because every family has its issues, and by acknowledging that, we live truer lives and grow as people.

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Beto O’Rourke, former congressman from Texas, currently a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate:

I’m readingThe Fall of Carthage, by Adrian Goldsworthy, andStorm Lake, by Art Cullen.

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Ben Shapiro, political commentator, author and editor-in-chief of theDaily Wire:

The Adams-Jefferson Letters, edited by Lester Cappon, is great reminder that despite brutal political disagreements, those who share the founders’ vision are not enemies but brothers. AndThe Last Pirate of New Yorkis a wild ride through Civil War-era American history from Rich Cohen, one of my favorite authors.

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Alan Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School:

At the top of my reading list right now isShadow Strike, by Yaakov Katz. My guilty pleasure is reading about David Boies “ethics” inBad Blood, by John Carreyrou.

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Marianne Williamson, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate:

At the top of my list isWar on Peace, by Ronan Farrow. Transitioning from a war economy to a peace economy is high on my list of priorities, which is why as president I plan to establish a U.S. Department of Peace. Our national security agenda should not be guided by corporate profits for defense contractors, but solely by our legitimate security needs. I plan to make that happen. For the lighter read, I’m obsessively rereading anything by Jane Austen.

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Alicia Garza, writer, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and special projects director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance:

For nonfiction, at the top of my reading list isHow to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi, a powerful follow-up to his first book,Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. These are two really important books on how race is shaping America and what that means for our future. What’s important to me about these two books is that they not only tell the truth about how racist ideas translate into power, but also provide the counterweight with what we can all do to ensure that everyone gets to live a dignified life.

Unfortunately, my beach read also isn’t light, but it’s excellent nonetheless:A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini. Hosseini is a master storyteller, and each one of his characters is so perfectly imperfect and human.

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Cory Booker, senator from New Jersey and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate:

At the top of my summer reading list isCan’t Hurt Me, by David Goggins, a fun book. Also on my list are:The Soul of America, by John Meacham, which I just finished, andBecome America, by Eric Liu.

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David Petraeus, retired U.S. Army general and former director of the CIA:

I’ve already begun readingIll Winds, by Larry Diamond, which provides a superb description of the state of democracy in America and around the world—and promises to explain to readers what is needed to shore up democracy at home and abroad. And also at the top of my list isOur Man, by George Packer, which reviewers have praised for its enormous insights not just on Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, with whom I was privileged to partner during his final mission as a diplomat, but also on the three wars in which he played significant roles.

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Lori Lightfoot, mayor of Chicago:

At the top of my list isBluebird, Bluebirdof the Highway 59 series. I like mysteries, especially if they deal with complicated issues around intersections of race and class. My guilty pleasure/fun reading is the magazine theWeek.

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Michael Bennet, senator from Colorado and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate:

On my list areThere Will Be No Miracles Here, by Casey Gerald,Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight, andThis America: The Case for the Nation, by Jill Lepore.

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John Delaney, former congressman from Massachusetts, currently a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate:

The books on my summer reading list areEducated,Songs of America,Make Your Bed,The Second MountainandThe Soul of America.

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Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House:

Daniel Silva’sThe New Girlis at the top of my reading list. Every Daniel Silva novel is at the top of my reading list, and John Sandford novels are a close second!

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Shaun King, writer and civil rights activist: At the top of my summer reading list are two essential reads:The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias, by Dolly Chugh, andHow to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi. Both get to the heart of how we can all actually make this world a much better place.

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Alyssa Mastromonaco, former deputy chief of staff for operations in the Obama White House, author, and senior adviser and spokesperson for NARAL Pro-Choice America:

At the top of my list isLife Will Be the Death of Me, by Chelsea Handler. Chelsea is one of my most supportive friends, and this book is a gift to anyone who is interested in the journey to learn more about yourself, laugh your ass off and cry. Second isHow to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, by Michael Pollan. As someone whose life was changed immeasurably by medical marijuana, I am fascinated by the research and discussion of alternative therapies.

My guilty pleasure read isConfessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson And Learned to Love Being Hated, by Alison Arngrim. I love “Little House on the Prairie” and started rewatching it this year. My friend and I did research and found out that Melissa Gilbert and Alison Arngrim were actually inseparable friends. I wanted to know more.

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Ro Khanna, congressman from California:

Trade and rural America are always on my mind, so I’m currently reading Beth Macy’sFactory Man, about how one Virginia town came together to fight for American manufacturing. The book was a gift from that town’s congressional representative, Morgan Griffith. Our political views don’t always align on every subject, but this is a great opportunity to reach across the aisle for a story of American strength. My guilty pleasure for the summer will be following the Phillies. I try to follow the Warriors, but I started my baseball career playing little league in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, so that’s where my loyalties lie.

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Gloria Allred, women’s rights attorney:

At the top of my reading list for the summer is the Mueller report. I feel that this is the most important book published this year and that I have a duty to read it in order to understand Russia’s role in the last election for president and why special counsel Robert Mueller felt that he could not exonerate President Donald Trump on charges that he obstructed justice. My guilty pleasure would be to readI Remember Nothing and Other Reflections, by Nora Ephron. I love her wit and honesty, and I know that this book will make me smile, even as I remember that she left this earth too soon.

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Neal Katyal, former U.S. acting solicitor general and law professor at Georgetown:

At the top of my list is Tara Westover’sEducated. I recently met Tara and was taken by her brilliance and depth, and everyone I know who has read the book raves about it. My guilty pleasure reading is John Grisham’sThe Firm. I’ve got a legal thriller I’ve been dying to write for a dozen years, and I worked out the plot back in 2007. But I want to learn how masters of the genre actually write. Plus, I love books like this.

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Donna Brazile, political analyst, author and former chair of the DNC:

My list includes George Will’sThe Conservative Sensibility, Henry Louis Gates’Stony the Road, Jennifer Eberhardt’sBiasedand Brittney Cooper’sEloquent Rage. I also have David Baldacci’s latest,Redemption.

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Jay Inslee, governor of Washington and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate:

Right now, I’m currently reading and enjoyingThe Feather Thief, a caper about a young man who steals bird feathers from a museum in the United Kingdom. I just finished and highly recommendWest with the Night, a memoir by Beryl Markham. It is an incredible adventure story, and one that highlights the power of perseverance. Another book I just finished isFreedom’s Forge, a story about the full-scale mobilization of the U.S. economy to defeat fascism during World War II. This story is especially relevant in this moment we’re in, as we will need that same type of mobilization to defeat the climate crisis.

***

Colin Powell, retired four-star U.S. Army general and former secretary of State:

I’m currently readingThe Back Channel, by Ambassador William J. Burns, andPresidents of War, by Michael Beschloss.

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Seth Moulton, congressman from Massachusetts and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate:

I’m looking forward to readingLeadership in Turbulent Times, by my friend Doris Kearns Goodwin. I gave signed copies to my staff for the holiday but haven’t had a chance to read it yet myself.

***

Dambisa Moyo, economist and author:

At the top of my list isTrillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell, by Alan Eagle, Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg. It’s an insightful book on a man with unique talents and attributes that helped shape one of the most important industries today. My guilty pleasure book isBoom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art, by Michael Shnayerson, a fun read on the key players and vagaries of the fascinating contemporary segment of the art market

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Eric Swalwell, congressman from California and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate:

On my list areAn American Summer, by Alex Kotlowitz, a chronicle of one summer in Chicago’s South Side and the impact of gun violence on a community, andAda Twist, Scientist, by Andrea Beaty, a favorite of my daughter, Cricket. It’s even better when her 2-year-old brother tries reading it to her.

***

William Darity, author, professor of public policy, economics and African and African American studies and director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University:

My recommended serious read for the summer is Tanya Hernández’s bookMultiracials and Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories of Discrimination, a superb critical exploration of the evolution and political consequences of multiracial identities in the United States. My guilty pleasure read is Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha’s edited volumeOctavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, a collection of short stories paying homage to the late Octavia Butler.

***

Bill McKibben, author and environmentalist:

I’m reading (rereading, actually, since I got to read a galley a year ago) Richard Powers’The Overstory. Winning the Pulitzer has given it attention, and deservedly. It’s about, in the largest sense, the relationship of people and trees, and it manages the trick of making trees into characters in ways that really expand the boundaries of literature. It’s a book that will be read for generations to come.

I’m almost disinclined to list Kim Stanley Robinson’sNew York 2140as a beach read or guilty pleasure. Usually listed as a science fiction writer, he’s one of the finest writers in any genre at work in America today, and this account of New York once the waters have begun to rise is superb—there are strong notes of Mark Twain, and his usual remarkable insight into how politics could be made to work. It’s also the best book for lovers of our greatest city since, maybe, E.B. White’sHere is New York. A delight.

***

Deray McKesson, author and civil rights activist:

On my list areThe Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai,Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi, andThe Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo.

***

Charlotte Clymer, writer, U.S. Army veteran and press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign:

While we all wait patiently for the last installment of Robert A. Caro’s phenomenal L.B.J. quintet—please, Mr. Caro, do finish soon; it’s terribly impolite to keep a lady waiting—I have two books at the top of my summer reading list: Rick Atkinson’sThe British Are Coming, the first meaty portion of the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian’s announced trilogy on the Revolutionary War, and Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom��sThick: And Other Essays, a collection of brilliant musings I keep hearing about from friends.

Doesn’t all pleasure reading feel “guilty” on some level for those of us working in this chaotic political era? Despite her anti-pineapple-on-pizza proclivities, I will likely reread Sarah McBride’sTomorrow Will Be Differentfor the umpteenth time because of her powerful, empathetic and nuanced writing on making history as a trans woman. For dessert: Lauren Wilkinson’s debut novelAmerican Spylooks to be a hell of a thriller, and I’ll be partaking.

***

Charlie Sykes, political commentator, author and editor-in-chief of theBulwark:

I had a big stack of books to read but just got Tim Alberta’sAmerican Carnagein the mail, and now everything else is shelved. Except for Brad Thor’s latest,Backlash.

***

Julian Brave NoiseCat, writer, director of Green New Deal strategy at Data for Progress and narrative change director at the Natural History Museum:

To better understand the troubling times we find ourselves in, I will read my friend and mentor Bill McKibben’s bookFalter. To learn more about policy, politics and history for my ongoing work on the Green New Deal, I have been referring to Ira Katznelson’s tomeFear Itself, about the New Deal and its costs—particularly for people of color. I also just finished my friend Nick Estes’ book,Our History Is the Future, which puts the anti-Dakota Access Pipeline movement at Standing Rock in historical context. The book is, in my view, a significant contribution to environmental justice and the broader left.

On the beach, which, for me, will be more metaphor than physical destination, I’ll turn to some of my favorite journalists in the pages of theNew Yorker. I am particularly excited for Jia Tolentino’s debut,Trick Mirror. The excerpt in a recent issue of the magazine was dazzling. I am also eager to read the pieces collected inShapes of Native Nonfiction, edited by Theresa Warburton and my friend Elissa Washuta. (If I’m honest though, I will likely spend too much time scrolling Twitter, where I gravitate to tastemakers like Cardi B, Lil Nas X, Brother Nature and Hari Nef, to name a few.)

***

Anand Giridharadas, author and editor-at-large forTIME:

I’m currently readingCommon Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, because busing, racism, white resentment and the search for a way for us to live together are as much with us as in the post-1968 era that J. Anthony Lukas covers. I’m in the early stages of reporting a new book, and in these between times I tend to go back to the nonfiction classics for technique. How do you tell the story of an age intimately through people? I’m also eager to dive into Robin DiAngelo’sWhite Fragility, Jill Lepore’sThis Americaand Shoshana Zuboff’sThe Age of Surveillance Capitalism, which for me will follow the tough act of George Packer’s new masterpiece,Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century.

***

Anthony Jack, sociologist, author and professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education:

On the top of my list areThere There,Where the Crawdads Sing,What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You BlackerandHeavy: An American Memoir. This summer is about reuniting with narratives and the experience of getting to know oneself in an increasingly unequal and complex world.

***

Helen Zia, journalist, author and activist for LGBTQ and Asian American rights:

Right now, I’m reading three books: an advance copy ofAmerica for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States, by Erika Lee, which is due to be out in a couple of months. It’s an eye-opening look at how today’s demagogues repeat history with their drumbeat of “new immigrants are the scum-of-the earth”—which was employed by Ben Franklin and other “Founding Fathers” against Germans and later to rally hatred toward the Irish, Italians, Mexicans and many others, and also during the ethnic cleansing to rid America of Chinese and Asians, the first legislated “illegal” immigrants. For fun, I’ve been reading Lisa See’s latest novel,The Island of Sea Women, a spellbinding tale of two friends who grow up with Korea’s tumultuous modern history as a backdrop, and Meredith May’s inspirationalThe Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees. And I have cued up Min Jin Lee’sPachinko, Viet Thanh Nguyen’sThe Refugeesand Maxine Hong Kingston’s ground-breakingThe Woman Warrior.

***

Joe Sestak, former congressman from Pennsylvania and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate:

At the top of my reading list areThe Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965, by William Manchester and Paul Reid, andWashington, by Ron Chernow. Just an enjoyable read is Fredrik Backman’sA Man Called Ove.

***

Jose Antonio Vargas, journalist, author and filmmaker:

At the top of my list isAmerican Presidents, Deportations, and Human Rights Violations: From Carter to Trump, by Bill Ong Hing. We all must understand the full picture of our country’s modern deportation history. My current guilty pleasure read isOn Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong. It’s like reading the best kind of dessert: It’s so rich you gotta slow down.

***

Kim Foxx, state’s attorney for Cook County, Illinois:

At the top of my list isMore Than Enough, by Elaine Welteroth. I strongly relate to Elaine’s notion that when you are identified as a first, you have the responsibility to bring your best self, especially to those who challenge your right to be in the space you deserve to be. Also on my list isCharged, by Emily Bazelon. Emily’s unbiased narrative examines the role of prosecutors in advancing criminal justice reform while keeping communities safe.

InStyle Magazineis my guilty pleasure.

***

Wayne Messam, mayor of Miramar, Florida, and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate:

On my book list areBorn a Crime, by Trevor Noah, andCan’t Hurt Me, by David Goggins. I’m interested in Noah’s improbable success coming from South Africa, and, as a former athlete, I’m impressed with Goggins’ military accomplishments and success as an endurance athlete. He’s a living Superman!

My beach read is the Warchant newsletter. I read these updates multiple times per day to get the latest recruiting news about Florida State University Football.

***

Melina Abdullah, civil rights activist, professor and chair of Pan-African studies at California State University, Los Angeles:

On the top of my list isHomegoing, by Yaa Gyasi. It’s a deep and powerful series of interconnected stories of African people from Ghana and their descendants in the Americas, woven together as a painful, beautiful, hugely important novel. It’s a perfect read for this year’s “Year of Return” to Ghana for black people in the diaspora, as 2019 marks 400 years since the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade.

Also on my list isJust Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson. Written in autobiographical form, Stevenson’s work challenges us to examine what justice should look like. His focus on how we treat youth in the justice system is an important companion text to Ava DuVernay’s Netflix series “When They See Us.”

As for my guilty pleasure read, maybe Roxane Gay’sDifficult Women? I love that it’s a collection that allows me to read a bit and feel satisfied before picking it up again, and I love the characters and the humor interwoven into stories that have meaning and challenge oppression.

***

Mike Gravel, former senator from Alaska and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate:

I’ll have to reread Michael Parenti’sAgainst Empire. It’s a classic polemic against the crimes of the U.S. empire, burning with Parenti’s muscular voice and sharp command of the details of infamy. A guilty pleasure is Henry Kissinger, who despite being a moral abomination of a man, writes clearly, coherently and intelligently. ParticularlyDiplomacy.

Produced by Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna and Shawna Chen, art direction by Erin Aulov and Lily Mihalik, and photography by M. Scott Mahaskey.

#Foreign #Politics #Reading #summer

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The 100 greatest novels of all time: The Guardian

1. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Alonso Quixano, a retired country gentleman in his fifties, lives in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and a housekeeper. He has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes th... - 2. Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan One of the most powerful dramas of Christian faith ever written, this captivating allegory of man's religious journey in search of salvation follows the pilgrim as he travels an obstacle-filled roa... - 3. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe A shipwreck’s sole escapee, Robinson Crusoe endures 28 years of solitude on a Caribbean island and manages not only to survive but also to prevail. A warm humanity, evocative details of his struggl... - 4. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift From the preeminent prose satirist in the English language, a great classic recounting the four remarkable journeys of ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver. For children it remains an enchanting fantasy;... - 5. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr. Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neig... - 6. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson It tells the tragic story of a heroine whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family, and is one of the longest novels in the English language. - 7. Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne As its title suggests, the book is ostensibly Tristram's narration of his life story. But it is one of the central jokes of the novel that he cannot explain anything simply, that he must make expla... - 8. Dangerous Liaison by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. Its prime movers, the Vicomte... - 9. Emma by Jane Austen Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like."[1] In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, ... - 10. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley At this challenge, Mary Shelley began work on the 'ghost story' that was to evolve into the most celebrated horror novel in literary history. Frankenstein was published the next year and become the... - 11. Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock Nightmare Abbey is a topical satire in which the author pokes light-hearted fun at the romantic movement in contemporary English literature, in particular its obsession with morbid subjects, misant... - 12. Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer The novel is set in Bath and centres around two main characters: Miss Abigail Wendover and Mr Miles Caverleigh. When attempting to enlist Miles' help in preventing a clandestine marriage between hi... - 13. The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal Balzac considered it the most important French novel of his time. André Gide later deemed it the greatest of all French novels, and Henry James judged it to be a masterpiece. Now, in a major litera... - 14. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Set against the tumultuous years of the post-Napoleonic era, The Count of Monet Cristo recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantes, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason. The... - 15. Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber Here is the unbelievable yet true story of Sybil Dorsett, a survivor of terrible childhood abuse who as an adult was a victim of sudden and mysterious blackouts. What happened during those blackout... - 16. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens The story of the abandoned waif who learns to survive through challenging encounters with distress and misfortune. - 17. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë The narrative is non-linear, involving several flashbacks, and two primary narrators: Mr. Lockwood and Ellen "Nelly" Dean. The novel opens in 1801, with Mr. Lockwood arriving at Thrushcross Grange,... - 18. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative of the title character, a small, plain-faced, intelligent and honest English orphan. The novel goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead... - 19. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her senti... - 20. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hester Prynne is a beautiful young woman. She is also an outcast. In the eyes of her neighbors she has committed an unforgivable sin. Everyone knows that her little daughter, Pearl, is the product ... - 21. Moby Dick by Herman Melville First published in 1851, Melville's masterpiece is, in Elizabeth Hardwick's words, "the greatest novel in American literature." The saga of Captain Ahab and his monomaniacal pursuit of the white wh... - 22. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert For daring to peer into the heart of an adulteress and enumerate its contents with profound dispassion, the author of Madame Bovary was tried for "offenses against morality and religion." What shoc... - 23. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins Thus young Walter Hartright first meets the mysterious woman in white in what soon became one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century. Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelation... - 24. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll In 1862 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a shy Oxford mathematician with a stammer, created a story about a little girl tumbling down a rabbit hole. Thus began the immortal adventures of Alice, perhaps th... - 25. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, it was published in two parts in 1868 and 1869. The novel follows the lives of four sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Am... - 26. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope Trollope did not write for posterity,' observed Henry James. 'He wrote for the day, the moment; but these are just the writers whom posterity is apt to put into its pocket.' Considered by contempo... - 27. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endu... - 28. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot Daniel Deronda opens with one of the most memorable encounters in fiction: Gwendolen Harleth, alluring yet unsettling, is poised at the roulette-table in Leubronn, observed by Daniel Deronda, a you... - 29. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Dostoevsky's last and greatest novel, The Karamazov Brothers, is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is mur... - 30. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James The story centres on Isabel Archer, an attractive American whom circumstances have brought to Europe. Isabel refuses the offer of marriage to an English peer and to a bulldog-like New Englander, to... - 31. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Revered by all of the town's children and dreaded by all of its mothers, Huckleberry Finn is indisputably the most appealing child-hero in American literature. Unlike the tall-tale, idyllic worl... - 32. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Spawned by a nightmare that Stevenson had, this classic tale of the dark, primordial night of the soul remains a masterpiece of the duality of good and evil within us all. - 33. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome Conceived as a fairly serious guide to amateur boating on the Thames in 1889, Jerome K. Jerome's best-known novel ended up as a hilarious account of the misadventures of three friends and a dog as ... - 34. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Celebrated novel traces the moral degeneration of a handsome young Londoner from an innocent fop into a cruel and reckless pursuer of pleasure and, ultimately, a murderer. As Dorian Gray sinks into... - 35. The Diary of a Nobody by George & Weedon Grossmith Weedon Grossmith's 1892 book presents the details of English suburban life through the anxious and accident-prone character of Charles Porter. Porter's diary chronicles his daily routine, which inc... - 36. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy In 1895 Hardy’s final novel, the great tale of Jude the Obscure, sent shock waves of indignation rolling across Victorian England. Hardy had dared to write frankly about sexuality and to indict the... - 37. Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers A simple invitation to join his friend Davies on a yachting expedition in the Baltic is the beginning of an extraordinary and dangerous adventure for the bored and worldly but clever Carruthers. As... - 38. The Call of the Wild by Jack London The plot concerns a previously domesticated and even somewhat pampered dog named Buck, whose primordial instincts return after a series of events finds him serving as a sled dog in the treacherous... - 39. Nostromo by Joseph Conrad Edited with an introduction and notes by Martin Seymour-Smith. In his evocation of the republic of Costaguana, set amid the exotic and grandiose scenery of South America, Conrad reveals not only th... - 40. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame A classic in children's literature The Wind in the Willow is alternately slow moving and fast paced. The book focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England. T... - 41. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust Swann's Way, the first part of A la recherche de temps perdu, Marcel Proust's seven-part cycle, was published in 1913. In it, Proust introduces the themes that run through the entire work. The narr... - 42. The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence Set in the rural midlands of England, The Rainbow revolves around three generations of the Brangwen family over a period of more than sixty years, setting them against the emergence of modern Engla... - 43. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford wrote The Good Soldier, the book on which his reputation most surely rests, in deliberate emulation of the nineteenth-century French novels he so admired. In this way he was able to... - 44. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan In The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), the best-known of his thrillers (made into a popular movie by Alfred Hitchcock), John Buchan introduces his most enduring hero, Richard Hannay, who, despite claimin... - 45. Ulysses by James Joyce Ulysses chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day, June 16, 1904. The title parallels and alludes to Odysseus (Latinised into Ulysses), the hero of Homer's Odyss... - 46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Created from two short stories, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The Prime Minister", the novel's story is of Clarissa's preparations for a party of which she is to be hostess. Wit... - 47. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster A Passage to India is set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. The story revolves around four characters: Dr. Aziz, his British friend Cyril Fi... - 48. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The novel chronicles an era that Fitzgerald himself dubbed the "Jazz Age". Following the shock and chaos of World War I, American society enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity during the "roar... - 49. The Trial by Franz Kafka Written in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and mu... - 50. Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway First published in 1927, Men Without Women represents some of Hemingway's most important and compelling early writing. In these fourteen stories, Hemingway begins to examine the themes that would o... - 51. Journey to the End of The Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline Journey to the End of Night is the first novel of Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work describes antihero Ferdinand Bardamu. His surname, Bardamu, is derived from the French word... - 52. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner The book is told in stream of consciousness writing style by 15 different narrators in 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her family's quest—noble or selfish—to honor he... - 53. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Set in the London of AD 2540 (632 A.F. in the book), the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embod... - 54. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh In Scoop, surreptitiously dubbed "a newspaper adventure," Waugh flays Fleet Street and the social pastimes of its war correspondants as he tells how William Boot became the star of British super-jo... - 55. U.S.A. Trilogy by John Dos Passos The U.S.A. Trilogy is the major work of American writer John Dos Passos, comprising the novels The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919, also known as Nineteen Nineteen (1932), and The Big Money (1936). The ... - 56. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler The Big Sleep (1939) is a crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first in his acclaimed series about hardboiled detective Philip Marlowe. The work has been adapted twice into film, once in 1946 and a... - 57. The Pursuit Of Love by Nancy Mitford ew aristocratic English families of the twentieth century enjoyed the glamorous notoriety of the infamous Mitford sisters. Nancy Mitford's most famous novels, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold... - 58. The Plague by Albert Camus A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic of twentieth-century liter... - 59. Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell The story follows the life of one seemingly insignificant man, Winston Smith, a civil servant assigned the task of perpetuating the regime's propaganda by falsifying records and political literatur... - 60. Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett Malone Dies is a novel by Samuel Beckett. It was first published in 1951, in French, as Malone Meurt, and later translated into English by the author. - 61. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye is a 1945 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, the novel has become a common part of high school and college curricula throughout the English-speaking wo... - 62. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor's astonishing and haunting first novel, is a classic of twentieth-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a twenty-two-year-old caught in an unending strug... - 63. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praisin... - 64. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by philologist and Oxford University professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children'... - 65. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis Set sometime around 1950, Lucky Jim follows the exploits of the eponymous James (Jim) Dixon, a reluctant Medieval history lecturer at an unnamed provincial English university. Having made a bad fir... - 66. Lord of the Flies by William Golding Lord of the Flies discusses how culture created by man fails, using as an example a group of British schoolboys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, but with disastrous results.... - 67. The Quiet American by Graham Greene As young Pyle's well-intentioned policies blunder into bloodshed, Fowler, a seasoned and cynical British reporter, finds it impossible to stand safely aside as an observer. But Fowler's motives for... - 68. On the Road by Jack Kerouac On the Road is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of the post... - 69. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov The book is internationally famous for its innovative style and infamous for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, middle aged Humbert Humbert, becomes obsessed and se... - 70. The Tin Drum by Günter Grass Acclaimed as the greatest German novel written since the end of World War II, The Tin Drum is the autobiography of thirty-year-old Oskar Matzerath, who has lived through the long Nazi nightmare and... - 71. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe A novel of great power that turns the world upside down. The Nigerian novelist Achebe reached back to the early days of his people's encounter with colonialism, the 1890's, though the white man and... - 72. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark A slender novel but far from flimsy, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie enrolls the reader at Edinburgh's fictional Marcia Blaine School for Girls under the tutelage of one Jean Brodie, a magnetic, unco... - 73. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee As a Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses is... - 74. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Catch-22 is a satirical, historical novel by the American author Joseph Heller, first published in 1961. The novel, set during the later stages of World War II from 1943 onwards, is frequently cite... - 75. Herzog by Saul Bellow Herzog is a novel set in 1964, in the United States, and is about the midlife crisis of a Jewish man named Moses E. Herzog. He is just emerging from his second divorce, this one particularly acrimo... - 76. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world, and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning car... - 77. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor All but abandoned by her family in a London retirement hotel, Mrs. Palfrey strikes up a curious friendship with a young writer, Ludovic Meyer. Fate brings them together after she has an accident ou... - 78. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a spy novel by John le Carré, first published in 1974. It is the first volume of a three-book series informally known as The Karla Trilogy, followed by The Honourabl... - 79. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison It follows the life of Macon "Milkman" Dead III, an African-American male living in Michigan, from birth to adulthood. The main theme in the novel is Milkman's quest for identity as a black man in ... - 80. The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge The Bottle Factory Outing is a 1974 novel written by Beryl Bainbridge, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year and won the Guardian Fiction Prize. It is also listed as one of the 100 grea... - 81. The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer The Executioner's Song is a 1980 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Norman Mailer that depicts the events surrounding the execution of Gary Gilmore by the state of Utah for murder. The title of the bo... - 82. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino Calvino's anti-novel is about the efforts of his two characters — a man called only The Reader, and the Other Reader, a woman named Ludmilla — to read ten very different novels. They are never able... - 83. A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul In the "brilliant novel" ("The New York Times) V.S. Naipaul takes us deeply into the life of one man--an Indian who, uprooted by the bloody tides of Third World history, has come to live in an isol... - 84. Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee For decades the Magistrate has been a loyal servant of the Empire, running the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement and ignoring the impending war with the barbarians. When interrogation experts a... - 85. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson Ruth narrates the story of how she and her younger sister Lucille are raised by a succession of relatives in the fictional town of Fingerbone, Idaho (some details are similar to Robinson's hometown... - 86. Lanark by Alasdair Gray Lanark, subtitled A Life in Four Books, was the first novel of Scottish writer Alasdair Gray, and is still his best known. Written over a period of almost thirty years, it combines realist and dyst... - 87. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster The New York Trilogy is a series of novels by Paul Auster. Originally published sequentially as City of Glass (1985), Ghosts (1986) and The Locked Room (1986), it has since been collected into a si... - 88. The BFG by Roald Dahl When Sophie is snatched from her orphanage bed by the BFG (Big Friendly Giant), she fears she will be eaten. But the two join forces to vanquish the nine other far less gentle giants who threaten t... - 89. The Periodic Table by Primo Levi The stories have various themes: the experiences of life in Nazi concentration camps, legacies from the profession of chemistry, tales both true and with his own fantasy, creating a vision of the s... - 90. Money by Martin Amis Money tells the story of, and is narrated by, John Self, a successful director of commercials who is invited to New York by Fielding Goodney, a film producer, in order to shoot his first film. Self... - 91. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro It is set in post-World War II Japan and is narrated by Masuji Ono, an aging painter, who looks back on his life and how he has lived it. He notices how his once great reputation has faltered since... - 92. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey It tells the story of Oscar Hopkins, the Cornish son of a Plymouth Brethren minister who becomes an Anglican priest, and Lucinda Leplastrier, a young Australian heiress who buys a glass factory. Th... - 93. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera With its seven interrelated parts--rich in story, character, and imaginative range--"The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1978) is the novel that brought Czech-born Milan Kundera his first big inte... - 94. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a 1990 children's book by Salman Rushdie. It was Rushdie's first novel after The Satanic Verses. It is a phantasmagorical story set in a city so old and ruinous tha... - 95. L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy Los Angeles in the 1950s: from its fabulous mansions to its sizzling nightclubs, it is a sprawling center of corruption and dangerous passions. Now a horrific mass murder invades the bleak cityscap... - 96. Wise Children by Angela Carter Wise Children follows the fortunes of the Chance twins, Dora and Nora, taking in the story of their show business family — the Hazards — over the past century. Born illegitimately, spurned by their... - 97. Atonement by Ian McEwan Atonement is a 2001 novel by British author Ian McEwan. It tells the story of protagonist Briony Tallis's crime and how it changes her life, as well as those of her sister Cecilia and her lover Rob... - 98. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman Mattie Gokey has a word for everything. She collects words, stores them up as a way of fending off the hard truths of her life, the truths that she can't write down in stories. The fresh pain of he... - 99. American Pastoral by Philip Roth American Pastoral is a Philip Roth novel concerning Seymour "Swede" Levov, a Jewish-American businessman and former high school athlete from Newark, New Jersey. Levov's happy and conventional upper... - 100. Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald Austerlitz, the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by "one of the most gripping writers imaginable" (The New York Review of Books), is the story of a man?s search for the answer to his life?s ce... -

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