The Spectator summer reading list
Peter Hoskin 5:48pm
You may have seen the summer reading list that Tory MPs have been issued with. But here’s an alternative set of book recommendations for you, this time from Spectator staff. Not all the books will be newly-published. But they’re generally books that we’ve read – and enjoyed – recently. Hopefully, we’ll unearth a few gems for you. If so, please do return the favour by making your own recommendations in the comments section.
Right, I’ll get the ball rolling with my suggestions…
Tim O’Brien’s If I Die in a Combat Zone is up there with Michael Herr’s Dispatches as the best piece of reportage to come out of the Vietnam War. O’Brien – who took part in the conflict as an infantry man – is keenly introspective, and writes openly about toll waged on his psyche by every firefight, every landmine, and every death of a friend. The end result is as lyrical as it is horrifying.
First published in 1935, BUtterfield 8, by John O’Hara, is a sordid tale of Depression-era New York. A girl ends up dead, but why? For O’Hara, a master of social observation, the devil is in the details. Everything – from the way the characters prepare their cocktails, to the clothes they wear – drives the narrative to its ambiguous conclusion.
And, yes, that book on nudging’s worth reading too…
Mark Amory
Charmingly naïve readers sometimes think that the literary editor (me) has read all the books that have been reviewed, not to mention the ones that are coming soon. This is not so. There is one, however, that I read the whole of because it was so beguiling: Bits of Me are Falling Apart by William Leith. Only just a novel, in that it really has only one character and scarcely any plot, it concerns the hell of being 47 and in not very good shape. The Spare Room by Helen Garner, just out, is grimmer yet, another novel that feels close to autobiography. This time there are effectively two characters, one nursing the other through cancer - subtle, profound and I am still not sure whose side I was on. Neither book is depressing.
Matthew d’Ancona
Books on happiness, general well-being and nudging are fine, but books about getting out of an almighty financial mess will be more topical for this generation of Tories. Nigel Lawson’s The View from Number Eleven is still the key text, but Geoffrey Howe’s Conflict of Loyalty is under-rated and full of laconic wisdom. Most Tories still don’t have a clue about wider culture and society, so I would recommend our own Alex James’s Bit of a Blur, now in paperback, a beautifully-written primer on everything that they have missed out on. Fiction: Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier, which is as close to the perfect novel as I can imagine.
Liz Anderson
Ferdinand Mount’s Cold Cream. A delightful memoir, chronicling Mount’s childhood in Wiltshire, his travels around Europe with his mother, his time at school, Oxford and Downing Street, surrounded by his charmingly eccentric ‘Hobohemian’ family and friends. Altogether a wonderfully witty and elegant recalling of his ‘early life and other mistakes’.
Tom Rob Smith’s first novel Child 44, a thriller set in the Soviet Union in the 1950s, when Stalin’s powerful grip terrorised the nation. Long-listed for the Booker, it’s a real page-turner.
And for a lighter (in lbs) read, try Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones, set on an isolated island in the Pacific. A beautifully crafted novel.
Henrietta Bredin
Little Dorrit. Read it before it arrives on our screens in the BBC autumn drama schedule, when I'm sure it will be gripping stuff as scripted by Andrew Davies, although it would be terrific if another writer could get a chance at adapting these big chunky Dickens novels once in a while. It's as stuffed with juicy characters as currants in a mincepie - Little Dorrit, born in the Marshalsea Prison, where the debtors and credit crunch victims of the day, including Dickens' own father, were banged up; Arthur Clennam, returned from years in China to a London both drearily familiar and alarmingly strange; Mrs Merdle glittering complacently at the top of the social tree with her parrot 'watching her with his head on one side, as if he took her for another splendid parrot of a larger species'. Glorious.
James Forsyth
Dead Certain by Robert Draper. This is the best biography of George W. Bush written to date. Reading it, one is left with a sense of how much Bush's strengths are his weaknesses, and vice-versa.
Cold War, Civil Rights: Race and the image of American democracy by Mary Dudziak. A brilliant book on an under-discussed element of the debate over civil rights. Particularly timely at the moment.
Fraser Nelson
Descent into Chaos – recently published, the only book you need read to understand the Afghanistan/Pakistan conflagration which may well provide our next war. One of the best books I’ve read in my life, from a genuine expert who knows the area and its main players. Reads like a thriller.
Greenspan’s Bubbles – how America rumbled Alan Greenspan and understood the bubble. A critique which applies with bells on to Gordon Brown. I’ve recommended it to every Tory likely to be doing battle with Brown or Darling. This short, punchy book contains all you need to understand the credit crunch.
Martin Vander Weyer
Typhoon by Charles Cumming – a gripping tale of spies and terrorists up to no good in China in the run-up to the Olympics.
Mary Wakefield
Moscow Circles is a sad, satirical, funny, fantastical, violent, political, vodka-sodden account of a train journey from Moscow to nearby Pietushki in the early 70s. The author, Benedict Erofeev, wrote it in a fortnight for a bet because he needed the cash for booze. Once you’ve read it, hunt down Pawel Pawlikowski’s heart-breaking documentary, Moscow — Pietushki, based on the book and made just before Erofeev’s inevitable, drink-induced death.
Brothers Karamazov. Ok, it’s a bit obvious, but re-read it! Why not? I did, earlier this week, and now I’m goofing around in a state of dumbstruck awe. Anyone who frets over Britain’s ‘broken society’ must first have an answer to Ivan K’s contention that in a Godless world, ‘everything is permitted’.
Previous
Comments
Nick
August 6th, 2008 7:15pmWhat struck me most about the Tory reading list was the complete absence of any books on China (or anywhere else east of Afghanistan) or any on financial, industrial or business matters. Alexandra Harney's "The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage", which was very favourably reviewed in The Spectator recently, should cover these glaring ommissions.
Verity
August 6th, 2008 7:39pm"From Third World to First World" by Lee Kuan Yew. It's the story of how Singapore was created and the men who created it. It is absolutely rivetting.
Tanuki
August 6th, 2008 8:34pmI'd include H Beam Piper's "A Planet for Texans" - 1950s space-opera par excellence, and containing a few not-so-subtle hints on the way the people should treat their supposed political masters.
Trumpeter Lanfried
August 6th, 2008 9:46pmThe Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith ... Clear, analytical thinking: a breath of fresh air as relevant today as when it was first written.
And Alan Clarke's diaries; still fresh, still devastating.
THX1138
August 6th, 2008 11:12pmOn The Origin of the Species By Charles Darwin to remind us where we come from & that rational scientific thought trumps irrational religious superstition.
The most important idea to be conceived by a man & yet many even on this blog, contributors & commenter's alike doubt it's truth.
Also it's beautifully written.
john problem
August 7th, 2008 8:14amThese guys need a break - Dandy and Beano would be about right. And, having relaxed, perhaps then they might move on to Paradise Regained, followed by Georgette Heyer. Georgette Heyer? Yes, this way they will learn how to treat a lady - because Brown's replacement is going to be one of the three ladies in the Cabinet. Meanwhile, in the Cabinet, the required reading for all is Machiavelli and that riveting coffe table book - Kitchen Makeovers and the Potted Plant.
GS London
August 7th, 2008 8:36amAlthough not recently Published, I would recommend Philip K Dick's VALIS for a decent read - it's gripping and really made me thing about the world as an entity.
Ted Tedford
August 7th, 2008 9:09amAlso not a recent book, but I would recommend The leopard. The old ruling class accommodates itself with arrivistes, thinking its traditions and principles can survive exposure to the new order.
Fergus Pickering
August 7th, 2008 9:45amWendy Cope's Selected Poems. I'd say Wendy Cope's Collected Poems but there isn't one.
bill
August 7th, 2008 10:46amLions, Donkeys and Dinosaurs by Lewis Page.
NJ
August 7th, 2008 11:05amWhat's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza. It blows all those liberal atheist rants out the water.
THX1138
August 7th, 2008 11:34amNJ- Does it explain why no one ever grew a new arm at Lourdes?
I think you will find most of the ranting coming from your side of the argument.
NJ
August 7th, 2008 12:03pmTHX1138 - D'Souza's book certainly isn't a 'rant' unlike Dawkins, Hitchens etc. I'm a great admirer of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, but their books on religion were truly awful. And Sam Harris effort was even worse. D'Souza's excellent book has already been praised by atheists (like Michael Shermer, Dan Barker and Hitchens himself) and is an excellent contribution to the debate. But I guess you wouldn't know that because you haven't read it, and prefer to make juvenile comments instead.
THX1138
August 7th, 2008 12:43pmNJ -Actually I think my statement "Does it explain why no one ever grew a new arm at Lourdes?" Gets to the heart of the argument.. Why does god choose not to do something really miraculous like re grow an arm for an amputee pilgrim. It's a always a cure for something vague, nebulous & un-provable. Surely if god can create the world in six days & ha can re growing an arm should be doddle! I'll tell you why because there is no god, that's why.
No I haven't read it & I'm not going to, I think man made religion is the biggest curse to have befallen mankind & the last thing I'm going to is read it's apologists.
I'm going to settle down to some escapist SF just got Cities in Flight by James Blish followed by some Dawkins The River out of Eden.
NJ
August 7th, 2008 1:17pmTHX1138 - Thanks. I didn't think you had read it. At least you are honest.
Mark Mortius
August 7th, 2008 1:23pmTHX1138 - Not everyone who believes in God believes that God is a party magician. Just as not every atheist can make a considered argument on the question.
Corsair
August 7th, 2008 2:10pmGeorge Weigel’s ‘The Cube and the Cathedral’ is a good, short, read for these curious to know why Europe is heading to Hell in a hand-basket, as are Michael Burleigh’s ‘Earthly Powers’ and ‘Sacred Causes’, which examine the ghastly history of post Enlightenment millenarian ‘political religions’. I’m now waiting for a book on the JFK assassination, but that’s for entertainment: I love conspiracy theories!
THX1138
August 7th, 2008 2:30pmNJ - Getting good. Shall we call it a day or carry on? We have rather hijacked this thread.
THX1138
August 7th, 2008 2:33pmMark- " Not everyone who believes in God believes that God is a party magician". You're probably right but lots do hence the millions of catholic pilgrims to Lourdes every year looking for a cure. False hope is no hope at all.
NJ
August 7th, 2008 3:02pmTHX1138 - I think we'll call it a day...this is a thread about books after all. Corsair - I'd also add "Faith, Reason & The War Against Jihadism" by George Weigel to your fine recommendations. It's much better than most of the Islamist/terror books out there. He recently did a 3 hour C-Span phone-in show in the US, called Book TV - In Depth, in which he discussed his books at length.
John Lea
August 7th, 2008 3:59pm'Engleby' by Sebastian Faulks. I still can't believe the mixed reviews it received. In part it reads like an English version of 'The Catcher in the Rye', although more sinister and disturbing. There's also an excellent section in the book when the anti-hero, Mike Engleby, enters the world of journalism and interviews a series of high-profile politicians (Alan Clark, Jeffrey Archer, Ken Livingstone, Margaret Thatcher) which rings very true.
Dirk Blade
August 7th, 2008 4:56pmGreenmantle by John Buchan.
alice
August 7th, 2008 4:58pmfor some downtime reading: Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (brilliant thriller set in Soviet Russia) and The Spare Room by Helen Garner (the most elegant spare prose I've seen in a while)
mckenzie
August 9th, 2008 8:25pmBrothers Karamazov on order from Amazon. Thanks for that, it sounds amazing, can't wait.
mckenzie
August 9th, 2008 8:32pmBelieving in God will always be a tricky one, I do and I still get major pissed off with everything.
The Problem of Pain by C.S Lewis is a good argument for why arms are not grown at Lourdes though.