This past week I finished both of the non-fiction books I’d been reading, Evil Geniuses and In the Garden of Beasts. I like to have more than one book going at a time so I’ve picked two more to start reading this week. One is Barack Obama’s new memoir, A Promised Land, which comes out today. (I pre-ordered it, and a notice I received yesterday from Amazon said it might arrive as late as 11:00pm tonight, but it was delivered as I was writing this post.)
The book traces Obama’s journey from the earliest days of his political aspirations through the killing of Osama Bin Laden in 2011, so presumably there will be a sequel. The NY Times says it’s “shaping up to be one of the top-selling political memoirs of all time, and” with its $45 cover price “a potential lifeline for booksellers whose sales have plummeted during the pandemic.” Happy to do my part, though I’m afraid Amazon is not one of the “struggling booksellers” they were referring to.
The other book I’ll start reading this week is Year Zero: A History of 1945, by Ian Buruma, which is due to arrive the day after tomorrow. It describes the massive efforts that began in 1945 to transform Europe and the Asian Pacific — socially, culturally, and politically — following the devastation of WW II. My friend Doug recommended it as a book we could read concurrently and then talk about when we’re finished.
For better or worse, you’ll hear more from me about both books when I finish reading them sometime next month.