2017 Reading Resolutions to Broaden the Mind

It's time to make resolutions for 2017 and for me that includes reading that might help me think more clearly about some of the contentious issues of 2016's bitter presidential campaign. I'll start with the touchy subject of race. If you haven't read Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me — a best seller, National Book Award winner, and Pulitzer finalist — put it on your list. In a personal and literary exploration of America's racial history, written in the form of a letter to his adolescent son, Coates shares what it means to be black in America, from the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through revelations from Howard University, Civil War battlefields, Chicago's South Side and even Paris. If you prefer fiction, a 2016 National Book Award winner, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, also has something new to say about America's racial sins via an imaginary tale of slaves fleeing north on a literal underground railroad — complete with locomotives, boxcars and conductors. Another book of cultural revelation is Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, a Yale Law School graduate who grew up in a poor Rust Belt town. Vance offers a personal analysis of white working-class America in crisis through his family's story and his own experience of growing up amid social, regional and class decline. This book may help the baffled to understand the appeal of Donald Trump's presidential campaign to these "forgotten" men and women. What about terrorism? Put Karan Mahajan's The Association of Small Bombs, also a finalist for the National Book Award, on your reading resolution list. The 2016 novel opens with a Kashmiri terrorist attack in a Delhi market and follows the lives of those affected, including Deepa and Vikas Khurana, whose young sons are killed, and the boys’ injured Muslim friend Mansoor, who grows up to flirt with political radicalism. It's a book ­that forces American readers to care about the toll of terror even when it comes to a place they may see as alien and violent, to understand, and even like, people for whom terrorism exerts an appeal, and to realize the complexity of Muslim politics and grievances beyond "radical Islam" bashing. In the end, Mahajan reveals the terrible truth that, to quote The New York Times review, "nothing recovers from a bomb — not our humanity, our politics or even our faith." For ideas from The New York Times' 10 best books of 2016, see http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/books/review/best-books.html

Some Ideas for Those 2016 Reading Resolutions

New Year's Eve is around the corner, so I'm coming up with reading resolutions for 2016. My list of want-to-read books is based on reviews, past experience with an author, or just personal interest. For nonfiction, I'm looking back to some great 2015 books that I meant to read but somehow missed. Leading the list is the award-winning Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, an intelligent autobiographical and historical meditation, as told to his son, about racism in America. And from New York Times book critic Janet Maslin's 2015 recommendations, I'm picking up two more biographical histories: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough (on my book club's reading list, too) and The Ingenious Mr. Pyke: Inventor, Fugitive, Spy by Henry Hemmings about a British "mad scientist" working on World War II covert strategy, which has the unbeatable teaser: "Only now, following the release of previously classified documents by MI5, can this man's extraordinary story be told in full." When it comes to fiction, I'm looking forward, however, and my thanks to The Washington Post for recommending a bevy of new novels releasing in 2016. From a long list, I'm cherry-picking The Man Without a Shadow by best-selling Joyce Carol Oates, about a neuroscientist who falls in love with the famous amnesiac subject of her research, coming out in January. Because I loved Yann Martel's The Life of Pi, I'm looking forward to the February release of The High Mountains of Portugal, in which Martel weaves together three tales that are part quest, ghost story and contemporary fable of love and loss. I'm also a Jane Austen fan, so I'm curious to read Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld, a playful modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, when it comes out in April. You can't beat Stephen King for popular thriller fare, so if you've followed the saga of retired police detective Bill Hodges and his unlikely sleuthing allies through Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, you'll want to snap up King's End of Watch, the "spectacular finale" of the trilogy in June. For advice on making reading resolutions that you can actually accomplish, I'll pass along tips from the Huffington Post article "How to Make Non-Intimidating Reading Resolutions for 2016" at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/non-intimidating-reading-resolutions_5682e8abe4b0b958f65a9b9c

Last Chance for Your Summer Reading List

For me, the summer vacation season officially ends with Labor Day, which is September 7 this year. From then on, there is no denying the back-to-work and back-to-school grind. But I believe we all still have a little time, or can make a little time, for one last relaxed summer read. If you're looking for suggestions from the top, you could start with President Obama's summer vacation reading list, courtesy of an August report in The Washington Post: All That Is by James Salter, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow. If you want a book to inspire you to dive back into your work routine with renewed energy, check out the reading list from Business.com. Recommendations range from The Martian by Andy Weir, fiction about a NASA astronaut stranded on Mars, to the latest motivational boost from Tom Peters in The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence. For more reading options, go to http://www.business.com/books-and-publications/summer-reading-list-beach-reads-to-inspire/. But if you want to dodge any thought of work stress for a few days more, check out vacation-savvy publisher Fodors' suggestions, eclectic reads that run from Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal, a foodie romp with each chapter focused on a single dish and character, to Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, the controversial surprise sequel to the beloved To Kill a Mockingbird. For Fodors' list, see http://www.fodors.com/news/12-books-to-read-on-your-summer-vacation-11421.html.