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SHORT THREAD: I've had a couple people for my #GMGReads recommendations on Putin, Russia, and the current geopolitics of eastern Europe. Here are the best relevant books I've ever come across:
1) IRON CURTAIN bookshop.org/books/iron-cur… and RED FAMINE, both by @anneapplebaum, are probably the two definitive works on the important-to-understand historic evils of the Soviet Union in Ukraine and Eastern Europe more broadly:
bookshop.org/books/red-fami…
bookshop.org/books/red-fami…
2) PUTIN'S PEOPLE, by @CatherineBelton, is a relatively new (and groundbreaking) look at how Putin and his network have consolidated power and spread their unique poison through the west. The oligarch names-she-named hated it so much they sued her: bookshop.org/books/putin-s-…
2021 READING THREAD: Before this holiday weekend ends, here's my list of my favorite #GMGReads from the past year. This was one of the worst years of reading, with most of my reading time going to "work" books & research, but I managed to squeeze at least 12 excellent books.... 
I read almost no fiction this year, beyond a few Gerald Seymour thrillers and Rex Stout mysteries, and so my list is all nonfiction—the common theme ends up being history and reportage that surprised and impressed me. In no particular order, here they are:
1) THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED, by Philip Zelikow — this story of trying to make peace in World War I was just the best kind of history, something that felt totally fresh and interesting and where I kept turning the pages not knowing the twists and turns ahead.
LAST NIGHTLY READING THREAD OF 2020: As a final #GMGReads for this generally awful year, here's the pile of books of I've gathered this fall that I'm excited to read in 2021... :
2) IF THEN by Jill Lepore: bookshop.org/books/if-then-…
THREAD: As 2020 winds down, I wanted to share a #GMGReads list of my favorite books I read this year; it's an odd list, as I've read almost nothing for pleasure since June—I've been consumed my own book research—and I've struggled to read fiction concentration-wise this year...
This year's list is oddly filled by books about science and the history of science—paleontology, ichthyology, epidemiology, and more—but I guess it's a good year to be interested in (and trust!) science. So here's my (unordered) list of the top books I read this year:
1) George Packer's rakish biography of Richard Holbrooke OUR MAN is hands-down one of the best biographies I've ever read: bookshop.org/books/our-man-…
If you're looking for some book ideas for your local indie today on Small Business Saturday, here are five of my favorite #GMGReads lists from earlier this year:
1) "biographies about people you'll wish you knew" :
2) "short novels":
POP-UP READING THREAD: When I stopped nightly #GMGReads last month, I said I'd continue from time-to-time, so here's Edition #102! Through this weird time, I've been tweeting my five favorite books on a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them.…
Today, July 7th, is the pub date I'm most excited for this summer, not least because it's pub day for @TanaWojczuk's LADY ROMEO, the incredible story from @AvidReaderPress of 19th Century queer actress Catherine Cushman, America's first celebrity: bookshop.org/books/lady-rom…
Here are the five other books publishing today I'm excited to read. Remember, if you were hot to trot to buy anti-racist books a couple weeks ago, you can support Black bookstores by ordering other books too! Pick up the following from @SemicolonChi here: semicolonchi.com/shop
FINAL NIGHTLY READING THREAD: And so we come to the end. Edition #101 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online.
Tonight we wrap it up (for now). I want to thank everyone who has helped make this project fun; I never expected to write some 20,000 words of book recommendations when this started, stretching across more than 600 books....
But beyond sharing what I've already read, it's opened my eyes to just how much *more* there is to read in the world, both authors and topics! Knowledge is that rare quest where the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know....
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: And so we come to Edition #100 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Well, we've done it. We're 100 days into this weird, strange, sad spring—or, as of Saturday, actually summer. I had no idea this list would go this long and, appearances to the contrary, don't have an endless supply of book recommendations, so tonight's the penultimate #GMGReads.
It's Tuesday, the day I've been traditionally featuring new books, and today especially is exciting for me as the US pub date for Catherine Belton's (@CatherineBelton) PUTIN'S PEOPLE about how Putin and the KGB recaptured Russia: bookshop.org/books/putin-s-…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: And so we come to Edition #99 of #GMGReads—the 15th week begins! Every night through this weird time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Tonight, I want to feature histories about leadership and how the toughest decisions in geopolitics get made—why they go well and why they go poorly:
1) Barbara Tuchman's study of the geopolitical inertia that led Europe to stumble into World War I, GUNS OF AUGUST, is surely one of the most majestic (and cautionary) books on leadership ever written: bookshop.org/books/the-guns…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #98 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird (and sad) time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
I've done a whole bunch of lists touching on various aspects of Russian and Soviet history, fiction, and so forth, but tonight wanted to mention some favorites about understanding modern Russia and Vladimir Putin, all available tonight from @PoliticsProse:
(Note: It's worth noting how dangerous writing about modern Russia can be, which is why we should honor those who do it so well. Two of these authors, Anna Politkovskaya and Paul Klebnikov, were murdered for their reporting.)
4) Fred Kaplan's (@fmkaplan) WIZARDS OF ARMAGEDDON is the classic look at the architects of the nuclear age and their crazy logic: powells.com/book/wizards-o…
5) Stephen Kotkin's ARMAGEDDON AVERTED is a thoughtful, compact study of the surprisingly meek collapse of the Soviet Union: powells.com/book/armageddo…
Those are tonight's #GMGReads. Just four more to go before the final night, #101. What are you reading this weekend? Share! #avidreadersunite
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #97 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird (and sad) time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Tonight, wrapping up a week of Cold War-themed titles, books about every stage of the Cold War, from start to finish, with "Armageddon" in their title:
1) Max Hastings's ARMAGEDDON tells the story of the fall of the Third Reich: strandbooks.com/product/978037…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #96 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird (and sad) time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Tonight, continuing my series of books on the Cold War and the atomic age, here are some favorite books on pivotal figures of the nuclear age:
1) David McCullough's TRUMAN is a delight of a book, the first biography to argue the fundamental greatness of America's accidental post-war president: strandbooks.com/product/978067…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #95 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird (and sad) time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Continuing on with the Cold War theme for this week, I want to feature today my favorite books to understand nuclear history and nuclear weapons:
Before the official list, a quick plug for my publisher @AvidReaderPress's new book, by Chris Wallace, COUNTDOWN 1945, which I'm excited to read and examines the first days of the atomic bomb: bookshop.org/books/countdow…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #94 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird (and sad) time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
I'm going to spend the rest of this week on recommendations around the Cold War and the nuclear age, where for obvious reasons, I have a lot of thoughts. First up, tonight, first-hand portraits and windows into the peak of American power:
1) David Lilienthal was the first head of the Atomic Energy Commission and the second volume of his journals, THE ATOMIC ENERGY YEARS, is a surprising delight, a window in the earliest post-war years and the conundrums of the nuclear age: betterworldbooks.com/product/detail…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #93 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird (and sad) time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Tonight, I want to feature good books on the modern geopolitics of the Middle East, all available through DC's unparalleled @PoliticsProse:
1) The NYT's Beirut bureau chief Ben Hubbard (@NYTBen) has a terrifying and illuminating biography out, "MBS," about Saudi Arabia's new leader and his hunger for unchecked power: politics-prose.com/book/978198482…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #92 and week #14 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird (and sad) time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
I mentioned last week that I'm going to be stopping #GMGReads at #101, which means we're down to the final ten, and so I'm going to end up hopping around a bit over the next few days. Tonight: Favorite science and nature books.
1) Sam Kean's (@sam_kean) VIOLINIST'S THUMB is a fascinating exploration of genetics: bookshop.org/books/the-viol…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #91 of #GMGReads, the end of our 13th week. Every night through this weird (and sad) time, I'm tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Tonight, after featuring a number of different presidential bios and histories, I wanted to feature the best books on Barack Obama and his presidency I've come across so far:
1) CONFRONT AND CONCEAL, by David Sanger (@SangerNYT) is a great portrait of the complexity of the Obama administration's foreign policy, from Iran to North Korea to cyber: bookshop.org/books/confront…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #90 (!) of #GMGReads. Every night through this (increasingly) weird (and sad) time, I'm tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Tonight I wanted to feature some favorites about the Caribbean, both fiction and nonfiction, all available at @magersandquinn in Minneapolis:
1) Jonathan Katz's (@katzonearth) deeply-reported and first-person experience in THAT BIG TRUCK THAT WENT BY chronicles the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the flood of foreign intervention that didn't do a lot of good: magersandquinn.com/product_info?p…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #89 of #GMGReads. Every night through this (increasingly) weird (and sad) time, I'm tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
As we close out two momentous weeks of change and unrest in the US, I thought I'd offer some favorite books on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, from @magersandquinn in Minneapolis and @MahoganyBooks in DC:
1) Paul Hendrickson's SONS OF MISSISSIPPI is a fascinating, literary portrait of what racism and segregationists looked like up close: magersandquinn.com/product_info?p…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #88 of #GMGReads. Every night through this (increasingly) weird (and sad) time, I'm tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Following up last night's journalism histories, I wanted to share some books tonight on newspaper dynasties and the powerful publishers of the 20th Century:
1) Alex S. Jones and his wife Susan Tifft wrote an amazing family history of the Kentucky media moguls, the Binghams, and their family bickering that led to the sale of their empire, THE PATRIARCH: powells.com/book/the-patri…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #87 of #GMGReads. Every night through this (increasingly) weird (and sad) time, I'm tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
We've seen a lot over the last two weeks how journalists end up witnessing and recording history as it unfolds, so tonight I want to feature five great histories of journalists making and witnessing history:
1) Nan Robertson's GIRLS IN THE BALCONY is the story of the fight by the women of the New York Times for equal rights and treatment within the paper: powells.com/book/the-girls…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #86 of #GMGReads. Every night through this (increasingly) weird (and sad) time, I'm tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Inequality and systemic injustices has been a key part of the protests of recent weeks, and while I'm not going to pretend that I've read Thomas Piketty's book (my wager is most people who bought it never did!) here are other good reads on inequality:
1) Robert Putnam's best known for his BOWLING ALONE, but his tour of how we've left a generation of children adrift, OUR KIDS, is a bracing tale of lost potential: bookshop.org/books/our-kids…
NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #85 of #GMGReads. Every night through this (increasingly) weird (and sad) time, I'm tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
First: Wow, we've made it to the 13th week. It's clear this weird time isn't ending anytime soon—and may only get weirder and more sad. I don't have an endless number of book picks, so I'm planning to wind up #GMGReads in 2 weeks and 2 days, with #101. So let the countdown begin!
Tonight, as much as the national debate in recent weeks has been over policing reform, cops are only a slice of a very broken criminal justice system, so I wanted to offer some of the most powerful and educational books I've read about the horrors that are our prisons:
