NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #23 of #GMGreads. Every night through this weird 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....
I've been thinking a lot recently about how leaders shape history—positively and negatively—and so tonight thought I'd share five great books on history-shaping national figures. Tonight's indie is right down the road from me in Shelburne, VT, the whimsical @FlyingPigBooks:
1) Anna Fifield's (@annafifield) impeccably researched GREAT SUCCESSOR will convince you that North Korea's Kim Jong Un is actually much savvier than he's often perceived (and leave you wondering how she researched it so well!): bookshop.org/books/the-grea…
2) Adam Hochschild's KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST, about Belgium's conquest of Africa, will horrify you—both in terms of its brutality and in terms of how much you realize you don't know about African history: bookshop.org/books/king-leo…
3) Maria Arana's (@aranama) BOLIVAR, an epic about the South American general and liberator, will also remind you how little you know about that continent's history and how Simon Bolivar freed six countries from Spanish rule: bookshop.org/books/bolivar-…
4) @Susan_Hennessey and @benjaminwittes wrote a really important book this winter, UNMAKING OF THE PRESIDENCY, arguing that Donald Trump's imprint will reshape the presidency for a long time to come: bookshop.org/books/unmaking…
5) William Taubman wrote two easy-to-access biographies of two key Soviet leaders, GORBACHEV: bookshop.org/books/gorbache… and KHRUSCHEV, both of which are critical to understanding the world in which we live today: bookshop.org/books/khrushch…
Those are tonight's #GMGreads. What biographies of historic national figures have you loved? What history has blown your mind that you didn't know? Your favorite indies? Share! #avidreadersunite
