1.
Reagan: His Life and Legend, by Max Boot
No one can say there have not been enough biographies of our 40th president, but what Max Boot provides is an unusually well-balanced and vividly written profile of a man almost as enigmatic as his contemporary the American sphinx Johnny Carson. Read Jonathan Darman’s review here.
2.
Christopher Isherwood Inside Out, by Katherine Bucknell
Is Christopher Isherwood more acclaimed for his work or for just being Christopher Isherwood, who knew everyone and slept with many of them? Katherine Bucknell does a masterful job putting his life into the context of his work, with plenty of fascinating detail about his world. Read Pico Iyer’s review here.
3.
Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich, by Richard J. Evans
It is hard to imagine that Richard Evans could match his trilogy on the Third Reich, but here he moves his lens to explain what it was about the people around Hitler who made the dictator possible in the first place. It is a revelatory look at a society infected with a deadly virus, and you learn more about what Evans set out to accomplish in his Eight Questions interview with Jim Kelly here.
4.
James, by Percival Everett
It takes courage to reimagine a Mark Twain classic, but Percival Everett pulls off the feat magnificently in his version of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, this time focused on Finn’s best friend, the escaped slave Jim. Read Everett’s Imperfect Ending feature here.
5.
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon, by Kevin Fedarko
I am not sure going hiking with Kevin Fedarko is such a hot idea, but reading about his trip with his friend and photographer Pete McBride is an excellent idea thanks to the author’s narrative powers and stylish writing. Read our recommendation here.
6.
Fi: A Memoir of My Son, by Alexandra Fuller
Alexandra Fuller is a wonderful memoirist, and in this latest volume about her life she beautifully explicates the grief she felt after her eldest son, aged 21, died in his sleep. This is as much a meditation on life as it is on death, and it is as powerful as any of her books, including the classic, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight. Read Celia McGee’s review here.
7.
When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s, by John Ganz
Miss the 1990s? Not after you read John Ganz’s brilliant examination of a decade that fostered an ugly kind of conservatism repped by white supremacists and full-blown fascists. To understand the present, one really does need to study the past. To read Tom Scocca’s review, view here.
8.
Paper of Wreckage: The Rogues, Renegades, Wiseguys, Wankers, and Relentless Reporters Who Redefined American Media, by Susan Mulcahy and Frank DiGiacomo
For sheer entertainment, no book this year matches this rollicking history of the New York Post in its heyday, when one of the country’s most liberal newspapers transformed itself into a tabloid with a capital and slightly bloody T. Read Tom Scocca’s review here.
9.
Didion & Babitz, by Lili Anolik
It is hard to think of an unlikelier friendship than the one between Eve Babitz and Joan Didion, but friends (of sorts) they became in 1960s California. But, frankly, with friends like these, who needs enemies? Read an excerpt here.
10.
The Friday Afternoon Club, by Griffin Dunne
Joan Didion also appears in this memoir by her nephew, but most of his book is about him and the actor’s family and the most horrific event imaginable: the murder of his sister. Raw and candid are overused words when describing memoirs, but here they are fully deserved. Read Dunne’s Eight Questions interview with Jim Kelly here.
