Here
they are -- our favorite books for 2014. As always, it's books we read
this year -- not necessarily books that were published this year. They
are listed below -- but not in any order of preference. Click the title
to read an excerpt:
Rebel Yell by S.C. Gwynne
A touching and unexpected portrait of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, one the most revered generals of the American Civil War. Prior to the war, he led a life that was without distinction but was nevertheless filled with tragedy and heartbreak. Plain, taciturn, and deeply religious, the war uncovered in Jackson a gift for leadership laced with unmatched fearlessness and daring.
Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson
Author: S. C. Gwynne
Publisher: Scribner
Young Josef Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviet Union seemed the epitome of somber dullness, but this book portrays the early life of Josef Stalin as filled with danger, deprivation, promiscuity and adventure, and helps the reader understand the extremes and hardships at the turn of the 20th century that led to the successful rise to communism.
Young Stalin
Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
Publisher: Vintage
Tune In: The Beatles All These Years by Mark Lewisohn
You think you know a little something about the Beatles? This book takes the story to an unprecedented level of detail, in a fascinating and captivating narrative.
Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years
Author: Mark Lewisohn
Publisher: Crown Archetype
The Bohemians by Ben Taroff
A
book about the early years of Mark Twain in San Francisco, where, along
with inventive colleagues, he founded a literary magazine and movement.
Twain's life was a constant adventure, and so is this book.
The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature
Author: Ben Tarnoff
Publisher" Penguin Press HC, The
Mary Poppins, She Wrote by Valerie Lawson
Disney has long
been a guilty pleasure. After I watched the pleasant but saccharine
"Saving Mr. Banks," a movie about how Walt Disney wooed P.L. Travers,
the author of Mary Poppins, into letting him make a film based on her
book, I had to learn how much truth it contained. This book was the
ticket, and Travers' life is a fascinating and tragic tale worth the
exploration. PS: The movie largely misleading.
Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers
Author: Valerie Lawson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History by Diane Coyle
A
well-written book on economics is a rarity. But this is a short,
absorbing, and fast-paced account of how the economic statistic Gross
Domestic Product (GDP, which is a measure of the size of an economy)
first came into being and how it has been used and abused since.
GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History
Author: Diane Coyle
Publisher: Princeton University Press
The American West by Anne M. Butler and Michael J. Lansing
The true stories
of the American West are buried under myth and thus rarely heard and
poorly understood. But these real stories are more compelling than the
myths, and the authors do them justice in this panoramic history.
The American West: A Concise History
Author: Anne M. Butler
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
In
the aftermath of World War II, a myth was carefully constructed of
Hirohito as a benign Japanese Emperor who not only did not bear much
responsibility for that war but instead was instrumental in wisely
steering his country to surrender. This carefully documented book
concludes the very opposite, and paints a vivid picture of the rapid
transformation of Japan in the early 20th century.
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
Author: Herbert P. Bix
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Red Fortress, by Catherine Merridale
From
Peter and Catherine to Napoleon, Nicholas and Stalin, few cities boast
the epic personalities and drama of Moscow. Merridale tells the tale
with an eye to the reality underneath the pomp.
Red Fortress: History and Illusion in the Kremlin
Author: Catherine Merridale
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Wilson by A. Scott Berg
Our
28th president, Woodrow Wilson was equal parts visionary and prig, a
combination that led him to achievements both dubious and exceptional.
His tenure as President, 1913 to 1921, was an extraordinary period,
witnessing events as epochal as the creation of the Federal Reserve and
the onset of World War I. This book is a masterful account of those
events.
Wilson
Author: A. Scott Berg
Publisher: Berkley Trade
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