A mysterious young Chechen convict in Germany and his relationships with social services, intelligence services, and the overlap between Europe's Cold War past and uncomfortable present. A well-spun yarn that leaves you feeling betrayed because it would be a better movie than book.
A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards by George MarsdenMarsden comes from Notre Dame, a hotbed of extraordinary American religious scholarship. Succeeds in showing through history what Jonathan Edwards so firmly believed and carefully taught: God is faithful, and our work on earth is always provisional. Also, America was way different in 1740 than in 2011, but you can see where we come from.
Flyboys by James Bradley
War is hell. It was hell for many long years before fighting began in the Pacific Theatre in WWII and was still hell while it was going on. It is so bad that the details that make up the bulk of this book were not released for decades.
Berlinksi is an American writer who knows his limits--he can evoke Thai food and weather with ease but only tries to get into the heads of Americans. The Americans inside whose heads he very sympathetically gets are an anthropologist and missionary family with overlapping lives and fundamentally different worldviews. One of the best novels I've ever read.
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
A true story following Abdulraham Zeitoun, a New Orleans immigrant small business owner's life in New Orleans. Takes a turn for the surreal, then the insane as he stays behind during Katrina to manage property and help neighbors, but is arrested by Homeland Security.
- John
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