My wife and I have a subscription to the magazine “The Week”. It is a great read for keeping up with the US and International News. I love that it brings together a variety of media views to cover the news of the week. For example, this weeks coverage of the State of the Union address included writings from the National Review Online, the New York Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New Republic, The Washington Post Online, and the New York Times.
One weekly article I particularly enjoy is Best Books. Someone famous picks the six best books they have ever read, and explain why they chose them.
So here are my six favorite books, and why I choose them:
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. The novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, this book, published in 1974, sank the Civil War hook into me. It later became the basis for the movie ‘Gettysburg”. It helped me to understand not just the decision that occurred with the battle, but why the soldiers for the North and South fought. I just read it again, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. A beautifully written book.
Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner. The single volume on Washington, which distills Flexners 4 volume series on Washington. I believe that Washington was the most important man in American history. Flexner brings Washington to life, with this balanced and fair biography.
The Children by David Halberstam. A great read on the Civil Rights movement, the Children takes you back to the roots of the movement with college students in Nashville Tennessee. Halberstam was a young reporter with the Tennessean Newspaper in Nashville, and his knowledge of the times shines though. It covers the roots of the non-violent moment, which grew to change our country. He doesn’t gloss over the frustrations felt by the young students who saw control of the movement taken over by older leaders, who ignored them at times. He also helps you to understand the fear and joys they experienced as the movement grew. I also recommend Walking With the Wind, Congressmen John Lewis’s autobiography (Lewis is a key character in The Children) and Diane McWhorter’s Carry Me Home, which shows the view form the other side of the Civil Rights Movement.
The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong. The first book to pull back the curtain on the US Supreme Court. It showed how the Justices decided cases, the inner workings of the process, and the evolutions of the arguments. Two others that I enjoyed were Closed Chambers by Edward Lazarus and The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin.
Singing Cowboys and All That Jazz: A Short History of Popular Music in Oklahoma by William Savage. I am an Okie born and breed, (ergo, AssociationOkie), and this book traces the roots of some of the most famous musicians of all times back to their start in Oklahoma. Whether it be Woody Guthrie, Jimmy Rushing, Charlie Christian, Barney Kessel, Patti Page, Wanda Jackson, Reba McEntire, Chet Baker, Leon Russell, David Gates, JJ Cale, Elvin Bishop, Dwight Twilley, The GAP Band, Roger Miller, Hoyt Axton, Mae Boren Axton, Jimmy Webb, Garth Brooks, and Vince Gill, they are Okies too. Savage helped me to understand just how deep and wide the musical roots are in my home state. Most people, including Oklahomans, think country and western music when they think Oklahoma music, but there are deep roots in the Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Pop and Rock here as well, and Savage broadened my knowledge.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I suspect a lot of association staff see Aticus Finch as a role model. I know I do. Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning story of Scout and Jem Finch centers around their Fathers defense of a black man accused of raping a white girl in a small town of the South of the 1930’s. The line, “Stand up, your Daddy’s passin”, still gets me. One of the few books I can think of that made a great movie, it is a timeless view of prejudice and hypocrisy. I find myself rereading it almost annually.
So tell me what books have impacted your life, which six would you chose?
AssociationOkie 
Leave a comment