Nonfiction favorites of 2008
The Ayatollah Begs
to Differ
The Paradox of Modern Iran
By Hooman Majd
Doubleday
In the "best book yet written on the contradictions of contemporary Iran," according to our reviewer, Majd dissects a paradox of a country both ancient and modern, Persian and Islamic, morally lax in private and supremely puritanical in public.
The Bin Ladens
An Arabian Family
in the American Century
By Steve Coll
Penguin Press
While the name "Bin Laden" stirs up but one image in people's minds, Coll's stirring history centers on the wealth, prestige and power that Osama's family wields and its deep interaction and shared strict interpretation of Islam with Saudi Arabia's Al-Saud family.
The Bishop's
Daughter
A Memoir
By Honor Moore
W.W. Norton
Moore tries to reconcile the public image of her father, a devoted family man and once Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of New York, with her discovery that he led a secret existence as a gay man. In the end, she realized "that to me his living of his passion was heroic."
Claim of Privilege
A Mysterious Plane Crash,
a Landmark Supreme Court Case, and the Rise of State Secrets
By Barry Siegel
Harper
The Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter shows the vast implications of a 1953 Supreme Court case that ushered in the legal state secret. The decision enshrined the ability of the executive branch to refuse to turn over evidence to those suing the government simply by asserting that national security would be threatened.
Comfort
A Journey Through Grief
By Ann Hood
W.W. Norton
Hood rejects the concept of "closure" after the sudden death of her 5-year-old daughter from a virulent form of strep. She does not miss her daughter any less as time goes by, though the heart must stretch to accommodate new love.
The Eaves of Heaven
A Life in Three Wars
By Andrew X. Pham
Harmony
Pham's story of his father's fleeing occupation and war after a childhood of privilege in Vietnam is one of devastation and radiance, highlighting the history of a benighted land.
The Forever War
By Dexter Filkins
Alfred A. Knopf
In the witness tradition of combat journalism, Filkins' meticulously constructed vignettes don't claim to form a narrative but illuminate and humanize the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.
