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Adam Bradley, Assistant Professor of Literature:
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright
I've found that during my leave I've had time to read some of those books that we professors tend to stack up on our desks with a mind to reading some day when we have the time. For me, those books include a great many dealing with politics and world affairs. By far the best one I've read so far has been Lawrence Wright's elegant and informative The Looming Tower. Wright has a novelist's touch for narrative and a journalist's attention to detail. While many have written books about the terrorist attacks on September 11, none to my knowledge has done so with Wright's breadth of research and first-hand reporting. For an American public that often seems willfully ignorant and incurious about the Muslim world, The Looming Tower provides a needful and emphatic corrective.
Class 11: Inside the CIA's First Post-9/11 Spy Class, by T. J. Waters
A compelling companion work to The Looming Tower is T.J. Waters' Class 11. While it lacks the rigor and the elegance of Wright's book, it offers something remarkable nonetheless: an insider's look into the CIA training process. But it isn't all cloaks and daggers (though there are some of both, to be sure); it also tells the story of what brought this group of people from all walks of life to serve their country in such a exclusive, and potentially deadly, line of work. Waters narrates the story of the class of aspiring CIA officers who responded to the call for service after 9/11. His first-hand account describes his personal motivations along with the stories of others; together, they lend hope to the possibility of patriotism without jingoism. I highly recommend both of these books; they provide us powerful tools for becoming better citizens.
Amy Kind, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies:
Pardonable Lies, by Jacqueline Winspear
When I'm reading for pleasure, it's almost always a mystery novel. One of the most enjoyable mysteries I've read recently was Pardonable Lies, the third in a series by Jacqueline Winspear about the "psychologist and investigator" Maisie Dobbs. Set in London during the early 1930s, the series paints a picture of a society still haunted by the first World War. This includes the protagonist, who had served as a nurse on the French front. For Maisie, the scars of war go deeper than the marks she tries to hide under her hair.
As an investigator, Maisie is both persistent and perceptive, gaining special insights though the use of unorthodox methods. By precisely mirroring the body language of someone to whom she is talking, for example, she is often able to intuit their moods and more generally their state of mind. Methods such as these produce results where others have failed, but for Maisie, getting results is not itself enough to close a case. In every investigation she undertakes, she sees her role as trying to do more than solve her cases. Rather, she wants to resolve them - to achieve both resolution and closure for her clients, most of whom are looking not only for answers, but also for some inner peace. Pardonable Lies weaves together three different though intersecting cases, each of which presents Maisie with particular challenges. As she discovers that she has been deeply deceived by someone important in her life, she realizes that she must herself engage in some deceptions to do her best by her clients.
There's a lot to like about this book, and more generally this series. Winspear has created an inspiring female protagonist: Maisie presents us with a wonderful example of a strong and effective woman who is also caring and kind. In many ways, Maisie reminds me of the investigator Precious Ramotswe of Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, a series that I would also recommend. Pardonable Lies reels you in - not with page-turning plot twists, but with compelling and engaging characters, a sensitive depiction of people still grappling with the war, and an intriguing storyline. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
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