What to Read in September
Following on from my holiday reading suggestions I thought I would look back at what I managed to get through and pick out some further suggestions.
Bush by Jean Edward Smith
Professor Smith is simply one of the best political biographers working today. I read his biography of Eisenhower earlier this year and can't recommend that enough.
'Bush' is just as good. Professor Smith certainly doesn't shirk from siding with the position that W deserves his current rating in the bottom third of presidential rankings https://qz.com/914825/presidents-day-the-best-us-presidents-in-history-as-ranked-by-presidential-historians/
But he also makes pains to give credit where it's due. In the fight against AIDS Bush made a very brave and principled stand and put $45 billion of aid where his mouth was. Because of that how he's viewed today in Africa is very different from how we see him here in Europe. And his reaction to the economic crisis of 2007 prepared the ground work for his successor.
However, it's Iraq that dominates the book, as it dominated this president. And as Smith concludes the invasion was, without doubt, the worst foreign policy an American president has ever made.
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
One of the best pieces of literature that I've read this year. A pleasure increased by the fact that I just picked this up in passing at the library having never read the author before. It's a war story, it's a love story, and every sentence is beautifully crafted. I will be amazed if we don't see it being picked up for the screen. If you just have one book by your bedside for the rest of the year, you won't go far wrong if it's this one.
Raptor by James Macdonald Lockhart
I remember reading a glowing review of this in the FT so when I saw it in the new books section of my local library I picked it up. Note, use your local libraries. The more you do, the more funding they get, well at least in the UK they do.
The 12 chapters take you on a journey around Britain as the author tracks down the 12 raptors indigenous to these isles. From the Shetland to inner city Coventry and the Welsh borders to Devon, this is part travel log, part history. And with many people thinking about holidaying in the UK as the Euro reaches parity with the Pound this is a beautiful encouragement to get out into the British countryside.
Finally, the story of how we hunted many of these birds to near extinction and then were able to bring them back to healthy populations is a ray of hope when the news is full of ecological disaster. It's a reminder that when humans put their mind to it they can make a difference.