Bookshelf: September 21, 2012

Joseph Anton

By Salman Rushdie - (September 21, 2012) "On 14 February 1989, Valentine's Day, Salman Rushdie was telephoned by a BBC journalist and told that he had been 'sentenced to death' by the Ayatollah Khomeini. For the first time he heard the word fatwa. His crime? To have written a novel called The Satanic Verses, which was accused of being 'against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran'. So begins the extraordinary story of how a writer was forced underground, moving from house to house, with the constant presence of an armed police protection team. He was asked to choose an alias that the police could call him by. He thought of writers he loved and combinations of their names; then it came to him: Conrad and Chekhov -- Joseph Anton. It is a book of exceptional frankness and honesty, compelling, provocative, moving, and of vital importance. Because what happened to Salman Rushdie was the first act of drama that is still unfolding somewhere in the world every day." (Random House, September 2012)

Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero

By Chris Matthews - (September 21, 2012) "What was he like, this person whose own wife called him "that elusive, unforgettable man"? The Jack Kennedy you discover here wanted never to be alone, never to be bored. He loved courage, hated war, lived each day as if it were his last.

Chris Matthews's extraordinary biography is based on personal interviews with those closest to JFK, oral histories by top political aide Kenneth O'Donnell and others, documents from his years as a student at Choate, and notes from Jacqueline Kennedy's first interview after Dallas. You'll learn the origins of his inaugural call to "Ask what you can do for your country." You'll discover his role in the genesis of the Peace Corps, his stand on civil rights, his push to put a man on the moon, his ban on nuclear arms testing. You'll get, more than ever before, to the root of the man, including the unsettling aspects of his personal life. As Matthews writes, "I found a fighting prince never free of pain, never far from trouble, never accepting the world he found, never wanting to be his father's son. He was a far greater hero than he ever wished us to know." (Simon & Schuster, November 2011)

'The House I Live In' (Film)

By Eugene Jarecki - (September 21, 2012) "Filmed in more than twenty states, The House I Live In tell the stories of individuals at all levels of America's War on Drugs. From the dealer to the narcotics officer, the inmate to the federal judge, the film offers a penetrating look inside America's criminal justice system, revealing the profound human rights implications of U.S. drug policy." (October 5, 2012)

Mortality

By Eugene Jarecki - (September 21, 2012) "Filmed in more than twenty states, The House I Live In tell the stories of individuals at all levels of America's War on Drugs. From the dealer to the narcotics officer, the inmate to the federal judge, the film offers a penetrating look inside America's criminal justice system, revealing the profound human rights implications of U.S. drug policy." (October 5, 2012)