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In January 2002 Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan-surviving by his wits, his knowledge of Persian dialects and Muslim customs, and the kindness of strangers. By day he passed through mountains covered in nine feet of snow, hamlets burned and emptied by the Taliban, and communities thriving amid the remains of medieval civilizations. By night h...
Steve Schale
Aug 15, 2021Also recommended by
Max RoserThe Children is Halberstam's moving evocation of the early days of the civil rights movement, as seen thru the story of the young people--the Children--who met in the 60s & went on to lead the revolution. Magisterial in scope, with a strong you-are-there quality, The Children is a story one of America's preeminent journalists has waited years to wr...
Steve Schale
Jul 18, 2020
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts
To save ancient Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean’s Eleven in this “fast-paced narrative that is…part intellectual history, part geopolitical tract, and part out-and-out thriller” (The Washington Post).In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara...
Steve Schale
Nov 28, 2019Also recommended by
Tim O’ReillyA deeply moving memoir about the year that would forever change both a family and a country.In November 2014, thirteen members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, a tradition they had been celebrating for the past forty years; it was the one constant in what had become a hectic, scrutinized, and overscheduled life. The Thank...
Steve Schale
Jul 09, 2019