Recommended Summer Reading - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Recommended Summer Reading
by

One of the fun things about being a columnist and radio talk show host has been the increasing interest by publishing companies in sending me new books for me to review or to interview the authors.

[Before going further, I’d like to suggest/request that all of you who read this visit https://smile.amazon.com/ and name the American Spectator Foundation as the charity which you’d like the proceeds of the Amazon Smile program to go do. Basically, you name a charity, you use smile.amazon.com as the link to buy anything you’d buy at Amazon.com, and 0.5% of all your purchases are donated to the charity. Nothing changes about your Amazon shopping experience except that you use the Smile link instead of the regular link. The links to the books below are the “Smile” links.]

Last year, I had the chance to meet with Paul Ryan, whose book I very much enjoyed.

Also also was privileged to interview (by phone) two of the warriors who ran to the sound of the gunfire to save lives in Benghazi.

In the past week, I’ve received and read two books that I’d like to recommend for your summer reading — one non-fiction, political, and intellectual, and the other a rapid-fire cop vs. terrorist novel.

The first is “By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission” by Dr. Charles Murray, arguably the most interesting public intellectual in America today. I’m going to write more about the book soon so I won’t say too much here except to suggest that almost anyone who is a reader of these pages would find the book compelling, not least because the idea it contains is revolutionary (in a sense that our Founders would appreciate) while also having the virtue — as many libertarian ideas unfortunately don’t — of being achievable.

The second is “Radiant Angel” (which will be released to the public on Tuesday, May 26th but which is available for pre-order) by Nelson DeMille, a man who’s written quite a few best-selling novels, many of which I’ve read, including The General’s Daughter which was also made into a movie. I got the book on Friday afternoon and after a weekend of being unable to put it down (when I wasn’t at the park with the kids or mowing the lawn or watching the NHL playoffs) I finished its 300 pages by Sunday afternoon. No spoilers here: The basic idea is a former NYPD cop now working for a federal agency gets involved in trying to stop a terrorist plot. The characters and the writing style are great fun and some of Mr. DeMille’s comments (or rather his characters’ thoughts and comments) about the current state of international affairs and America’s understanding of the world show well-researched insights into a sub-optimal situation that Spectator readers will already recognize as true. The book is also full of “cop humor” and other things that will make you chuckle, or at least smile, something a good novel (even if about terrorists) should do from time to time. Definitely put this one on your list of books to read by the beach or the pool this summer.

I have a couple of radio interviews of Mr. DeMille coming up which you can listen to online if you’re interested. I may even take some caller questions. If you’d like to suggest a question for me to ask him, just send me an e-mail! rossputin(at)rossputin(dot)com  I don’t guarantee I’ll ask your question, but I guarantee I’ll consider it.
Thursday, May 28 at 1:35 PM MDT on 850 KOA in Denver
Tuesday, June 9 at 5:05 PM MDT on Talk Radio 105.7 FM & 570 AM (KNRS) in Salt Lake City

 

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