All right, all right, it really does look like we’re all going to have to enjoy spring after being dragged inside (cozier if you’re south of the equator, winter coming on). If that’s what we’re facing, here are a half dozen books I can recommend for your quarantine time:
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk • Nobel prize winner for literature, clever, engaging fiction.
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris • The latest from a brilliant writer. It’s not what you think.
Prisoner by Jason Rezaian • Memoir of the former Washington Post reporter’s time in an Iranian prison.
Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa • Tough stuff about the Syrian civil war.
The Capital by Robert Menasse • Acerbic portrait of the function, and disfunction, of the EU in Brussels.
The Salt of the Earth by Jósef Wittlin • Classic novel of a Polish peasant’s experience in World War One.
And here are a few waiting on my bookshelf. Since we were planning to be in Africa this spring, here are three books that were to be background for the trip:
A Grain of Wheat by Ngūgī Wa Thiong’o • Classic story of late colonial Kenya.
House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma • The facts of life in modern Zimbabwe.
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste • I loved Ms. Mengiste’s 2011 Beneath the Lion’s Gaze. This one’s about Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia.
And one more, a new release:
Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon • Story of three orphaned kids in 1960s Laos.
At least we can enjoy traveling the world through books this spring, while staying indoors. And not touching our faces.
If you read any of these books please send your feedback.
Common Sense and Whiskey 