Odyssey: 147 books

Richard Rayner had a peripatetic childhood, and it seemed he found some sense of place when he attended Cambridge University. The study of philosophy combined with an obsession with books, however, served as the catalyst for a bizarre life of crime. Mounting debts propelled the author into a series...

This is the story of a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation gone awry and one pilot's decade-long battle to clear his name. On April 4, 1979, a Boeing 727 with 82 passengers and a crew of 7 rolled over and plummeted from an altitude of 39,000 feet to within seconds of crashing...

In ALWAYS RIGHT historian Niall Ferguson offers a characteristically original, incisive and witty account of Margaret Thatcher's reign – the word seems appropriate – as British Prime Minister. Denounced by her enemies as divisive and dictatorial, Thatcher was the greatest leader Britain has produced...

On May 2, 1970, a DC-9 jet with 57 passengers and a crew of six departed from New York's JFK International Airport en route to the tropical island of St. Maarten, but four hours and 34 minutes later the flight ended in the shark-infested waters of the Caribbean. It was, and remains, the only open-water...

Three young children smuggle themselves into Auschwitz in search of their mothers. * "Probably the most powerful ending to a book I have ever read.” * “I haven't been so emotionally affected by a book before in all the years I have been reading.” * “Harrowing and gripping. This novel...

The exploding pace of technological change today offers America opportunities to reduce our debt, grow our economy, and cement America as the most innovative and advanced nation on Earth. These solutions could be faster, better, cheaper and lasting—if the post-election government can agree on a growth...

When Haroun Khalifa’s father, the renowned storyteller Rashid Khalifa, loses his gift of gab, Haroun knows he has to help. Soon, he’s tumbled headfirst into an adventure story of his own, journeying toward the legendary Sea of Stories on the back of a flying Hoopoe bird. There, he finds a host...

In 1975, Saul Bellow traveled through Israel, turning his keen powers of observation upon the country he did not know. This book is a record of his stay—his personal experiences and fleeting impressions—and a reflection upon what he ultimately learned about the hallowed land. In Bellow’s signature...

Patrimony, a true story, touches the emotions as strongly as anything Philip Roth has ever written. Roth watches as his eight-six-year-old father—famous for his vigor, his charm, and his repertoire of Newark recollections—battles with the brain tumor that will kill him. The son, full of love,...

In 1969 the small Asian nation of Cambodia was under attack: first by US bombers as the Vietnam war spilled over the border, and then by the Khmer Rouge as they began their brutal reign of terror. Under the rule of Pol Pot, ordinary city folk were driven from their homes and banished to labour camps...

During the volatile times that followed the Iranian revolution in 1979, Zahra, her husband and son are forced to leave their homeland of Afghanistan with her revolutionary activist cousin, Firzun. Zahra's life becomes embroiled with Firzun's, as her cousin joins the violent opposition to the new regime...

Barbara, a Playboy bunny, is delectable. Richard loves her. He abandons his life in London, a steady girlfriend, and a job, and flies to Los Angeles in search of Barbara and the romanticized America he's seen only in the movies. Richard obsessively pursues Barbara through a series of misadventures...

In this collection of more than thirty essays, published in The New York Times, Esquire and The New Republic, the vast range of Saul Bellow’s nonfiction is made abundantly clear. In Bellow’s capable hands, a single essay can range fluidly across topics as various as the talents of President Roosevelt,...

The great novel of the American dream, of “the universal eligibility to be noble,” Saul Bellow’s third book charts the picaresque journey of one schemer, chancer, romantic, and holy fool: Augie March. Awarded the National Book Award in 1953, The Adventures of Augie March remains one of the...