Lists of Bests: Newsweek's What to Read Now. And Why http://www.listsofbests.com/list/66001 We know it's insane. We know people will ask why on earth we think that an 1875 British satirical novel is the book you need to read right now—or, for that matter, why it even made the cut. The fact is, no one needs another best-of list telling you how great The Great Gatsby is. What we do need, in a world with precious little time to read (and think), is to know which books—new or old, fiction or nonfiction—open a window on the times we live in, whether they deal directly with the issues of today or simply help us see ourselves in new and surprising ways. Which is why we'd like you to sit down with Anthony Trollope, and these 49 other remarkably trenchant voices. http://www.newsweek.com/id/204300/page/1 Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:26:47 GMT en-us 0 50 50 0 0 The Way We Live Now (Oxford World's Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5187254 <div id="position">1</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Anthony Trollope</div> The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5524724 <div id="position">2</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5524724"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31BmmwHXbxL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Wright Lawrence</div> Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6462586 <div id="position">3</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6462586"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XBQtcxaIL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Zhao Ziyang</div> The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3935643 <div id="position">4</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3935643"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/416dNqmcEqL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Nicholas Carr</div> The Bear http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839762 <div id="position">5</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by WIlliam Faulkner</div> Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/679649 <div id="position">6</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/679649"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0679764399.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V65553117_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Neal Gabler</div> Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3570439 <div id="position">7</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3570439"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/018QFBV4W3L.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc</div> Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1015411 <div id="position">8</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1015411"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0312426038.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Anthony Shadid</div> Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5900902 <div id="position">9</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Dan Ariely</div> God: A Biography http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18879 <div id="position">10</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18879"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679743685.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.gif" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Jack Miles</div> The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/84531 <div id="position">11</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/84531"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0871568772.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Wendell Berry</div> A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/301015 <div id="position">12</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Flannery O'Conner</div> Underground (Vintage International) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6638056 <div id="position">13</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Murakami Haruki</div> Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3455605 <div id="position">14</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Clayton M. Christensen</div> Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/28392 <div id="position">15</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/28392"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0963726455.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Dave Hickey</div> Leaves of Grass (Oxford World's Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5557729 <div id="position">16</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5557729"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vfC3KE2EL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Walt Whitman</div> The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2869662 <div id="position">17</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2869662"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/11BBWtO4yxL.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Lee Smolin</div> City: Rediscovering the Center http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6638062 <div id="position">18</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6638062"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41xcuzo0mSL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William H. Whyte</div> Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/532964 <div id="position">19</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Philip K. Dick</div> Benjamin Franklin http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6638071 <div id="position">20</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6638071"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419YEEHW7RL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Edmund S. Morgan</div> Life on the Mississippi (Penny Books) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6638247 <div id="position">21</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6638247"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BXrhA4xHL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div> Among the Thugs http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65846 <div id="position">22</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65846"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679745351.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Bill Buford</div> Brooklyn: A Novel http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6638268 <div id="position">23</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6638268"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518t-tK-HFL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div> Frankenstein (Enriched Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/39622 <div id="position">24</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/39622"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0743487583.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Mary Shelley</div> Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5480190 <div id="position">25</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5480190"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NJdXBcQsL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Ayelet Waldman</div> Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2210639 <div id="position">26</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2210639"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0802143032.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Mark Bowden</div> Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (Modern Library Paperbacks) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9316 <div id="position">27</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9316"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0375751459.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Sam Tanenhaus</div> Midnight's Children: A Novel http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/972555 <div id="position">28</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/972555"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0812976533.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1136584770_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Salman Rushdie</div> American Prometheus http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2927389 <div id="position">29</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2927389"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/01w4yPykFJL.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Kai Bird</div> The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2823724 <div id="position">30</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2823724"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/11sJm-BgloL.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Daniel Mendelsohn</div> Gilead by Marilynne Robinson http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4447429 <div id="position">31</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div> Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5437656 <div id="position">32</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5437656"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519Wd0xh14L._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Mark Harris</div> Kim (Oxford World's Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4537498 <div id="position">33</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4537498"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YsGmi5ZDL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Rudyard Kipling</div> Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3973 <div id="position">34</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3973"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0156007088.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by John Lewis</div> The Line of Beauty http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2589078 <div id="position">35</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2589078"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0739464469.01-ARA4707SZRR8H._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Alan Hollinghurst</div> The Dark Is Rising http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2716737 <div id="position">36</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2716737"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1416949658.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Susan Cooper</div> The Complete Persepolis: Now a Major Motion Picture http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2811238 <div id="position">37</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Marjane Satrapi</div> Underworld http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19424 <div id="position">38</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19424"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0684842696.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Don DeLillo</div> Why Evolution Is True http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5756627 <div id="position">39</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5756627"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418c3n5W76L._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Jerry A. Coyne</div> American Pastoral http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9027 <div id="position">40</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9027"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0375701427.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1123891143_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Philip Roth</div> The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9410 <div id="position">41</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9410"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0375760393.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Michael Pollan</div> Regeneration Trilogy http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2740769 <div id="position">42</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2740769"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140257683.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Pat Barker</div> Senator Joe McCarthy http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/15077 <div id="position">43</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/15077"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0520204727.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Richard H. Rovere</div> Year of Wonders http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3573 <div id="position">44</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3573"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0142001430.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Geraldine Brooks</div> The Elegance of the Hedgehog http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4006061 <div id="position">45</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4006061"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418vh%2BXkkIL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Muriel Barbery</div> Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher, No. 13) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5756661 <div id="position">46</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5756661"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IRlz8f84L._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Lee Child</div> Things Fall Apart (Norton Critical Editions) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2960423 <div id="position">47</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Chinua Achebe</div> American Journeys http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6558852 <div id="position">48</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Don Watson</div> Cotton Comes to Harlem http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6212320 <div id="position">49</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6212320"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51W-lku2wLL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Chester Himes</div> The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/99890 <div id="position">50</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/99890"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0375709401.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by David Thomson</div>