Best books

The Power Broker by Robert Caro (Vintage, $24). How urban planner Robert Moses combined hard work, idealism, ruthlessness, and an understanding of human weaknesses, to accumulate power and remake New York City. Caro taught me how unrelenting, exquisitely attentive reporting, not florid writing, is the key to masterful journalism.

A Generation of Seekers by Wade Clark Roof (out of print). My first guidebook to the new spiritual landscape created by the self-help-oriented, pluralistic sensibilities of baby boomers. This helped me write my first business plan for Beliefnet.

James Madison: A Biography by Ralph Ketcham (Univ. of Virginia, $23). The best single-volume biography of James Madison, who did more than any Founder to promote religious liberty. Frail, bookish, usually in Jefferson’s shadow, Madison crafted the most holistic vision of religious liberty, based on the idea that the best way to promote religion was by having the government leave it alone.

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An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume (Oxford, $16). This bible of “empiricism” (which I read freshman year of college) forever altered the way I thought about cause, effect, and the nuances of proof.

Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss (Random House, $15). Duty, commitment, and justice, are fully rewarded when an egg faithfully tended to by Horton the Elephant produces a creature that is half-elephant, half-bird: “And it should be, it should be, it SHOULD be that way.”

Lincoln’s Melancholy by Joshua Wolf Shenk (Houghton Mifflin, $25). How Lincoln battled depression and used it as a source of strength. Shenk shows how disabilities can fuel greatness, and how history can not only inform but inspire.