The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes (Simon & Schuster, $20). This is, quite simply, the most important science story of the last century, told by its most important science writer.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy (Harvest, $13). In this memoir, novelist and critic McCarthy intersperses lively, fictive stories about her youth with more prosaic sections that detail what actually happened. McCarthy’s concern about the difference between fact and fiction may explain why she later took exception to Lillian Hellman’s autobiographical fabrications (resulting, when Hellman took exception to McCarthy’s exception, in a notorious lawsuit).
Hiroshima by John Hersey (Vintage, $7). Hersey, my college writing teacher, crafted this riveting, historically important account of six atomic-bomb survivors. His meticulous reporting makes the unthinkable comprehensible, a feat that earned admiration from most critics, though Mary McCarthy wasn’t one. Ever the contrarian, she argued that nuclear horror should remain beyond comprehension, not reduced to the “familiar order of catastrophes—fires, flood, earthquakes—which we have always had with us.”
Aurora 7 by Thomas Mallon (Harvest, $16). This novel, named for Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter’s ship, brings May 24, 1962, to life—for Carpenter, who orbited the Earth that day; for a grouchy intellectual modeled on McCarthy; and, most profoundly, for an 11-year-old space-struck boy.
Seeing Mary Plain by Frances Kiernan (Norton, $25). Yet more McCarthy, revealed through the words of her famous friends and, occasionally, enemies.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (Harper, $13). Spark’s early novels are models of spare, wry storytelling. Sandy, through whose eyes this novel unfolds, writes a book called “The Transfiguration of the Commonplace”—a good description of what Spark herself achieves, here, and in other not-to-be-missed novels like Memento Mori.
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
Nathan Harris’ 6 favorite books that turn adventures into revelationsFeature The author recommends works by Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McGuire, and more
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetimeFeature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytellingFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
-
Elizabeth Gilbert’s favorite books about women overcoming difficultiesFeature The author recommends works by Tove Jansson, Lauren Groff, and more
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
