John Weidman
John Weidman’s musical Assassins, which premiered off-Broadway in 1990, has been nominated for seven Tonys. Last week, it received four Drama Desk awards, including Outstanding Musical Revival.
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, $11). In which one of the great creations of American hard-boiled detective fiction, “the Continental Op,” single-handedly cleans up a spectacularly corrupt California town named Personville (pronounced “Poisonville”). Nobody wrote this stuff better than Hammett, and this book is his best.
Citizens by Simon Schama (Vintage, $28). This riveting history of the French Revolution makes fluid, fascinating sense of the dauntingly complex cascade of events that in 1789 redirected the history of the Western world. A work of serious scholarship that really does read like a thriller.
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.
The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster, $18). If David McCullough were Japanese he would be a Living National Treasure. Each of his books is a delight, but this extraordinary saga of how the United States built the Panama Canal, and how the French tried to but didn’t, is my favorite. A reassuring, and in the end deeply moving, portrait of pragmatic, idealistic Americans accomplishing something that seemed genuinely impossible.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Simon & Schuster, $15). Encountering this, one of the most original books I have ever read, at the age of 17 led me to a life-changing discovery: That the darkest truths embedded in the grimmest events can sometimes be most powerfully illuminated through humor.
Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski (Vintage, $15). A journalist writing with the psychological insights of a novelist applies his remarkable skills to a remarkable subject: the breakup of the Soviet Union. A series of unforgettable vignettes, each one both completely real and completely surreal at the same time. Read this, then read Kapuscinski’s equally brilliant books on Africa.
David Copperfield
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The Taliban wages war on high-speed internet
THE EXPLAINER A new push to cut nationwide access to the digital world is taking Afghanistan back to the isolationist extremes of decades past
-
The US and Colombia renew their feud over the drug war
In the Spotlight The US has accused Colombia of failing in its drug-fighting efforts
-
‘The problem isn’t solved by simply swapping out the faces on screen’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imagination
Feature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is more
Feature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious characters
Feature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
Garrett Graff's 6 favorite books that shine new light on World War II
Feature The author recommends works by James D. Hornfischer, Craig L. Symonds, and more
-
Helen Schulman's 6 favorite collections of short stories
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, and more
-
Beatriz Williams' 6 timeless books about history and human relationships
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Jane Austen, Zora Neale Hurston, and more
-
Aysegul Savas' 6 favorite books for readers who love immersive settings
Feature The Paris-based Turkish author recommends works by Hiromi Kawakami, Virginia Woolf, and more
-
Geoff Dyer's 6 favorite books about the realities of war
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by Ernie Pyle, Michael Herr, and more