Novelist, editor, and humorist Christopher Buckley’s most recent novel is No Way to Treat a First Lady, published this October by Random House ($25).
One-Upmanship: How to Win Life’s Little Games Without Appearing to Try by Stephen Potter (out of print). I keep this slim paperback compendium with me at all times, to cheer me up when they announce either that my flight has been delayed or hijacked.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville (Bantam Books, $5). I know, I know: It’s way overwritten, and why should we care about some nutball amputee captain, and the whale parts are so much yadda blubber yadda, but it never fails to raise the hairs on my arm and even make me chuckle or say Wow.
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Music for Chameleons by Truman Capote (Vintage Books, $13). Norman Mailer said somewhere that Capote was, “sentence for sentence, the best writer of my generation,” and for once I agree with him. This is perfect writing, and exhilarating storytelling.
Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac (Viking, $14). Bonfire of the Vanities set in early–19th century Paris. Country boy Lucien de Rubempre tries to make it socially in Paris and sells his soul in the process.
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (Little, Brown & Co., $14). Probably the only book I’ve read a half dozen times and hope to another half dozen before my time is up. A very great masterpiece of style, wit, satire, manners, and meaning, to say nothing of a godsend, since 1981, to the Yorkshire tourist economy. (It was filmed at Castle Howard.)
Living Well Is the Best Revenge by Calvin Tomkins (Random House, $17). The story of American expatriates Gerald and Sara Murphy, who live in Paris and the south of France in the 1920s and ’30s and who knew le tout, when le tout was worth knowing. So good you should read it aloud.
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What's the best time of year to buy a house?The Explainer There are pros and cons to each season
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Africa's largest dam is making diplomatic wavesUnder the Radar Ethiopians view using the Nile as a 'sovereign right' but the vast hydroelectric project has 'fuelled nationalist fervour' in Egypt and Sudan
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Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
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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
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Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
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Garrett Graff's 6 favorite books that shine new light on World War IIFeature The author recommends works by James D. Hornfischer, Craig L. Symonds, and more
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Helen Schulman's 6 favorite collections of short storiesFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, and more
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Beatriz Williams' 6 timeless books about history and human relationshipsFeature The best-selling author recommends works by Jane Austen, Zora Neale Hurston, and more
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Aysegul Savas' 6 favorite books for readers who love immersive settingsFeature The Paris-based Turkish author recommends works by Hiromi Kawakami, Virginia Woolf, and more
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Geoff Dyer's 6 favorite books about the realities of warFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Ernie Pyle, Michael Herr, and more
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Laura Lippman's 6 favorite books for those who crave a high-stakes adventureFeature The Grand Master recommends works by E.L. Konigsburg, Charles Portis, and more
