Phil Trupp: Recommended Reads of 2011
Phil Trupp is a veteran investigative journalist, and the author of “Ruthless: How Enraged Investors Reclaimed Their Investments and Beat Wall Street.” He is a regular commentator for New York Times Dealbook and New York Magazine online. His commentary appears regularly on Larry Doyle’s “SenseonCents” covering a wide variety of economic news and opinion.
Trupp’s recommended reads of 2011 are:
“Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World” by Robin Wright. This work adds great dimension and an insightful break beyond the superficial cable news headlines. Wright has captured so many of the details that go missing in typical coverage, from the most debated elements of the so-called Arab Spring to the often overlooked (and barely imagined) offshoots. Chapters such as “Hip-Hop Islam,” “The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour,” “The Counter-jihad,” “Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes” will startle and overturn many of the clichés heaped upon the Western reader. It’s a must-read.
“Off to Save the World: How Julia Taft Made a Difference” by Ann Blackman. The late Julia Taft was tough, world-savvy, and wonderfully disarming. Her career as a world traveler and one of our country’s top humanitarian relief experts spanned six presidents. If ever there was a true friend of impoverished peoples and those shattered by warfare across the world, it was Julia Taft. Ann Blackman brings this indefatigable woman to life as a champion of American openness and true generosity. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell summed up Taft’s mission this way: “Her professional life was committed to people trying to get by on a dollar a day…” Ms. Blackmann has given the reader lessons on what it takes to gets things done against all odds.
“A Washington Sketchbook: Historic Drawings of Washington, D.C.” by Gail Spilsbury with drawings by Robert L. Dickinson. Spilsbury has captured what is timeless medicine for the over-Tweeted soul. Her vision invites us back to Washington as a kind of Walden made fresh again by the author’s wonderful perspective and true love of nature. It is a much needed respite. The reader is connected by Ms. Spilsbury’s fresh words and a collection of historic visuals, created as a “Walk Book” during World War 1 by physician/artist Robert L. Dickinson, to a life beyond the rattle and confusion of our hyperbolic city. We are lifted into a natural world that causes us to seek inspiration beyond immediate concerns. “A Washington Sketchbook” gently guides the reader to a reflection of life along the Potomac in a time long before sound bytes, iPhones, and today’s unsettling political babble.
