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Hamilton Spectator
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
In Gary Shteyngart's bittersweet novel ‘Vera, or Faith,' a Russian Korean girl comes of age in an American dystopia
It's hard to be a 10-year-old girl. This is especially true if you're Vera Bradford-Shmulkin, a Russian Korean child navigating the intricacies of playground politics amid rising fascism in America. In Gary Shteyngart's latest novel, 'Vera, or Faith,' the young, precocious Vera lives in Manhattan with her Jewish Russian father ('Daddy'), a struggling magazine editor preoccupied with cultural capital, and her Protestant New England stepmother ('Anne Mom'), a liberal housewife who spends her time organizing political salons. There's also Dylan, their darling blond-haired son, who relied on Vera's legacy status for admission into a highly competitive public school. Rounding out this ultra-modern family unit are Stella, a sardonic self-driving car, and Kaspie, a chess robot that excels at Danish Gambit openings and dispensing personal advice in equal measure. Outside their apartment every week, protesters flood the streets for March of the Hated, a movement in favour of an enhanced vote, worth five-thirds of a regular vote, for 'those who landed on the shores of our continent before or during the Revolutionary War but were exceptional enough not to arrive in chains.' Terrified and heartbroken by these misguided crusaders, Vera one day finds herself assigned to the pro-Five-Three side in a class debate and must learn their arguments in order to win. Her debate partner is Yumi, a student from Japan whom she desperately wishes to befriend and, like Vera, would be cruelly excluded from an enhanced vote. Meanwhile, Vera's parents' marriage is slowly disintegrating, prompting her to draft reasons for each of them to stay together. On a list intended for her father, she appeals to his longing for proximity to the intelligentsia and a comfortable life, writing, 'Went to Brown for graduate school. Makes a lot of delectable 'WASP lunches' for all of us. Is Five-Three which will keep us safe.' On the list for her mother, Vera highlights her father's resilience and artistic efforts: 'Survived his parents and immigration, so can survive anything. Speaks two languages. His long struggle for full recognition is about to be over.' 'Vera, or Faith,' by Gary Shteyngart, Random House, 256 pages, $37.99. Vera's observations subtly point to the central tension within her family: between stated political affiliations and actions taken in one's own domain. Her father is a morally superior leftist who dismisses her stay-at-home mother as a 'tradwife,' despite happily living off her trust fund as he attempts to court a Rhodesian billionaire to buy his magazine. Though she carries out meal preparation and school drop-offs, he declares, 'Labor's my jam. You can actually make a difference with labor.' Her mother lays claim to progressive beliefs, but it's not clear whether her fundraising events are motivated by a desire to enact meaningful change or mere optics. She seems insistent on smoothing over Vera's idiosyncrasies, such as compulsive arm flapping and reciting large vocabulary words, instructing her to mirror the other girls at school. At home, she pays Vera to arrange her bookshelf not alphabetically or by genre, but in a manner where 'authors of color, and women were front and center.' For both parents, the domestic space is a battlefield where political disagreements are fought, rather than where children are guided and supported. One evening, Vera eavesdrops on a conversation between her parents, leading her to believe she must urgently find 'Mom Mom,' her birth mother. Toward this goal, she enlists the help of Yumi, who eagerly assists in playing detective, using her precious weekly four hours of internet use to guess common Korean surnames and cross-reference candidates with alumni of Vera's father's alma mater. An ideal co-conspirator and confidante, Yumi shows Vera what being in touch with one's cultural heritage can look like, what she could gain if their search proved successful, and what had been absent from her upbringing. Told from Vera's eye level, the novel seizes her sense of wonder to draw attention to the absurdity of contemporary life in America. In Shteyngart's near-future, popular kids attend algebra and violin camp over the summer in New York, and two states away, a mandatory 'Holmes' pregnancy blood test — named after the infamous Theranos founder — must be administered to women of reproductive age entering and exiting Ohio. We, as readers, acquire knowledge of the new normal alongside our innocent protagonist to a disturbing effect. Unlike her parents, whose convictions have formed and hardened, Vera has not yet fallen into despair, inaction or the trap of identity politics. As such, her naivety serves as a strategy to question assumptions and attitudes across the political spectrum, to approach lofty subjects without the baggage of labels. Where other novels from the perspective of children might feel tedious or contrived, 'Vera, or Faith' remains sharp and engaging while addressing the obstacles of language and narration. When Shteyngart's wit threatens to shatter the illusion, he pulls back by having Vera quote her father, phrases that are recorded in a 'Things I Still Need to Know Diary.' For instance, there's 'Maginot Line,' a defensive line of fortification to prevent the invasion of Nazi Germany into France, used to refer to the living room in their increasingly volatile home. Other entries simply include words like 'pontificate' or 'gregariously' that would be unlikely to appear in the lexicons of even the most studious fifth graders. To that end, Shteyngart sustains Vera's interiority, inviting readers into the mind of a child who is bright and exuberant, yet ultimately vulnerable and helpless within the structures of centuries-old institutions. Between holding her family together, finding her biological mother and thriving at school, Vera has plenty to deal with, though the 256-page novel always maintains a buoyancy. Miraculously, Shteyngart manages to braid these struggles of identity, class, love and belonging into a story that reflects the condition of modern life without didacticism. Even in the fourth and final section, where Vera's mission reaches a critical point, readers will sail through the startling revelation about her maternal family and the circumstances surrounding her birth, perhaps to a fault. The exhilarating conclusion races toward the finish line with all the answers we've waited for, leaving us breathless and emotionally dangling. For the most part, however, Shteyngart's latest novel is a charming, bittersweet coming-of-age narrative that seamlessly incorporates the ridiculousness of American politics into a bildungsroman with heart. At once delightful and tragic, our fierce heroine recalls to us the joys and pains of preadolescence and, more importantly, serves as a necessary reminder to resist a dystopia that promises to arrive with every passing year, month and day.
Hamilton Spectator
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Review: In Gary Shteyngart's bittersweet novel ‘Vera, or Faith,' a Russian Korean girl comes of age in an American dystopia
It's hard to be a 10-year-old girl. This is especially true if you're Vera Bradford-Shmulkin, a Russian Korean child navigating the intricacies of playground politics amid rising fascism in America. In Gary Shteyngart's latest novel, 'Vera, or Faith,' the young, precocious Vera lives in Manhattan with her Jewish Russian father ('Daddy'), a struggling magazine editor preoccupied with cultural capital, and her Protestant New England stepmother ('Anne Mom'), a liberal housewife who spends her time organizing political salons. There's also Dylan, their darling blond-haired son, who relied on Vera's legacy status for admission into a highly competitive public school. Rounding out this ultra-modern family unit are Stella, a sardonic self-driving car, and Kaspie, a chess robot that excels at Danish Gambit openings and dispensing personal advice in equal measure. Outside their apartment every week, protesters flood the streets for March of the Hated, a movement in favour of an enhanced vote, worth five-thirds of a regular vote, for 'those who landed on the shores of our continent before or during the Revolutionary War but were exceptional enough not to arrive in chains.' Terrified and heartbroken by these misguided crusaders, Vera one day finds herself assigned to the pro-Five-Three side in a class debate and must learn their arguments in order to win. Her debate partner is Yumi, a student from Japan whom she desperately wishes to befriend and, like Vera, would be cruelly excluded from an enhanced vote. Meanwhile, Vera's parents' marriage is slowly disintegrating, prompting her to draft reasons for each of them to stay together. On a list intended for her father, she appeals to his longing for proximity to the intelligentsia and a comfortable life, writing, 'Went to Brown for graduate school. Makes a lot of delectable 'WASP lunches' for all of us. Is Five-Three which will keep us safe.' On the list for her mother, Vera highlights her father's resilience and artistic efforts: 'Survived his parents and immigration, so can survive anything. Speaks two languages. His long struggle for full recognition is about to be over.' 'Vera, or Faith,' by Gary Shteyngart, Random House, 256 pages, $37.99. Vera's observations subtly point to the central tension within her family: between stated political affiliations and actions taken in one's own domain. Her father is a morally superior leftist who dismisses her stay-at-home mother as a 'tradwife,' despite happily living off her trust fund as he attempts to court a Rhodesian billionaire to buy his magazine. Though she carries out meal preparation and school drop-offs, he declares, 'Labor's my jam. You can actually make a difference with labor.' Her mother lays claim to progressive beliefs, but it's not clear whether her fundraising events are motivated by a desire to enact meaningful change or mere optics. She seems insistent on smoothing over Vera's idiosyncrasies, such as compulsive arm flapping and reciting large vocabulary words, instructing her to mirror the other girls at school. At home, she pays Vera to arrange her bookshelf not alphabetically or by genre, but in a manner where 'authors of color, and women were front and center.' For both parents, the domestic space is a battlefield where political disagreements are fought, rather than where children are guided and supported. One evening, Vera eavesdrops on a conversation between her parents, leading her to believe she must urgently find 'Mom Mom,' her birth mother. Toward this goal, she enlists the help of Yumi, who eagerly assists in playing detective, using her precious weekly four hours of internet use to guess common Korean surnames and cross-reference candidates with alumni of Vera's father's alma mater. An ideal co-conspirator and confidante, Yumi shows Vera what being in touch with one's cultural heritage can look like, what she could gain if their search proved successful, and what had been absent from her upbringing. Told from Vera's eye level, the novel seizes her sense of wonder to draw attention to the absurdity of contemporary life in America. In Shteyngart's near-future, popular kids attend algebra and violin camp over the summer in New York, and two states away, a mandatory 'Holmes' pregnancy blood test — named after the infamous Theranos founder — must be administered to women of reproductive age entering and exiting Ohio. We, as readers, acquire knowledge of the new normal alongside our innocent protagonist to a disturbing effect. Unlike her parents, whose convictions have formed and hardened, Vera has not yet fallen into despair, inaction or the trap of identity politics. As such, her naivety serves as a strategy to question assumptions and attitudes across the political spectrum, to approach lofty subjects without the baggage of labels. Where other novels from the perspective of children might feel tedious or contrived, 'Vera, or Faith' remains sharp and engaging while addressing the obstacles of language and narration. When Shteyngart's wit threatens to shatter the illusion, he pulls back by having Vera quote her father, phrases that are recorded in a 'Things I Still Need to Know Diary.' For instance, there's 'Maginot Line,' a defensive line of fortification to prevent the invasion of Nazi Germany into France, used to refer to the living room in their increasingly volatile home. Other entries simply include words like 'pontificate' or 'gregariously' that would be unlikely to appear in the lexicons of even the most studious fifth graders. To that end, Shteyngart sustains Vera's interiority, inviting readers into the mind of a child who is bright and exuberant, yet ultimately vulnerable and helpless within the structures of centuries-old institutions. Between holding her family together, finding her biological mother and thriving at school, Vera has plenty to deal with, though the 256-page novel always maintains a buoyancy. Miraculously, Shteyngart manages to braid these struggles of identity, class, love and belonging into a story that reflects the condition of modern life without didacticism. Even in the fourth and final section, where Vera's mission reaches a critical point, readers will sail through the startling revelation about her maternal family and the circumstances surrounding her birth, perhaps to a fault. The exhilarating conclusion races toward the finish line with all the answers we've waited for, leaving us breathless and emotionally dangling. For the most part, however, Shteyngart's latest novel is a charming, bittersweet coming-of-age narrative that seamlessly incorporates the ridiculousness of American politics into a bildungsroman with heart. At once delightful and tragic, our fierce heroine recalls to us the joys and pains of preadolescence and, more importantly, serves as a necessary reminder to resist a dystopia that promises to arrive with every passing year, month and day.
USA Today
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Savage but fair: Surviving a swank writing master class in Morocco
Silk Road Slippers, a five-day writers workshop at a delicous Moroccan resort, was more scrivener's boot camp than a luxurious path to self-discovery. MARRAKECH, Morocco – It's morning under the Atlas Mountains and publishing legend Alexandra Pringle is taking a savage blue pencil to a very nice paragraph. At least I thought it was a very nice paragraph. But no. It's actually a mess – jumbled, ineffective – and Pringle, former editor-in-chief at Bloomsbury Publishing in London, strikes down my wan offering with a single sentence before moving on to the next willing victim. It's obvious, just one day into this weeklong writing workshop, that we're in the hands of professionals – three glamorous, erudite killers who've had a hand in some of the biggest and most interesting books of the last 40 years. Pringle runs the master classes with historian and broadcaster Alex von Tunzelmann ("Fallen Idols", "Indian Summer") and Faiza Khan, a former editor-at-large at Random House, packing the plummiest accent this side of Downton Abbey. They're a formidable team – humane, perceptive, politely unsparing. The outfit, called Silk Road Slippers, holds four master classes a year at a delicious resort hotel outside Marrakech, each featuring a different heavyweight lecturer, including winners of the Nobel, Booker, Pulitzer and other literary prizes. My session was graced by novelist Alan Hollinghurst ("The Line of Beauty"). Esther Freud, Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah , Monica Ali and Andrew O'Hagan have all given attendees a bracing taste of how it's really done. The classes are very much open to new writers. Many at the session I attended earlier this year were already in the writing game, some with published books. But Silk Road Slippers wasn't created with literary pros in mind, von Tunzelmann says. Among those gathered under the palms at the workshop's long outdoor table placed near an outdoor fireplace to ward off the morning chill were an architect, a publicist and a counselor. Silk Road Slippers has hosted newbies who'd spent their professional lives in business, medicine, and law. Scrivener's boot camp The Jnane Tamsna boutique hotel, created by French attorney Meryanne Loum-Martin (whose life would fill a page-turner) and her American ethnobotanist husband Gary Martin, was the swanky backdrop to a week of grinding mental labor. The Morocco location makes Silk Road Slippers accessible to writers from Asia, Africa and Latin America who may not care for the process of getting a visa to Europe and the United States. (U.S. passport-holders travel to Morocco visa-free.) Despite the sumptuous trappings – the palms, the book-lined bar, the (five!) swimming pools – Silk Road Slippers is more scrivener's boot camp than a luxurious path to self-discovery. The days are filled with short writing exercises, with each hastily written passage read aloud by the author and then critiqued by Pringle, Khan and von Tunzelmann. Writers are drilled in dialogue, setting, action, perspective – a crash course in substance and style. In a revealing assignment, attendees were asked to write a fictional third-person scene with themselves as the protagonist. As with the other drills, the results ranged from middling (that was mine) to quite good. There wasn't a bad pen among the nine women and two men who were my classmates. But none topped Booker Prize-winner Hollinghurst, who turned out, in the same 15 minutes as the rest of us, a richly cinematic scene placing the fictional character of Alan Hollinghurst in a tricky social encounter fraught with manners, ego, and ambition. Just like something out of a novel. Anyone can play Years ago, U.S. literary wags spilled barrels of ink over the question of MFA vs. NYC, shorthand for two paths to creating a life as a novelist: the formal structure of a master's in fine arts degree, with its ready-made community and the tutelage of established teacher-mentors, or the (relatively) hard-knock life of apprenticing oneself to the New York publishing industry and living, loving, losing in the real world, with all the bruises to show for it. Nobody was talking about this kind of thing in Marrakech. I had no idea where anyone went to school, or what credentials they may have held. Every person there was taking a leap of some kind to learn alongside – and expose themselves to – a group of discerning strangers. There was no shortage of work. There were tears, and support among new friends. Some writing samples were raw and personal, but that was no protection from our instructors and the feedback born from their editorial instincts: 'There's too much specificity. You're putting the kitchen sink in there.' 'It's just awful. It's explanatory. It's telling us what to think.' 'There's nothing more boring than other people's dreams.' By the end of the week, each participant had completed a passage of at least 1,000 words to be assessed in an hourlong consultation with one of our three guides. I drew Pringle, and I've never had a more rewarding or discombobulating conversation about writing. Despite having two nonfiction books and decades of journalism to my name, Pringle pointed me to the far riskier path of literary fiction. That gets to the heart of why even a published author might want to spend time and money on a workshop like Silk Road Slippers and why it holds so much potential benefit for newcomers. This is solitary work, and trying out your craft with trusted peers and masters of different ages and walks of life can be – as I found – a rejuvenating literary shot in the arm.
Mint
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Six books about how conflicts end—or don't
WARS, AS THE saying goes, are easy to start but hard to end. Donald Trump is keen to be a peacemaker, but has seen how hard it is to bring enemies to the table. On May 15th America tried to convene Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkey to discuss a ceasefire. (Yet the delegations arrived in different cities; Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, pointedly refused to attend; and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, called the Russian presence 'decorative".) Progress in Gaza is proving just as elusive—Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump's busiest envoy, has said that Israel is 'not prepared to end the war". These books examine the travails of past peace talks. Many highlight the fateful consequences of reaching a bad deal. Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa. By Patti Waldmeir. W.W. Norton; 384 pages; $27. Rutgers University Press; £20.95 This book documents how white South Africans were persuaded to give up power. The end of the cold war saw the Marxists in the African National Congress—the main liberation movement—lose influence. That reassured white South Africans that their property would not be confiscated if they let the black majority have the vote. (Despite what Donald Trump recently claimed when admitting white South African refugees to America, their tribe has done all right in the rainbow nation.) Patti Waldmeir, a journalist, stresses the role of gifted negotiators in the peace talks of the 1990s, including the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa (pictured below, standing at far right). He went fishing with Roelf Meyer, his Afrikaner opposite number, and pulled a fish hook from Mr Meyer's hand, thus cementing a personal relationship that helped end one of history's worst political systems. To End a War: The Conflict in Yugoslavia—America's Inside Story—Negotiating with Milosevic. By Richard Holbrooke. Random House; 464 pages; $20 and £16.99 As a diplomat in Bill Clinton's State Department, Richard Holbrooke engineered the signing of the Dayton accords that ended the Bosnian war in 1995. He did this by playing hardball with the Serbs and pushing for tactical NATO strikes, or 'bombs for peace". Holbrooke believed that America had both a moral and strategic imperative to intervene in atrocities abroad; it was in the country's interest to strengthen human rights elsewhere. 'The world's richest nation, one that presumes to great moral authority, cannot simply make worthy appeals to conscience and call on others to carry the burden," he wrote. Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed The World. By Margaret MacMillan. Random House; 624 pages; $25. John Murray; £14.99 Historians have long debated the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles. The pact was intended to ensure peace across Europe after the first world war, but 20 years later the continent was fighting again. One widely held view blames the bitter and exacting conditions imposed by the victors on Germany; John Maynard Keynes made this case in his seminal treatise 'The Economic Consequences of the Peace". Margaret MacMillan, a historian, takes the opposite position. She contends that reparations were hardly crushing and that the treaty was not properly enforced. If anything, by failing to restrict German power, the treaty was not nearly harsh enough. Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay. By Immanuel Kant. In 1795 warring France and Prussia agreed a truce. It was exactly the sort of treaty that Immanuel Kant, a philosopher, dismissed as merely a 'suspension of hostilities, not a peace". This tract (which is available to read online) considers the conditions required to achieve an enduring peace; it is a work of moral philosophy and cosmopolitan idealism. Kant held that states should be republics with some degree of popular representation. Ordinary citizens, who bear the costs of war, would be less inclined to support a warmongering government. He also proposed a federation of states to settle disputes. Imbued with utopianism, Kant's work shaped the international institutions and laws that try to govern war and peace today. Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe. By Michael Neiberg. Basic Books; 336 pages; $38 and £32 The complete collapse of the Axis powers in the second world war offered the victorious Allies an opportunity to reshape geopolitics. At the Potsdam conference, the 'Big Three"—America, Britain and the Soviet Union—plotted a new world order and strove to end the period of total war across Europe. Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Josef Stalin (pictured above), though aware of looming superpower and ideological tensions, left the conference confident that they had secured a lasting settlement and avoided the mistakes of the Paris peace conference of 1919-1920. Then came the cold war. White House Years. By Henry Kissinger. Simon & Schuster; 1,552 pages; $57 and £16.99 A giant of American diplomacy, Henry Kissinger served as Richard Nixon's secretary of state and national security adviser during the Vietnam war. The first instalment of his memoir is filled with details of secret negotiations with the North Vietnamese. He explains how America sought to achieve 'peace with honour" instead of cutting and running. Nixon's and Kissinger's strategy of 'Vietnamisation" aimed to reduce South Vietnam's dependence on America by arming and training fighters who could maintain their independence. The book offers a warning to anyone who hopes that such a strategy will work in Ukraine. Two years after signing a peace treaty in 1973 and American soldiers leaving, the North reneged and conquered the South. For more on the latest books, films, TV shows, albums and controversies, sign up to Plot Twist, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter
Los Angeles Times
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The week's bestselling books, July 20
1. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine Books: $30) A story of friendship, love and adversity during the 1980s Space Shuttle program. 2. Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart (Random House: $28) A tale of a family struggling to stay together in a country rapidly coming apart. 3. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press: $30) An unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond. 9 4. My Friends by Fredrik Backman (Atria Books: $30) The bond between a group of teens 25 years earlier has a powerful effect on a budding artist. 5. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday: $28) An action-packed reimagining of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' 6. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab (Tor Books: $30) A vampiric tale follows three women across the centuries. 7. Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau: $30) A suspenseful family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence. 8. My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende (Ballantine Books: $30) A young writer in the late 1800s travels to South America to uncover the truth about her father. 9. The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley (Ace: $30) A romantasy following an assassin and a healer forced to work together to cure a fatal disease. 10. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Henry Holt & Co.: $29) An unexpected wedding guest gets surprise help on her journey to starting anew. … 1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House: $30) How to stop wasting energy on things you can't control. 2. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $30) A study of the barriers to progress in the U.S. 3. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Penguin: $32) The music producer on how to be a creative person. 122 4. A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst (Riverhead Books: $28) The true story of a young couple shipwrecked at sea: a partnership stretched to its limits. 5. Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism by Stewart Reynolds (Grand Central Publishing: $13) A guide to channeling feline wisdom in the face of authoritarian nonsense. 6. 2024 by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, Isaac Arnsdorf (Penguin Press: $32) The inside story of a tumultuous and consequential presidential campaign. 7. Super Agers by Eric Topol (Simon & Schuster: $33) A detailed guide to a revolution transforming human longevity. 8. The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad (Random House: $30) A guide to the art of journaling and a meditation on the central questions of life. 9. We Can Do Hard Things by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle (The Dial Press: $34) The guidebook for being alive. 10. The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator) (Scribner: $20) On gratitude, reciprocity and community, and the lessons to take from the natural world. … 1. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: $20) 2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Ballantine: $20) 3. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Vintage: $18) 4. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books: $19) 5. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Transit Books: $17) 6. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $19) 7. Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Scribner: $20) 8. One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune (Berkley: $19) 9. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper Perennial: $22) 10. Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood (Berkley, $20) … 1. The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne (Penguin: $21) 2. The Wager by David Grann (Vintage: $21) 3. The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides (Vintage: $19) 4. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Crown: $12) 5. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen: $13) 6. Sociopath by Patric Gagne, Ph.D. (Simon & Schuster: $20) 7. All About Love by bell hooks (Morrow: $17) 8. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Vintage: $18) 9. The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (TarcherPerigee: $20) 10. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. (Penguin: $19)
