Nonfiction-International

The Search for Omm Sety: A True Story of Eternal Love and One Woman’s Voyage through the Ages by Jonathan Cott ’62. Jonathan’s work is very wide-ranging: from interviews of great children’s writers to a memoir on memory loss, to now this exploration of reincarnation. This book spans the 3000 year

Brazilian Food: Race, Class and Identity in Regional Cuisines by Jane Fajans 60’s. An anthropology professor, Jane Fajans draws on food as an avenue of entry to the regional and social diversities of Brazil. The distinctive attitudes toward food in this sprawling country reveal the alternately comp

The Flight of the Romanovs, A Family Saga by John Curtis Perry ’48? And Constantine Pleshakov. We all know little snippets of this story. We remember the strange (but very temporary) power of Rasputin, the apocryphal (and completely false) story of Anastasia, and the steep fall from imperial sover

A Concise History of the Middle East, tenth edition by Arthur Goldschmidt Jr, ’55 and Lawrence Davidson. My first impulse after reading this book was to send it off to Jared Kushner. But when Don Routh (my husband) said he wanted it, I decided he would be a better choice since for sure, he would re

Singapore, Unlikely Power by John Curtis Perry ’48?. A sweeping history of Singapore from its beginnings to the present, this book brings to life the vibrant city-state situated in the crossing paths of Asian cultures and, as time goes by, of European maritime exploration and exploitation. Singapore

The Last Kings of Shanghai, The Rival Jewish Dynasties that Helped Create Modern China by Jonathan Kaufman ’74. The Last Kings of Shanghai sweeps through the 19th and 20th centuries, telling the story of two families of the Jewish diaspora, originally based in Bagdad, the Sassoons and the Kadoori

Where the Roads All End; Photography and Anthropology in the Kalahari by Ilisa Barbash ’77. This book tells three stories. First is the story of Lisa Barbash, Curator of Visual Anthropology at Harvard’s Peabody Museum, who sorted through 40,000 photographs taken during the course of eight excursions

A Hole in the heart of the World by Jonathan Kaufman ’74. Nonfiction-International. “L’écrivain ne peut se mettre aujourd’hui au service de ceux qui font l’histoire: il est au service de ceux qui la subissent.” Albert Camus, Discours de Suède, 1957. I subscribe to this idea that history is b

Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society by Roy Mottahedeh ’57?. This book examines the threads that weave the fabric of society in western Iran and southern Iraq during the years of the Buyid dynasty (934-1062 AD). Starting with anecdotes in primary sources, Roy uncovers the importance of

Uhuru Revisited by Ron Singer te, presents a wealth of African voices, all struggling with how to encourage open democracies in their lands A logistical tour de force, Uhuru Revisited includes interviews with leaders, journalists and some common folk in six African countries. As I try to process all

A Brief History of Egypt by Arthur Goldschmidt Jr. '55. The story of Egypt is a sweep through 12,000 years of history and about 5,000 years of recorded history. The authoritative voice of this book presents a comprehensive introduction to this intricate chronicle. The great icons of Egypt that we

Labor’s Lost, women’s Work and the Early Modern English Stage by Natasha Korda ’79. We all know that Juliet, Lady Macbeth and every female part in Shakespeare was played by a male actor in the time of Shakespeare. What were the women doing? Natasha explores the tasks in and about the theater that

Gardens of the Amalfi Coast by Robert I. C. Fisher 60’s? This book provides armchair travel to the gorgeous Amalfi Coast. The text is replete with tantalizing observations from history, literature, architecture, and most important, botany: the profusion of lush and colorful plants from the towerin

Brazil’s Dance with the Devil, the World Cup, the Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy by Dave Zirin (’91). As Dave lifts the curtain to reveal life in the poor favela population of Brazil and how it is affected by the two mammoth sporting events in his title, the US reader is struck by how differe