Hi there, Big Readers!
As I’m putting together next year’s reading list (we’re looking at doing 6 books total), I’m having a hard time deciding on our non-fiction title. So I’d love your input!
Team of Rivals is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s masterpiece and the basis for Stephen Spielberg’s excellent movie Lincoln. In what’s sure to be a divisive election year, it will perhaps shows us the best of what politics can be in examining how Abraham Lincoln pulled various people and ideas into his cabinet in order to win the the Civil War and secure freedom for enslaved people. This book is about 750 pages.
The Power Broker is often counted among the greatest non-fiction books of all-time. It covers Robert Moses’ decades in power as New York City’s parks commisioner and explores how unelected power can be used, for better and worse. This book is about 1,150 pages.
Both are looooong, but they are also both superb reads that should be on everyone’s lifetime list. For our purposes, though, which would you rather read next year as part of this group?
I’ll release the 2024 list in a few weeks!
-Jeremy
I voted for ToR but would be happy with either! Excited to see what the picks are for next year! I also vote for Anna Karennina but trust your judgment since I would have never read Lonesome Dove otherwise and it's now one of my all time favorites!
Very pro Power Broker here. My own career intersects parks and urban planning, been meaning to read it for a while.