"Nothing brings me joy more than beautiful writing and compelling storytelling. An artfully turned phrase. A provocative vignette. An evocative paragraph. A dramatic scene that wraps a chapter in a bow. In different ways, the five books I’m recommending do all these things. There are two memoirs that bring you inside lives you thought you knew. One book will bring you on a multidecade journey with four people who were part of an epic moment in our nation’s history. And my fiction recommendation tore me away from nonfiction with the beautiful writing and compelling storytelling I was used to." —Jonathan Capehart, author of Yet Here I Am
Charles Blow’s memoir will put into context the passion that fueled his columns for The New York Times and his commentary on television.
Katharine Graham was one of the most powerful women in the country and certainly the most powerful in journalism. Yet, she shared her self-doubts and insecurities with all of us. That fearless honesty left an indelible impression on me.
Every once in a while, I’m torn away from biographies and memoirs by a work of fiction, like Mateo Askaripour’s entertaining Black Buck. In addition to the wonderful storytelling, this fictitious work casts a critical eye on very real, contemporary issues.
While this is written to his son, what I loved about it is that for those of us who came of age in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s, we will also see this as a love letter to our generation and the city that molded us.
One of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read. To hear her words spoken only makes the experience of her writing that much more enjoyable.
Jonathan Capehart is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, associate editor at The Washington Post, and co-hosts MSNBC’s The Weekend.
Watch Jonathan share his favorite listens and add them to your Library Collection.
