For a child of the 60s and teen of the 70s, this autobiography by Billie Jean King (with help) is meaningful, emotional, and motivating. The reader becomes a witness through King‘s extraordinary and full life to the dramatic social and political changes that have occurred in our country, the world, and that continue to reverberate. King reveals her faults and struggles — and humanity. King‘s life is an honorable one with much good worth imitating.

Lafayette came to our small village nearly 200 years ago. I didn‘t fully appreciate the significance of the plaque commemorating his visit and all it represented until reading Mr. Duncan‘s informed tribute. As a biography, it is exhaustive enough but entertainingly written and not exhausting. Mr. Duncan shows Lafayette to be a true believer in our Declaration‘s ideal; a belief he carried for his lifetime and sought to implant in France.

As a late Baby Boomer, I imagine grandchildren reading this book. It will be a story a century ago; and about people and a society that is long dead. Stripped down, like Churchill in all of his delicious indelicateness, it might be a character study for the ambitious who value competence, hard work, loyalty, ideals, symbolism, and who embrace joie de vivre(!). Larson reveals the force of Churchill in a single year (shorn of his worst colonialism).

This book helps one to understand and appreciate the foundational sense to Critical Race Theory. Dr. Bell‘s use of our too frequently concealed history of racism as well as imaginative story telling leads a critical reader to valuable social inspection and introspection. This book belongs in a “best reads” list of the 1619 Project.

A deeply researched and wonderfully written account of the Northern Ireland “Troubles” and the role of the Irish Republican Army. It provides a framework to help understand the significance of the “Good Friday” Agreement, which all but ended the Troubles, and why BREXIT‘s implementation between the European Union (including Ireland) and Great Britain (including Northern Ireland) threatens peace and precipitate a new push for Ireland‘s unification.

A Chernow tome. This biography isn‘t imaginative but it lays out an account, possibly exhaustive, of the U.S.‘s one time richest person. It explores John D Sr.‘s roots, including the roles of his bigamist peripatetic father and his stolidly Baptist mother; his gift for accounting and insistence on deriving value in every transaction; his conquering of the world‘s refined oil market; through to his early retirement and revolution in philanthropy.

This is a must read for anyone wanting to understand and appreciate Soviet Russia and its aftermath as today‘s Russia. David Remnick intertwines Czarist, Soviet (primarily Stalin), and post-Soviet history and impressions in a thorough and fascinating manner. He provides a telling that makes Putin‘s subsequent rise (and current place as Russia‘s modern “Czar”) wholly relatable.

Philip Pan helps Americans understand and appreciate the arc of Chinese history and the nearer-term rush of economic modernization that has taken place in Mao‘s last years and afterwards. It is a must read for anyone wanting a good and thorough understanding of the modern Chinese state.

This is a wonderful exploration and exposition of Congressman John Lewis‘s early life and most dramatic years as a leader in the nation‘s 1960s non-violent civil rights campaigns. Author Jon Meacham, clearly taken by John Lewis and all that he did and attempted as a teen and in his 20s, provides a thorough and insightful rendering of Congressman Lewis‘s significant contributions to American social progress.