76 books like My Invented Country

Like Anderson, Gertrude Stein had a sense of humor about gay Paree. Who else would write someone else’s autobiography?

I love her tone of detached amusement when describing the artistic titans of the Lost Generation. If you don’t get it, try the recipe for Alice B. Toklas brownies. 

Relayed in the voice of his nine-year-old self, Solito tracks Zamora’s harrowing three-thousand-mile trek from his home in El Salvador to join his mother and father in California.

To reunite with his parents, he must leave behind everything else he has ever known: his village, his friends, his grandparents, and his beloved Tia Mali. What is supposed to be a two-week journey turns into a two-month odyssey, as he makes his way north by bus, boat, and foot, accompanied by a group of strangers who, in time, close ranks to nurture and protect him like a second family.

This affecting story, told with such innocence and immediacy, makes evident the individual, human costs that are too easily overlooked by reporting on US immigration and the staggering statistics that it invariably emphasizes.

When I first read Zweig’s memoir, I initially thought it was pretentious name-dropping, mentioning one prominent fin de siècle Viennese writer or musician after another. Only years later did I warm to his memories describing a world that existed before the cataclysm of World Wars and the ultimate fate of Europe’s Jewish citizens.

In reading other memoirs from the period (such as Ernst Krenek’s–not available in English), it’s possible to see that Zweig was writing from a position of enormous privilege while also reflecting the very essence of cultural life in a world where culture was perhaps its most important characteristic and distinguishing element. 

This book moves me whenever I open it, no matter the chapter, no matter the page.

It presents the harrowing tale of Douglass’s flight from slavery as a young man with a degree of urgency and detail that is not found in his other writings.

But it is the account of his travels through Europe and North Africa as a man of almost seventy, finally free to pursue his lifelong wanderlust, that is perhaps most poignant: “I had strange dreams of travel even in my boyhood days,” he writes. “I thought I should some day see many of the famous places of which I heard men speak, and of which I read even while a slave.”

In between Paris and the pyramids, Douglass repeatedly compares what he sees in the Old World with what he knows so well, and often so painfully, of American ideals, values, and aspirations.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Satam al-Suqami, a hijacker aboard American Airlines Flight 11, died when the aircraft slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre. Miraculously, his passport survived the devastating impact and landed intact on the street several blocks from the World Trade Centre. The black boxes from both Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, built to withstand air crashes, did not survive.

This is one of many incredible facts to emerge in the aftermath of the world’s deadliest terror attack, and New York Times best-selling journalist Jim Marrs does an exceptional job of exposing many of the inconsistencies in the official narrative that led to the ‘War on Terror’ and, as Marrs argues, the quiet war on liberty and freedom. A must-read for those who suspect that there was more to that terrible day than meets the eye.

Maybe I should give a warning with this recommendation—don’t start this book with plans to give it just 15 minutes and then get your beauty sleep.

I stayed up well into the wee hours of the morning reading this powerful true story of survival, loyalty, and courage. It made me feel like I was with Michael and his guide dog, Roselle, as she led him down the stairwell of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11 after the first plane struck.

This gripping story highlights the bond between a guide dog and his human—and also gives us a glimpse into a day that forever changed America.

I’ll never forget how enthralled I was from the very beginning of Reign of Terror. Ackerman begins the book with a fascinating contrast in behavior that demonstrates that Americans have not abandoned nearly as much of their race prejudices as we like to pretend. In 1995, when Timothy McVeigh (with the help of many white supremacist groups) bombed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, he was put through all of the standard legal procedures required under the law. When the United States was hunting extremists in the war on terror, we created places such as Guantanamo Bay and other CIA black sites to extrajudicially hold and torture people. The way Ackerman frames America’s behavior during the war on terror makes Reign of Terror a must-read in my opinion. 

Long before he became a Trump apologist, Rudy Giuliani was regarded by some as “America’s Mayor" in the wake of 9/11.

He led the city’s response to the World Trade Center attack, and in the view of many, he provided strong leadership in that crucial time, marshaling the city’s resources during the search, recovery, rescue, and beginning of the clean-up process. He attended what seemed like an endless stream of funerals for FDNY and NYPD members who were killed on 9/11, eulogizing the city’s dead heroes.

Barrett and Collins – two skilled NYC reporters – dive deep into the failings of the Giuliani mayoral administration that may have contributed to the loss of life among first responders that fateful day, including the well-documented problems with FDNY radios that hampered the efforts to evacuate FDNY members before the Twin Towers collapsed.

This is the sole non-fiction recommendation on the list. However, with its message of hope and optimism, it seems like a fairy tale in these days of partisanship and hatred.

The book details how the small city of Gander in Canada rallied around to provide safe haven to the passengers of 38 airplanes which had been bound for the US on 9/11. The stranded travelers are greeted by a welcoming community, build lifelong friendships, and find solace and peace in a time of grave uncertainty.

The description of the small acts of kindness which positively impacted the lives of strangers and fostered a feeling of worldly brotherhood is heartwarming and uplifting. It also showcases how the world came together for America in its hour of need.

This book is well-written with language that’s easy off the tongue and sweet on the ears. I appreciate the main character, Dèja’s, spunk, and confidence despite her family being unhoused. I also enjoyed how the story’s characters, though from different cultural backgrounds, get along organically while working together on a difficult school assignment.

The ending is satisfying and hopeful. And I truly appreciate the story’s takeaway theme—confronting the past is more empowering than ignoring it.