1. Rose Rankin’s review of The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady by Heath Hardage Lee (St. Martin’s Press). “The author spends significant time on Pat’s redecorating activities, whether at her private residences or, eventually, in the White House, at Camp David, and aboard Air Force One. This only gives the impression that Pat was trapped in a fishbowl and relegated to ‘acceptable’ women’s activities, and it does little to bolster Lee’s argument that Pat’s persona as the ideal wife and mother made her powerful as well as the perfect helpmeet.”


2. William Rice’s review of Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum (Doubleday). “The first 80 percent or so of Anne Applebaum’s short new book, Autocracy, Inc., is perhaps the saddest story I’ve ever read. I had to force myself to keep going. Her crisply written account of how autocrats around the planet are getting better and better at controlling, confusing, and disheartening their own people — while using increasingly sophisticated techniques to win the battle of global public opinion — rests like a heavy weight on the reader’s heart. Yet those who make it through that first part are rewarded with a faint glimmer of hope at the end.”


3. Paul D. Pearlstein’s review of Most Honorable Son: A Forgotten Hero’s Fight Against Fascism and Hate During World War II by Gregg Jones (Citadel Press). “Ben’s command recognized his outstanding service — which included a bizarre stretch as an ‘internee’ in neutral Spain after a forced landing — and he returned to the States a national hero. But he wasn’t done yet: He wanted to fight in the Pacific. Military policy forbade airmen of Japanese descent to do so, but Ben used his newfound celebrity to get an exception, becoming the only Japanese American airman to fight against Japan in the sky. Soon, he was serving as a tail gunner on the new B-29 Superfortress bombers strafing Japanese cities.”


4. Michael Causey’s review of Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever by Brian Fairbanks (Hachette Books). “Fairbanks makes a good case that Waylon found that same kind of kindred spirit in Willie. Still, the partnership was not without its tensions, especially as Willie’s star rose and Waylon’s began to fade. In the 1960s, Waylon had been something of the senior partner in the Outlaw Country Law Firm. But a decade on, Willie had achieved the crossover success he enjoys to this day, gracing the cover of Time magazine and becoming the darling of music critics from Los Angeles to New York City. Meanwhile, Waylon remained a respected but pigeonholed figure.”


5. “The Truth? It Hurts.” by Caroline Bock. “Maus has been banned by other school systems ostensibly for its single image of a mother drawn with exposed breasts in the upper corner of one panel. The trauma of war is captured in that panel. After World War II, many who bore witness to the vicious Nazis could not bear the weight of what they’d seen and ended their own lives. Spiegelman’s mother was one of them. That controversial panel’s title? ‘Hitler Did It.’ These are terrible facts, but Pop always urged me not to be afraid of facts. He encouraged me to think critically about them. To question them. To discuss them as we worked in our vegetable garden together, planting or pruning.”

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