Five Lieutenants
The Heartbreaking Story of Five Harvard Men Who Led America to Victory in World War I
by James Carl Nelson (St. Martin’s)
Ninety-four years ago today, the WWI armistice took effect. In his follow-up to “The Remains of Company D,” about enlisted men in the war, Nelson focuses on the cream of the crop, bright young Ivy League officers who led the doughboys. He doesn’t shy away from the war’s horror — starting things with: “So this is battle, he half-laughs to himself as he sits helpless and shattered in the bottom of a slit trench, his dead corporal oozing blood from half a dozen holes . . .”
The Lawgiver
by Herman Wouk (Simon & Schuster)
Moses is said to have lived to be 120 years old. At age 97, Wouk (“The Caine Mutiny,” “Winds of War” and “Marjorie Morningstar”) delivers his personal tribute to the Old Testament prophet. In Wouk’s version of this tale of commandments and commitments, a tribe of movie people plan a film about a modern-day Moses. The author’s story about the movie takes the form of e-mails, Skype transcripts, memos and text messages. The screenwriter is a rabbi’s daughter. The backer is an Australian multibillionaire. And in an added life/art twist, Wouk and his wife appear as main characters in the book.
Consider the Fork
A History of How We Cook and Eat
by Bee Wilson (Basic Books)
At the risk of trotting out a cliché, Brit writer Wilson’s book truly is food for thought. (And fun to read, too). Recalling the 1970s, when “real men didn’t eat quiche,” she writes, “In the 1610s, they didn’t use forks,” and goes on to quote 17th-century poet Nicholas Breton: “We need no forks to make hay with our mouths, to throw our meat into them.” And there’s plenty more about other utensils, pots and pans, and foods we now take for granted.
Sweet Tooth
by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese)
Look out, James Bond — the Cold War just went literary, thanks to prize-winning “Atonement” author McEwan’s latest novel; this one about government infiltration of arts. The writer’s 1970s-era secret agent is a Cambridge-educated knockout nerd named Serena Frome (“rhymes with plume”). Frome’s mission, code-named Sweet Tooth, is to shake down England’s literary circles, finding writers with anti-communist politics whom the government can use to manipulate the nation’s cultural and creative scene. The problems arise when the lovely Frome falls for the writer she is assigned to spy on.
360 Sound
The Columbia Records Story
by Sean Wilentz (Chronicle Books)
If you’re already thinking about holiday gifts — the vinyl-phile in your life would appreciate this gorgeously illustrated 336-page tome on perhaps the most influential record company. From its beginnings 125 years ago, the roster of Columbia artists includes John Philip Sousa, Al Jolson, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Dylan, Springsteen and Adele. Among its innovations, Columbia was the first to produce double-sided records in the early 1900s. And it was Columbia that had artist Alex Steinweiss create the first album cover in 1940.