Events

One of the issues raised by the fall of Communist governments concerns the clash between individual rights and the objectives of the state. In his third book on Russia and the Soviet Union, Satter, former Moscow correspondent for The Financial Times and special correspondent on Soviet affairs for the Wall Street Journal, examines the end of the USSR from a humanist perspective.

With a dramatist’s flair for dialogue and characters, Akhtar in his first novel brings to vivid life the experience of Pakistani Muslims living in the United States. The Shahs are unsettled when Mina Ali, a devout friend of the family, comes to stay with them. She introduces young Hayat, who is infatuated with her, to the beauties of the Koran, then falls in love with a Jewish doctor—precipitating a crisis for all involved, but mostly for Hayat.

In this follow-up to Toxic Talk, his look at the right-wing media’s control of the political debate, Press focuses on how the right’s rhetoric has escalated to the point of slander. While personal attacks on a president are nothing new, Press argues that the volume of unsubstantiated assertions against President Obama—often driven by corporate interests—breaks new ground.

Impressive as it was, the successful strike against bin Laden was the exception to, rather than the rule of, U.S. military-intelligence operations, Aid argues. In his comprehensive look at the country’s massive spy network, from policy to technology, personnel to budget, the author of The Secret Sentry, investigates the gap between the resources devoted to intelligence and the often disappointing results.

Join four writers for a discussion about the challenges and rewards of writing for young adults. Participants include Marie Lu, whose new novel is Legend; Beth Revis, author of A Million Suns, the second volume in her Across The Universe Trilogy; Andrea Cremer, who concludes her Nightshade Trilogy with Bloodrose; and Jessica Spotswood, whose Born Wicked inaugurates her Cahill Witch Chronicles.

A sharp observer of American politics from across the pond, Stanley, an Oxford historian, has the necessary critical distance to deliver a thorough and balanced account of the life of Pat Buchanan, the controversial conservative, three-time presidential candidate, and Republican insider who became a populist outsider. Stanley will be in-conversation with Pat Buchanan. Both Stanley and Buchanan will sign books.