The Other (Verso, $16.95) is a compilation of four lectures, its publication serving as a philosophical eulogy to Ryszard Kapuscinski’s life in literary journalism (Travels with Herodotus, Shadow of the Sun). With a hearty appreciation of philosophers Levinas and Tischner, Kapuscinski turns their philosophy of “otherness” (today, a dilettantish ivory-tower password of sorts) into an intimate—and supremely workable—ethic for 21st-century living. In globalization’s collision of Western with non-Western, encountering the individual “Other” with empathy and enthusiasm is what will most aid us in making sense of our world, and of ourselves.
What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning? What keeps you going when your life gets difficult? In This I Believe II (Holt, $23), editor Jay Allison assembles seventy-five essays from the popular NPR segment “This I Believe” into a book that will provoke thought and discussion. Each contributor, from celebrities like Tony Hawk to a high-school student named Kamaal Majeed, offers a unique worldview. If nothing else, this book will make you consider what matters in your life, and will encourage you to commit your beliefs to paper.
George Orwell’s powerful prose and critical mind are on display in All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays (Harcourt, $25), critiquing art, literature, film, and popular culture. Wonderful pieces discussing Dickens, Swift, Chaplin, Greene, and Gandhi combine a cogent treatise on their use of language and image, while simultaneously marrying the work to the underpinnings of political, religious, and philosophical thought guiding them. Other pieces, such as “Good Bad Books” and “Confessions of a Book Reviewer,” show Orwell’s humorous side and voracious appetite for the written word in all forms, both high and low.
