"Anthills of the Savannah" by Chinua Achebe

"Anthills of the Savannah" does a fantastic job of jockeying attention from character to character as Achebe hands over the first-person narration from chapter to chapter. This book tells the story or a country on the tail of a revolution and some of the meglomania that can ostracize a new leader from those that know them best. The insight was incredible, believable and, seemingly from actual events. On another note, the transitions from intelligently composed narrative into, for the unfamiliar, a seemingly impossible to decipher dialect, the author builds a world that feels so other, and at the same time, universal. Though it shouldn't be comprehensible, it hits home. What a fantastic and important writer.

"The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin

This feels to me like a book everyone in America should read repeatedly. Every year or so. Baldwin does an incredible job of illustrating the complexities of how race relations in America have come about. This book reads as though it were printed in the 60's but it has lost none of it's astuteness or accuracy. From an African American perspective, I can only imagine this book would be a rallying cry, not for war but but for unity. From a White American perspective, or more specifically from my perspective, this letter intended for his nephew is a wake-up call to how unfairly a huge percentage of our people are viewed and treated. I'm suprised that I haven't been encouraged to read more by James Baldwin in the past, but his book, at least, is one that I will recommend to so many people. The perspective is angry but peaceful.

"Wild at Heart" by John Eldredge

This book is essentially a self-help book for men of a Christian persuasion. Elderedge is an author, public speaker and counselor and his points are quite astute. Though most points are reinforced with Christian reasoning, the points made about masculinity in a modern world resonates on it's own. This book gave me insight into some of my own difficulties in taking ownership in my own life. The reader is shown how many men have not been given the cues they may have needed from a father figure in their life, consequently arresting their development into manhood. The roadmap given is very spiritually laden but even from a more over-arching view, the principle is solid. I am a man. I have this one life to do what I'm made to do. If I'm not doing what I'm truly made to do, I'm squandering my existence and betraying my core essence. I found this book encouraging and to be a sort of call to arms. There are only so many days in front of me. I would be best served, living them the way that serves my pre-dispositions.

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

To summarize one of the cover reviews "this book is impossible to put down as you become so invested in the safety of the characters." Very accurate. The story catches you quickly and it truly is hard to put the book down without reading just a bit more to find out if the father and his son are ok in the following pages. McCarthy successfully creates a dystopian America in "The Road". It's not difficult to believe that the world could devolve into a state of road warriors and scavengers in the matter of a decade. As one in transported into a life of scarcity and danger, it raises the level of drama before additional characters are even introduced. The reader can't help but root for our protagonists as they navigate the suspicion and constant fear of life in a post-apocalyptic world. I was invested in their safety and desperate for their story to end well. Not exactly what I was expecting but the reader gives us a conclusion with hope for the future. A fantastic read!