What I’ve been reading

1. Sebastian Junger, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging.  Super short, large print, and in some places too speculative.  Still, this is one of the better books for understanding why 2016 seems to be running off the tracks.

2. Stevyn Colgan, Why Did the Policeman Cross the Road? How to Solve Problems Before They Arise.  How one very smart and analytical policeman thinks about the problems he encounters in his daily job.  No single part wowed me or revolutionized my ideas, but smart and thoughtful throughout.

3. Conversations with Roger Scruton.  A good introduction to Scruton’s overall thought, your opinion of this book will match your opinion of him.

4. Marwa Al-Sabouni, The Battle for Home: The Memoir of a Syrian Architect.  A poignant and readable take on what has happened in the city of Homs, Syria, through the lens of how the architecture of a city shapes its politics, norms, and liberties, including how it ends up getting destroyed in wartime.

5. Lyndal Roper, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet.  Due out in February, the UK edition is already out.  Substantive and delightful on every page, this is one of my favorite non-fiction titles of the year so far, an excellent book all around.

6. Peter Parker, Housman Country: Into the Heart of England.  A lovely book, and what a wonderful opening summary bit: “My principal intention has been to investigate what I have called ‘Housman Country’, an English sensibility in which literature, landscape, music and emotion all play their part, and which finds one of its most perfect expressions in Housman’s poetry.”

I bought all of those in the UK.