The (Complete) List

More from Terry Tazioli, who listed a few of his favorite books in our February issue.

Last year, longtime editor Seattle Times editor Terry Tazioli reinvented himself as the host of Author’s Hour, a TV interview show about books shown on TVW, the local answer to C-SPAN. Here’s what he’s been reading:

The Love Israel Family by Charles P. LeWarne. In meticulous detail, from sex and drugs to Pike Place Market singing appearances (and even a gourmet restaurant), LeWarne chronicles the controversial commune born in 1960s Seattle, its retreat to rural Arlington and its collapse after the group ran out of members and money in 2003.

Puget Sound Through an Artist’s Eye by Tony Angell. Angell is a noted artist and naturalist in these parts. And this book plays to both of his passions. Jammed with his art, from sculptures to drawings, it’s history you’ll long to mount on a wall.

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan.  Seattle's powerhouse non-fiction master explains the consequences of the biggest forest fire in American history. Imagine, as Egan says, the state of Connecticut burning up in a weekend. Lives were lost, entire towns were destroyed, but the brand-new U.S. Forest Service just may have been saved because of the disaster.

A World of Trouble:
The White House and the Middle East – from the Cold War to the War on Terror by Patrick Tyler. Tyler covers decades of U.S. policy in the Middle East, a bumbling, sometimes uninformed, even kowtowing intervention that continues to this day, he argues, no matter who has occupied the White House. This is one of those tie-it-all-together epics worth studying.
    

Cheever:
A Life by Blake Bailey. Keen and novelesque, it lays bare the complicated life of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer John Cheever, “the Chekhov of the Suburbs.” At 800 pages, it gets to be a little long, but just when you thought you would put it down… 

The First Tycoon:
The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles. A National Book Award winner. Easy to see why. Stiles crawls inside this captain of industry who literally punched out competitors – and later became friends with many of them - and built his railroad and shipping industries into something unseen in the U.S. Most likely, something that will never be seen again.

Fingerprints of God:
The Search for the Science of Spirituality by Barbara Bradley Hagerty. NPR's religion correspondent says she’s had lots of questions about God, all of her life – e.g., “Is there a place in our brains where God talks to us?” She put her journalist sensibilities to work to try to find out. Even if you don’t believe, you’ll be captivated.

The Sisters of Sinai:
How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels by Janet Soskice. The adventures of incredibly determined twin sisters Margaret and Agnes Smith, who discovered one of the oldest Gospel manuscripts ever found. Sans the Indiana Jones brickbats and boulders, the pair, brought to life by Soskice, are people you really wish you could have met.

The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel.  Their average age was 19, these American soldiers sent to Iraq during the surge, sent to one of the most dangerous locations in Iraq. Finkel spent eight months with them. His chronicle is gripping, terrifying, sobering. It is what brilliant wartime journalism is all about. It will bring tears to your eyes.

"The List" runs monthly in every issue of City Arts magazine. If you subscribe to your favorite issue (Seattle, Tacoma or the Eastside), you'll be sure not to miss great recommendations from a new personality each month.