What We're Reading

Prerna Mankad

"The soft diplomacy of Belgian chocolates," in The Spectator. Emily Maitlis describes her recent impressions of an ever-changing Libya. Although the imported Belgian chocolates she enjoyed are a symbol of Libya's increasing economic openness and development, there's no doubting who's the boss politically.

Mike Boyer

"The Charms of Wikipedia," by Nicholson Baker in the New York Review of Books. In Wikipedia, novelist Nicholson Baker sees a "vast aerial city with people walking briskly to and fro on catwalks, carrying picnic baskets full of nutritious snacks." Um, OK.

Carolyn O'Hara

Lhasa: Streets With Memories, by Robert Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia who recently spoke with FP about the riots and the Chinese response.

Blake Hounshell

1948: The First Arab-Israeli War, by Benny Morris. Israel's most unpredictable historian weighs in on his country's violent birth.

Joshua Keating

The New York Trilogy, by Paul Auster. My Park Slope homeboy Paul Auster explores his native city in three short novels with detective themes.

Preeti Aroon

The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century, by Steve Coll. OK, I didn't actually read this book; rather, I read a review of the book by Milton Viorst in the Washington Post). The book is essentially a biography of Osama bin Laden—who we learn had at least 53 siblings and married his 14-year-old cousin when he was 17—and his family, including his one-eyed father who went from bricklayer to wealthy palace builder for the House of Saud.