Five Books Newsletter 36

This week's interview

http://www.fivebooks.com/interviews/nicholas-shakespeare-on-bruce-chatwin http://www.fivebooks.com/interviews/nicholas-shakespeare-on-bruce-chatwin

Nicholas Shakespeare on Bruce Chatwin

Bruce Chatwin, author of In Patagonia and The Songlines, reinvented travel literature. Nicholas Shakespeare, his biographer, lifts the lid on a complex life and selects five books that influenced Chatwin’s work.

Books of the Week

http://fivebooks.com/recommended/tennis-handsome-by-barry-hannah“It’s a crazy-ass book. Every sentence is mad and perfect in its own particular way.”

Chad Harbach on Novels with Sporting Themes (http://fivebooks.com/interviews/harbach-on-novels-sporting-themes)

http://fivebooks.com/recommended/sorrow-war-by-bao-ninh“He was born in North Vietnam, I was born in a logging town in Oregon and we end up in the same war on different sides.”

Karl Marlantes on the Vietnam War (http://fivebooks.com/interviews/karl-marlantes-on-vietnam)

http://fivebooks.com/recommended/we-wish-inform-you-tomorrow-we-will-be-killed-our-families-by-philip-gourevitch“Read this, not just because it's about the Rwandan genocide (though it's important to know what human nature is capable of) but because it is a beautifully, beautifully written, unputdownable book.”

Mia Farrow on Changing the World for Good (http://fivebooks.com/interviews/mia-farrow-on-changing-world-good)

http://fivebooks.com/recommended/end-line-how-overfishing-changing-world-and-what-we-eat-by-charles-clover“It’s hard to eat fish having read this book.”

David Shukman on Environmental Change (http://fivebooks.com/interviews/david-shukman-on-environmental-change)

http://fivebooks.com/recommended/reluctant-fundamentalist-by-mohsin-hamid“The protagonist is somebody who had been living in New York and been a banker and he gradually turns into, as the title says, a reluctant fundamentalist.'”

Daniyal Mueenuddin on Pakistan (http://fivebooks.com/interviews/daniyal-mueenuddin-on-pakistan)

Quote of the Week

"In chess hard work is often underestimated while the idea of effortless genius is greatly overestimated.”
Dominic Lawson on Chess (http://fivebooks.com/interviews/dominic-lawson-on-chess)