THE BLACK CABINET by Jill Watts - The New York Times "12 New Books We Recommend This Week"

The New York Times | June 11, 2020

“The political calendar is a bit like the liturgical calendar: People pay more attention when a big event is on the horizon (Election Day, Christmas), but the most meaningful experiences often occur on their own schedule, in reaction to private or unplanned happenstance. A death, a disaster — that’s when you see protests, or conversions, start to take hold.

David Frum’s new book is both protest and conversion. Frum is the former neoconservative who came out early against Donald Trump’s 2016 run for the presidency, and in ‘Trumpocalypse’ he tries to figure out where Republicans and conservatism in general went wrong. It’s one of the more overtly political books we recommend this week, but politics unites a lot of these titles, from history (‘The Black Cabinet’) to analysis (‘Away From Chaos’) to Masha Gessen’s cleareyed guide for surviving autocracy (‘Surviving Autocracy’). There’s a novel about terrorism in India, and a filmmaker’s prison memoir, and a journalist’s account of homelessness and hope by way of the Girl Scouts. We also recommend David Kamp’s look back at the golden age of children’s television in the 1970s, André Leon Talley’s memoir of life in the upper echelons of high fashion, and works of fiction by Ivy Pochoda, Naoise Dolan and Richard Ford.”

The Black Cabinet by Jill Watts was included in this fabulous round-up! Follow the link above to see the full list.

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