Epoch Booklist: Recommended Reading for Nov. 3–9

This week, we feature a children’s rendition of a traditional Thanksgiving poem and an investigative history of an inventor who disappeared more than 100 years ago.

History

‘The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel’ By Douglas Brunt

Sept. 29, 1913: Aboard the steamship Dresden and heading to England, the inventor of a revolutionary internal combustion engine, Rudolf Diesel, is about to be the subject of worldwide headlines. He vanishes leaving behind a folded coat. From an impoverished European childhood, Diesel was now wealthy and celebrated for his game-changing creation of the diesel engine. He had also made enemies. Was his disappearance an accident, suicide, or murder? The case is reopened in this riveting history.

Atria Books, 2023, 384 pages

Espionage

‘Gray Day’ By Eric O’Neill

In 2000, Eric O’Neill’s FBI career was in eclipse. He had married a foreign national from former East Germany. She was viewed as a potential security risk. But then, he got tapped for his career’s biggest case. Robert Hanssen had been selling secrets to the Russians for nearly two decades, and the FBI needed to prove it. The FBI set a trap for Hanssen, putting him in charge of the FBI’s new cybersecurity group with Mr. O’Neill as his deputy (to watch Hanssen). Mr. O'Neill and the FBI trap a mole in this tension-filled memoir.

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Crown, 304 pages, 2019

Nonfiction Essays

‘The Critical Temper’ Edited by Roger Kimball

Collected to celebrate the 40th anniversary of “The New Criterion,” these 50 essays cover political and cultural topics particularly pertinent to our century. Writers as diverse as Mark Steyn, Victor Davis Hanson, Joseph Epstein, and Heather Mac Donald shed light on our harried age and how it came to be. In his contribution, David Pryce-Jones writes that “the pen has to hold the line in the permanent war against the falsification of reality.” Here,  Mr. Kimball and his fellow troopers do just that.

Encounter Books, 2021, 576 pages

Ancient History

‘The Ancient Assyrians: Empire and Army, 883-612 B.C.’ By Mark Healy

Who were the Assyrians? Mark Healy’s new work is the perfect introduction to this massive multi-century empire of the ancient Near East. The author introduces the reader to the numerous kings throughout the empire’s reign, the tactics deployed by the nation’s military, how the empire expanded through conquest and annexation, and several convincing arguments about how the empire collapsed. With maps, beautiful images from the ancient ruins, and explanatory graphics, it proves a fine read.

Osprey Publishing, 2023, 320 pages

Classics

‘The Portable Renaissance Reader’ By James Bruce Ross and Mary McLaughlin

This door-stopper anthology stretches its description as portable. But if you’re looking for a wide range of writing by the shapers of the Renaissance, you’ve come to the right book. Covering the period from 1400 to 1600, the editors include excerpts from the works of such notables as Erasmus, Copernicus, and Luther, as well as many from lesser-known authors. Here, you’ll find writings on a broad spectrum of topics, from the “perfect country house” to the latest import from the New World: tobacco.

Penguin Classics, 1977, 768 pages

For Kids

‘Over the River and Through the Wood’ By Lydia Maria Child and Christopher Manson

Lydia Maria Child published this familiar poem in 1844. A celebration of family tradition and gathering, it’s a Thanksgiving staple. This lovely rendition features woodcut pictures that tell the story of a horse-drawn sleigh carrying a family to grandfather’s house for the holiday feast, capturing the cozy essence of New England in November.

NorthSouth Books, 2014, 32 pages