I’ve been meaning to do a book reccomendation post for a while. Now, with all the turmoil and the live prospect of unpleasent economic and political times ahead, it seems like a particularly good time to hunker-down with a good book, particularly if you’re looking for low-cost entertainments while you live in your bunker with bottled water and canned soup.

First, is a book I haven’t read it yet, because I’m working through the series from the beginning. But Stephen Hunter has a new Bob Lee Swagger book: Night of Thunder. I’m a huge Hunter fan and a little escapism might be in order these days.

Second, Corner readers might remember that I am a big fan of David Pietrusza. His book 1920: The Year of Six Presidents was just great. Well, he has two new books out. One 1960–LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon: The Epic Campaign That Forged Three Presidencies I’ve only been surfing through, but it seems like a great intro-survey of the subject.

But what I’ve really been enjoying is his Silent Cal’s Almanack: The Homespun Wit and Wisdom of Vermont’s Calvin Coolidge.

Then there’s the mammoth new collection Arguing Conservatism from ISI. I keep picking this thing up and find I can’t stop reading it. It’s pretty heady stuff, but such a great example of how seriously conservatives take their intellectual tradition and how fiercely we argue over our dogma.

Of course, I can think of other books you might want to buy. But that would be too self-serving.