Responses were great to the question, “What’s the best book you’ve read in the last two years?” John Manopoli, Steve Cheheyl, and Tom Moore each recommend Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, a provocative exploration of how we as a species became what we are. John Isaacs likes Doublecross by Ben McIntyre, about how the Allies fooled the Germans about the D-Day invasion. George Wood has “always been fascinated by accounts of the scientific breakthroughs that brought us victory during WW II and beyond,” and likes Tuxedo Park by Jennet Conant (as does Ed Kern) and American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, about Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. Richard Chu likes Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century by Alistair Horne, “sort of like Barbara Tuchman’s March of Folly, recounting various catastrophic battles in the last century (Nomonhan, Midway, Dien Bien Phu, etc.).” Bob Dormer likes On Desperate Ground by Hampton Sides, about the Marines at the Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War. Tom Maremaa says “This one is easy: Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” which depicts the life of a young Czech doctor in the years before and after the 1968 invasion of Prague by the Soviets. Michael Gfroerer chooses Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, an inspiring book about lawyering and the practice of law for truly noble purposes. Ted Haynes, himself an author, likes for nonfiction, Grant by Ron Chernow; fiction, The Which Way Tree byElizabeth Crook; poetry, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie; and for mystery, he rightfully likes his own work, Suspects, A Northwest Murder Mystery. Roy Benson says that although he is slowly plowing through the latest Winston Churchill biography Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts, “The best book I’ve read in the past couple years is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles” (also a choice of Steve Cheheyl’s). Carter Hall says his “favorite within the past two years (which, given my aversion to classics of any sort as an undergraduate, I cannot believe I just said that!) has been The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson, a remarkable translation of the classic homecoming tale, making the story come alive.” Bill White says that “for sheer entertainment, you can’t beat the Spenser novels by Robert B. Parker, especially if you’re a Bostonian like me. Try Cold Service or Sixkill, just to name two.” Jim Gifford says that “by far, the best and most powerful book I have read in past few years is Factfulness by Hans Rosling, which makes the case that the world is considerably better than it was a century (or even 20 years) ago.” Don Garni recommends The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Bob Thurer offers Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo, exploring the lives of the struggling underclass in India. Jack Ferraro likes Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson. For more visit our new ’67 book club at www.1967.dartmouth.org!

—Larry Langford, P.O. Box 71, Buckland, MA 01339; larrylangford@mac.com