JAKE TAPPER ’91  

Political Hubris

Written by CNN journalist Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson, this book of political reporting reads like a cross between a thriller (which Tapper also writes) and a Greek tragedy. Fast paced and well researched, it assembles what seems to be an ironclad case against President Biden for deciding to run for a second term despite a preponderance of evidence—much of it concealed by his inner circle from the public and from Biden himself—that his failing health was disqualifying. 

The details, drawn from a host of insider sources mostly speaking anonymously, are chilling. Biden’s memory was increasingly spotty. He would repeat stories he’d told minutes earlier. He failed to recognize longtime acquaintances such as movie star George Clooney, who later wrote a bombshell op-ed calling for him to step down. Biden’s gait was stiff, his physical stamina reduced to a few hours each day. By the time Biden’s weakened state was shockingly exposed in his disastrous televised debate with Donald Trump in June 2024, it still took three more weeks for him to accept reality. He was clearly unfit for four more years in the White House, and yet he stayed in the race so late that his would-be successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, had insufficient time to build a successful campaign.

Why? That’s the part of this book that is most like Greek tragedy, a genre in which character is fate. Tapper and Thompson make clear that Biden’s belief in his stubborn resilience proved in the end to be his downfall. He’d been knocked down many times in his career and always bounced right back; why would this time be any different? He was the one—the only one—who’d saved American democracy from Trump, and he’d do it again, whatever the naysayers said. 

It didn’t help, the authors demonstrate, that the president’s closest advisors—including his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, embattled son Hunter, and a few top staffers ominously nicknamed the “Politburo”—continually hid or downplayed his frailty. If Original Sin has a villain, it’s Biden’s top aide Mike Donilon, whose rose-colored interpretations of the latest polls convinced the president he had a decent chance of winning the election long after he clearly did not. Antiheroes doom themselves, sometimes with a little help from their friends.               

—Kevin Nance

RICHARD BABCOCK ’69

A Small Disturbance on the Far Horizon

Regal House Publishing 

What do a sheriff, an adulterer, and a murderer have in common? They are all running from something. Babcock’s latest novel is a suspenseful tale with striking characters who grapple with their morality and the consequences of past actions. The tale unfolds in the aftermath of a murder and culminates in a thrilling pursuit amid the rugged mountains of Nevada.

NANCY KRICORIAN ’82

The Burning Heart of the World

Red Hen Press

Kricorian, whose past work has explored the postgenocide Armenian diaspora experience, delves into the story of a Beirut Armenian family before, during, and after the Lebanese civil war. This novel is a heartfelt exploration of the personal and intergenerational impacts of war and displacement.

EMILY HODGSON ANDERSON ’98

Shadow Work: Loneliness and the Literary Life

Columbia University Press

A life lived with books offers lessons about loneliness and human connection, according to the author, an English professor at the University of Southern California. She puts writers such as Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Shakespeare into imagined conversations with writers such as Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, Zadie Smith, and Dartmouth prof Alexander Chee to show how reading and writing can both isolate us and bring us closer together.

FAITH BARTER ’01

Black Pro Se: Authorship and the Limits of Law in Nineteenth- Century African American Literature

University of North Carolina Press

The author, a professor of English and Black studies at the University of Oregon, frames Black writers as architects of legal possibility in this thoughtful examination of the intersection between African American literature and law in 19th-century America. She uncovers the creative and incisive ways they approached an oppressive legal system.

BEN A. VAGLE ’22

Command of Commerce:
America’s Enduring Economic Power Advantage over China

Oxford University Press

Vagle developed his government honors thesis into a book, written with his advisor, government prof Stephen Brooks, that overturns conventional wisdom on how China’s economic power measures up to that of the United States.