Previously Read Books
February 2026
The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway was hailed by The New York Times as "a truly gripping story, told in a lean, hard, athletic prose that puts more literary English to shame".
With this bold debut novel, Hemingway established his reputation as the chronicler of the "lost generation" of American expatriates living in Paris in the 1920s. At the heart of the action are the narrator Jake Barnes, whose tough front belies a profound vulnerability, and Lady Brett Ashley, who embodies the sexually liberated new woman of the period.
In pursuit of an impossible relationship with her, Jake seeks solace in male camaraderie and in the restorative power of nature. From the cosmopolitan French capital, imbued with the transgressive spirit of the jazz age, the narrative takes us to the festival of San Fermín in Pamplona in rural Spain, idealised as yet uncorrupted by modernity. There, in the young bullfighter Pedro Romero, Hemingway creates an iconic representation of the authenticity and sense of purpose that elude Jake and his companions, so riddled with contradictions and self-destructive in their reckless hedonism.
About and of its time, The Sun Also Rises speaks to today's readers in the yearning for connection and the psychological complexity of its protagonists, adrift in a world where the collapse of traditional values is a source of exhilaration and of anxiety.
January 2026
Presidents at War by Steven M. Gillon.
World War II loomed over the latter half of the twentieth century, transforming every level of American society and international relationships and searing itself onto the psyche of an entire generation, including that of seven American presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush.
The lessons of World War II, more than party affiliation or ideology, defined the presidencies of these seven men. They returned home determined to confront any force that threatened to undermine the war’s hard-won ideals, each with their own unique understanding of patriotism, sacrifice, and America’s role in global politics.
In Presidents at War, Gillon examines what these men took away from the war and how they then applied it to Cold War policies that proceeded to change America, and the world, forever. A nuanced and deeply researched exploration of the lives, philosophies, and legacies of seven remarkable men, Presidents at War deftly argues that the lessons learned by these postwar presidents continue to shape the landscape upon which current and future presidents stand today.