My desert island list part 42
Explore the ultimate desert island book list, part 42, featuring essential reads like Bob Woodward's State of Denial, Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, and Samuel R. Delany's Nova.
Book
State of Denial
by Bob Woodward
After two #1 "New York Times" bestsellers on the Bush administration's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Woodward's new book on the Bush White House again provides an unparalleled, intimate account of the present state of national security decision-making.
Book
The Satanic Verses
by Salman Rushdie
Just before dawn one winter's morning, a hijacked jetliner explodes above the English Channel. Through the falling debris, two figures, Gibreel Farishta, the biggest star in India, and Saladin Chamcha, an expatriate returning from his first visit to Bombay in fifteen years, plummet from the sky, washing up on the snow-covered sands of an English beach, and proceed through a series of metamorphoses, dreams, and revelations.
Book
Voss
by Patrick White
Set in nineteeth century Australia, Voss is the story of passion between and explorer and a naive young woman.
Book
Nova
by Samuel R. Delany
Given that the suns of Draco stretch almost sixteen light years from end to end, it stands to reason that the cost of transportation is the most important factor of the 32nd century. And since Illyrion is the element most needed for space travel, Lorq von Ray is plenty willing to fly through the core of a recently imploded sun in order to obtain seven tons of it. The potential for profit is so great that Lorq has little difficulty cobbling together an alluring crew that includes a gypsy musician and a moon-obsessed scholar interested in the ancient art of writing a novel. What the crew doesn’t know, though, is that Lorq’s quest is actually fueled by a private revenge so consuming that he’ll stop at nothing to achieve it. In the grandest manner of speculative fiction, Nova is a wise and witty classic that casts a fascinating new light on some of humanity’s oldest truths and enduring myths.