Dear Dispatch members,
The highly anticipated return of The Dispatch Book Club podcast is here with lots of books (and movies) to dive into.
Before we get into the winter series of books, I wanted to start with a bonus podcast about a book I, frankly, am just obsessed with. It’s The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff, and it has completely changed the way I view the Boston Tea Party. Turns out, everything we were taught in school was wrong. It’s a book you won’t want to miss out on.
Then, for the winter series, we are going to read books that were adapted into films. Some of these movies were the biggest of the year, so I thought it would be a good idea to read the actual books. Plus, by doing so, we may or may not have forced Steve into actually watching a movie.
We are publishing all of the member discussion pages now, so please feel free to jump to any of the four books and leave questions and comments in the comments section.
Below is the schedule for each month and the corresponding book (and movie).
Oh, and one more thing. The best way to get all of the podcast episodes when they are released is by subscribing to The Skiff—the Dispatch members-only podcast superfeed. If you are not signed up yet, there are instructions all the way at the bottom of this message for how to do so. It’s very easy, and the feed will have plenty of other content than just the new Book Club episodes.
Here’s the schedule:
November
By Stacy Schiff
From Little, Brown and Company: “Thomas Jefferson asserted that if there was any leader of the Revolution, ‘Samuel Adams was the man.’ With high-minded ideals and bare-knuckle tactics, Adams led what could be called the greatest campaign of civil resistance in American history. Stacy Schiff returns Adams to his seat of glory, introducing us to the shrewd and eloquent man who supplied the moral backbone of the American Revolution. A singular figure at a singular moment, Adams amplified the Boston Massacre. He helped to mastermind the Boston Tea Party. He employed every tool available to rally a town, a colony, and eventually a band of colonies behind him, creating the cause that created a country. For his efforts he became the most wanted man in America: When Paul Revere rode to Lexington in 1775, it was to warn Samuel Adams that he was about to be arrested for treason. In The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, Schiff brings her masterful skills to Adams’s improbable life, illuminating his transformation from aimless son of a well-off family to tireless, beguiling radical who mobilized the colonies. Arresting, original, and deliriously dramatic, this is a long-overdue chapter in the history of our nation.”
The discussion page can be found here.
The podcast will be released at the end of November.
December
By David Grann
From Penguin Random House: “In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.”
The discussion page can be found here.
The podcast is scheduled to be released at the end of December.
January
By Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
From Penguin Random House: “In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.”
The discussion page can be found here.
The podcast is scheduled to be released at the end of January.
February
By Michael Lewis
From W.W. Norton & Company: “The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren’t talking.”
The discussion page can be found here.
The podcast is scheduled to be released at the end of February.
Enjoy!
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