American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, DC, by Shahan Mufti
This is a truly crazy story, involving the hostage-taking of more than 100 people in downtown DC by a Muslim leader who was bankrolled by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. If you don't know much about Islam in America (I sure didn't), this is an incredible resource, as well as a great primer on the recent history of countries like Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and the 1970s oil embargo. It also serves as a history of the Nation of Islam, with Malcolm X and Muhammed Ali also featured as important characters. Never is this book boring; it's entertaining throughout and incredibly suspenseful. (Hat tip: Umar Lee)
Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story, by Lis Smith
This is the best kind of political memoir: gossipy, substantive and fun. Smith is best known for masterminding the rise of Pete Buttigieg, but has also worked on campaigns for everyone from Obama to Claire McCaskill to Terry McAuliffe. She is an incredible operative, with the ability to read the political winds before others, and also has a sense of humor about herself. The book recounts her time on contentious campaigns, and in the eye of the tabloid storm, after the press found out about her relationship with Eliot Spitzer. (It also contains fun bits about her time with my buddy and former St. Louis State Senator Jeff Smith, no relation.) Lis Smith reserves particularly venom for former New York mayor Bill de Blasio, who didn’t hire her after the Spitzer news broke, and throughout the book she names names and doesn’t hold back.
Dead In the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy, by Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel
Kind of like Captain Phillips, except at the center is a fake pirate attack, rather than a real one. Dead In the Water goes deep on the history and economics of the maritime industry, which is ostensibly based in Greece, but has tentacles reaching across the globe. In order to deny culpability when things go wrong, shipping companies purposefully obfuscate details of their ownership, and insurance companies encourage this behavior to protect their own asses. In the case of this incredibly-suspenseful whodunnit, unraveling the paper trail takes on life-or-death stakes.