The Best Books of 2005
By Steven Martinovich
web posted January 2, 2006
The war after the war: Steven Vincent explores post-war Iraq in In The Red Zone: A
Journey into the Soul of Iraq and he's cautiously optimistic about that nation's future, reports Steve Martinovich
Enemy of the state: My Father's Rifle: A Childhood in Kurdistan tells the story of a Kurdish boy who discovers far too early in life how difficult simply existing can be, writes Steve Martinovich
The rise of the American empire: Steve Martinovich hails The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed as the best criticism of America's interventionist foreign policy to come from either the left or right in recent years
The law's greatest advocate: Scalia Dissents: Writings of the Supreme Court's Wittiest, Most Outspoken Justice is a potent argument for why Antonin Scalia should be respected by every American, writes Steven Martinovich
Recipe of a life: As a chronicle of writer M.F.K. Fisher's life, Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of M.F.K. Fisher, did a decent job. Steve Martinovich just wishes it had been a bit more
The day that changed the world: Steve Martinovich thought that The Fly in the Cathedral: How A Small Group of Cambridge Scientists Won The Race to Split the Atom was a...err...smashing piece of work
Les hommes de l'empire: France has long been blasted for its colonial record and the men responsible for it but Steve Martinovich says that Cultured Force: Makers and Defenders of the French Colonial Empire goes a long way in resuscitating their reputations
The danger from the east: Jerome R. Corsi's Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians paints a terrible picture of a violent and radical Iran armed with nuclear weapons, says Carol Devine-Molin
Thank you for not sharing: Man of few words Bernard Chapin hails One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance by Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel
Lawrence of Africa: Steve Martinovich will admit some bias: Richard Zacks is one of his favourite writers. Despite that, you can trust his opinion that The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, The First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805 is a rousing success
A brother's questions: Novelist Uwe Timm wrote In My Brother's Shadow: A Life and Death in the SS to try and understand a brother he never knew and a nation that went mad. Steve Martinovich reviews his efforts
New life for the oldest hatred: It's not perfect but Damian Penny says that Those Who Forget the Past: The Question of Anti-Semitism is a worthy exploration of the ages-old problem of anti-Semitism
Exploring Muhammad's legacy: Everyone thinks they know what Islam is about. Steve Martinovich says that reading No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam will straighten out the wrongheaded beliefs of many of those people
Man of faith: John Grant's John Adams: Party of One tells the true story of John Adams, a man who stood alone but was also armed with the power of his faith, writes Steve Farrell
The high cost of labor: Steve Martinovich found Giles Milton's White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves to be a fascinating introduction to a nearly forgotten episode in history
Where death lives: Kang Chol-Hwan's The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag is a powerful indictment of a nation that has essentially made the concept of shared humanity illegal
The mutating virus of militant Islamism: Steve Martinovich rarely describes a book as a "must read" but he does so with Fawaz Gerges' The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global, an exploration into why militant Islam switched targets and attacked the West 
Other related stories: (open in a new window)
- The Best Books of 2004 by Steven Martinovich (January 2, 2005)
Book editor Steve Martinovich announces his picks for the best books of 2004 - The Best Books of 2003 by Steven Martinovich (December 22, 2003)
Book editor Steve Martinovich announces his picks for the best books of 2003 - The Best Books of 2002 by Steven Martinovich (January 6, 2003)
Steve Martinovich picks the books he thought were the best of 2002