This holiday season, Boiseans should consider these books as gifts | Opinion

It’s that time of year when we search for that special gift for someone near and dear. Why not give a book? There’s even the perfect name of our local bookstore in Boise, Rediscovered Books. Let this be the holiday season when you help friend or family rediscover the joy of reading. And if that someone special is already a reader, then give a book that deepens an understanding of the world beyond our reach.

Given our hectic schedules and our digital reliance affecting almost every aspect of our lives, gifting a book with real pages to turn also has the added advantage of reducing our reliance on big tech — Amazon, in particular. Jeff Bezos and his gargantuan online retailer have amassed economic and political power that fuels America’s growing economic inequality. Walking into a bookstore and buying a book is a small but important way of resisting big tech’s enormous influence over our personal decisions, and it also strengthens small businesses so vital to our communities.

Then there’s the decision about whether to gift fiction or nonfiction. Too often, folks run from fiction because, they say, “it’s made up.” The characters may be made up, but the circumstances and challenges those characters face can be as real as any you’ll find in a history book or life as we live it. My favorite quote on this subject is often attributed to French novelist and playwright Albert Camus: “Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”

The best and latest example of that is the New York Times best-selling author David Baldacci’s book, “Strangers in Time: A World War II Novel,” a tale of two teenagers caught in the London Blitz of 1941 and how they are rescued by a bookstore owner who harbors his own secret past. It was impossible for me to read about these kids running for safety to the underground tube stations as German bombers zeroed in on London without thinking of the Ukrainian people under siege from Putin’s murderous attacks. Today in Ukraine, it’s a different kind of blitz with modern warfare delivering drones and missiles aimed at civilians, the elderly, the hospitalized and children, all unable to escape the terror of Russia’s newest weapons that travel at 250-450 miles per hour, sparing no one the time to seek shelter as the Brits did with some advance notice.

Baldacci may be best known for the airport thrillers passengers pick up before boarding a plane, but this novel is more than a thriller. It’s a tale of compassion and courage under fire, featuring young people who have lost their parents and now fend for themselves. It’s a reminder that whenever in human history war destroys lives of the innocents, there are those who overcome the greatest adversities to survive and hope for a better day. That’s the way I see Ukrainians fighting off Putin’s missiles and drones. This novel pays tribute to those who endured the Blitz, but it also reminds us of Russia’s daily assaults on Ukrainians, subjected to far more terrifying attacks on their cities.

How did history unfold to allow Putin to invade Ukraine without a strategic and coordinated response from the West? For the answer, gift a copy of “The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine,” by retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman to your favorite policy wonk. Vindman may be best remembered for hearing President Donald Trump ask President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden in 2019 so he would have an easier time defeating Biden in 2020. Vindman later testified about that conversation during Trump’s impeachment inquiry.

In his book, Vindman shows how six U.S. presidents contributed to where Ukraine finds itself today. It serves as a lesson of how American foreign policy going all the way back to President George H.W. Bush bought into the unrealistic dream that Russia could magically convert to a democracy after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Vindman shows that Ukraine’s efforts to become independent of Russia was often dashed by American officials’ fear of offending Russia.

Accounting for how the West stood on the sidelines over the years as Putin became more emboldened and eventually invaded Ukraine is maddening, but two new books show how American foreign policy has failed with Israel, Palestine and the Middle East. These books would be the perfect gifts for anyone interested in how the U.S. has been so unsuccessful in preventing wars in the Middle East. “America’s Middle East: The Ruination of a Region” by Marc Lynch and “Kicking the Hornet’s Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump” by Daniel E. Zoughbie. Both books address why peace has failed and wars have not, all while the U.S. played a supposed peacekeeping role.

Back to the fiction front and not that far from Boise’s backyard is the most successful and versatile Spokane author, Jess Walter, whose most recent novel Idahoans will find of interest given America’s deepest political divisions playing out in north Idaho in recent years.

“So Far Gone” has been called a literary thriller. To this reader who hardly qualifies as a book reviewer, that works for me. Here’s a book with a plot that keeps the reader guessing until the thrilling conclusion. And along the way we meet some lovable and not so lovable characters who keep those pages turning.

Bruce Borgos has written “The Blue Horse,” a mystery that takes place on the high desert of Nevada and features a county sheriff tasked with investigating murders that seem to be committed by wild horse enthusiasts. It offers great insight into the challenge of protecting wild mustangs under federal law and informs readers who may not appreciate the history of wild horses in the West.

Borgos creates a cast of characters that are believable, both the good guys and the bad guys. As for the sheriff and his team, they seem ripped from the headlines of small-town Nevada, or it could be Idaho. The reader will be rooting for law and order on this very intermountain landscape and enjoying the scenic views described by the author along the way.

Looking across the Atlantic pond, you need to look no further than the work of William Boyd, a distinguished British novelist with many credits and awards to his name. His latest is in the genre of spy fiction. “The Predicament” takes the reader on a journey from Guatemala to Berlin and concludes with an exciting sequence of events surrounding President John F. Kennedy’s famous trip to the Berlin Wall in 1963 just months before his assassination when he declared himself to be a Berliner in German, one of the most famous lines of 20th century history. “Ich bin ein Berliner”.

Boyd’s protagonist is a travel author recruited by the CIA and MI6, the CIA’s British counterpart, to gather information about left-wing politics in Guatemala and then gain access to a possible conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy at the Berlin Wall. Boyd has his own thoughts about how many shooters were involved in Dallas and as his most believable and thrilling tale unfolds in Berlin, the reader could come away with a different take on what really happened in Dallas.

Here’s hoping these book recommendations work for your Christmas shopping and as a dog lover whose dog, Lexi, sits beside me as I write this, I’m reminded of Groucho Marx’ famous line. “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” Hope your holidays are bright enough to read and filled with joy and love!

Bob Kustra served as president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018. He is host of Readers Corner on Boise State Public Radio, a regular columnist for the Idaho Statesman and a contributing columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as a state legislator.