I recently asked him what he was reading. He replied with an account of "a few [books] that have been on [the] nightstand in the past few months:"
In preparation for heading back to Iraq, I had another read of Chris Hedges' War is a Force the Gives Us Meaning. It is an incredibly moving book that encompasses war and war reporting better than any other tome ever penned. It and the companion volume, What Every Person Should Know About War should be required reading for aspiring journalists and politicians alike. I'm also about 90 percent through Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan by A.C. Grayling.Alex Kingsbury met Staff Sgt. Darrell Griffin 18 days before the soldier was killed by a sniper. View the web feature, "A Soldier's Life and Death," which includes Kingsbury's cover story about Griffin, photos the soldier took, his personal emails, videos, and journal entries.I also recently finished Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past by Giles Tremlett. He does a wonderful job capturing modern Spain in all its contradictions and what's been buried not so deeply in the Iberian peninsula.
Last week I finished up Reappraisals by Tony Judt, a good collection of essays most of which had already been published in the New York Review of Books.
When I need some fiction, it's anything by Milan Kundera. Life is Elsewhere and Laughable Loves are two favorites.
Kingsbury's articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post Express, National Geographic Traveler, the Dallas Morning News, and been distributed by the New York Times.
He has also written for the Watchdog Project, an initiative of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Visit Alex Kingsbury's website.
--Marshal Zeringue
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