This week, we feature a scholarly, historical timeline of communism’s trajectory and a biographical account of one man’s climb and descent in the airline industry.
Nonfiction
‘To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism’
By Sean McMeekin
Combining scholarship with narrative, this historian tells the story of the ebbs and flows of communism over the last century. He shows that despite its promises of a proletariat paradise, communism arises by force, not by popular vote, and rules through blood and oppression. The pattern of totalitarianism runs from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to Maoist China and into our present century. A must-read given today’s continued infatuation with a discredited and murderous philosophy.
Basic Books, 2024, 544 pages
History
‘Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun, and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants’
By H.W. Brands
To understand the first half of the 19th century in America, one must meet the men who led the country at the time, and there are few individuals more important to this period than Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, and Henry Clay. These political giants were deemed “The Great Triumvirate”—a reference to the political giants of ancient Rome. Brands discusses how, whether working together or against each other, these politicians formed the country’s policies, which ultimately ended tragically.
Doubleday, 2018, 432 pages
Aviation History
‘Aviation as a Business: Clement M. Keys and the Formation of the American Aviation Industry’
By Edward M. Young
This is a biography of Clement Keys, early aviation’s forgotten man. He steered the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company out of impending bankruptcy in 1919, turning it into the continent’s largest aircraft manufacturer. Keys helped organize and run what became United Airlines, TWA, and Eastern Airlines. He also influenced the 1926 Air Commerce Act, creating today’s commercial aviation system. Business missteps forced Keys out of aviation during the Great Depression. Despite his accomplishments, he was subsequently forgotten.
Texas A&M University Press, 2026, 352 pages
Fantasy
‘Stay for a Spell’
By Amy Coombe
Princess Tanadelle of the Widdenmar would rather read than “princess”—the cutting ribbons, kissing babies, and inspecting dragons expected of royalty. Getting magically cursed to stay in a bookstore in obscure Little Pepperidge isn’t all that bad for her. She has the solitude she desires. Thinking a prince’s kiss might break her curse, her parents send princes with that objective. Except to break the curse, she needs to find her heart’s desire—these princes are not it. A delightfully amusing tale.
Ace, 2026, 384 pages
Classics
‘Knights of the Range: A Western Story’
By Zane Grey
Sent away to Eastern boarding schools as a girl, and now a refined young woman, Holly Ripple inherits her father’s beloved Don Carlos Ranch in New Mexico, a vast property plagued by rustlers and range wars. Her foreman, Captain Britt, collects a band of cattle punchers and gunmen, including one who falls for Holly, to protect her and make her a queen among ranchers. Vivid descriptions of the landscape and the action scenes make this 1936 novel among the best written by this master of the Western.
Skyhorse, 2016, 320 pages
For Kids
‘The Sailor Dog’
By Margaret Wise Brown and Garth Williams
This classic Little Golden Book features Scuppers, an adventurous pup who yearns to sail. He boards a boat and sets out on the open sea where he experiences many adventures, from getting shipwrecked, to building himself a house, to visiting a foreign land, and more. This charming story encourages curiosity, self-reliance, and a spirit of adventure.
Golden Books, 2001, 24 pages
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