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The Book Report: Washington Post critic Ron Charles (June 2)
By Washington Post book critic Ron Charles
Here are four hot new books to check out this summer.
W.W. Norton
You may know Claire Messud from such terrific books as “The Emperor’s Children” or “The Woman Upstairs.” Her new novel, “This Strange Eventful History” (W.W. Norton), uses the outlines of her own family to tell a story of three generations buffeted around the globe from World War II into the 21st century.
Determined to be a writer herself someday, the narrator watches as her father struggles for many unhappy decades to match the example of his father.
This gorgeously written book examines the way family secrets are protected and family myths are polished.
Read an excerpt: “This Strange Eventful History” by Claire Messud
“This Strange Eventful History” by Claire Messud (W.W. Norton), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Simon & Schuster
I see a very fun novel in your future: “The Ministry of Time” by Kaliane Bradley (Simon & Schuster). This delightful mix of historical fact and science fiction is about a secret British agency that plucks doomed people from the past.
The narrator is a young woman serving as a guide to present-day life. Her first assignment is with the very proper Commander Graham Gore, who died on Franklin’s Arctic expedition in the mid-19th century.
Imagine if “The Time Traveler’s Wife” had an affair with “A Gentleman in Moscow.” You’ll love it.
Read an excerpt: “The Ministry of Time” by Kaliane Bradley
“The Ministry of Time” by Kaliane Bradley (Simon & Schuster), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Little, Brown & Co.
Speaking of bringing people back from the past: Fifteen years ago, Michael Crichton died before he could finish his story about a volcano in Hawaii.
Well, life finds a way! Now in the splashiest partnership of this summer – or perhaps any summer – Crichton’s manuscript has been completed by James Patterson.
The result of this bestseller mash-up is “Eruption” (Little, Brown & Co.), an explosively corny thriller about a volcano that’s about to send millions of tons of lava across Hawaii and possibly threaten all life on Earth. Put on your oven mitts: This is a hot one.
Read an excerpt: “Eruption” by Michael Crichton and James Patterson
“Eruption” by Michael Crichton and James Patterson (Little, Brown & Co.), in Hardcover, Large Print, eBook and Audio formats, available June 3 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Simon & Schuster
In early 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle blasted off into a clear blue sky. Seventy-three seconds later, the ship exploded, killing all seven crew members.
The outlines of that tragedy are well known, but Adam Higginbotham finds fresh new lessons in his exhaustively researched new book, “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space” (Simon & Schuster). He explores the culture of overconfidence that led NASA to ignore warnings and push ahead as though space flight were routine. It wasn’t then, and (as this sobering book reminds us) it still isn’t.
Read an excerpt: “Challenger” by Adam Higginbotham
“Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space” by Adam Higginbotham (Simon & Schuster), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
For more suggestions on what to read, contact your librarian or local bookseller.
That’s it for the Book Report. I’m Ron Charles. Until next time, read on!
For more info:
For more reading recommendations, check out these previous Book Report features from Ron Charles:
Produced by Robin Sanders and Roman Feeser.
The House Ethics Committee, which has been conducting an investigation into sexual misconduct and obstruction allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, scheduled a vote for Friday on whether to release its report, according to three sources with knowledge of the committee’s work.
Hours after President-elect Donald Trump said he planned to nominate Gaetz to be attorney general, Gaetz resigned his congressional seat, effective immediately.
“I do not intend to take the oath of office for the same office in the 119th Congress, to pursue the position of Attorney General in the Trump Administration,” Gaetz said in his resignation letter obtained by CBS News
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that there was about an eight-week period during which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could fill his seat by setting the date for a special election.
Now that Gaetz has resigned, it is unclear whether the panel will vote on releasing the report, since Gaetz is no longer in Congress.
There is precedent in Congress on the Senate side for an ethics committee report to become public after a member resigns from Congress, however. In 2011, this happened when Sen. John Ensign of Nevada resigned amid allegations that he tried to hide an extramarital affair.
But it’s not clear that that would apply to the House, leaving open the possibility that the report on Gaetz would not be released.
In June, the House Ethics Committee released a statement saying it was investigating a range of allegations against Gaetz, including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and bribery.
Multiple sources at the time told CBS News that four women had informed the House Ethics Committee that they had been paid to go to parties that included sex and drugs, and that Gaetz had also attended. The committee has Gaetz’s Venmo transactions that allegedly show payments for the women.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has called the committee’s investigation a “frivolous” smear campaign.
Some of the allegations of sexual misconduct under review by the committee were also the subject of a previous Department of Justice probe into Gaetz. Federal investigators sought to determine if Gaetz violated sex trafficking and obstruction of justice laws, but no charges were filed.
The House Ethics Committee resumed its investigation into Gaetz in 2023, following the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue charges against him.
Gaetz has long blamed then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, also a Republican, for the probe. And Gaetz later led the movement to sack McCarthy as speaker.
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