Last week the Times' chief book critic Michiko [1] Kakutani [1]picked out her ten favorite books of 2007. Predictably [2], four of Kakutani's6 non-fictionchoices are liberal books from liberal authors (the remaining four are novels).
Here are Kakutani's raves:
"THE SECOND CIVIL WAR: HOW EXTREME PARTISANSHIP HAS PARALYZED WASHINGTON AND POLARIZED AMERICA by Ronald Brownstein. A veteran political reporter provides a shrewd election-year assessment of the growing partisanship in American politics, looking at the roots of this polarization and its alarming consequences for the country at large."
"NIXON AND KISSINGER: PARTNERS IN POWER [3] by Robert Dallek. A fascinating portrait of President Richard M. Nixon [4] and his chief foreign policy honcho, Henry A. Kissinger [5], a book that not only deftly deconstructs their emotionally fraught relationship and their policy making on Vietnam, the Middle East and China, but also underscores the historical lessons of their decisions and missteps."
"THE NINE: INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF THE SUPREME COURT [6] by Jeffrey Toobin. A vivid narrative of the Supreme Court's recent history and an intimate portrait of the individual justices that shows how personality, judicial philosophy and personal alliances can inform decisions that affect the entire country."
"LEGACY OF ASHES: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA by Tim Weiner. A timely, compelling and prodigiously researched history of the C.I.A. [7] by a reporter for The New York Times that chronicles an alarming litany of intelligence blunders and bungled operations, from the agency's creation after World War II through the cold war to its recent failures in the prelude to the Iraq war."
Brownstein and Toobin are liberal journalists, Tim Weiner is a liberal Times defense reporter, and Dallek is a history professor and a favorite go-to guy for the Times when it wants some high-toned Bush-bashing. No conservatives books made Kakutani's list.