Books like Fixed ideas by Joan Didion

Joan Didion reflects on motherhood, aging, and grief through memories of her daughter’s wedding and her own sense of failure, offering a candid, intimate memoir of parenthood and personal history.

*Longitudes and Attitudes* contains the columns Friedman has published about the most momentous news story of our time, as well as a diary of his experiences and reactions during this period of crisis. As the author writes, the book is "not meant to be a comprehensive study of September 11 and all the factors that went into it. Rather, my hope is that it will constitute a 'word album' that captures and preserves the raw, unpolished, emotional and analytical responses that illustrate how I, and others, felt as we tried to grapple with September and its aftermath, as they were unfolding." Readers have repeatedly said that Friedman has expressed the essence of their own feelings, helping them not only by explaining who "they" are, but also by reassuring us about who "we" are. More than any other journalist writing, Friedman gives voice to America's awakening sense of its role in a changed world.

Elena McMahon, a Washington Post journalist estranged from her powerful husband, travels from California to Florida to meet her father, embroiled in illegal arms deals. Her investigation weaves through U.S. political intrigue, covert operations and historical scandals, including 1963 JFK, Castro, Cuba and Iran‑Contra.

"John Newhouse describes the ways in which America's relationship with much of the world went wrong after the events of September 11, 2001, the moment when most nations were ready to accept U. S. leadership in a war against terrorism. Newhouse poses important questions: Why didn't the Bush administration exploit this rare opportunity to stabilize the Middle East, and Southwest and Northeast Asia? How have the administration's truculent behavior, misguided actions, and inaction at critical moments undermined efforts to curb the production of weapons of mass destruction? Why have Bush and his cabinet laid down edicts that have served chiefly to upset and sharpen the insecurities of other nations, including some of our allies?" "Newhouse discusses the reasons why Pakistan is probably the most dangerous country in the world. He devotes attention to the threats posed by Iran and North Korea, and the administration's bungled, dangerously inept attention to them. Woven through with illuminating anecdotes and vivid portraits of the players - Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell, Blair, Chirac, Putin, and others - Imperial America is a brilliantly clear, timely, and powerfully thought-provoking expose of recent American foreign policy: how it has been made and perilously mishandled."--BOOK JACKET.

Joan Didion reflects on American ideals of independence and self-reliance through her own life and family, examining how the character of California settlers shaped the state as it exists today.

People around the world are confused and concerned. Is it a sign of strength or of weakness that the US has suddenly shifted from a politics of consensus to one of coercion on the world stage? What was really at stake in the war on Iraq? Was it all about oil and, if not, what else was involved? What role has a sagging economy played in pushing the US into foreign adventurism? What exactly is the relationship between US militarism abroad and domestic politics? These are the questions taken up in this compelling and original book. In this closely argued and clearly written book, David Harvey, one of the leading social theorists of his generation, builds a conceptual framework to expose the underlying forces at work behind these momentous shifts in US policies and politics. The compulsions behind the projection of US power on the world as a "new imperialism" are here, for the first time, laid bare for all to see.