John Mccain's Reading List

Senator John McCain, whose new book is "The Restless Wave," thinks all children should read "Huckleberry Finn": "It's funny and it's scary, and it teaches us to see past our differences."

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By the Book: John Mccain (2018)

NYT By the Book column (2018-05-03).

Source: www.nytimes.com

The Great Gatsby

Unknown · Buy on Amazon

"Not long ago I reread 'The Great Gatsby,' and was impressed again by the beauty of the prose and the distinctiveness of the style. Nearly a century later, it still reads as something new and different."

Advise and Consent

Allen Drury · Buy on Amazon

"'Advise and Consent,' by Allen Drury. The characters have mixed motives. Their personalities are complex and their actions nuanced. They're not all good or all bad, just as in real politics and real life."

The Best and the Brightest

David Halberstam · Buy on Amazon

"'The Best and the Brightest,' by David Halberstam, for governance."

This Kind of War

T. R. Fehrenbach · Buy on Amazon

"'This Kind of War,' T. R. Fehrenbach's classic study of the Korean War."

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway · Buy on Amazon

"Ernest Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' It's my favorite novel of all time. It instructed me to see the world as it is, with all its corruption and cruelty, and believe it's worth fighting for anyway, even dying for."

Hell in a Very Small Place

Bernard Fall · Buy on Amazon

"'Hell in a Very Small Place' and 'Street Without Joy,' by Bernard Fall, warned us about the mistakes we should have avoided making in Vietnam."

Street Without Joy

Bernard Fall · Buy on Amazon

"'Hell in a Very Small Place' and 'Street Without Joy,' by Bernard Fall, warned us about the mistakes we should have avoided making in Vietnam."

A Bright Shining Lie

Neil Sheehan · Buy on Amazon

"'A Bright Shining Lie,' by Neil Sheehan. Sheehan's book examining America's involvement in Vietnam through the experiences of John Paul Vann shows how we went about making them anyway."

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain · Buy on Amazon

"It's funny and it's scary, and it teaches us to see past our differences to the inherent dignity we possess in equal measure."

Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie and the War Years

Carl Sandburg · Buy on Amazon

"Carl Sandburg's 'Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie and the War Years.' His portrait of Lincoln instructs the reader in the personal virtues that made Lincoln's an extraordinarily wise, decent and crucial presidency."

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