Ted Koppel's 6 Best-Loved Books's Reading List

"This slender volume transcends time, fashion, and scientific achievement — everything, in short, that feeds our illusion that we are evolving. Marcus’ 2,000-year-old observations about our conceits, as well as his commonsense recommendations on the virtues of self-control, require no refrigeration, because they’re still fresh."

"An uneasy truce exists between black and white Americans: We avoid giving offense largely by not talking about how race alters lived experience. Coates takes that subject head-on, explaining the nearly constant fear that still afflicts black Americans. This is an uncomfortable book, but brilliant and right on point."

"In this novel about the 1877 clash between the U.S. Army and Nez Percé warriors who refused to give up tribal lands, Vollmann eschews standard punctuation and bounces dialogue among characters without so much as a ‘he said’ to help his reader. But, my God, the man can write. If it’s possible to craft an even-handed indictment of this nation, he has done it."

"I’m a sucker for Le Carré. He worked briefly in British intelligence, of course, and it’s said that A Perfect Spy is partly autobiographical. Whatever its genesis, it offers mesmerizing insight into what compels a person to follow such a treacherous path."