His entry begins:For most of the past four years, as I have been writing The Last Refuge, I’ve read primarily fiction. I’m not really sure why this is, but I’m a big believer in reading what you like and so I just went where my tastes led.About The Last Refuge, from the publisher:
Now that I’m finished with the book I’ve found my tastes running more toward non-fiction, particularly biographies. That change is represented in the books that are currently next to my bed, which are:
The Back Chamber (Donald Hall): Donald Hall is my favorite poet, and fall always puts me in the mood to read him. He reminds me of cold mornings, spiced apple cider, and New England – all things I associate with fall and the creep of winter’s beginnings.
A few weeks ago The New Yorker published an essay that mentioned that The Back Chamber was...[read on]
A gripping account of how al-Qaeda in Yemen rebounded from an initial defeat to once again threaten the United States.Read more about The Last Refuge at the W.W. Norton website.
Far from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States and al-Qaeda are fighting a clandestine warof drones and suicide bombers in an unforgiving corner of Arabia.
The Last Refuge charts the rise, fall, and resurrection of al-Qaeda in Yemen over the last thirty years, detailing how a group that the United States once defeated has now become one of the world’s most dangerous threats. An expert on Yemen who has spent years on the ground there, Gregory D. Johnsen uses al-Qaeda’s Arabic battle notes to reconstruct their world as they take aim at the United States and its allies. Johnsen brings readers in-side al-Qaeda’s training camps and safe houses as the terrorists plot poison attacks and debate how to bring down an airliner on Christmas Day. The Last Refuge is an eye-opening look at the successes and failures of fighting a new type of war in one of the most turbulent countries in the world.
Writers Read: Gregory D. Johnsen.
--Marshal Zeringue
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