📚 Interruptrr 2024 Book List 📚
Elmira's favorite foreign policy book picks
Happy birthday to Stacey, Caroline, and Francesca who are post-Christmas and pre- and post- New Years babies — all wonderful souls.
And huge congrats to Catherine, who I couldn’t do this newsletter without. She’s getting married next week! 👰🏻♀️
We all have books that we go back to over and over again. Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran is one of mine. It is a fascinating read about defying political repression and finding solace and one’s self in books. Her insights into the human condition are remarkable. Consider this quote from chapter one of the book:
“…what we search for in fiction is not so much reality but the epiphany of truth.”
The epiphany of truth is certainly one of the reasons I read. As we head into 2025, that seems ever more urgent. Yet, in reviewing the year in foreign policy/national security books, I am struck, once again, at how few are penned by women. The Women’s Prize Trust published a study this year that reveals that while women read books by both men and women, men tend to read only books by men — and that male editors reach for male authors more than female ones. This is not only disturbing. It is dangerous.
The lack of female authors in non-fiction is reflected on the various year-end lists. Over at the NYT, its 10 best books 2024 only has one female identifying person on its non-fiction list, my Bard colleague Lucy Sante. The WSJ, which does a pitiful job in publishing women on its oped page, does better on its 10 best books 2024 with three female authors writing non-fiction books. Two write on “hard” policy issues. The third writes about marriage. 😐 Foreign Affairs has 32 books on its year-end list, with 11 books authored or co-authored by a woman.
It goes without saying that the Interruptrr year-end book list has a 100 percent women. Perhaps that is a performative exercise — one that I believe is necessary to perform. This newsletter has stood strong for 10 years precisely because there is not only a hunger for diverse perspectives in foreign policy and national security, but a recognition that without them we are, well, fucked. The epiphany of truth cannot come through the singular lens of white men, who are, all too often, the go-to authors and experts on all things global affairs. Nor can the solutions to the multitude of challenges we face today. That can only come when we widen the lens to look at the world through different viewpoints.
So, here’s my year-end book list. It includes a necessary read on nuclear war and election integrity. There are two books by Interruptrr fellows, one by Asha Castleberry who explains why national security matters and another by Alice Driver who dives into a meatpacking plant in her native Arkansas and the horrid conditions that undocumented workers were subjected to. There are two books that look at climate change, one in the oceans and another as an increasing security threat. There are two books set in Asia, one in Japan another China. And a look at what’s happening in Venezuela. Though I only started listening to it, I included Angela Merkel’s recently published memoir as well. So far, it’s a compelling reading, of a consequential figure.
I hope that you’ll consider buying one of these titles, from Interruptrr partner Tertulia. Tertulia is a female-led online membership book community. Membership is only $25 per year. Your first book is 50% off with free shipping. Plus, you get to support a female run enterprise and create an alternative to Amazon. Win-win. Interruptrr subscribers get an additional 20% off on the 2024 Interruptrr book list with code WOMEN24 at checkout - membership is not necessary. (Thru January 2025.)
And that’s a wrap! It’s been a hard year for me. So, I’m taking it easy this holiday. I hope that you will as well. I’m wishing you a happy, healthy, and restful holiday — a better 2025. Team Interruptrr will be back in mid-January (I haven’t decided exactly when….) As always, thank you reader. This newsletter means the world to me. It is what has gotten me through the past year. You make that possible. If you do like this newsletter, I hope that you’ll share it with others and like posts! That does make a difference. Let’s smash the patriarchy and raise up female expertise. — Elmira
Also, aren’t you impressed that I figured out how to make a photo collage of the book covers? 💅
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security by Sherri Goodman
Why National Security Matters: A Perspective From One of America’s Top National Security Strategists by Asha Castleberry
Our Nation At Risk: Election Integrity as a National Security Issue by Karen Greenberg and Julian Zelizer
The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfilled by Dahlia Scheindlin
Japan’s Quiet Leadership: Reshaping the Indo-Pacific by Mireya Solis
The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China’s New Social Order by Yuan Yang
The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey
Motherland: A Memoir by Paula Ramon
Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company by Alice Driver
Freedom by Angela Merkel
Editorial Team
Elmira Bayrasli - Editor-in-Chief
Editors:
Catherine Lovizio
Emily Smith
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