New York Times foreign correspondent Dexter Filkins’s essay “Surging and Awakening” in The New Republic on the turnabout of U.S. strategy in Iraq and what it could mean in Afghanistan shouldn’t be missed. Filkins delivered a whopper of a book (“The Forever War”) on U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan in September 2008, which won a Pulitzer Prize, proving he’s a reporter to follow.
Christopher Goffard’s front-page article “Fleeing All but Each Other” in The Los Angeles Times on the young drifters and runaways who crisscross the country by hopping trains was riveting reading. I could not put down its tragic story of Adam Kuntz and Ashley Hughes and the hard lives of such “traveling kids.”
Vanity Fair’s June article “Hello, Madoff!” on what the Ponzi schemer’s secretary of 20 years witnessed is essential reading, especially for those still trying to figure out how this all happened and what this nutcase was like.
Edward Klein’s book excerpt “The Lion and Legacy” on Ted Kennedy’s battle with brain cancer in the June Vanity Fair is a tough look behind the dilemma. And among other things, it claims Caroline Kennedy pulled out of last year’s N.Y. Senate race because of her kids’ concerns, which she has since dismissed as untrue.
Writer Daphne Merkin’s lifelong battle with chronic depression is heart-wrenchingly captured in her article “A Long Journey in the Dark” in the New York Times Magazine. It’s a tough read but can’t be missed for those hoping she’ll continue to recover.
