(2 of 2)
3 Legends of the American Desert (Knopf) Alex Shoumatoff, a New Yorker contributor, spent 25 years researching and writing this book about the U.S. Southwest. The result is a sometimes bewildering but continually fascinating profusion of stories and themes. Shoumatoff writes knowingly and affectionately about indigenous Indians and those who came later. The scenery is spectacular, and there is nothing dry or dusty in this desert.
4 Whittaker Chambers (Random House) Historian Sam Tanenhaus rights an old imbalance in this scrupulous biography. For more than 40 years, most discussions of the Alger Hiss-Whittaker Chambers affair focused on Hiss: innocent, as he claimed, or guilty, as Chambers charged? But of the two, Chambers was by far the more interesting person and tormented soul. Tanenhaus' perceptive illumination of Chambers' life also lights up a dark, troubled period of American history.
5 Citizen Soldiers (Simon & Schuster) Stephen Ambrose, author of Undaunted Courage, last year's best seller about Lewis and Clark, thought there were still some untold stories to tell about World War II in Europe, and he was right. His mixture of narrative and oral histories brings to unforgettable life the G.I.s who slogged through it.