By Miriam Kramer

By publication time November 3rd will be upon us. Currently I would like to be in a sensory deprivation chamber. Or floating around the International Space Station. Or lying on a beach in Fiji singing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” over and over. Yet I am still writing letters to voters in multiple states as my cell phone collects 80,000 texts asking me to chip in a dollar. After the extraordinary pressures of this election take a break to fall into these pages. Peruse these books for absorbing, escapist reads. They speak of human ingenuity, ambition, courage, and survival.

Endurance by Alfred Lansing (1959)

The classic survival tale, Endurance, by Alfred Lansing, remains an enthralling pick of the literary litter. In 1914, British explorer Ernest Shackleton set out to cross Antarctica on foot. His expedition ended disastrously when his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in ice and was eventually crushed, stranding twenty-eight men in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments.

Alfred Lansing reconstructs their extraordinary struggle through diaries, records, and interviews with survivors. His account reads like an adventure novel, although its succession of seemingly impossible escapes might strain credibility even in fiction. Shackleton emerges as a remarkable leader whose ingenuity, determination, and understanding of human nature enabled him to bring every member of his ship’s company home alive. His expedition failed in its original purpose, but his achievement raises this question: Should leadership be measured by accomplishing ambitious goals or by protecting those in your care?

The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides

Captain James Cook’s final Pacific expedition, beginning in 1776, combined extraordinary navigational achievement with the arrogance and contradictions of European imperial expansion. Hampton Sides recounts Cook’s search for the Northwest Passage, his encounters with Indigenous societies, and the increasingly troubling behavior that marked his final voyage. Cook emerges as a complicated figure, admirable for his courage and accomplishments but susceptible to frustration, misjudgment, and the assumptions of his age.

Sides combines maritime adventure with a thoughtful reconsideration of exploration itself and its ultimate result: colonization of lands already inhabited by people with established cultures and histories. His absorbing narrative reminds us that extraordinary accomplishments do not necessarily confer moral superiority.

The Persian by David McCloskey

Former CIA analyst David McCloskey explores the dangerous world of Israeli and Iranian intelligence through the experiences of an Iranian dentist recruited by Mossad. His contemporary espionage thriller depicts a world in which information is manipulated, loyalties are uncertain, and individuals become expendable instruments of national policy. McCloskey’s professional background lends authenticity to the intricate intelligence operations, although operational details occasionally overshadow his characters.

For readers who appreciate John le Carré’s morally ambiguous espionage novels, The Persian is a compelling contemporary page turner, replacing Cold War certainties with the increasingly complicated conflicts of the Middle East. It is a compelling read particularly in light of the war we embarked upon with Iran this year.

The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon

History generally celebrates presidents, generals, and powerful political figures while overlooking ordinary individuals whose courage and determination helped transform American society. In The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon introduces us to lesser-known Americans whose accomplishments deserve considerably more recognition.

Among them is Clara Brown, a formerly enslaved woman who became a successful Colorado entrepreneur and philanthropist while searching for the daughter from whom she had been separated. Inez Milholland, a lawyer and advocate for women’s suffrage, famously led a 1913 Washington parade on a white horse before dying at thirty after years of campaigning for women’s rights.

Then there is Claudette Colvin, the fifteen-year-old African American girl who refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks’s celebrated protest. Septima Clark, an educator and civil rights activist, helped establish Citizenship Schools that enabled African Americans to acquire the literacy and civic knowledge necessary to exercise their voting rights.

Katharine Lee Bates was a professor, poet, and social reformer who wrote “America the Beautiful,” which eventually became one of the United States’ most beloved patriotic songs. An accomplished academic, she advocated social reform and women’s educational opportunities at a time when women faced significant barriers to higher education and professional advancement. Her vision of America emphasized not simply national greatness but the country’s obligation to pursue justice and equality. (To learn more about her, I would also suggest watching the excellent documentary “From Sea to Shining Sea,” directed by Laurence Cotton and John de Graaf. It conveys the striking relevance of “America the Beautiful” today. https://www.seatoshiningseafilm.org/

McMahon’s enthusiastic storytelling occasionally favors admiration over critical distance, but her approach works and her central argument is persuasive. These individuals confronted slavery, racial discrimination, political exclusion, and entrenched social conventions, often at considerable personal cost. Their stories are absorbing not because they achieved fame or fortune, but because they refused to accept societally imposed limitations. She reminds us that American progress has depended as much on the persistence of ordinary citizens as on the decisions of celebrated leaders. Currently we are in a battle to retain and renew our democracy. As flawed as it might be, it is ours to have and to better.

These four books explore ambition, survival, obsession, and the exercise of power. Their protagonists are not always admirable, nor do they always achieve what they intended. Yet each offers the pleasure of discovering how people respond when personal circumstances and the times in which they live test both character and judgment. They remind me to hope that we pass the test of these congressional, gubernatorial, and local elections to retain our constitutional ideals, however imperfectly we continue to realize them.

About the Author: Miriam Kramer worked at Olsson’s Books & Records before it closed in 2008, welcoming Old Town, Alexandria, residents to a unique place where employees with encyclopedic knowledge of literature and music enriched the community. As a global nomad, she has lived, studied, or worked in diverse countries overseas. With her experience writing and studying international affairs, she has promoted democracy, international media, the arts, peace building, and citizen diplomacy during her career.