Believe it or not, POGO-nauts occasionally find time for literature outside the usual IG and GAO reports.  Here’s a look at what certain POGO staffers are reading (along with a description of the book in staffers’ own words):

Danni Downing, Editor:
Lindbergh, by A. Scott Berg
An in-depth biography of Charles Lindbergh. It’s a long book, but is fascinating and well-written.

Mandy Smithberger, Investigator:
Finally trucking through the Sonora Review. There’s a short story about a woman dealing with a guy who wants to live in a suitcase.

Adam Zagorin, Journalist in Residence:
The Girl Who Played with Fire / Flickan som lekte med elden, by Stieg Larson
Translated from Swedish—free-ranging crime saga set in Scandinavia.

Chris Pabon, Director of Development:
Currently reading the New Krypton Series by Geoff Johns — a story of what happens when a man of two worlds is forced to choose one, and do what he can to prevent instigators from both sides hell bent on harming each other.

Neil Gordon, Investigator:
The Humbling, by Philip Roth
A short novel (150 pages) about an aging actor who is going through a personal crisis because he has lost his chops. Roth’s recent books all deal with the ugly side of getting old. It’s kind of depressing, but they’re all great reads nonetheless.

New York, by Edward Rutherfurd
A massive novel (800 pages) that traces the history of several New York families from the 1600s to today. Lots of real history is interwoven throughout the story.

Abby Evans, Development Associate:
Vanishing Point: Not A Memoir, by Ander Monson
A collection of essays that serve as a meditation and exploration of the self that question and play with the definition of memoir.

Pam Rutter, Web Manager:
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
Just started so still too early to tell what’s going on!

Angela Canterbury, Director of Public Policy:
Just picked up Little Bee (Chris Cleave), but don’t expect to read it until I hit the beach after recess.

Danielle Brian, Executive Director:
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
I’m only in the beginning so can’t tell you what it’s about yet. But it’s the first selection in my new book club of Alex, Emma and me. On a fun note—there was a passing reference to the women “looking like Smith women”—wondering what he meant by that!

Bryan Rahija, Blog Editor:
How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer
A fun survey of the science behind human decision-making.

See also:  Read ‘em and Weep

Image by Flickr user Horia Varlan , used under Creative Commons License

Abby Evans, Development Associate
How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton
Self-help, philosophy, literary criticism, biography, and history all wrapped up into one deliciously witty, quick read.

Danni Downing, Program Editor
The C-5A Scandal: An Inside Story of the Military-Industrial Complex, by Berkeley Rice
A narrative of how the defense procurement system actually worked–or didn’t work–in the 1970s. The major points of this thirty-year-old story still sadly hold true today.

Ingrid Drake, Investigator, Director of the Congressional Oversight Training Series (COTS)
Pulitizer: A Life, by Denis Brian (father of our Executive Director)
When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina by W. Lance Bennett, Regina G. Lawrence, Steven Livingston
People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks

Pamela Rutter, Web Manager
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
American Classic.  I’m revisiting 9th grade American literature!
My Life in France, by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme
The Watercooler post about the Julia & Julie movie inspired me to read!  Maybe I’ll learn a couple tricks about cooking too!

Neil Gordon, Investigator
Isaac’s Storm, by Erik Larson
The story of the 1900 Galveston hurricane and Isaac Cline, a meteorologist with the U.S. Weather Service who bears some responsibility for the massive loss of life.

Marthena Cowart, Director of Communications
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
First published in 2007, it has become a international best-seller. This a very French novel: tender and satirical in its overall tone, yet most absorbing because of its reflections on the nature of beauty and art, the meaning of life and death.

Chris A. Pabon, Director of Development
The Surrogates, by Brett Weldale.
In the near future, people interact with each other through cybernetic surrogates. Movie with Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell comes out this fall.

Danielle Brian, Executive Director
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, by David Oliver Relin and Greg Mortenson

Mandy Smithberger, National Security Investigator
Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women who Created Her, by Melanie Rehak
I never even really read Nancy Drew growing up, but as Supreme Court nominees, etc, keep dropping her name as an inspiration, it seemed like a fun read. It’s kind of the lower culture, abbreviated companion to Elaine Showalter’s A Jury of Her Peers.

Ned Feder, Staff Scientist
So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government, by Robert G. Kaiser.
The way the lobbyists triumphed — not just because of their own cleverness and their payouts, but because Congress is poorly equipped to resist. Fascinating story.

Bryan Rahija, Blog Editor
The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolaño
From the Chilean Jack Kerouac, a eulogy for founders of a punk rock poetry movement.

Feel free to chime in with other recommendations in the comments!

— Bryan Rahija