Although Barack Obama and his family will remain in the White House, the inauguration will still bring plenty of newcomers to Washington, and 2013 is expected to draw tens of thousands of new residents. In fact, among the states, only North Dakota is growing faster than the District, according to recently released data from the Census Bureau.
For all our new neighbors, Washington Post editors and critics have prepared an eclectic list of books to help introduce the capital.
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears , by Dinaw Mengestu.
In this remarkable first novel, an Ethiopian emigre describes a period of unrest in Logan Circle when gentrification led to evictions.
“Even the late-afternoon light seems to hit D.C. the same way. Right now it’s a soft, startling pinkish hue folded into a few large clouds building up along the western horizon. In two more hours, it will dissolve into long, dark red tendrils of light that will stretch across the sky, and this day will have finally ended.”
Cooking With Love , by Carla Hall.
More than 100 recipes from the D.C.-based chef who has revolutionized comfort food.
“If you had to serve lunch to the Securities and Exchange Commission, what would you make? Not easy, right? I had this brilliant idea of bean salad with green beans cut into tiny coins. They’re pretty that way and easy to scoop up.”
The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends, 1880-1918 , by Patricia O’Toole.
An absorbing description of Washington’s most impressive circle.
“Henry retreated to his study to write a history of the United States in the opening years of the nineteenth century. Such an existence was idyllic, he thought — ‘like a dream of the golden age.’ Henry fervently believed that the future of the world lay in the United States and that the future of the United States lay in Washington. He reveled in the expectation and fancied himself one of ‘the first rays of light’ that would one day set fire to the world.”
Capitol Hill Haunts , by Tim Krepp.
A hair-raising guide to Washington’s ghosts, from the Demon Cat to the weeping lady of the Maples.
“It is one of the oldest buildings in the city and has been the epicenter for drama high and low for more than two hundred years. It is the symbolic center of the District of Columbia, so much that our lettered and numbered roads start from here. Obviously, weighty decisions of great national importance have been and still are debated here, but the Capitol has also seen its fair share of violence, heartbreak, and just general mayhem as well.”
Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City , by Natalie Hopkinson.
In the ’60s, when outsiders saw the nation’s capital devastated by crime, those who knew where to look could find a vibrant public sphere that moved to the blaring horns and thumping percussion of the new groove.
“As far as Chocolate Cities go, there is no more extreme case than Washington, D.C., in the second half of the twentieth century. Beyond the federal capital, Washington, lies a very black city, D.C. . . . When you happen to be born in a world designed for white people, to live in a Chocolate City is to taste an unquantifiable richness. It gives a unique angle of vision, an alternate lens to see world power. In a Chocolate City, black is normal.”
The bestselling author of “The Kite Runner” returns with another powerful story about Afghanistan.
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What do the blurbs on book jackets really mean?
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A man becomes obsessed with a teenage girl, but does that obsession lead him to murder?
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The fourth annual book fair offered 100 authors and a dozen workshops.
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Can modest golem and a mercurial jinni find love in Lower Manhattan?
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A science writer for The Washington Post, Margaret Webb Pressler decided to unravel the mystery of her husband’s biology.
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The harrowing story of a black man pressed into sexual slavery after the Revolutionary War.
1368742926000The books Washington has been reading.
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Steven Nadler’s fascinating survey of Golden Age Dutch culture, Cartesian philosophy and art connoisseurship.
1368662393000A novel about the unusual friendship between a South African refugee and an American expatriate.
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Egan's biography of American West photographer Edward Curtis garners $7,500 and a week at the summer program in New York State.
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Things fall apart when a young girl is left alone in the house with her emotional cousin.
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The author of ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ returns with a novella for the Royal Ballet in London.
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Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon races to solve a mystery based on Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”
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