Newsmax Rising Bestsellers – Week of April 1, 2024

Changing your way of thinking could change the world, one author suggests in this week’s Newsmax Rising Bestsellers. Another offering profiles the first “America’s Mayor” — pre-Rudy Giuliani. Other topics addressed include a look at the disturbing trend of antisemitism in America – and how to combat it – followed by the resistance to slavery in America how the movement contributed to Yale University. The fiction selection takes the reader back to the Vietnam War, and the American nurses who served in it.

“The Women,” by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's Press)

In this New York Times No. 1 bestseller, protagonist Frankie McGrath proves that women can be heroes too when she enlists in the Army Nursing Corps after her brother is killed in the Vietnam War. After serving her country with honor, she returns home to a divided America, where hatred for those who served runs deep. “In ‘The Women,’ Kristin Hannah continues her strong record of telling compelling and intimate historical dramas about women, this time focusing on a nurse serving in Vietnam,” wrote The Bibliofile Book Reviews. “Frankie’s character has clearly been crafted to serve the story and provides a vehicle to represent the experiences of the female veterans of Vietnam. Through Frankie, Hannah explores the lives of nurses serving in Vietnam as well as the difficulty of reassimilating afterwards.” [Fiction]


“Dissidently Speaking: Change the Words. Change the War,” by Brent Hamachek & illustrator Felisa Blazek (Pierucci Publishing)

This is described as a book of ideas and asks the reader to challenge some of society’s norms and apply critical thinking, add some skepticism, and be willing to replace answers with questions. Instead of stating unequivocally “it is,” for example, try reversing the words and ask, “is it?” The author suggests that the road to America’s salvation requires a fresh look at:

• History;
• Social structures;
• Personal communication;
• Ethics;
• and ultimately ourselves.

In short, “Dissidently Speaking” dumps your cultural and political toy box over the floor and asks you to rearrange the contents. Brent Hamachek asks, “Finally, and most difficult of all, are you up to taking a look into the mirror and asking yourself: Am I ethical?” [Nonfiction]


“I Never Did Like Politics: How Fiorello La Guardia Became America's Mayor, and Why He Still Matters,” by Terry Golway (St. Martin's Press)

A half century before Rudy Giuliani became “America’s Mayor” by turning around the Big Apple, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia bore that title, and even got a major international airport named after him. La Guardia was one of the most colorful politicians of the mid-20^th century and rose to prominence from modest beginnings — as the son of Italian immigrants. He did so with four essential qualities: patriotism, dissent, leadership, and statesmanship. Terry Golway humorously compares him to Theodore Roosevelt, who claimed to always want to be the center of attention: the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral. Similarly, “La Guardia wanted to be the chief at every fire, the general on every battlefield, and more than anything else, the mayor of the world’s most important city in the 20^th century.” “In our current dismal passage of American politics, it’s exhilarating to read about a politician who exemplified all the qualities ― courage, honesty, vision, energy, disdain for hypocrisy, concern for the downtrodden ― that we were taught to revere,” wrote The Wall Street Journal in its review. [Nonfiction]


“The New American Anti-Semitism: The Left, the Right, and the Jews,” by Benjamin Ginsberg (Independent Institute)

Although Jews have traditionally been identified with left-wing causes, the left has not been their friend — especially recently in media and on college campuses. After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the hatred toward Jews in America and elsewhere has intensified. The author argues for today’s American Jews to form new alliances with the political right and especially evangelical Christians. He discusses:

• Why the Jews have always persisted in the face of persecution;
• Why the new face of Jewish persecution has found a home on university campuses, left-leaning media outlets, and other previously unseen places;
• The high and horrible costs of antisemitism;
• The profound benefits of philosemitism;
• The details of the new alliances that must be made to ensure the continuing success of American Jews — and America itself.

“The worldwide media fuels some of this [antisemitism] by either adopting a moral equivalency position between Israel and her enemies, failing to report on Islamic leaders who claim a religious mandate to eliminate Israel and exterminate Jews, and slanting their coverage in favor of the Palestinians,” wrote Cal Thomas in his Star Herald review. (Benjamin) “Ginsberg’s book should be required reading for those who are unclear about the roots of antisemitism and how Jewish hatred continues to poison the politics and culture of many countries, including our own.” [Nonfiction]


“Yale and Slavery: A History,” by David W. Blight (Yale University Press)

This is the latest book from award-winning historian David Bright that centers on the issue of early American slavery. In it, he looks at how resistance to slavery helped shape Yale University, the third-oldest college in the country. “Yale and Slavery” focuses with the contributions that both free and enslaved blacks made to the university’s history, from 100 years before its 1701 founding to the 1915 dedication of its Civil War memorial. According to the author, “These individuals and their descendants worked at Yale; petitioned and fought for freedom and dignity; built churches, schools, and antislavery organizations; and were among the first Black students to transform the university from the inside.” [Nonfiction]