Three Timely Books to Read

Since we've been inundated with news and and the analyses thereof ... and because as a professional nerd I always reflexively turn to books:

• The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Chol-hwan Kang (Basic, 2005). A harrowing memoir of a childhood spent in a prison camp.
• Open Letters: Selected Writings 1965-1990 by Vaclav Havel (Vintage, 1992). A collection of Havel's writing on his journey from dissident playwright to president.
• Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve, 2011).  A memoir that became a valediction.