Words Like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric From Aristotle to Obama by Sam Leith

The nutshell: In the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama was dismissed by his opponents as merely a talented orator. But journalist Leith breaks down the art of rhetoric-and celebrates its greatest practitioners, from Cicero and Satan to Margaret Thatcher and Hitler-to show how important great speech is, both historically and in our everyday lives.

Literary lovechild of: William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style and Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History, edited by William Safire.

You’ll find it on your bookshelf if: You have to rearrange your debate trophies to fit Words Like Loaded Pistols in your bookcase.

Cocktail party fodder: Between 1900 and 1955, Winston Churchill gave, on average, one speech a week-but he never learned to speak off the cuff.

For optimal benefit: Watch Obama’s 2008 “Yes We Can” speech at the New Hampshire Primary.

Snap judgment: Leith throws around obscure Greek words like a classics professor, but there are just enough Simpsons references and jokes to make this feel like worthy extracurricular reading.

Money at Work: On the Job with Priests, Poker Players, & Hedge Fund Traders by Kevin J. Delaney

The nutshell: We think we learn the value of money from our parents, but Temple University sociologist Delaney thinks we learn just as much-or more-from our work. He interviewed poker players, talent agents, clergymen, hedge fund traders, salespeople, fundraisers, and people working in other dollar-centric industries to find out how they think, feel, and talk about money.

Literary lovechild of: Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker and Studs Terkel’s Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.

You’ll find it on your bookshelf if: You’ve never been shy about asking your friends how much they make.

Cocktail party fodder: The 2000 U.S. Census listed about 14.6 million people in “sales and related occupations.”

For optimal benefit: Bring this book to Vegas-there are some good poker tips, and you might think twice before you sit down at that $500 minimum table.

Snap judgment: Our relationship to money is fascinating-and not just in the ways we expect. Delaney’s argument is anecdotal but persuasive.

Obama and America’s Political Future by Theda Skocpol

The nutshell: Harvard University sociologist and political scientist Skocpol’s Alexis de Tocqueville Lecture on American Politics places President Obama’s first term in historical context by comparing Obama’s efforts to end the recession with FDR’s New Deal and in a larger American context by situating it against the rise of the Tea Party. Dissenting commentaries take a different angle on why Obama did or didn’t succeed-and on where we’re going from here.

Literary lovechild of: Walter Lippmann’s The New Imperative and Jonathan Alter’s The Promise: President Obama, Year One.

You’ll find it on your bookshelf if: You started feeling lost the moment you scraped the “Obama/Biden” sticker off your bumper.

Cocktail party fodder: In general, the party in power loses seats in a midterm election-22 seats in the House on average since World War II.

For optimal benefit: Read this book now, and then add a reminder to your calendar to reread it four years from now, as the Obama or Romney presidency concludes and the Chelsea Clinton presidency begins.

Snap judgment: Skocpol delivers a measured, thoughtful evaluation of the president, but, as the author admits, it’s as hard to predict where American politics is going next as it is to judge where Obama has been.

-Sarah Rothbard

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