The Plague Year: America in the time of Covid
By Lawrence Wright
Allen Lane, £20
If journalism is the first draft of history, then this will prove one of the better accounts. Wright begins in Wuhan and finishes – 400,000 American deaths later – with the inauguration of Joe Biden as US president. "Covid didn't kill Donald Trump, but it would defeat him," Wright concludes, as if at the end of a huge battle – grateful to be alive, but unable to forgive the vast human cost to a country led by a lunatic-in-chief. Wright is a staff writer for the New Yorker and he captures a year like no other in that magazine's clear-eyed style. He takes us inside centres of power: the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention; the White House. But the human stories hit hardest: the hospitals; health workers; the dead. – NJ McGarrigle
From Whence I Came
Brian Murphy and Donnacha Ó Beacháin (eds)
Merrion, €19.95
This essay collection explores the legacy of John F, Robert and Edward Kennedy, with particular reference to Ireland and the main emphasis on JFK. It features, among others, contributions on the family background, JFK's electoral history, his Irish visit, the Irish-US relationship during his presidency and Ted Kennedy's long-term contribution to peace in Northern Ireland. Brian Murphy concentrates on JFK's final 21 weeks in office, arguing that they were the most action-packed and significant of his presidency. Kerry Kennedy, Robert's daughter, reflects on the values advocated by her father, while Cody Keenan, speechwriter for Barack Obama, and Tad Devine, chief strategist for Bernie Sanders, consider how the Kennedy legacy influenced their respective politicians. A varied, interesting, thought-provoking and fresh perspective on a political family that still fascinates. – Brian Maye
The Hidden History of Coined Words
Ralph Keyes
OUP, £21.99
This explores the many ways words have been created (accidentally, for laughs, as insults or hoaxes), considers their diverse sources (cartoons, newspapers, children's books, science fiction and other literature, and scholarship), and syndromes such as deliberate coinage, nonstarters, revival of old terms, disputes about coinage credit and about the merits of neologisms, and regrets about coinage. It's not a work of etymology per se; by telling the stories surrounding coined words, it puts them in their historical context, and is all the more interesting for that. The key thrust is that "successful neologisms are as likely to be created by chance as by intention". It's written in an easy, readable style with lots of humour. "Word-coining is a rough racket: many audition, few are cast and only a smattering win the linguistic Oscar of continued use." – Brian Maye
