Alexandria: The City That Changed the World

Islam Issa. Pegasus, $29.95 (496p) ISBN 9781-639-36545-6

She accepted, feeling that he “needed her.” Married in 2012, the two remained together until Hefner’s death in 2017. Crystal writes at length about the mansion’s chilling atmosphere: Hefner kept keys to every door, and insisted Crystal and his rotating roster of other girlfriends maintain their hair and weight (at one point, he taps Crystal’s hip and tells her it’s “time to tone”). The mogul, who comes across as narcissistic and obsessed with his legacy, insisted that his close contacts “only say good things” about him—when Crystal doesn’t, it lands as liberating rather than petty. This tell-all is surprisingly empowering. Agent: Lara Love Hardin, True Literary. (Jan.)

Historian Issa (Shakespeare and Terrorism) delivers a spry chronicle of one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities from its beginnings almost two and a half millennia ago to the present. Founded by Alexander the Great on the Mediterranean coast of present-day Egypt at the western edge of the Nile River delta, Alexandria started as a fishing village and became a place where “East and West could meet.” Issa highlights the Ptolemaic rulers who succeeded Alexander and turned the city into a Hellenistic capital with palaces and temples; the Pharos Lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world; and the city’s Great Library and the Alexandrian Museum, which attracted scholars from around the world. Among other accomplishments, these scholars “developed geometry... proved the earth isn’t flat... invented the steam engine,” and collated and emended classical texts from many traditions, including Hindu, Jewish, and Zoroastrian. Julius Caesar’s siege in 47 BCE and Octavian’s showdown against Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Alexandria in 30 BCE brought the city under Roman rule, until the Arab Rashidun Caliphate captured it in 642 CE. Issa vividly recounts subsequent invasions by the Crusaders, Ottomans, French, and British, and shows how in the modern era Alexandria continued in its role as a cultural hub and social and religious melting pot. This impressively researched account reveals a captivating city through the ages. (Jan.) acting director of the U.S. Capitol

Police’s intelligence division, debuts with an insightful recap of the January 6 Capitol attack. After 13 years with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Farnam landed the assistant director job shortly before the 2020 presidential election. She found a mess—the Capitol Police had not implemented long–called for reforms to address such endemic problems as its flawed procedures for disseminating information and collecting and evaluating intelligence. According to Farnam, her improvement efforts encountered resistance from an organizational culture “that prized silence over sharing.” The department’s weaknesses, she points out, were on full display on the day of the insurrection. Though her intelligence assessment of the planned MAGA rallies, circulated a few days earlier, had noted that “Congress itself is the target,” Capitol Police chief Steven Sund did not call upon all of his available resources; by not canceling leaves, his force was at halfstrength. Recounting numerous other missteps, Farnam makes the terror of that day palpable. She’s also candid about her own mistakes, including her misjudgment in entering into a relationship with a law enforcement official who ended up federally charged for leaking information to the leader of the Proud Boys. It’s a noteworthy addition to the growing shelf on January 6. (Jan.)