#publicaffairs

The Sage Delicacy, Gigiri, Kenya 🇰🇪

04.2026

Nestled in Nairobi’s diplomatic district, practically a stone throw from the UN, lies an oasis dressed up as a chic modern home to a dance of flavours, culture and a quiet corner away from the city’s buzz. If you didn’t know of The Sage Delicacy, you would certainly miss this gem.

Why The Sage: Because my office is where I can sit stilly and have uncapped connectivity, with the option to have bottomless coffee. The scenery too, is as majestic as the food.

Love,

I always will take opportunities like this question to recommend Charles Emmerson's 2019 book, Crucible: The Long End of the Great War and the Birth of a New World, 1917-1924 (BOOK | KINDLE). I know it'll sound like hyperbole, but I am not exaggerating: it's one of the best books I've ever read, if not the best. It has stayed with me ever since I finished it, largely because of how absolutely riveting Emmerson's writing style is. I don't know if I've ever read a single book that has told so many incredible stories about so many remarkable people and so many fascinating places. And it does so without ever losing its overall focus or confusing the reader. I love this book and every time I see it on one of my bookshelves I get jealous that I can't read it for the first time over-and-over again.

Another book that immediately comes to mind is Lawrence Wright's Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (BOOK | KINDLE), which I'm sure many others would back me up on. I'm a huge fan of all of Lawrence Wright's work, so you can't go wrong with any of his other books, particularly The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (BOOK | KINDLE) and The Terror Years: From Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State (BOOK | KINDLE), both of which are journalism at its very best. And I understand you asked about books that didn't have anything to do with the Presidency, but it would be criminal if I didn't also suggest Wright's excellent history of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David (BOOK | KINDLE). The difficult peace negotiations between President Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat are detailed so intimately that Wright originally began writing it as a play, and the storytelling remains just as vivid as if it were being performed on a stage.

Crucible: The Long End of the Great War and the Birth of a New World, 1917-1924 by Charles Emmerson (BOOK | KINDLE)

I want to strongly recommend Charles Emmerson’s new book, Crucible: The Long End of the Great War and the Birth of a New World, 1917-1924 (BOOK | KINDLE), which is definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year. I was a big fan of Emmerson’s previous book, 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War, which explored the world immediately before the outbreak of World War I as seen from several major cities. 

I’m in one of those weird phases where I’m going back-and-forth on books because I have a lot of new stuff that I really want to read but am having a hard time of committing to one thing, so I’m reading everything but ultimately it seems like I’m reading nothing. Does that make sense?

Anyway, the books I’ve been alternating between over the past few days are:

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