Sen. Chris Dodd: best books

Chris Dodd is the senior U.S. senator from Connecticut and author of Letters From Nuremberg, a tribute to his father, who was one of the lead prosecutors in the Nazi war-crime trials.

Last year he named a best books list for The Week.

One title on the list:

The Odyssey by Homer.

Homer created the Western imagination. The story of human life as a journey and the mythological element of the story reminds us that we are not alone in the universe. Now that I have two children, Odysseus’ longing for home—what the Greeks called nostos and we call nostalgia—adds a new resonance to this undying story.

Read about the other five books on Dodd's list.

The Odyssey also appears on John Mullan's list of the ten best shipwrecks in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue