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Cover of The Pentagon's Brain by Annie JacobsenThe Pentagon's Brain
Modern · Nonfiction, History

The Pentagon's Brain

by Annie Jacobsen
2015 · 560 pages · Nonfiction
Critics' pick
≈ 14 hours to read · about 4 weeks at 30 minutes a day

By the numbers

59.0Must-Read Score
  • Readers30 out of 100 · counts 42%
  • Critics30 out of 100 · counts 34% (its stronger lane)
  • Bestseller3 out of 100 · counts 14%
  • Buzz4 out of 100 · counts 10%

Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero. The parts combine into the Must-Read Score, shown on a scale where the best book we found scores 99 and the last book to make the ranking scores 50.

Where it ranks

Why it made the list

Shortlisted
Pulitzer Prize (History) finalist (2016)

Reads as

True story

How we rank

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