CR,

The importance of bumper stickers? That's too funny, bud.

I'll be looking for the Hummer sporting Save the Whales on its tush.

http://www.americasdebate.com/forums/index...ndpost&p=185587



http://www.americasdebate.com/forums/index...ndpost&p=185594

It is interesting that in recommending two different books we both mentioned media watchdogs, particularly those on the right that think conservatives aren't getting a fair shake

As a supplement to my review of Craig Crawford’s Attack the Messenger: How Politicians Turn You Against the Media, I would add that Crawford lists three "watchdog" groups, a media advocacy group and several media "think tanks." I'll list some od them and their web addesses and let those interested do their own evaluation.

Media Research Center

http://www.mediaresearch.org

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

http://www.fair.org

Accuracy in Media

http://www.aim.org

Crawford also lists a media advocacy group...

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

http://www.rcfp.org

and several media "think tanks," including:

The Annenberg Public Policy Center

http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org

Pew Center for Civic Journalism

http://pewcenter.org

I think it was Dan Rather who attacked the candidate, not the other way around. CBS News asked candidate Bush for a "candidate profile" interview. It ran a 6 minute Iran Contra piece followed by Rather's nine minute interview with George H W Bush.

Rather opened this "candidate interview" with the following:


Transcript of the interview

The best exchange:



"Rather went too far...I don't think we [as journalists] can get to a situation where we make -- on our own authority -- accusations."
--Sam Donaldson of ABC News, 1988.

"I won the battle with Dan Rather that night, but he won the war. His coverage of my campaign and presidency was consistently negative."
--George H. W. Bush in his 1999 book, All the Best, George Bush.

"The style was wrong. Dan lost his cool."
--Rather's CBS colleague Mike Wallace on the interview, 1988.

Craig Crawford is both a journalist and a critic of Bush. link Crawford's blog. I think you like Crawford because you agree with him (as you said). The guy's constant message is how bad Bush is doing. Crawford's latest column compares the Bush administration to a sit com that should be cancelled.

The mistake you are making Amlord is not seeing how Bush made Rather the story. From the beginning of the interview, Bush resisted hard questions about his Iran-Contra role. Sounds oddly like Helen Thomas' exiling by the present Bush.

From the transcript you provided, one almost wonders who was the journalist and who the interviewee:

"RATHER: Well, Mister...

BUSH: ...Would you like that? interruption

RATHER: Mr. Vice President...

BUSH: I have respect for you, but I don't have respect for what you're doing here tonight." another interruption

From the outset of the interview, Bush was defensive and refused to let Rather get the questions out of his mouth.

Upon the publication of her biography of Abraham Lincoln last year, Doris Kearns Goodwin told Tim Russert that after preliminary investigation, she decided that Lincoln was a man she wished to spend ten years researching and writing about. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln is really four biographies in one. After securing the nomination as the first Republican candidate and winning the election of 1860, Lincoln proceeded to elevate his chief rivals for that nomination to posts within the cabinet. He named William Seward, Secretary of State; Salmon Chase, Treasury Secretary and Edward Bates, Attorney General. While Bates was circumspect and Seward became one of Lincoln’s best friends, Chase continually undercut Lincoln in hopes of securing the Republican nomination in 1864. Despite the undercutting, Lincoln elevated Chase to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court upon the death of Roger Taney. This was but one of many episodes that leads Goodwin to describe Lincoln as magnanimous.

Not long ago, there was a thread on this board debating whether or not the vitriol in Washington is the worst ever. One incident Goodwin details describes the beating of Charles Sumner in the Senate Chamber.



This sort of makes the episode where Dick Cheney used the “F-word” on the senate floor in an exchange with Patrick Lahey seem like child’s play.

Above the fray of the time towered Lincoln, physically at 6’4” and in character, described by Goodwin as good natured and kind hearted.

There’s so much in this book, that I could go on for pages, but I’ll truncate at this point. One of the best descriptions of Lincoln and his place in history came from Leo Tolstoy in 1908 from North Caucasus (Russia).



Perhaps Tolstoy overestimated the time it would take to recognize Lincoln’s greatness. Since Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. polled historians in 1948, Lincoln has consistently ranked as the greatest of the great.

Scholars Rate the Presidents

If in the internet age of instant links to "knowledge," some still like to curl up with a monumental tome [Goodwin’s book is 754 pages of text plus more than 100 pages of notes], then I highly recommend this addition to Lincoln scholarship.

There’s an old saying that “apples don’t fall far from the tree.” This statement is belied when one considers that the Republican Party birthed by Lincoln, Seward, Chase and Bates, has fallen victim to Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Duke Cunningham and others.

Ironically, the apples have not only fallen far from the tree, but the current crop is seemingly rotten to the core.

I'm currently reading 'Collapse' by Jared Diamond.

I'm about half way through it but so far its been a lot easier to read than the last book I read by Diamond, 'Guns, germs and Steel'.

'Collapse' is about how and why society's and civilisations fall. By looking at historical examples, Diamond is building up to a warning regarding the current over population of the planet and the impact this is having on the world.

Its a good book (so far) and although its probably going to have a bit of a depressing ending, its educational in a way most books aren't so I feel I owe it to myself to educate my self.

Lots of F. Scott Fitzgerald at the moment. However that's due in large part to reading New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of Modern America Amazon... no "link to me" which is an amazing book in that the parallels from the 20's to today are stunning. While I suspect that I could take any decade and draw similar results... this book is really well done.

I’m currently reading three books, I am a little more than 200 pages into David McCullough’s Truman. The book starts off slowly. I really didn’t like Truman much until he entered politics and became a presiding county judge. I didn’t understand why until I read a quotation from Truman’s cousin, Ethel Noland:



The Truman book is nearly 1000 pages, so I’ve decided to work two others, both close to my heart, in as I go along. I was around at the beginning of the rock age. One of my heroes, Fats Domino started in New Orleans a good five years before his competitors. I spent about an hour glancing through Rick Coleman’s Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock ‘N’ Roll. While we know the stories of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement, the problems encountered by the original Black rock and roll legends, particularly in the South, paint an ugly picture.

The other book I bought today was my freshman English professor, Larry McMurtry’s, Telegraph Days.

A review in today’s Fort Worth Star Telegram sees the book as an ending to the Pulitzer Prize winning Lonesome Dove saga.



http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/books/14739342.htm

This may be McMurtry’s best book in a couple of decade. I think he deserves a Nobel.

BTW: I must enter a mild protest. The category “Best Book Recommendation” has been omitted from this year’s “Best of.” Whether this was inadvertently overlooked or just more evidence that books have taken a back seat to the internet and blogs as a source of information, I’m not sure. If the latter is the case, it’s sad.

My recent plane ride home from Rome was more than enough time to finish Judge Andrew Napolitano's book The Constitution in Exile. The book is short by normal reading standards but pretty consistent with books under the genre of political science (tells you something about the field ).

As many know, Judge Napolitano is the Senior Judicial Analyst on Fox News and although i am sure many here would find that disheartening, the judge in my mind is a refreshing reminder of how people on both sides of the political spectrum can find common ground on certain issues. His book analyzes the way that all three branches of the federal government have increased their own powers way beyond their intention by the Founding Fathers by twisting the text of the Constitution. Most specifically, the Commerce Clause by the SCOTUS, and Executive Power over national security and civil liberties. Legislative power grabs are mentioned as well.

No matter your political persuasion, I think that the length and the value of information that this book has to offer is definately worth a read. It will most certainly make you question your interpretation of the Constitution and how government has used our ignorance to take power in instances that was never meant to be in their hands.

Have you ever fought yourself merely collecting books by a given writer instead of actually reading the darn things? My wife has that habit with books by Toni Morrison and Walter Mosely. For me it's Stephen King.

Do writers ever reach an age where they say, "Gee, I really have nothing left to say. Maybe I should retire?" King seems to have not only reached, but passed that point. Or maybe he just has for me.

I just finished his latest novel, Cell which starts off pretty well as all hell breaks loose after a mysterious "pulse" goes off on anyone using a cell phone and turns them into raging, murderous zombies. The zombies are slaughtering the unaffected as cars crash, planes smash into buildings and generally all hell breaks loose in Boston. If you think this is Big Steve's commentary on 9/11 you're probably right. But soon the second part of the book kicks in and the book becomes, talky, protracted and jumbled with characters we don't know or care much about. King assembles a motley crew of non-cell users who attempt to avoid the zombies who kill by day and gather in "flocks" at night as they listen to Debby Boone music to reprogram themselves. (Huh?)Pretty soon the survivors find themselves under assault from telephatic levitating zombies led by the rotting corpse of a black man in a Harvard sweatshirt.

I know. I know. It didn't make any sense to me either.

Cell won't fool anyone who read the clearly superior The Stand. Here, King is trying to make a point of how scary the ubiquitous cell phone can be beyond the possibility we may be frying our brains with the microwaves. But as usual, King is better figuring out how to gross out readers than providing relevant and important details. What is The Pulse? Was it an act of terrorism or just a dumb mistake? What is happening around the rest of the country and world? Where are all the children, infants and pets that were unaffected?

King doesn't bother with answers because he's not interested in plugging the huge plot holes of Cell. Oh, and the ending is totally unsatisfying. It's so abrupt it will make you check to see if you're missing a page or two.

Unlike Deperation, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Hearts in Atlantis or Needful Things, I actually read Cell before it got turned into a feature film or made for TV movie. I'm not sure that was such a smart move on my part.

The Squares of the City by John Brunner (1965)

The narrator of this novel is an expert on traffic control who journeys to the super-modern capital city of a fictional South American nation in order to improve the flow of traffic there. At first, the place seems almost utopian; a clean, smoothly operating metropolis full of prosperous citizens. It soon turns out that the city-dwellers (many of whom are immigrants from other nations, brought to the city like the narrator to make it as modern as possible) are involved with a struggle against natives from outside the city, who have taken to living in slums inside the otherwise gleaming capital. The narrator finds out that he has really been hired to figure out a way to use traffic flow to force the slum-dwellers out of the city. He is contacted and threatened by advocates of both sides of the controversy, and finds out that the ruling party (led by the nation's ruler, who proudly brags of having the most governed country on Earth) uses subliminal images in its television broadcasts to control the populace.

*****************SPOILER ALERT**********************

It eventually turns out that that the ruler and his chief political rival have been literally playing a chess game for control of the city, manipulating real people (including the narrator) so that their movements and actions reflect the moves and captures of pieces on the chess board. In fact, in an afterward, the author (who has based the game on a real game played in 1892 between two chess masters) provides a chart explaining which piece is represented by which character, allowing the reader to follow the game throughout the novel.

The Squares of the City is an unusual novel of politics, well-written, with vivid characters. I recommend it if you're in the mood for a serious discussion of the way in which people can be controlled by their rulers.

Synthajoy by D. G. Compton (1968)

This is a very difficult novel to discuss, because of its complex narrative technique. The story is narrated by a woman who is undergoing a psychological technique to "cure" her after having been convicted of a crime. (Even this takes quite a few pages to figure out.) The narration constantly jumps back and forth in time, often one sentence at a time, as we witness both the woman's "treatment" and her memories. Eventually we understand that the woman was married to a physician who invented a method of recording one individual's sensations and allowing another individual to experience them. Ironically, this same technique is being used to "treat" the woman by having her experience "contrition" after having been convicted of the murder of her husband. (Whether she is guilty or not remains a mystery until the very end of the book, and perhaps even then the truth is not clear.) In memory, we also witness the woman's affair with the engineer who assists in the creation of the recording device.

Synthajoy requires careful reading. It is also a very bleak book. The narrator (and, I assume, the author) views the recording device as an utterly evil, repulsive device, resulting in nothing but misery. It is the antithesis of escapist reading. However, it is a rewarding book as an example of how science fiction can be serious literature.

The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe (1974) by D. G. Compton

(published in the United States as The Unsleeping Eye)

Katherine Mortenhoe lives in a near future England where death from illness has become quite rare. So rare, in fact, that the terminally ill are the subject of great media attention. Then her doctor tells her that she has a rare, incurable, progressive neurological disease. She has about four weeks to live. A television producer offers her a large amount of money to make her the star of a television documentary series. She takes the money, leaves it with her husband, and sets off on a journey to escape into the anonymity of the homeless. She doesn't realize that the man who befriends her on the way is a reporter working for the television network, and that he has a television camera surgically implanted behind his eyes.

Thus begins what might seem to be a dark satire of reality TV, about three decades before it happened. This is also a novel of character, as we view the happenings both from the point of view of Mortenhoe and the reporter. It's as sophisticated a work as Synthajoy but not quite as difficult.

This novel was adapted into the French-German movie La Mort en direct (1980), filmed in Glasgow and released in the USA as Deathwatch. If it is anywhere near as interesting as the book, I would very much like to see the movie.

Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent (2006)

This is the true story of how the author, with professional help, disguised herself as a man. (It helped that she was a large, deep-voiced woman.) She reports on various experiences from the male point of view. These include joining a blue-collar bowling league; patronizing sleazy lap-dancing joints; dating women*; living in a monastery; working as a saleman in a high-pressure, low wage job; and going through a weekend retreat for men. It's a fascinating glimpse into worlds that were utterly alien to me.

(*Although the author is a lesbian, her experiences dating as a man are completely different than her experiences dating as a woman.)

They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley

I'd heard about this book for many years, as the second novel to win a Hugo. (The first was Alfred Bester's very famous The Demolished Man.) It's certainly the most obscure science fiction novel ever to win a major award. First published as a serial in Astounding in 1954, it did not appear in book form until a few years later, as The Forever Machine. Since then, it has only rarely been re-printed. I happened to find a copy of a fancy, expensive, leather-bound hardcover edition in a used bookstore not too long ago.

They'd Rather Be Right begins right in the middle of things, as a natural telepath aids two scientists who are on the run after having inadvertently created "Bossy," a super-computer which is capable of physically healing human beings, but only if they are able to free themselves of all preconceptions. (This odd and implausible premise is based on the notion that such preconceptions are able to affect the body on a cellular level.) In fact, by testing Bossy on an aging woman whose life of low-level crime has left her without preconceptions, they are able to not only restore her youth, but make her a telepath as well. When this becomes known to the general public, a fight ensues for control of Bossy.

This is a strange novel. Over and over, it spells out its theme that the only way for the human race to reach its full potential is to free itself from preconceptions; that those who would "rather be right" are doomed. Not a great classic, but worth reading as a curiosity.

Beggars and Choosers by Nancy Kress (1994)

This is a sequel to the author's novel Beggars in Spain, which was based on an award-winning novella of the same name. In the early part of the twenty-second century, human genetic engineering and the development of a virtually free, unlimited source of energy has led to enormous changes in American society. (Probably the rest of the world also, although we do not see this.) Unmodified people, the majority, are mostly "Livers" -- they are generally uninterested in learning or working, and simply "live" off what is provided for them by the "donkeys." The donkeys are the genetically modified. By strictly enforced law, they are all sterile. Of artificially increased intelligence, they are the technicians and government officials. There also exist a small number of "Sleepless," persons who never sleep and who have super-high intelligence. These do not appear directly in this novel, although they were the focus of Beggars in Spain. Instead, an even smaller number of "SuperSleepless," created by the Sleepless, are the focus of the novel. Not only super-intelligent, but thinking in ways utterly alien to the rest of humanity, it is difficult to say whether they will be a danger to the human species or its saviours. Things come to a crisis when the technology which supports the Livers in comfort begins breaking down.

As you can see, this is a complex technological and sociological background, and it's a lot for the reader to swallow. However, the story is compelling, and the characterization is above average. Overall, a solid science fiction novel.

I'm only a third of the way through The Intelligencer, by Leslie Silbert and thought I should post a warning here (I won't be reading the rest). This book is an international bestseller, so apparently my tastes differ from many, but here it goes...

Before buying the thing, I checked the reviews on Amazon and noticed that most of the readers either raved about it, or hated it. Now I understand why. It is well written, with a very good plot and story line, and filled with informative and fascinating historical details. It is suspenseful, and makes you want to follow it to the end. But instead, I threw the book against the wall…Why? The primary characters are sickeningly unbelievable, as is much of the dialog. It is an odd sort of paradox; cerebral thriller mingled with the stupidest portions of something out of Serendipity, and the mix doesn’t work at all.

Here is an example of what I’m talking about:



If the above sounds good to you, you’re in luck! There’s lots and lots more in this book. However, if the above makes you want to hurl your morning coffee, as it does me, stay far far away…

I've just started the non-fiction book "American Brutus" by Michael W. Kaufman which is the true story of the conspiracy to assasinate President Abraham Lincoln. I have only reached about 50 pages into the book, but I have found it to be a fascinating read. The book begins on the night of the assasination and goes into extreme depth concerning the actions of many famous and unknown players from that fateful night. The book promises to shed new light on the background and motives of John Wilkes Booth and the mechanics of his plot to topple the Union government as well as the trials and fates of the conspirators.

Generally, I've found that non-fiction history is the best reading. I've already got another one stored away to start next "Battle Cry of Freedom" by James McPherson which is the Pulitzer Prize winning one volume history of the American Civil War (i'm on a Civil War kick recently!). If anyone has read either of these books, i'd be interested in hearing their opinions!

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie (1993)

This is a collection of interconnected short stories about the inhabitants of an Indian reservation near Spokane. It's an unusual combination of The New Yorker-style mainstream fiction, prose poetry, and magic realism. The quirky road movie Smoke Signals was loosely based on characters and themes from the stories, with a screenplay by the author. Worth reading for something different.

Thanks for the recommendation, Vicki. I've always enjoyed Alexie's work and have been eyeing that particular title recently.


I've just finished Glenn Greenwald's How Would a Patriot Act?, which is the best overview of the Bush administration I've yet read. At 128 pages, it is also one of the most succinct - but well worth the twelve dollar price tag.

Greenwald, who has an excellent blog called Unclaimed Territory (which he only started about nine months ago), is a Constitutional lawyer, though he had not previously been particularly "politcal" - and was an unaffiliated centrist - until after the September 11 attack. The best thing about his book is that it is not rife with opinion, but with facts - and he makes his case very simply and directly.

It is the most compelling and convincing portrait of the "unitary executive" that I've come across anywhere. And it is a book that every American citizen, regardless of political position, should be required to read.

I've had a busy summer with my books. After finishing Andrew Napolitano's book I went on to read Addiction is a Choice by Jeffery Schaler (heh I bet many are saying "that figures"). But i definately recommend it. People have to challenge their beliefs about addiction and this book gives ample scientific proof and historical context to admirably question the concept of addiction.

My next book was Winning the Future by Next Gingrich. To tell you the truth, I didn't much like the book until about half way into it. The first half was filled with ideas for the future of American that I didn't really like with much focus on religion. But I think Gingrich redeemed himself with the second half where his chapters on education, technology, American competitiveness, and most importantly government fiscal responsibility. Gingrich outlines correctly how government spending is out of control and how it is time America calls for the government to keep taxes low, balance budgets, and spend responsibly. Overall, the book was worth a read.

Then I read a brief biography Patton by Alan Axelrod. It was a very short biography, nothing comparable to the detail of the one on Truman. But i think that it really got the important things about Patton. His idealism, his shortcomings, and his warrior-like persona. It shows us Patton the man along with Patton the mythic warrior and Patton the rigid officer. It also correctly outlines General Patton's immeasurable impact on modern mobilized warfare and how his historic campaign with the Third Army across France was unprecedented and how the 90 degree march to Bastogne to relive the 101st Airborne is one of the most amazing feats in the history of warfare. Definately recommend.

This brings me to my current title (which i am currently in the middle of) Flags of Our Fathers by John Bradley. Not only do I recommend this book about the Battle of Iwo Jima as well as the personal stories of the six flagraisers...I DEMAND that everyone read this book. Never in my life have I read something so intense, so vivid, and so horrific. The story of Iwo Jima is a tale of absolute terror and incredible heroism. The last line of one of the chapters nearly b.rought me to tears. And trust me when i say that is not easy to do, especially from a book. Read this book and learn about what actually happened at Iwo Jima and the true nature of war. "Wow" is the only way to describe this book.


Forgot to add that my next book is actually 1984. Its that one book i have always heard so much about and wanted to get around to reading but just have not. Well i am determined this time to go through it. Once I am done with that, I plan on reading The Constitution of Liberty by F.A. Hayek and Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman. I know some may suspect my book choice as maybe politically slanted and I will agree. After Hayek and Friedman, I plan on broadening my horizons to people I would probably not like . I was interested in reading Chomsky, but am not sure which book to buy that will give me the greatest substance of his viewpoints...any suggestions?

It took a bit to get into, but I really enjoyed Smoke Signals. It was even a tad cathartic for me. Its funny, I seem to heal better thru the movies or a great book than I do on someone's couch

I just recently finished God's Debris by Scott Adams (thanks Amlord ) and the sequel, The Religion War. Pretty thought provoking stuff, and quite timely.

Right now, I've just started Ron Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine. I've read a few excerpts from it and it looks like it will be every bit as good as his previous work, The Price of Loyalty.

I saw Smoke Signals a few years ago. It's a nice mixed bag of coming of age and parental reconcilliation movie. Hurr... that doesn't make sense.

I went to a local Walden Bookstore yesterday looking for Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. No such luck, though I belatedly noticed the section had more books blaming liberalism for everything bad under the sun. I picked up The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor—and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car! by Tim Hartford. Phew, what a mouthful. I was turned off by the Roy Lichtenstein cover, but the reviews on the back changed my mind.

I have almost finished reading Guests of the Ayatollah, by Mark Bowden. If you were a fan of Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo, you won't be disappointed with his latest.
It's strange that as a teenager, I knew a couple of guys that participated in Operation Eagle Claw, but I have never really read the particulars of the hostage taking and the failed rescue attempt. Chalk this up as finally getting around to learning the full story.
Bowden goes into great depth and portrays both the Iranian grievances and the outrage of taking diplomatic hostages in a fair and impartial light.
The Discovery channel is running a two part program based on the book, but just like any screen adaptation, I recommend the book over the TV show.

I just finished up O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. I'm finishing Grant: A Biography by James Mosier. This book is really something else, equating him to being a military genius and Halleck(his superior) as a duffer by comparison.

Just finished "Anatomy of a Secret Life: The Psychology of Living a Lie" by Dr. Gail Saltz. Absolutely fascinating and highly recommended!

I have just completed George Orwell's masterpiece 1984 for the first time. Its one of those books that was always talked about and quoted by I just never happened to read. Well, to the say the least it is profound. Definately one of my favorite books. I only wish I read the book at an earlier date so I was equipped with its knowledge and wisdom. It truly is amazing the parallels that this book has with present day society. Especially in the way of Newspeak and doublethink. Very glad that I read it and I think it will give me a better understanding of my political beliefs.

Right now I am rereading Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. I believe it to the be the most important book of the 20th Century and the words ring as true as they did 60 years ago. Its significance in the course of our history has already been well established and I think that it will continue to live on as a testament to individual liberty for as long as we choose to heed his words.

My next books will be Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty and Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom. Very excited about those and should be a quick and informative read.

But after i have blown through these works of literature, I actually plan on taking a dip in some unfamiliar waters. One book I have heard rumblings about is Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. From what I understand, Zinn looks at our history through a Marxist lense and through the eyes of oppressed peoples. I have heard criticisms and praises for it and i was intrigued by the discussion. I think its definately important to read the book for myself and arrive at my own conclusions. The book is supposedly very popular on college campuses so I would guess that I'll come across it (either through assignment or discussion of its theory) sooner or later. Might as well get it all in now.

Then I actually plan on reading Chomsky and learning his perspective firsthand. But like i said in my earlier post, I am not really sure which book of his to read. Hopefully someone can recommend one for me.

It will definately be a broadening of my horizons

A good starting point could be a book called The Chomsky Reader. It samples his thinking over a period of decades and is available used from Amazon.com for as little as $2.95.

I have one - although I've only read portions, but I can't seem to find it right now.

Here's a link.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039475173...ce&n=283155

I've finally taken a break from reading the same old junk over and over again... A month ago I picked up a copy of the Norton English Anthology and am trying to power through The Fairy Queen.

currently reading Stephen King's gunslinger/Dark Tower series. The imagery is pretty amazing.
For any other Stephen King fans I'd reccomend the uncut version of The Stand and also The Talisman.
Both amazing books.

For a real thought provoker, try Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. one of my all time favorites

I just finished reading The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgeman. Yeah I know, heavy reading And The Battle For Peace By Gen. Tony Zinni. Both are great books...

I just finished Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman and enjoyed it very much. Didn't enjoy it nearly as much as The Constitution of Liberty by FA Hayek but it applied liberal theory to more contemporary issues. Highly recommend both.

So i needed some new books and I head over to B&N to find some. As per BoF's recommendation, I bought The Chomsky Reader and I also purchased Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger. They offer very different views on the international relations of the US and I think it will be good to get both sides equally so I can make my own decision about each author.

Just finished "Casino Royale" by Ian Fleming. The movie should be interesting - the Bond fan in me hopes that they go less gadgets and product placements, and more towards the original Bond character.

Working on Manhunt: The hunt for Lincoln's killer. The story of the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth. It's fascinating, at least 1/4 of the way through.

Lastly, Tales from the dugout by Ron Kittle of the White Sox is quite a read. Bringing me back to those 'hit men' teams of the early 80's.

I'm reading The Partner by Grishom and listening to The Painted House by Grishom (on CD in my car).

I just finished reading Violets are Blue by Patterson and listening to All That Remains by Cornwell (on CD in my car).

I've yet to get the plots mixed up.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (2004)

I have been a big fan of "Dykes to Watch Out For," the syndicated comic strip by Alison Bechdel, for a couple of decades now. As you might be able to tell from the title, it deals with the comic misadventures of a group of lesbians. Not everybody's politically correct cup of tea, to be sure, but it was always very funny.

To say that this did not prepare me for Bechdel's full-length, hardcover "graphic novel" family chronicle would be a gigantic understatement. Fun Home is a brutally frank, deadly serious look at the relationship between Bechdel and her family, particularly her enigmatic father.

The narrative style is not linear at all, so any brief description is bound to be misleading. Suffice to say that Bechdel's father worked as a high school English teacher as well as running the family business -- a funeral home. (Hence the family's nickname for the business, which gives the book its title.) His obsession was an elaborate remodeling of the family's Victorian home. He also had a habit of taking several very young men as lovers. He died after being hit by a truck while crossing a road, in a possible act of suicide.

In addition to dealing with the mystery of her emotionally distant father, Bechdel also faces the challenge of obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child. Add to this her own self-discovery as a lesbian, and you have a lot of heavy stuff for a "comic book."

Fun Home is so intimate and honest that it is sometimes uncomfortable to read, as if we are violating the privacy of the author. It is also definitely for adults only, as we not only see dead bodies in various states of evisceration in the back rooms of the funeral home, but also fairly explicit scenes of the author and her first lover. It is also, somewhat surprisingly, very sophisticated in its literary style. It helps to be somewhat familiar with the works of Fitzgerald, Joyce, Camus, Wilde, and others.

An amazing book.

I'm just about to start Conservative without a Conscience by John Dean

I just went to a used bookstore yesterday. I bought a couple cookbooks, got this really cool one on greek cooking.

I also finally picked up Shanghai Baby wriiten by Chinese author Wei Hui. It was banned, and burned in China for it's western decadence, oooohhh. Tho I am sure compared to what we Westerners have to read it is not all too surprising.

I did read Story of the Eye when I was 17.

I always look at the cook books, but I can never bring myself to actually BUY one.
I find all my recipes on-line.

Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie (1995)

To understand the basic premise of this offbeat novel, it helps to know that there was a real-life blues musician named Robert Johnson who died in 1938. He was such a great guitarist that a legend has grown up that he sold his soul to the devil. (This legend also appeared in the movie Crossroads.)

In this book, Johnson shows up out of nowhere in the middle of an Indian reservation in the state of Washington. He claims to be hiding out from "the Gentleman." He meets a young Native American storyteller who accepts his guitar and passes it on to another Indian, along with its gift of supernatural musical talent. Along with another Native American man and two women, and with the help of "Big Mama," a goddess-like figure who taught music to all the world's greatest performers, they form the rock band Coyote Springs, and set out on an odyssey that will take them to New York City and back.

Although published as a "literary" novel, this book goes far beyond "magic realism" into pure fantasy and myth. The wild events of the story are used as a funhouse mirror of the Native American experience. (As one example, the executives who make up "Cavalry Records" also seem to be the surviving spirits of 19th century Indian fighters.) There's also a strong dose of satire, as when two white women named Betty and Veronica want to become Indians. A most unusual novel.

The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedua (1960) (translated from the Italian)


This novel was published after the author's death. It was his only work to ever see print. It is generally considered one of the great Italian novels of the Twentieth Century.

"The Leopard" is both the symbol of an aristocratic family in Nineteenth Century Sicily, and a nickname for the main character, the middle-aged head of the family. Most of the novel takes place in 1860, during the events which replaced the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies with a united Italy.

Despite this historical upheaval, the book is mainly introspective, as the Leopard reacts to the changes in his society in ways that will ensure that he will retain at least some of his prestige and power. There are also chapters set many years later, in which we witness the death of the Leopard, and the old age of his three daughters.

This is a stylish and psychologically acute novel. (Praise must be given also to the translator, I assume.) It was made into a film with Burt Lancaster as the Leopard. The film follows the novel closely, but it omits the later chapters and only depicts the events of 1860.

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (1992)

Near the end of the Second World War, four people inhabit an abandoned villa in Italy, recently used as a hospital. One of them is a man who was horribly burned in a plane crash. Another is the nurse who remains to care for him, even though everyone else has left. The third is a Sikh officer in the British army whose job is to defuse the mines left behind by the retreating Germans. The fourth is a professional thief, who knew the nurse before the war, and who has tracked her down to the villa.

Much of this novel is made up of the memories of these four people, particularly the events in the life of the burned man which led up to the crash. The book constantly jumps back and forth in time, and there is no real linear plot. Full of striking visual images, it reminds me of the style of J. G. Ballard.

I managed to sneak in a few short stories from southern women writers this last week.

On strong recommendations from Wertz & Sean, I read a few Flannery O'Connor stories. Wickedly delightful. My only regret is that I didn't start reading her work sooner. Her obscure Savannah roots certainly show in her writing.

I also read The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar. Her background is the New Orleans/Gulf region. I really enjoyed the imagery she was able to create in her stories, even if her characters were a little flat.

I'm currently reading "Biggest Brother" by Larry Alexander. Its the authorized biography of Major Richard (Dick) Winters. For those unaware, Major Winters was the commander of Easy Company of the 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division during WWII. He and his men achieved fame from the a previous book entitled "Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose and from an HBO television mini-series of the same name that was released in 2001.

For those of you who enjoyed the outstanding book/mini-series, I highly reccomend the book to you. While it does repeat on some of the material covered in the aforementioned, there is also quite a bit of new material. I was particularly interested in the time periods not covered previously in order to "fill in the gaps" between deployments. It also offers much more information specific to Major Winters from his early childhood, to details skipped over in BOB, to his thoughts, opinions, feelings concerning countless occurences/people.

Highly reccomended!

I'm just about through Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. I can't say I'm reading it. I'm listening to it on my iPod Shuffle.

I'm currently reading Quantitative Risk Management: Concepts, Techniques, and Tools by Alexander J. McNeil, Rudiger Frey, and Paul Embrechts.

The intricacies of Risk Management are laid out, it's quite enlightening.

I am almost finished with a book by Mark Haddon entitled, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’. The novel itself is hard to describe…a truly an original and brilliant piece of work, written as the first-person account of a teenager with Asperger’s Syndrome. It is highly amusing too. And the setting takes place in Swindon, the small town in which our British friend, Julian, resides.

I also recently finished the Jodi Picoult novel, ‘My Sister’s Keeper’. I like this author’s writing style. She weaves a sympathetic perspective for all of the participants from various first person narratives. The story is very real, and a current issue for our times, about a woman who decides to give birth to a child with her clinically ill daughter's genes. The "designer baby", grows into a teenager who decides to sue for medical emancipation.

I already finished with the books, but here is what I finished most recently.
I've read The Long Emergency by James Kunstler. In that book, he argues that suburbia has no future and that alternative energy sources will not rescue America from the effects of oil depletion.

I also read Declining by Degree where the authors argue that America's University system is at risk.
Some of the authors point out different troubling aspects of the Higher Education system including financial mismanagement, too much buracracy, watered down standards, grade inflation, etc.

Sci fi of course
Julie E Czerneda's Survival: Species Imperitave #1

Aliens biology who killed the far off galaxy

should be good

Kind of moved off the Fantastical trip for a while and headed back to hard core Sci fi

I'd started reading A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss, which is a reasonably interesting mystery novel set in 1720 concerning the South Sea Bubble among other things. I kept wishing it were as good as Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (to which it could almost be a sequel in terms of the events covered), which it wasn't - so I put it down halfway through and started re-reading the Stephenson books (which, together, I think I've decided are the best fiction ever written - even more compelling, entertaining, and enlightening the second time).

I'm also dipping into Richard Fortey's Earth: An Intimate History, a very good geological history of the planet and the cataclysmic events that have shaped it. Fortey doesn't just describe how seas and mountains rise and fall or how continents drift, he tells us why - and shows how these events have shaped human culture and natural history. He examines the various explanations for these events and how they have evolved, reflecting the concerns of people in relation to their environment through the ages. It's also a very descriptive travelogue that takes the reader through colorful descriptions of locations as diverse as Iceland, Oman, Hawaii, the Alps, and Indonesia, examining volcanoes, earthquakes, hot springs, salt flats, and much, much else. So far, it's a fascinating and well-written read.

I've also just started A People's History of Science by Clifford Conner. The book purportedly does for science what Howard Zinn did for American history - look at it from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose contributions to scientific thought have been largely ignored and forgotten rather than the few Great Men that history usually focuses on. So far, I've just been reading about the pre-history of science (the impressive contributions made by hunter-gatherers in terms of astronomy, navigation, taxonomy, cartography, mathematics, etc.) before history was even recorded. I'm looking forward to the rest - if only Stephenson didn't keep calling to me...

And I've been reading bits of "Negro President": Jefferson and the Slave Power by Garry Wills, which looks at a lot of race issues among our founders (notably the three-fifths clause), concentrating on the fascinating and unsung Timothy Pickering, as well as Jefferson, Burr, and Adams. It's a real eye-opener.

I'm delighted you've dipped into Flannery O'Connor, Jaime - and even more delighted that you're enjoying her work. She really is deliciously twisted. John Huston did a very good film adaptation of her novel Wise Blood, which is worth catching if you can find it anywhere.

I just read 'The Memoirs of Usama Ibn Munqidh' and 'Trafalgar, an Eyewitness History' by Tom Pocock. Both books were interesting, but the latter was the better. The eyewitness accounts of the slaughter were almost hypnotic and I couldn't put the book down.

Am now currently reading 'Enigma' by Robert Harris who is my favourite contemporary author. Alas, I've read all his other works of fiction and once this book is finished thats the lot... until he writes another... when ever that happens...

text books. So many text books. No other reading allowed at this time, except textbooks. Engineering and math textbooks are not exciting "must reads"- but informative anyway LOL

I recently finished reading The Dancing Girls of Lahore by Louise Brown, an academic in the sociology department of the university at Birmingham, England. Over a period of more than four years, she stayed in Heera Mandi, the Red-Light District of Lahore, Pakistan to study the women and men who live and work there. Her main focus is on one particular family which includes a middle-aged woman and her daughters who will also eventually join the family trade. They really have no other option given the class and gender restrictions that exist.

Interestingly, Louise Brown tried to take the academic approach of not becoming emotionally involved with her "subjects," but as time passed, she was unable to remain completely neutral. The emotions that she developed for the people that she was working with led to a much more honest and compelling book, I think.

Definitely worth checking out.

I have been reading Benjamin Franklin An American Life by Walter Isaacson. One of the better biographies I have read on Franklin.

If you are interested in African history, I recommend a book called Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire.

The author is David Anderson.

Just by coincidence, I am about halfway through The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by University of Texas Professor H. W. Brands published in 2002. Both Brands and Isaacson get good reviews on Amazon.com.

Just by way of information, Isaacson has a companion volume entitled A Benjamin Franklin Reader culled and edited from Franklin's massive body fo writing.

I usually don't read two books at the same time, but I'm also reading Bob Woodward's State of Denial.

BTW: I have to add this funny story. As sort of a "gag" gift for my recent birthday, my conservative friend at the coffee shop gave me a copy of Pat Buchanan's new book, State of Emergency. Buchanan appeared recently at a Borders in Dallas. My friend got it autographed and told Buchanan it was for his liberal friend. Buchanan reportedly laughed.

Since this was a gift, I feel obligated to read it. Fortunatly it's less than 300 pages.