I'm currently reading "Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies" by Noam Chomsky, and you should be too if you consider yourself "informed". I've read it before, but it could be the single most important book I've found about the problems facing Americans today, so it deserves much contemplation.

I just finished The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards. I have never read this author's books before, but I will read everything I find from her now. There are good stories and well-written stories, but rarely is a book written so well that every paragraph is like a work of art. That is how I would describe her writing style. Ms Edwards obviously has the heart of a poet, and she has taken her gift with words and turned it into a breathtaking, beautiful piece of work that aptly illustrates the complexities of human relationships.

It's a story about a deep betrayal in the face of family tragedy, and the impact of that betrayal on the lives of those involved. It's a very human story, a realistic tragedy where there are no villains, just victims and bad decisions.

I just finished up the Communist Manifesto a few weeks back and am now 50 pages in on Murray Rothbard's "For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto". Suffice it to say, I like Rothbard better.

CP

Had read Company which was a lot of fun. Max Barry wrote it and I liked Jennifer Government so much I picked it up in an airport and read it between LAX and JFK. I also read Blink which was a nice idea that could have been written in a few paragraphs instead of a book.

Just finished 1776 which was really well written and an interesting take on the time... but I hated it. I don't know why I just could not read more than a few pages at a time. Very weird. I should have really liked this book. Despite that I am going to read John Adams.


Currently reading The World Is Flat and it's excellent. When I am done with it expect a Debate.

I'm reading a book called Confederates in the Attic. It is written by prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horowitz. For anyone interested in Civil War history, and its residual effects on southerners of today, it's quite interesting. It is a look into the hearts and minds of reenactors of Civil War battles as well as those southerners who gauge not only their history but their mere existence in terms of the Civil War in all of its glory. It's funny as well as revealing.

Sorry folks, not going to provide links, too lazy. Been on a bit of a reading binge the last two months...

Godless - Ann Coulter

Somebody's Gotta Say It - Neal Boortz

Treason - Ann Coulter

Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About It - Ben Stein

The Light of Western Stars - Zane Grey

Among Empires: American Ascendancy And Its Predecessors - Charles S. Maier, a fascinating look at the question, "Is American an Empire today?"

Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway - Dave Barry

Sagramanda - Alan Dean Foster

A Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion and Morality in Crisis - Robert P. George

Totalitarianism: The Inner History of the Cold War - Abbott Gleason

Hard Left- Tavis Smiley

American Culture, American Tastes: Social Change and the 20th Century - Michael Kammen

Smileys are "Recommended Non-partisan Reading"

This one had me laughing out loud:

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

Premise: What was Joshua (that's Hebrew) up to between birth and ministry? An angel who becomes addicted to soap operas on the hotel TV resurrects Biff (aka Levi) to write down the story.

You've got the Magi, Maggie (Mary Magdalene), Biff's annoying fixation with Mother Mary, Pharisees, Romans, a rather nasty demon, a Greek Cynic (that's Bart, or Bartholomew), a drunken Messiah (the water to wine thing), Peter's attempt to walk on water, arguments over What The Fudge Does THAT Mean Anyways, and a new take on the Passion.

Romp with Biff and his pal Josh through the ancient world as they seek the wisdom Josh needs to become the Messiah. Thrill to the amazing Kali rescue, laugh at the composition process of the Beatitudes, dance with Maggie at a wedding, and become thoroughly ticked off at Jakan the Pharisee. Come on people, You Know The Words!

Written in idomatic modern American English because Biff gets the gift of tongues. Caution: there's sex in this one. And violence too, but so what. Also camels, horses, a yak that needs shaving, Buddhist monks, and our favorite crazy dude, John the Baptist.

Rated NFC (Not for the Fundamentally Challenged)

OMG...this one sounds like a work of genius.

I'm in the process of reading Lone Survivor. This is a fascinating read. It details the experience of a medic sniper in a small team of elite SEALs tasked to reconnoiter a village where a Taliban leader was thought to be holed up. Faced with the moral dilemma (saving private Ryan style) of either killing three goatherders who discovered them (and were obviously hostile), or letting them go and risking the compromising of their positions, they let them go and were subsequently attacked by a deluge of Taliban. The unbelieveable acts of heroism in this book surpass imagination. This makes Blackhawk down sound like a walk in the park. These people make the legendary 300 look like a group of ninnies.

And there are heroes of that extraordinary caliber on the Afghanistan side as well. Arguably even higher because they had more to lose. The SEAL was rescued, literally seconds from death by Afghani villagers who were enshrined in a person honor code that dictated if they took this stranger in (after meeting him at gunpoint while he lay writhing on the ground, suffering from numerous wounds and unable to speak from dehydration), they were honor-bound to risk the death of every person in the village to defend thim. Fascinating reading, as well as an absolutely illuminating glimpse of culture.

I agree – I saw the movie and hated it.


I love M. Connelly too. Just finished the Narrows – great book. I love the Harry Bosh character.

Echo part was great as was the Concrete Blond. I plan to read all of his books.


If you like Connelly also try Robert Crais - http://www.robertcrais.com/.

Good stuff!

I've finished a few chapters in Alan Greenspan's new book, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World. So far it's been rewarding, simply because it isn't something I would normally read.

Haven't read anything heavy for awhile, too little free time and too much hard work so I am sticking with entertainment.
Unfortunately I read so much, plot twists or original characters are hard to come by. its almost like seven steps to kevin bacon.
By the 3rd chapters I am usually already able to see where we are headed. I got half a shelf of unfinished books that had the excitement just DIE once the all too familiar paths became clear.
Time to make a list from this thread and give em a shot.
Target acquired. several others as well.



Vellum by Hal Duncan
BleeCH!

I had heard so much about how great this was supposed to be.
"The style,wild new talent"

Boooorrrriiiing!
I WILL finish reading it because I spent so much on it--I could have had 2 paperbacks for this waste of tree matter.
Dull!
Migraine Dull.

On the bright side Guy Gavriel Kay has a new book out and he is possibly one of my top 10 favorite authors for Sci-Fi/Fantasy. An older book of his I HIGHLY recommend is The Lions of Al-Rassan.
The best cliffhanger last chapters EVER written.
The fate of 2 brilliant characters is decided in a very emotionally cruel way for the reader.

as a sidenote may i just mention for the record I hate the fact that Europe gets to read books I am dying for a whole YEAR before i do. What's up with that. I just ordered several books from some authors I wouldn't get a chance to read until 2008 and they have been out since the beginning of THIS year.

as Zim the Invader would say "Vengeance will be miiine!"

Damn - here I am touting Vidal again. But, if you enjoyed Biff, you might also like Live from Golgotha: The Gospel According to Gore Vidal. In fact, it's the Gospel according to St. Timothy and deals more with St. Paul and early Christianity than Jesus (who was, apparently, enormously fat). But it's also about time travel and marketing and infotainment and revisionism - and a "hacker" who's trying to delete Christianity from history - featuring Nero, Petronius, Mary Baker Eddy, Pontius Pilate, and Shirley MacLaine. It's Vidal in Myra Breckenridge mode - outlandish (and often hilarious) social satire rather than historical fiction. Very entertaining.


I just finished Kornwolf by Tristan Egolf, a sort of comic horror novel, I guess. In short, it's about an Amish werewolf in central Pennsylvania - but also deals with journalism, boxing, vigilantism, madness, corruption, Rumspringa, child abuse, faith, betrayal, and rage. All the requisite elements for comedy. But it works quite well, largely due to the energy and imagery of the writing, the edgy humor, and the diversity of characters, most of whom (apart from a few obvious caricatures) are pretty well observed. A few passages - especially those from the point of view of the kornwolf itself, the insatiable, scabrous, foul-smelling beast of the title (also known as "The Blue Ball Devil") - are as exhilarating as they are exhausting:

QUOTE

...tearing through bull-thistle, jimsonweed, supplejack - brittle with mid-autumn coming of frost - and of pulsating crimson, appendages thwarted and stumbling, slam into fallen timber, as worm-ridden slick with organic decay - to meandering blindly through goldenrod, inkberry, sheep laurel, bladdernut, Solomon's seal - a prickling rash of woodland nettles - cries emanating from lurch of within, as of burning of flame now, at once underfoot - down embankment and plunging headlong into watercress, chilly with runoff from fertilized fields, and of crippling thirst satiated in excess - then up again, scrambling, mud on the incline, jagged escarpment, then over to stillness...

The bulk of the novel is less stream-of-consciousness, but the narrative keeps shifting from the perspective of one character to another, none of whom (the reader included) have a full grasp on events - many incidents happen "offstage" while others happen right in your face - too close to fully comprehend . Most of the writing has the immediacy of the kornwolf sequences, but the style changes considerably depending on whether the focal character is a journalist, a whiskey preacher, or a young Amish woman - and one twelve-page boxing sequence is among the best sports fiction I've ever read (er, not that I read that much sports fiction). There is a consistency in the overall story-telling and the wicked sense of humor, though, that holds the whole thing together. Egolf has an uncanny knack for using words to create almost physical sensations of disorientation, movement, and foreboding, as well as evoking pain, outrage, disappointment, and concern on a visceral level, that draws the reader into the characters and situations. The extended climax is almost nightmarish, the murderous chaos of the action is reflected in the conflicting narratives, contrasting emotions, and rich, disturbing imagery as events unfold during Harvest Sabbath under a blue moon.

It also works as something of an allegorical social critique: the kornwolf epitomizes youthful rebellion against authority, but its destruction and bloodlust is mirrored in the vigilante reaction to his rampages. Similarly, almost all of the characters' vices and virtues tend to determine their fates. I suppose there's always an element of metaphor in "monster" tales - and werewolves are particularly ripe for drawing comparisons to the latent beast within all of us - but Egolf uses such symbolism very subtly and the novel is more of a ripping yarn than a social tract.

I must say that I most enjoyed the sequences dealing with the Amish themselves. Since returning to Pennsylvania, I've developed something of an interest in latter-day Anabaptists - among other things, our business gets quite a lot of Mennonite traffic as well as some Amish - and was glad to see that, despite Egolf's punkish tendency toward iconoclasm, his portrayal of the Plain People is largely sympathetic, fairly accurate, and often very informative.

The author (who was also a musician and political activist - he was one of the guys arrested for forming an Abu-Ghraib-like human pyramid at a Bush appearance in Lancaster, PA) suffered from a bipolar disorder and some of his writing seems to reflect this in its frenetic pace and shifting points of view and tones. He had written two previous novels (which I fully intend to pick up as soon as possible), both reasonably successful if not bestsellers, and committed suicide in 2005 at the age of thirty-three, just after completing the manuscript for Kornwolf. It was published posthumously and seems a bit rough in places, even given Egolf's sometimes feverish style, and may have benefited from some editorial input. Then again, the rawness of the writing is one of its most compelling features, so maybe it's just what the author intended.

I guess you could say I'm recommending this one.

Wanted to post a warning here, because I recommended the 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter' books earlier.

The first two are great, but the newly released 'Dexter in the Dark' was Dismally Disappointing. The formula didnt' work, and the ending seemed terribly rushed. I found myself quickly skimming through dialogue that seemed tired, and pointless personal anecdotes about the daily minutia. Darkly Dreaming Dexter's daily musings were clever. This Diminished Dexter's musings come across as rather sad and pointless stream-of-conscious ramble. The overall impression was that the author didn't really feel like writing this one, and it showed. I suppose he made his fortune already.....

Published earlier this year by the United States Institute of Peace, Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom, by Mohammed Hafez, is definitely a must-read for anyone grappling to understand this aspect of the conflict in Iraq.

More than simply a look at suicide bombings in Iraq, it is an analysis of the emergence of the insurgency and the development of the various factions and their perceptions of the fight - with a focus on suicide attacks, from a social sciences POV (without being overly pedantic) . In many ways, it reminded me of another outstanding look at human relations and conflict; Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War, by Michael Fellman. That one was also much more than a simple history of guerrilla fighting in Missouri - like this one, it was an in-depth analysis of the psycho-social interrelationships between the factions in the conflict and the civilian population caught in-between.

Extensively sourced, illustrated with plenty of charts, graphs and network diagrams, along with useful appendices, I found the book to be perhaps the best unclassified piece on the subject matter I've read to date.

I just finished Infidel, by Ayaan Hirst Ali. Wow. This book is her life story, as she moves from childhood in Somalia to Ethopia, Medina, Kenya and finally Europe. It's especially timely, because the Dutch have revoked her security and she just had to go back to Holland. I can't recommend this book enough. She makes powerful statements--for women's rights, against religious dogma, for Western Civilization and freedom of thought. It's compelling.

Currently reading Ken Follett's Pillars Of The Earth.

Apparently he's about to release a sequel so I decided to read it. It's very good. It's about 900 pages and I'm arounf 320.

It's a historical fiction about a man set on building a Catherdral in Kingsbridge. Apparently Follett practically got a degree in architicture to write this book and it shows.

I loved that book. One of the few books where 900 pages wasn't enough, so I'm glad to hear that a sequel is in the works. Follett really has a knack for getting into the detail of a subject for his books.

I loved Follett's books in high school. I don't know what happened that made me stop reading his historical thrillers. My COO mentioned the book and I said, I'll get to it - when I Googled it and realized Follett had written it I went to B&N and bought it immediately. It's been excellent. Unfortunately I have a cold I can't seem to get rid of and I keep falling asleep on the train

Just polished off Nemesis by Chalmers Johnston. Pretty intensively written book with plentiful appendixes to round it out. Was particularly useful in highlighting the corrosive effects of lobbying and earmarked funds. Also gave a good working definition on Status of Forces agreements and their effects around the globe.

Definitely one of the better books out there, 4 out of 5 stars.

I have just finished Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran and - wow. Just - wow. I'd been hearing very good things about this book for months (and had been waiting over a year for it to come out in paperback) and I have to say that none of the reviews, no matter how glowing, have done the book justice. Any capsule review I might offer can't really do it justice either, but I'll have a go:

Briefly, Imperial Life in the Emerald City chronicles the first year or so of the American occupation of Iraq, largely focusing on the Coalition Provisional Authority under the brief tenure of Jay Garner and the more extended control of Paul Bremer. Chandrasekaran's account is extremely detailed and, while he reports much cynicism and criticism of what went on under the CPA's administration, the author himself remains remarkably aloof and objective - which is pretty amazing considering the amount of folly he actually witnessed. The near-absence of the reporter himself gives Chandrasekaran's (often eye-witness) account a real sense of immediacy, as well - almost as though it were the reader encountering one bureaucratic misadventure after another.

Part of the strength of the work is its heavy reliance on reporting the experiences of those directly involved in the occupation - members of the CPA, the Iraqi Governing Council, the State Department, the military, independent contractors, and Iraqi citizens. And those experiences are frequently downright surreal. If this were a work of fiction, it would be considered outlandish, but darkly hilarious: a sort of Catch-22 for the new millennium. The fact that it is not a work of fiction, though, makes it exasperating, infuriating, enlightening - and still darkly hilarious. I alternately found myself gasping, shaking my head, chuckling ruefully, and wanting to bang my head against a wall - as so many in the Green Zone seem to have spent so much time doing.

Chandrasekaran's reporting is not confined to the CPA and its activities - there is much information about the level of corruption and incompetence at work in Iraq under Hussein, as well as the more recent corruption and incompetence originating in Washington - but it reveals a level of cluelessness within the Provisional Authority (and numerous other agencies) that is both astonishing and depressing. And incredibly well-documented. The book has a large cast of characters, covers a very wide range of efforts, and details the many, many ways in which virtually everything went wrong, whether through idealism, ideology, arrogance, or ignorance.

The book is incredibly well-written and should be read by anyone with any interest in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq and the several factors and factions that are still affecting our policy and progress in the Middle East (or anyone interested in the perils of "nation building" in general) - which I assume is just about everyone here. Seriously: you will be hard pressed to find a better book on the Iraqi occupation and how we got to where we are right now - and you won't find a more readable one.

Highly, highly recommended.

In case anybody was wondering why I don't post too often, its because I'm busy reading some books.

Since I'm in Korea studying Korean, I spent over a month reading the Korean version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone(해리 포터와 마법사의 돌) and now I'm working on a Korean book on Tarot Cards. Of course, I've been using an online dictionary to help me translate the stuff and record the HUGE number of new words but its well worth it.

Complete works of Sherlock Holmes. Good stuff and my poker game improved dramitically since!

I've been reading (and savoring) Mission: Cook! by Robert Irvine who is IMO the world's top chef. It's half cookbook, and half the story of his remarkable life. From this snippet on Wikipedia........




He has a television show on the Food Network called "Dinner: Impossible" where he is absolutely amazing at the things he can accomplish in the kitchen under outright ridiculous circumstances. Fascinating guy even if you don't like to cook as much as my wife and I do.


Aquilla

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It covers one full day, in great detail, of a prisoner's life in a Siberian gulag. Reading it always reminds me that winters in Cleveland are nothing to complain about.

I've made dent's into a lot of books, but in addition to a Terry Brook's binge I'm well into The Feminine Mystique which is really interesting.

A lot of Freidan's evidence is time-specific but the underlying reasoning and concerns are still applicable.

I am re-reading a favorite of mine, The Underground History of American Education, by John Gatto. It is a simply fascinating and chilling inside look at how the current system of schooling came into being. It provides me with wonderful discussion points for my teen & adult children. I highly recommend it. It definitely helped to propel me towards a more Libertarian viewpoint.

I am reading the Lucifer Effect, which is excellent. It's by Philip Zimbardo, who became well-known through his orchestration of the Stanford Prison Experiment. The first part of the book discusses the Stanford Prison Experiment, which is the first time Zimbardo has ever discussed the experiment in-depth.He discusses how the situation of prisons causes people to take on certain characteristics that they do not normally think they possess. He then applies his findings from this experiment to other real situations, most notably Abu Gharib. It's incredibly interesting.

I'm reading What's Eating Gilbert Grape? by Peter Hedges and Patriots by A. J. Langguth.

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz. If you ever need reminding why Russian totalitarianism, in this instance the Stalininist variety, is to be opposed, this will remind you...

I've finally gotten around to reading Murray Rothbard's For a New Liberty. Essential reading for any libertarian. I'm embarrassed that it took me this long to finally get to it.

Eleanor Roosevelt : Volume 2 , The Defining Years, 1933-1938 by Blanche Wiesen Cook

Awesome book. I can't wait for the 3rd volume.

Finished up Peak Everything by Richard Heinberg. Interesting premise of merging peak oil theory with green movements into something viable.

I've got over 6 months until my favorite author (Michael Connelly) releases his latest novel (one day after my birthday...will make a great belated bithday present). I'm mostly reading books with Kaia these days. She loves the Magic Tree House, Magic School Bus, and Judy Moody series' these days.

I do, however, have a friend whose first novel was released today! It's gotten great reviews and I'll read it as soon as I get my copy!
Wake - Lisa McMann

I am dealing with the feeling of loss that comes at the end of a REALLY good story and the depression that comes with the wait for the sequel.
Steven Erikson's The Bonehunters. Pure fantasy.

Alexander Hamilton by Historian Ron Chernow;

The Edge of Evolution by Microbiologist Michael Behe; and

Dreams from my Father by Senator Barack Obama.

In the last few weeks I have read these diverse works. The first should be required reading for all U.S. citizens--Hamilton was not without major flaws, but he still makes you proud--what a brilliant man; the second is a thoughtful look from the microbiological level at the limits of the general evoutionary theory to explain life as we know it; and the last tells us that Obama is really an African at heart, and other stories. It is his memoir from 1995.

Sellout! by Randall Kennedy

The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse by Richard Thompson Ford

Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors by Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint

and after that The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama.

I'd be curious to get your review of that book, Nighttimer. I haven't read it yet.


A great historical view of Hollywood and American movies can be found in the book, Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies. written by Robert Sklar.

It starts off with the birth of mass media and goes into the creation of the Hollywood movie industry. You learn all about the early Hollywood moguls and the development of an industry that has taken a lot of twists and turns since its inception.


It's a must-read for all movie buffs!!

Currently, I'm reading
What's the Matter With Kansas by Thomas Frank. Its a Leftwing screed.

World Without End, by Ken Follett. Basically, a 1000-page soap opera, taking place in the late 1300's. It's the follow-up to Pillars of the Earth, which takes place in the same place 200 years prior. Really good escapist reading. Can't put it down. Except to re-read Richard Lattimore's translation of the New Testament, given that it's Lenten season.

Next up - Robert Ferrigno's follow-up to Prayers of the Assassin, Sins of the Assassin. I loved the first one.

Just curious, this is what I'm reading, and right now a paper book is how I'm reading. Anyone using one of those Kindle things, or the Sony version? I've got my eye on the Sony PRS-505.

While in Iraq, I had virtually no time to read except to flip through whatever magazine was floating around the unit at that time; so upon my return I promptly gave Barnes & Noble a few months worth of combat pay, and stocked up on plenty to read.

I just finished MAJ Richard Winters "Beyond Band of Brothers". If you are a fan of Ambrose's original book, I highly recommend this as a corollary. It gives Winters perspective on many of the events, but views that didn't always make it into Ambrose's book or the HBO min-series.

My next fare is fiction [which is rare for me], World War Z by Max Brooks. I plan to be prepared for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.

I am currently 1/4 of the way through reading Ludwig von Mises' magnum opus Human Action. My interest in economics is peaking at the moment and I am definitely finding this work intellectually stimulating. Its a long work so it might take me a little while, but I definitely feel like ill be filled with knowledge once I am done.

I am currently reading The Return of History and the End of Dreams by Fredrick Kagan.

Today, I got finished reading the Book of Job from the Bible. Of course, a book from the Bible isn't really a whole book, so to add to the challenge, I am working on reading the Korean translation for it and am currently at chapter 11.

Currently delving into Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare. I've read and worked on it before, but the opportunity has come to tackle it again. Finding the balance between extreme liberalism and extreme conservatism; hypocrisy; character assassination; political scandal... yep, 400 years old and still relevant. Ah, Shakespeare.

I'm about a third of the way through The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

And it's really very good indeed. What surprises me most, reading it for the first time, is how the film and TV adaptations I've seen skip some bits, focus on others, or invent new ones for their own purposes while still staying true to the spirit of the novel.

I suppose I had always assumed that was the case, but this is the first time I've read a classic novel after seeing an adaptation, so my admiration for both novelists and screenwriters has increased. Clearly, though, they are both very different disciplines.

Liberty In Troubled Times, by James Walsh

CP

Just read

Cod (the history of cod)
The Big Oyster (the history of the oyster - but actually a GREAT history of New York as told through the oyster)

Currently reading Salt (the history of... oh you know)

All have been excellent and fun but The Big Oyster was the best one.

The book is so huge in scope... I think there might be a miniseries out there that covers more... I don't remember. The most common change is making Albert into Edmond's son. I think the recent film adaptation with Caviezel wasn't bad... there were, obviously changes, but it wasn't bad.

This is a difficult one to adapt and I, too, have an admiration for those who try... although, I was involved with a god-awful stage adaptation not long ago... ugh!

It is a fascinating exploration of what you may do to seek revenge when you have seemingly unlimited resources - how creatively you can go about getting it.

I was fortunate enough to see a production of this play in Stratford many years ago. Like the other so-called "problem plays" or "dark comedies" of this period in the Bard's career, it demands more of the audience than earlier plays, while not quite reaching the level of the later great tragedies. A very interesting moral dilemma indeed -- should the heroine yield to the lust of the ruler to save the life of her lover, who faces the death penalty for (of all things) fornication?

If you're enjoying Salt, you may enjoy Spice: The History of a Temptation. I haven't read Cod or The Big Oyster (which sounds great), but I like Spice a lot more than Salt.

I haven't had much time for reading lately and haven't finished many books over the past several weeks. I started Glenn Greenwald's Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics, which I found pretty disappointing. Greenwald is often one of the most astute political commentators currently publishing, but this was like reading the same paragraph over and over and over. God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters was much better among recent political reads, but was too scary and depressing to stick with. I may come back to it.

So I've retreated to guiltier pleasures and am currently dipping into Patricia Cornwell's Predator - the only one of her Kay Scarpetta novels which I hadn't read. I also just re-read Gore Vidal's excellent 1876 to help[ me feel a bit better about the 2008 election cycle so far. It didn't help.

Measure for Measure, btw, is one of my favorite plays not written by G.B. Shaw. I've directed six or seven Shakespeare plays and acted in about a dozen, but never Measure for Measure.