It’s all the rage on the other liberal blogs these days, so I thought I’d refer you to a few of the books I’ve been reading:
Cracking the Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America’s Original Vision, by Thom Hartmann. (Y’all should read it.)
Anasi Boys, Neil Gaiman. (You really can’t go wrong with any of Neil’s books, but I’d start with “American Gods.”)
I recently finished Anya Ulinich’s “Petropolis,” a very funny and moving novel about a Russian girl’s path to America.
I’m also rereading “The World According to Garp” and “The Road Less Traveled”; about to start Jacob Needleman’s “What Is God” and “Snakes In Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work” by Paul Babiak, Robert D. Hare; a couple of Eckhardt Tolles, some Jodi Picoult for a little light reading and a few dozen more I can’t remember.
How about you?
Of note is 1491 by Charles Mann about Indian culture in the Western Hemisphere. An excellent lesson in humility for the European cultures.
Recently finished and highly recommended:
“Blindspot” by Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore– fun historical fiction set in Boston, touching on gender and race issues;
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot–engrossing non-fiction on how the immortal HeLa cell line come about, involving race, class, and gender issues.
(Hey, I see a pattern here!)
Still reading: “The Possessed”–Elif Batuman’s funny ruminations on Russian novels, grad school, and life.
i generally don’t read books, being more of a “magazine and newspaper” type, but i am currently enjoying “My Secret Life” (link not quite SFW), an anonymous and utterly filthy autobiography about a Victorian gentleman who’s a sex maniac; Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times”, Ralph Stanley’s ghost-written autobiography, and Why I Am a Socialist by Charles Edward Russell.
Currently reading:
Pulitzer by James McGrath Morris (Kindle edition)
Tear Down This Myth by Will Bunch (Kindle)
In the pipe:
Honorable Survivor: Mao’s China, McCarthy’s America, and the Persecution of John S. Service by Lynne Joiner (Hardbound)
The Big Short by Michael Lewis (should be delivered tomorrow) (Hardbound)
Currently re-reading The Triumph of Politics by David Stockman. Recent reads: The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Clinton Tapes by Taylor Branch, The First Rule by Robert Crais, The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner, and Dearest Friend (A Life of Abigail Adams) by Lynne Withey.
You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier, a whole bunch of stories and poems by Jim Harrison, and Fun With Problems by Robert Stone.