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Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's the Grapes of Wrath 3 reviews
Rick Wartzman
PublicAffairs, 2008
Likely to Become the Defining Work on the History of Labor and Farming in the Valley in the 1930s
+ Excellent study of the attempted banning of a classic
+ Great, but I wish it were longer
Was the "Grapes of Wrath" a nonfiction work disguised as a novel? Apparently, the County Board of Supervisors in Kern County California thought just that. The book, and Steinbeck, irritated them to the point that they decided to ban the work and prohibit its sale from bookstores (not that there ...
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The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals95 reviews
Jane Mayer
Doubleday, 2008
Illuminates the darkness
+ Blood, and Fire, and Pillars of Smoke
+ Exceptional and Horrific!
A beautifully written, powerful, well-documented book written by an honest, courageous, patriotic American. I found her book impossible to put down.
Mayer's The Dark Side is a synthetic examination of the Bush presidency, and provides a most comprehensive overview of the history of the use of ...
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Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter 42 reviews
Rick Shenkman
Basic Books, 2008
Just How Stupid Are We? by Rick Shenkman
+ Something to Think About
As an immigrant of the 1950s, and now a naturalized citizen, the book was an eye opener for me from the perspective of history of our country. Being a political "junky" and a moderate, it was reasonably possible for an individual like me to predict the future of the country from the last 50 years ...
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Under The Eagle's Wing: A National Security Strategy of the United States for 2009 (Speaker's Corner) 2 reviews
Gary Hart
Fulcrum Pub, 2008
A Sane Path to the Future
+ Path to success for the next administration
Once again, Senator Hart gives a very understandable outline for a sensible national security strategy for the next president. I hope Senator Obama reads it well. This and Senator Hart's other recent books are the best, since George Kennan's work that led to the "containment policy," to clarify a ...
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Raptured: The Final Daze of the Late, Great Planet Earth (Kiss My Left Behind series)6 reviews
Earl Lee
See Sharp Press, 2007
A one, two knockout!
+ Raptured
+ Spirits lifted!
+ Hilarious!
+ Wow!!!
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Unaccustomed Earth119 reviews
Jhumpa Lahiri
Knopf, 2008
A Perfect 10
+ Book of short stories - Cover to cover without a break?
+ It was so good, it made me cry
+ Rich with detail and complexity, these short stories are novels that end too soon
+ Emotions will linger long after you've finished the book
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The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington11 reviews
David Sirota
Crown, 2008
Excellent Read
+ Read this book!
You will learn something new from reading this book. David Sirota provides first hand accounts of populist movements around the US. I learned about the Working Family Party in New York and fusion. I also got a new perspective on Washington driven faux uprisings vs. real uprisings.
The book ...
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How Rich Countries Got Rich ... and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor4 reviews
Erik Reinert
PublicAffairs, 2007
To Become a Rich Country: Industrialization Policy First, Free Trade Second
+ Fine attack on 'neoliberalism'
+ flawed but well worth checking out
Erik Reinert masterfully uses experienced-based economics to demonstrate how rich countries got rich. Economic growth and welfare in rich countries originated not in unrestrained international free trade, but in conscious and deliberate industrialization policy that progressively shaped a ...
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McCain: The Myth of a Maverick12 reviews
Matt Welch
Palgrave Macmillan, 2007
illuminating
+ Election '08 foretold
+ BEFORE YOU VOTE READ THIS BOOK
+ Ask not...
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Barack Obama: This Improbable Quest6 reviews
John K. Wilson
Paradigm Publishers, 2007
A Great Book
+ Get to know Obama
+ What makes Barack Obama a skilled politician?
I am 68 years old and I have never been as excited about any politician since John F. Kennedy. This man has integrity . I really enjoyed reading this book. John K. Wilson kept my interest and curiosity.
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Trainwreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (and Not a Moment Too Soon)8 reviews
Bill Press
Wiley, 2008
Informative, and a "need to read" for all Americans
+ Did not hit the jugular
+ Corporatism, not conservatism.
+ The truth always hurts
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How The Rich Are Destroying the Earth (Foreword by Greg Palast)22 reviews
Hervé Kempf
Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008
Revolution in the air
+ The Chips Are Down
+ Clearly written, concise and provcative
+ Old Environmental Issues Updated
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Goodnight Bush: A Parody 60 reviews
Gan Golan, Erich Origen
Little, Brown and Company, 2008
Goodnight Bush
+ Excellent teaching tool!
+ GOODNIGHT BUSH & CO.
+ Good night Bush is Hello hilarious!
+ Brutally funny take on the Bush years
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This Page Intentionally Left Blank - Just Like the Paychecks of the Workers3 reviews
Robert S. Swiatek
Aventine Press, 2007
Imaginative and Funny
+ This Page Intentionally Left Blank
+ Swiatek Uses Straight Talk to Unravel Tangled Web of Injustice
This book tells the truth about America today in a folksy, entertaining style. Swiatek exposes all the ways in which middle-class people are getting the short end of the stick, with an emphasis on our mind-numbing and health-devastating world of work. Politics are also fair game for Swiatek's ...
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Manufactured Landscapes: The Photographs of Edward Burtynsky8 reviews
Lori Pauli, Michael Torosian
Yale University Press, 2003
Manufactured Landscapes
+ dramatic
+ Art & patience
I viewed the original exhibition at the National Arts Gallery in Ottawa a few years back. The images are breathtaking, unnerving and awe inspiring.
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The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party9 reviews
Sidney Blumenthal
Union Square Press, 2008
the sooner . . . the better
+ Two Strange Deaths
+ Hope it is true!
+ Blumenthal succeeds again!
+ The Title is Great
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The Next Government of the United States: Why Our Institutions Fail Us and How To Fix Them
Donald F. Kettl
W. W. Norton, 2008
This book exposes the reality that our twentieth-century government is no match for twenty-first-century problems and proposes a solution. In this timely and compelling book, Donald F. Kettl demonstrates how the process of governance has fallen out of sync with the problems the government is trying to solve. Pick almost any recent domestic concern—waging a war, protecting our food supply ...
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Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed5 reviews
Carlo Petrini, Jamey Lionette
South End Press, 2007
Excellent call(s) to action
+ A deftly composed treatise
+ Pollan is not the author, and that's ok.
Okay. Michael Pollan's note (see his "review" of this book) has worked. He's clearly no longer listed as the "author" of this wonderful little book. I'm glad that this was straightened out. The problem is that his 1-star rating has pulled down the overall rating for Manifestos on the Future of ...
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God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything805 reviews
Christopher Hitchens
Twelve Books, Hachette Book Group, 2007
essential DISCLAIMER
+ logical, but superficial to some extent
Staffers for an organization called Campus Crusade for Christ are responsible for allegations that I (Lucifer) and Christopher Hitchens are in cahoots; and that no one -- not even a born-again evangelical Christian -- can read either Hitchens' GOD IS NOT GREAT or Lucifer's TRUE HISTORY OF ...
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The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game13 reviews
Alvin S. Felzenberg
Basic Books, 2008
Fresh, unconvential take on presidential ratings
+ Interesting, Educational...and Somewhat Biased
+ Truth in Ratings
+ Move Over, Arthur Schlesinger!
+ A Fun and Very Informative Book
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