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50 Books - Endgame
Dec. 27th, 2007 04:21 pmOkay, I've been bad about keeping this updated, so here's a burst of the books I've read the past couple of weeks. They may be out of order. They probably are. But oh well. The reviews will also be short.
#16: Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came Into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming by Paul Hawken
Paul Hawken makes a good case that the goals of environmental and social justice groups are intertwined. Because how much justice can you really have while people are suffering from the wastes of others? And how can you protect the environment when there's people who don't have the power to protect themselves? There's a lot more to it, and he traces a lot of the history and inspirations. The book is shorter than it looks, because the entire second half is a printed compilation of many different groups. The "world's largest group" in the title is his umbrella to include all of those groups, which he makes a pretty good case for.
#17: The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde writes the Thursday Next novels, which I haven't read yet. They've been highly recommended though. But the first one is "The Eyre Affair", and as I've never read Jane Eyre, or a good bit of other "Great Literature", I'm afraid I'd miss some of the jokes.
Nursery rhymes on the other hand, I know pretty well. And I'd been wanting to read some mysteries, so a murder mystery comedy seemed like a good bet. And it was. Jasper Fforde is a very good writer, and has many good turns of phrase. Perhaps this series isn't quite as dense on the amazing writing as I've heard about others, but there's still plenty in there to keep me going.
#18: The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman has the dubious honor of being one of the first major op-ed columnists to notice what an unmitigated disaster Bush and the rest of his crew were. For his perceptiveness (it really wasn't that hard to notice, all of Bush's jobs as an executive had been disasters and bought out by his daddy's friends, and his time as Texas governor was nothing to write home about) he was rewarded by being dismissed as "shrill" or blinded of "irrational Bush hatred", even after it turned out he was right all along.
The book is a defense of liberalism, in the guise of a short political history of the United States in the 20th century, starting with the Gilded Age, and up through the present. Condensed, it goes as such: Until the Great Depression and the New Deal, most of the money in the country went to the top very few percent. Then with the New Deal's social safety net, and then World War II's war economy, price controls, and unionization, income inequality shrank dramatically. Over the past few decades, that trend has reversed. And this is in large part due to policies and politics, not impersonal economic trends. Most of which can be traced to the Republican party and the Movement Conservatives who run it.
Which seems to me to be pretty much right. His other two main points are that the Republicans electoral successes are due in large part to the switch of the South from Democratic to Republican, starting in the 70s. Because of civil rights and the Southern Strategy of appealing to racists, using code like "welfare queens" and "State's Rights" and playing up neo-Confederate resentment, and then using all of that to attack the social safety net programs.
The third tier is an argument for providing health care for every American, like every other major industrialized nation does, and which would get rid of the horrible sucking tick insurance companies whose profit margins depend on not paying for things and keeping people who need medical treatment off their rolls.
I already knew much of it, it's things he and others have said on the Internet, but it's good to have it all in one place. I dunno if it'll convert anybody who reads it, but at least now it's out there.
#19: The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
The second in the Nursery Crime series. This is already long enough, so see most of the comments about The Big Over Easy.
I know there's at least two more books I've read, but I don't have them here and don't remember at the moment. Damnit, me. Keep better records. I'll update them later.
Previous Books:
#1: Grave Peril
#2: Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
#3: DMZ Vol. 3: Public Works
#4: Bad Prince Charlie
#5: Making Money
#6: How to Win Friends and Influence People
#7: H.I.V.E. - Higher Institute of Villainous Education
#8: The World Without Us
#9: Marx for Beginners
#10-13: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
#14: The Unhandsome Prince
#15: Mutant, Texas: Tales of Sheriff Ida Red
#16: Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came Into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming by Paul Hawken
Paul Hawken makes a good case that the goals of environmental and social justice groups are intertwined. Because how much justice can you really have while people are suffering from the wastes of others? And how can you protect the environment when there's people who don't have the power to protect themselves? There's a lot more to it, and he traces a lot of the history and inspirations. The book is shorter than it looks, because the entire second half is a printed compilation of many different groups. The "world's largest group" in the title is his umbrella to include all of those groups, which he makes a pretty good case for.
#17: The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde writes the Thursday Next novels, which I haven't read yet. They've been highly recommended though. But the first one is "The Eyre Affair", and as I've never read Jane Eyre, or a good bit of other "Great Literature", I'm afraid I'd miss some of the jokes.
Nursery rhymes on the other hand, I know pretty well. And I'd been wanting to read some mysteries, so a murder mystery comedy seemed like a good bet. And it was. Jasper Fforde is a very good writer, and has many good turns of phrase. Perhaps this series isn't quite as dense on the amazing writing as I've heard about others, but there's still plenty in there to keep me going.
#18: The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman has the dubious honor of being one of the first major op-ed columnists to notice what an unmitigated disaster Bush and the rest of his crew were. For his perceptiveness (it really wasn't that hard to notice, all of Bush's jobs as an executive had been disasters and bought out by his daddy's friends, and his time as Texas governor was nothing to write home about) he was rewarded by being dismissed as "shrill" or blinded of "irrational Bush hatred", even after it turned out he was right all along.
The book is a defense of liberalism, in the guise of a short political history of the United States in the 20th century, starting with the Gilded Age, and up through the present. Condensed, it goes as such: Until the Great Depression and the New Deal, most of the money in the country went to the top very few percent. Then with the New Deal's social safety net, and then World War II's war economy, price controls, and unionization, income inequality shrank dramatically. Over the past few decades, that trend has reversed. And this is in large part due to policies and politics, not impersonal economic trends. Most of which can be traced to the Republican party and the Movement Conservatives who run it.
Which seems to me to be pretty much right. His other two main points are that the Republicans electoral successes are due in large part to the switch of the South from Democratic to Republican, starting in the 70s. Because of civil rights and the Southern Strategy of appealing to racists, using code like "welfare queens" and "State's Rights" and playing up neo-Confederate resentment, and then using all of that to attack the social safety net programs.
The third tier is an argument for providing health care for every American, like every other major industrialized nation does, and which would get rid of the horrible sucking tick insurance companies whose profit margins depend on not paying for things and keeping people who need medical treatment off their rolls.
I already knew much of it, it's things he and others have said on the Internet, but it's good to have it all in one place. I dunno if it'll convert anybody who reads it, but at least now it's out there.
#19: The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
The second in the Nursery Crime series. This is already long enough, so see most of the comments about The Big Over Easy.
I know there's at least two more books I've read, but I don't have them here and don't remember at the moment. Damnit, me. Keep better records. I'll update them later.
Previous Books:
#1: Grave Peril
#2: Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
#3: DMZ Vol. 3: Public Works
#4: Bad Prince Charlie
#5: Making Money
#6: How to Win Friends and Influence People
#7: H.I.V.E. - Higher Institute of Villainous Education
#8: The World Without Us
#9: Marx for Beginners
#10-13: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
#14: The Unhandsome Prince
#15: Mutant, Texas: Tales of Sheriff Ida Red
