Book club ....

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to start talking about the suggested book(s) for the upcoming book club discussion thingey. I know when the initial idea was floated, it was thought maybe we should wait until after New Years due to the whirlwind of the holidays, yadda yadda yadda. But my idea was, maybe for some folks, the book could be a Christmas present, or they could be flush with Christmas bonus cash (ha, not me mind you!) and then too, our talk_politics brothers and sisters in Europe, Africa, and Asia could require some extra time to make the purchase for all sorts of reasons. Just wondering maybe if we could talk about that now? Thanks. and for some fun, here are Men on Books. a classic from In Living Color.

Comments

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

You make a good point. I'll compile these over the course of the week and we can vote on them after the Thanksgiving weekend?

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Sure thing ;)

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

...after the American Thanksgiving weekend? When's that? I just looked this up and it seems it's this Thursday, which makes it a super duper long weekend.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

P.S. I'd suggest you make a direct link to a page about the book club selection with an explanation of what it is and polls for books, etc. You know on that left pane thingey gizmo <================ over yonder way ;)

Chris Matthews: Jack Kennedy - Elusive Hero

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Re: Chris Matthews: Jack Kennedy - Elusive Hero

[russj.livejournal.com]

His name was JOHN Kennedy.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

I like Twilight.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you seem like a team Edward kinda guy.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Hehe, actually you American brothers and sisters might need some more time to get a book after I've already downloaded via torrent! Muahhahaha. >:-D

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

I'm still working on reading Muzzled by Juan Williams. It's been hard to do that plus finish my novel and all my day-to-day stuff. (Not to brag too much or anything, but I'm close to hitting the 50,000 word mark, which is what's required to be considered a winner. First year out of four I've EVER accomplished that!)

Can we get some satire, too? I've got Jim Norton's most recent book and Greg Gutfeld's The Bible of Unspeakable Truths.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

I always wanted to HAVE WRITTEN a novel ;)

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Since so many people seem to be invoking Christ lately, I'd vote for the Gospel According to John.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

I would recommend you The Gospel According to Thomas.
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl_thomas.htm

Gospel of John

[russj.livejournal.com]

+1
A wonderful and provocative read.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

That's good! Although I'm mostly into science fiction, I could make a compromise and have a bit of unscience-fiction. :p

[onefatmusicnerd.livejournal.com]

I think PJ ORourke is a good start.

Maybe, Modern Manners or All The Trouble in the World.

Or how about some fiction. With some inspiration, I could finally finish Richmond Noir or San Diego Noir.

Or

Mindfulness in Everyday English... Amazon seems to think I need Buddha, and I am the sharing type.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Half-Blood Blues (http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/assets/pdfs/shortlist-book-interiors/Half-Blood_Blues_by_Esi_Edugyan.pdf), by Esi Edugyan. It won this years Giller prize.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

You know my biases. Anything by Pratchett. Pratchett knows it right (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/423162.html)!

Anthem by Ayn Rand

[russj.livejournal.com]

align="left" (http://www.josephsons.org/stuff/Anthem.htm)

I know that very few people want to read the lengthy "Atlas Shrugged", or even "The Fountainhead". And "We the Living" is such a downer of a novel.

But the futuristic dystopian "Anthem" can be read in one sitting, and is available in the public domain (free) in both e-book and audio-book format.

Just click on the postage stamp to access a download site. No registration required.

It is chock full of political issues to discuss.

Right now I'm reading "Winds of Dune", which is currently cheaper in hardcover than it is in paperbook.

I'm also a fan of Terry Pratchett, and have been working through a re-reading of the entire discworld series this year.

I also enjoy Orson Scott Card (Alvin Maker, Ender), Isaac Asimov (Foundation, I Robot), and Arthur C. Clark (Rama, Songs of Distant Earth).

I recently read some of Frederic Pohl's "Gateway" novels.

Re: Anthem by Ayn Rand

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Btw I'm hearing very negative reviews on Atlas Shrugged, the movie. Is it because of bias in the lamestream media, or it really sucks as a movie? (Haven't watched it yet).

I am reading Condi's memoir.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

[404.livejournal.com]

Anything by George Plimpton will suffice.

My Current Kindle List

[politikitty.livejournal.com]

- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not by Robert Burton
- A Great Leap Forward: 1930s Depression and U.S. Economic Growth by Alexander Field
- Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
- Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure by Tim Harford
- Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (just finished, and it is absolutely amazing. If nothing else, it's refreshing in how it manages to overcome the cheap rhetoric flourishes of both the right and left on a difficult topic that suffers from paralysis of polarization)
- A History of Economic Thought: The LSE Lectures by Lionel Robbins (I'm a bit unsure if this is going to be any good. But I've been wanting to dig deeper into Smithian economic history and get a sense of when economists stopped being associated with greater freedom and happiness. Ex: The Dismal Science was thus termed because the intellectuals found it dismal that economists thought Irishmen or blacks should be given greater freedom)

Re: My Current Kindle List

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

I'd be down with the Kahneman.

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics by Nicholaus Wapshot.

Heard the author interviewed. Sounded interesting.

stuff from my global studies class? that's all I've got...

[raichu100.livejournal.com]

I really liked this one:



Sadly I'm not as well-read as many of the older folks on here...

Another one that comes to mind is The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson, which I read part of and really liked. Also Blowback which I haven't read but have heard good things about.