BOOK CLUB: Nominations for October book

[CrispyQ]

Let's take nominations through end of next week (9/16), poll through the end of the following week (9/23).

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Book Club Guidelines:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=209x1152

snip...

NOMINATION OF BOOKS
Each person has one nomination, and can second as many books as they like. The "seconding" of the books is important because there are only 10 spots on the poll, so the "seconds" will often determine which books actually get on the poll.

[CrispyQ]

1. I nominate one of the best books on our democracy

& the problems it faces, that I've ever read. It's a very short, quick read (I read it in an hour), but it is one of the best reminder/primer books on what our founding fathers intended for this country & the serious threats our democracy is facing today. It also would be an excellent book for children/young adults as it is written in a comic book fashion.

And guess what? It's written by Thom Hartmann. Are you surprised? Probably not! ;)



"We the People: A Call to Take Back America" by Thom Hartmann

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1882109384/qid=1126135191/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-5792740-7358366?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[ramapo]

2. Suburban Safari

Entertaining, educational, and a bit lighter than the usual book-of-the-month fare, Suburban Safari is the story of the author's year-long trek around the confines of her yard. There is an amazing diversity of life struggling to survive in our suburbs. Some creatures have learned to thrive while others are just hanging on.

The book is part history and part science but always interesting...

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1596910917/qid=1126189375/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-3650909-6390418?v=glance&s=books&n=507846>

[CrispyQ]

3. This sounds interesting

& I agree, something light would be a nice change of pace! I second this title.

[CrispyQ]

4. kick

[efhmc]

5. Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

[CrispyQ]

7. info:

Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743247531/qid=1127063556/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-5792740-7358366?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Freelance writer Walls doesn't pull her punches. She opens her memoir by describing looking out the window of her taxi, wondering if she's "overdressed for the evening" and spotting her mother on the sidewalk, "rooting through a Dumpster." Walls's parents—just two of the unforgettable characters in this excellent, unusual book—were a matched pair of eccentrics, and raising four children didn't conventionalize either of them. Her father was a self-taught man, a would-be inventor who could stay longer at a poker table than at most jobs and had "a little bit of a drinking situation," as her mother put it. With a fantastic storytelling knack, Walls describes her artist mom's great gift for rationalizing. Apartment walls so thin they heard all their neighbors? What a bonus—they'd "pick up a little Spanish without even studying." Why feed their pets? They'd be helping them "by not allowing them to become dependent." While Walls's father's version of Christmas presents—walking each child into the Arizona desert at night and letting each one claim a star—was delightful, he wasn't so dear when he stole the kids' hard-earned savings to go on a bender. The Walls children learned to support themselves, eating out of trashcans at school or painting their skin so the holes in their pants didn't show. Buck-toothed Jeannette even tried making her own braces when she heard what orthodontia cost. One by one, each child escaped to New York City. Still, it wasn't long before their parents appeared on their doorsteps. "Why not?" Mom said. "Being homeless is an adventure."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[LeftyDarthBrodie]

6. Radicals in Robes by Professor Cass Sunstein

Here's a description from Amazon:

Even with the recent changes in its makeup, most people think the Supreme Court is roughly balanced between left and right. This is a myth. In fact the justices once considered right-wing are now the Court's moderates; those who were once centrists are now the Court's "liberals"; and the liberal element, once represented by Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan, has all but disappeared.

Many people also think that judicial activism is the province of liberals. This is also a myth; since William Rehnquist was confirmed as Chief Justice in 1986, the Supreme Court has struck down decisions of Congress more than thirty times-an unprecedented record of judicial activism. Some conservatives want to return to the eighteenth-century Constitution or to restore "the Constitution in Exile," by which they mean the Constitution as it existed before the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In Radicals in Robes, Cass R. Sunstein explains what this constitutional vision would mean. It would endanger environmental regulations, campaign finance laws, and the right to privacy. It would threaten the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and many other federal agencies. It might well allow states to establish official religions. It would impose sharp new limits on Congress's authority to protect rights.

Radicals in Robes pulls away the veil of rhetoric from a dangerous and radical movement and issues a strong and passionate warning about what some extremists really intend. One of the most respected legal theorists in the country, Sunstein here issues a warning of compelling concern to us all.

[CrispyQ]

8. amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465083269/qid=1127063680/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-5792740-7358366?v=glance&s=books

[hang a left]

10. I second Radicals in Robes.

I did not play in the September book because I was not interested in Freakonomics.

[CrispyQ]

9. Let's give this a few more days, ok? ---nt