Which Current Events Books?

[freemonkey]

Yesterday, I went to Barnes & Nobel to buy With God On Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, and Democracy in George W. Bush's White House, and another book I read about here ). The first was only available in hardcover The second book, I couldn't remember title & author.

I decided I'd spend less buying on line, so I took a look at the current events section in hopes of finding more to add to my list. There were so many interesting looking books there. There's no easy way to decide.

From this guy's I Hate...... books, to the ones on this page. Not to mention books written from a more central to right position that one should probably read in order to get a more rounded idea of what others think. There's just not enough time or money to read them all.

What have you read? What do you recommend?

[livius drusus]

I haven't read any of them, I'm afraid, but it seems to me that you just can't lose with Jon Stewart's book. At least you'll be able to laugh reading that one.

[freemonkey]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

I haven't read any of them, I'm afraid, but it seems to me that you just can't lose with Jon Stewart's book. At least you'll be able to laugh reading that one.

I don't mean to choose only books from that particular list, those are just examples. Just wondering what people are reading.

Jon Stewart's book is on our list, most definitely.

[lisarea]

We have the I Hate Republicans reader, and it's probably a pretty good 'survey of the literature,' as it were. It's basically a collection of essays, excerpts, and op ed, some better than others. It includes excerpts from one of Al Franken's books, I think some Palast, Molly Ivins, and many of the other people you'd expect. I don't have it on hand, so I can't be much more specific. Except that Hunter Thompson's chapter is nasty and vitriolic and hilarious.

One must-read, IMO, is Greg Palast's The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Palast is one of the most impressive investigative journalists out there today, and his book covers a broad range of topics, from the Exxon Valdez to the 2000 California blackouts to the Florida election theft. Plus, he made up the word 'ledgerdemain' to describe Enron's accounting practices, which made me laugh so hard my monocle popped out and my tophat went all askew.

I'd also recommend Tom Frank's One Market Under God, which is a witty and well-written treatment of very broad US economic trends, primarily the market populism of the 90s and its aftermath. It focuses mostly on cultural aspects, rather than strict economics, so it's a fun, accessible read, and at the same time, it's a little oversimplified and biased as well. But it's still very insightful and interesting. If you want to counter Frank's bias, you could read The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman. Frankly, I think the book pretty much sucks. It's very speculative, and his writing is the worst. Still, it's a very popular defense of neoliberal economics, and I'd recommend reading it if only for some perspective on the popular market populist mindset. And so you get the metaphors people toss around.

For a far more balanced, and more technical explanation, you just don't get any better than Globalization and its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz. It took me about a million years to get through this book, because it is relatively dense, but it's worth it, IMO.

I just got Tom Frank's latest book, What's the Matter with Kansas?, which has been getting good reviews, but I can't recommend it personally because I haven't read it yet. But it does look interesting, and I know the guy's a good writer, so it's probably worth a shot.

I'll probably think of more later.