Red Mosquito

I will be making my way through Policy Paradox this weekend. I've been wanting to assign this book for a while, and figure I better read it before I pull the trigger. I've had some problems in the past where I assigned books I hadn't read that turned out to not do what I wanted them to.

It's a well written textbook, but still a textbook...

I'll just include non-fiction here
Currently reading or just read:
Winston's War: Churchill, 1940-1945 by Max Hastings --This is the first history book I've read in a looong time. So far so good.
Books vs. Cigarettes by George Orwell
Politics and the English Language by George Orwell
Individualism and Economic Order by F.A. Hayek
Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis

Next up I'm finally going to read On Liberty and then I'm hoping to find a collection of Steinbeck's nonfiction called America and Americans. I'm also "reading" a couple different intro level macroeconomic textbooks as I get ready to teach that course for the first time next month.

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my summer reading was a lot better last summer than this summer

Who Stole the American Dream

Got to be a bit overlong. A good macro level overview of what happened, but not much theoretical sophistication regarding why/how. A typical book written by a reporter.

Shopcraft as Soulcraft

This was interesting. A long argument from a former philosophy phd turned bike mechanic in defense of trades as less alienating and more fulfilling work

The Democracy Project

I'm not much of an anarchist. The 1st person accounts of the start of Occupy were interesting, and there are some spirited defenses of radical democracy


10 Steps to Repair American Democracy

This was very good. The chapters on elections in particular. I learned a lot.


The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism

This was excellent. The author is one of the real heavy hitters in political science, and it is a fair and nuanced look at the tea party as a simultaneously grass roots and establishment driven phenomena, and where that causes tension


The Rise of the Tea Party
This was disappointing. a little to eager to create gotcha moments out of material that didn't quite justify it.



Time willing (new baby in a few weeks) I am hoping to get to the following

Stiffed Susan Faludi is pretty brilliant on gender issues, and this is maybe my favorite book on gender relations in the US, situating the backlash against feminism against the decline of a larger animating sense of public purpose in the United States. I've read this before and it is fantastic, but it's been a while and I am probably assigning it again this year. It's 13 years old now so I hope it's not too dated.

One Market Under God Another book I've read before that I want to reassign in a class on ideology. Thomas Frank is hit or miss for me but this book is brilliant. It looks at the rise of market populism in the 90s.

A Constitution of Many Minds haven't read yet but this looked interesting and I've enjoyed what I've read of Cass Sunstein in the past

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America. I wish I had read this over Who Stole the American Dream. George Hacker may be the best political journalist out there.

Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time Ira Katznelson is the kind of scholar that makes you feel like you're wasting your time. I wish this came out a few years ago so I could have worked it into my book. Well, I haven't read it yet, but I assume I would have wanted to.

4/5 wrote:I'll just include non-fiction here
Currently reading or just read:
Winston's War: Churchill, 1940-1945 by Max Hastings --This is the first history book I've read in a looong time. So far so good.
Books vs. Cigarettes by George Orwell
Politics and the English Language by George Orwell
Individualism and Economic Order by F.A. Hayek
Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis

Next up I'm finally going to read On Liberty and then I'm hoping to find a collection of Steinbeck's nonfiction called America and Americans. I'm also "reading" a couple different intro level macroeconomic textbooks as I get ready to teach that course for the first time next month.

have you ever read On Liberty before? It remains my favorite work of political philosophy.

How can you read serious stuff in the summer. The cocktails in the sun definitely impair my ability to think deeply. SO far this summer I've knocked off...
World War Z - Brooks
It's So Easy - McKagan
and working on...
Let Me Introduce Myself - collection of short stories about the devil.

Also re-reading the 50 Shades series out loud to a frequent bedtime partner.

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surfndestroy wrote:How can you read serious stuff in the summer. The cocktails in the sun definitely impair my ability to think deeply. SO far this summer I've knocked off...
World War Z - Brooks
It's So Easy - McKagan
and working on...
Let Me Introduce Myself - collection of short stories about the devil.

Also re-reading the 50 Shades series out loud to a frequent bedtime partner.

The summer is when I have to cram in my 'work' reading that I can't do during the semester.

surfndestroy wrote:Also re-reading the 50 Shades series out loud to a frequent bedtime partner.

Was counting back from 100 too much?

stip wrote:

4/5 wrote:I'll just include non-fiction here
Currently reading or just read:
Winston's War: Churchill, 1940-1945 by Max Hastings --This is the first history book I've read in a looong time. So far so good.
Books vs. Cigarettes by George Orwell
Politics and the English Language by George Orwell
Individualism and Economic Order by F.A. Hayek
Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis

Next up I'm finally going to read On Liberty and then I'm hoping to find a collection of Steinbeck's nonfiction called America and Americans. I'm also "reading" a couple different intro level macroeconomic textbooks as I get ready to teach that course for the first time next month.

have you ever read On Liberty before? It remains my favorite work of political philosophy.

mine too

I went to grad school intending to specialize in mill.

stip wrote:I went to grad school intending to specialize in mill.

i couldn't do political theory as a specialty

I got bored with stereotypical political theory fairly quickly. my research and professional interests really moved in the direction of applied political theory--the point of impact between ideas and institutions. Half of my New Deal stuff is the theory behind it, but the other half talks about how they attempted to institutionalize given the political and ideological context they were forced to operate in.

you do international stuff, right?

Just finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Gaiman a few weeks ago and it was amazing.

Wanted something 'lighter', tried getting into Beautiful Creatures but it's a bit TOO light.

Downloaded The Cuckoos Calling yesterday when I heard it's JK Rowling under a pseudonym. Starting today.

Tried to get into WWZ a few times, but it just won't keep my attention. The movie was fun, though.

Just realized I'm still in News & Debate. Mods - Fee free to move, merge or delete.

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BurtReynolds wrote:been listening to these lately. complete original stories of of H.P. Lovecraft.

http://www.lovecraft-stories.com/

I used to live on the same street as Lovecraft Square in Providence. Love it.

This is incredible and completely riveting.

The Voyeur’s Motel

Gerald Foos bought a motel in order to watch his guests having sex. He saw a lot more than that.

By Gay Talese

Read it, read it, read it.

Interesting.

Isn't LV in Colorado right now looking for places to live?

Conclusion: Thousands of unhappy, discontented people are moving to Colorado in order to fulfill that deep yearning in their soul, hoping to improve their way of life, and arrive here without any money and discover only despair. . . . Society has taught us to lie, steal, and cheat, and deception is the paramount prerequisite in man’s makeup. . . . As my observation of people approaches the fifth year, I am beginning to become pessimistic as to the direction our society is heading, and feel myself becoming more depressed as I determine the futility of it all.