Book recommendations

[truizm]

Just politically educational eye-openers, although they don't have to be nonfiction (ie 1984). Mainly interested in geopolitics, but any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[AWD]

1. Too Close To Call

By Toobin.....

Talk about an eye-opener!

[BertrandL]

2. From Beirut to Jerusalem

written before Friedman went nuts

[La_Serpiente]

3. I enjoyed this book

I don't know if it is geo-politics, but it discusses the bedouin cultures of Egypt and Libya. Good read.



Veiled Sentiments

[morningglory]

4. Just finished "WaitingForSnowInHavana", very good.

However, it won a National Book Award, so they pulled all the copies back in order to put a "Prize!" sticker on it and sell it for a higher price. We got ours just before the award was announced. Great book with many laughs and tears.

[Turkw]

5. I'm reading

The Two Percent Solution by Miller (not Zell ;) ) it's about national politics. Winning Modern Wars by General Wesley Clark is also good.

[stevebreeze]

6. Catch 22 comes to mind

A little hard to read for some (it is not chronalogical)It is a great critique of both war and the excesses of corporate capitalism.

And becasue I think it's all about the money, America who stole the dream and America who pays the taxes, both by Barlett and Steele.
:kick:

[corporatewhore]

7. where to start

1Cunt by inga musico this is my fucking favorite book not yer mamas femminst book she talks about womens liberation in relation to every topic from racism to corporatismto spirtuality
2the fifth sacred thing (scifi book) by starhawk
3Stupid White men by michael moore
4Homage to catolonia george orwell
5Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order by Noam Chomsky
6study of the gift economy by genieve vaughn
7people’s history of the united states By howard zinn
8sidhartha herman hesse
9tao te ching
10War talk Arundhati Roy

[BurtWorm]

8. The Clash of Fundamentalisms

by Tariq Ali, is an excellent, thoughtful history of US/Imperialist-Islamic relations. It's amazingly thorough and clear-eyed, covering everything from Saudi Wahaabism, Pakistan intelligence and the rise of madrassas, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Nasserism, Ba'athism, Kashmir, Indonesia, and many other points of interest. Ali is an editor at New Left Review, an Oxbridge educated Pakistani and former Trotskyist.

I'm reading Joseph Stiglitz's Globalism and It Discontents now. It makes the argument that free marketers at the US Treasury and IMF have got it all wrong on how to help developing countries to develop themselves and have tended to cause far greater harm than good. While this is not far-fetched in the least, the case is all the stronger for Stiglitz's having chaired the World Bank during some of the worst abuses of IMF policy in the 1990s.

[Aidoneus]

9. Tariq Ali's Bush in Babylon

Those that I can think of off hand, in no particular order:--

Aldous Huxley -- Brave New World
Howard Zinn -- A People's History of the United States
Edward Said -- Culture and Imperialism
Jared Diamond -- Guns, Germs, and Steel
Michael Parenti -- The Assassination of Julius Caesar / Democracy for the Few
Tariq Ali -- The Book of Saladin (and anything else by him)
Abdelrahman Munif -- Cities of Salt / The Trench / Variations on Night and Day
Gore Vidal -- United States: Essays, 1952-1992 / Last Empire: Essays, 1992-2000
William Blum -- Killing Hope
Sigmund Freud -- Civilization and its Discontents
Leon Trotsky -- The Revolution Betrayed / History of the Russian Revolution
Friedrich Nietzsche -- On The Genealogy of Morals
Greg Palast -- The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

on edit, reminded of one more by Burt's post above--
Joseph Stiglitz -- Globalization and its Discontents

[mb7588a]

11. Nietzsche! yes. nt

[Room101]

12. Aidoneus- I just finished "The last Empire"

Gore Vidal makes me feel like I’m in the room with the people and places he writes about in our Empire.

You mentioned BNW you read revisited right?

[Room101]

10. My recommendations........

Brave new world REVISITED. (Aldous Huxley) Brave new world is the fictional anti-utopia story and REVISITED is a geopolitical and sociological indictment and prophecy that has George Orwell grinning with envy from the grave at its stunning accuracy of our current time. Most bookstores carry BNW excluding REVISTED, weird. So check your library for BNW revisited it follows the fictional story, it is a must read!

Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace (Gore Vidal)

Dreaming War (Gore Vidal)

Hegemony or survival- Americas quest for global dominance – Noam Chomsky

Understanding power- the indispensable Chomsky – Noam Chomsky

Stupid White men – Michael Moore

[Suspicious]

23. "Hegemony or Survival"

Have you read this? Is it depressing? I was in the book store a couple of days ago, almost picked it up, and decided not to, just yet.

I'm afraid it's going to really upset me, as Chomsky does not mince words when it comes to discussing the consequences of the current rate of environmental destruction, etc.

[incapsulated]

13. Just One

It's the one I make everybody read!

War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges

The best analysis of why and how we go to war, from it's seduction and myth to the inevitable lies and death and destruction from someone who has been there.

[Room101]

16. I forgot I also read "WAR is a force" I feel like such a nerd

I went through a six-month period when I read about 11 books and now I'm completely burnt out and can't read. Since you already read it listen to this speech Chris Hedges gave regarding the mythology and hysteria of war, it is grime. I need to compile a list of books that a read this year. :crazy:

http://www.whatsgoinon.org/audio/chrishedges103003Hi.mp3
QA http://www.whatsgoinon.org/audio/chrishedgesQA103003Hi.mp3

[incapsulated]

19. I first heard about it

when it just came out on one of those book lectures on C-span. He talked for about an hour and then I knew I had to read it.

Lately, though, I've been re-reading old classics, mostly turn-of-the century stuff like James and Wharton and Woolfe...

[HEyHEY]

14. My war gone by I miss it so

good book

[Room101]

17. "The last thing the dieing girl saw was the lens of my camera

It will never leave me." Chris tells the grim bloody reality of war and how it turns a young man old. This book deeply saddened me while giving me great understanding.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

15. I actually just purchased Chomsky's new book..

..after seeing him on that CBC Newsworld interview. The dude is simply a genius. A GENIUS I tell ya.

[Room101]

20. SevenWhoa- have you seen his documentary "Manufacturing Consent"?

It is a must see, your local library should have it. PM me later and I will give you the real stream link to another documentary on him.

[Kerridwyn]

18. Chomsky, Palast, Pilger

I second Chomsky and Palast. Also British journalist John Pilger, "The New Rulers of the World."

[HuckleB]

21. "Politically Inspired: Fiction for Our Time," edited by Stephen Elliott

This is an amazing book. Look into it.

[Suspicious]

22. "Understanding Power"

(Chomsky) is excellent. The format of the book is Q/A, taken from various talks he has given over the past decade or so.

[VeniceBeat]

24. The Franklin Coverup

Haven't read it but keep meaning to. The ultimate in tinfoil.

[RedSock]

25. more

Just finished Daniel Ellsberg's "Secrets" (Pentagon Papers).

and of course:
Zinn's "People's History of the United States"

[WilliamPitt]

26. The Clinton Wars by Blumenthal

and Fast Food Nation.