What are you reading tonight DU? I'm reading "That Used To Be Us" by

[applegrove]

Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, how America fell behind in the world it invented and how we can come back.

[texanwitch]

1. I am listening to Stephen King.

I don't read as much as I used to.

[Brigid]

2. I'm rereading Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court."

I found a terrific edition of it at B & N yesterday. The satire is even more biting now than it was in the nineteenth century. Twain was the George Carlin of his time.

[bigwillq]

3. "Say Goodbye"

By Lisa Gardner

[BlueIris]

4. The Double, by Jose Saramago. nt

[HughBeaumont]

5. "That Used To be Us, But No Longer Is" . . .

. . . thanks to neo-lib economic policies Thomas Friedman's 100% on board with. Like, for instance, offshoring jobs by the metric ton and somehow believing wealthy people will be benevolent and create a whole lot of higher paying jobs here to offset the losses. As the past 20 years have shown us, the exact OPPOSITE happened. Jobs/careers left, they were never replaced.

I read somewhere that because all of the nano-technology is securely performed and manufactured offshore, Amazon couldn't make a Kindle in America if they wanted to.

[applegrove]

6. According to Bill Clinton's new book America's trade deficit is in oil and with china. The other

deals work for the USA.

[Odin2005]

7. A biography of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.

[clyrc]

8. I'm reading Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital

by Catherine Hakim. I agree with some of it, but I wouldn't say it was fabulously well written. I wish I could make someone else read it and then discuss it with me, but it probably won't happen.

[clyrc]

17. Now that I've finished the book, I have to say I don't agree

with most of it. Half of her arguments don't make any sense, and she repeats herself too often. I do agree that erotic power is a legitimate power, but other than that, I'm not much in agreement with the authors ideas.

[Duer 157099]

9. I just got that audiobook yesterday but haven't begun listening yet

how is it?

[applegrove]

10. I read it less for the policy prescriptions and more for the basic facts of what is happening

to the world. Full of information. I like the idea that good ideas will bubble up from below instead of appear to those on high in managerial positions. Certainly what OWS is about too.

[applegrove]

13. He's ragging on unions right now. Blames them as much as the right for the situation

we are in now. I don't agree with that.

[WCGreen]

11. The Ghost Write by Philip Roth....

Got a lot of his older stuff when Borders had their clearance sale...

[OriginalGeek]

12. "God No!" by Penn Jilette

My wife brought it home from the library for me just last night. She's too good to me.

[flying rabbit]

14. Scar

by China Mieville. Great steampunk.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. Stephen King's new book, "11/22/63."

So far I really like it. I've also been reading a lot of bleak, depressing, but very interesting Scandinavian murder mysteries (Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbø, Arnaldur Indriðason).

[KatyaR]

18. I'm reading that one right now as well.

It's been a while since i've read any Stephen King, but this book is really good, really interesting plot.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

23. I just finished it.

I won't say anything other than that, like most of King's books, it doesn't end the way you think it will. He has an unusual talent for coming up with a totally weird story line and describing it in a way that makes you believe it could happen. Not what the English professors would call Great Literature, but it's definitely great story-telling.

[dimbear]

16. In honor of the approaching centennial, reading the two great WWI journals.

Le Feu (Under Fire in English)
Storm of Steel


One by a French trench soldier, one by a German trench soldier. The real deals. Not romantic novels like 'All Quiet on the Western Front' or 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.'

Le Feu came close to bringing down the French government.

Both available on the net in various languages for free.

[Kali]

19. I stayed in bed this morning to finish

A Chant To Soothe Wild Elephants

[OriginalGeek]

20. well if I was in bed with wild elephants

you can damn sure bet I'd be trying to soothe them too.

[DebJ]

21. '1877: America's Year of Living Violently" by Michael A Bellesiles

that reads almost like 2011:
"...tens of thousands of Americans saw a lifetime of investment vanish in a few minutes at a sheriff's sale." Bankers like Mellon felt no sympathy, as clearly the losers were to blame for the 'bad habits and extavagant living' that left them unable to pay their morgages. Mellon made no connection between these failed mortgage payments and the fact that businesses nationwide found it difficult to meet their payrolls and to acquire loans, leading to layoffs and wage cuts, both of which reduced demand, leading to production cuts, leading to further layoffs. Those who failed had only themselves to blame." pg 5

"The pressure on charitable organziations and public assistance increaased dramatically, though what most worried the elite was the spread of radical ideas among the poor." pg 8

"There was no national harmony and the members of Congress did their part to increase the divide." pg 12

"John Swinton, the editor of the New York Sun, looked at the United States and saw poverty for most and excess power in the hands of too few. 'The power of money has become supreme over everything,' he wrote....the elite acquired 'all the special privileges and special legislations which it neds to secure it complete and absolute domination.' This moneyed elite 'must be broken or it will utterly crush the people.' pg 19

"The richest people in the country became heroes, no matter how they made their money, while the poorest and most powerless became the source of violence and disorder, and a dangerous drag on the nation. Those who held to this vision constructed the most significant of all mythologies, social Darwinism, an ideology that not only accepted but celebrated violence." (pg xi)

"Class superceded race as the primary area of conflict...elites battled to maintain their power in every part of the country" (pg xiii)

Banker Jay Cooke, "judged the most creative banker of his era", began the Panic of 1873 which resulted in massive bank and business failures. Cook bribed politicians, bought newspapers, and lied shamelessly to promote his financial schemes, "all of which earned him numerous government subsidies". "Cooke...began using his clients' money without bothering to tell them."
(pgs 2-3)

"Leaders of both parties, Sir George Campbell wrote, 'carried into politics what I may call joint-stock morals,' or the view that a political office exists to make its holder a profit'". pg 3

"...banks became more skeptical about lending money and tended to hoard their funds over the next several years, further tightening the credit markets. Real estate markets collapsed as thousands of mortgages were foreclosed. The surviving banks took advantage of the crisis to seize propertis at historically low prices."pg 5

"In the immediate aftermath of the Panic, people blamed federal and private extravagance...For others, alcohol was clearly to blame...any expenditure on nonessentials (was seen) as violating reason and ensuring failure...The leading business journal...pinned the blame on ...talk of government regulation...Many blamed the banks for funding far too many risky enterprises..." pg 6

[Aristus]

22. "The Haunting Of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson.

The characters are a little dated, but it's still a beautifully-written, very scary book. :scared: