Reply #79: I went on a binge two weeks ago at Farley's in New Hope. [View All]

I finally decided to own copies of Maus (Spiegelman), Persepolis (Satrapi) and V for Vendetta (Moore). I'd read bits of them before, now I can can really appreciate them. Although they are graphic novels, I'd even say I think the first two wouldn't be out of place in a HS lit class.

I also picked up Matt Taibbi's The Great Derangement, which I enjoyed in an actually "LOL" kind of way--he really is funny. He made an observation about parts of our ideological bandwidth--he looked at evangelicals of the "Jesus Camp" variety and 9/11 "Truthers"--that they aren't just operating from different points of view or political opinions--but whole different sets of "facts". When I look at the current "Tea Party" crowd, or evaluate anything that Michele Bachman says--different set of facts seems about right.

I also picked Ahmed Rashid's Descent into Chaos. He's a Pakistani journalist, and his book covers U.S. foreign policy and how it is disastrous for Pakistan & Afghanistan. It's very detail-packed and I'm still not through it yet. I'm actually right at a part where he discusses the abuse of prisoners at Baghram. I recommend this one, too, for the perspective it provides.

(Buying books one-at-a-time for me is impossible. It's like going into Costco for "just one thing.")

(Edit--html...can't live with it...grumble....)