Secession: How Vermont and All the Other States Can Save Themselves from the Empire by Thomas H. Naylor
For those interested in an alternative look at American politics and America's future, this certainly should interest you.
Do they mention Palin's husband ?
I've got a whole bunch of books on the burner right now -
Just finished -
( 1. ) "Food of the Gods-The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge" by Terence McKenna
( 2. ) "The Ruffian on the Stair" by Gary Newman
( 3. ) Re-read "The Invisible Landscape" by Terence and Dennis McKenna
( 4. ) "The Quantum Brain" by Jeffrey Satinover - packed with info I hadn't known about.
( 5. ) "Kaleidoscope" by Darryl Wimberley - Here is a description of this book from the flyleaf - maybe something for Anja to read...
"Jack Romaine's addiction to speakeasies and cards has landed him in a tight spot - one which he can't use his good looks to get out of. With debts to dangerous men piling up, he becomes an unwilling recruit for a Cincinnati gangster needing an expendable tool to recover his stolen cash and railroad bonds. Unfortunately Jack is not the only man on the trail of the stolen money-he is in competition with a sadistic killer who relishes the carnage he leaves in his wake.
The trail leads South to Kaleidoscope, a 'beddy' for freaks during the months when carnival is out-of-season. In this malformed community peopled by dwarfs and giants, legless women and women with three breasts, Siamese twins and sword swallowers, Jack is very much the odd man out. Convincing these folks of his sincerity and amiability while surreptitiously trying to find out what happened to the stolen cash is going to take all of his ingenuity-and will have results he could never have anticipated."
Yeah, it was a pretty fun read. I was a bit disappointed with the latter part of the book and the ending, although it was clear from early on that the book was not purely gritty realism.
Re: #2 - I will have to look for other stuff that Newman wrote - about one of my favorite subjects - Gilded Era ( turn of the century Victorian ) crime. This one was about a man tracking down info about a scandal his grandfather had been involved in, that amounted to a detective story about another era. It got a bit too bogged down with details about the search, but the author shows some promise. Reportedly he focuses on "period writing".
Mckenna is always interesting.
Partway through -
"Me and Kaminsky" by Daniel Kehlmann
"Proust and the Squid" by Maryanne Wolf
"The Afghan Campaign" by Steven Pressfield
"The Necronomicon" edited by Robert Price
( 1. ) "Me and Kaminsky" is a funny story told from the POV of a naive narrator, about him interviewing a reclusive old artist, in a bid for "breaking out" onto the national journalistic/arts scene.
( 2. ) "Proust and the Squid" is about the history of reading, and gets into all sorts of subjects, including dyslexia and ancient languages etc.
( 3. ) "The Afghan Campaign" is told from the POV of a soldier in Alexander the Great's army as they take on Afghanistan's clans, which they actually did do IRL. This guy has the rep of being the best writer on war out there, and so we will see.
( 4. ) "The Necronomicon" is commentary on H.P. Lovecraft's most famous creation - an imaginary book of marvels re: necromancing and the Cthulhu "mythos".
I'm nearly finished with #4, two thirds done with #1, and have a lot of work still to do on #'s 2 and 3.