My 2011 Holiday Book List

That time of year again! I want to wish everyone a lovely, healthy and peaceful holiday season. If you’ve got any down time, here are some books to consider for your reading list (in addition, of course, to Black Tuesday :)) Some will make you ponder, some will make you angry, and others will make you smile.  Happy New Year!

Nonfiction

1) Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline  by Morris Berman

An intensely thought-provoking read. Berman pulls no punches in laying bare the truths behind America’s hustling culture, and how destructive that mentality has been for the country since its inception. The book is a post-mortem of a societal notion that at its core, relies upon crushing the weak to become stronger.

2) Vultures Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores by Greg Palast

Palast strikes again – lazer-beaming on the corporate kings that literally feed upon the carcasses of the human population – whether in financial terms by ripping off small towns, pension funds and mortgage holders, or through the slaughtering of forests, sea-life, animals, and village children. Vultures’ Picnic is an eye-opening, heart-pumping, mind-blowing experience that should not, MUST not, be missed.

3) With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful by Glenn Greenwald

Before Jon Corzine dodged Congressional questions about MF Global’s stealing $1.2 billion in customer funds with impunity, there was Glenn Greenwald. In this book, he  walks us through Watergate, the Iran-Contra scandal, and Obama's shielding of Bush-era officials, revealing how the media, both political parties, and the courts conspire to foster a system that effectively exalts torture, war crimes, domestic spying, and financial fraud committed by the elite at the expense of everyone else.

4) Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence  by Christian Parenti

Parenti’s epic new book describes the harrowing condition of catastrophic convergence, or the “collision of political, economic and environmental disasters.” It is a wake-up call to humanity, particularly to the richest nations (with the U.S. at the top of that list). The detrimental effects of our environmental gluttony at the heart of our economic avarice are not blurry fatalistic hypotheses—they are here, today. Parenti breaks them down.

5) Zombie Banks: How Broken Banks and Debtor Nations Are Crippling the Global Economy by Yalman Onaran with a forward by Shelia Bair

With Bank of America trading below $5 and the world’s biggest banks merely appearing solvent due to enormous government subsidies, Zombie Banks is crucial reading. In extremely accessible prose, Onaran shows how ongoing government backing of risk-laden banks will only prolong global economic crises.

6) Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism: Build it Together and Win by Ralph Nader

This book is Vintage corporate-raider Nader, and it reads like a horror story, delineating a  terrifying cornucopia of corporate crimes that not only continue unabated, but constantly pummel us financially, socially, physically, and mentally. Nader's commentary on this astonishing array of corporate transgressions (during just one year) is imbued with the passion and experience of decades as a crusader for justice. 

7) Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer

Schweizer spares neither political party in his exhaustive research on how politicians use their knowledge, position, and influence to make money – for themselves. This book will disgust you – because it reveals the extent to which the people that make the laws in this country, don’t abide by them when it comes to personal wealth accumulation.

8) The 99%: How the Occupy Wall Street Movement is Changing America by Alternet Editors

There remains no meaningful federal opposition to the systemic destruction of Main Street's economy by the titans of Big Finance. The Occupy movement, physically and conceptually, could be that opposition. This book gathers in-depth information abut this struggle from Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, James Galbratih, Robert Johnson  Yves Smith, myself and many others.

Fiction

9) The Sense of an Ending  by Julian Barnes

I have been a Julian Barnes fan since reading one of his earlier novels, Talking it Over. No one gets the human condition better than Barnes. This book follows the story of a man facing his old age, trying to make sense of his past – but it’s so much more. I finished it in one plane ride. You won’t want to put it down.

10) The Devil Himself: A Novel  by Eric Dezenhall

This fall, I had the pleasure of sharing an NPR radio show segment with Eric Dezenhall and had no idea beforehand, that he was a novelist. I’m glad that I know this now. The Devil Himself is fast-paced, intricately woven historical fiction, focusing on World War II in America and a colorful set of  ‘gangstas’ fighting Nazis.

11) IQ84  by Haruki Murakami

I just started reading this book (global economic crises taking up so much mental space and all) and am completely hooked. More ethereal and darker than Murakami’s other novels, it follows the story of a young woman encountering an alternate reality, and an aspiring writer at the precipice of a life shaken to its core.

For the kids:

12) Turbie the Turtle Duck by Rich Arons

Political Cartoonist Rich Arons focuses his immense talent in the direction of children’s books. Turbie the Turtle-Duck is reminiscent of the best of Dr. Seuss from Turbie, the turtle-duck himself, to all the wonderful inhabitants of the Lost Isle of Animoxie, like the Pea-cocker spaniels at High-Biscuit Forest and elephant mice at Cheesy-Tree Park.  The best review – my three-year- old niece wants me to get her a turtle-duck NOW.

13) The Rise of the Seven Stones (The Gem Series) by Jamie Austin

This book, the first in a series, came out last year, but in kindle form, this year. Debut author, Jamie Austin weaves an enchanging story that is JK Rowling’esque. it begins in Manhattan where twelve-year-old Lillian is struggling to make sense of her parent's impending divorce. She and her younger brother James are sent away to their eccentric grandmother. On their first night in her home, they are transported to a bizarre universe., shrunken down to the size of a mite, and lost inside the world of their grandmother's magical brooch. It’s terrific.