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Books read recently by J. Zimmerman.
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The Mental Health of George W. Bush Check the Booker Prizes. |
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"Every poet is an experimentalist."
[Marvin Bell in his 32 Statements About Writing Poetry in Poet's Market 2004] |
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{ March (marzo (see also books on Spanish)) 2005 }
Part autobiography, part how he writes, the thrill of this book was to listen to King read it in his hellion way on unabridged CDs.
Also see The Colorado Kid by Stephen King.
Favorite poem is Rachel Hadas' "Triolets in the Argolid".
The COMMENT section includes Adam Kirsch on "Ambition and Greatness":
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"But today
... even the great poets are no longer interested in greatness,
at least not in the sense that Milton and Keats were.
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For a poet like Milosz, greatness consists not in self-assertion but in self-abnegation,
not in mastery but in witnessing.
... even as it retains the old ambition that defines the word -- in Milton's formula, to create something that time will not willingly let die. ... 'great' ... is the quality Matthew Arnold named 'the grand style,' which arises 'when a noble nature, poetically gifted, treats with simplicity or with severity a serious subject.' As long as we give these words -- noble, gifted, severe, serious -- the intelligent, supple definition they require, I doubt if Arnold's definition can be bettered." |
W.S. di Piero has an 8-plus-page essay praising Basil Bunting's Complete Poems and Basil Bunting on Poetry (Ed. Peter Makin).
In "Ten Takes", D.H. Tracy is particularly enthusiastic in reviewing Roddy Lumsden's Mischief Night: New & Selected Poems.
Interesting though gossipy book about the famous part of John Belushi's life: Saturday Night Live; Animal House; The Blues Brothers; the drugs, including the multi-day drug binge that preceded his eventual death by overdose. The book repeated information, almost as if it had been written as stand-alone chapters that were not fully integrated. It would have been better if edited to two-thirds the size.
Written for younger readers, it's a story about how a young girl learns to see things from other people's points of view and to use and develop control of her emotions. It's also an introduction to what witchcraft is; as arch-witch Mistress Weatherwax says:
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"cosmic balances and stars and circles and colors and wands and ... and toys, nothing but toys." She sniffed. "Oh, I daresay they're all very well as decoration, ... but the start and the finish, the start and the finish, is helpin' people when life is on the edge. Even people you don't like. Stars is easy, people is hard." |
It's also a story about the recognition of death:
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"Haven't any of you been there when old folks are dying?" There were one or two nods but everyone was watching the dust. "Sometimes things go wrong," said Petulia again. "Sometimes they're dying but they can't leave because they don't know the Way. She said that's when they need you to be there, close to them, to help them find the door so they don't get lost in the dark." |
While it's not as funny as Pratchett's hilarious Hogfather, nor the ironic Jingo, nor his Thief of Time, it does have some good moments, particularly thanks to the Nac Mac Feegle, the most disastrous fairies know to witches.
Also see other books by Terry Pratchett.
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What is the most obvious mental health problem of
G. W. Bush?
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The core characters of this story of rebellion in South America are a journalist (John Dyer,), a lawyer-turned-cop (Agustín Rejas), a dancer (Yolanda or comrade Miriam), and the guerrilla leader (Ezequiel). Ezequiel's background (philosophy professor), methods, and ultimate display in a cage after capture are effectively those of the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path)'s leader Abimael Guzman, who was captured in Lima (Peru) in 1992. In both real life and the book, thousands of people were killed by both the rebels and the official military, and huge bombs exploded in the rich Miraflores section of the capital.
Shakespeare is a remarkably writer, able to tell of atrocities without (on the whole) overwriting, and to communicate character, action, and scene in a minimum of vivid words.
The Dancer Upstairs is a meditation on how easily we avoid seeing who others are and what matters to them, and how innocently many of us could move from empathy to great harm. Vivien, the bossy and flirtatious ballerina aunt of the journalist John Dyer, is the most outspoken in this regard:
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"Most do-gooders are a menace." [p.263] "You start with a humanitarian idea,
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Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by Jared Diamond (  2005).
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Diamond, a biologist and bio-geographer, described the collapses of civilizations as varied as those of Easter Island, the Maya, Angkor Wat, and the Norse in Greenland. How did they happen? And could such ruin happen to us? See our notes on Collapse. (03.03.2005)
A biographer, Mark, tries to find the 'real' Gilbert Strong. In the process, interleaved with the adventures of some quite eccentric and funny characters, the book meditates on the difficulty of discovering 'the truth' about anyone; however, in the end Mark does feel that he has discovered and truly come to know Strong.
At its heart, though, the book is about the engulfing power of falling in love. We are given several samples of besotted people, providing a pleasant 'compare and contrast' as we tootle through the tale.
Again (as in Moon Tiger) a reader obtains much insight and pleasure when Lively shows the thoughts and misinterpretations of several different people at the same event, confirming that mind reading remains a rare human skill.
None of the characters seem as rude and amoral as Claudia in the Moon Tiger, so According to Mark is a much more pleasant book to read.
Nominated for the the 1984 Booker Prize.
{ February (febrero (see also books on Spanish)) 2005 }
(02.28.2005)
Excellent reading on CD by Simon Prebble of a Victorian theft of a train shipment from London to France of gold to pay expenses of the Crimean War. The protagonist, Edward Pierce, is a self-assured and well bred thief with the planning skills of Sherlock Holmes. Crichton shows he's not British by defining well known (to most British) terms (even now that Sam's Empire has replaced Britannia's) like OBE; but that only matters to fuss pots.
Lots of wriggle in the lively plot. A good book to have read to you.
The old photos are especially interesting. Great index with notes so that you know what kind of data you will get if you jump from the index to the text. For example, James Joyce's patronage by Miss Weaver begins on p.414. Virginia Woolf criticizes Miss Weaver's appearance on p.443 and makes hostile comments on Ulysses on p.528. J.B. Shaw declines to subscribe to Ulysses on p.507, though he calls Ulysses a literary masterpiece on p.576.
I just finished reading this book The Memory of Running. The story of an overweight average guy who faces tragedy in his life by getting on his childhood bike and leaving Rhode Island heading to California to claim the body of his dead sister. He is a quirky tragic figure similar to Ignatius Reilly in The Confederacy of Dunces. He is on a quest but doesn't realize it. He befriends others but doesn't think about it and is amazed when others help him. He is naive and is attacked and bewildered. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I Googled the book and came across a blogged fact that the author is a librarian and audio book producer who spent 35 years trying to get a book published. There was a story on NPR about the book too, just a few days ago: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4502278 The parallels with Dunces in that respect makes it so fascinating. The picture of the bicycle on the cover of the book made me pick it up in the bookstore. The author must be a cyclist as he captures many of the feelings of long distance cycling. He captures the feelings about family and loss and sadness and exploring one's self being equally well. |
See our Enneagram web page.
A many-part exploration of the life of a dying historian, Claudia, especially her secrets (like her love for a man who was killed soon after she met him and her incest with her brother), and the secrets (like her daughter's own affair) that others keep from her.
Her havoc at a living history site , where she behaves like an omniscient goddess dropping in, is both an instructive lesson on Claudia and on history.
I like especially that many episodes are told from the point(s) of view of one or two other people besides the protagonist, Claudia. As self-assured and rule-breaking as she is, she does not always have her hands around the slippery world-pig of 'the truth'. An interesting meditation.
Won the the 1987 Booker Prize.
Another British Landscape artist, and of a more austere mold than Andy Goldsworthy, Long expands the definition of sculpture yet further to include hitch hiking around Britain and taking a photo of the sky and the earth at 11 a.m. every day, as well as carrying a stone across Britain. Did I see someone say 'grown-up small boy'? My favorite is his Earth (2002), a wall-sized hexagram in mud.
On many levels, this is an appropriate book to read during Lent, as it concerns the self-imposed quarantine and the giving up of food, drink, and comfort two millennia ago by seekers hoping to be helped by God.
This book is frustrating and annoying until the final chapter unfolds. Despite the long wade through Crace's hallmark iambics that struggle to slow down the reader, it's ultimately worth it.
What seems to be initially a book about unintended consequences ends up more like a book of intentions. Its theme of life-in-a-harsh-environment relates to Crace's best book, The Gift of Stones, while its presentation of corporeal death by starvation and thirst are a temporal prelude to his brilliant Being Dead.
It was a deserving nominee on the short list for the 1997 Booker Prize.
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Finished Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters (reprinted 1989)
by Robert Beverly Hale.
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"Drawing, like so many other skills, is a matter of being able to think of several things at once" begins the book.
The best book I've seen for teaching figure drawing, using the examples of our greatest anatomy-intelligent figure-drawing artists of Europe's second millenium.
Hale's text is concise, readable, re-readable, and full of relevent observations and exercises. His 100 illustrations are from the true masters of drawing: Bruegel, Carracci, Cambiaso, da Vinci, Degas, Durer, Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Tintoreto, and other brilliant figure artists of the last six centuries.
p.30: "Every artist will tell you how to learn to draw: keep a sketch book and just draw and draw."
p.33: "By simply drawing a cube, you can understand some of the significance of line in creating the illusion of reality."
The judgement you can develop, even from reading his book without actually drawing. will improve your recognition of the quality of other artist's figure drawings (02.10.2005)
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Began
Psychological Research: The Ideas Behind the Methods (2001) by Douglas Mook. Text for a college course in Psychological research methods. |
A well written biography of Harry S. Truman, showing his personal values and loyalties. It gives the context for how this remarkable president rose through the local political system to become a U.S. Senator, then the vice-president, then (after the death of President Roosevelt) President, and how he finally won the presidential election himself (against Dewey).
The shadow on Truman is that he ordered the use of the atomic bomb. But the more I read about this man, the more I see a man who cared for honesty and for the U.S. citizens in a way that many people in the Junior Bush administration apparently can not.
It's a book of lamentation written (in the words of the old Caldwell cartoon) like "Your prose broken into poetry." In a PBS interview, Stern said "I had absolutely no mentors. I came from nowhere." This may explain why his poetry is rather unpoetic.
The few poems of interest are: "I am so Exhausted", "Sometimes When I Close my Eyes", "Peace in the Near East", "Climbing this Hill Again", "Malaguña", and "The Days of Nietzsche":
"I have moved so far into my own thought I have almost forgotten the days of Nietzsche, when he was my guide. Now when I land in the steam
And when I stop to think
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So will his work last, a century after this poet is dead? Judges may thinks so, as they have awarded him the National Book Award for Poetry, the Ruth Lilly Prize for Lifetime Achievement, a PEN Award, and the Lamont Poetry Prize. So you had best judge for yourself.
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Finished Plan of Attack (2004)
by Bob Woodward.
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As a professional journalist, Woodward created a book that is richer, less score-settling, and much better written than Richard A. Clarke's Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror.
Historically, in 2003 George W. Bush ordered the American invasion of Iraq. The justifications he offered the American citizens for spending their tax dollars on the invasion were:
According to Woodward, Bush began explicit planning in November 2001, two months after 9/11, when he asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to begin an update of war plans for Iraq, but to do so in such a way that it would not alert attention to his interest in Iraq. Bob Woodward shows how Vice-President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were as focused as George W. Bush on war. Meanwhile Secretary of State Colin Powell and General Tommy Franks opposed the invasion, until they fell into line.
Woodward fills his book with transcripts and paraphrases of hours of direct interviews with George W. Bush and dozens of other key figures, to show what, how, and why decisions were made.
A jingo is a person who boasts of patriotism and favors an aggressive foreign policy. If you want a more sane approach to a plan of attack, see the book Jingo by Terry Pratchett. (02.02.2005)
What a disappointment. You can read the hype elsewhere. This is a pretentious, affected, clumsy book that reads as if written as a high-school class project. Don't read it when you can read Terry Pratchett's Jingo, Thief of Time, or Hogfather.
How can it have been short-listed for the Whitbread First Novel Award? the Guardian First Book Award or long-listed for the 2004 Man Booker Prize? I remain boggle-minded.
For like-minded comments, see www.chapters.indigo.ca, which includes:
In addition to a Danish brand of magical realism, the book previews some of the themes of his later books including boarding schools, young sociopaths, the administration of psychotropic drugs to children, and fire-setting in school tunnels.
A little light-weight compared with his later intense Borderliners and the exquisite Smilla's Sense of Snow.
{ January (enero (see also books on Spanish)) 2005 }
(01.31.2005)
Among my favorite poems are "Cricket Wet Sunset" by Gabriel Gandzjuk; "Just Like a Woman " by Frances Hatfield; and "When the Mangoes are Ripe " by Ziggy Rendler-Bregman:
"I am looking for a quiet, soft-spoken fruit. It is good to have a few limes in the basket
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Other favorites are "Separations " by Marilyn Robertson, "Promise " by Charles Schubert; "The Day my Brother Died " by George Wilson; and the excellent "Poem for my Grandmother " by Tiffany Wong:
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"The first time I ever wrote a poem I asked God to send it to her In Chinese, so she could understand it." |
The book closes with two magnificent poems by Gary Young, whose essay on the work of William Everson is on our sister site, http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne. There you can discover more on poetry.
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Listened to Jingo (1997)
by Terry Pratchett.
[For clarity, the image shown is different from that on the CD.] |
Jingo: (noun) A person who boasts of patriotism and favors an aggressive foreign policy. Of uncertain origin, possibly from the nonsense words of magicians.
Terry Pratchett's Jingo is a hilarious satire of war mongers, and very timely. Despite the delicious wit of the book, it addresses serious topics: nationalism, militarism, sexism, and racism.
It is now the funniest book so far this year, which means that it slightly beats Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time. In fact it is almost as good as his Hogfather.
This recording of Jingo is read by Nigel Planer, who read Hogfather so brilliantly. In Jingo he uses a range of voices that Peter Sellers might admire, including a military man who sounds like Sergeant Bloodnock and the Demon Pocket Organizer (or Dis-organizer, an arrogant and interfering little pocket computer that says things like "Two o'clock pee em! Hello, Insert Name Here!"), which (who?) sounds like Bluebottle. The Dis-organizer is the vehicle through which Pratchett probes his favorite concept: Time, and its many paths.
The war is between the western Ankh-Morpork and the middle-eastern Klatch. As an Amazon reviewer commented, Jingo, "was written in the finest tradition of the City Watch series, which seem to always show that true duty and realism tend to win out over the insanity that the majority of the world engages in. Watch out for 71-Hour Ahmed and the rest of the D'Regs, but even they seem weak next to the power of Corporal Nobbs in a dress."
Its humor is a quaint mixture of really stupid and really intelligent, interwoven with great satire.
Also see other books by Terry Pratchett. (01.27.2005)
| "He was considered the greatest lyric poet of his generation. His career matured from an exquisite virtuosity into a wry, witty humanity encompassed by the two vital extremes of the lyric: ecstasy and elegy, romance and heartbreak." |
I admire Merrill's technical skills and am glad to read the (included) text in synchronization with Merrill. But I do not like listening to the tapes alone: his drawling voice does not present his poems in a way that inspires my interest.
For more on poetry, see also http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne.
The body's frequent reaction to a stimulus is:
| -> Non-thinking response -> Tension -> Misuse -> Pain -> Non-thinking response. |
The Alexander Technique seeks to alter the response to a stimulus:
| -> Awareness -> Release -> Poise -> Ease -> Awareness. |
In addition to showing how to apply the Alexander Technique to swimming such strokes as the breast stroke, the crawl, and the backstroke, the book introduces the Technique itself:
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"The [Alexander] Technique is primarily a method for teaching us to develop conscious control
over a particular set of reactions, which are seen as the source of unproductive habits.
The fundamental tendency is to
pull the head back and down,
either in response to an unpleasant stimulus, or simply because the movement has become an unconscious
habit. ...
The Alexander Technique teaches us to re-asset effective command over the way we think and act. It starts by making us aware of how a balanced relationship between the head and back can have an important influence on the body as a whole. It gives us a means of intervening to inhibit the actions that disturb this balance." |
| Read The True Work of Dying: a practical and compassionate guide to easing the dying process (1996) by Jan Selliken Bernard and Miriam Schneider. |
A compassionate book for those that help the dying and those that are preparing to die. Their special contribution is to compare what happens to the mind, body, and spirit during the process of dying with what happens during birthing.
See our Death and Dying web page. (01.22.2005)
This organization does heroic work to develop awareness of our planet's resources, in such a way that they might survive for our granchildren.
See the Greenpeace website for current news on their work toward:
For information on the fossil fuel industry's financial payments to "a very vocal group of 'skeptics' that argue the science behind global warming is just smoke and mirrors [as opposed to tail-pipe and coal-plant smoke, Ed.]", see www.ExxonSecrets.org.
Henry James (1843-1916) was an American writer who liked to model his work on what he learned from the works of His models were Dickens, Balzac, and Hawthorne. He wrote 20 novels and 112 stories. He also wrote plays and literary criticism.
This biography documents and comments on his relationships with two women who served him as his muses and whom he perhaps loved better after they were dead than before:
The biographer does her best "in the absence of proof ... to assemble what facts exist." But I feel a little too much like a college-educated paparazzi of the literati, so I close the book fairly soon after spending quality time with the photos (the most welcome part of the book, showing the two women, their relatives, and some residences).
Pales in comparison with The Master (2004) by Colm Toíbín, which we reviewed last year. That is a historical novel that probes the fictional mind and passions of author Henry James much as he once probed the fictional minds and passions of his relatives and friends. It was a deserving nominee on the short list for the 2004 Booker Prize.
A cheerful book that emphasizes the dynamic nature of the Enneagram, particularly how one evolves by moving between types.
See our Enneagram web page.
A detailed book for any student that has assessed one's type and wants to understand more deeply how one improves the health of the type that one expresses. Offers more detail and depth than other books, though the additional complexity can be confusing.
Paparazzi will be interested in the famous people that Riso and Hudson assign to each type. Hypochondriacs may be delightedly worried by the attribution of DSM categories.
See our Enneagram web page.
This book is concise, clear, and practical. It gives you these steps to discovering which of the 9 Enneagram personalities is closest to your own:
| "Types One and Five. Perfectionists and Observers can be considered look-alike types because they are intellectual and can become retracted or internalized when trying to figure things out. Perfectionists, however, are quite intense, suppress their desires, and seek to improve themselves and others, while Observers detach from feelings in order to protect themselves from being intruded upon and to conserve energy" |
| "There is an amply supply of all the knowledge and energy that everyone needs" |
And (again for the Observer), the ultimate task is:
| "To stay engaged in the flow of life, giving and taking freely. This ultimate task is more easily accomplished when you experience the fact that staying connected with your feelings and with others does not deplete you but instead supports you." |
For more on poetry, see Poetry - Learn How to Write Your Own.
My favorites include: Anna Swir, Antonio Machado, C.D. Wright, Chinese T'ang and Sung Dynasty Verse (via Red Pine), Jim Harrison, Joseph Stroud, Kenneth Rexroth, Pablo Neruda, Ruth Stone, Ted Kooser, Theodore Roethke, Vietnamese Folk Poets (via John Balaban), W.S. Merwyn.
Check the Copper Canyon Website for samples of poems and special bargins in buying.
Interleaved with her story of the nature of place is the story of the development and testing of nuclear weapons at the nearby Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab (where the atomic bomb was developed) and the Trinity test site (where the first atomic bomb was exploded).
She begins her book with her horrified realization that she has caused harm exactly where she did not intend to, and this theme of unintended (as well as intended) harm runs through the book:
| "I poured scalding water through a paper coffee filter into a mug that, unbeknownst to me, contained a lizard still dormant from the cool night. I boiled the lizard alive. As I removed the filter and leaned over the cup to take a sip, its body floated to the surface, ghostly and inflated in mahogany water, its belly the pale blue of heartbreak." |
Her writing has energy and flashes like a stream in sunlight. Though I think an editor could have applied a few improvements of grammar so I avoided my many "Huh? What does she mean? I need to reread that sentence a few times" moments.
See also Ellen Meloy's The Anthropology of Turquoise: Meditations on Landscape, Art and Spirit (2002), which won the Utah Book Award for nonfiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. I regret her recent (2004) death which means that we must look to other authors for Meloy's passion for the natural world, woven with her grief for how we abuse it.
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What is the most obvious mental health problem of
G. W. Bush?
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Rather irritating at the start, so then I began listening to the CDs in reverse order, starting with the interview. It was better that way, because she does improve with age.
Good background listening while doing chores over the weekend.
Clarke was the White House National Coordinator for Security for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He also advised Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Clarke reports his experience in working with each. In particular, he reports on difficulties with the CIA and FBI, as well as President Clinton's serious recognition of terrorism and some pre-emptive actions to combat it.
In contrast, he reports the Junior Bush's failure to take terrorism and al Qaeda as a clear and present danger.
See also our time line of the relationship of Iran, Iraq, the USA, and Britain.
This book gives a pleasant introduction to the ideas of the Enneagram types and leads you through the discovery of your own type. While there are 9 types in the Enneagram, Riso emphasizes the two 'wings' of each type, and thus presents 27 personalities.
See our Enneagram web page.
It's unusual and welcome to find a skilled visual artist, which McClellan is, who matches verbal dexterity with the authority to write poetry about the arts. I found many poems in the book that caught me up, and had me re-read and ponder them.
The book has three sections:
He picks up the charcoal,
He remembers once, when he could see
the dotted lines that explain
the whole universe - now, even the thought
of the first mark on the snowblind
page makes him go hollow -
looks at the clean paper,
...
pauses, begins to sweat.
...
He lays the charcoal down.
...
He leaves the room.
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Think of yourself as someone very small
and very young. ...
Everyone jumping and everyone
singing Mozart in small silver voices.
Think now of small shoebox theaters
with lunatic mice playing out the
tragic repertoire of Sophocles.
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... suddenly a dissonance exploded
a barbaric rattle of music
filled the vaults, scoured the chapels
filled a footsore heart with
wild harmonies (Messiaens?
Busoni?....or some new German?
Unadvertised, the concert hurtled on
in unpredictable ways to become
winds for a voyage of ecstasy.
It ended ... at the base of the organ
an entry door opened, a small man
in a blue workman's smock exited,
carrying the tools of his trade
on his way to get on with his next organ.
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The San Jose Poetry Center was founded in 1978. This delightful celebratory anthology presents some excellent work. Poet include the internationally famous (including Barks, Bass, Bly, Hass, Hillman, Hirshfield, Kinnell, [Li-Young] Lee, and Stern) as well as the local stalwart and emergent poets (including Len Anderson) from the counties centered on San Jose.
A welcome highlight is the interview of Morton Marcus by Robert Sward.
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Listened to Thief of Time (2001)
by Terry Pratchett.
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This is the funniest book so far this year. It's a witty and inventive fantasy, almost as good as Terry Pratchett's Hogfather.
This recording of Thief of Time is by a 5-person reading team, plus the 'guest appearance by Harlan Ellison'. Its humor is (as with Hogfather) a quaint mixture of really stupid and really intelligent, interwoven with interesting satire.
Again, trouble in Paradise is caused by the Auditors, the literal-minded accountants who want to get rid of the messiness caused by life. They create the ultimate solution - they freeze time. Fortunately, Death gets his three traditional riding companions to ride out with him against the bad guys. They make little headway, till they are joined by the Fifth Rider of the Apocalypse ... Meanwhile, Death's adopted granddaughter Susan is sorting out the rest of the known universe by using her ultimate weapon - very smooth, very luscious, very heart-stopping chocolate.
The Amazon comments (February 26, 2004) by Dr. Christopher Coleman are among my favorites:
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"In Thief of Time Pratchett strikes a unique balance between many different types of humor (from silly take-offs
of oriental martial arts names (okidoki) to literate inside jokes (the raven named 'Quoth') and far beyond)
with a complex and even philosophical plot.
It's truly an amazing bit of writing that admittedly might fall flat for those looking for lighter entertainment,
but I was delighted.
... there are plot twists aplenty, all of which make 'sense'. Especially nice are the scenes dealing with the revelation of the identity of the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse, and the Zen Buddhist humor. So do yourself a favor, read this book and make your life better." |
Also see other books by Terry Pratchett. (01.04.2005)
As advertised, it helps you speak basic Spanish immediately, with a focus on basic and useful vocabulary and grammar. It teaches you to speak simple phrases and sentences, and it helps you extract useable information from what you hear.
As this six-week course needs you to spend only 35 minutes, and has about 400 words for you to learn (under 10/day), it is manageable. Especially useful are the flash-cards and the practical sentences to memorize.
Also see by other suggestions for books on Spanish.
So what's in the book? It describes "how the Bush administration and Congress work with major corporations (including our nation's vast media conglomerates) to add to their obscene wealth at the expense of America's working class, our environment, and (most lamentably) our rights and liberties". It write about "corporate malfeasance, governmental abuse, the militarization of American society, and the Bush administration's empire building".
Half the citizens of the USA voted in 2004 against the Junior Bush, concerned about these issues. For some of the already motivated, Hightower's book is a spur, although I doubt that it won any "undecided" voters.
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Related pages:
Books on Buddhism.
Books on Learning Spanish.
Poetry - Learn How to Write Your Own.
Forests of California and Trees of the World.
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