Books, Books, Books
I went down to Daniel’s autographing on Saturday and ended up buying a lot of books. IMPERIAL LIFE IN THE EMERALD CITY, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran about how the Bush administration staffed the Iraq rebuilding effort with kids who were loyal Republicans. Apparently one of the questions on the application was your stand on Roe v. Wade.
Robert Harris’s new Rome book IMPERIUM. Ian loaned me THE GEOGRAPHER’S LIBRARY by Jon Pasman. George loaned me SIX FRIGATES by Ian Toll. I also bought a couple of Darkover books that have Marion’s name on them even though she didn’t write a word. They probably won’t be good, but I love Darkover and they will work well as popcorn travel books when I go to World Fantasy. I can leave them like bread crumbs on airplanes and in hotel rooms. (I can see George shuddering now. 
) And last but not least I started reading IT CAN HAPPEN HERE by Joe Conason which was a gift from Connie Willis when she was a guest in my home. The Conason book is very alarming reading, and I think I’m going to adopt the Sinclair Lewis quote “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.” as part of my signature line. Oh, and I’m read deep into S.C. Butler’s wonderful fantasy REIFFEN’S CHOICE.
There’s still the reading for Critical Mass, but I took a lot of television out of my life. No, this is not a slam against television. I write for television. There is some brilliant television being made and broadcast, but I’m trying to not just sit down and go cruising around the dish and end up brain sucked by a rerun of Aliens or Die Hard, or a Law and Order I hadn’t seen, etc. etc. I’m trying to target my viewing.
Melinda
September 12th, 2007 at 5:23 am
It Can’t Happen Here just won the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Hall of Fame Award (tied with Vernor Vinge’s True Names), not because Lewis was a libertarian, but because it’s a classic cautionary tale about authoritarian statism—and still disturbingly relevant.
September 12th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
No new books for me this month. I spent waaay to much money on opera DVDs (got me Nabucco, I Vespri Sicialiani, Macbeth, Attila, Don Carlos and Lucia di Lammermoor, and my father bought Carmen and La Traviata - as starters for a growing collection).
And my TBR pile is big enough anyway.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Glad to see you quoting Sinclair Lewis. A lot of what he says is as fresh now as it was 70 years ago.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Just reading Conason’s thumbnail description of It Can’t Happen Here was eerily familiar. Actually it gave me a downright cold chill down my back.
Operas, yes. I’m looking over what’s playing in NY when I’m there in November. My two choices are The Magic Flute and La Traviata. Both are wonderful choices.