Categories: Mad As Hell, Green, Culture, International, Health, Navel Gazing, Mind Candy, Mellow Tunes, Damn Noise, Moving Pictures

Mad As Hell

Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity Of Consensual Crimes In Our Free Country The case for keeping government out of the morality business.

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal Where hamburgers come from, and other things you shouldn't discuss at the table.

There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos Sarcastic Texas populist Jim Hightower on the rise of corporatism, and what people are doing about it.

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Green

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Beyond recycling to sustainable reuse. Author William McDonough envisions industrial processes designed to mimic natural processes, where waste is simply regarded as misplaced resources.

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution How to have an economy and a clean planet at the same time.

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Culture

Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales Oliver Sacks explores the workings of the mind through these stories of people whose minds work a little differently.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies How botany, climate, geography, and livestock shaped human history.

The Feminine Mystique The feminist classic. A reminder not to take modern freedoms for granted, nor to get angry about the past.

The Prehistory of Sex: Four Million Years of Human Sexual Culture The ultimate answer to people who think that sex was invented recently.

Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times A surprisingly engaging history of textiles and the people who made them.

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International

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty The story of how an economics professor started the microcredit movement in Bangladesh.

Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire The sordid tale of US involvement in Asia.

Globalization and Its Discontents Nobel Prize winner and former World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz on why the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have become global rallying cries for protest.

Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia Written in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, this book is a decent, on-the-ground, cultural snapshot of the major Asian nations.

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Health

Food Allergies and Food Intolerance: The Complete Guide to Their Identification and Treatment Migraines, joint pain, digestive trouble, insomnia, and even irritability can sometimes be caused by the food you're eating. Food intolerance can affect the body in subtle, non-obvious ways. For every person that breaks out immediately when exposed to strawberries, there are many more who might feel achy a few hours after they have wheat or tomatoes. It sounds a little out there, but for some people it's a solution to years worth of frustrating medical dead ends.

Prescription for Nutritional Healing: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs and Food Supplements Very detailed, informative. Worth a try if you like this sort of thing.

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Navel Gazing

Drive Yourself Sane: Using the Uncommon Sense of General Semantics A way out of the hypnosis of our common tongue. Far more accessible than the out of print "Science and Sanity."

In Search of the Miraculous: The Definitive Exploration of G. I. Gurdjieff's Mystical Thought and Universal View A unique Western esoteric tradition.

Mass Psychology of Fascism This book is mostly about sex and religion, the facets of human experience that leave us most vulnerable to authoritarianism. Once, the US government banned and burned this book (true), now it's merely obscure.

Principia Discordia, or, how I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her when I Found Her The original guerilla ontology manual. Voted "Book most likely to be lost in mysterious circumstances."

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Mind Candy

And the Truth Shall Set You Free: The most explosive book of the 20th century Because conspiracy theorizing is an underrated form of entertainment. This is quality paranoia, especially enjoyable for political junkies who are up on their globalization activism.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman co-authored this book, hence both funny and apocalyptic.

Guy Gavriel Kay is a fantasy writer with a grounding in myth and history that allows him to create highly textured stories. Enjoy Lions of Al Rassan, Song for Arbonne, the Byzantine themed Sarantine Mosaic books Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors, and the Celtic influenced Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, The Summer Tree, Vol. 1,
The Wandering Fire, Vol. 2, and The Darkest Road, Vol. 3.

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas Tim Robbins has his moments, this book is one of them.

Lilith's Brood Octavia Butler's complete interspecies romance trilogy: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West Gregory Maguire takes us through an Oz that would have L. Frank Baum spinning in his grave.

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Mellow Tunes

Azure Ray The song 'Displaced' was featured in BTVS, Season 6. The rest of the album was a pleasant surprise.

Essential Bob Dylan The good stuff from all the albums I'm too cheap to collect, and the fairly new 'Not Dark Yet' and 'Things Have Changed.'

Paul Simon: Graceland, Rhythm of the Saints, and the Concert in Central Park with that blonde guy.

Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House There are several favorites on this album, and nothing that compels me to skip it. Hopeful and romantic.

Sailing to Philadelphia Mark Knopfler's latest, with the very interesting 'What It Is' and an eclectic mix of largely good songs for feeling restless.

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Damn Noise

Hellbilly Deluxe Rob Zombie and the original version of 'Dragula' from the Matrix soundtrack. If you liked that song, you'll like the rest of the album.

Mechanical Animals Marilyn Manson does his best to instill a deep-seated and pretentious dissatisfaction with the world.

Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 Sisters of Mercy, less pretentious and more danceable than Marilyn Manson.

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Moving Pictures

Godfather DVD Collection Politics and business explained in full.

Godfather VHS Collection Because you should watch the whole thing, even if you don't have a DVD player.

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