Debra Baldwin has a new book! Her books are super!

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The PARTY is OVER

Mike Lofgren’s The PARTY is OVER: How Republicans went CRAZY, Democrats Became USELESS, and the Middle Class Got SHAFTED

The title says it all. One depressing book. Truly, corporate America in all its corruption rules the USA today. Lofgren says the solution is to publicly finance elections. As if that would be easy.

Shelter half: A Novel by Carol Bly

Shelter half: A Novel by Carol Bly

An intriguing novel. It is more a collection of short stories detailing quirky individuals living in a small Minnesota town with a typical small-town-gossipy character. It definitely has a Progressive message, but it does make you think. I have a couple of quibbles: the author falls into stereotyping and she leaves a few loose ends.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

I liked this book a lot, and I’m not a baseball fan. At 512 pages it’s a long one. While the ending was a little too pat, I loved it for its poetic descriptions and its spot-on depictions of little things that make up our lives today.

Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder

Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder

This book has been over-hyped. Skip it and read River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candace Millard if you want to get a good description of the wilds of remote Amazon tributaries.

The Paris Wife: A Novel, by Paula McLain

The Paris Wife: A Novel, by Paula McLain

In the beginning I was charmed by McLain’s prose, but the novel wore thin for a very long middle. I found the last chapters a little more interesting again. So much has been written about American artists and writers living in Paris in the 1920s. I simply did not find the novel compelling.

War and Peace for our post 9/11 world

Birds without Wings by Louis de Bernieres

I loved this book! It’s long, it’s repetitive, it rambles, but it is so poetic and effective in delivering a sense of what it must have been like for ordinary people living simple lives in a small town in southwestern Turkey in the early 20^th century. This is one talented writer! He has researched and synthesized the essence of many critical factors in the life of the man who would bring Turkey into the modern, western world and he has woven those details into an imaginary tale of a small cast of characters who bring life to the drama of that time and place. I am in awe of his intelligence and talent.

In addition, this tale bears many lessons for Americans today if only we listen as I’m sure the author intends us to do.

This is the most extraordinary book I’ve read in years!