Favorite Books of 2014

FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2014

(In the order I read them)

1. Ian Haney Lopez – Dog Whistle Politics - Dog whistle politics is simply using code words to talk about race and to utilize racial prejudice to advance a political agenda.  Dog whistle politics is alive and well from the right-wing. 

2.  Bruce Alan Murphy – Scalia - This is the definitive biography of the life and medieval mind of Justice Scalia.  This man is truly one of the most dangerous people in the country.  Nino belongs in the Middle Ages with his pre-Vatican II Catholicism, his 18^th Century version of the Constitution with his fallacious original intent scheme, and his textualism to mask a right-wing agenda.  Nino knows all, and if you don’t agree with him then you are stupid.  He’s probably hoping for a chance to name a Republican president in 2016 as he did in 2000.

3. Alan T. Nolan - Lee Considered - Remove the halo from Bobby Lee and what you find underneath may not be to your liking.

4. Nicholas Wapshott – The Sphinx - How Franklin Roosevelt masterfully prepared the country for war.

5. Seth Davis – Wooden: A Coach’s Life -  This is a carefully balanced and provocative biography of Coach John Wooden, the so-called Wizard of Westwood, winner of 10 NCAA basketball championships in a 12 year period at UCLA.   Saint John was a great coach but there were warts in the man.

6.  F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby.  This was the 4^th time around and each time I have enjoyed this great novel anew.  This time I was struck by the humor of the book, and I still wonder why Gatsby wasted his life on an airhead like Daisy.  What about that enticing green light on Daisy’s dock?  So much symbolism in this slim novel! 

7. Edward E. Baptist – The Half Has Never Been Told - The much talked about author’s bold thesis is that contrary to conventional scholarly belief, slavery was economically efficient due to the lash and that slavery fueled America’s capitalist surge in the 19^th Century.  This is the most shocking book of the year.

8. James Tobin – The Man He Became – This is the riveting story of how Franklin Roosevelt overcome polio to become the most consequential US President of the 20^th Century.  The author’s thesis is that FDR became President not IN SPITE of his handicap but that he became President BECAUSE of polio

9.  Rick Bragg – Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story.  This is a rollicking biography of Jerry Lee Lewis, an original Son of the South, written by Rick Bragg, one of our great current Southern writers.  Great balls of fire, this book was fun reading!

10.  Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States.   My understanding of American history will never be the same after reading this Indigenous people’s history of the country.  How does the history of the country look when viewed from the viewpoint of the original inhabitants?  I agree with the author that this country was founded on colonial settler genocide and that the country will never come to terms with it, but the author overstates her case in blaming all of our history of imperialism & militarism on this historical fact.