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You are here: Home / Books / Open Thread (Including Book Chat Proposal)

Open Thread (Including Book Chat Proposal)

by Anne Laurie|  May 25, 201110:14 pm| 21 Comments

This post is in: Books, KULCHA!, Open Threads

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Still the single greatest political cartoonist in America today…

(Jeff Danziger’s website)

We’ve finished discussing Nixonland, which was well-written & informative & extremely depressing, but I’m not finding the fire in my belly to read another dense tome just yet, so DougJ gets the rights to the Naomi Klein virtual book group unless one of the other FPers beats him to it. As the BJ Light Summer Reading alternative, I will be reading Gail Collins’ When Everything Changed: the Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. First discussion will be Wednesday evening, 7pm EDT, either June 1 or June 8 (let me know in the comments if you have a preference). And if a total of nobody shows up, well, I’ve made a fool of myself here before and will certainly do so again.

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Reader Interactions

21Comments

  1. 1.

    shortstop

    May 25, 2011 at 10:15 pm

    Does that guy’s shirt say “U.S. Out of Vermont”? Bwa!

  2. 2.

    wonkie

    May 25, 2011 at 10:29 pm

    That cartoon pretty well sums up how I felt when I realized that Keith Richards had gotten old.

  3. 3.

    Suffern ACE

    May 25, 2011 at 10:44 pm

    @shortstop: I think that’s US out of Vermouth.

  4. 4.

    Anne Laurie

    May 25, 2011 at 10:51 pm

    @Suffern ACE: Nope, it’s Vermont — Danziger’s proud of his state.

  5. 5.

    different church-lady

    May 25, 2011 at 10:53 pm

    What do you have against aging baby boomers? And is it the same thing I’ve got against aging baby boomers?

  6. 6.

    different church-lady

    May 25, 2011 at 10:54 pm

    @Suffern ACE: Freak! How are we going to make Manhattans now?

  7. 7.

    Suffern ACE

    May 25, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    @different church-lady: The hippie is holding the last martini you’ll ever see in its natural state.

  8. 8.

    Buffalo Rude

    May 25, 2011 at 10:59 pm

    Book club comment: For light summer reading, I suggest Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death.

    Most of us readers have probably read it numerous times, but it’s worth sharing with the uninitiated.

  9. 9.

    Anne Laurie

    May 25, 2011 at 10:59 pm

    ETA: See here.

  10. 10.

    Ash Can

    May 25, 2011 at 11:04 pm

    That cartoon is adorable.

  11. 11.

    Linda Featheringill

    May 25, 2011 at 11:09 pm

    I have ordered the book from Amazon but it probably won’t get here in time for a June 1 discussion.

    Other folks might have the same problem. Can I suggest June 8, to give us time to get it and give it a read?

  12. 12.

    Sasha

    May 25, 2011 at 11:20 pm

    Sorry. The single greatest political cartoonist in America today would be Clay Bennett.

  13. 13.

    cckids

    May 25, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    I’m in. I had to lurk through the Nixonland discussion; read the book (wow, was that a downer), but the combo of Pacific time zone & kids activities on Sundays killed any chance of participating. Here’s hoping this is better. Plus I got it a month ago but got caught up in the Game of Thrones saga & haven’t cracked it yet (hanging head in shame).

  14. 14.

    James E. Powell

    May 25, 2011 at 11:46 pm

    For all of us soshulist and soshulist-curious, I propose Terry Eagleton’s Why Marx Was Right.

    I’ve read Eagleton’s books on literary theory.

  15. 15.

    Bmaccnm

    May 25, 2011 at 11:53 pm

    @Anne Laurie: Is he still in Vermont? Jeff Danziger taught me how to write- he was an English teacher at my Vermont high school. I learned a lot from him, political analysis not the least.

  16. 16.

    4jkb4ia

    May 26, 2011 at 2:04 am

    This is too perfect. The EW Archive yields this link. In other words, American Pastoral was real, it just skipped a generation. This was an off-topic subject when Gadahn was captured.

    I could use the motivation to read “When Everything Changed”, but can’t promise anything. And June 8 is Shavuot at any rate.

  17. 17.

    cfeddy

    May 26, 2011 at 7:16 am

    I like Gail Collins. I’ll give it a try. If you do this, I prefer the later date to have a little more time to locate the book and read a bit.

  18. 18.

    bemused

    May 26, 2011 at 9:22 am

    @4jkb4ia:

    I’m about half way through “When Everything Changed” and learning a lot about events changing lives of American women that I didn’t know before or have forgotten. I don’t know how I could have forgotten this story on Title IX: Rep Pat Schroeder visited a high school in her Denver district after the bill passed and the basketball coach told his team, “Show Mrs. Schroeder what you think of Title IX”, and the boys turned around and mooned her. Notice that the coach addressed her as Mrs. and not Congresswoman.

  19. 19.

    Paul in KY

    May 26, 2011 at 9:58 am

    @Sasha: He’s good, but I like Danziger a little better (also Oliphant).

  20. 20.

    Phyllis

    May 26, 2011 at 10:26 am

    I’m in for the Collins book. I read it earlier this year when Anne Laurie first mentioned it; think I’ll check to see if there’s a Kindle edition.

  21. 21.

    Damned at Random

    May 26, 2011 at 11:29 am

    I’ve ordered the book used from half.com. Don’t have a delivery date yet, but the seller used media mail so June 1 may be pushing it

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