The irregular selective canon from the hills:

It's been a while, so I offer the following:

Al Gore - The Assault on Reason
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This is the flagship book of the quarter. It is Al Gore's well-reasoned, well-researched and heartfelt call to action over the growing loss of citizen participation and growing concentration of wealth and political power. Gore finds the "consent of the governed" referred to in the Declaration of Independence as "becoming a commodity to be purchased by the highest bidder," usually in 30-second TV commercials in which persuasion is all and logic or reason is nothing.

Gore correctly points out that TV is now the primary (often sole) source of news and opinions for most Americans. The medium is a one-way street, because the viewer isn't called upon to think, rather s/he is enthralled by flickering images. Gore compares that to the freedom of public discourse at the time the Constitution was adopted, which he places in the "Age of Print." When people knew how to read, they also knew how to write, and could publish their opinions to be judged in what was truly a marketplace of ideas. The public discourse in the modern age is not only one-way, it is distorted by the twin sisters, fear and shared/remote trauma. Gore castigates the "Media Machiavellis" who have abandoned their duty to hold the Government up to the light, and says what many of us here contend, that the line of separation of opinion and journalism has for all intents and purposes disappeared.

Gore decries the "ineptitude and moral insensibility of our national leaders in the last several years." This is not a polemic against Bush & Co. It is an appeal to reason and to a return of government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Gore says in one sentence what I have been able to say in long, rambling paragraphs: "It is the incestuous coupling of wealth and power that poses the deadliest threat to democracy."

The future of the American people seems to lie in media like the Internet, where there is at least a nascent rational discussion of ideas. Gore pushes citizen participation and citizen education. He cites, for example, research showing that 53% of Americans in 2006 thought that the President is not bound by decisions of the Supreme Court. (Of course, with the Reagan-Bush-Bush court-packing success, a Republican president will have less and less to disagree with.) Gore wants a "well-connected citizenry," and a return to Constitutional and transparent government.

Al Gore - An Inconvenient Truth
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The neocons and theocons are basically full of shit. God has NOT given us an eternal world governed by fixed precepts. He has (unwisely?) made us Stewards of a well-balanced system of life, physics and heat. The Earth is static (until recently) from our perspective because the feedback loops adjust minutely over very long periods of time. Sudden things like asteroids hitting the Earth make for mass extinctions. Our stunning release of carbon secondary to industrialization is warming the Earth, and is unleashing a number of fast-acting effects, including human-species-threatening effects. If we don’t listen, our children are going to curse us. It’s not going to wait for the grandchildren of many of us. It’s happening that fast. That being said, your reaction to the whole climate change question is probably driven by political outlook. That’s sad. A few “scientists” from the fringe pontificate, and suddenly basic scientific facts become untested theories. This is another call to arms.

Jeffrey Archer & Francis J. Moloney - The Gospel According to Judas
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Sir Jeffrey Archer is a strange duck. He is a former Member of Parliament who writes glibly about his period "at her Majesty's pleasure," i.e., when he was in prison for perjury. He writes books which are as different from one another as Ken Follett's. In this book, he has teamed up with a cleric-academic to write an apologia for Judas Iscariot, written in the style of the Gospels. I don't know if the scholarship is perfect, because my Biblical scholarship is pretty down-market. I don't know what a conventional fundamental or evangelical Christian would make of this. That ignorance aside, it is an engaging tale, and thoroughly out of the ordinary.

Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler - Treasure of Khan
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Clive Cussler has been writing adventure novels since the early 70's. His first novel in this series (the "Dirk Pitt (tm)" novels), The Mediterranean Caper, was published only in paperback, and decent first editions are now rare and quite expensive. Cussler has aged his characters, and brought his son on as co-author. I've always enjoyed these books, but the stories are aging, just as I am. I think we're all about out of steam.

Brian Haig - Man in the Middle
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This guy is Alexander Haig's son, for whatever that is worth. His protagonist is an iconoclastic military lawyer. The plots are believable and, a rarity in lawyer-novels, grounded in reality. A smashing good read.

Gerry Spence - Bloodthirsty Bitches and Pious Pimps of Power
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Spence has made hundreds of millions within the American litigation system because he is simply the best lawyer, possibly ever. That being said, he is still the red-blooded champion of people. In far harsher terms than Al Gore uses, Spence exposes the heartless conservative manipulators as frauds, intellectual pirates, and hypocritical whiners. Spence is an unusual liberal (like James Carville and Cecil Roberts), one willing to speak bluntly about his beliefs and the evil of some of the black-hearted conservatism out there. The rest of us could take a lesson here.

Larry Winget - It’s Called Work for a Reason
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- Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life
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Larry Winget is one annoying son of a bitch. His ego is endless, and like most good doctors I know, he probably would be a very poor dinner guest in your home. But his advice is as valuable as the doctor’s skill. Essentially, his messages are pretty simple. Shut the fuck up, do your job. Don’t let your mouth write checks that your ass can’t cash. A deal is a deal. You get paid commensurate to the value you create. I won’t invite this guy to dinner, but I’ll certainly read and apply anything he writes.

John Mortimer - Rumpole and the Reign of Terror
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- Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
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I’d like to hear from Meme & Clank about how Mortimer is received in Britain. Often, I wish that I had the class Rumpole does. He’s a barrister (like me? I hope so.), of considerable girth (definitely like me), who represents real people and not things, and is poorly paid. On the door of my room is a sign, “No. 3 Equity Court” - Rumpole’s address.

Rumpole and the Reign of Terror puts Rumpole into the battle between the War on Terror and civil liberties. We are willing to sell out any of our freedoms for a bit of security. As it turns out, we are gaining neither freedom nor security, we are just switching oppressors. Actually, I’m surprised that Mortimer has written a novel with these kinds of political overtones. He is a barrister himself, indeed a “Queen’s Counsel,” a member of the “senior bar.” They are selected by the Lord Chancellor and aren’t normally known for radical opinions.

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders is strictly a fun retrospective explaining the long-ago case Rumpole won “alone and without a leader.”

Well, I suspect that Rumpole is like Hillary Clinton. You either love him or think he’s bloody silly. I like him.

Al Dempsey - What Law There Was
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Thank God and Bookfinder.com. This is an older western (recall, I do so like westerns) with a strong Masonic theme. I know that sounds a bit eclectic, but it works. Indeed, while the novel exposes precisely none of the (rather open) secrets of the order, you can learn more about what Freemasonry is all about from this book. I found an extra copy of this on Bookfinder.com for a Brother who has assisted me enormously over the past few months with some personal and professional issues.

Harmon Leon - Republican Like Me; Infiltrating Red-state, White-ass, Blue-suit America
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You know, I’ve enjoyed and been inspired by lots of Progressive literature lately. It’s good to know that it’s not just a knee-jerk reaction. Leon’s schtick is to disguise himself, infiltrate right-wing groups, act like an asshole and ridicule them. His tactics are deplorable, his writing is as egotistical as Larry Winget’s, without any of the usefulness, and his conclusions, that the Right Wing is incompetent, are inaccurate and dangerous. I bought two of his books at the same time. Anyone want the other one? It’s unread.

Christopher Buckley - Boomsday
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Buckley (son of The National Review’s William F. Buckley) is a must-read author. He is a true humorist who still takes on cutting issues. Here, he deals intelligently and sharply with the coming “Boomsday,” when BabyBoomers retire and sink the American economy with their non-productiveness and needs. Buckley is neither a formula-driven conservative nor progressive. His strong opinions are admirably mixed. He is best known for Thank You for Smoking, his attack on tobacco with strong jabs at booze and guns, which was made into a (poor) movie. My favorite is God Is My Broker: A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7 1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth, where he lampoons all of the “personal development” gurus. Anything he writes, I’ll buy it in hardback.

Frederick Forsyth - The Afghan
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Forsyth has been going strong in the spy/adventure genre since The Day of the Jackal in 1971. The latest is a worthy addition to the stable. It won’t be read 100 years from now, and it’s not great literature, but it’s fun and is better than any of the other entrants in the post-9/11 world.

Russell S. Bonds - Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor + + +
If you don’t like detailed Civil War histories, you’ll waste your money on this. If you are a Civil War buff, it’s a laudable addition to your library. This is a very detailed, well-researched examination of the Andrews Raid, a Union spy operation which was (inaccurately) depicted in the 1050's Disney film, The Great Locomotive Chase. Andrews was a civilian spy who led 20 Union soldiers on a mission into Georgia to steal a locomotive and destroy bridges on a key rail line which supplied Confederate armies. I liked it.

Greg Bear - Quantico
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The author is a member of the sci-fi triumvirate, the “Killer B’s,” (Benford, Brin and Bear). In Quantico, he is writing near-future, plausible sci-fi about chemical and biological warfare. It’s believable, engaging and thought-generating.

Paul Levine - Trial & Error - A Solomon vs. Lord novel
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Another lawyer novel, and this one is pure mind candy. Fortunately, I have a mental sweet tooth, and looked forward to reading this ever since its publication date was announced. If you like the lawyer sub-genre and don’t require totally creditable plots, you may like this. There has to be some significance in the fact that this was published straight to mass market paperback. Damfino what it is.

Robert Conroy - 1945
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There is a sub-genre known as “alternate history,” which describes what would have happened if key events in history were changed. Conroy postulates that the attempted military coup after Hiroshima and Nagasaki was successful, and the Allies were forced to invade the Japanese home islands at the end of WWII. The under-appreciated part of good altnerate history is that it requires a thorough knowledge of history, as well as the logic to project creditable cause-effect relationships.


A look ahead - Fiction to be published in the rest of 2007 -
Settling Accounts: In at the Death, by Harry Turtledove - The last (mercifully) of a ten-volume altnerate history where the South wins its independence in the Civil War.
The Aftermath: Book Four of The Asteroid Wars, by Ben Bova - You have to like sci-fi to like Bova. I like sci-fi.
Rumpole Misbehaves, by John Mortimer - see above.
A Threat to Justice, by Chuck Norris et al. - Not great, but there are no great western writers these days.
The Wheel of Darkness, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child - I’m looking forward to this one most of all.

Mizpah!

R