Department of Book Reports 49: New Books, with backlist!

This week finds us a bit at a loss, SeattleTammy's got not one, but two wonderful mystery/thrillers to tell you about, but they aren't going to be published till later this month. And, SeattleDan is still working on Suite Francaise. So, here are some new releases that have caught our fancy.

Truth and Consequences, Special Comments on the Bush Administration's War on American Values, by Keith Olbermann (Random House $25.95) In Truth and Consequences, Olbermann collects the best of his Special Comments, presented here with additional observations and other new material. Whether taking to task the likes of Vice President Dick Cheney and (the thankfully former) Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who compare critics of the Iraq War to Nazi appeasers, or giving his impassioned perspective on why torture is un-American and what it really means to support our troops, or grilling timid lawmakers who fail to rein in presidential overreach and abuses of executive power, Olbermann’s devastatingly blunt (and at times wickedly funny) commentary cuts to the core of the duplicity and cynicism of a government that has lost the ability to distinguish between leading our great nation and ruling it.

Now in paperback:The Worst Person In the World: And 202 Strong Contenders (John Wiley and Sons, $14.95) I think my favorite might be: Barbara Bush, for making a generous donation to the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund earmarked exclusively for the purchase of computer software . . . software sold by her son, Neil

Reporting Iraq, edited by Mike Hoyt (Melville House $21.95) Reporting Iraq is a fully illustrated narrative history of the war by the world’s best-known reporters and photojournalists. Included are contributions from fifty journalists, including Dexter Filkins (the New York Times correspondent who won widespread praise for his coverage of Fallujah), Rajiv Chandrasekaran (author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City), Anthony Shadid (the Washington Post reporter awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his Iraq reporting), and Patrick Cockburn (from London’s Independent).


In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (Penguin Press $21.95)
"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." I'm reading this one now. I really like Pollan's writings. If you haven't read Botany of Desire, drop everything right now and go get a copy.

Elswhere: Huckabee is a scab.

These books are available at Jackson Street Books and fine Independent Bookstores everywhere!

dammit democommie™™™™®© we showed up at the Denny's at 7 pm... You weren't there! What's minus 30 to you folk, huh?