Nov 172012
From the RSS Feed
- “My American Lemonade,” kottke.org, November 15, 2012 – A Bulgarian writes about his immigration struggles.
- “Last Call” by Tim Heffernan, Washington Monthly, November/December 2012 – America is about to start drinking more.
- “Can’t a guy just make some friends around here? Maybe.” by Matt Pearce, Kansas City Pitch, November 6, 2012 – If you’ve had a hard time finding and making friends in your new homeland, be comforted in knowing the natives have the same problem, Craigslist notwithstanding.
- “How Millennials Leaving Their Parents’ Basements Could Save the Economy” by Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, October 24, 2012 – Continuing the great Millenials debate.
- “Women’s Economic Dominance: Is It Really Inevitable?” by Philip Cohen, The Atlantic, October 31, 2012 – Another great economic debate in the changing America: the rise of women.
- “The Birthplace of Income Inequality: Pre-K” by Jordan Weissman, The Atlantic, October 18, 2012 – You’ve surely heard of income inequality in the U.S. It starts early.
The Book Stack
- Paul Feig, “Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence,”
New York: Three River Press, 2002 – A hilarious memoir from the Freak-and-Geek In Chief. – BUY NOW
- Richard Florida, “The Great Reset: How the Post-Crash Economy Will Change the Way We Live and Work,”
New York: HarperBusiness, 2011 – How the Great Recession changed America and how to adjust to the new reality. – BUY NOW
- Czeslaw Milosz, “To Begin Where I Am: Selected Essays,”
New York: Farar, Straus and Giroux, 2001 – From Lithuania and Poland to France to America, from poet to essayist to literary critic to the Nobel Prize for Literature, Milosz is a consummate Central European. – BUY NOW
- Czeslaw Milosz, “Beginning with My Streets: Essays and Recollections,”
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010 – A different kind of autobiography, heavy on the links to the author’s native city, Wilno/Vilnius, and obscure references to Polish and Lithuanian culture. – BUY NOW
- Czeslaw Milosz, “The Captive Mind,”
Translated from the Polish by Jane Zielonko, New York: Vintage, 1990 (Alfred A. Knopf, 1953) – A penetrating study of the mind of people living under totalitarian rule. – BUY NOW
- David Riesman, Nathan Glazer, and Reuel Denney, “The Lonely Crowd, Revised edition: A Study of the Changing American Character,”
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011 (1950) – One of the most influential books of the 20th century documents the transition in America from traditional to modern to post-modern character. – BUY NOW
- Katie Roiphe, “In Praise of Messy Lives: Essays,”
New York: The Dial Press, 2012 – Essays on American culture from a slightly cranky observer. – BUY NOW
- Jen Violi, “Putting Makeup on Dead People,”
New York: Hyperion, 2011 – A debut novel by a new Portland acquaintance of mine. – BUY NOW
- Sarah Vowell, “Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World,”
– Cultural and autobiographical insight from an entertaining public radio personality. – BUY NOW
Do you have any recommendations for readings about America, immigration, or Central/Eastern Europe? Please share in Comments.