MobileRead March 2011 Book Club Nominations

[issybird]

Second Orthodoxy.

If nominations are still open I would like to nominate Just Kids by Patti Smith. The winner of the [US] National Book Award for Nonfiction. This iconic artist and punk rocker recounts the early days of her time in the NYC art and literary scene and her relationship with famed photographer Robert Mapplethrope.

[JSWolf]

I'd like to nominate a true book that I feel everyone should read. It will show you some of the reasons why the world is as screwed up as it is and show you how it got to be there.

The Dark Side
The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
by Jane Mayer

This hard-hitting expose examines both the controversial excesses of the war on terror and the home-front struggle to circumvent legal obstacles to its prosecution. New Yorker correspondent Mayer (Strange Justice) details the battle within the Bush Administration over a new anti-terrorism policy of harsh interrogations, indefinite detentions without due process, extraordinary renditions, secret CIA prisons and warrantless wiretappings. Fighting with memos and legal briefs, Mayer reports, hard-liners led by Dick Cheney, his aide David Addingtion and then-Justice Department lawyer John Yoo rejected any constraints on the treatment of prisoners or limitations on presidential power in fighting terrorism, while less militant administration lawyers invoked the Constitution and international law to oppose their initiatives. As a counterpoint to the wrangling over the definition of torture and the Geneva Conventions, the author looks at the use of techniques like waterboarding, stress positions, sleep deprivation and sexual humiliation against prisoners by the American military and CIA; her chilling account compellingly argues that this "enhanced interrogation" regimen constitutes torture. The result is a must-read: a meticulous behind-the-scenes reconstruction of policymaking that demonstrates how legal abstractions became an ugly reality.

This is a must read! So help nominate it and then vote for it. You won't regret it.

[jgaiser]

Third Orthodoxy.

[dreams]

Post #23 has the update on nominations with seconds and thirds (to this point).

Please let me know if there are any errors.

[hedwig]

Interesting...
I am in the Middle East and Every Breath You Take is available through Amazon's website. Maybe it isn't available to all countries or perhaps only through Amazon.

[stylib38]

Remember why you play. I was just watching a Youtube video about this today. I didn't even know there was a book. What an encouraging story

Originally Posted by jhempel24

I would like to nominate:

Remember Why You Play

One of the very few non-fiction books that I could finish. And while I'm not religious and this book does have religious overtones, the story that comes out of it goes far beyond that, and for me, kind of changed the way that I percieved things.

FROM B&N

[lene1949]

Originally Posted by hedwig

Interesting...
I am in the Middle East and Every Breath You Take is available through Amazon's website. Maybe it isn't available to all countries or perhaps only through Amazon.

Of course I can only see that the books are not available in Australia... I check Amazon and Kobo sites. I have wanted to read Ann Rule's books for a long time, but none are available here...

I have updated post 25.

It's unbelievable.

[VioletVal]

I nominate The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

From Wikipedia:
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the traditional name for the unfinished record of his own life written by Benjamin Franklin from 1771 to 1790; however, Franklin himself appears to have called the work his Memoirs. Although it had a tortuous publication history after Franklin's death, this work has become one of the most famous and influential examples of autobiography ever written.

[Format C:]

Originally Posted by lila55

I nominate Gomorrah by Robert Saviano.

Wikipedia:
The book describes the clandestine particulars of the business of Camorra, a powerful Neapolitan mafia-like organization. In this book Saviano employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra, exposing its territory and business connections.

Since 2006, following the publication of the book, Saviano has been threatened by several Neapolitan “godfathers”. The Italian Minister of the Interior has granted him a permanent police escort, but he's often attacked by politicians of Berlusconi's government and also his escort has been questioned

I second this one.
Here's a link to the Italian edition: http://www.ibs.it/ebook/saviano-robe...852016110.html
(ePub with DRM - ADE)

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'd like to nominate a true book that I feel everyone should read. It will show you some of the reasons why the world is a screwed up as it is and show you how it got to be there.

The Dark Side
The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
by Jane Mayer....

Seconded.

[VioletVal]

I second Einstein: His Life and Universe

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by VioletVal

I second Einstein: His Life and Universe

I tried reading that. I found the beginning of it rather slow. So I never did end up moving on. No idea if it gets better.

[jgaiser]

I'll nominate Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath which is sitting on my TBR pile.

Here, from Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman, is the story of the worst defeat in American military history, the four-month fight for the tiny peninsula of Bataan in the Philippine Islands – the first major land battle for America in World War II. On April 9, 1942, more than 76,000 men under American command surrendered to their Japanese captors, who set them walking sixty-six miles to prison camp, a notorious walk that came to be known as "The Bataan Death March."

[sun surfer]

Will a mod offer us some clarity as this is the second month in a row (and both months that I've been reading these threads) that this has come up - To be eligible for the book club, does a book need to be available somewhere as an e-book, or everywhere?