Four Books I Bought

[H2O Man]

I bought four books on Sunday. The first one is an older book, that has been re-released:

{1} “Women, Race & Class,” by Angela Y. Davis; Vintage; 1981. Angela Davis played a significant role in the social revolution of the 1960s. The last time I saw her was in Oneonta, N.Y., when she spoke at Hartwick College about women's issues. A person that I knew through a veterans group had “warned” me about her being “dangerous” …. in fact, he gave me a Soldier of Fortune magazine that had an article about equally dangerous Native American activists. It included a photo of Ms. Davis and Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons at Wounded Knee, which I had her autograph. I'll have to dig through some of my old files to locate it.

{2} “The Legend of Muhammad Ali,” by Thomas Hauser & Bart Berry; Metro Books; 2010. This book includes some memorabilia that I wanted to add to my collection of things about The Champ. Ali, of course, also played a significant role in the cultural turmoil of the 1960s.

{3} “Charles Manson Now,” by Marlin Marynick; Cognito; 2010. Okay, okay – I know. But I couldn't pass up a book by a psychiatric nurse who believed that Manson “was the only human being alive with the power to make sense of the pain and darkness in my own life.” I've been thinking about writing a sit-com for non-network television, about some of the strange people who are employed in the mental health field; this book may provide some material in that line.

{4} “A Terrible Mistake,” by H. P. Albarelli, Jr.; Trine Day; 2009. A law school graduate who worked in the Carter Administration, Albarelli examines the murder of Frank Olsen and the CIA's cold war experiments. The book includes a great deal of information on individuals such as James McCord, Jr., who was best known for his role in Watergate. An understanding of McCord's important role in the intelligence communities' activities in the 1950s helps to put his largely unappreciated and misunderstood role in Watergate into the proper perspective.

These aren't the books that tend to be found on the New York Times' “best sellers” lists. But that is one of the good things about Amendment 1: it allows a person the opportunity to locate far less popular, and generally overlooked, books that are worth reading. Can't beat that with a stick.

[northoftheborder]

1. 'A Terrible Mistake" sounds interesting

[H2O Man]

2. It is.

The author goes into great detail, and the amount of documentation he provides shows that he did his research.

[zappaman]

5. I'm about halfway through it

and it's very good.
Recommended.

[xchrom]

3. i'm jealous you have an angela davis autograh! nt

[robertpaulsen]

4. Interesting list. I'm curious what your opinion will be of "A Terrible Mistake".

I haven't read it, but I am somewhat familiar with the history of CIA mind control which Naomi Klein touched upon in her brilliant book "The Shock Doctrine".

[H2O Man]

6. I'm sure that

you recall some of our conversations per McCord from the "good old days." He was one of the keys to nailing Nixon, though his goal was distinct from that of the democrats in DC who were pushing for impeachment. I bought the book in large part for the details on parts of his career in counter-intelligence.

So far, it's a hard book to put down. It is also requiring me to read at a much slower than usual pace -- it's about 800 pages, but it will probably take me more than twice as long to read than most books that length. I keep finding myself looking through other books to compare notes on various characters. It's funny how certain names keep popping up through the history of the '50s, '60s, and '70s!

[Zax2me]

7. Cool selections...

Thanks for the notes, printing now for a book store trip!