After yesterday’s momentous election, we’ve got a new President heading into office. If you could give Barack Obama ONE BOOK to read before he takes the helm, what would it be?
Think carefully. Choose wisely. Comment here.
After yesterday’s momentous election, we’ve got a new President heading into office. If you could give Barack Obama ONE BOOK to read before he takes the helm, what would it be?
Think carefully. Choose wisely. Comment here.
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman. Required reading for the coming decades, and I hope he DOES read it. (And: HOORAY!)
i second the Hot,Flat and Crowded idea!
The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Our food system has implications beyond diet: environment, trade, oil, labor, health care–all sorts of issues involved.
With all the issues he faces, he also has many competent advisors. However, to me the most critical domestic issue is health insurance. With that in mind, I would give him Blue Vendetta by Hugh Ellis. It offers a perspective on a corrupt industry that I have never seen elsewhere. A true MUST READ. desloane@comcast.net
The Power of One
Tacky as this may sound, I’d give him a Star Trek book. Firstly because it envisions a future where people from different worlds can come together and not just live harmoniously but use their unique perspectives to solve the challenges they may encounter. Second because is reminds us that no matter how far we travel, no matter how much we discover, there’s still another great adventure waiting for us just over the horizon.
The Book of Calamities by Peter Trachtenberg. It’s a multifaceted consideration of suffering in the world and how people confront it and overcome it. Very inspiring.
Anything by Jonothan Kozol. We need to rethink education funding in this country.
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Statling insight into overcoming terrorism in Pakistan and Afganistan with schools, rather than guns. Obama needs to understand that education wins hearts a lot better than killing.
‘How to Care for Your New Puppy’
My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me by Mahvish Rukhsana Khan. A vividly told inside account and profile of the detainees and Guantanamo that will help him as he considers how to tackle closing it down.
“What’s So Great About America?” by Dinesh D’Souza. D’Souza came here as an Indian immigrant as a young man. Barack and his wife were born here, somehow earned ivy-league educations and live in a big house but still hate America. God bless us all.
America Alone by Mark Steyn. An Obama White House is scary, but the radical Islamists already living within our border and causing destruction worldwide is even more frightening.
Illuminations and/or Reflections by Walter Benjamin.
Julia Gillian and the Art of Knowing by Alison McGhee.
Tonight while reading Mo Willems’s TODAY I WILL FLY to my daughter, I was struck by how much that book seemed to be an allegory for Obama’s campaign — the “unyielding hope,” the bravery, the attempt to accomplish the seemingly impossible, the contagiousness of positive thinking, the importance of help from the community . . . That’s the book I would hand him with love and congratulations.
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Mrs. Frisby & the Rats of NIMH.
Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs edited by Suzanne Kamata, so that he could come to better understand the lives of families with disabled chidlren
I would give him Deep Economy by Bill McKibben!
I’ll second The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. A copy of Pollan’s recent piece in the NYTimes would also be a helpful read.
Well, I was thinking kids books so I thought Duck For President would be fun for his daughters even if the older one is beyond that. But for Pres-Elect, I would recommend an array of books by and about people who do not agree with him so that he understands where they are coming from and can work on building the bridges to them for better things. But, then again, he probably already has read all of those books! GObama!
Horton Hears a Who! ~ perhaps it would touch his heart & mind to consider the silent voices of aborted babies that cannot cry out for their rights, as he has so eloquently done for those that have been oppressed & rejected in other ways.
Profiles in Courage
I like RDR’s suggestion above…loved that book inthe 4th grade! But I would pick The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. He’s my “fav founder.”
Corrupted Science – Fraud, idology and politics in science
I have no doubt that the president-elect has access to more learned suggestions than I could offer, but a book that has influenced my political thinking is Rabbi Michael Lerner’s The Left Hand of God.
Bravo, Anne!, on Horton. Well said. Why isn’t there courage to stand up for the unborn, instead of political expediency?
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. It’s his story, too.
Our White House, because it reminds us that it belongs to and represents all of us. White House occupants have been human beings struggling with balancing competing viewpoints on hard questions. And of course because it’s one all members of the family can enjoy, learn, and take comfort from.
The Little Engine that Could—no explanation needed, and Adventures of Cow or Cow, Too—for a good grin.
WHAT NEXT by Chris Patten
Courage by Bernard Waber. The final line rings especially true today – “Courage is what we give to each other.”
The Sisters Eight, to give to his daughters.
Riding into the Sunrise: Al Quie, A Life of Faith Service & Civility
All the President’s Men.
CHESS RUMBLE by G. Neri. Because innercity, urban youth (esp. boys) so clearly need a role model and hope for their own futures. Obama is that “class act” that inspires us all to be better human beings.
“Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire” by Los Angeles Unified Teacher Rafe Esquith and, of course, “An Inconvenient Truth”
“Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire” by Los Angeles Unified Teacher Rafe Esquith and, of course, “An Inconvenient Truth”
Memo to the President, Madeleine Albright. Advice on setting up the cabinet and effectively working through the quagmire of foreign affairs.
I am trying to encourage the creation of a Children’s Inauguration in Washington D.C. to parallel the one for adults. Please check out the blog post by Elizabeth Bird on the SLJ Website, and If you’d like to spread the word on your blog, it would be great!
I would recommend the Book Thief to anyone in the world as an example of what humanity is capable of.
Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell.
“The President’s Daughter” series by Ellen White. An excellent book about children in the white house. I loved it when I was younger and loved reading the latest in the series. It gives a wonderful look at what the children go through being in the public’s eye and their personal issues.
Twilight.. No explanation needed
Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
A PEACE TO END ALL PEACE by D.Fromkin
M.T. Anderson’s duet, Octavian Nothing: Traitor to a Nation, Vol. I & II–an important look at the founding principles of our nation along with an examination of how we have treated people of color.
The Last Aloha. How far-off Hawaii, his home state, became part of America. The story James Michener never told.
ONE by Kathryn Otoshi
OH MY GOD, HE’S BLACK-sydrycalworks
The Bible. I know this won’t be a popular answer, but if we actually lived by Jesus’ priciples. we would be a healthier nation. Not to know just enough of the Bible to make us hate, but to know it well enough to make us love. To realize that God gave us absolutes of right and wrong, but He didn’t give them with the intention of having us hate anyone. Jesus could have been a great politician–if He had been willing to follow the crowd and make popular decisions. Obama could learn a lot from just doing the right thing and not simply the popular thing.
Something by Webster Tarpley. Or The history of the club Bilderberg – Daniel Estulin. Wouldn’t be helpful though since Obama already knows what he’s doing and his place in the power structure steering the world towards one world governance.
Liberty and Tyranny- Mark R. Levin
The Obama Story (as if he didn’t know his own life) but it’s in manga form- cute little manga Obama
The Horse Soldiers
Obama The Postmodern Coup: Makings Of A Manchurian Candidate, by Webster G. Tarpley Barack H. Obama The Unauthorized Biography, by Webster G. Tarpley
My Autobiography, by M. K. Gandhi Also, End the Next War Now, edited by the founders of Code Pink. Ain’t Gonna Study War No More, by Milton Meltzer.