Liberal Books

Matthew Klane hosted this reading by representatives of small presses with connections to the Capital Region as part of the month-long exhibit at the Gallery. The presses had had their books on display since the First Friday of January monthly art walk, along with an exhibit of photos from "the world's largest collection of photos of unknown poets" by me , Dan Wilcox. & I led off the reading, giving a brief history of A.P.D. ( A P oetic D emocra cy, A lso P ublishes D irt, etc.) then reading...Read Full Story

   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRLog (Press Release)   –   Jan 30, 2009   – 130-Page Coffee Table Book Includes 100 Beautiful American Flags and direct quotes, photographs of President Obama in his campaign, life, and inauguration.   Los Angeles, Jan. 30 / Blurb publishing, LLC has released a hands on “Lessons We Learned From Obama” book honoring Barack Obama's character distinctions for success and the impact he has had on the world during his presidential campaign and inauguration. The 130-page...Read Full Story

Author Marnie Howard  Giving is Living     Generosity Makes a Comeback New Book Shows That by Helping Others We Help Ourselves Because each of us deals with so much stress on a personal level—especially in light of the current recession—it can seem like an overwhelming task to reach out to others in need. The truth is, though, that giving back can be easier than we may think. Giving is Living presents a clear, practical guide to making generosity a part of our everyday lives. It shows us how...Read Full Story

I looked at a certain section of my library this afternoon and was struck by a difference between two sorts of progressive political books I saw on the shelf. Some had been very timely when they were published, but were not at all enduring in value, whereas others had not achieved much initial acclaim, but have been valuable to me for quite a long time. Al Franken’s book, Lying Liars and the Lies they Tell , is amongst the first group. It had a great public relations event to start it out...Read Full Story

Eric Alterman has written what he describes as a handbook for post-Bush America. It’s called Why We’re Liberals . Do we liberals really need a handbook for these new times? Some of us do seem to need a hand out of the box of defining ourselves as anti-Bush, but Barack Obama’s campaign seems to be serving in that role rather handily. Perhaps we need a travelogue for why we have become liberals, or how we have moved within the land of liberalism. For that travel, a field guide to the...Read Full Story

This book list, put together by the Office for Intellectual Freedom , is published on the American Library Association website each year. Children's book, And Tango Makes Three , shows up at the top of the list for the third year in a row. What could be more pro-family than two loving adults adopting a young child? I own a copy of this book. It's on my son's bookshelf and I purchased it for him when it was first released, before all of the hype. And yes, I knew exactly what the story was...Read Full Story

Stephen Harper is calling on Governor General Michaële Jean Sunday morning to call for the dissolution of Parliament, and so the writs will be dropped. That is a very quaint way of saying that and we’ll be having a general election October 14.* Two sets of polls show the Conservatives close to getting a majority, and running neck and neck with the separatist Bloc Québécois in Quebec. The Liberals (more centrist than left wing) usually win big here and often do so in Ontario, but are clearly...Read Full Story

Got the editorial corrections for The Walkable City: From Haussmann’s Boulevards to Jane Jacobs’ Streets and Beyond on the weekend. Rather nice to see that the editor hasn’t proposed any major changes—at least so far. I’m into the fourth chapter, however, and even though Simon Dardick, the publisher, has said both he and the editor like the book a lot, it’s possible that I may find some contentious suggestions ahead. You never know… We’re shooting for a mid-September publication date which...Read Full Story

…of course, it’s not the books that change. People pretend that the Bible means the same to them at 50 that it did at all former milestones in their journey. I wonder how they can lie so. It comes of practice, no doubt. They would not say that of Dickens’ or Scott’s books. Nothing remains the same. When a man goes back to look at the house of his childhood, it has always shrunk: there is no instance of such a house being as big as the picture in memory and imagination call for. Shrunk how...Read Full Story

I could write a book about liberal books, and maybe I will some day, but for now, I'm editing this Liberal Books Zine.  I created this zine after spending a few weeks travelling by air, and seeing the lack of good political reading available through the bookstores there.  I started thinking about the progressive political books I'd like to read, and the ones I'd suggest to others.  That's when I decided to get collaborative.  You see, this Zine is a special kind of zine because it's open...Read Full Story