Bill Monning for Senate 2012: Reading List

Bill Monning for Senate 2012

Readings

Friends,

The following list represents some current and recent readings that I have found to be informative and fun.

You may have other suggestions that we will consider including on our recommended readings list. I am particularly interested in books and articles addressing current issues impacting the Central Coast, the State of California, and our planet: Healthcare, Education, Environment, Economics, and Participatory Politics.

Bill

Non-Fiction:

Game Change: by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, Harper Collins (2010), ISBN 978-0-06- 173363-5
Compelling insight to the 2008 presidential election campaigns including strategy, fundraising, challenges, and drama.
Endangered Dreams The Great Depression in California: by Kevin Starr, Oxford University Press, (1996), ISBN 19-510080-8
A timely analysis that presents similarities to California’s current challenges.
Free Fall, America Free Markets and the Sinking World Economy: by Joseph Stiglitz, (Nobel Prize in Economics) WN Norton (2010), ISBN 978-0-303-07596-0
The title says it all.
Deep Economy The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future: by Bill McKibben Holt Paperbakcs (2007) ISBN 10:0-8050-8722-2
Makes the case for economic development and environmental protection being linked. Challenges the assumptions of unchecked economic growth being compatible with sustainability.
The Way It Was: by Alana Haywood-Myles, Easy Break Publishing/Multimedia Royal Oaks, (2002) ISBN 1-89157-07-9
A story based on real life story of a young African American girl named Susy.
How Soccer Explains the World: by Franklin Foer, Harper Collins, ISBN 13:978-0-06-073142-7
Jerry West The Life and Legend of A Basketball Icon: by Roland Lazenby, Ballantine (2010) ISBN 978-0-345-51083-9
Prescription for Survival A Doctor’s Journey to End Nuclear Madness: by Dr. Bernard Lown, Forward by Howard Zinn, Berrett-Kohler Publisher (2008), ISBN 10:1576754820
First person account of the building of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the 1985 organizational recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Escape from Antwerp From Terror to Paradise: by Eda Lew Balsam, Community Printers, Santa Cruz (2003), ISBN 0-615-1247004
The author was welcomed and recognized by Assemblymember Monning at the Holocaust Memorial event held on the Assembly Floor in Sacramento in 2010. Ms. Balsam lives in Santa Cruz and has been active in the arts community. Her story shares a compelling history of her family's trials and tribulations escaping the Nazi occupation in Belgium, then in France before their successful exodus via Spain to Cuba and finally to the United States.
Ill Fares The Land: by Tony Judt, The Penguin Press, New York (2010), ISBN 978-1-59420-276-6 (courtesy of Hugh McIsaac)
“Ill Fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and (wo)men decay”. Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, 1770 (from cover).... Judt makes the case for building a social democracy: to valuing fairness over mere efficiency. Judt sets forth a cogent analysis as to how government can and should appropriately support people and communities without threatening individual liberties in marked contrast to the excesses, corruption, and damage inflicted by blind faith in a free market's ability to protect us.
Wherever There’s a Fight How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California: by Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi, www.heydaybooks.com ISBN 978-1-65714-114-7, Berkeley (2009)
The authors are ACLU activists who have captured and chronicled an amazing history of California through the lens of immigrant communities. Included are reports of “legal” and vigilante forms of discrimination, abuse, exploitation, and violence. These themes are countered, however, by the commensurate rise of civil rights, human rights, labor and political activists who fought for justice in the face of these historic and often unreported or forgotten moments in California history.
The Art of Simple Food: by Alice Waters, Clarkson Potter Publishers, New York, 2007, ISBN 978-0-307-33679-8
The founder of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, shares her revelations and recipes using fresh, healthful, and wholesome foods.
The Politics of Truth A Diplomat's Memoir: by Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Carroll and Graf Publishers (2005), ISBN 0-7867-1551-0
I took another look at this book after seeing Fair Game, the current movie version of the actions taken by former U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson to expose the Bush Administration's false pretext for invading Iraq in 2003. As a result, Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, had her cover blown as an undercover CIA operative in charge of anti-nuclear proliferation intelligence by the George Bush White House. I met Joe Wilson in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq on the eve of Gulf War I, in December of 1990 as he prepared to close down the U.S. Embassy and evacuate the country. This book shares powerful insights into U.S. foreign policy formation and implementation.
Three Lives of a Warrior: by Phillip Butler, A Camelot Press Book, ISBN 1452885036 phil@philbutlerphd.com (2010)
This memoir is written by Monterey-based, Vietnam Veteran, Phil Butler who served as a POW in North Vietnam for 7 years 10 months. Phil has been an outspoken critic of torture and an anti-war activist who served as the national president of Veterans for Peace. His accounts are powerful, chilling, and disturbing, but serve as testament to the strength and unbreakable spirit of Phil and the many other POWS and veterans to whom he pays tribute. But it is Phil Butler's journey from Annapolis cadet to POW to warrior for peace that is so remarkable.

Fiction:

The Rising Tide: by Jeff Shaara, Ballantine Books (2006), ISBN 13:978-345-46141-4
A historical novel about WWII and the heroism and sacrifice of allied troops in Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy.
The Lacuna: by Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Collins (2009), ISBN 97-8006085-2573
A powerful novel that focuses on young man of Mexican and U.S. heritage who works with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky in Mexico then concludes his life journey in USA during the McCarthy era/HUAC hearings, etc. A historic novel with clear implications for today's world.