I just finished Hamilton’s Blessing: The Extraordinary Times of Our National Debt  by John Steele Gordon. I’m not sure what’s up with me and the economics books, but I really liked this one too. First, as I’ve mentioned before, I have, for reasons I cannot fully explain, great affection for Alexander Hamilton, and Gordon does nothing to diminish that. Second, this is really a history book and, well, I’m a sucker for a smart look at the past. This book is full of interesting facts about the evolution of the national debt and the great and stupid decisions various presidential administrations have made in relation to said debt. Did you know the national debt had already reached a billion dollars by 1863? Yes, that was during the Civil War and it went down, but after 1894 it was never below a billion dollars again. I don’t know why I never thought it was that high that long ago. But, as Hamilton noted, government debt’s not necessarily a bad thing. And the book does a great job of showing how and when debt helped and how it can get out of control and not serve any useful purpose. One downside, since the book was written in 1997, so it didn’t touch on the last ten years or so and I would have been fascinated to read how this most recent era fit in too.

“Recent” is definitely to be taken liberally, but here are the list of books I’d read since I started up with that habit again that I had listed on the other site.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum
Still love this book. It’s funny, it’s got some real stinker bad pun jokes, and it’s got plenty of eyebrow raising moments. I forgot how streamlined the movie is and how it elevates the Wicked Witch of the West, who’s barely in the book and doesn’t cause any of the plagues on Dorothy & Co. except the ones on the Witch’s own doorstep. And the Witch doesn’t even have green skin! I love how the Witch gets pissy with Dorothy when she’s melting, like Dorothy’s a rude, bratty houseguest. The Scarecrow is so cute because he’s actually pretty smart before the brains, trying to come up with these workable solutions – he came up with every escape plan that didn’t involve beating people up (looking at you Cowardly Lion). There are all sorts of fantastic creations like the Kalidahs, the Hammer Heads, the people made of china, the field mice, etc. I forgot that a lot of stuff happens after the Wizard balloons away but before Dorothy finds her way home. Also, I find the ending hilarious. It’s just goofy. (May 2006)

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire
I liked this book a lot, but was disappointed by the end. I never felt that the Witch got wicked enough. I like the idea of pushing back on fairy-tale evil - evil that’s clear and pure and just exists. Real evil is so much more subtle and vague and confusing. But I was hoping for more of a Smallville-evolution-of-Lex-Luthor story and in the end, I it was a letdown that the revisionist history was that she was merely misunderstood. But I feel that’s not how she was at all in the original book, though my memory is certainly colored by having seen the 1939 movie more recently than having read the book. I remember the Witch being a little more intense and with a real nefarious streak. So I’m rereading The Wizard of Oz again just to see how well the two books dovetail because I don’t think you really can separate out the two even if Wicked can be appreciated on its own. I do still think that Wicked is funny and well-written and I liked the idea of giving the Wicked Witches of the West and East, Glinda the Good Witch, and even the Wizard complex and interesting backstories that made some sense of their role in Dorothy’s story. (May 2006) Update - post The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Okay so Wicked gets credit for throwing in some random stuff from TWWOZ that I didn’t even remember being in there: how the Tin Woodman came to be, the Quadlings, the witch not having a crystal ball, Boq! And it clearly took some liberties previously taken by the 1939 film, e.g., Glinda being from the North (in the Baum classic she’s from the South, Quadling country, and the Good Witch of the North is nameless), the ruby slippers (silver in the original), etc. Though I still call shenanigans on Glinda being so weird (and kind of a jerk), the Wizard for not being a humbug (though apparently, according the note at the end of my edition of TWWOZ, he gets some character rehab in later books), the Witch “making” the flying monkeys (in the book they have to obey 3 times whoever wears the special hat that controls them – like a genie in a bottle), the winged monkeys couldn’t talk (though Chistery in Wicked’s a hoot), and much of the episode with Dorothy in the Witch’s castle. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I now feel compelled to read the rest of the Oz books – at least the Baum ones – because it’s clear that other pieces of Wicked came from here and there (e.g., the heretofore unknown the me Tik-Tok of Oz). Thank goodness for the Project Gutenberg. (May 2006)

Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
A very excellent book that applies principles of economics to try to answer some unexpected questions. Even if you don’t agree with some of their conclusions due to morals or methodology, the pieces are quite thought-provoking. How can you not love a book that talks about baby names, cheating teachers, sumo wrestlers, and drug dealers who live with their moms? Also, I picked up a few economics concepts and terms in the process that strangely enough were immediately applicable to my life! Yay for unexpected learning! (April 2006)

White Teeth - Zadie Smith
I was prepared to dislike this given the hype when it came out and some recent things I’ve read about Ms. Smith’s possible non-niceness, but this is possibly one of my favorite books ever. It’s complex, detailed, and lengthy, but rewards you for remembering bits by establishing their relevance hundreds of pages (and decades of narration) later. Toward the end, it seemed suspiciously veering toward predictable, but Smith makes the events interesting and hides the ball well-enough to avoid foreshadowing some of the final twists. Her writing is smart, funny, and sharp and kept me giggling on the train, in spite of myself, as I read the book mostly too and from work. (March 2006)

Barrel Fever - David Sedaris
This mix of stories and essays isn’t quite as enjoyable as Me Talk Pretty One Day or Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, but overall it’s a good read. Some stories were really amusing and other just sort of dragged on, though his voice is still rings clear. The essays are all stronger, if not always terribly focused. (January 2006)

Why Girls Are Weird - Pamela Ribon
This was kind of a slow starter - I didn’t care about any of the characters and couldn’t imagine that I would. But it grew on me and as I got closer and closer to the end I both wanted to find out what would happen at the end and I didn’t want it to be over. (January 2006)

How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization - Franklin Foer
To be fair, this book is really comes off as an excuse to travel around the world watching soccer matches in time-honored (and not so time-honored) locales with a dash of history thrown in and a theory about how the past and soccer combine to create the present. I can’t complain, though, because as someone who loves soccer and loves history, it was a perfect combination. (December 2005)

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri 
This book was excellent. Even though it’s written in present tense, which god knows, I can’t stand, the story is engrossing. It’s a fascinating exploration of the experience of immigrants and their first-generation children in America. (December 2005)

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris 
My only problem with this book was the odd way that I had a feeling that I’d already read or heard every story already - maybe on This American Life, maybe a story echoed something in Me Talk Pretty One Day, I don’t know. That said, it was, as usual, funny and well-written, and read with an appreciation that others are the subject of such embarrassing reminiscences. (November 2005)

Animal Dreams - Barbara Kingsolver
Animal Dreams is an engrossing novel even if it was a bit difficult to get into at first. I kept picking it up, not getting very far, and then finally I dug in and was rewarded by interesting and complex characters and a riveting story of the past tugging on the present. I liked that I felt as if I was discovering the stories and history of Grace along with Codi and I believed her ambivalence. (October 2005)

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
As a history buff and a gal with a bit of a Lincoln thing, this book was right up my alley. You can sometimes practically hear Vowell speaking the words to the book, which makes it kind of an interesting experience. While Garfield and McKinley get a bit of a short shrift—like they gave her an excuse to really just write another Lincoln book—it was still educational and fun if a morbid read. (June 2005)

Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner
Let’s just say I read two-thirds of this book in one day. That’s a sign to me of a well-written, engaging book. My only quibble was a slightly contrived twist that I should have seen coming, but was played out well (if too briefly) and added a dark element that made the book just a little more satisfying. I really was invested in the characters, I wanted to know how things turned out, I never felt like I got too far ahead of the main character, I laughed out loud repeatedly, and I was satisfied with the ending. Good book. (June 2005)

The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice - Sandra Day O’Connor
Excellent, well-written historical look at the evolution and development of the supreme Court before and after Justice O’Connor’s placement on it. Her style is exactly the sensible, no nonsense prose you would expect from the moderate swing vote who is arguably the most influential member of the Court. (May 2005)

The Best American Short Stories 2003 - Walter Mosley, Editor
I’ve never been one for short stories, but I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. I kind of like the way that these stories are snapshots into the lives of characters I might not otherwise see. The writing was superb and all the tales were engaging. (January 2005)

Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
Pretty good book. The main characters’ longing for one another as they pushed through their daily interferring crises was well thought out. Very interested to see the upcoming movie, especially given that both Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger seem way older than their characters, but talented actresses can do wonders. The ending was rather predictable, but the journey was well worth it. (September 2003)

Candide - Voltaire
Such a great book! Why didn’t I read it sooner?! (September 2003)

Common Sense - Thomas Paine (Penguin Classics Edition, 1986; 1776)
I’ve read it before, but it’s worth rereading. The introduction is incredibly informative and gives the work needed context (if you’re not familiar with the details). (September 2003, 2nd time)

Unchosen Presidents: The Vice President and Other Frustrations of Presidential Succession - Allan P. Sindler (University of California Press, 1976)
Sounds dull, but it’s actually pretty interesting, especially given the context of when it was written—shortly after the Nixon resignation. It deals with the potential for a president serving several steps removed from being elected given that the vice president of someone like Ford (not elected but appointed after Spiro Agnew resigned) had the potential to become president upon some mishap during such a president’s term. (September 2003)

Uppity Women of the Renaissance - Vicki León
Very funny book about largely unconventional women in Renaissance Europe. Mostly they were women with unusual occupations or who made uncommon choices—kind of proto-feminists. (September 2003)

The Corner - David Simon & Edward Burns
Can you spell depressing? Many of the people in this book can’t and certainly don’t care about that skill. It’s nonfiction that makes you really angry and frustrated at how screwed up some people’s lives are allowed to become in our society and how little anyone seems to know about how to change that. However, the book does an incredible job of educating you so you can at least understand the problem better. (Spring 2003)

To inagurate the section of the blog that celebrates books and reading, here’s a list of oldies but goodies.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
I really do love it. Read it in one night.

The Princess Bride - William Goldman
This is an amazing book, far better than the movie. Just read the book.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Such an amazing book. It really fascinated me.

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Took me forever to get past the first page, but I eventually got into it and found it extraordinarily engrossing.

Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
So very, very funny.

Encyclopedia Brown Series - Donald J. Sobol
I learned so much.

Our Town - Thornton Wilder
I’ve honestly never seen it performed, but I’ve read it a million times. It’s just so sad and engaging.

Pretty much anything by Roald Dahl, especially Matilda, The Witches, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and the lesser, but charming Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator), and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (there’s a reason it’s not in the children’s section).

Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
I’m not a The Grapes of Wrath cheerleader. It’s a great book (and possibly an even better movie—blasphemous, I know), but for my money you can’t love Steinbeck more than for this other tome on utterly depressing life in central California. (Okay, Of Mice and Men is a sympathetic fave, but something about it always annoyed me.)

The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
I cried at the end of this book (and the movie, too). Pathetic, yes, but I was 13 and it was good to learn that sometimes life is just suckiness interrupted by brief moments of triumph.

Beverly Cleary’s great books. Seeing a little girl on the J reading Beezus and Ramona reminded me of how much I loved the Ramona books, the ones about Henry, and even  the ones about Ralph the mouse.

Cynthia Voigt’s Tillerman family series books Homecoming, Dicey’s Song, A Solitary Blue, The Runner, Come a Stranger, Sons from Afar, and Seventeen Against the Dealer.