I’m reading Reckless Youth (the JFK biography), Purple Cow by Seth Godin and on my iPhone, The Road by Jack London.

The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe, this book is totally amazing. It’s about the cyclical nature of history and how it is pushed by the cyclical nature of four generational archetypes that keep recurring.
Demon Box by Ken Kesey
Rules for Radicals by Saul D. Alinky
The Confiscation of American Prosperity by Michael Perlman
and
The Divine Right of Capital(again) by Marjorie Kelly

Freudian slip?
“OjaiTruth.con”

Just got The Turning Point and am excited to read it, but it is next on the list after Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell.
Just finished The Tipping Point, also Malcolm Gladwell. A very readable survey of why small things make a big difference – the kinds of people who make things change, the kinds of things that catch on, and, perhaps most interestingly to me, the incredible power of context has over our personalities. Nature and nurture matter, but maybe context affects individual actions as much as either of the first two.

I recently read “Becoming Madame Mao,” by Anchee Min.
I thought the writing was absolutely beautiful and filled with psychological insights. I especially enjoyed the unusual structure of the story, in which Madame Mao vacillates between third and first person.
No matter how many memoirs, autobiographies and historical novels I read, it never ceases to amaze me how much our childhood haunts the rest of our life.
Madame Mao was known as the White Boned Demon during her reign of terror in China. She was blamed for countless bloody and vengeful executions.
If you think your childhood was difficult, imagine narrowly escaping the horror of having your feet bound. The book opens with a graphic descriptions of this process and of the subsequent infection that freed her from this fate.
If you’ve ever wondered why some people are like the devil incarnate, this book helps to explain it!

My Xmas vacation list:
The Great Game, Peter Hopkirk;
River by Lowen Clausen;
The English Major, Jim Harrison;
Small Wonder…Barbara Kingsolver essays;
Red Bird…Mary Oliver poems; Gallatin Canyon…Thomas McGuane essays.
I recommend all.

I’m listening to the Hunter S.Thompson tapes and reading all the “Best” and “Worst” of the year’s reviews. Tonight I should finish reading The River King by Alice Hoffman.
It is a quick read, a curious mixture of bare-bones reality and magical realism. Since it is about a small rural town with an exclusive private school in its midst, it should resonate with many of you out there.
Dennis Rice, glad to see that you are reading the members of the Old Montana Gang.
I hope you have also read Richard Brautigan and William Hjortsberg. Along with Jimmy Buffett, those writers were part of the Livingston, Montana landscape (Yes, we had to step over them sometimes) back in the ’70′s. They do have a talent for seeing things, don’t they?

Oh, man, I love that picture! What a metaphor!
I’m reading “The Gift” by Lewis Hyde, rereading a new edition of Joseph Campbell’s “Heroes Journey,” (yup, it’s still marvelous!) and a collection of contemporary children’s fantasy (along with the obligatory mystery novels that are mental cotton candy)…
…and a ton of stuff online, including the Ojai Post!
Best,
Leigh