Non Fiction Short List

A friend of mine and former student SM, along with another, KP, asked me to provide a short write up as to which books might be worthwhile.  As their young active minds crave knowledge I always attempt to give them the answers they seek.  Here's the comment:

1) G. E. Griffin's "The Creature From Jekyll Island". This book changed many things for me. It is a wonderful historical romp and covers the lead up to and the birth of the FED. Sounds dull but is not, as you get LOTS of history you never learned in schule. Highly recommended. 2) J. Grisham's "The Innocent Man" - I just finished this and it was pretty good. A true story about a guy getting the death penalty for something he not only did not do, but couldn't have done. 3) Ron Paul's "The Revolution". This morphed me from an odious Establishment Conservative to a free thinking libertarian. Well written and a quick read. 4) If you want to know why I type 'schule' and my reform plan for skoool is to close them all down, then read (for free) John Taylor Gatto's "The Underground History of American Education". Again - rife with history and info that is impeccably researched and the prose is poetic. (I know, oxymoronic but forgive me). It's one of the few books I'd wished I'd read 10 years ago. For a shorter version of his philosophy "Weapons of Mass Instruction" is a winner. It's the book that is my pic. One fiction selection: "Watership Down" by Richard Adams. Anyone who can read English should read it. It's that elegant and wonderful and beautiful. Let me know if you have a specific brand of nonfiction as these may not be your cup of tea...

Here's G. Edward Griffin talking about his Magnum Opus, The Creature From Jekyll Island.

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I followed with this tepid list of fiction books - just off the top of my head but worth a look....

Ayn Rand's "Anthem" is really good - a dystopian collective nightmare where the group is all encompassing. It does not contain the subject pronoun "I" - that's how hard core it is. Bradbury's "F451" is spectacular - another future dystopia where firemen burn books because they are illegal and make people smart - sort of like now. I just read the uncut version of Stephen King's "The Stand". It was complex, wonderful, strange and engrossing. His serial "The Green Mile" is also exceedingly well done. I like his work.