Truthdig’s Books of the Year: Part One

[marmar]

(Truthdig) Thoreau once advised: “Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.”
In our first installment of 2014’s top picks, we asked Truthdig staff and reviewers to select the best, hoping that you will have the chance to read them.

Whether on climate change, soaring wealth inequality, or the surveillance state, this has been a year of calls to action—and above all, it’s been a great year for digging for the truth. You can find all of our favorites here.

1. “Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights” by Katha Pollitt

Katha Pollitt’s powerfully argued “Pro” brings our attention to life before the watershed Roe v. Wade decision and critically examines the ensuing abortion wars of the last decades.

“Pollitt is an equal opportunity critic,” writes reviewer Ruth Rosen. “Part of her book is a brilliant attack against the ‘pro-life’ movement and the strategic war it has waged against women and abortion. At the same time, she offers a frank and critical appraisal of the abortion rights movement and what it might have done differently…. Aside from women’s sexuality, Pollitt brilliantly demonstrates how opponents’ views are linked to ‘anti-feminism, the shaming of sexually active girls and single women, fears of white demographic decline, and conservative views of marriage and sexuality or outright misogyny.’ ”

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2. “The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan” by Jenny Nordberg

New York Times reporter Jenny Nordberg’s fascinating account of survival in a deeply segregated context does as much to challenge conventional stereotypes as it does to shed light upon an extraordinary Afghan subculture. In an almost entirely male-dominated context, where the birth of a girl is more often than not a cause for mourning, the book examines the bacha posh—girls temporarily raised as boys and presented to the outside world as such.

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4. “The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap” by Matt Taibbi

Rolling Stone regular Matt Taibbi’s gonzo, take-no-prisoners approach has provided for scathing, often hilarious and always well-deserved takedowns of some of the worst culprits of the financial crisis. In a survey of the country’s “grifter class,” his 2010 book, “Griftopia,” characteristically depicted Goldman Sachs as the “vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.” ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/truthdigs_books_of_the_year_part_one_20141212

[daleanime]

1. hummmnnnn.....

wonder how many are already on my reading list.