Robert Elias

Among the books I've read recently, I recommend:

FICTION

I, Fatty, by Jerry Stahl

A novelized biography of Fatty Arbuckle, who rose from poverty to become a Hollywood millionaire, only to be ruined by a false but sensational trial for sexual assault. Stahl is a sensational writer.

1906, by James Dalessandro
A novelized portrayal of the days leading up to the San Francisco earthquake, which reveals the corruption covered up by the tragedy. Revisionist history told through a murder mystery.

New York Trilogy, by Paul Auster
While I've been slow getting to this book, I'm glad I finally did. Great writing. Turns the mystery genre on its head. Will keep you thinking long after you're done.

Murder in the Marais, by Cara Black
First in the Aimee Leduc series, set in Paris. Complex and believable plot, enhanced by the story's setting and tragic European history.


NON-FICTION

Enough: Staying Human in An Engineered World, by Bill McKibben

In his first book, The End of Nature, Bill McKibben demonstrated that humanity had begun to irrevocably alter and endanger our environment on a global scale. Now he turns his eye to an array of technologies that could change our relationships, not just with the rest of nature but with ourselves. As he explores the frontiers of genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechnology--all of which we are approaching with astonishing speed--he shows that each threatens to take us to a point of no return. We now stand, in Michael Pollan's words, "on a moral and existential threshold--or cliff." McKibben offers a celebration of what it means to be human and a warning that we risk the loss of all meaning if we step across that threshold. This book argues that we cannot grow forever in reach and power--that we must at last learn how to say, "Enough."

The Twilight of American Culture, by Morris Berman
Devastating and convincing critique of American society, undermined by a burgeoning corporate consumer culture. Berman helps us see what's happening all around us, and sets off an alarm.

The Culture of Fear, by Barry Glassner
Examines the exaggerated fears that plague and increasingly dominate American society, arguing that our artifically inflated concerns about a variety of so-called enemies have legitimized social policies that undermine freedom and the public interest.