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374. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   J.K. Rowling

Genre:  Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult

341 pages, published July 2, 1999

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is book two in the classic Harry Potter series.  Once again escaping his mean muggle relatives, Harry is delighted to be back at Hogwarts with besties Ron and Hermione.  However, his happiness is soon interrupted when students begin turning to stone and the school is ominously put on notice that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened.

Quotes 

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

 

“When in doubt, go to the library.”

 

“Honestly, if you were any slower, you’d be going backward.”

 

“Ginny!” said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. “Haven’t I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain?”

 

“Your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won’t they?” said Hermione as they got off the train and joined the crowd thronging toward the enchanted barrier. “When they hear what you did this year?”  “Proud?” said Harry. “Are you crazy? All those times I could’ve died, and I didn’t manage it? They’ll be furious…”

 

“Do I look stupid?” snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache.”

 

“Hang on . . .” Harry muttered to Ron. “There’s an empty chair at the staff table. . . . Where’s Snape?”

“Maybe he’s ill!” said Ron hopefully.

“Maybe he’s left,” said Harry, “because he missed out on the Defense Against the Dark Arts job again!”

“Or he might have been sacked!” said Ron enthusiastically. “I mean, everyone hates him —”

“Or maybe,” said a very cold voice right behind them, “he’s waiting to hear why you two didn’t arrive on the school train.”

Harry spun around. There, his black robes rippling in a cold breeze, stood Severus Snape.”

 

“Gotta bone ter pick with yeh. I’ve heard you’ve bin givin’ out signed photos. How come I haven’t got one?”

 

“Ron: Why spiders? Why couldn’t it be “follow the butterflies?”

 

“Voldemort,” said Riddle softly, “is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter. . . .”

He pulled Harry’s wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words:

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT” 

My Take

I am having so much fun re-reading the Harry Potter series.  Or, rather, listening to them with the delightful audio version narrated by the incomparable Jim Dale who brings the story to life with his imaginative voice work.  J.K. Rowling is a marvel, crafting a richly drawn fantasy world replete with an incredible level of detail while still managing to create completely relatable characters.  A pleasure for readers of any age!

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373. All for Nothing

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:   Meris Delli-Bovi

Author:   Walter Kempowski

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction

384 pages, published July 2006

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

All for Nothing takes place in Germany during the end of World War II when everything is falling apart.  The Russian army is advancing and Germans are fleeing the occupied territories in cars and carts and on foot.  In a rural East Prussian manor house, the wealthy von Globig family tries to seal itself off from the world.  Twelve year old Peter von Globig fakes illness to escape his Hitler Youth duties.  His father Eberhard is stationed in Italy with a desk job safe from the front and his mother Katharina has withdrawn into herself.  The house is run by a Auntie with the help of two Ukrainian maids and a Pole.  The family has no plans to leave until Katharina’s decision to house a Jewish stranger for the night forces their hand.

Quotes 

 

My Take

A very depressing, but insightful, book about the human condition, especially when under stress.  As a Christian, I don’t agree with  the author’s sentiment that our lives are “all for nothing.”  I think what we do during our brief stay on earth matters and how we live our lives and treat those around us has value.

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372. The Taster

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:   Nancy Sissom

Author:   V.S. Alexander

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II

323 pages, published January 30, 2018

Reading Format:  Audio Book on Hoopla

Summary

In early 1943 Germany, a teenaged Magda Ritter is sent to live with her relatives in Bavaria.  Living in deprivation as a result of the second World War, Magda’s Aunt and Uncle expect her to get a job.  After an interview with the civil service, Magda is assigned to the Berghof, Hitler’s mountain retreat, to be a taster for the Fuhrer’s food to prevent poisoning.  High in the Bavarian Alps, the Berghof is its own world, far from the battles that are consuming Germany.  While Magda grows accustomed to her dangerous job, she begins to have doubts about the war, doubts that are stoked by Karl, a young SS officer with whom she falls in love.

Quotes 

 

My Take

I liked, but did not love, The Taster.  I’ve read so many books about World War II and, other than some details about the last days of Adolf Hitler, there was little new in this book.  While it is well written, I had little connection with any of the characters.

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371. The Last Black Unicorn

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Tiffany Haddish

Genre:  Non Fiction, Memoir, Humor

288 pages, published December 5, 2017

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

The Last Black Unicorn is the memoir of comedian Tiffany Haddish.  Known as a stand-up comedian, actress, and star of Girls Trip, Haddish shares the ups and downs of her life from a poverty stricken, abusive childhood to Hollywood stardom.

Quotes 

“He’s ashamed of himself, because he left you when you were three, did nothing for you, and you ended up being very successful without him, and then you buy him stuff. You are not only a better person than he is, but you are kind and responsible where he is not, and you’re providing where he did not. Not just as his child, but as a woman, providing for him. Your goodness holds up a mirror to his ugliness, and that is too painful for him, so he has to project this onto you, by saying you make him feel less about himself. It’s nothing you did. It’s guilt.”

 

“So I ended up getting out of pimping, because I didn’t make much money. It’s just not a lucrative business, selling dick. Dick ain’t really all that hard to come by.”

 

“I believe my purpose is to bring joy to people, to make them laugh, and to share my story to help them. To show people that no matter what, they matter, and they can succeed. No matter how bad things go, no matter how dark your life is, there is a reason for it. You can find beauty in it, and you can get better. I know, because I’ve done it. That’s why my comedy so often comes from my pain. In my life, and I hope in yours, I want us to grow roses out of the poop.”

 

“You know how white people do, they just encourage and cheer anybody who lets it all hang out and just don’t give a fuck.”

 

“The only downside to the Bar Mitzvahs was that I killed a man once.”

 

“That man hadn’t wanted to dance at first, and I made him, and then I booty popped him . . . and now he’s dead! I just felt like a booty assassin.”

 

“DJ Timbo: “Tiffany, your ass is not deadly.” Tiffany: “No, my ass is deadly. That man is dead.”

 

“Everyone has their own personal pain and their own demons, and no one will talk about it, and that’s why they never get better. They’re all afraid to talk about it.”

 

“That’s why I think my life turned out as good as it has. Because all the time, I’m just trying to have fun.”

 

“In stand-up, you do need to be having fun up there like Richard Pryor said, but you have to know yourself well, too. You have to know when you make different faces, or do different things, you get certain reactions. You start learning and it’s like playing a piano. You just know exactly what keys to stroke, ’cause really with comedy, you’re like fiddling with people’s souls. You resonate on the same frequency as them, trying to get them to relate.”

 

“I’m a survivor, and all this struggle I went through—while it sucked at the time—is really helping me now. It has helped me get to where I am, and it will help me continue to improve and do better. It didn’t always feel like it at times, but I truly believe I am blessed.”

 

“all my wins are lessons and all my failures are lessons that will one day become wins.” 

My Take

Reading The Last Black Unicorn was a window into a culture that I know little about it and have a hard time relating to.  I haven’t seen Tiffany Haddish’s work, but found her memoir to be both humorous and poignant.  She is a survivor and writes about her past with love rather than bitterness.  If you are a fan, then you are likely to enjoy this book.

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370. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Doris Kearns Goodwin

Genre:  Non Fiction, Biography, Politics, History

916 pages, published September 26, 2006

Reading Format:  Audio Book on Overdrive

Summary

Written by acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals showcases the political genius of Abraham Lincoln.  The book focuses on Lincoln’s appointment of former rivals for the Republican nomination William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates to his cabinet.  From his unlikely winning of the Republican nomination as an obscure one-term congressman and prairie lawyer to his management of  the Civil War and passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln prevailed over more prominent and accomplished men, but harnessed their talents to preserve the Union and win the war.

Quotes 

““Tolstoy went on to observe,”This little incident proves how largely the name of Lincoln is worshipped throughout the world and how legendary his personality has become. Now, why was Lincoln so great that he overshadows all other national heroes? He really was not a great general like Napoleon or Washington; he was not such a skillful statesman as Gladstone or Frederick the Great; but his supremacy expresses itself altogether in his peculiar moral power and in the greatness of his character.  Washington was a typical American. Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country – bigger than all the Presidents together.  We are still too near to his greatness,’ (Leo) Tolstoy (in 1908) concluded, ‘but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.’”

 

“With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.”

 

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.”

 

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

 

“Having hope,” writes Daniel Goleman in his study of emotional intelligence, “means that one will not give in to overwhelming anxiety, a defeatist attitude, or depression in the face of difficult challenges or setbacks.” Hope is “more than the sunny view that everything will turn out all right”; it is “believing you have the will and the way to accomplish your goals.”

 

“An adult friend of Lincoln’s: “Life was to him a school.”

 

“Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition,” he wrote. “I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.”

 

“The ambition to establish a reputation worthy of the esteem of his fellows so that his story could be told after his death had carried Lincoln through his bleak childhood, his laborious efforts to educate himself, his string of political failures, and a depression so profound that he declared himself more than willing to die, except that “he had done nothing to make any human being remember that he had lived.”

 

“In fact, Lincoln and Stanton had already heard similar complaints. After dispatching investigators to look into General Grant’s behavior, however, they had concluded that his drinking did not affect his unmatched ability to plan, execute, and win battles. A memorable story circulated that when a delegation brought further rumors of Grant’s drinking to the president, Lincoln declared that if he could find the brand of whiskey Grant used, he would promptly distribute it to the rest of his generals!”

 

“This, then, is a story of Lincoln’s political genius revealed through his extraordinary array of personal qualities that enabled him to form friendships with men who had previously opposed him; to repair injured feelings that, left untended, might have escalated into permanent hostility; to assume responsibility for the failures of subordinates; to share credit with ease; and to learn from mistakes. He possessed an acute understanding of the sources of power inherent in the presidency, an unparalleled ability to keep his governing coalition intact, a tough-minded appreciation of the need to protect his presidential prerogatives, and a masterful sense of timing.”

 

“In order to “win a man to your cause,” Lincoln explained, you must first reach his heart, “the great high road to his reason.”

 

“Mental health, contemporary psychiatrists tell us, consists of the ability to adapt to the inevitable stresses and misfortunes of life. It does not mean freedom from anxiety and depression, but only the ability to cope with these afflictions in a healthy way.”

 

“It is not until one visits old, oppressed, suffering Europe, that he can appreciate his own government, “he observed, “that he realizes the fearful responsibility of the American people to the nations of the whole earth, to carry successfully through the experiment… That men are capable of self-government.”  

My Take

Team of Rivals helps you to understand why Abraham Lincoln is such a mythic figure in American history, but also reveals his most human qualities so that you have a better understanding of the man behind the legend.  A canny politician, an empathetic humanist and a righteous force of good, Lincoln was the man that the moment demanded and America is a better country because of his presidency.

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369. Still Life

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Louise Penny

Genre:  Fiction, Mystery, Crime

402 pages, published May 22, 2012

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

Still Life is the first book to feature Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec.  He is called in investigate the suspicious death of Jane Neal in the rural village of Three Pines south of Montreal.   Neal’s body is found in the woods, shot in the heart with an old fashioned arrow.  Shortly before her death, Neal’s painting Fair Day which depicts many of the local community members was accepted into a local art show.  A coincidence?  Inspector Gamache must discover the truth.

Quotes 

“Life is choice. All day, everyday. Who we talk to, where we sit, what we say, how we say it. And our lives become defined by our choices. It’s as simple and as complex as that. And as powerful.  So when I’m observing that’s what I’m watching for.  The choices people make.”

 

“There are four things that lead to wisdom. You ready for them?’

She nodded, wondering when the police work would begin.

“They are four sentences we learn to say, and mean.” Gamache held up his hand as a fist and raised a finger with each point. “I don’t know. I need help. I’m sorry. I was wrong’.”

 

“Myrna could spend happy hours browsing bookcases. She felt if she could just get a good look at a person’s bookcase and their grocery cart, she’d pretty much know who they were.”

 

“Life is change. If you aren’t growing and evolving, you’re standing still, and the rest of the world is surging ahead.  Most of these people are very immature. They lead “still” lives, waiting.”

 

“I think many people love their problems. Gives them all sorts of excuses for not growing up and getting on with life.”

 

“They waited for life to happen to them. They waited for someone to save them. Or heal them. They did nothing for themselves.”

 

“The fault lies with us, and only us. It’s not fate, not genetics, not bad luck, and it’s definitely not Mom and Dad. Ultimately it’s us and our choices. But, but’ – now her eyes shone and she almost vibrated with excitement – ‘the most powerful, spectacular thing is that the solution rests with us as well. We’re the only ones who can change our lives, turn them around. So all those years waiting for someone else to do it are wasted.”

 

“I’ve been treating you with courtesy and respect because that’s the way I choose to treat everyone. But never, ever mistake kindness with weakness.”

 

“Aid workers, when handing out food to starving people, quickly learn that the people fighting for it at the front are the people who need it least. It’s the people sitting quietly at the back, too weak to fight, who need it the most. And so too with tragedy.”

 

“Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table,”

 

“Normally death came at night, taking a person in their sleep, stopping their heart or tickling them awake, leading them to the bathroom with a splitting headache before pouncing and flooding their brain with blood. It waits in alleys and metro stops. After the sun goes down plugs are pulled by white-clad guardians and death is invited into an antiseptic room.  But in the country death comes, uninvited, during the day. It takes fishermen in their longboats. It grabs children by the ankles as they swim. In winter it calls them down a slope too steep for their budding skills, and crosses their skies at the tips. It waits along the shore where snow met ice not long ago but now, unseen by sparkling eyes, a little water touches the shore, and the skater makes a circle slightly larger than intended. Death stands in the woods with a bow and arrow at dawn and dusk. And it tugs cars off the road in broad daylight, the tires spinning furiously on ice or snow, or bright autumn leaves. ”

 

“Life is loss.  But out of that, as the book stresses, comes freedom. If we can accept that nothing is permanent, and change is inevitable, if we can adapt, then we’re going to be happier people.”

 

“Everyday for Lucy’s entire dog life Jane had sliced a banana for breakfast and had miraculously dropped one of the perfect disks on to the floor where it sat for an instant before being gobbled up. Every morning Lucy’s prayers were answered, confirming her belief that God was old and clumsy and smelt like roses and lived in the kitchen.  But no more.  Lucy knew her God was dead. And she now knew the miracle wasn’t the banana, it was the hand that offered the banana.”

 

“Almost invariably people expected that if you were a good person you shouldn’t meet a bad end, that only the deserving are killed and certainly only the deserving are murdered.  However well hidden and subtle, there was a sense that a murdered person had somehow asked for it. That’s why the shock when someone they knew to be kind and good was a victim. There was a feeling that surely there had been a mistake.” 

My Take

While Still Life has received critical acclaim in the mystery fiction world (named One of the Five Mystery/Crime Novels of the Decade by Deadly Pleasures Magazine, Winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards), I had a hard time really engaging with it.  I never warmed up to Chief Inspector Armand Gamache or the supporting characters.  Penny does have many insightful things to say about the human condition.  However, I was happy to finish the book so I could move onto something new.

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368. Justice on Trial: the Kavanaugh confirmation and the future of the Supreme Court

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino

Genre:  Non Fiction, Politics, History, Law

375 pages, published July 9, 2019

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

Justice on Trial is an account of the bitter and circus like confirmation battle for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh who replaced Anthony Kennedy on the court in 2018.  With lots of history of the Supreme Court and biographical background on Justice Kavanaugh thrown in, Justice on Trial primarily focuses on the hearings which came down to a he said/she said between Kavanaugh and accuser Christine Blasey Ford.

Quotes 

“There had been only three confirmations in the final year of a presidency when the opposing party controlled the Senate, most recently in 1888, when Grover Cleveland nominated Melville W. Fuller to be chief justice.”

 

“The principle that there is a presumption of innocence in favor of the accused is the undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary,” wrote Justice Edward White in Coffin v United States, tracing it from Deuteronomy through Roman Law, Canon Law, and the Common Law and illustrating it with an anecdote about a fourth-century provincial governor on trial before the Roman Emperor.”

 

“Justice Brennan described the power of these unelected justices with chilling clarity when he told his incoming clerks that the most important rule in the law was the “Rule of Five.”

 

“Voters responded so well to Trump’s reference to Sykes and Pryor in debates and speeches that he decided to make a longer list of judges who met with conservative approval.”

 

“The Democratic strategy had been obstruction at all costs, so Klobuchar was annoyed at repeatedly being singled out for being cooperative and reasonable.” 

My Take

Like millions of Americans, I was riveted by the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  Justice on Trial takes you behind the scenes and tells the whole story, giving the reader a much fuller account of what happened and why there was such a media frenzy.  It also makes the case about the importance of due process, a foundational element of our Constitution and American life.   This book is a page turner and I highly recommend it, especially to readers interested in the judicial system.

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367. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   J.K. Rowling

Genre:  Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy

357 pages, published June 26, 1997

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first book in the classic Harry Potter series.  The book opens with orphaned Harry living a miserable life with his uncaring Aunt and Uncle.  Harry sleeps in a closet under the stairs while they spoil Dudley, their only child who is the same age as Harry.   Things soon change when Harry discovers that he is a Wizard and is sent off to the Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn about magic.  There he meets new friends, discovers his own magical powers, has many adventures and confronts the evil Voldemort.

Quotes 

“A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours’ time by Mrs. Dursley’s scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley…He couldn’t know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: “To Harry Potter – the boy who lived!”

 

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

 

“The truth.” Dumbledore sighed. “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.”

 

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our

 

“Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. Love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves it’s own mark. To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.”

 

“Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”

 

“There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.”

 

“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”

 

“As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all – the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.”

 

“Now, you two – this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you’ve – you’ve blown up a toilet or –”

“Blown up a toilet? We’ve never blown up a toilet.”

“Great idea though, thanks, Mum.”

 

“So light a fire!” Harry choked. “Yes…of course…but there’s no wood!” …

“HAVE YOU GONE MAD!” Ron bellowed. “ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT!”

 

“Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.” 

My Take

When my oldest child Nick was in grade school, we started reading the Harry Potter series together and I was completely enchanted.  While recently checking out Lethal White (Book 4 in J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike Detective series), I asked the Librarian for a good audio book recommendation.  She suggested the Harry Potter series.  Well, as Gretchen Rubin says, “the best reading is re-reading” and she was never more right.  Although this time around, I am going to listen to the audio version.  The voice work of actor Jim Dale is an impressive delight and brings these creative and ingenious stories to magical life.

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366. Isaac the Alchemist: Secrets of Isaac Newton, Reveal’d

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Mary Losure

Genre:  Non Fiction, Biography, Science, History

176 pages, published February 1, 2017

Reading Format:  Audio Book on Overdrive

Summary

Isaac the Alchemist is a biography of Isaac Newton, the father of physics, an extraordinary mathematician, and leader of the scientific revolution.  It starts with his boyhood living in an apothecary’s house and traces his life through Cambridge and adulthood where he made remarkable discoveries and immeasurably impacted science, physics and mathematics.

Quotes 

“The outlines of birds and beasts and sailing ships could still be seen in the apothecary’s attic in Grantham, along with the drawings of men and mathematical symbols. But the boy who who had made them was gone. He had taken his notebook with him: his secret world of star names and tawny lions and golden ink made from quicksilver.”

 

“He could travel in his mind, though. He did it all the time.”

 

“When your head is filled with things that other people don’t seem to give much thought to – chymistry, star names, mandrake root, mathematicall magick – it can be hard to make friends. Being short, secretive, and smarter than everybody else doesn’t help.” 

My Take

A bit dry, but I did learn a lot about Isaac Newton.

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365. Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Matt Taibbi

Genre:  Non Fiction, Politics, Public Policy

352 pages, published January 17, 2017

Reading Format:  Audio Book on Overdrive

Summary

Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus is a collection of 25 pieces written for Rolling Stone magazine, plus 2 original essays, by correspondent Matt Taibbi.  Taibbi tells the story of the 2016 Presidential election with specific focus on the Republican primary.  He can’t believe that Trump is winning and is even more aghast when Trump actually wins the Presidency.  Taibbi explores how a repeatedly disappointed and disaffected electorate became mad as hell and how the old institutions may no longer be relevant.

Quotes 

“It will go down someday as the greatest reality show ever conceived. The concept is ingenious. Take a combustible mix of the most depraved and filterless half-wits, scam artists and asylum Napoleons America has to offer, give them all piles of money and tell them to run for president. Add Donald Trump. And to give the whole thing a perverse gravitas, make the presidency really at stake. It’s Western civilization’s very own car wreck. Even if you don’t want to watch it, you will. It’s that awesome of a spectacle.”

 

“Elections, like criminal trials, are ultimately always about assigning blame.”

 

“The final insult to all of this is that when Trump secured the nomination, media companies looked down at their bottom lines and realized that, via the profits they made during his run—Trump is “good for business,” CBS president Les Moonves infamously confessed—they had been made accomplices to the whole affair. —”

“How Giuliani is not Trump’s running mate no one will ever understand. Theirs is the most passionate love story since Beavis and Butthead.”

 

“America has been trending stupid for a long time. Now the stupid wants out of its cage, and Trump is urging it on.”

 

“Even in his books, where he’s allegedly trying to string multiple thoughts together, Trump wanders randomly from impulse to impulse, seemingly without rhyme or reason. He doesn’t think anything through. (He’s brilliantly cast this driving-blind trait as “not being politically correct.”)”

 

“Lots of people have remarked on the irony of this absurd caricature of a spoiled rich kid connecting so well with working-class America. But Trump does have something very much in common with everybody else. He watches TV. That’s his primary experience with reality, and just like most of his voters, he doesn’t realize that it’s a distorted picture.”

 

“He steps to the lectern and does his Mussolini routine, which he’s perfected over the past months. It’s a nodding wave, a grin, a half-sneer, and a little U.S. Open–style applause back in the direction of the audience, his face the whole time a mask of pure self-satisfaction. “This is unbelievable, unbelievable!” he says, staring out at a crowd of about 4,000 whooping New Englanders with snow hats, fleece and beer guts. There’s a snowstorm outside and cars are flying off the road, but it’s a packed house.”

 

“Sixty million people were announcing that they preferred one reality to another. Inherent in this decision was the revolutionary idea that you can choose your own set of facts.”

 

“The Republicans already lost virtually the entire black vote (scoring just 4 percent and 6 percent of black voters the last two elections). Now, by pushing toward the nomination a candidate whose brilliant plan to “make America great again” is to build a giant wall to keep out Mexican rapists, they’re headed the same route with Hispanics. That’s a steep fall for a party that won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote as recently as 2004.”

 

“In the elaborate con that is American electoral politics, the Republican voter has long been the easiest mark in the game, the biggest dope in the room. Everyone inside the Beltway knows this. The Republican voters themselves are the only ones who never saw it. Elections are about a lot of things, but at the highest level, they’re about money. The people who sponsor election campaigns, who pay the hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the candidates’ charter jets and TV ads and 25-piece marching bands, those people have concrete needs. They want tax breaks, federal contracts, regulatory relief, cheap financing, free security for shipping lanes, antitrust waivers and dozens of other things. They mostly don’t care about abortion or gay marriage or school vouchers or any of the social issues the rest of us spend our time arguing about. It’s about money for them, and as far as that goes, the CEO class has had a brilliantly winning electoral strategy for a generation. They donate heavily to both parties, essentially hiring two different sets of politicians to market their needs to the population. The Republicans give them everything that they want, while the Democrats only give them mostly everything. They get everything from the Republicans because you don’t have to make a single concession to a Republican voter. All you have to do to secure a Republican vote is show lots of pictures of gay people kissing or black kids with their pants pulled down or Mexican babies at an emergency room. Then you push forward some dingbat like Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin to reassure everyone that the Republican Party knows who the real Americans are. Call it the “Rove 1-2.” That’s literally all it’s taken to secure decades of Republican votes, a few patriotic words and a little over-the-pants rubbing. Policywise, a typical Republican voter never even asks a politician to go to second base. While we always got free trade agreements and wars and bailouts and mass deregulation of industry and lots of other stuff the donors definitely wanted, we didn’t get Roe v. Wade overturned or prayer in schools or balanced budgets or censorship of movies and video games or any of a dozen other things Republican voters said they wanted.”

 

“Meanwhile the pessimism of Trump’s revolution is intentional, impassioned, ascendant. They placed a huge bet on America’s worst instincts, and won. And the first order of business will be to wipe out a national idea in which they never believed. Welcome to the end of the dream.” 

My Take

Really more of a screed than a book.  However, at times Taibbi has something interesting things to say.  For political junkies only.

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