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Official Poll - Nov/Dec 2003 Book of the Month(s)

Collaborate in choosing our next NON-FICTION book for group discussion within this forum. A minimum of 5 posts is necessary to participate here!
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Chris OConnor

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Official Poll - Nov/Dec 2003 Book of the Month(s)

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The time has come to vote on our next book selection!As always PLEASE DO NOT VOTE if you do not plan to read and participate on the message boards or at least in the chat room. We are a book discussion community and the poll is restricted to active members that discuss the books we are reading. Please respect this! Also, it is VERY important that EVERYONE that does cast a vote send me an email telling me what book they selected. You can email me at [email protected] and be sure to include your BookTalk name so I know who you are. Thank you!All three of our November and December 2003 book selections are off the New York Times bestsellers list for hardcover nonfiction. We have been reading science books for many concurrent months, so tonight in the chat room we all decided it might be refreshing to delve into some new areas/genres. It would be nice to see more people showing up for our regular Thursday night chat sessions, as this is where much of these ideas are discussed! Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Rightby Al FrankenQuote:Having previously dissected the factual inaccuracies of a single bellicose talk show host in Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, Al Franken takes his fight to a larger foe: President George W. Bush, the Bush Administration, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and scores of other conservatives whom, he says, are playing loose with the facts. It's a lot of ground to cover, as evidenced by the 43 chapters in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, but the results are often entertaining and insightful. Franken occupies a unique place in the modern political dialogue as perhaps the media's only comedy writer and performer who is also a Harvard fellow as well as a liberal political commentator. This unique and vaguely lonely position lends a charming quixotic quality to adventures such as a tense encounter with the Fox News staff at the National Press Club, a challenge to fisticuffs with National Review Editor Rich Lowry, and an oddly sweet admissions visit to ultra-conservative Bob Jones University (with a young research assistant posing as his son when Franken's real-life son refuses to participate in the charade). Less useful are comic book dramatizations of "Supply Side Jesus" and a fictitious Vietnam War story featuring the numerous righties who, Franken intimates, improperly avoided service. And Franken's criticisms of conservative talk show hosts Sean Hannity, O'Reilly, and columnist Coulter, while admirable in their attention to detail, fail to shed much new light on people who have built careers on broad arguments and relentless self-aggrandizement. But Franken is at his best, and most compellingly readable, when he backs off the wackiness and the personal grudges and writes about more personal matters such as the political circus surrounding the memorial service of the late Senator Paul Wellstone. But even on these more serious topics, Franken's wit is still present and, in fact, grows sharper. In a time when much political discourse is composed of rage and shouting, it's refreshing that Al Franken is able to shout in a witty manner. --John Moe Madam Secretary: A Memoirby Bill Woodward, Madeleine K. AlbrightQuote:"It was a quarter to ten. I was sipping coffee, but by then my body was manufacturing its own caffeine. I still couldn't allow myself to believe. Finally, at 9:47, the call came. 'I want you to be my Secretary of State.' These are his first words. I finally believed it."For eight years, during Bill Clinton's two presidential terms, Madeleine Albright was an active participant in the most dramatic events of recent times
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Re: Official Poll - Nov/Dec 2003 Book of the Month(s)

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All three sound pretty interesting. I've just read a book about the Founding Fathers, and have read quite a bit about Franklin over the years; not that he isn't interesting, but it gets a tad redundant. And Franken sounds like just too much for me. I already know the cocksuckers are lying. Science is neither a philosophy nor a belief system. It is a combination of mental operations that has become increasingly the habit of educated peoples, a culture of illuminations hit upon by a fortunate turn of history that yielded the most effective way of learning about the real world ever conceived. E.O.Wilson
pctacitus

Re: Official Poll - Nov/Dec 2003 Book of the Month(s)

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I can't in good conscience vote for any of these because I am not going to read any of them. This is the second time in a row that this has happened (I've nominated at least one thing both times). Frankly Chris, I'm worried; the quality of the choices just don't seem up to standard. I would like to ask several questions. Why is it that both books dealing specifically with politics are written by Democrats? How come all the books are by Americans about America? I'm sorry to ask but I see a lack of diversity for subject matter.
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Chris OConnor

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Re: Official Poll - Nov/Dec 2003 Book of the Month(s)

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SamuelSometimes making decisions around here can be extremely difficult. Everyone is not going to be happy everytime. Here is the problem. Out of 105 registered members we only see about 5 - 7 show up for the Thursday night chats, and then perhaps 10 post on the forums on a regular basis. So I am not able to get much feedback when it comes time to make a decision. Picking books to go on the poll is one example of a decision that has to be made every 2 months. It so happens that I did not pick any of these 3 books myself. The people that attended the chat session Thursday discussed it and they picked them.I did, however, strongly suggest we get away from science for one reading period and pick something a bit more universally appealing. As the owner of this community I have some responsibility that members don't really have to face. My responsibility is to do everything possible to make this community grow and prosper. Lately, we have had very little activity on the boards and in the chat room. This scares me. We are attracting big name guests to our chat room, yet we are not motivating enough people to join and contribute on the boards.It might interest you to know that I am a registered Republican. How do you think I feel about possibly reading a book by a liberal? I'll tell you. I feel like it will help make me a more well-rounded person. I also think I'll probably get pretty frustrated at some of what I read in the book and on the boards, and this could stimulate conversation. We need some controversy around here. Right now we all seem to be agreeing with what we are reading.All three of those books are on the NY Times bestseller list. If there was a good book by a Republican it could be one of our choices. But don't shy away from reading a book because it doesn't mesh with your existing belief system. Heck, you and I could probably have a great deal of fun with this next reading period.Please put yourself in my shoes. We desperately need to attract some new blood to this community. It isn't like the community is dying, but we are rather stagnant. Every time I contact an author to be our guest I am sweating bullets. Fortunately, they have all been gracious enough to accept our invitation. But think about it - we have 33 posts only in "The Red Queen" forum and we are over an entire month into the reading period. The fact is we are defining our community so narrowly that we are scaring away most visitors. Wouldn't it be fun to introduce a few more dozen members over the next couple months? Think about how the community would benefit with more members.That is the bottom line. The selections on the poll this time are designed to be a bit more appealing to the masses. While we do not want to attract the wrong crowd, we also must be careful to not focus on just science books and exclude 99% of the world.I hope this explanation helps. This response is as lengthy as it is because I hate to see comments such as, "I'm worried; the quality of the choices just don't seem up to standard." All of these books made the NY Times bestseller list. I don't like to see members unhappy or dissatisfied. I really thought most members would be excited by this new poll.Chris "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward,for there you have been, and there you will always want to be."
stevepainter

Re: Official Poll - Nov/Dec 2003 Book of the Month(s)

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Sorry I haven't been extremely active in the main book forums lately. I'm a bit surprised by the selections, but I find your reasoning sound. Expanding the diversity of BookTalk's point of view could only help us to continue to draw interesting authors to the chat.I voted for "Lies and the Lying Liars...". Part of the reason is self serving - I just read it. That doesn't mean that I won't have anything to do if that book is picked. On the contrary, I'd like to independently check some of the information in it. There's some serious allegations in there along with the humor. Plus, I think Franken would be a hoot if we could get him in an author chat.
Louis42

Re: Official Poll - Nov/Dec 2003 Book of the Month(s)

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I voted for the Franken, just because the title is redundant, because it repeats itself, and because it says the same thing over and over.Louis
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Chris OConnor

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Re: Official Poll - Nov/Dec 2003 Book of the Month(s)

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haha Me too. I did too. I too voted for that one. So did I.Chris "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward,for there you have been, and there you will always want to be."
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Re: Official Poll - Nov/Dec 2003 Book of the Month(s)

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I voted for Albright's...
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Re: Official Poll - Nov/Dec 2003 Book of the Month(s)

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I voted for Lies, Liars that Lie, etc, as I have a coworker that has the book and I can borrow it.Monty Vonn
stevepainter

Re: Official Poll - Nov/Dec 2003 Book of the Month(s)

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You guys sound like Mojo Jojo. Ever watch The Powerpuff Girls? Mojo repeats himself - says the same thing again and again - is redunduant and otherwise repetative.
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