January Reading

The Alchemy of Race and Rights by Patricia Williams: I'll admit that I started skimming the book during the last 1/4. My sister gave me this book years ago after she read it for one of her graduate courses. The entire time I read the book, I wondered what Williams thought of President Obama and some of our recent cultural wars. After finishing the book, I started reading some of her columns in The Nation and realized that I preferred her contemporary writing more than this book.

An American Childhood by Annie Dillard: I'm kind of dense at times. It took me forever to realize that this book was Dillard's story of her childhood. I really enjoyed her description of Pittsburgh and its history. It made me want to actually visit the city of her youth. She was definitely a quirky kid, which I could relate to since I had my own weird childhood habits. I wish she would have delved more into the conflict of her quirkiness and the reception she received in a wealthy circle of private school girls.

The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin: I can't recommend this book enough, especially if you are interested in American politics and culture. The Supreme Court strikes me as such a strange institution with plenty of personalities that are mostly mysterious. Toobin had some great insiders who fed him a lot of information. I suspect Sandra Day O'Connor was trying to redeem her reputation after her vote in Bush vs Gore. Given some recent Supreme Court rulings, I have a better understanding of how things work and how close we came to losing control of the courts if McCain had beat Obama.