The Cheshire County Democrats Book Group:
What We Have Read since 2005 to present
2015
January- Rosewater: Then They Came for Me by Maziar Bahari. It’s a memoir by an imprisoned Iranian journalist. The book has recently been made into a movie directed by Jon Stewart. We will meet on Monday, January 5, 6:30 PM in the Food Court at Colony Mill Market Place.
2014
Hard Choices, by Hillary Clinton
Enrique’s Journey, by Sonia Nazario
Good Talk, Dad: The Birds and the Bees … and Other Conversations we Forgot to Have, by Bill Geist and Willie Geist
A Fighting Chance, by Elizabeth Warren
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, by George Packer
The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way, by Amanda Ripley
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, by Ari Shavit
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, by Sheri Fink
Book of Ages: The Life & Opinion of Jane Franklin, by Jill Lepore
2013
This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral, by Mark Leibovich
The Execution Channel: A Political Fable, by Michael McCord
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, by Robert D. Putnam
Field Trip – Amos Fortune Forum – Robert Putnam
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, by Gilbert King
Following Atticus: Forty-eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship, by Tom Ryan
Looking for the Gulf Hotel, by Richard Blanco
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, by Charles C. Mann
Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature, by Kenny Ausubel
Whose Names Are Unknown, by Sanora Babb
Grassroots: One Year in the Life of the Presidential Primary, by Dayton Duncan
2012
The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era, by Michael Grunwald
Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, by Rachel Maddow
Going Away Potluck for Penny and Pat Eggleston
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo
Brave Dragons: A Chinese Basketball Team, an American Coach, and Two Cultures Clashing, by Jim Yardley
Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II, by Michael Zuckoff
Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, by Charles Murray
The Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell
In the Garden of the Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin, by Erik Larsen
2011
Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Shiff
The Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy Seal, by Eric Grietens
Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do, by Michael Sandel
Field Trip – Amos Forum Fortune – Eliza Griswold
Unfamiliar Fishes, by Sarah Vowell
The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness, by Harlow Giles Unger
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line between Christianity and Islam, by Elizabeth Griswold
Third World America: How our Politicians are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream, by Arianna Huffington
Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents, by Ian Buruma
2010
Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China, by James Fallows
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Greatest Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker & the Rise & Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, by S. C. Gwynne
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present, by Gail Collins
Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder
Physics for Future Presidents, by Richard A. Muller
The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, by Diane Ravitch
The Annotated U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, by Jack Rakove
The Age of American Unreason, by Susan Jacoby
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System – and Themselves, by Andrew Ross Sorkin
2009
The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban, by Sarah Chayes
$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline will Change Our Lives for the Better, by Christopher Steiner
The Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah Vowell
Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, by Ahmed Rashid
The Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy, by Peter S. Canellos
The Old American, by Ernest Hebert
The Devil’s Highway: A True Story, by Luis Alberto Urrea
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, by Jon Meacham
The Defining Moment: FRD’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, by Jonathan Alter
2008
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How it Can Renew America, by Thomas Friedman
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Polan
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference,, by Malcolm Gladwell
They Went Whistling – Women Wayfarers, Warriors, Runaways and Renegades, by Barbara Holland
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, by Tracy Kidder
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace – One School at a Time, by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, by Jeffrey Toobin
Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media, by Eric Klinenberg
2007
Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989, by Michael Beschloss
Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, by Alexandra Fuller
The Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams, by Joseph Ellis
Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower, by Zbigniew Brzezinski
Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond, by Don Cheatle and John Prendergast
The Partly Cloudy Patriot, by Sarah Vowell
Snow, by Orhan Pamuk
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III, by Bob Woodward
Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, by Geraldine Brooks
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, by Barack Obama
2006
The Myth of Progress: Towards a Sustainable Future, by Tom Wessels
Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East, by Clyde Prestowitz
Politics Lost: How American Democracy was Trivialized by People Who Think You’re Stupid, by Joe Klein
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War, by Tony Horowitz
Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis, by Jimmy Carter
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas, by Diane Wilson
Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, by Susan Jacoby
The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy, by T.R. Reid
Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq, by Riverbend
2005
The Working Poor: Invisible in America, by David Shipler
Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy, by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The Swallows of Kabul, by Yasmina Khadra
Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate – The Essential Guide for Progressives, by George Lakoff
What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, by Thomas Frank