Recommendations

I just wanted to recommend a few things I've come across recently:

Finished The Blind Side a little while ago. It's a great book that's been horribly pitched. They promoted it as "Moneyball for football," when that' absolutely not right. It more an incredibly uplifting human interest story. I liked it. I also love Michael Lewis. He gave the best commencement speech at Tulane in recent memory (better than Clinton/Bush IMHO). UPDATE 2- Lee Iacocca was thinking about running for Congress and he hired James Carville as his political consultant. Carville tried to tell him his position on everything. Lee told Carville to him where to shove it! My hero!

Street Fight is a documentary about Corey Booker's campaign to unseat Sharpe James (think William Jefferson meets Ray Nagin in an uber-evil hybrid). A true portrayal of inner city politics, but has a very positive ending. It would end even better now, because James just got indicted...

I picked up Where Have All the Leaders Gone on Audiobook just on a whim and it's great. It's narrated by Iacocca and he's got a great narration voice. He really reminds me of FDR in his politics and no-bullshit style. As a mechanical engineer, I'm especially interested in his thoughts on the auto industry.

One of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time is Robert Young Pelton's Dangerous Places. It's all about visiting third world countries. His take on things is fascinating. If you're interested in reading something off the beaten path, I recommend it. Don't try to read it in order, though. Skip around and read whichever chapters you're interested in. Makes a great bathroom read.

UPDATE- Oh yeah, I got a subscription to Time magazine. They're leading the charge this month on New Orleans, along with Forbes, Essence, etc. I was also interested because they're retooling to be less like the Equirer and more like The Economist (a magazine I love, but can't spare the change for right now). Give 'em a try.