The I Really Hate Republicans Book Stack
My brother-in-law is none too fond of the people in the White House. Okay, he hates Republicans. (Actually that’s not quite true: it’s the current Republican party that gives him so much trouble.)
This does not cause much of a stir among us at Christmas, since almost everyone gathering together on the big day pretty much agrees that the current president is the worst president of all time.
The problem is that this gives my brother-in-law absolutely nothing to talk about. Poor thing. You’re absolutely right is a non-starter when you want to have a decent conversation about politics. So what do you do when you can’t get a good political argument going? (After all, isn’t the point of Christmas to get families together so they can discover how much they disagree about basically everything? Oh, peace on earth, you say? Ha.) Anyway, the answer is to give him a bunch of books that’ll take his mind off the concord in the house.
Here they are:
I’m going to take these from the bottom up, as a small gesture of resistance to the top down nature of the party in power.
- The Nastiest Things Ever Said About Republicans is pretty self-explanatory. I’ll just add that what’s in there struck me as pretty tame. That’s one reason why we’re in as much trouble as we are right now. The Democrats just aren’t mean enough.
- Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father should inspire him. I haven’t read it. But I like Obama and I’m hoping Randy’ll give it to me next year in MY bookstack — the one I want everyone to make for me.
- Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting By in America. (For those who might not know this book, it’s written by a woman who spent a year trying to live on minimum wage jobs. Things didn’t go all that well.) I read some of this earlier in the year and thought it was pretty good. My guess is that my brother-in-law will love it. It’s gritty and interesting and makes your blood boil. Great for right after the pumpkin pie when you might otherwise fall asleep.
- What Were They Thinking. I can’t remember the subtitle, but it’s something like, “really bad ideas people actually thought were good ideas.” Given how comforting it is to see how ridiculous people can be, this would be a nice thing to read right after you’ve picked up the paper and seen yet another day of horrendous bloodshed in the middle east.
- The last two books –Roget’s Thesaurus and the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Quotations — are what Randy actually did ask for for Christmas. I’m guessing he’s looking for synonyms for “idiot” and “evil.” As for the quotations, I’m not sure what’s that about, but I wouldn’t mind being treated to the occasional concise word of wisdom.
And now, I take my leave, with a breathtakingly useless piece of information. It’s this: plastic snowmen, the kind that wind up and waddle around, look really frightening close up. 
19 Comments so far
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Great post… especially the frightening plastic snowman!
Weird thing though, I have to comment as if from outside WordPress… don’t know what’s happening there.
And also the format of this theme is a bit awry, at least for my Maxthon browser (based on IE).
And finally, Merry Christmas and Beautiful New Year!
Regards
Merry Christmas from Sweden
Hi Mike, Merry Christmas to you too! I noticed something odd happening last night at wordpress also. For me, though, it meant I couldn’t leave comments on posts. As for the theme — I wonder if that’s better now?
I like thinking of the beautiful new year to come and send fond regards, Lily
Nice book stack. I’m curious as to how good the Barack Obama book is. I wouldn’t mind him getting the nomination. At least he is well spoken and seems to have read a book in his life (in other words, the complete opposite of the current president)
You are right, that snowman does seem menacing up close. I’d keep my eye on him
Ebit, God jul to you also!
Struggling writer, I think he’s a very literate guy, as a matter of fact. As for how good the book is, I’m giving it to my mother also (shhhhh) and I know she’ll let me check it out before she goes back home to Seattle.
xo, BL
Aren’t you afraid that if your BIL starts to read Nickel and Dimed during the dinner it will spoil his appetite? Merry christmas to you!
Pauline — I suppose it’s a cold light of dawn sort of book! I’m hoping he’ll regale us with notable quotables during dinner. xo, BL
BlogLily, you’ve done it again–created a wonderful portrait of a person via the types of books they’d like! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Excellent theme, excellent stack. Nickel and Dimed is an eye-opener.
Very good! You have given your brother-in-law fodder for his passionate political discussions! I am sure he will be thrilled.
The inflatable snowmen are worse– the ones that are on everyone’s front yards here in Cleveland. I drove down a block the other morning and they were all lying flat on the ground– victim of Scrouge with a hatpin?
Thanks SS, You have a great Christmas & New Year too!
Thanks Melanie — Yes, it sounds like it’ll be a great book for him.
Hi TBM — Let’s hope so!
Kristsen, I haven’t seen those yet around here — they’re probably not recycleable. Did you see the piece in the NYT this morning on those things? In the end, for some reason, I found myself rooting for the guys who take so much pride in their Christmas displays (they make inflatable dreidels too, so no one need miss out on the chance to inflate). But then again, I don’t live across the street from one of them.
Hi Lily,
Still having the weird thing happen with accessing your blog. I notice the url converts from bloglily.wordpress.com to bloglily.com. So now I don’t have the blue bar at the top, you won’t see my avatar, and I seem to be commenting as if outside wordpress. Any other wordpress blog I go to, nothing wrong.
Other people don’t seem to have that problem given the presence of their avatars… I’ll have to query wordpress. I like your new theme’s appearance, except for that.
Regards
Hi BlogLily,
Thanks for the greeting, and merry christmas to you too!
What a wonderful book stack. I have a bit of a leftwards lean (not that you would notice it from my blog) and would appreciate a stack like that. I can’t wait till next year when I will be able to begin my book stacks. Then a whole lot of bloggers will be able to share a whole lot of book stacks. Sounds like Heaven to me.
How do you manage to find so many wonderful and appropriate books to put together - that’s a real art. You could set up in business, providing Lily’s Famous Xmas Book Stacks. A fortune would wing its way to you… I wish I could see under your tree this Christmas - it’s going to look amazing!
Love your book stacks, BlogLily! And the scary snowman. He looks like Newt Gingrich. I know what you mean about the Republicans, BL. I don’t hate them, but there is no reasoning with them, and I hate that they have reduced our foreign policy down to the level of the most violent Roadrunner and Bugs Bunny cartoons. We’re the coyote, trying and failing ever more elaborately, to get that pesky Roadrunner. And George Bush is Elmer Fudd. “Tewwowists, I’m coming to get youuuuu . . . bam! Bam Bam! Ooops! I missed again!” –Have a beautiful Christmas, BL. Enjoy all that good reading!
(As you may know) Polly Toynbee wrote a British version of Nickled and Dimed. It’s pretty good though not a cheery read.
All the best wishes of the season to you & your family, dear Bloglily
If I were you, I’d actually enjoy the break from the typical Republican (well in Canada, just plain Conservative) argument of Bush is the best President, Iraq was always in Al-Qaeda, and many other arguments, when thought through, make no logical sense whatsoever. Sounds like your brother-in-law feels much the same way. And unless he’s heading home now, there’s always been two things that creates good conversation for us Canucks. Hockey and Movies. Though I don’t know if hockey’s a big thing, we ALL seem to have differing views of the silver screen.
Or maybe I’m just a big film dork. Meh. Merry belated Christmas.