LWVFW Suggested Reading

Suggested Reading from the League of Women Voters of Fort Wayne

Title	Author	Suggested by	Comments
The Mighty and the Almighty	Madeleine Albright	Nancy	Tagline: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs Starts slowly, but keep reading, it's great! -Nancy
The Price of Civilization - Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity	Jeffrey D. Sachs	Barb	Jeffrey Sachs is a Harvard educated macro economist who has written extensively on world economics and has championed the millennium development goals. He turns his attention in this book to the United States economic situation and its interface with politics. Since our current political situation has everything to do with economics, he provides a blueprint for understanding the current political situation as it interfaces with monetary policy. The bottom line is more taxes need to come from the rich who have been given a free ride at great cost to the rest of us. This is economics, not politics. We need to change our system of taxation to benefit everybody more fairly, especially the poor, to raise the level of affluence so it benefits more citizens. To stay at our current level endangers everyone.
Unfinished Business: The 10 Most Important Issues Women Face Today	Dr. Julianne Malveaux and Deborah Perry	Nancy	A Republican and a Democrat present their sometimes differing, sometimes in agreement view of issues affecting women such as work and family, equal pay and benefits, race and social security and welfare.
A Singular Woman A biography of Stanley Ann Dunham, PhD, 1942-1982	Janny Scott	Barb	A fascinating story of Barack Obama’s mother. She was a brilliant anthropologist from the U of Hawaii who led an intense life in Indonesia and other parts of the world advocating for the poor and women. She died of cancer before her son became President.
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present	Gail Collins	Nancy	An excellent overview of the Women's Movement in modern times including how it intersected and sometimes interfered with the Civil Rights Movement. If you're over 50, you've lived this. If you're under 50, you need to know this information.
Growing Up Global-Raising Children to Be at Home in the World	Homa Sabet Tavanger	Bev. F.	The author, was the key speaker at this year's International Women's Day Celebration. Her website is http://www.growingupglobal.net, where you can find her story of searching for sources to help her raise her children to be comfortable in, curious about, and finally competitive in a global society. Having worked all over the world, Homa already knew a lot but had not thought it out. So, she started organizing and adding to her knowledge. This book is really great. Also, she grew up in Fort Wayne as first generation American.
Crossing Stones	Helen Frost	Betsy K.	Helen Frost is a local author who I've met through my association with the Rally to Read. This is about the suffragette movement from a youthful perspective. Good way to get the next generation informed about LWV history on this important anniversary year (2010).
The Terror Dream	Susan Faludi	Nancy	I did not agree with everything that was written, but it was an interesting book.
Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War	Andrew Bacevich	Nancy	If you've ever wondered why our government spends so much on defense, read this book. Written by a former officer, Bacevich is critical of our nation's policy of pumping billions of dollars into an outdated version of who should run the world rather than into the needs of our nation. Guaranteed to make you think and well worth the read."
The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan	Eric Blehm	Nancy	This book gives an inside look at our early years in Afghanistan after 9-11.
Sin in the Second City	Karen Abbott	David	A history of the Levee neighborhood in Chicago from 1900-1912. Filled with politics, brothels, white slavery, reform, and more!
Founding Mothers	Cokie Roberts	Nancy	"A great look at the beginnings of our country from the female perspective. Cokie Roberts has an interesting sense of humor but shows how our attitudes about the role of women in our country have changed--mostly for the good."
Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times	Helen Thomas	Nancy	While this book of Thomas' is a bit dated, it does provide a fascinating look at the presidencies she covered through Bill Clinton. An insider's look at Washington that's well worth the read.
Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women	Rebecca Traister	Nancy	While the subtitle for this book can be debated, this look at the "isms" of sexism, racism and ageism is an engaging look at how politics took turns for both the good and the bad in 2008 and can be the start of great discussions among friends about the role of feminism in our society particularly on the political front.
Then Everything Changed	Jeff Greenfield	Nancy	Greenfield takes us back into modern history and proposes the question of "What if.....things had been different?" . An interesting look at American in the 1960s, 70s and 80s interweaving reality with just enough fiction to make it interesting. Greenfield is an excellent writer of fiction and, in this case, history too. Read it for fun and then read the Afterword for a list of books that explain why America is what it is today.
The Plot Against America	Philip Roth	David	In the same vein as the above book, Roth imagines an America with an alternate history. What if Charles Lindbergh had won the presidency instead of FDR in 1939?
In My Time	Dick Cheney	Nancy	Having met Dick Cheney when he was our Congressman--and having voted for him--I wanted to see what had changed the man I'd known in the early 1980s in Wyoming. After reading this book, I'm not sure being Secretary of Defense is good for anyone. This book is also interesting for the language Cheney uses to describe the different administrations he worked for and his criticism of almost everyone but Donald Rumsfeld.
Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with JFK	Interviews by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr; Compiled by Michael Beschloss	Nancy	Kennedy shared a lot of government documents with his wife, who shares her opinion of many people in the administration in these candid conversations with Arthur Schlesinger about four months after her husband's assassination. If you're a student of history, you'll appreciate the process Caroline Kennedy went through to determine how best to release these historic documents. Jackie was NOT a feminist--at least at this time--remarking at one point that women should vote for the candidates for whom their husbands were voting. If you grew up in the 1960's, well worth listening and reading this part of history. The conversations are also interesting from the perspective of her thoughts on what it would have been like for JFK to leave office with many more potential years ahead of him. One thought that is rather chilling--if you're the former president and become aware of a national or world development in the news, you know far more about the ramifications of what can happen than most reading or hearing the report, yet you no longer have the power to do anything about the situation.