Inspiration: politics

This could be a really heavy topic, but it doesn't have to be!

You can choose nonfiction or fiction, local or international, history, current affairs or even speculative dystopian fantasy.

Pick a smaller topic than POLITICS: Choose economics, or narrow it down to a biography. Drill down to a current social topic.

• Love Hamilton? Try Ron Chernow's biography that inspired it
• Robert Penn Warren won a Pulitzer for this novel of an ambitious governor
• Lincoln's Team of Rivals was a smash hit for Doris Kearns Goodwin
• I was fascinated by How the States Got their Shapes by Mark Stein
• Robert Harris wrote the Cicero series about ancient Roman power struggles
• I mean, if the Hunger Games isn't political I don't know what is
• Radio Free Vermont made me laugh, and reminded me of some neighbors
• YA has lots of politics, because high school is full of evaluating moral values - try The Chocolate War or Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

Can you recommend something?

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

It's the typical rock and roll story arc: youngsters form a band, tour and party, find fame, then eventually self-destruct. Always captivating, and somehow I never get tired of reading it!

This time it's fictional, but that's sooo easy to forget while reading this one. The book's written in the typical music bio style of quotes drawn from interviews with those involved. The players don't agree about what happened exactly, and we get multiple perspectives on the drama.

The Six is a 1970s group led by Billy Dunne. He recruits his brother, another pair of brothers, and a couple other musicians (including a female keyboard player), and they eventually get some notice as a straight-forward rock band. They get along, they fight, somebody has a crush on the girl.

Daisy Jones is a wild child with a killer voice and the face of an angel. She wants to be a star, but she doesn't want to sing somebody else's words. Plus, she's got major rock star "habits," even before the fame. Eventually, somebody decides The Six and Daisy should work together.

You think you know what will happen, but you can't be sure - no Wikipedia to check the stories, and there's no YouTube clips to watch because THIS IS FICTION! (Continually, I wanted to actually hear these songs!) And there are surprises along the way.

I loved this one a whole lot. It's like "A Star Is Born" mixed with the juiciest rock bios. Love, ego, drugs, and flashes of genius. Divine.

A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives by Lisa Congdon

I've already recommended this book to a TON of people, so you might as well just go out and get ahold of a copy now.

This book is chock full of short biographies, brief essays, interviews, quotes, and illustrated portraits. The women featured have all done amazing things, and none of them "made it" until they were well into adulthood (No child prodigy here! Some of them didn't even get started until they were 70+ years old). You'll know a bit about some of them, but you won't have heard of every woman featured (I spent a lot of time Googling while I was reading), and there's something in every story to fascinate.

And the takeaway is this: we regularly live to be 90+ in modern society, so what are you going to do with the 30+ years after "retirement"? Why are you waiting to start doing the things you really desire?

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

While many have tried to simplify Elon Musk down to a real-life Tony Stark (Iron Man), this biography shows that there's more to the man than "playboy millionare who will save the world" ... although that is certainly a goal of his.

Musk's got extraordinary vision and dreams way larger than most - and thanks to early investment in tech startups that paid off, he's also got the money to give it a go. While SpaceX may be the first commercial company to take payloads to the International Space Station, that's just a lilypad in the leapfrog to Mars.

But I feel very sorry for his employees, who must be willing to give 110% on everything at the expense of their personal lives. He's the kind of guy who leads by example - but ill health, crappy diet, extreme stress, work-a-holic tendances, and lack of empathy aren't something to which you should aspire.

I'll nitpick that the book's not truly a biography of Musk - there's great info about his early days, then once we get into his big businesses there's not much detail about his personal life anymore. For example, there's a minor aside dismissed quickly like, "And then he married his second wife again." I'd like to have known more about that decision and the change-of-heart one or both experienced; that's a pretty big reversal for a guy who's always moving forward. And what is he REALLY like as a dad to 5 young boys with 4-day-a-week custody, a private plane, and an overbooked schedule? How does he parent?

This book fired in me a personal obsession with Tesla cars (how will I find the kind of money to buy one?!), and Musk's drive to make green energies more affordable is interesting and commendable. I was fascinated by the subject and enjoyed this book immensely - and thankfully I don't have to like the guy all that much to have loved the book.

Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father by Alysia Abbott

Steve Abbott gave his daughter an unusual life; he was a devoted and loving only parent, a struggling full-time poet and writer, and on the front line of the 1980s AIDS epidemic as an out gay man in San Francisco.

It's a good book, and Alysia's honest in a way many might have glossed over. She didn't always behave well - often demanding her father's full attention to the detriment of the rest of his life. But it's overall a loving look at a nontraditional life, and the kind of story we've not heard much; since the AIDS epidemic primarily claimed gay men, most of its history has been written about the community of friends that grew up around sick men and their partners. This is a look at a marginalized group that's just beginning to speak out: children and wives of AIDS victims.

Emma's Poem by Linda Glaser

Meant for older kids, this poetry picture book tells about Emma Lazarus, the woman who wrote Lady Liberty's famous call to "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

I found the book fascinating, and Kristine said the prose gave her goosebumps. I didn't realize that the Statue of Liberty was never intended as the symbol of immigration that we see it today - it was Emma Lazarus' poem that did that. Her poem was written in response to a call for help fundraising for the immense pedestal needed for the statue (a friendship gift from France). Emma imagined and wrote about what the large lady might have been thinking ... and as a result changed our perspective on this icon.

This is the kind of book kids writing reports on American history love. It's simply and colorfully illustrated by Linda Glaser, and it gives a great amount of information in a fun, dynamic manner.

Me ... Jane by Patrick McDonnell

Jane's the kind of girl who wants to know about animals and nature and how the world works. With her stuffed animal, she explores the backyard and grandma's chicken coop. She dreams of helping animals.

And then Jane the illustrated girl becomes real-life Jane Goodall in the end. The champion of chimpanzees and a grown up who got to live the life she dreamed of as a girl.

I loved this picture book for its cute, universal story that doesn't seem like a biography - until it is.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Surprisingly, this is one of those books that you just can't put down. I really didn't anticipate liking it - the library discussion group chose it, and I'm just not a big war fan. But I got truly sucked in from the start.

Louis Zamperini was a troubled kid who made good by learning to run "for" something, instead of "away" from things. His Olympic dreams seem inevitable - and then he enlists for the war effort. Hillenbrand (who also wrote Seabiscuit) does an excellent job of quickly drawing you into Louis' story - he's a very personable guy, and you're cheering for him and laughing at his antics right away. Who wouldn't love this guy?

But the answer to that question, we learn, is a horrifying Japanese prison leader nicknamed The Bird. Zamperini's story takes a tragic, almost unbelievable turn after his enlistment; the fact that it's true doesn't make it any easier to understand.

High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips

Surprisingly, this is a well-written, thoughtful and extremely interesting look at the ups, the downs, and all-around upside-down life of a famous family through the eyes of a actress/daughter/addict.

When this book was published, the media immediately latched on to Mackenzie's stories of incest with her famous father, Papa John Phillips. I was going to skip past that part, avoid the infamous drug stories ... and go directly to what I was searching for (I was interested in one particular ex-boyfriend). But I was surprised by how quickly I got wrapped up in the storytelling: I ended up going back to the start and reading the whole book, despite the fact I'd picked it up just to read a couple pages.

She's smarter than I thought - or had an excellent ghost writer. Either way, it's a great look at rock-and-roll excess and the trials of a junkie.

No Wonder My Parents Drank by Jay Mohr

One crazy Friday at the library, we happened across a hilarious excerpt from this book about potty training in a popular magazine; immediately, we put the book on the purchase list.

It's a very funny look at parenthood by a professional comedian. Overall, not great for a straight read-through, but ideal for pick-it-up and put-it-down kind of reading.

My only beef with the book: Mohr never directly explains the situation with Jackson's mother, and some of the illusions to their situation made me say, "Huh?" (I even resorted to wikipedia for bio info mid-way through the book.) I understand his trying to avoid discussing his past relationships - but didn't he bring it on himself by writing a book about it?