The weather makes me feel like being socially celibate. I spend my weeks working and working and reading and listening and reading and feeling mild pangs of regret for neglecting my friends and family... Here are the recommendations I have to show for it:

I'm currently reading Naomi Klein's new epic The Shock Doctrine, an exploration of the imposition of pure and unregulated free market capitalism and the history of Friedman, the Chicago School, and other such economic programmes on developing democracies and countries facing political shocks--regime changes, military coups, "structural adjustment," etc. She begins with case studies of Chile and Latin America's Southern Cone and then comes Poland and Russia and Asia and now the Middle East. Her writing style is deeply engaging and feels urgently important. I highly suggest this book as a framework for understanding the motivations behind the current wars in the Middle East. Makes my hatred of capitalism even more tangible and real.

Before this, I read a couple of memoirs that were very moving. Edwidge Danticat's newest Brother, I'm Dying sees Haiti's political turmoil and the plight of immigrants in the US through a personal story of brothers (Danticat's father and uncle). Does the Land Remember Me? A Memoir of Palestine is a short and heartfelt memoir of a Palestinian American who returns home to Palestine to visit his dying mother after more than forty years away. His observations are searing and honest, providing a human counterpoint to more doctrinaire books on Palestinian issues. Sparking a major Book-on-CD binge, I listened to A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, a young Sierra Leonean turned boy soldier during their Civil War. This book has been a major hit in the local jail. Again, you see the human side of political catastrophe. His pacing and storytelling voice are excellent and exhibit wisdom beyond his years, but I do wish there had been more in the narrative about the history of the conflict.

For my birthday, I bought myself bunny-ear antennas, so I once again have the comfort and company of PBS. A recent Frontline special on the genocide in Darfur called On Our Watch does a very good job of giving a synopsis of events leading up to the genocide, political motivations for ignoring the events, and all kinds of gnarly images. Disturbing, but necessary viewing.

On the lighter side, American Hardcore got me incredibly stoked on the 80's punk scene. Sure, it was totally hetero and white, but you gotta give it to them that they had the energy and the passion down. Highlights include mad Bad Brains clips and brilliant interviews with Keith Morris and local hero Paul Mahern.

I open the library on Sundays now, so it is my time to peruse the internet for good articles (and listen to mad books on CD!). The New York Times has been featuring a lot of articles recently on prisoners exonerated due to DNA evidence. The most interesting was last week's Vindicated by DNA, but a Lost Man on the Outside about a guy who served sixteen years for a rape and murder he didn't commit. Since he went to prison when he was a teenager, he really knows no other way of survival than the way he survived in prison. It is really striking, how unprepared he was for life on the outside, he even had to have help making a grocery list... New article in Rolling Stone about the "lost" War on Drugs--brilliant.