Department of Book Reports: Moving Millions

Jeffrey Kaye has written an important, and exhaustive study in Moving Millions: How Coyote Capitalism Fuels Global Immigration (John Wiley and Sons $27.95). Kaye, the son of English immigrants himself, is a well-regarded independent journalist and Special Correspondent for the PBS News Hour. And for this examination, he has traveled extensively, including the Philippines, Senegal and Europe.

What he has found explodes many of the myths that surround immigration and its attendant mythologies. It is not so much that immigrants fuel immigration. It is the practice of businesses and government to import labor. Kaye looks at how the machinery of immigration interlocks into a greater global economy that answers the needs of those businesses and governments.

A coyote in this context is a human smuggler. The smuggler trades in a needed commodity without regard to the wants and desires of that commodity. And, in so doing, Kaye reminds us: “Global and local businesses rely on human mobility and on ready, vulnerable pools of labor often available at bargain basement prices. The migrant-dependent industries are the same across the globe. Many of the world’s farm fields, hospitals, nursing homes, and construction sites would be losing enterprises if not for the work of foreign laborers. Ditto for hotels and restaurants, labor-intensive manufacturing, and low-skilled services.” Often these are the same people who tell us that illegal immigrants are the scourge of our nation. Their hatred is palpably hypocritical. (And in my humble opinion, when you hear these folks talk about English only, or English first, they ignore the fact that in the history of American immigration, unless the immigrants came from an English-speaking nation, the first generation always retained their native language and learned enough English to get along. My great-grandparents spoke German around the house and with their neighbors. It is the next generation that learns English; my grandfather was bi-lingual. I see it where I live where the Latino children speak English to each other and Spanish to their parents. English-first is code for Latino bashing.)

Kaye calls into question our current policies regarding immigration, quite rightly observing that if you build a 50 foot wall, someone will bring a 51 foot ladder. And he explains the connections between globalization, growth and the overarching and on-going debate on immigration in a clear, lucid style, with anecdotes, interviews and keen observation. For now, this book is the one to go to if one wants to understand the complexities of our times.

In full disclosure, the author is an old friend of mine. And the publisher was kind enough to send me a review copy gratis. For those of you in Second Life, Jeffrey will be the guest at the Virtually Speaking forum on Thursday, July 1st at 6:00 PDT. If you can't join us in Second Life, tune in here to listen live or catch the podcast later. As always, Moving Millions is availabe at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores. And, as always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: From Puritan to Yankee

We have a guest book reporter this week! Please give a warm welcome to our own jcricket, who blogs occasionally at the eponymous JCricket.

From Puritan to Yankee, by Richard Bushman (Harvard University Press 1967, $32.00)

The body politic exists for the glory of God.
Elections are a device for implementing God’s will. Elected officials are obligated to God, not to the electorate.
Religious liberty implies freedom to worship not as one wants, but only as The Bible interpreted by the dictates of the congregational ministry.
Sound eerily familiar? While we could very well be describing today’s Right-Winger Christian(ist), we are reading the description of the Connecticut Puritan of the 1690’s as described in From Puritan To Yankee by Richard Bushman (1967). Connecticut was particularly chosen by Bushman as his archetype Puritan society as there were no imperial governors and few British officials acting as outside political influences. Even so, the societal confluences described herein were universal in the colonies.
It’s hard to believe that a society of people happily living under the yoke of religious authoritarianism would a scant 75(ish) years later, produce the same mindset that called for rebellion against the governing establishment and insist on a separation of Church and State. Indeed, even Deism was arguably the spiritual refuge of some of our most prominent revolutionary leaders, replacing a compliant Trinity based reliance. So…aside from the “taxation without representation” impetus, what happened to New England society overall , that not only allowed for a rebellion, but demanded a revolution?
Bushman takes us through the evolution of townspeople to “outlivers”, who moved past the outskirts of the known safety of the immediate community. He tells us of how these risk takers used the rationalization of the need to worship to get the towns to assist in building roads, and then, churches in the outskirts. Churches became part of further infrastructure, further from town centers. He tells us of how merchants, currency, and competitive deviousness changed the economy from frugality, to greed driven capitalism where ‘Brothers In Christ’ undercut each other financially, depending on which church one attended, of course.
By about 1765, only civil authority could act as a binding force in Connecticut (and New England) society. As is documented from a member of the Laity, “Nothing sinks the reputation of the ministry more than for them to revile and reproach each other. No wonder in that case, if we of the Laity have a low opinion of you, when you seem to have a very low opinion of yourselves”.
The New Lights of politics were born. The citizenry had become habitually defiant toward the old religious political regime; “hence for them, defiance against a King and Parliament was neither an innovation nor a shock”. Yes, after permanently casting off the suppressive religious constraints in community government, the New Lights (Yankees) had learned to say “Fuck You” to George III.
Bushman, as a proper historian, authoritatively and knowledgably takes the reader through the evolution of our beloved Yankee character. From Puritan to Yankee is recommended reading for a basic American History foundation. (If only today’s Right-Wingers would pick up a history book. They would find that their constant harping about The Founding Fathers is really a yearning to return the days of the early oppressive Puritan system.)

~Thanks jcricket!

I have some updates from recent authors you've met here: GottaLaff of ThePoliticalCarnival brings an update of Lt Col Barry Wingard & Lt Com Kevin Bogucki's recent trip to Kuwait. Keith Thompson (Once a Spy) wrote a very good report of burning off the Gulf Oil Spill (huffpo) Joshilyn Jackson hit the NYT Best Seller list the first week of Backseat Saints release. Daniel Woodrell was interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air this week about the making of the movie version of Winter's Bone. Oh, and I won a movie poster on twitter! Little Brown has a new imprint for mysteries; Mulholland Books, and they will be re-printing his first three books as the Bayou Trilogy.

From Puritan to Yankee is available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: Winter's Bone

I'm going to post a re-run from July '07 today, because the movie is opening this weekend and everything I hear sounds like this will be a movie that lives up to the book.

Winter's Bone, by Daniel Woodrell (Little Brown, $13.99) Woodrell has always been a favorite author of mine. I found his writing back when I was the sales rep for Dutton Books in the eighties. Each book has been more finely crafted than the last, and Winter's Bone is truly his best. Until he puts out the next volume, that is.

We first met the Dolly clan in Give Us A Kiss. Here, 16 year old Ree is raising her two younger brothers and caring for her addled mother. Scraping, raw poverty promises a very hard winter for the family. Ree's father, the county's best "crank chef", has left them to fend for themselves, no wood chopped, no food set aside. He has jumped bail after putting the family house and timbered lands up as collateral. The local police have given Ree a deadline to bring him in, or as her suspicions grow, prove that he is dead.

To prove this she must ask questions of her extended family, the ruling patriarchs of the hollows. A couple of generations ago their religious fundamentalism mutated into a close-knit and close-lipped clan. The questions are met with a violent beating, meted out by the womenfolk. Ree survives the beating and continues pushing for answers. Finally, the women relent, and help her find the truth.

This is a very simple outline of the plot. What makes this small book soar is the language, every word is perfect. Woodrell has a storyteller's soul and can draw you in. Descriptions of the Ozarks take on a sacred tone, the fields of stones, frozen caves and unrelenting icy rains are vividly etched. This NPR link has the opening chapter. Woodrell has devoted himself to the stories in those villages clinging to the hollows. Often called Ozarks Noir, I think this is a very good description of his work.

You might be familiar with one of Woodrell's stories, Woe to Live On was the basis for Ang Lee's movie Ride With the Devil. Most of the early volumes are out of print, a few are available in UK editions. This is definitely an author to be on the look-out for while prowling used bookstores.

These books are available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: Books for Summer Reading

I am currently finishing a long, yet fascinating book on How Rome Fell, and I will report on it when I have finished. Suffice it to say that along with a good history of late Rome, it also examines the notion of Empire.
So this week I wanted to point at some books that I am anxious to read this summer. Unfortunately, unless you have some odd tastes in literature, none of them seem to be books to be read at the beach.

First up is Moving Millions: How Capitalism Fuels Global Immigration (Wiley $27.95) by Jeffrey Kaye. In full disclosure, I need to say that folks at Wiley were kind enough to send me a copy gratis, and that the author is an old friend of mine. And if you are fans of PBS' Newshour, you may remember Kaye as one the show's special correspondents. Immigration is certainly an on-going and important isssue in our daily politics, and this book promises to be a great contribution to the debate. Basically Kaye contends that Coyote Capitalism, the notion that human labor is like any other natural resource and "supplies" are shifted to whereever there is a need, is practiced by both businesses and governments. And these workers are "pushed out, pulled in and put on the line", without regard for the economic consequences, or for communites, or for the individuals involved. I will devote a full book report to this very soon.

From the editors of the blog Crooks and Liars, Over the Cliff: How Obama's Election Drove the American Right Insane (Polipoint $16.95) is an examination of current right wing thought and how in spite of all evidence to the contrary, all sorts of politcal memes are believed by these folks. The book's authors are John Amato and David Neiwert; I reported on David's book The Eliminationists here last year. Over the Cliff has just been released and I look forward to reading it, long having been a fan of C and L.






Recently published in March, Michael Lewis' The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (Norton $27.95) tackles the current economic collapse and how it happened. Lewis' previous books, such as Next and Moneyball, were well-researched, incisively written and explained in words that those of us without backgrounds in the field could understand and grasp. (I personally love Moneyball, which is about baseball and stat geekdom...right up this long-tme fantasy baseball league player's alley). I expect The Big Short to equally illuminating.




Finally, both Seattle Tammy and I both love the novels of Don Winslow. I first discovered him when I read The Death of Bobby Z, and went on to read both his earlier novels and his most recent ones, including Power of the Dog, which is one of the best thrillers I've ever read. His new novel, Savages (Simon and Schuster $25.00), is due out in July. It apparently involves a threesome of Laguna Beach marijuana kingpins who happen to run afoul of a Mexican drug cartel. One of the three is kidnapped and held for a large ransom, which the other two agree to pay, but come up with an alternative plan for her release. Nothing is ever straight forward in a Winslow novel.

So, what are you reading this summer?

These books are available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: Backseat Saints

Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson (Grand Central, $24.99)
I've been a fan of Joshilyn's books since the very first one, gods in Alabama. Her first two novels had a wicked humor laced throughout, that will have you snorting inappropriately in public and quite possibly reading passages aloud to whoever happens to be in the room with you.

Lately, her books have taken on tougher subjects, the death of a young girl in The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, and now domestic abuse in Backseat Saints. Joshilyn is a Southern writer of the finest kind, able to weave a story that will leave you amazed at the twists and astounded at the humanness of the characters you come to know and love.

Rose Mae is married to Thom, a golden boy former football star, who beats her often enough to send her to the emergency room 3 to 5 times a year. The attending nurse recognizes all the signs but Rose is unable to see how to break the pattern of being beaten by all the men in her life, beginning with her father just after her mother left the house when she was 9. Rose veers between hating the father who beat her or the mother who was able to leave her daughter behind, without an apparent second thought.

A chance meeting gives us the first lines of the book:

It was an airport gypsy who told me that I had to kill my husband. She may have been the first to say the words out loud, but she was only giving voice to a thing I'd been trying not to know for a long, long time.

As Rose tries to rid herself of the girl who is beaten and re-invent herself as Ivy Rose, she learns the secrets of her mother's departure and her father's remorse. And, somewhere along the way she realizes she cannot be the one who is able to kill, she must become Rose, and perhaps try to continue the mission her mother began, to help other battered women. This is truly a journey worth taking with Rose Mae.



These books are available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: The Paranoid Style in American Politics: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

This week we explore a book where the Apocalypse meets the paranoid. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick's novel of the future, and the literary inspiration of the movie Blade Runner, was originally published in 1968. Dick himself was a prolific writer, having written some 40 plus novels in his lifetime, and many more short stories. His books were all in the science fiction genre and he became the first sci-fi author to be included in the Library of America series. Among the many themes Dick explored, one of the most important is the question of what makes us human? What makes us real and what is fake.

And, indeed, this is what Electric Sheep is about. In spite of the many differences between the book and the movie (the phrase Blade Runner never is used by Dick, and in fact, was a borrowing by the screenwriters from William S. Burroughs), the plot outlines are similar. Rick Deckard is bounty hunter, living in a post-Apocalyptic United States, who specializes in "retiring" replicants, human synthesized androids. Six (four in the movie) replicants have escaped from the off-world and have returned to Earth. Deckard, a man who once owned a live sheep which has died of tetanus, and has replaced it with a sheep replicant, now must find the replicants and destroy them.

The test used to detect androids is called Voight-Kampff, which measures certain bodily responses to a series of questions and by which a bounty hunter can determine whether the respondent is a replicant; replicants are incapable of empathy. The new, improved Nexus androids are otherwise indistinguishable from humans. Living in a world where one doesn't know if the person next to you is "real" or "fake", and with a powerful, totalitarian government, one could easily be a bit paranoid. Deckard, at least in the book, displays his empathy. He feels empathy for his prey. In a book (and movie) as richly textured and felt as Do Androids, I could write another book explicating it's many facets. This feature is the one I most wanted to emphasize. Empathy. Not important? Perhaps you'll remember the Sotomayor hearings last year and the Republican objections to her "empathy" as being an insufficient reason to placing her on the court.

The movie Blade Runner, as I've mentioned, differs in many details from the book. But I love it. It is lush in its visuals, and the story remains complex, and the moral issues it raises remain important. The cast, the direction with an incredible film score by Vangelis, bears many repeated viewings. I see something new in it each time. There are a couple of books I can recommend: Blade Runner by Scott Bukatman (British Film Institute) is a good scholarly look at the film. Paul M.Sammon's Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner (HarperCollins) is a great history of the film's production.

And I'll leave you with this. The clip is the climax of the film wherein the replicant leader, Roy Batty, saves Deckard from falling to his death. and as Batty dies, delivers his "I've seen things..." speech. And I wonder if Batty saves Deckard because, at last, he can feel some empathy? Or does Batty save Deckard so there may be someone who will remember him?

These books are available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores. (Our copy of Do Androids is a scarce first paperback printing and, hence, a bit pricy...but we'd be happy to get you a good reading copy).As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: will grayson, will grayson

will grayson, will grayson by John Green & David Levithan (Dutton, $17.99) ages 14 and up.

Will Grayson lives in Chicago with his doctor parents, and has been best friends with the larger than life Tiny Cooper since fifth grade. He's always known Tiny is gay. Does the bear shit in the woods? Tiny is his orbit, but lately Tiny's pre-occupation with his epic production of "Tiny Dancer" has left him on the sidelines. Will tries to blend in at school and follow his 2 rules: Don't Care too much, and Shut Up. Jane seems to flirt with him, but she has an older boyfriend and maybe she just wants more members in the newly formed Gay-Straight Alliance.

will grayson lives in Evanston OH, his mom & dad divorced and he has been on antidepressants of one sort or another since. maura has shown an interest, but he was able to shut that down after finding Isaac in a group chatroom.

Will Grayson and will grayson are about to meet. In Frenchie's Porn shop. Will is wandering the town after finding his fake ID's date won't get him into clubs until next January and will has just found out maura has been faking Isaac's chat all this time and there is no boy to meet in Chicago. Well of course Tiny falls in love with the other will grayson.

Tiny's show procedes, and even though Will can't convince Tiny to write out the role of the embarassing and way too personal Phil Wrayson, Tiny finally has an epiphinany: The Show must be about LOVE! It's not about Tiny! It's about LOVE! all the songs and script must be re-written. On the night of the production, Will and the other will begin to understand who orbits who.

This is a delightful novel of identity. What is it and when did you get it? For Tiny, he's always been gay. Will Grayson and will grayson? They are about to find out. There will be misunderstandings along the way, but this charming novel faces every situation honestly. The show tunes and theater banter are great fun. I recommend this terrific read to any reader, high school and up (Strong Language).

And in other news, RevPaperboy has been making podcasts, and last night Dan & I had our dramatic debuts in Second Life. Click to listen to Papers please!As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.