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Home » Resource Toolbox » CODEPINK Book Club
CODEPINK RECOMMENDED BOOKS
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 Activism: |
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Stop the Next War Now by Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans
How can we humanize each other and act as responsible global citizens? Stop the Next War Now shares expert insight on the issues and powers-that-be that can lead us to war - including the media, our elected politicians, global militarization, and the pending scarcity of national resources. It aims to educate and reflect on the effectiveness of peace-movement activities and offers hope, through shared ideas, action steps, and practical checklists to transition from a culture of violence to a culture of peace.
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Peace Never Tasted So Sweet by CODEPINK
CODEPINK Women for Peace presents "Peace Never Tasted So Sweet" a cookbook of women's delicious recipes for a sweeter world (with action 'how-tos' and a few cookies thrown in for good measure)! This cookbook has sweet, savory, classic, raw & vegan pies submitted from women around the world who work for peace, harmony and justice in their communities. Doesn't everyone deserve a piece of peace pie? Let's redirect our nation's resources into positive, life-affirming activities; let's gather, connect (and bake) to start this peaceful revolution for a truly sweeter world.
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Dissent: Voices of Conscience by Ann Wright and Susan Dixon
Government Insiders Speak Out Against the War in Iraq: During the run-up to war in Iraq, Army Colonel (Ret.) and diplomat Ann Wright resigned her State Department post. She was one among dozens of government insiders and active-duty military personnel who leaked documents, spoke out, resigned, or refused to deploy in protest of government actions they felt were illegal. In Dissent: Voices of Conscience, Ann Wright and Susan Dixon tell the stories of these men and women, who risked careers, reputations, and even freedom out of loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law.
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Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey Through the Heartache to Activism by Cindy Sheehan
Cindy Sheehan's latest book is the heartfelt and profoundly moving story of her journey to activism. She recounts the dark days following Casey's death, when it seemed her life would never have meaning again. She tells of her June 2004 meeting with President Bush, and how that encounter ultimately set her on a path that would take her to hearings in the Capitol, test old friendships and family ties, and culminate outside Crawford, Texas, in a monthlong peace action that would draw thousands of supporters and worldwide attention.
"What Cindy Sheehan has done for our country is miraculous and a mighty blessing. A thaw is felt throughout the land. People have started to speak, and their voices are being heard." (Martin Sheen)
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How Would a Patriot Act? by Glenn Greenwald
This New York Times best seller by political blogger Glenn Greenwald is one man's transformation from apolitical centrist to citizen activist in defense of our Constitution. How would a patriot act today? Greenwald has some ideas. "Over the past five years, a creeping extremism has taken hold of our federal government that is threatening to alter our system and who we are as a nation." Greenwald adds, "This extremism is neither conservative nor liberal by nature, but is instead driven by theories of unlimited presidential power that are antithetical to the values that have governed this country since its founding." First released online, pre-sale orders on Amazon shot to number one from 50,000 in one day. The book then went on to hit the Washington Post best seller list and is #11 on the New York Times best seller list.
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Not One More Mother's Child by Cindy Sheehan
Cindy Sheehan lost her son Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan in an ambush in Sadr City, Baghdad, in early 2004. As information became available revealing that the war in Iraq was based on lies, she began speaking out against it and demanding the troops come home. In August 2005, she went to Texas, to ask President Bush to explain "the noble cause" for the war he cites in his speeches, and her efforts attracted thousands to create Camp Casey, and drew worldwide attention. This book is a clear, well-written statement of her case against the war and her plea for ending this senseless adventure. The book includes a foreword by Martin Sheen, and an introduction by Thom Hartmann and CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans.
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An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas by Diane Wilson
When Diane Wilson, fourth-generation shrimp-boat captain, mother of five, and CODEPINK co-founder, learned that she lived in the most polluted county in the United States, she decided to fight back. She launched a campaign against a multibillion-dollar corporation that had been covering up spills, silencing workers, flouting the EPA, and dumping lethal ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into the bays along her beloved Texas Gulf Coast. In an epic tale of bravery, Diane took her fight to the courts, to the gates of the chemical plant, and to the halls of power in Austin. Along the way she met with scorn, bribery, character assassination, and death threats. Diane realized that she had to break the law to win justice: She used nonviolent disobedience, direct action, and hunger strikes.
Diane's vivid South Texas dialogue resides somewhere between Alice Walker and William Faulkner, and her dazzling prose brings to mind the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, replete with dreams and prophecies.
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Progressive Revolution by Michael Lux
In The Progressive Revolution, noted political strategist and blogger Michael Lux argues that progressives today are fighting to improve America, as they always have, in contrast to conservatives, who have always worked to defend the status quo and the interests of elites. Drawing on a deep knowledge of American history and the ways of Washington, and writing in a clear, accessible style, Lux shows how progressives have time and again been instrumental in creating positive change, whether in the realm of civil rights, electoral democracy, civil liberties, women's rights, or economic fairness. Having worked in five presidential campaigns and played a role in developing important new progressive organizations, Lux knows his subject better than most. His book is an intellectual Swiss Army knife for readers interested in politics and history-and in a progressive future for America.
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Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times by Amy Goodman
Powerful examples to inspire action on behalf of social justice. The celebrated host of Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now! and her brother, a respected author and journalist, explore the inspiring stories of unsung heroes, past and present, who fought to keep democracy and justice alive. We meet the Connecticut librarians who defied the PATRIOT Act by refusing to spy on their patrons, the activist-soldiers who opposed the Vietnam war from within the military, the psychologist who broke with the American Psychological Association when she realized her colleagues were cooperating in torture.
Part inspiration, part activist how-to, Standing Up to the Madness includes clear, specific examples of how we all can take action on behalf of social change and justice - whether by supporting independent media, making ethical consumer choices, campaigning to raise awareness about global warming or taking a stand against government bullying, among many other suggestions. As the Goodmans write, "great change begins with small steps taken at home."
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We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness by Alice Walker
A beautifully packaged book of spiritual ruminations with a progressive political edge, from the incomparable Pulitzer Prize-winner-a woman who has devoted her life to befriending the earth.
Author of the perennially bestselling novel The Color Purple, Alice Walker has long been a force for sanity in a chaotic world. In We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For she draws on her deep spiritual grounding, her political conviction and experience, and her literary gifts to offer a series of meditations filled with wisdom, hope, encouragement, and, at times, serenity to a world in need of all these things. The perfect gift for Alice Walker fans and anyone who longs for peace, on earth and within, this lovely volume will be embraced for its wise insights and mature compassion.
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| Middle East Issues: |
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The Storyteller's Daughter by Saira Shah
Imagine that a jewel-like garden overlooking Kabul is your ancestral home. Imagine a kitchen made fragrant with saffron strands and cardamom pods simmering in an authentic pilau. Now remember that you were born in London, your family in exile, and that you have never seen Afghanistan in peacetime.
These are but the starting points of Saira Shah's memoir, by turns inevitably exotic and unavoidably heartbreaking, in which she explores her family's history in and out of Afghanistan. As an accomplished journalist and documentarian-her film Beneath the Veil unflinchingly depicted for CNN viewers the humiliations forced on women under Taliban rule-Shah returned to her family's homeland cloaked in the burqa to witness the pungent and shocking realities of Afghan life. As the daughter of the Sufi fabulist Idries Shah, primed by a lifetime of listening to her father's stories, she eagerly sought out, from the mouths of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the rich and living myths that still sustain this battered culture of warriors. And she discovered that in Afghanistan all the storytellers have been men-until now.
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Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis tells the story of a young girl's experience during the Iranian revolution. As we discussed in our last book club meeting, it is through reading and hearing the stories of those who seem "Other" than us that we realize the "Other" is not so "Other" after all.
This book will open your eyes and touch your heart and remind you of the common humanity we share.
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Twilight of Empire: Responses of Occupation
Journal Entries from CODEPINK's Iraq Trip. CODEPINK's Jodie Evans, who traveled to Baghdad directly before and after the war, explains the stratification between American economic interests and Iraqi helplessness that is the occupation's chief characteristic.
Contributors: Lynsey Addario, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Medea Benjamin, Tiosha Bojorquez Chapela, Kristina Borjesson, Anne E. Brodsky, Mike Davis, Jodie Evans, Tahmeena Faryal, Sandra Fu, Amy Goodman, Amir Hussain, Eman Ahmed Khammas, Naomi Klein, Mark LeVine, Yanar Mohammed, Viggo Mortensen, Christian Parenti, Jerry Quickley, Omid Safi, Lauren Sandler, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Nadia Yassine
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My War at Home by Masuda Sultan
Born in Kandahar in 1978, Sultan fled to the United States at age five with her family. Raised in Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens, Sultan saw her life change when she was married by arrangement at the young age of seventeen to a virtual stranger fourteen years her senior -- a marriage she struggled to maintain and then hastily fought, eventually (after three years) being granted a divorce. This very divorce would become one of the first in her close-knit Afgan community, where the subject is considered rare and taboo.
Sultan went on to graduate from college summa cum laude with a degree in economics, and in July 2001, she returned to Kandahar, to explore her family roots and find herself. There she met her relatives and surveyed the conservative provincial town where she was born. on return visit to afganistan, she discovered the tragic death of her relatives at the hands of American troops and began to seek answers.
My War at Home is her memoir of self-discovery, family tradition, and life as a Muslim and feminist with political ideals. It speaks to the younger generation of Muslims in America as they struggle to resolve the ever-present inner conflict about what it means to be an American and a Muslim, while also examining the Muslim-American identity at both personal and political levels.
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Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story by Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould
Despite official declarations, the war in Afghanistan is far from over; in fact, it's escalating. Seven years after 9/11, the Taliban continue to regroup, attack, and claim influence over most of the region. This book presents a fresh, comprehensive analysis of Afghanistan's political history that begins at the roots of tribal leadership and ultimately emphasizes our present political moment and the impact of ongoing US military intervention.
Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, a husband and wife team, first went to Afghanistan in 1981 and have reported for CBS News, Nightline, and The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Their documentary Between Three Worlds was broadcast by PBS.
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What Kind of Liberation?: Women and the Occupation of Iraq by Nadje Al-Ali
In the run-up to war in Iraq, the Bush administration assured the world that America's interest was in liberation--especially for women. The first book to examine how Iraqi women have fared since the invasion, What Kind of Liberation? reports from the heart of the war zone with dire news of scarce resources, growing unemployment, violence, and seclusion. Moreover, the book exposes the gap between rhetoric that placed women center stage and the present reality of their diminishing roles in the "new Iraq." Based on interviews with Iraqi women's rights activists, international policy makers, and NGO workers and illustrated with photographs taken by Iraqi women, What Kind of Liberation? speaks through an astonishing array of voices. Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt correct the widespread view that the country's violence, sectarianism, and systematic erosion of women's rights come from something inherent in Muslim, Middle Eastern, or Iraqi culture. They also demonstrate how in spite of competing political agendas, Iraqi women activists are resolutely pressing to be part of the political transition, reconstruction, and shaping of the new Iraq.
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The Holocaust is Over, We Must Rise from its Ashes by Avraham Burg
Modern day Israel, and the Jewish community, is strongly influenced by the memory and horrors of Hitler and the Holocaust. Burg argues that the Jewish nation has been traumatized and has lost the ability to trust itself, its neighbors or the world around it. He shows that this is one of the causes for the growing nationalism and violence that are plaguing Israeli society and reverberating through Jewish communities worldwide. Burg uses his own family history--his parents were Holocaust survivors--to inform his innovative views on what the Jewish people need to do to move on and eventually live in peace with their Arab neighbors and feel comfortable in world at large. Thought-provoking, compelling, and original, this book is bound to spark a heated debate around the world.
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| Military and Veterans Issues: |
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Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations by Iraq Veterans Against the War
In spring 2008, inspired by the Vietnam-era Winter Soldier hearings, Iraq Veterans Against the War gathered veterans to expose war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Here are the powerful words, images, and documents of this historic gathering, which show the reality of life in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill
Meet BLACKWATER USA, the world's most secretive and powerful mercenary firm. Based in the wilderness of North Carolina, it is the fastest-growing private army on the planet with forces capable of carrying out regime change throughout the world. Blackwater protects the top US officials in Iraq and yet we know almost nothing about the firm's quasi-military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and inside the US. Blackwater was founded by an extreme right-wing fundamentalist Christian mega-millionaire ex- Navy Seal named Erik Prince, the scion of a wealthy conservative family that bankrolls far-right-wing causes. Blackwater is the dark story of the rise of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US gulf to Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new heroes in the war on terror. This is an extraordinary exposé by one of America's most exciting young radical journalists. Click here for book tour info.
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The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq by Joshua Key
In the first ever memoir from a young soldier who deserted from the war in Iraq, Joshua Key offers a vivid and damning indictment of what we are doing there and how the war itself is being waged. Key, a young husband and father from a conservative background, enlisted in the Army in 2002 to get training as a welder and lift his family out of poverty. A year later, Key was sent to Ramadi where he found himself participating in a war that was not the campaign against terrorists and evildoers he had expected. He saw Iraqi civilians beaten, shot, and killed for little or no provocation. Nearly ever other night, he participated in raids on homes that found only terrified families and no evidence of terrorist activity. On leave, Key knew he could not return so he took his family underground, finally seeking asylum in Canada. The Deserter's Tale is the story of a patriotic family man who went to war believing unquestioningly in his government's commitment to integrity and justice, and how what he saw in Iraq transformed him into someone who could no longer serve his country.
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10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military by Elizabeth Weil-Greenberg, ed.
The armed forces are having a tough time attracting new recruits lately, in no small part due to the mess in Iraq. Young people are getting wise to the many excellent reasons not to join the U.S. Military, and this handy book brings them all together, combining accessible writing with hard facts and devastating personal testimony. Contributors with firsthand experience point out the dangers facing soldiers, describe the tricks used by recruiters, and emphasize that there really are other options, even in a sluggish economy. This book is essential reading for anyone thinking of signing up, and anyone working to counter military recruitment.
Contributors include Cindy Sheehan and other members of Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War, the National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force, Citizen Soldier, and CODEPINK.
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The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril by Eugene Jarecki
In the sobering aftermath of America's invasion of Iraq, Eugene Jarecki, the creator of the award-winning documentary Why We Fight, launches a penetrating and revelatory inquiry into how forces within the American political, economic, and military systems have come to undermine the carefully crafted structure of our republic -- upsetting its balance of powers, vastly strengthening the hand of the president in taking the nation to war, and imperiling the workings of American democracy. This is a story not of simple corruption but of the unexpected origins of a more subtle and, in many ways, more worrisome disfiguring of our political system and society.
The American Way of War is a deeply thoughtprovoking study of how America reached a historic crossroads and of how recent excesses of militarism and executive power may provide an opening for the redirection of national priorities.
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| Greening: |
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Nuclear Power is Not the Answer by Dr. Helen Caldicott
Caldicott's latest antinuke book searingly debunks the claim that the impending "nuclear power renaissance," purported by some to be the only answer to global warming, is "clean and green." She covers all the bases, from the carbon emitted in the creation of nuclear power (higher than fossil fuels if the entire process from uranium mining to waste disposal is included) to the cost of nuclear plants (too high to be viable without large government subsidies) and the health risks and possibility of accidents and terrorists' access (more than we'd like to think). She also points out that, despite proponents' assurances, we still haven't found a safe place to store the waste materials for the necessary thousands of years, and that state-of-the-art nuclear plant technology is still full of unresolved problems. Caldicott's predictable alternative is also sensible: switch to wind and other benign renewables, turn down the thermostat, wear a sweater, use energy efficient lights and dry clothes on the clothesline. . . .those who believe that facts matter will want to read her frighteningly convincing argument.
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The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones
How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems. A history-making plan for confronting our pressing economic and environmental crises.
"Van Jones demonstrates conclusively that the best solutions for the survivability of our planet are also the best solutions for everyday Americans." -Al Gore
Rachel Carson's landmark 1962 book, Silent Spring, was a pivotal ecological treatise that changed the course of history. Now, rising above the endless political debate over the environment and the economy, Van Jones, the go-to expert of our time on these issues-renowned for his work at GreenForAll.org and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights-gives us The Green Collar Economy, which delivers an inspiring, timely, and essential call to action.
From a distance, it appears that our failing economy and devastated environment are two separate problems; but when we look closer, the connection becomes unmistakable. In The Green Collar Economy, Jones shows us how the economy is built on and powered almost exclusively by oil, natural gas, and coal-a "gray economy" essentially based on fast-diminishing nonrenewable resources. As supplies disappear, the price of energy climbs and nearly everything becomes more expensive. With costs and unemployment soaring, the economy stalls. And when these fuels are burned, the greenhouse gases they create overheat the atmosphere and the climate crises looms. The bottom line: We cannot drill and burn our way out of these dual dilemmas.
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The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry and What We Must Do to Stop It by Antonia Juhasz
The hardest-hitting exposé of the oil industry in decades, and a bold blueprint for reining it in. Required reading for every concerned global citizen.
- Why are oil and gasoline prices rising so quickly?
- Where will prices go in the future?
- Who's really controlling those prices?
- How much oil is left?
- How far will Big Oil go to get it?
- And at what cost to the economy, environment, human rights, worker safety, public health, democracy, and America's place in the world?
Author-activist Antonia Juhasz (The Bush Agenda) investigates the true state of the U.S. oil industry - uncovering its virtually unparalleled global power, influence over our elected officials, and lack of regulatory oversight, and the truth behind $150-a-barrel oil, $4.50-a-gallon gasoline, and the highest profit in corporate history. Exposing an industry that thrives on secrecy, Juhasz shows how Big Oil manages to hide its business dealings from policy makers, legislators, and, most of all, consumers. She reveals exactly how Big Oil gets what it wants-through money, influence, and lies.
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| Children's Books: |
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Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss
A cautionary Cold War tale (first told by Dr. Seuss back in 1984), The Butter Battle Book still has a lot to teach about intolerance and how tit-for-tat violence can quickly get out of hand. Explaining the very serious differences between the Zooks and the Yooks, a Zook grandpa tells his grandchild the unspeakable truth: "It's high time that you knew of the terribly horrible thing that Zooks do. In every Zook house and every Zook town every Zook eats his bread with the butter side down!" He then recalls his days with the Zook-Watching Border Patrol, as he gave any Zook who dared come close "a twitch with my tough-tufted prickley Snick-Berry Switch." But when the Zooks fought back, the switches gave way to Triple-Sling Jiggers, then Jigger-Rock Snatchems--even a Kick-a-Poo Kid that was "loaded with powerful Poo-a-Doo Powder and ants' eggs and bees' legs and dried-fried clam chowder." With lots of fun and more-than-fair digs at the runaway spending and one-upmanship of U.S.-Soviet days, The Butter Battle Book makes a chuckle-filled read whether you're old enough to get the historical references or not. (And with all the Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroos still in service, this book's message is far from obsolete.) (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes
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We All Sing With the Same Voice by P. Miller
I live across the street,
In the mountains,
On the beach.
I come from everywhere.
And my name is you.
No matter where they live, what they look like, who is in their families, or what they do, all children, at heart, are the same. This Sesame Street song by J. Philip Miller and Sheppard M. Greene comes to life with Paul Meisel's happy illustrations. Children from Texas, Peru, and southern France; with black hair, red hair, or yellow hair; named Jack or Amanda Sue or Kareem Abdu; rejoice in the fact that they all "sing with the same voice." Meisel paints a picture of diversity that is buoyant and beautiful. Children in their native garb, from serapes to woven vests to blue jeans, open their mouths wide in song, encouraging young readers to sing along with the accompanying CD. Meisel has illustrated many popular picture books, including Jean Craighead George's How to Talk to Your Cat and Go Away, Dog, by Joan L. Nodset. (Baby to preschool) --Emilie Coulter
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Why War is Never a Good Idea by Alice Walker
Though War is Old
It has not
Become wise.
Poet and activist Alice Walker personifies the power and wanton devastation of war in this evocative poem.
Stefano Vitale's compelling paintings illustrate this unflinching look at war's destructive nature and unforeseen consequences.
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The Peace Book by Todd Parr
Today everyone is talking about peace. But how do you explain this abstract conceptto young children? Todd Parr is here to help. Like his bestselling title It+s Okay to be Different, The Peace Book gives parents and teachers a valuable tool in talking about a challenging subject. Todd+s bright, child-friendly pictures and simple, inspiring text tell kids just what they need to know:Timeless and universal, this primer about peace belongs in every home and classroom all over the world.
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It's OK to be Different by Todd Parr
For anyone who ever doubted it, Todd Parr is here to tell us all that it's okay to be different. With his signature artistic style, featuring brightly colored, childlike figures outlined in heavy black, Parr shows readers over and over that just about anything goes. From the sensitive ("It's okay to be adopted"--the accompanying illustration shows a kangaroo with a puppy in her pouch) to the downright silly ("It's okay to eat macaroni and cheese in the bathtub"), kids of every shape, size, color, family makeup, and background will feel included in this gentle, witty book. In this simple, playful celebration of diversity, Parr doesn't need to hammer readers over the head with his message.
Parr is well known for his funky feel-good titles, including Things That Make You Feel Good/Things That Make You Feel Bad, Underwear Do's and Don'ts, and This Is My Hair. (Ages 3 to 6) --Emilie Coulter
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Let There be Peace: Prayers from Around the World by Jeremy Brooks and Jude Daly
The world's need for peace is more urgent than ever before. Jeremy Brooks has gathered together prayers from Bosnia to Northern Ireland, from World War II Germany to China. They range from Taoist and Hindu lines to a prayer by St Francis of Assisi and from words by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to a daily prayer said by Muslims everywhere. A thought-provoking book with beautiful illustrations which add a universal touch, making this a very special book for children.
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The Contest Between the Sun and the Wind: An Aesop's Fable by Heather Forest
In this retelling of a classic fable from Aesop, we learn that being the most forceful does not make you the strongest. Sometimes the greatest strength comes from a place of gentleness.
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Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story of Africa by Jeannette Winter
As a young girl growing up in Kenya, Wangari was surrounded by trees. But years later when she returns home, she is shocked to see whole forests being cut down, and she knows that soon all the trees will be destroyed. So Wangari decides to do something-and starts by planting nine seedlings in her own backyard. And as they grow, so do her plans. . . .
This true story of Wangari Maathai, environmentalist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is a shining example of how one woman's passion, vision, and determination inspired great change.
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What Does Peace Feel Like? By Vladamir Radunsky
What does that word really mean? Ask children from around the world, and this is what they say....
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Afghan Dreams:Young Voices of Afghanistan by Tony O'Brien
If the stories that come out of Afghanistan are ever to contain hope for the future, then the young people readers will meet in these pages are that hope. From street workers to female students in newly formed academies, children who work in family businesses, and pickpockets who steal from visiting photographers, these are the faces of young Afghanis who universally wish for peace in their neighborhoods, in their country, in their lifetimes.
Award-winning photojournalist Tony O'Brien and filmmaker Mike Sullivan went to Afghanistan to interview and photograph children of a wide range of ages, from varied ethnic backgrounds, and with very different daily lives. As each one tells his or her story the reader is placed right in the middle of everyday life as it is lived by children in the midst of one of the world's most enduringly conflict-ridden countries.
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The Great, Great, Great Chicken War by David de la Garza
The Great, Great, Great Chicken War is a richly drawn tale of conflict begun by those who are too afraid, or chicken, to address why they are fighting in the first place. Fully illustrated by David de la Garza when he was five years old and watercolored by his mother, Joyce Rosner, The Great, Great, Great Chicken War presents a child's interpretation of how silly people can be when they fight. The book is designed to help parents begin a conversation about conflict with their children. A portion of the book's profits will be donated to a charity for children who are victims of war or disaster.
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Little Pink Fish
Little Pink Fish~ Winner of both an iParenting Media and Children's Music Web Award~ offers uplifting surprises and fantastical fun. The stories are filled with frolic and play; a fish who learns to read, a monkey who teases a crab, a hero who sucks his thumb and a "hoppositional" froggy. Elizabeth's creative use of words and humor weave together Japanese phrases, charming choruses, and original music, making this CD sure to appeal to all ages from 4 up. This release breaks new ground, as it is the first to include her own original tale, Little Pink Fish, and also an Okinawan story told to the accompaniment of a traditional Okinawan instrument, the sanshin. Falconer learned to play sanshin, a 3-stringed lute, and researched Okinawan traditional culture extensively in order to bring the singular sound of the sanshin to American listeners in a unique telling of a folktale about two frogs. This is Koto World's 5th title in Elizabeth's series of "musical adventures" - perfect for emerging readers, adventuresome parents, and peace activists of all ages.
Every time you buy Little Pink Fish, FIVE DOLLARS goes to CODEPINK.
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| Miscellaneous: |
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Self-Storage by Gayle Brandeis
Flan Parker's curious nature has translated into a thriving resale business. The secret of her success: unique and everyday treasures bought from the auctions of forgotten and abandoned storage units. When Flan secures the winning bid on a box filled only with an address and a note inside bearing the word "yes," she sets out to discover the source of this mysterious message and its meaning. It is an inward journey with outward surprises. When her search draws her toward her Afghan neighbor, convinced that a world of secrets lies beneath the woman's burqa, Flan's personal quest unexpectedly enters a more public stage.
"With fluid skill, bold as brass, Gayle Brandeis has revised the Song of Myself, reconfiguring 'self' as an open circle. This is a novel of passion and consequence, identity and accountability. I love the narrator, her children, her wild ride, and this truly American story of getting mad and getting wise."
-BARBARA KINGSOLVER, author of Small Wonder and The Poisonwood Bible
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Women and the Gift Economy: A Radically Different Worldview is Possible by Genevieve Vaughan
Genevieve Vaughan is an independent researcher, activist, social change philanthropist, and author of For-Giving: A Feminist Criticism of Exchange. Women and the Gift Economy: A Radically Different Worldview is Possible is an attempt to respond to the need for deep and lasting social change in an epoch of dangerous crisis for all humans, cultures, and the planet. Featuring articles by well-known feminist activists and academics from around the world, this book points to ways to re-create the connections, which have been severed, between the gift economy, women, and the economies of Indigenous peoples, and to bring
forward the gift paradigm as an approach to liberate us from the worldview of the market that is destroying life on the planet.
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We Got Issues! By Rha Goddess and J-Love Calderon
We Got Issues! showcases a new feminine generation as they speak honestly and courageously about the 10 most important issues facing young women today, from money and racism, to relationships and motherhood. Each chapter frames a particular issue socially, culturally, and politically.
A diverse range of rants, poems, and monologues are accompanied by an inspiring portrait of a woman warrior, "rituals of empowerment," quotes, statistics, and trends. Powerful black-and-white images capture these spiritual descendents of Eve Ensler, Alice Walker, Jane Fonda, and other old-schoolers acting up, acting out, and demanding change.
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Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast
Palast's old-style gum-shoe detective work to dig out the info on the War on Terror, greed- dripping schemes to seize little nations with lots of oil, the hidden program to steal the 2008 election, and the media biases that keep it unreported are the meat and bones of this BBC television reporter's new book. Armed Madhouse is illustrated with dozens of documents marked "secret" and "confidential" that have walked out of file cabinets and fallen into Palast's hands.
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Insecure at Last: A Politcal Memoir by Eve Ensler
"Why has all this focus on security made me feel so much more insecure? Nothing is secure. And this is the good news. But only if you are not seeking security as the point of your life."-Eve Ensler
When her stage play The Vagina Monologues became a runaway hit and an international sensation, Eve Ensler emerged as a powerful voice and champion for women everywhere. Now the brilliant playwright gives us her first major work written exclusively for the printed page. Insecure at Last is a timely and urgent look at our security-obsessed world, the drastic measures taken to keep us safe, and how we can truly experience freedom by letting go of the deceptive notion of vigilant "protection."
Ensler draws on personal experiences and candid interviews with burka-clad women in Afghanistan; female prisoners in upstate New York; survivors at the Superdome after Katrina; and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan-sharing unforgettable snapshots that chronicle a post-9/11 existence in which hyped obsession for safety and security has undermined our humanity. The us-versus-them mentality, Ensler explains, has closed our minds and hardened our compassionate hearts.
Provocative, illuminating, inspiring, and boldly envisioned, Insecure at Last challenges us to reconsider what it means to be free, to discover that our strength is not born out of that which protects us. Ensler offers us the opportunity to reevaluate our everyday lives, expose our vulnerability, and, in doing so, experience true freedom and fulfillment.
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Wrestling With the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen by Susan Griffin
What does it mean to be a citizen of the United States? In this compelling and intensely personal work, Susan Griffin-cultural historian, poet, public intellectual-blends history, cultural criticism, and memoir to discover the essence of our democracy. From the Declaration of Independence to the war in Iraq, from Thomas Jefferson to John Muir to Jelly Roll Morton, Griffin incisively and provocatively reflects upon the rise and fall of the American vision of freedom and equality. We are still wrestling with the promise of democracy and the complex idea of equality lying at its heart, and as American citizens, are deeply affected by the ongoing struggle between tyranny and freedom.
Susan Griffin, winner of a MacArthur grant and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, is widely recognized as one of the most important feminist thinkers of our day. Griffin has been broadly praised for her erudition and depth, and for her poetic and evocative writing style.
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Right is Wrong by Arianna Huffington
A smart, sassy takedown of the right-wingers who ran the GOP - and the country - into the ground.
Blog queen Arianna Hufffington trains her formidable smarts and biting wit on the right-wing extremists who in recent years have steadily been dismantling America and all it stands for. In the process, she demonstrates not only that "conservative governance" is a contradiction in terms, but that nothing less than the survival of America as we've known it is at stake in the 2008 elections.
It wasn't enough that the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party took over the GOP; in the Bush years they've hijacked the entire country. A war without end in Iraq, a deregulated economy that's gone off the rails, an all-out assault on science and, indeed, on the very principle of informed government, a regression to the Middle Ages in our treatment of detainees, blockbusting deficits - the list of conservative achievements in the Bush years goes on and on. The striking thing is that the 'wingers wrought all this in open defiance of the American people, whose views are considerably more moderate and sane. So how did they bring it off?
As Huffington shows, the administration was crucially a docile media too concerned with its own privileges and trapped in lazy and mindless journalistic conventions, and supine Democrats who allowed themselves to be bullied and never missed an opportunity to roll over and play dead as Bush and company trampled yet another cherished value.
For those who think a John McCain presidency will be an improvement over Bush misrule, think again. For them this book is a wake up call. For everyone else, it's another reminder: time to roll up the sleeves and work for a return to sanity in 2008.
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American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross." -Sinclair Lewis
Former New York Times war reporter and Harvard Divinity School alumnus Chris Hedges argues that the Christian right is a threat to American democracy. Himself a devout (progressive) Christian steeped in his faith tradition, Hedges convincingly argues that the religious right is essentially a mass movement fueled by militant nationalism and intolerance and by the deeply anti-democratic aversion to critical inquiry and freedom of conscience.
Drawing on the psychological and sociological literature of fascism and cults, Hedges draws parallels between 20th-century totalitarian movements and the highly organized, well-funded "dominionist movement," an influential sect within the evangelical population whose ultimate aim is a fundamentalist Christian state that brooks no dissent. He describes how the movement has extended its influence deep inside the U.S. government, with members in all three branches of government and all over the country, via a massive network of Christian TV and radio stations.
Based on first-hand reporting of events such as pro-life rallies and classes on conversion techniques and on interviews with current and former adherents, American Fascists investigates the origins, development and frightening potential of the dominionists and argues that another 9/11-like crisis, should it come, will spur the movement to mount an aggressive assault on American democracy.
American Fascists is a passionate brief for the open society and a fierce warning about a threat in its midst.
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Iraq War/War Books
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Generation Kill by Evan Wright
Based on the author's National Magazine Award-winning series in Rolling Stone, this New York Times bestseller offers a firsthand account of the first warriors of the current generation to enter the Iraq War.
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Chasing Ghosts by Paul Rieckhoff
As a First Lieutenant and Infantry Platoon Leader for the U.S. Army National Guard charged with leading thirty-eight men in Iraq, Paul Rieckhoff followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. After Rieckhoff volunteered to take part in the invasion of Iraq, he and his soldiers spent almost a year in one of the most dangerous and volatile areas of Baghdad, where they struggled to maintain order, protect Iraqi civilians, track down insurgents, and defend themselves against sniper and roadside bomb attacks. But it was clear to Rieckhoff almost from the get-go that America's mission in Iraq was deeply flawed - and that his platoon was overchallenged and underequipped. If there was a plan to stabilize Baghdad after the invasion, no one had let them in on it. And with so many obstacles to overcome, they faced enemies that included thousands of armed, angry, and unemployed men who had been unleashed into the streets when the U.S. government disbanded the Iraqi army. The way that Rieckhoff responded to these and other challenges over the next ten months set him on a course that would forever change his life. And when Rieckhoff finally came home, he vowed to tell Americans the truth, however controversial, about what was going on in Iraq. He publicly demanded accountability from elected officials, created the first organization specifically for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and took the new fight to the airwaves and the halls of power in Washington.
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Road From Ar Ramadi by Camilo Mejia
Mejía, a veteran of the Iraq conflict, became an antiwar hero when he refused to return to his unit and was court-martialed in 2004 for desertion. His memoir is a blend of compelling war narrative and dubious soapboxing. Mejía's claim to conscientious objector status, after eight years in the U.S. military, months of combat and a long campaign for a discharge, rings rather hollow. The son of prominent Nicaraguan Sandinistas, he takes a view of the insurgents' "fight for self-determination" that seems naïve ("[t]here seemed to be a unity that spread through the differences among Iraqis") and his prose is laced with clunky rhetoric about "the imperial dragon that devours its own soldiers and Iraqi civilians alike for the sake of profit." Most powerful are his firsthand experiences of prisoner abuse, senseless patrols that invite insurgent attacks, discord among his demoralized comrades and their careerist officers, and the constant brutalization of Iraqis by paranoid, trigger-happy GIs. (In one incident, an irate soldier arrests an eight-year-old rock thrower, who is then beaten by a local man desperate to appease the vengeful Americans.) Those stories add up to an indelible portrait of the dirty war in the Sunni triangle and Mejía's painful confrontation with his immoral complicity in it.
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A War Against Truth by Paul William Roberts
An acclaimed journalist who has covered the Middle East for decades - and one of the few to have interviewed Saddam Hussein - Paul William Roberts knows Iraq better than most. This is his exposé of the politics behind the recent war - and the brutal reality the Iraqis experienced but the rest of the world didn't see. In Baghdad when the bombs started falling, Roberts witnesses the "shock and awe" campaign firsthand, mourns the loss of his friend's entire family, and escapes to Jordan, only to return two weeks later behind the American army. A scathing indictment of the Bush administration's new imperialism, A War Against Truth recounts Robert's experiences in the newly "liberated" Iraq, where he meets looters selling priceless artifacts, interviews Tariq Aziz in hiding, is interrogated by U.S. intelligence.
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Home From the War by Robert Jay Lifton
In Home from the War, the award-winning author and noted psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton offers a powerful critique of American militarism during the Vietnam War. Recognized as the ultimate text for those working with Vietnam veterans, the book's insights have had enormous influence among psychologists and psychiatrists all over the world.
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What was Asked of Us by Trish Wood & Bobby Muller
n this modern-day successor to the Vietnam classic "Everything We Had," award-winning investigative reporter Trish Wood offers a gritty, authentic, and uncensored history of the war in Iraq, as told by the American soldiers who are fighting it. Includes 8 pages of photographs and 1 map.
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The Politics of Truth by Joseph Wilson
Through the last three presidential administrations and two wars with Iraq, no one has personally witnessed, influenced, or fueled news over more history-making events than Joseph Wilson. The last American diplomat to sit face-to-face with Saddam Hussein, he is a consummate insider who has the intelligence, principles, and independence to examine current American foreign policy and the inner workings of government and to form a candid assessment of the United States' involvement in the world. In February 2002, Joseph Wilson was sent to Niger by the CIA to investigate claims that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium in that country. Wilson's report, and two from other American officials, conclusively negated such rumors, yet all were brushed aside by the White House. Startled by the infamous words uttered by George W. Bush in his 2003 State of the Union Address: "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa," Wilson decided to reveal the truth behind the initiation of the Iraq war. The Politics of Truth is an explosive and revelatory book by a man who stands for the accurate recording of history against those forces bent on fabricating truth.
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Purple Hearts by Nina Berman
A Purple Heart is the token honor given to soldiers for their wounds. It makes them heroes. It is the title that Nina Berman has given to her photographs of American soldiers gravely wounded in the Iraq war, who have returned home to face life away from the waving flags and heroic send-offs. The images are accompanied by first-person interviews with the soldiers, who discuss their lives, reasons for enlisting, and experience in Iraq. They provide a glimpse into the myths of warfare as glorious spectacle through the minds of young men desperate to believe in the righteousness of their actions.
One soldier explains that he always wanted to be a hero. He thought the military would be fun--he would jump out of planes. He never imagined it could be ugly until he saw Saving Private Ryan. He is now a cripple, doped up all day on pain medications, flat broke, with one kid and another on the way. Another soldier describes how he called a recruiting station after watching an MTV-style commercial for the Army on TV. An immigrant from Pakistan, he was given his citizenship following his injury. It's a fair trade in his mind: a leg for an American passport. Berman's photographs are accompanied by essays from Verlyn Klinkenborg, a New York Times editorial page writer, and Tim Origer, a Vietnam veteran and former Marine who fought in the Tet offensive and returned at age 19, an amputee.
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In The Hot Zone by Kevin Sites
Kevin Sites is a man on a mission. Venturing alone into the dark heart of war, armed with just a video camera, a digital camera, a laptop, and a satellite modem, the award-winning journalist covered virtually every major global hot spot as the first Internet correspondent for Yahoo! News. Beginning his journey with the anarchic chaos of Somalia in September 2005 and ending with the Israeli-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006, Sites talks with rebels and government troops, child soldiers and child brides, and features the people on every side, including those caught in the cross fire. His honest reporting helps destroy the myths of war by putting a human face on war's inhumanity. Personally, Sites will come to discover that the greatest danger he faces may not be from bombs and bullets, but from the unsettling power of the truth.
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War And The Soul by Edward Tick The New England Journal of Medicine reports that 16 percent (one in eight) of returning Iraq veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Such vets typically can't hold jobs. They are incapable of intimacy, creative work, and self-realization. Some can't leave the house because they are afraid they will kill or be killed. The key to healing, says psychotherapist Ed Tick, is in how we understand PTSD. In war's overwhelming violence, the soul-the true self-flees and can become lost for life. He redefines PTSD as a true identity disorder, with radical implications for therapy. First, Tick establishes the traditional context of war in mythology and religion. Then he describes in depth PTSD in terms of identity issues. Finally, drawing on world spiritual traditions, he presents ways to nurture a positive identity based in compassion and forgiveness. War and the Soul will change the way we think about war, for veterans and for all those who love and want to help them. It shows how to make the wounded soul whole again. When this work is achieved, PTSD vanishes and the veteran can truly return home.
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