The Character Assassination of Sarah Palin

I will admit that I don’t have warm and fuzzy feelings for Sarah Palin. In fact, I disagree with most of her stances on the actual issues. I will also state for the record that I don’t believe she isn’t an articulate speaker; however, I will note that I think some of the things she has said have not been really thought out, and some things she has said don’t seem to be based on actual facts. The life of anyone in the political spotlight is always made out to be a circus. While Sarah Palin has some very thoroughly documented skeletons in her closet, the latest book ‘The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin’ by Joe McGinniss seems to be a character assassination that resembles an issue of the National Enquirer.

I want to remind liberals of something that happened during the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections. In 2004 when John Kerry was the Democratic nominee for president, a conspiracy theorist named Jerome Corsi teamed up with a Vietnam veteran named John O’Neill and wrote a book titled ‘Unfit for Command’ about John Kerry’s military service. In the book, he made accusations based on hearsay from some people who never served with John Kerry in Vietnam. Veterans who actually served with Kerry who were not contacted by Corsi or O’Neill to tell their versions of the story came out swinging against the book. The book led to the P.A.C. known as “Swift Vets and POWs for Truth” that ran ads against Kerry stating that he wasn’t entitled to the Purple Heart honors, questioned his honesty about the war, and criticized his anti-war stance after his service was up. The book made a lot of serious accusations that even upset people in the right-wing; John McCain was upset and was one of the Vietnam veterans who defended John Kerry.

In 2008 during the presidential election, Jerome Corsi was back in the spotlight after releasing a book against Barack Obama titled ‘Obama Nation.’ The book was highly controversial, had questionable sources, made strong and baseless accusations, and left-wing figures immediately fact-checked everything that Jerome Corsi wrote and appeared on television with him questioning his sources. Jerome Corsi’s only defense was that he hadn’t been sued for slander. The book stated that Barack Obama and Michelle Obama bought their condo and lived out of wedlock, which was later proven as false when Obama’s wedding date was thrown at Corsi and the date of their condo purchase as a matter of public record was after their wedding. And of course all of the accusations of being affiliated with extremist Islamic groups and other conspiracy related garbage was stated in the book. John McCain was hesitant to criticize the book during the campaign and stated that one needs to keep a sense of humor.

This past Tuesday, Joe McGinniss released his book on Sarah Palin that is similar to the slanderous accusations that Jerome Corsi made against John Kerry and Barack Obama during their presidential campaigns. The book states that Sarah Palin had premarital sex, used illegal drugs, isn’t the mother one of her children, and that she had a fear of colored people. The book is an unauthorized look into her life and also has the similar style of “research” that Jerome Corsi uses to write his books on the left-wing. The book obviously has an “anti-Palin agenda” and is in poor taste.

The sad fact is that people will read these books to feel their partisan rage coming into fruition and believe that character assassination through the stories of others and shoddy research will mean the truth. John Kerry wasn’t popular with the right-wing based on his affiliation with anti-war groups after he came home from Vietnam; the right wing came up with some hearsay to throw at him that was pretty questionable and equated it with the truth. The right-wing continues to the same to Barack Obama given he’s someone they saw as a political threat the minute he made a speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention where he stated his liberal values that fired up the base and made him an overnight sensation. Sarah Palin obviously infuriates the left-wing voters for reasons that are obvious, but does this really justify someone having the right to character assassination via the printed word?

While I’m a liberal, there is one thing I hate about a lot of political books: you can judge them by their cover. You’re finding what you want to hear to broaden your point of view. Good political books are hard to come by and I don’t like to read a lot of political books based upon the fact that you already know what you’re getting. There are some political writers who do great research that can be backed up that starts an honest political debate, but many of them are just blowing smoke. The sad thing is that there are publishers who will publish this garbage. There are also people that see this as sweet revenge. Either way, I don’t believe anyone should have to go through these types of accusations, no matter what their political beliefs are. If you have the facts on someone’s dirty laundry that you can prove instead of hearsay based on a few people telling you some fairy tales, then it’s justifiable.

Whether you are a liberal or a conservative, I’d say that these books are a horrible representation of your political values. I hope that both the right and left will agree and not support these kinds of books. But I guess I’m asking for too much in a world where spin based on “garbage writing” is all about setting up someone’s political victories. 

A Look Into Prodigy's Infamous Life

I’m impressed with the amount of people in the hip-hop/rap industry who are writing autobiographies/memoirs; I’ve found that a lot of the autobiographies/memoirs that have come out by rappers have actually been well written, informative, and actually quite interesting. The RZA wrote ‘The Tao of Wu,’ which was a very impressive look into his life, his spiritual beliefs, and his dedication to making The Wu-Tang Clan one of the world’s most commercially successful rap groups. I stumbled upon Prodigy’s ‘My Infamous Life’ during our liquidation and decided to give it a read based upon my interest in hearing rappers explain their lives.

If you’re not familiar with Prodigy or Mobb Deep, Prodigy is considered to be one of the best rappers in the game. He and Havoc made an impact with Mobb Deep in the mid-90s representing the Queens borough of New York City. They referred to themselves as part of the “Queensbridge Murderers” and were contemporaries of The Wu-Tang Clan, The Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, Nas, Cormega, and many others. Prodigy’s story is unlike many of his contemporaries when it comes to his family tree and his struggles with a lifelong illness. His great-great-grandfather was the founder of Morehouse College; his grandfather was Budd Johnson, a jazz saxophonist who worked with Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, and Prodigy made the claim that his grandfather taught Quincy Jones how to read music; his grandmother was Bernice Johnson, a dance teacher and the founder of the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center; his mother was an NYU graduate who later worked her way up in the housing authority; his father was a businessman with a street hustler mentality who later battled drug addiction.

Prodigy discusses his early life in his musically and culturally rich family, but he also goes into detail about being born with sickle-cell anemia and the pain he endured with sickle-cell related episodes as a child. His father’s street hustler ways were part of his early influences; he describes incidents while growing up where his father told him to never walk away from a fight and to never let anyone have an advantage over him in order to gain respect. While his family struggled with living in the projects, his grandmother paid for him to attend a prestigious private school where he was one of the few black students. His grandmother’s dance studio was a place with cultural-richness, as well as celebrities and their children; he took dance classes with children who would go on to be musicians themselves such as Ashanti, and he lost a Broadway acting role during his childhood to Alfonso Ribeiro, who later went on to be part of the TV show ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.’ 

One would question as to how Prodigy would become involved with the street mentality. His father’s influence ran very deep. He took part in selling drugs to buy his own clothing that neither his mother or grandmother would purchase for him, he took part in street crimes and robberies, and his relationship with Havoc was the result of a botched attempted robbery that they both took part in. He began to use his street mentality as an influence to rapping when he was a teen. With his mother managing his music career, he landed himself on the soundtrack to ‘Boyz in the Hood’ and was nearly signed to a record deal that he later refused due to the record company’s refusal to allow him to include Havoc in his recording contract. Havoc and Prodigy persevered on their own to become the best in their game amongst their contemporaries; Havoc learned how to produce and come up with their beats while Prodigy worked on his rapping, which led to a rap battle with Nas in which Prodigy lost, but gained Nas’ respect and encouragement.

The memoir pulls no punches when it comes to the wild times of Mobb Deep, the conflicts they had with other rap artists that included many of their close friends, the gun violence that they took part in as a result of their fame, the loss of many friends due to murders and retaliation, and the excesses that they took part in with female groupies. Prodigy is open about the relationship he has with his wife, he’s open about the drug use he took part in, he’s open about the birth of his children, and he’s honest when it comes to his criminal rap sheet and his history of run-ins with the law that some of the most expensive attorneys in America defended him from. The spiritual side of Prodigy’s life includes influence from ‘The Autobiography of Malcom X,’ various Nation of Islam figures, conspiracy theory related material in relation to the Illuminati and secret societies, and his own personal views of God that are not made up of biblical truths.

While the memoir is detailed, it’s also an unorganized mess that also seems to have dates and places mixed up. Prodigy tells the story from the perspective of flashbacks while he was serving 3 years in prison for a gun charge (he was released this past spring), but it goes all over the place and there are moments where I found him going way off track. The moment in his career that people would probably find most interest in would be the time that Mobb Deep were part of the G-Unit stable under 50 Cent, which is what most of Mobb Deep’s fans gave them criticism for, and yet where they found the most financial success even while having dismal album sales. The one thing that I find disturbing about Prodigy’s point of view is the fact he doesn’t seem to offer much remorse for what he’s done, but he justifies it with human nature being that of a savage and that being a savage is part of any human being’s survival. Prodigy’s conspiracy views of the world are also hard to take; he equates conspiracy theories as truths. The truths of his conspiracy theories include vaccinations of his children including microchips, his ability to view advertisements and billboards the same way Roddy Piper does in John Carpenter’s ‘They Live,’ and his stories about being visited by UFOs hovering above his home.

While Prodigy does have a personality and lifestyle that many of us probably do not understand, his knowledge and experience of the music industry is very well stated and explained. He has a do-it-yourself ethic that has kept them successful, has helped them in negotiating their record deals, and it has also put him at odds with Havoc and many of their former business associates. He also makes it clear that he doesn’t believe anyone should be oppressed for who they are and states that he doesn’t believe homosexuals should face discrimination, and he is sincere when he thanks many of the white musicians that include Eminem and many rock bands who were supportive of their music, listed them as influences, and toured with Mobb Deep during the ‘90s and during the last decade. He's also thankful for the white audience that has followed Mobb Deep since the beginning. Some of us would probably not understand Prodigy’s life, but nevertheless, it is one that is based on his hard work and his love for what he does. For someone who has a disease with a life expectancy of 40 years (which he has lived beyond), he is a truly blessed individual who is likely going to dazzle the rap world once more now that he’s out of prison and recording music again.

Here is a performance of Mobb Deep in 2004 with The Roots. Prodigy is in the Yankees jersey. And remember kids: there's no such thing as halfway crooks.

I've Decided to Continue This Blog

I made a post after Borders went into liquidation stating that I was going to stop this blog. I have since changed my mind and would like to bring it back. People aren't really talking about books anymore. I've always enjoyed sharing book recommendations with people, I continue to read a lot of books, and I'd like to continue to reach out to authors to help promote their books.

Consider this blog reactivated.

-Brian the Bookseller

The End

Well, it's unfortunate to report that I will soon be joining the ranks of the unemployed. The book chain that I have worked at for almost 7 years is now shutting its doors for good nationwide. Borders will be no more by the end of September.

People have asked me, "What went wrong? Are all Borders stores closing?" several times over the past week. It goes back a long way, back before I even started with the company. It supposedly started in the mid-90s, some say around 2000, and some say around 2005, and one of the first nails in the coffin happened around 2008. I don't want to bash my employer, but I can definitely concur that the company not getting behind the internet revolution was definitely one of the main faults. Borders wasn't selling books online as Amazon began to dominate the market, and they had actually partnered with Amazon.com for a short time sending Borders customers to Amazon's website.

People have asked, "Is it because of the Kindle?" Nice idea given most Borders employees hate Amazon.com, but the Kindle definitely didn't help as the company got behind the less impressive Kobo line of e-Readers and those horrible Cruz readers and Cruz tablets. People have asked a lot of questions that each represent a brick in the end of Borders--all of these things from people going online, the kindles, Wal-Mart and Costco are all to be considered. One thing I can say that probably took us down was the massive amount of debt that the company carried through the middle of the last decade until now.

I will say that I loved Borders as a brand before I even worked in a Borders. Borders is where I found all of my Buddhist reading material; I found such a variety of books that I didn't have to go into special bookstores to buy; I took comfort in the fact that I could buy my books, DVDs, and CDs all in one spot given they would likely have anything I would be looking for. Borders to me represented a place where you could go and find laid back and incredibly knowledgable people who could recommend anything to you; you wouldn't regret buying anything a Borders employee suggested. In late 2008, it seemed that being part of that Borders image was about to change for the worst. That's when a CEO came to town named Ron Marshall who forced us to sell specific "MAKE titles" to customers; it didn't matter if you came in for a specific book, we had to recommend these titles to you and push you to buy them. The image and the atmosphere of Borders wasn't what it used to be, and we played the role of a retailer that was desperate for sales as we prayed that we would never see the company in bankruptcy. We worked in the store short staffed and stressed out during peak times of the year--including the infamous Christmas season of 2009 where most employees were complaining about 3-5 people being staffed in the store during the Christmas peak shopping days and hours.

What are my reflections on it now that we know what our fate includes? I would say that while it's sad, we definitely knew what was coming (in fact, a Borders employee made a Borders Liquidation BINGO sheet that has a "we knew it was coming" tile). I can also say that people shouldn't think Borders is the end--Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million are going to be in the same position in 3-5 years with Barnes & Noble losing a couple of billion dollars in assets and Books-A-Million reporting 100 million dollars in losses. Amazon.com as one customer told me is the "Wal-Mart of the internet, and has killed the book business." I can say I agree, but I also heard many customers tell us how sad they are we are going under--but yet many of these people will also tell you they can't resist shopping on Amazon.com.

How am I handling the liquidation process?

Well, TIME magazine wrote this amusing article HERE about how much our liquidation sale sucks because anything that was discounted last week via a coupon or discounted price of 20-30% is now only 10% in the liquidation's starting process (funny how TIME Magazine doesn't understand how liquidation sales work), and we're hearing a lot of people say they want deeper discounts and will come back. We are simply in the store as staff of the liquidation company that now owns us and are selling off the assets. There is nothing we have to sell, we don't have access to our own computer systems to help customers find titles, the pictures from employees showing up on the net show stores in disarray with piles of books everywhere in their store, and we're simply there to take the customer's money. Am I taking it personally? Not one bit. Am I bitter towards the liquidators? Not at all. I'm just taking the process like those who knew what their fate was on the Titanic as it sunk.

To the customers asking me and my fellow Borders employees "What will you do now?" Please stop asking us. Many of us simply don't know what's ahead of us in our lives. I don't know what the conditions will be of the job market next week, next month, or around September when this process will supposedly be over and we're left to filing for unemployment. Many of us are responding with witty comebacks or mild smartass comments in reply that you are taking literally; I can assure you none of us are really going to go be on Safaris in Kenya, and none of us are going to be sitting at home counting how many millions we have left from our lottery earnings. Just stop while you're ahead, enjoy your bargains, and mourn the loss of your local Borders without asking us if they're finding us jobs or asking us personal questions about our finances--unless you're prepared to offer us jobs.

So, with that, I'm sorry to say that I will probably not be seeking employment in this business after it's all done. I'm probably done being Brian the Bookseller. But I want to thank all the customers I had who appreciated all my recommendations, all of the authors who gave me the time of day when I e-mailed them or added me to their personal Facebook pages to talk about their books, and most of my co-wrokers who I have gotten to know over the years as well as Borders for giving me a job in 2005 when I relocated here to California.

I wish this blog could have lasted longer and regret that I'm pulling the plug on it as quickly as it began. But if you were a reader, thanks for following.

-Brian the Bookseller

Here are some liquidation related photos for your enjoyment. I took a few of these in my store during Day 3. I also included the Borders Liquidation Bingo, a letter to customers left by the staff in a closing store, and where you can find the nearest Borders restroom.

5 Questions for "Malled" Author Caitlin Kelly

If you're familiar with the work of Barbara Ehrenreich, you're probably aware of her book, "Nickel & Dimed." Ehrenreich did an experiment to see if she could survive working minimum wage jobs in various cities. Caitlin Kelly’s "Malled" is NOT one of those books.

Caitlin Kelly was a successful journalist and author. She did many exquisite pieces as a freelance writer, and for the Daily News. She had sipped tea with the queen, wrote a story on the DNA testing of 9/11 victims, and she has experience as an editor. As the journalism profession began to constrict, she found herself laid off after one of her most productive years ever; she eventually did something she never thought she would do, get a retail job.

Kelly took a job with The North Face at an upscale shopping center outside of New York City. Her book describes her transition into the retail world and having to use a different set of people skills, her frustration in dealing with the store and corporate management, and her research on the world of retail. “Malled” raises the question about the quality of our shopping experiences, exposes the low wages and the abuse of retail employees, and also talks about the extra mile that retail veterans go to serve their customers.

You weren’t sent to do this for an undercover writing assignment, and this was nothing that you had actually planned on doing; you really went to work in retail to pay the bills. You mentioned that during the year you were laid-off that you actually had one of your most productive periods. You have an impressive resume as someone who interviewed the Queen of England and did some very exquisite pieces in your journalism career. How much of a shock was it to go from a person in that position to going to work at The North Face? 

It was a shock, as much to go from an industry I know, and have worked in since college, as to drop from a good salary to a minimum-wage job. I was naive enough to think that any work done well and cheerfully would be respected, but quickly discovered how dismissive some customers can be when they assume you have no better work options than a low-wage position. I didn't mind the work at The North Face, but I really disliked the way many of were treated for simply doing that work. I liked that the North Face job required emotional skills from me that journalism did not.

What led to you writing a book about your experiences while working at The North Face? 

I wrote an essay for The New York Times, a column about work called Preoccupations, in which I compared retail to journalism -- and preferred retail, for a few reasons. The essay drew 150 emails from all over the world, so it clearly hit a nerve! I spoke in Manhattan on a panel about a month after that, and there was an agent's assistant in the audience who suggested I write a memoir. My new agent agreed and we sold it to Portfolio in September 2009.

As someone who has worked in retail, one of the interesting research points that I thought you made was based on the idea that you get what you pay for when it comes to people who work for you. You mention the high turnover, employees being paid less, and the quality of customer service going down. Do you think this is becoming more common? 

I really find it counter-intuitive -- pun intended! -- to underpay your front-line, customer-facing staff who very much help drive corporate profits yet pay them pennies, rarely give raises and offer little chance for promotion. Very few people will tolerate such conditions, and then companies just hire a whole new crew and burn them out. It's no way to run a business, yet it's very typical of large-scale retail. In a terrible economy, companies can be even more abusive, so I see little chance of improvement until things pick up again. If then!

You mentioned that you had applied to be in management and you were turned down. Were you ever given any idea as to why you were turned down? 

I was given no reasons why I was not even interviewed for a managerial position. I had asked repeatedly. I suspect because I would have been managing former co-workers and that might have been uncomfortable. If I had specific weaknesses preventing me from being considered for it, these were never addressed or discussed with me.

What has been The North Face’s response to your book? 

The North Face refused comment when the Associated Press called them about Malled. An employee at a store in another state told me the company required every staffer to sign a document promising not to discuss the book with customers.

Many thanks to Caitlin Kelly for allowing me to interview her. You can find out more about "Malled" and Caitlin Kelly by visiting CaitlinKelly.com

Why You Should Read David Foster Wallace

There is a fact that when an entertainer or artist passes away that their work goes into demand. We’ve seen this with many people from Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Jerry Garcia, etc. The same can be said for authors; I remember the rush on Salinger when they announced he had passed—Vonnegut was another author that I can remember a rush on after the announcement of his passing. There has been one author that I have found interesting in his death years: David Foster Wallace. While there has been a genuine interest in his work, it hasn’t been at the levels of the well-known writer when one of them pasess away. It seems that people are slowly stumbling upon his work. 

If you aren’t familiar with David Foster Wallace or any of his writings, here’s what you need to know.

David Foster Wallace was a very clever, articulate, and fascinating individual in the sense of his writing and imagination; he contributed to publications such as Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, Playboy, GQ, and Esquire. He wrote very provocative pieces on a whole range of subjects; he wrote pieces on things such as a porno convention, his time following John McCain in the 2000 campaign and primaries for the Republican nomination, many articles, essays, and themes in his novels about tennis (a sport he loved and followed religiously), and many other articles that showed his versatility and interest in a whole range of subjects.

My experience with reading David Foster Wallace’s works of fiction is that you read the back of the book for a description; when you start reading the story, it's nothing that you expected or understood from that back cover; you can’t believe what is being thrown at you and where the story goes. His non-fiction work is exactly the same; it's funny, serious, frightening, and it's all true. The one thing that I have found to be an annoying feature to his work is his obsessive-compulsive use of the MLA writing format. There are some pages in his books that are entirely in-text MLA format citations, and long extensive notes within the citations that can be entertaining to read, or you eventually just start to find them a pain in the ass and start skipping over them entirely.

The Broom of the System was his fiction debut. It received a lot of critical acclaim, and he was branded as one of the best new writers upon its release in 1987. My response to that book was that it felt like John Hughes movie, a William S. Burroughs novel, a David Lynch film, and some real slapstick humor all rolled up into one. David Foster Wallace’s ability to channel some of Thomas Pynchon’s writing ideas and yet keep the reader fascinated is something that most authors are probably jealous of when it comes to Wallace’s brilliance. He went on to write another critically acclaimed novel, Infinite Jest, that goes the same route of The Broom of the System in writing style.

If you desire to read some smart reading that goes beyond the works of David Sedaris or Chuck Klosterman, his essays and articles also show his brilliance. The one essay of his that gave us a look into his compassionate personality was in a collection called Consider the Lobster; his essay about the events of 9/11 and how he spent his time dealing with it during and after as he watched our country become transformed is a look into how the artistic and sensitive soul viewed the events of that horrific day.

His versatility and time as a reporter made another work of fiction of his become one of his most well known works, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. The book features interviews with fictional characters; interviews with demented individuals that have fascinations with the darkest of things. It’s a look into the philosophy of wickedness, and even douchebaggery goes under the microscope. 

The death of David Foster Wallace was indeed a tragic end. It’s sad to think that a writer with the tremendous gift of writing and the ability to teach writing to others would take his own life. David Foster Wallace’s suicide was a result of his lifelong clinical depression that he took anti-depressant medication for that gave him the foundation for his productive life. While suffering severe side-effects of his medication, he weaned off of it and then found himself severely depressed; he went back on his medication and also tried other methods of treatment that were unsuccessful, which led to his suicide on September 12, 2008.

In April of 2011, Wallace’s unfinished novel, The Pale King, was released. The novel deals with the life of an employee of the Internal Revenue Service taking the same strange turns as the events surround the characters in his previous novels. There are also themes of depression and despair; obviously subjects that David Foster Wallace was dealing with at time he was writing it. I've read some criticisms about how it was published as an unfinished novel, while others have praised it. I have yet to read it, and I hope to find the time to read it sometime soon. 

While David Foster Wallace is an acquired taste, I think everyone could find some enjoyable reading from his works. If you can’t get into his fiction, I suggest checking out his essay collections. If you enjoy the works of Pynchon, Kafka, or Burroughs, you’ll definitely love David Foster Wallace. David Foster Wallace cracked our minds open to the idea of having a sense of irony when viewing the world around us; he made us think differently about how we interpret art; and he’s also one of the last great writers that is truly irreplaceable.

“The problem is that once the rules of art are debunked, and once the unpleasant realities the irony diagnoses are revealed and diagnosed, "then" what do we do?” – David Foster Wallace

Books I Recommend: July 2011

Here are some new books I recommend checking out for the month of July.

Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson 


Set in Vermont and NYC during the days of hardcore-punk music and the straight- edge movement. The main character, Joel, deals with the overdose of his friend during New Years Eve 1987 and relocates to New York City. He falls in with the straight-edge movement after joining the Hare-Krishnas. The book is a great journey through the days of CBGB, "Krishna-Core," the beginning of AIDS, and 1980s NYC through the eyes of a young man who refuses to accept his parents hippie culture lifestyle as his own.

Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson 


According to Internet Movie Database, Steven Spielberg has already attached himself to a film adaption of this book (unknown on whether he will produce or direct it). Released during June 2011, this book is already picking up incredible buzz and popularity. The story has been compared to Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain." It's a story of the coming age where artificial intelligence comes back to bite us in the ass. As a fan of Isaac Asimov, this one has me VERY excited. I also see this one climbing up the bestseller charts in the weeks to come. Move over zombies! Robots are making a comeback as the new sexy!

Then They Came For Me by Maziar Bahari 


Maziar Bahari, a London journalist, went to Iran to cover the 2009 presidential election. While he was covering the election, he was arrested and imprisoned for 3 months in Iran. He wrote about his imprisonment and also told the story of his father who was imprisoned by the Shah of Iran during the 1950s, and his sister who was imprisoned by Ayatollah Khomeini during the 1980s. This book chronicles the brutal regimes, coups, and the revolutions that have caused strife and polarization of the Iranian people. This is not just a great tale of survival, but a good look into the disregard of human rights in Iran under different eras of intervention from the west, the fundamentalist based revolution, and the modern day totalitarian state.

Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach


I was a bit taken back when I first saw this. Whether you're a parent or not, this book is hilarious. Written in the poetic tone of "Goodnight Moon," this expletive filled spoof of a children's book will have you doubled over in laughter as you read page by page. Example: "The cats nestle close to their kittens, the lambs have laid down with the sheep. You're cozy and warm in your bed, my dear. Please go the f**k to sleep."