One book. One week. One foot in the grave.

I am a communications major, and this has led me to be introduced to a wide array of communications theories throughout my college career. In that time, I had heard the author of this book's name thrown around many times. Neil Postman was a famous media theorist and critic who was extremely critical of the advent and popularization of television, adopting the ideas of technological determinism (the belief that the popular medium in which messages are distributed determines a society's cultural values). Neil Postman In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman argues that television becoming the dominant medium of information in our society has caused us to become obsessed with entertainment. All information presented through television, he asserts, is skewed to entertain us first, thereby making it nearly impossible for people to prioritize being entertained in all aspects of our life. He believes this has major consequences to us as a society and will lead to the downfall ...

Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here is another work of political fiction that describes an alternate timeline in which President Franklin Delano Roosevelt loses the election for his second term to Senator Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip. He platforms on a populist and nationalist platform and promises to end the Great Depression and make all citizens rich. He wins the election and implements a fascist regime, including his own secret police called the Minute Men. The novel follows both Windrip's regime and the actions of Dormeus Jessup, a reporter from Vermont. Eventually, as Windrip's regime becomes increasingly authoritarian, Jessup joins an underground group that publishes anti-Windrip material. The novel ends with Windrip's regime ending after he is ousted by his Secretary of State, who is then ousted by another government official, leading into a state of rebellion and civil war. This novel was an interesting insight into how fascism takes a ...

My book this week is another nonfiction novel examining the issue of race relations in America, specifically the plight of the black and impoverished citizens of the American inner-city. In More than Just Race , sociologist William Julius Wilson attempts to identify the factors that contribute to the trend of joblessness, poverty, and non-nuclear family structures that characterize many poor urban areas. Wilson talks about the previous research surrounding poverty among black Americans and is very clearly able to dissect what conclusions seem to stick, which are only partially supported by other research, and which don't seem to hold up beyond the confines of that single study. In the end, he arrives at the conclusion that black urban poverty is a mix of both structural factors (the way social positions, social roles, and networks of social relationships are arranged in our institutions, such as the economy, polity, education, and organization of the family) and cultural factors...

This marks the first nonfiction book I've read so far in this blog. How the Irish Became White is an explanation by author and historian Noel Ignatiev's observations on how the Irish went from being seen as "nonwhite" and being treated inferiorly to those of western European descent to becoming identified as white today. I was interested to delve into this book because I knew vaguely of the issues that surrounded the Irish when they first emigrated to the United States to avoid the persecution they faced from the English: it was interesting to learn that the Irish were not only leaving because of the hopeless conditions caused by the famous Irish potato famine, but because Irish catholics had their rights severely stricken to prevent them from owning property, practicing catholicism, and holding certain jobs. The novel really drives the point in that they were effectively second-class citizens, making their actions as American citizens that more disappointing.  ...

I'm sure many people have already heard of The Handmaid's Tale  due to the recently popular Hulu series based on the novel. While I've read other books for this blog that have had TV/movie adaptations, none have been so popular in the modern day as this. The novel takes place in the United States, some unspecified time in the future, after the collapse of the United States. The U.S. is now the Republic of Gilead, which features a strict caste system for men and women centered around the tenets of Christianity. The novel follows Offred, who is a handmaiden, which means her job is to live with a family and copulate with the male head of household in hopes of producing a child. This is extremely difficult in this setting, as increased usage of birth control and environmental pollution has left many women sterile or unlikely to produce healthy children. Offred's perspective shows us how crushing this lifestyle is on the human spirit, not just for her and the other han...

It is in my nature to be candid, and that's exactly what I'm about to do. Forgive me if I hurt some of you, but I can't knowingly sit on a lie and betray the trust of those of you reading. The truth is... I didn't read anything this week. I read all the books in my blog because I'm assigned weekly readings in another class I have and we didn't have any assigned for fall break. Great in the context of that class, but what about my blog content? Must it suffer just so I can give my tired old eyes a break? No! That's why this week, I'm going to flip my blog theme right on it's head and talk about my favorite podcast instead. And if you're one of those people who likes to whine about the progression of technology, you might even think the audiobooks/podcasts are the modern version of books, so in that sense, I'm not really doing anything out of sorts. Your Kickstarter Sucks is a podcast derived from a Tumblr blog of the same name. Ev...