Three Tomes I Am Taking In

As I mentioned before, I try not to write a review of all the books I read. Not because I don't like to show off, but I figured most people wouldn't care about most of them. But, from time to time, I read through a few that I think might be of interest to you. With that in mind, here are a few I am working on now.

I have posted before about my experiences and some of my thoughts about the upcoming apocalypse here and here. So, I found "Have a Nice Doomsday" subtitled "Why millions of Americans are looking forward to the end of the world". It is a non-christian scholars venture into the U.S.'s unique prophecy, doomsday, rapture, etc. culture. It has a couple of interesting chapters on the history of this sort of thought, one focusing on America's history of this thought, including date setting and trend setting leaders. Most of the book focuses on interviews with leading "experts" on modern prophecy studies: John Hagee, Randall Price, Tim Lahaye. It is surprisingly un-hostile as it profiles the thoughts and ideas of of the obsession with end times.

Radical Leap is a fun business parable...sort of ala Who Stole My cheese or One Minute Managee. The author is the former VP of The Tom Peters Company, a well known and respected business guru and the LEAP acronym is part of the new Peters mantra (cultivate Love, generate Energy, inspire Audacity, and provide Proof). These types of books are usually too cheesy for me and I have trouble getting through them. This one was actually kind of fun to read, even though it still has it's share of cheese. The LEAP acronym can work for helping understand how people lead and why people follow those leaders.

FDR's Folly is one that I haven't started yet. I have heard it opined that the NEw Deal policies of FDR's administration prolonged the economic troubles of the time, but haven't read anything on it yet.

One reviewer says of the book, "Powell draws "lessons" from the New Deal's recovery failures, arguing that an understanding of them should help current and future policy makers to avoid burdensome and "soak-the-rich" taxes, public-sector "jobs" programs that inevitably turn into vote buying, laws that prevent needed price and wage adjustments, measures restricting freedom of trade, and monetary authorities with undue discretionary powers."

It sounds timely and relevant, although a sacrilege to those who are fans of Roosevelt. Should be interesting.