Book recommendations for a November Saturday

Since I found out that the Library carries audiobooks that can loaded onto my iPod, I have been listening to lots of them lately. There never seems to be enough time to read everything that catches my fancy so choosing to listen to some while walking Energetic the labradoodle or riding in to work is a good alternative. Sometimes it is for guilty pleasures (e.g.: Grisham - The Associate was disappointing) but quite often the list includes serious books. This include Blink, Outliers and A Brief History Of Time (Rather than re-read it).

Which brings me to the recommendations. We currently live under a government determined to remake Canada overtly or by stealth. Part of Harper's dream is an absolute free market system. Laissez faire capitalism was the prevailing economic belief during the Gilded Age and led to the Great Depression. I would like to mention two books that remind me of what we have to be on guard against.

The first is The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. At the time of it's initial publication it was primarily popular for the expose of poor packing practices. But it is also relevant for the picture it paints of the immigrants forced to work under appalling conditions.

The second is Down And Out In Paris And London by George Orwell. It gives one an idea of what it would be like through a recession with all government supports taken away.

Now you have something to do today.

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