Fantasyland

 

Fantasyland : how America went haywire : a 500-year history / Kurt Andersen, read by the author, 475 pgs.

500 years in slightly fewer pages, much of this is a very interesting thread of how attitudes and beliefs have changed in this country.  Some where we picked up the idea that we are all so "individual" that we have the right to believe things...whatever things we want to believe.  Reason went out the window and conspiracy theory's and fantasy took over.  On the one hand, I found this fascinating, on the other hand, it was terrifying.  As a librarian, the idea that facts are optional isn't popular.  Surely we can do better, but will we?

Somebody with a Little Hammer: Essays

Somebody with a Little Hammer: Essays / Mary Gaitskill, 272 pp.

An unusual collection by the author of The Mare, this includes music, movie and book reviews.  A mixed bag, at least for me (I don't really 'get' music reviews and never read them...), but there were several standouts:

• "The Trouble with Following the Rules: on "Date Rape," "Victim Culture," and Personal Responsibility" -  quietly thought provoking and discomfiting
• "And It Would Not Be Wonderful to Meet a Megalosaurus: on Bleak House by Charles Dickens" - cuz, ya know, Bleak House by Charles Dickens
• "She's Supposed to Make You Sick: a Review of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn" - an astute review, and she feels the same way I do about Gone Girl