106. How to Be Safe in an Unsafe World - Harold H. Bloomfield & Robert K. Cooper

The blog lives! But I'm sorry that I had to bring it back with this book ...
This book is about what the authors call "safety intelligence." The discussion of inner security reminded me a lot of what Malcolm Gladwell talked about in Blink: how to avoid "emotional paralysis" by observing a situation in a small amount of time and maintaining a state of heightened awareness, calmness, and power.
The authors also offer practical tips to increase your sense of inner security and external safety that I, living in a big city, found quite helpful. For example, research demonstrates that it takes only seven seconds for an attacker to "size up" a potential victim - and that even by changing the way that you walk can deter an attack. Research also shows that yelling "help" when confronted with danger actually discourages assistance; but yelling "fire" will distract an assailant and will be more likely to attract the aid of bystanders. The book also gives suggestions on what to do if confronted with a stalker; if you're carjacked; if you're the victim of an incident of road rage; and also if you have to deal with an aggressive date or co-worker.
One reason I bought this book was because of the forward by Deepak Chopra (if his name is on it, it has to be good!), but I feel like there are better books out there on the same topic. I suggest you don't waste your time on this one.

105. Game Change - John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

This book (a.k.a. political thriller) is about the 2008 presidential election. Yes, this is the one that you heard about in the news - the one in which Harry Reid was quoted as saying that Obama had a chance at winning the election because he was a "light-skinned African American" with "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." It starts with laying out the candidates' decisions to run; covers the bitter debates; and goes into so much more in between.
What really struck me was how the authors exposed sides of the candidates that the public would never see. Some of my favorite parts ...

When Hillary Clinton found out that Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill said on TV, "I think [Bill Clinton] has been a great leader, but I don't want my daughter near him," ...

The phone went quiet. Hillary was speechless. A few more seconds passed, and then finally came her voice, hot with fury.
"Fuck her," Hillary said - and then called Solis Doyle and summarily canceled the fundraiser.

According to Heilemann and Halperin, so much of Hillary's campaign was centered around (and ultimately hurt by) issues with Bill: his alleged continuing affairs; how to control his mouth; and his borderline comments about race (e.g. that Obama would surely win South Carolina during the primaries, because Jesse Jackson did in 1984 and 1988). The "race issues" were quite funny to read about, though. At one point, Hillary wanted to make a commercial portraying Obama as a chameleon.

Penn and Grunwald (Clinton advisers) theorized that Obama, the darling of the left, was pandering to conservative Democrats in northern Nevada. He’s become a chameleon, one of them said.
“He has! We should call him that!” Hillary said, proposing a TV ad that somehow pictured Obama as a color-shifting lizard. “We need a visual,” she said.
“We can’t,” Grunwald replied.
“Why?” Hillary asked.
The color thing, Grunwald said. We’d get hit for dabbling with race.
“Oh Gawwwd,” Hillary groaned. “Give me a break.”

There were also so many fascinating behind-the-scenes stories about Obama. Apparently, he's a lot more cocky than a lot of people might think. Then again ... don't you have to be in order to have the guts to run for president of the United States?? But he also apparently has his emotional side. At one point, Valerie Jarrett threw a book party for him in her backyard soon after The Audacity of Hope had come out.

Jarrett introduced Obama and spoke about Audacity’s final chapter, in which he wrote about the stress that the demands of his career put on his marriage, the
disruptions to his family life. As Jarrett went on, talking about the sacrifices his wife and girls were making, she saw that Obama was crying-to the point where he couldn’t manage to speak when it came his turn. Michelle walked over, put her arm around him, and began to cry as well.
Even Obama’s closest friends had never seen him choke up in public before. He’s not emoting about the past, Jarrett thought. He’s emoting about the future. About the fact the sacrifices he’s imposed on his family are only just beginning.

The writers also exposed a lot about the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter story. How ironic that John Edwards finally came forward two weeks before this book came out and admitted that he had fathered her child. Many of his campaign staffers had been trying so hard to keep her away from him, knowing what was going on. And not that this in any way justifies his actions, but Elizabeth was apparently "an abusive, intrusive, paranoid, condescending crazy-woman" who walked all over Edwards. What a stark contrast from her image as the cancer-surviving, supportive politician's wife.

I wish the authors had included more about the McCain-Palin side of the story. But a few funny pieces were that one of McCain's favorite outfits off-camera is a dress shirt and boxer shorts (eww) and that McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman would watch the YouTube clip of John Edwards fixing his hair and roll on the floor with laughter. Also, the media has already exposed stories about McCain's temper, but this part was funny:

McCain was erupting over everything. At a scheduling meeting to discuss [his daughter] Meghan’s college graduation, McCain learned that the commencement was a multiday affair that would require him to make several round trips to New York. “How many fucking times do I have to go to fucking New York this week?” he yelled. “How many fucking times can you fucking graduate from fucking Columbia?”

There wasn't anything too shocking about Palin in there - I think the media has already done a pretty good job exposing her ridiculousness. But a small excerpt shows just how hardcore these campaigns are ... something had come up about Palin, and the staffers were not getting direct answers from her and so they had to check it out themselves.

Schmidt wanted to get them on the horn and have the history of her AIP registration checked out immediately.
"But it's two in the morning in Alaska," someone said.
"The phones don't work at fucking night there?" Schmidt bellowed. "Call them! And keep calling them until they pick up!"

Overall, the writing was exquisitely entertaining. The authors call Hillary's camp "Hillaryland" and Edwards' camp "the Edwardsphere." And read how they describe one of Obama's speeches in Iowa:

With a law professor's attention to detail and a litigator's argumentativeness -- plus a hint of the defensiveness of a politician under fire -- he included rebuttals to almost every criticism that Clinton had hurled at him down the homestretch.

Brilliant! It's interesting to note that a lot of the "quotes" are actually not in quotation marks ... in the preface, the authors point out that this was purposeful and was to show that the person remembering the supposed "quote" might not have been able to remember the exact verbiage - but that the idea was close enough.

This was a long book ... but unlike The Poisonwood Bible (notwithstanding the completely different genre), it was impossible to put down.

104. The Secret of Divine Civilizaiton - Abdu'l-Baha

This book was first written by Abdu'l-Baha in 1875 and was addressed to the people of Persia (Iran). It is known for its attempt to improve the degraded conditions of Persia: the poverty, corrupt government, and lack of education, especially for women. This book actually sort of reminded me of Plato's Republic (at least, the small amount I understood from The Republic!) in that Abdu'l-Baha examines what is needed to make a "just society." He argues that religion should be a binding force for love and not of ignorant prejudice, and he tries to reconcile the schism between religion and politics.
It's interesting to compare many of the issues that were being debated back then to what is in the news about Iran now: such as whether modernize and accept Western technology, or to reject Western culture and rely on technology developed in the Islamic world. In this book, Abdu'l-Baha shows the great changes that took place in Western culture as a result of the revelations of Jesus.
In discussing the government of Persia, Abdu'l-Baha warned that great results cannot be expected unless the members elected are qualified: "righteous, God-fearing, high-minded, incorruptible ... fully cognizant ... versed in the rules which govern the management of internal affairs and the conduct of foreign relations, skilled in the useful arts of civilization, and content with their lawful emoluments." He also discussed in depth a quote from Muhammad as it relates to this issue of finding the right people to serve in the government needed to improve the country: "As for him who is one of the learned: he must guard himself, defend his faith, oppose his passions and obey the commandments of his Lord."
To be honest, this book was very, very hard for me to read. You can tell that it was translated from Arabic (or Farsi) into English and that it was written over a century ago, because the English was very old and formal. Nonetheless, a good read.