Entertain Your Friends Outdoors This Summer

Book Review

The Dean Bros. Get Fired Up
Grilling, Tailgating, Picnicking, and More
By Jamie and Bobby Dean and Melissa Clark
Copyright 2011 by Dean Brothers Enterprises, LLC
Photographs copyright 2011 by Ben Fink Photography
Ballantine Books, New York, New York
ISBN 978-0-345-51363-2

Summary:  "The Deen Brothers present 100 all-new recipes and entertaining ideas for outdoor gatherings" -- provided by the publishers.



Politically active people take advantage of the outdoors by entertaining during the summer months. Jamie and Bobby Dean and Melissa Clark have put together an attractive book on the subject. The full-page photography by Ben Fink Photography is great. I've talked to other authors and publishers and they tell me they use professional designers for the food presentation in their books. I'm assuming the Dean Brothers hired such a designer because the food looks like someone with some expertise has carefully arranged it for the photographer. For instance, the cilantro is very artfully sprinkled on the fajitas--fajitas which, themselves, were not merely dumped on a platter. The fajitas were arranged the way you will want to arrange them, yourself, when your friends stop by. Be sure to complete the picture with the matching green tablecloth underneath the platter to bring out the green in the cilantro because presentation is a big part of the formula for success.

This is the book I'm going to be using this summer when I discuss the issues with other politically-minded people. I have my eyes on the Charred Tomato Salad with Peppers and Onions because we always need to have something for the vegans.

No doubt, the Dean Brothers'  expertise and experience at running their restaurant has taught them how to combine inspiration with practicality. If you have read the book Martha Rules, which I reviewed previously (see Martha Stewart: On Starting and Running Your Business), you'll note that Stewart mentioned that her first catering experience was successful, but that it was the work of a novice. She, too, has learned a lot since then.

I don't have as much time--or energy--as Martha Stewart to complete an extensive learning curve in the kitchen, so this book provides me with a dependable shortcut to successful summertime entertaining.
 
(The following link goes to the book at Amazon.)

The Deen Bros. Get Fired Up: Grilling, Tailgating, Picnicking, and More

America's Missing Liberal Class

Book Review
The Death of the Liberal Class
Copyright 2010 by Chris Hedges.
Nation Books, New York, New York
ISBN 978-1-56858-644-1

In his latest book, Chris Hedges explains how the United States is descending--or has descended- into a neo-feudal state controlled by corporations. Today, big corporations are America's royal family, so to speak. Liberals discover that speaking against corporate America is equivalent to speaking against the king. Hedges makes the case that liberals, in order to avoid being rejected by the power elite, compromise to the point of being totally ineffectual as a counterweight to the influence of the big corporations.

I found the section on the art world especially worthy of note since I studied art in college. Hedges' insights into the power elite's control of the art world are accurate but surprising to people on the periphery of that influential community.

Chris Hedges, a former journalist at the New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize winner, has also written the following books:

Empire of Illusion (2009)
Collateral Damage (2008)
I Don't Believe in Atheists (2008)
American Fascists (2007)
Losing Moses on the Freeway (2005)
What Every Person Should Know About War (2003)
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002)

(The following link goes to the book at Amazon.)

Death of the Liberal Class

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis--Her Life in Books

Book Review 

Reading Jackie
Her Autobiography in Books

Copyright 2010, by William Kuhn
Doubleday, New York, New York
ISBN: 978-0-385-53099-6


Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis never wrote an autobiography. However, William Kuhn proves that we can gain insights by looking at her life as an editor of almost a hundred books, first at Viking Press, and later, at Doubleday. This is the first book to approach her life through her own work. Therefore, because we see her interacting with her clients, we get a glimpse of her from an angle other biographies have missed. William Kuhn, unlike others, impressed me as an author who based his book on real events, rather than on tea-leaf interpretations. Note that the book is published by Doubleday which is one of the employers where she worked. For that reason, too, I think the book has a bit of honesty, mixed with equal measures of grace and dignity, which one would expect. I enjoyed this book and I think you will, too.

(The following link goes to the book at Amazon.)

Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books

Explaining the Gap Separating the Rich from the Middle Class

Book Review
Winner-Take-All Politics
How Washington Made the Rich Richer--And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

Copyright 2010 by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson
Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, New York, New York
ISBN 978-1-4165-8870-2

This book goes a long way in explaining what's happened to the middle class in the United States--and why.  I learned about "drift" in the Democratic Party and the role it plays.

Quote from page 292:  "Recall the startling facts revealed by the DNA evidence on American incomes: From 1979 until 2006, the top 1 percent received 36 percent of all the income growth generated in the American economy, while the highest-income 1/10th of 1 percent--one out of every 1,000 households--received nearly 20 percent, even after taking into account all federal taxes and all government and employer-provided benefits."

(The following link goes to the book at Amazon.)
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

Inside the United States Senate with Terence Samuel

Book Review

The Upper House
A Journey behind the Closed Doors of the U.S. Senate

Copyright 2010 by Terence Samuel
Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY
ISBN: 978-0-230-62361-3

Terence Samuel takes us inside the U.S. Senate to get a glimpse of how it functions. The book is highly informative and includes chapters that focus on six senators: Harry Reid, Amy Klobuchar, Jon Tester, Chuck Schumer, Bob Corker, and Jim Webb.

You will find that Samuel sprinkles highly-perceptive insights throughout the book. On page 15 Samuel writes: "He [Barack Obama] came to the Senate not as a place to do things, but as a place to be someone." That's a significant statement which illustrates Samuel's outstanding ability to observe and analyze the political animal.

Other observers have voiced the opinion that President Obama sees himself as a man who has risen to the ranks of World Citizen and that he does not see himself as merely an American Democratic Party politician. As a result, observers think that President Obama has left many people in the Democratic Party bewildered by his willingness to give away the store rather than arm wrestle with the Republicans on a number of important issues. Therefore, I can see where Samuel's comment could dovetail with these other observations.

I especially enjoyed the chapter on Minnesota's Senator Amy Klobuchar, since she seems to be a real go-getter, and I feel I know her a bit better now.

(The following link goes to the book at Amazon.)
The Upper House: A Journey behind the Closed Doors of the U.S. Senate

U.S Senator Scott Brown. His Book.

 Book Review

Against All Odds
By Scott Brown

Republican U.S. Senator Scott Brown has written an autobiography, Against All Odds. Brown was elected to the seat previously occupied by the late Democrat, Ted Kennedy, of Massachusetts.

I looked for the spot in the book where Brown specifically stated why he identified with the Republican Party.

Brown explains this on page 224: "I believed in a strong military and in service, and in standing up to those who wanted to do harm. But beyond that, I had largely identified with Republicans as the party fiscal responsibility and fiscal restraint."

I have Republican friends who say the same. However, if I mention out-of-control military spending in relation to that fiscal restraint, my Republican friends become a bit irritated.

However, Brown's book is a good business card for a rising star in the Republican Party, even if I completely reject the Republican agenda.  Most Republicans writers would be lucky if they could do as well.

(The following link goes to the book at Amazon.)
Against All Odds: My Life of Hardship, Fast Breaks, and Second Chances [ AGAINST ALL ODDS: MY LIFE OF HARDSHIP, FAST BREAKS, AND SECOND CHANCES ] by Brown, Scott ( Author ) on Mar, 01, 2011 Hardcover

Exploring Why Some Kansas Residents Cheerfully Put Their Own Heads on the Political Chopping Block

DVD Review

What's the Matter with Kansas?

"One of the ten best documentaries of the year." -- Roger Ebert. 

This DVD, a documentary film by Laura Cohen and Joe Winston, is based on the book by Thomas Frank. Frank, a Kansas native, documents how Republican conservatives use the political issues of guns, God and gays to encourage blue-collar workers in Kansas to vote against their own self-interests.Time and time again, the willingness of Kansas residents to give away the store, metaphorically speaking, leaves many outsiders asking, "What's the matter with Kansas?"

 The issues presented are compelling and relevant to the continuing culture war against middle-class Americans in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

(The following link goes to the DVD at Amazon.)

What's the Matter With Kansas