As you roast marshmallows this summer, you can learn how to roast politicians, too.
Oops. Freudian slip.
You can learn how to roast political ideas (if that inspires you more).
A few of you have asked about great books to go with your tan. Here are some of my favourite non-fiction titles designed to ignite revolutionary thoughts from your hammock. I included only one healthcare title, for now.
Disclosure: I am an Amazon Associate and get a few pennies, if you end up purchasing items, after clicking on the links below. If you’d rather, just search for the titles yourself! Cheers.
Summer Reading
Free to Choose: A Personal Statement
If you vote, you need this book. It is a must read for anyone who cares about freedom.
It is well written, full of great quotes, and packed with fundamental ideas about freedom and democracy.
If you love the Toronto Star and want to live in China or Cuba, you can skip this title. If you plan to stay in a Western democracy, please read Free to Choose
Doctors do not usually read Friedman, or any similar books. So it’s no wonder that health policies and legislation come out sounding like quotes from Mao or Castro.
Malcolm Gladwell calls this book,
“A devastating and utterly original analysis of what has gone wrong with the American health care system. Read it, and take a deep breath.”
This book appeals to readers who love to hate the American healthcare system.
It also wins points with those who vote for people like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
If you think government-run healthcare could do better, you will find ways to make care more like Apple and less like the Post Office.
Goldhill works as a CEO. He supports universal healthcare, but not universally bad care.
From the flap:
“In 2007 David Goldhill’s father died from infections acquired in a well-regarded New York hospital.
The bill, for several hundred thousand dollars, was paid by Medicare.
Angered, Goldhill became determined to understand how it was possible that well-trained personnel equipped with world-class technologies could be responsible for such inexcusable carelessness—and how a business that failed so miserably could still be rewarded with full payment.”
This book aims at readers who support freedom and responsible governments, but do not get too worked up about what other people do in private.
Writing for an American audience, Cooke, an Englishman, rips into right-leaning ideas that are popular in the USA. He offers a new label: Conservatarian.
It’s well written and more thoughtful than most political books written in the US.
From the flap:
“There is an underserved movement budding among conservatives, in which fiscal responsibility, constitutional obedience, and controlled government spending remain crucial tenets, but issues like gay marriage and drug control are approached with a libertarian bent.”
Savoie knows Canadian governments and tears apart the federal bureaucracy, during the Harper years.
It is not another anti-Harper diatribe.
Savoie exposes bureaucracy and shows how it bloats and rots, even under a leader who campaigned against government waste.
This title offers grist to fuel your angst about bureaucracy’s inherent waste.
If you love everything you hear on the CBC, you will hate Hayek.
It is a sacred text for those who support limited government and free markets.
Please do not read Hayek, if you want higher taxes and more government regulation. You will just grow smarter and make life worse for the rest of us.
The Road to Serfdom is not as easy to read as Friedmans’ Free to Choose, but still worth the effort. Written in 1944, Hayek reminds us that Hitler came to power democratically.
Roasting Ideas
These titles are dangerous. They will change your thinking about almost everything that goes on in Canada and the US.
As you relax in your lawn chair, cold beverage in hand, I hope you let these authors subvert the messages that bombarded you throughout the rest of the year. I hope you get a chance to scrape off the mushy thinking that sticks to our brains like marshmallows, between September and June.
Enjoy the roast!
“Roasting political ideas”. Love it!
🙂
Reading the Medical Post, Twitter and Healthy Debate is aggravating enough. I will pass on these, Shawn.
I am thoroughly enjoying Mencken’s “In Defense of Women”. Amazing that it was written in 1918. Laughing out Loud and reading passages to my wife. Sometimes she takes the passages too seriously though. 🙂
I don’t blame you. All good!
Yeesh, not exactly light reading. If I can make some more easy-reading suggestions in the spirit of roasting politicians:
Pretty much anything by Christopher Buckley (son of famous conservative William F Buckley, and author of Thank You For Smoking). No Way to Treat a First Lady is particularly laugh-out-loud, a mash-up of the OJ trial and Lewinsky scandal.
David Frum has an e-book titled Patriots, a merciless satire of U.S. government corruption and the cult-like behavior of the modern-day GOP.
And Terry Fallis’ The Best Laid Plans and The High Road explore the question of what happens when an intelligent, honest person enters Canadian politics.
Michael Ignatieff’s memoir of his time as Liberal leader, Fire and Ashes (or something like that) is an unintentionally shining example of hubris in politics. The man *still* can’t see figure out why he wasn’t just handed the keys to 24 Sussex, after spending his entire adult life outside Canada.
Happy summer!
Great suggestions, Frank!
Thanks for adding them. Will retweet…
Hi Shawn, Usually I am keen to snarfle up books on non fiction BUT… Trump trying to recreate a Weimar Republic in the US. NOW the self inflicted mortal wound that is Brexit.
I plan to dust off my DVD copy of the BBC series “The Thick of It” I will gorge myself on the cruelest and crudest of Political Satire and savor dry humor in maniacal proportions. After that I may be able to calmly return to educational non fiction 🙂
Thanks Shawn ,
Helen
I must look at that DVD, Helen. I don’t recognize it.
It’s interesting that people look to satire to fight back. Maybe educational satire can be a new genre?
Thanks for writing!