A Couple Interesting-Sounding Books

While Newsbusters is fairly critical of a publisher’s gushy effusive praise of President Clinton, his new book, “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World” actually sounds pretty interesting:

In his inspiring new book, Bill Clinton reveals the extraordinary and innovative efforts now being made by companies, organizations, and individuals to help others and save lives down the street and around the world. By sharing his own experiences as well as those of other “givers” that include celebrities along with unknown heroes, our former president demonstrates how gifts of time, skills, things, and ideas are as important and effective as donating money. Whether it’s saving lives in Africa, cleaning up a California beach, or promoting decent working conditions, Giving tells readers what they can do to help, and shows how activism and service can be powerful agents of change.

Of course, I may not agree with many of the things that Clinton calls for activism for, but it may be an interesting change of pace from some of the other books out there that focus only on whining or waiting for others to do. And of course, if there’s some valuable examples of methods that work, I’m not averse to taking a page from a liberal playbook.

The Washington Times had an interesting note its Inside the Beltway column  on a new book by Diane West:

Washington pundit Diana West, a fellow columnist at The Washington Times, among other publications, just wrote “The Death of the Grown-Up,” which wonders whether American adults — President Bush included — will ever grow up?

“No wonder we can’t stop Islamic terrorism,” writes the author, suggesting that since the late 1960s, America’s “youth-obsessed” culture — from guitar-playing baby boomers to Generation X-ers — has multiplied at the expense of reason, decency and good taste, leaving us with a nation of “eternal adolescents,” and generation of permissive parents, teachers and government officials…

Even when fighting an escalating terrorism threat that already has so dramatically changed our lives.

 

“Ultimately, I came to understand this as a post-adult moment because it felt as if no grown-ups were speaking up; indeed, it became alarmingly clear that there were no grown-ups to speak up.”

It’s an interesting premise and may explain why our Presidential elections have more in common with high school popularity contests than a serious debate about our nation’s future.