Deon's November 09 picks

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Rick Bragg and Timothy Egan both have new books out this year. They are our picks for the best non fiction of 2009. Oh my the men can write! The Most They Ever Had is the right book, at the right time. Our country is facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. While cops, teachers, nurses, everyday hardworking folk lose their homes the bad boys of Wall St are bailed out with our tax dollars to enjoy their mega bonuses. Somewhere our values have gone awry. The Most They Ever Had by Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg may just be the most powerful work of a stunningly gifted author. He bears witness to the lives of good, hard working people who worked the cotton mill in Jacksonville Alabama. His words show he honors telling their stories, giving them the respect and dignity their hard working lives deserve. He does not let them down. His conveys their essence with power; "You need not use foul language to damn a man here. Just say a day's work would kill him, and you tore him down to the bald nothing." We used to value hard work in this country. The people in this book are proud people, folk who take pride in working hard to provide for their families. They don't expect much, just a roof over their heads, a newer car every once in a while, and maybe a night at the movies. They are not anticipating easy lives or great wealth. Is it too much to expect a safe working environment and a living wage? Apparently it is. Rick Bragg has written a eulogy to the time in America where we built things rather than chased ever faster after the next deal, the easy dollar, and the fastest way to chase the money. Now a company's parts are worth more than its whole, the jobs can be done cheaper overseas, and Wall Street needs to be kept happy. We have become a nation of financiers. A nation obsessed with flashy ball players paid mega dollars, CEO's bringing home checks with so many zeroes it will make your head hurt, starlets wearing next to nothing, and reality shows illustrating the decline of our culture. In this era of bigger is better, more, more, more, Rick Bragg has written a book about the lives of hard working, everyday people who hold their dignity close. Rick reminds us of a set of values and a way of life that defined our country far better than the lust for the deal, and fast money culture of late. This book is a powerhouse! Pulitzer Prize winner Timothy Egan's new book, The Big Burn, is a powerful work of non-fiction particularly relevant for Central Oregon, surrounded as we are by forest. His writing is so alive, he drops you right into the inferno! This one roars to life from the first page! Pick it up, if you dare. Imagine a fire covering millions of acres, the heat reaching 2000 degrees, whipped into a frenzy by the wind the fire races faster than Secretariat on his best days, flames shooting so high they paint the night red in the next state! Egan makes it real, you can hear those crackling flames, feel the heat, and see the fire advancing. I had to keep looking up to make sure I was still safe in my chair; his writing is so incredibly vivid. I kept expecting to see the hot red flames licking the sky. In 1910 the biggest fire in US history turned 3 million acres to cinders. Men died, towns were piles of ash. Egan pays tribute to the heroes and calls out the scoundrels. Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot had plans for the forests, they wanted to preserve them for generations to come. But they had foes, big business saw the forests as opportunity for cash, they tried to cripple the Forest Service, leaving it ill equipped to fight a blaze of such ferocity. Roosevelt and Pinchot would be good to have around today. We need men with their vision and passion. There are some great books to read!