Five Books, and An Expanded View of Everything

I'm gainfully employed, and as such, work 50 hour weeks pretty consistently.  That said, I don't get a lot of time to read.  BUT, when I do, I prefer Dos Equis-  I mean, I have found that what I read has changed pretty drastically from my college days.  Over the past five years in the "real world," I have somehow developed a pretty intense interest in:

1)  Politics, in general

2)  The Middle East

Over the past couple years, I have read (or am in the process of reading) several books that have given me an expanded view of everything.

The books, and a lightning quick synopsis of each (as I interpret them) are below.  All of them are enormously pertinent to things going on right now in the US and the world.  I highly recommend each of the five if you are curious to know the back story behind all the garbage that typical media outlets put out:

1)  The Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein)-  Powerful entities (usually governments) exploit times of turmoil (shock) to push forward agendas that in "normal times," they probably could not.  A quick example:  When the tsunami hit Indonesia years ago, a ton of people were displaced from the beaches where they had lived for all their lives.  When they tried to return, they found that they were not permitted to-  And the government was like:  "Yeah, sorry, it's better for us to turn this area into a sweet resort.  You are out of luck.  Now run along."

For a very TODAY (literally) example of it, check out this  NYT Article

2)  The Great Game (Peter Hopkirk)-  Long before the US botched its adventure in Afghanistan, Britain and Russia did too (in the 1800's when both had intense interests in India).  Britain and Russia's misadventures were incredibly well documented, so you would think the US would not make the exact same mistakes.  But we did.  This book highlights just how much we don't learn from history.  If the book sounds dry, it is NOT.  It is highly entertaining!  There's a lot of "Man vs Wild" type adventuring that gets told in it so it reads like a thriller... and yet you are learning!

3)  The Great War for Civilization (Robert Fisk)-  This book highlights atrocities that have been committed by a huge number of countries/empires/etc with, what I think is, little bias.  It says what a lot of other books/journalists/media outlets will not.  The primary focus is on the Middle East, analyzing the last 150 years.  

4)  Winner Take All Politics (Jacob Hacker, Paul Pierson)-  This book came out in the past year and highlights how much the top 1% (and top 0.1%) of American earners have left the "middle class" behind.  Basically, look at THIS.

5)  Imperial Life in the Emerald City-  This book highlights the total shitshow that went on in Iraq after the US occupied it.  A very frustrating read since it has so many examples of complete ineptitude.