Book Buying Binge!

Normally I'm tentative when buying new books, but one of my birthday gifts was a gift certificate from Powell's (thanks, Carroll!), plus I had a gift certificate from Amazon courtesy of my employer. So I broke from character, and splurged.

Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present
I've already read part of this indispensible, groundbreaking book, getting through the Civil War before having to return it to the library. So important is this book that I thought it deserved a permanent place on my bookshelf.

Stuart Dybek: I Sailed With Magellan
Dybek's latest story collection. This one is written in the "linked stories" form, with a series of stories containing common characters, settings and themes, so it reads more like a novel than a typical story collection. I loved both his previous fiction efforts, The Coast of Chicago and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods, and I'm sure this one will be equally wonderful.

Paul Krugman: The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century
Krugman is probably my favorite journalist. He's a Princeton economics professor who was hired by The New York Times to write economic-centered commentary, but he's moved far beyond that to become one of the Bush administration's fiercest and most prominent critics. His NYT columns are consistently thoughtful, well-reasoned and persuasive. I just hope this collection of his writings doesn't become hopelessly dated once Bush becomes a dark but distant memory.

Art Spiegelman: In the Shadow of No Towers
Spiegelman's magnificent two-volume Maus first established graphic novels as a legitimate form of serious fiction. Here he vividly recreates 9/11 (to which he was a eyewitness) and its political aftermath (which left him furious). The artwork is typically gorgeous, and the format fascinating--oversized and printed on heavy cardboard stock. I won't be able to read this on the train, since there's no way it will fit in my backpack.

Aleksandar Hemon: Nowhere Man
Already read it, thought it was brilliant, had to have my own copy for many future re-readings.

Jack Conroy: The Disinherited
Conroy was an early proletarian writer and activist who was a colleague and sometimes mentor of Nelson Algren, and this novel is supposed to be one of the classics of the long-forgotten proletarian movement.