Who do you think would win a speech-off between Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan?
Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi: The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke
Reading this book explained a whole lot of things about why so many families I know are struggling financially, even though we don't spend extravagantly. Simultaneously enlightening and nauseating.
Elizabeth Warren: All Your Worth : The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan
If other personal finance books have frustrated you because they assume you have money to invest and you don't even have enough money to buy a large coffee, this is the personal finance book for you. Reading this book showed me that it's not that I waste money on stupid things--it's that our basic expenses are too high to begin with. Reading this book is the end of financial guilt and the beginning of getting out of the hole.
Adele Faber: Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too
Lots of great ideas to think about and put into practice about not assigning your kids roles and how to approach fights. Also goes over some of the stuff from the How to Talk So Kids Will Listen book about making kids feel understood. Because, really, that's all anyone wants--to be understood. And kids are people, too.
Anne Lamott: Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year
Just perfect. A beautiful, funny, sad, accurate account of what the first days, weeks, and months with a baby are like. This is exactly what your journal would be, if you could write as well as she does.
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc: Random Family : Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
LeBlanc's writing and pacing makes you want to keep reading despite the tragic story. Think you have an informed opinion about welfare reform and how to strengthen families in this country? Not until you've read this book.
John Taylor Gatto: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
This is the red pill. Don't read it if you want to stay comfortable with the American school system. Gatto goes into why government-owned schools were created and the things they actually teach us.
Ellis Avery: The Smoke Week: September 11-21, 2001
If you have any curiosity about what it was like for New Yorkers during the World Trade Center attacks, this is the book to read. A brilliant, crystalline, spot-on memoir of the week or so after the attacks, this book is an ode to New Yorkers. Realistic, clean, and completely un-maudlin, it's just the story of what it was like for us. This is what should go into a time capsule to represent September 2001.
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The comments to this entry are closed.
Depends if David Bowie is judging on not.
Posted by: Anna | November 07, 2008 at 09:05 PM
Clinton. He makes each audience feel as though he's talking just to them. He could convince you to cut off your right arm and suck the marrow out of it.
Posted by: Kizz | November 07, 2008 at 10:09 PM
Today? Clinton. In 3 years? I'm betting Obama.
Posted by: Ally | November 07, 2008 at 10:58 PM
Oooh .... good one.
What Kizz said ... I think Bill. When he turns it on he could convince you to push your own mother off a cliff.
But with Bill you wake up the next day feeling like you need a shower, Reagan you don't remember what he said and Barack you are still thinking about his speech three days later ...
Posted by: Carla Hinkle | November 08, 2008 at 12:18 AM
Reagan, but after they analyzed the speeches and realized he was making everything up, they would have to reconvene.
Can you tell I took a poli sci class and studied presidential speeches?
Posted by: Jill | November 08, 2008 at 09:09 AM
If you heard them on the radio and didn't know any of them, President-elect Obama. He's got it.
Posted by: Num Num | November 08, 2008 at 10:18 AM
While I disagree with just about all he stood for, it has to be Reagan. Clinton is just that charismatic, but it's not just his rhetoric. Reagan was a trained actor. He had the voice and he knew how to sell it. Trust me, for content, Clinton and Obama have me at hello. But Reagan's speechifyin' was something else entirely. And I'm with Ally on the giving Obama time, and Carla on how you feel after!
Posted by: MemeGRL | November 08, 2008 at 01:25 PM
I still believe in the man from Hope.
Posted by: Shannon | November 09, 2008 at 09:42 PM
Carla nails Bill precisely, but I think MemeGRL may be correct about Reagan. But, he suffers such a huge points deduction for factual challenges, it may swing back to Bill.
Then you factor in the morning-after shower-effect, and Obama starts to look pretty good.
But let's see how we feel in four years. It's not the campaigning, it's the governing that proves a president's worth.
Posted by: Jody | November 09, 2008 at 11:17 PM
In a true 'feel off' Barack would win. Also, if there was a contest for writing your own speeches. I think Bill is too angry now--I don't get the warm fuzzies when he speaks.
Posted by: Sarah | November 11, 2008 at 11:35 AM
I agree w/ sarah- that clinton is a little on the angry side right now. Interesting question Moxie!
Delivery of an idea is just about as important as the actual idea, if not more. I wonder what would have happened if Dubbya had better oratory skills? how would that have translated to his approval rating?
Posted by: Mercysmama | November 13, 2008 at 11:46 AM
It's so nice to have you do all of the research for us. It makes our decision making so much easier!! Thanks.
Posted by: MBT Shoes | July 21, 2011 at 04:51 AM