the god delusion by some old brit professor
this was a fun albeit masturbatory read. dawkins isn't half as patronizing as the title might suggest, and the anecdotes about bible babblers rule. most of this book, though, is just a wry look at basic philosophy and common sense, told in such a way that the average american -- grade eight education and all -- can grok it. i wound up skimming most of it looking for the bits where he insults jesus freaks, especially tormented jesus freak scientists. the evolution and atheism stuff has been retread a billion times in a million internet arguments, but dawkins provides a pretty clean and largely straightforward argument against "intelligent design" and the anthropomorphized concept of god most of you shitheels fearfully participate in. he didn't change my agnostic stance -- disproving anything as persistently and culturally memetic as the notion of god is just too much for my non-oxford brain -- but he doesn't do a bad job providing some structure for those who want to have a go at it. it's a lightweight, amusing read for internet elitists.
american fascists: the christian right and the war on america by a guy who probably knows phoenixdark
i got this for $7.99 at half-price books. with that title, i couldn't *not* read it (litotic hyperbole holds true, here). written by a well-known times columnist and harvard divinity school prof, this book succeeds when it points out just how batshit crazy most american religious kooketeers are, and fails when it lapses into its own hypocritical liberal eschatology (look it up). there's a lot of truth in what he says -- particularly when discussing how much of modern american religiosity is at its core the same sort of nationalist/patriotic with-us-or-against-us jingoistic rhetoric that fueled post-weimar germany -- but when he suggests that another 9/11 is all it'll take to turn us into a nation of brownshirts, i lol. (also, this book needs an editor; there's more typographical errors per page than a father_mike post).
darkly dreaming dexter by jeff lindsay
it's a much simpler read than i expected given the awesome and very nuanced showtime show based on this book, but on the other hand: dexter also murders pedophiles in this one. lindsay's straightforward narrative and tongue-in-cheek style make for some good black comedy, and the crime fetishism is a nice bonus.
dexter
