March 1, 2024

CulturePolicy

What is the AF Community Reading?

By: Jacob Fox

A recent post on the America’s Future National Members Facebook Group revealed the recent reading habits of AF members nationwide. 

Kacey Crane shared her completion of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer. She added that her next project is Dune by Frank Herbert to prepare for Dune: Part 2, a movie releasing this spring.

Mariah Hardy-Spence expressed her enjoyment of Sara Goodman Confino’s Don’t Forget to Write and She’s Up to No Good, stating they were “cozy reads.”

Amanda Kieffer recommends The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Her next book is Wizard at Large, book 3 of the Magic Kingdom of Landover series by Terry Brooks.

Kate Brewster Zickel is currently reading The E Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber and recently finished The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer.

Thomas Johnson is expanding his knowledge of fundraising with Mega Gifts: Who Gives Them, Who Gets Them by Jarold Panas, but also recommends the biographies of Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder. He says that the biographies of the married couple “paint a beautiful picture of two people who were very different…yet who could love and cherish one another.” 

Jessi L. Troyan has explored a few spy novels set in East Germany, including The Matchmaker by Paul Vidich and The Berlin Exchange by Joseph Kanon. She says, “Wouldn’t highly recommend either, but they’ve been entertaining.”

Tom Savidge recommends Money: Its Origins, Development, Debasement, and Prospects by John H. Wood for anyone looking to learn about monetary theory and policy.  He praises it as “entertaining and surprisingly accessible,” something we need a lot more of in economics!

Matthew Kline has been a serial reader recently, with an extensive list including Peace, War, and Liberty: Understanding U.S. Foreign Policy by Christopher Preble, Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian, Dune by Frank Herbert, A Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, Two Faces of Tomorrow by James Hogan, and Domestic Extremist: A Practical Guide to Winning the Culture War by Peachy Keenan.

Aaron White finishes the list with an eclectic taste of Horizons Blossom, Borders Vanish: Anarchism in Yiddish Literature by Anna Elena Torres and Freedom in Contention: Social Movements and Liberal Political Economy by Mikayla Novak. 

As for my most recent reads, Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities by Alain Bertaud and Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach by Martha Nussbaum claim the title. One advocates for free market solutions to complex societal problems and the other one is written by Nussbaum.

Regardless of the type of reader you are, keep an eye out for books published by our AF Writing Fellows. They are worth your time.