Civil Disobedience

Eli Schuster's View:

Synopsis: (Combination of Henry David Thoreau's 1849 essay "Resistance to Civil Government", and an excerpt from Walden on the importance of reading and books.) Basically, Thoreau exhorts his fellow citizens to grow some balls and refuse to accept bullshit from their government, even it if was popularly elected.

What I Learned: Thoreau spent a night in the slammer with a barn-burner for refusing to pay the local poll tax.

Memorable Line: "I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pittied it."

You Might Like This Book If: You're seriously pissed off about something the government is doing, and you really want to protest, but... it's your day off and you need a reason or two to get off the couch and leave your game of Grand Theft Auto.

Good Question: "Why does [the state] always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?"

Truckstop and Other Lake Wobegon Stories

Eli Schuster's View:

Synopsis: (5 short stories featuring the Krebsbach family in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota - one from Garrision Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days and four from Leaving Home). Florian accidentally leaves his wife at a truckstop, Lyle's roof is in bad shape, Carl ruins the Homecoming parade with a 1937 Chevy filled with feces, and the Krebsbach family carries on.

Memorable Line: "What's hard to live with is not the trash floating in your head but the ordinary facts of life: mortality, knowing that you'll die, and frailty, knowing that when we've got it figured out we don't, and indignity, knowing that if we manage to put up a good front we still have the backstage view."

What I Learned: If you accidentally leave your hypochondriac wife at a truckstop it's a much better idea to pretend you're angry with her than to admit the truth.

You Might Like This Book If: You grew up in a small town like Lake Wobegon and you're in the mood for a stroll down Memory Lane.

Random Observation: Garrison Keillor quite enjoys starting his stories with the words: "it has been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon."