Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy, by Pietra Rivoli

This audio book came free from NetLibrary.com, was 9 hours and 35 minutes long, and was narrated by Eliza Foss.

An economist is both annoyed and inspired by a protest against globalization by impassioned college students. After hearing one of the open-air speakers demand to know if we know were our t-shirts come from, economist and professor Pietra Rivoli goes to a souvenir shop, buys a t-shirt, and begins tracing its origins...and its destiny.

This is one of the most readable and interesting stories of the economic food chain you are likely to come across. It was a real page-turner with a stunning conclusion, that we all should be able to come to on our own: both the sweat shops and the protesters are important ingredients in the global ecosystem.

If you are a rabid free-trader, you must read this! It will alter your view of those naiive kids and their signs. If you are one of those capitalist-hating anti-globalists, you also should read this. If you have an open mind, it will temper your outrage and help you focus your efforts.

From the heavily protected and subsidized cotton fields of West Texas to the wide open, unregulated global recycling market in Africa, your t-shirt and been places and one things. And then it may come back again as it is broken down and respun into new thread!

Warning: there is lots of history in this book about the folly of working too hard to prevent trade. The English woolens industry kept cotton out of its markets for centuries. But regulations got weaker and weaker in the face of the eager public adoption of cooler cotton clothes. The last regulation to die was the one that required that the dead had to be buried in a wool suit!

Great stuff. Four stars. Oughta be a text book in our schools...

The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle, by Lois Battle

This book was a free download from NetLibrary.com, was 13 hours and 37 minutes long, and was narrated by Christine McMurdo-Wallis.

In Florabama, Alabama a lingerie manufacturer is moving offshore and leaving its hourly workforce behind. These are mostly women, and their best hope is a loophole a Displaced Homemakers program at the local community college.

In another part of Alabama, Bonnie Duke Cullman, a well-bred, comfortable woman and upper crust homemaker, discovers that her emotionally distant husband has made a train wreck of their finances. Their divorce leaves her without a rich husband to sue for alimony. She ends up taking a job with the community college in Florabama as the director of the Displaced Homemakers program. The difference between Bonnie and her educationally disadvantaged charges is that she has a rich father who was able to pull the strings needed to get her the job to begin with.

I expected her differences with the laid off ladies to breed discontent, but their differences among them have prepared them for life's discrepancies. Hilly Pruit and Ruth Elkins are next-door neighbors and close friends, even though Hilly is a bar-hopping red-head out of a country song, and Ruth is a quiet church-goer keeping her wayward daughter's brood of rug-rats.

Bonnie's connections and high-priced worldview come in handy as she matches her boutique connections to the ladies' skills, and convinces them that there is a market for Jane Austen era party dresses for little girls. And she is right. But that does not keep disaster from striking just as a glimmer of hope appears.

Characters trump story and this is a chick flick waiting to happen. Too much of a soap opera and too many missed opportunities to be 4 stars, but it's easily worth 3.

The New Golden Age, by Ravi Batra

This unabridged audio book came from the Alachua County Public Library on 9 CDs, and was read by Brian Emerson.

If you make enough predictions, you are bound to get some right. Both psychics and economists count on this, and Professor Batra is no different. In fact, Batra was the winner of an Ig Nobel prize in 1993. He was described as a, "shrewd economist and best-selling author of "The Great Depression of 1990" ($17.95) and
"Surviving the Great Depression of 1990" ($18.95), for selling enough copies of his books to single-handedly prevent worldwide economic collapse."

When Batra is not delivering an anti-Bush and Cheney rant, this idealistic Hindu slant on history is actually quite provocative and entertaining. It is mostly an expansion on P.R. Sarkar's theories of social evolution. These theories propose that societies are comprised of 4 social classes: laborers, intellectuals, warriors, and acquisitors (capitalists). The intellectuals, warriors and acquisitors take turns dominating and ruling society as the laborers cast their lots with each group in a predictable progression. The domination of the rich acquisitors always ends in massive corruption, immorality and poverty. The warriors and labor take their country back, establish order, fairness and traditional family. Eventually, they give way to the intellectuals, who are better at governing than conquering. Then they give way to the business people, who are better at expanding opportunity. When not enough people are taking advantage of opportunity, and those who are live like kings, the warriors again ascend to restore justice. At least, that is theme of this book.

It is easy to get caught up in Batra's worldview because he draws on so much history to demonstrate his thesis. And much of that history comes from beyond Western Civilization, which raises the level of fascination. He tells us that there are frequent examples of Golden Ages, which he always assigns to the time after the evil rich are dethroned. Of course, these Golden Ages come on two-edged swords. It is not uncommon for them to have rather puritanical backlashes against pornography, prostitution, and homosexuality. The poor are not just sick of the injustices of the rich. The perversion and vulgarity of the age usually suffers as well. The recent squeeze on talk radio hosts Don Imus and Opie & Anthony were not led by the Religious Right, but by civil libertarians devouring their own kind. Apparently, a lot of people have limits after all.

Like a good economist, who has been burned by his own lack of judgment in the past, Batra demonstrates that there are also escape clauses for the social cycle and all that comes with it. After venting his spleen on Bush and the Iraq War, he actually dares to say that the rest of the world needs to pitch in and help because America has saved the world's bacon before, and that failing to do so could be a big mistake! He even intimates that history may vindicate Bush in the end.

In the last chapter, he also does a little back-pedaling on the meaning of the Golden Age. But I can forgive him because I always grade economists on a curve. In spite of its sometimes puzzling contradictions and omissions, I gave this book 3 stars for having much to offer any discussion on national and international affairs. There is something to offend everyone, and to enlighten as well.

Schmidt Delivered, by Louis Begley

This audiobook was obtained from Netlibrary.com, was 8 hours and 11 minutes long, and was free. It was also narrated by George Guidall.

This is a sequel to "About Schmidt", which was made into a movie that starred Jack Nicholson. The movie was pretty good, which is what lured me to download this book.

I didn't care for it. A novel needs at least one likable character for me to get on board. Schmidt is a retired attorney who is everybody's ATM. His bloodsucking daughter scorns him to his face while shaking him down. The young woman who lives with him is already looking for greener pastures while driving the BMW he gave her. Some bad penny that he tried to help out has failed again and is now back on his doorstep. And he could be dangerous.

Add to that the only really compelling character, a pushy billionaire who is trying to get Schmidt out of retirement to run one of his foundations, and there is really no one to pull for. That leaves Schmidt, who you wish would just blow everyone off, get on a sailboat, and sail away with no forwarding address. But who cares if he does, because he is such a schmuck.

One star is all it's worth, and a distant one at that.

Stationary Bike, by Stephen King

This short audiobook was downloaded from NetLibrary.com, was only 1 hour and 28 minutes long, and was read by Ron McLarty.

This is not a horror story, but an odd piece of fantasy fiction. An overweight man in his late 30's, Richard Sifkitz vows to lower his cholesterol and his weight. Mr. Sifkitz is also a commercial artist, so to relieve the boredom of riding his new stationary bike, he paints a wall mural to watch as he rides. The mural contains parts of his past, and parts of himself. More or less.

Not great, but 3 stars for imagination...and brevity.

Dark Genius of Wall Street, by Edward Renehan

This book was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com, was 14 hours and 50 minutes long, and narrated by George Wilson.

This great biography is about one of the players of America's Gilded Age, Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons.

I don't know if you can really get a grasp of American history without getting to know the players. Jay Gould was the most notorious stock manipulator of the 19th century, and one of the richest men in the world during his lifetime. He began as a teen-aged land surveyor who got stiffed by his employer. From there he began publishing the maps he was stuck with, then got into the hide tanning business. By the time he was in his early 30s he owned a railroad and was driving his competitor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, crazy.

Unfortunately, he made a train wreck of his reputation in the stock market. The times were incredibly corrupt, and you had to be a dirtbag to keep from getting skinned. So he became the biggest dirtbag of them all. By the time he died, every paper could only speak ill of him.

Yet, this was a very humanizing look at a man who made a vast fortune bringing other millionaires to the point of nervous exhaustion. He was a devious competitor and a micro-managing CEO of every company he was involved in. He was brilliant, yet he was also a tragic figure who lamented, toward the end of his life, that he could give his children everything except a good name.

4 stars for this amazing trip back to Victorian Era America.

The Great Fire, by Shirley Hazzard

This book came from the Alachua County Library, was published in 2004, is 11 hours and 15 minutes long, and was narrated by Virginia Leishman.

Shortly after WW2, a young British Officer has gone to Japan to do research for a book. He is in his early 30's, divorced, and falls in love with his superior's teenage daughter. This is not as racy as it sounds. Think: audio version of "Masterpiece Theatre". Slow, plodding story with lots of engaging scenery. Harmless is canceled out by dull. This is a one-star book.