Alternate Political

In Max Barry's twisted, hilarious vision of the near future, the world is run by giant American corporations; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; The Police and The NRA are publicly-traded security firms. Jennifer Government is a Catch-22 for the New World Order, a satire both broad and pointed, deeply funny and disturbingly on-target.

A young Yale academic is summoned to Ireland to claim the contents of her grandfather's safe-deposit box, in which she finds only one thing: a nonfiction manuscript by James Bond author Ian Fleming. The manuscript, detailing Fleming's own involvement in British espionage during World War II, contains evidence that the Duke of Windsor was in a treasonous plot with Hitler, information so confidential that people are willing to kill to continue its secrecy.

A Third Term is a speculative fiction by New York Times bestselling author Paul Greenberg in which a Democratic political operative snatches George Washington from his deathbed in 1799 and brings him to the present era. Riddled with pneumonia, possessing dentures fashioned from slave’s teeth, and an aristocratic sensibility tempered by war and religious faith, Washington will require considerable rehabilitation to pose a challenge to the man he only refers to as “The Tyrant.” But a wily, unorthodox campaign manager and a sexy, sympathetic personal trainer are up for the job.

Divisible imagines a future where our political divides become geographic ones. Three intriguing short stories capture a post Second Civil War dystopia. A trade minister from the United State crosses the border and learns of a new technology that could put millions of lives at risk. A custody battle unfolds in America pitting gender bias against traditional values. A solitary man in the Nation of Ute writes to a future generation while documenting the tragedy that befell the Old Country. “I’m asking you, future human, child of my great-great grandchildren’s children, to ponder our progress. Whether you look upon these words as a peace offering from the past, a roadmap for the future, or a silly parable offering nothing more than mild entertainment, I urge you read it through and perceive its absolute sincerity.”

Las trompetas de la guerra han sido silenciadas. Los aliados celebran la victoria sobre una Alemania aplastada. Entretanto, Estados Unidos y la Unión Soviética se disputan los territorios como botines de guerra, pero no todo es lo que parece: desde los confines del nuevo mundo la sombra del terror amenaza con extenderse de nuevo.

Luego de estar en prisión por casi 20 años, Jean Valjean, un ex-convicto, llega a un pueblo donde nadie se digna a hospedarlo y a darle de comer, salvo por don Bienvenido, el párroco. Traicionando a su único protector, Valjean huye luego de robarle la cubertería de plata, aunque no logra ir muy lejos ya que es detenido por la policía. Su vida tiene un golpe de suerte cuando el párroco decide no denunciarlo ante las autoridades y le hace prometer que va a usar lo que ha tomado para hacerse un hombre de bien.

Ayn Rand’s dystopic science fiction novella takes place at some unspecified future date. Mankind has entered another dark age as a result of what Rand saw as the weaknesses of socialistic thinking and economics. Technological advancement is now carefully planned -- when it is allowed to occur at all -- and the concept of individuality has been eliminated.

A riveting adult audiobook portraying a leader who brazenly speaks of his horrible beliefs and actions as he betrays his own nation in exchange for supreme power and personal gain. This work of art contains an alphabetic breakdown of these beliefs and actions as well as other major revelations designed to make all aware of his misdeeds.

October 15, 2016: Hillary died in her sleep today. I was smoking a fat Cohiba when I heard the news. We were still talking about Hillary a couple hours later when we heard a rumbling and went outside to West Broadway. A great throng of Bernies was moving toward us from Prince Street. The crowd grew as we watched, swollen by new Bernies as it moved. An ad hoc Bernie rally. Someone carried a large effigy of Bernie’s hoary head before it. I saw something red and realized it was a red flag, the universal banner of revolution, unfurled by revolutionaries since the Middle Ages.