false <![CDATA[Them: Adventures with Extremists]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1158959674m/1823.jpg 1823 5 In <I>Them</I>, British humorist Jon Ronson relates his misadventures as he engages an assortment of theorists and activists residing on the fringes of the political, religious, and sociological spectrum. His subjects include Omar Bakri Mohammed, the point man for a holy war against Britain (Ronson paints him as a wily buffoon); a hypocritical but engaging Ku Klux Klan leader; participants in the Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas, battles; the Irish Protestant firebrand Ian Paisley; and David Ickes, who believes that the semi-human descendants of evil extraterrestrial 12-foot-tall lizards walk among us. Despite these characters' disparities, they are bound by a belief in the Bilderberg Group, the "secret rulers of the world." In a final chapter, Ronson manages, with surprising ease, to penetrate these rulers' very lair. He writes with wry, faux-naive wit and eschews didacticism, instead letting his subjects' words and actions speak for themselves. <I>--H. O'Billovitch</I> 5946 2001 Them: Adventures with Extremists total:580|5:148|4:263|3:144|2:24|1:1| 580 2273 829 97 5 5 false false Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Wed Jan 23 16:49:03 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 23 16:54:53 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 4 false false Sat Dec 29 23:22:21 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 29 23:26:18 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 2 false false Mon Oct 06 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 06 20:27:21 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 06 20:43:46 -0700 2008
Of course my one problem i...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 01 14:25:47 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 05:36:27 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Jan 26 10:08:57 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 17 18:14:49 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 10:08:42 -0800 2008
This book is... interesting to say the least.

It reads like fiction, and the ideas put forward are so ridiculous that you can't help but think that it is, indeed, fiction.

Fi...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 18 14:48:59 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 18 14:49:00 -0700 2007
I loved how a subject is treated with a deceptively light touch by Ronson. The book is c...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 09 15:43:32 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 09 15:50:12 -0800 2007
Although I did not find Them to be as good as The Men Who Stare At Goats, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. This novel delves...more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 08:35:59 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 20 01:17:24 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 02 10:46:45 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 02 16:14:36 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Mon Aug 18 00:45:16 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 18 00:49:56 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 30 16:30:17 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 14:05:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jul 29 20:14:36 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 20:24:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Fri Dec 05 07:28:21 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 05 07:38:36 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Mar 07 21:33:54 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 13:23:22 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 21:33:54 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 12:36:42 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 16:34:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 31 09:13:32 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 09:24:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Aug 09 11:05:44 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 11:40:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Dec 10 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Oct 23 08:56:22 -0700 2008 Wed Dec 10 08:39:17 -0800 2008
I had thoroughly enjoyed Ronson's second book, The Men Who Stare at Goats: a rollicking read full of delicious improbability and governmental-military weirdness. This, however, landed surprisingly very close to home for me. I had forgotten just how deeply steeped my adolescence was i...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Nov 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 16:27:37 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 16:40:16 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 29 16:13:03 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 22 16:29:54 -0700 2009 1
When it turned up at Vinnies for three bucks, I thought it was a worthy purchase.

I'd previously read Ronson's The Men W...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1823