May 1, 2014, Thursday afternoon -- Reading George Packer

At the Ferry building on an unseasonably warm day (it was in the 80's!!!)

Reading The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, by George Packer.  The author follows 5 Americans from 1978 until 2012 and interviews them every five years.  The interviewees include a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, a biodiesel entrepreneur, a factory worker who became a community organizer, and a lobbyist.  The author also interviewed several other Americans such as Alice Waters.

The best book he's read in the last six months is a collection of essays about South Africa called The Lion Sleeps Tonight, by Rian Malan.  The titular essay is about the song of that name, by Solomon Linda, who never received any royalties for it, not even after Disney used it in The Lion King.  There was a court case, however, and Solomon Linda's children are now receiving a share of the royalties.