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Speaking Volumes was a weekly conversation hosted by Josh Raulerson on books and reading with interesting people from all walks of life here in Pittsburgh.Speaking Volumes as a regular feature ended in December, 2013 but occasional specials may pop up.

From Rand to Friedan: Recommendations from AC Controller Chelsa Wagner

Josh Raulerson
/
90.5 WESA

Not all Ayn Rand fans are small-government conservatives. Take Allegheny County Controller and self-professed liberal Democrat Chelsa Wagner, for example …

Wally Lamb, “She’s Come Undone

In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years.

Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Stranded in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally orbits into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before she really goes under.

~Barnes and Noble

Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged

The astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world — and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, “Atlas Shrugged” is unlike any other book you have ever read. It is a mystery story, not about the murder of a man’s body, but about the murder — and rebirth — of man’s spirit.

With this acclaimed work and it’s immortal query “Who is John Galt?” Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. This I the book that made her not only one of the most popular novelists of our century, but also one of its most influential thinkers.

~Signet

Alex Kotlowitz, “There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in Other America

This is the moving and powerful account of two  remarkable boys struggling to survive in Chicago's  Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex  disfigured by crime and neglect.

In his acclaimed 1987 series for The Wall Street Journal, Alex Kotlowitz established that the tender underside of our embattled inner cities is the children, urban America's greatest casualty and its only hope. With this searing and important work, he continues the stories of 12-year-old Lafayette Rivers and his younger brother Pharoah as they confront tragedy on a daily basis.

~Amazon

Betty Friedan, “The Feminine Mystique

The book that changed the consciousness of a country—and the world.

Landmark, groundbreaking, classic—these adjectives barely describe the earthshaking and long-lasting effects of Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique." This is the book that defined "the problem that has no name," that launched the Second Wave of the feminist movement, and has been awakening women and men with its insights into social relations, which still remain fresh, ever since. A national bestseller, with over 1 million copies sold.

~Amazon

Josh Raulerson is the local host for Morning Edition weekdays from 5-9 a.m. on 90.5 WESA.