“REMEMBERING RON — RECOMMENDED BOOK LIST”

June Smith

Ron posted a "Recommended Book List" every year around this time. Continuing his legacy, here's the first annual "Remembering Ron —2012 Recommended Book List". Ron read many of these books and I’ve added those I believe he would have wanted to read and asked our friends to add their best reads.

-Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?, Patrick J. Buchanan (Pat’s book was published late 2011 book but tops this list as it is a “must read”. There are two copies on the Smith’s bookshelf: one I bought for Ron last November and one Pat sent Ron a few days later, inscribed “To Ron Smith, in admiration of the good fight he has waged in our common cause and in appreciation of all he has done for this author. God bless, my friend, Pat.”

As you may know, Pat was the last person Ron interviewed. Off-air, they shared a fond farewell. After Ron left this mortal coil, Pat sent me a beautiful note and made a very generous donation to the Ron Smith Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund at Hopkins.

His columns have helped fill the intellectual void in my life since the loss of Ron, as have many of these books:

-Imperfection, Patrick Grant

-Colonial Consequences, John Wilson Foster

-The Subprime Solution, Robert J. Shiller

-The Economics of Enough: How to Run the Economy as if the Future Matters, Diane Coyle

-Cyberspace and National Security: Threats, Opportunities, and Power in a Virtual World, Derek S. Reveron, Editor

-Ethics Beyond World’s End, Eric Patterson, Editor

-Persuasion and Power: The Art of Strategic Communication, James P. Farwell

-Strategy in the Second Nuclear Age: Power, Ambition and the Ultimate Weapon, Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes, Editors

-The Only Authentic Book of Persuasion, Richard E. Vatz, Ph.D.

-From Ellen Sauerbray: Spreading the Wealth: How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities, Stanley Kurtz

-From LaneyB: Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph, Dennis Prager

-From Rob Douglas: The Real Crash, Peter Schiff; a “second motion” on Suicide of a Superpower, Pat Buchanan; The Road to Freedom, Arthur Brooks; Freedom Manifesto, Steve Forbes; and, Top Secret America, Dana Priest and William Arkin (noted that it was a late 2011, but a book every American should read).

Reading is fundamental and informative. Learning is life-changing and is a journey that leads to the truth.

You're welcome to send me books you recommend throughout 2013 for next year's list.

June Smith founded this tribute website in honor of her late husband, Ron Smith, WBAL Talk Show Host, Emmy Award winner, and Baltimore Sun Columnist. Smith was a media titan in Maryland and beyond for almost forty years. Mrs. Smith is working diligently to raise one million dollars for the Ron Smith Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund at Johns Hopkins. She blogs for Red Maryland www.RedMaryland.Blogspot.com; her email is june@friendsofronsmith.com.