Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life

Filmmaker and political activist Moore's outstanding memoir opens with an account of the infamous Oscar acceptance speech in which he proclaimed "Shame on you!" to President George W. Bush, and the ensuing fallout, which resulted in a slimmer Moore and 24-hour security from ex-Navy SEALS due to the many death threats he received. Eschewing a conventional linear narrative, Moore (Dude, Where's My Country?) offers twenty vignettes from his life that illustrate how his political and sociological viewpoints developed. Displaying his characteristic dry humor, his stories run the gamut, from the minor, a chance encounter with Senator Robert Kennedy in an elevator when a young Moore gets lost in the Capitol building, to the major, such as a high school speech that ultimately ended the Elks' Club's racist policies. True to form, Moore doesn't pull any punches, but he's grown as a writer, with more discussion and fewer extended rants than in his previous books. With the book's emotional highs and lows, and self-deprecating, empathetic style, Moore triumphs. Regardless of which side of the political fence readers are on, they're sure to find this collection enlightening, engaging, and occasionally enraging. (Sept.)