Non-Fiction book suggestions for July & August 2008

Chris OConnor

Non-Fiction book suggestions for July & August 2008

Please use this thread for making non-fiction book suggestions for our July & August 2008 non-fiction book selection. You should include a link to Amazon.com if you know how to make links, and aso include a few words on why you think your non-fiction book suggestion would be great as a BookTalk selection.

When you see suggestions in this thread that you agree would be a good choice please add your comments. Likewise, if you see a suggestion that you think would not be a good choice tell us so. Your comments are needed so we can weed through the suggestions and narrow them down.

President Camacho · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 8:22 pm Post subject:

Hey all you non-fiction book fans, I have an awesome book in store for you!

*Reading Rainbow music*

Laughing

Does anyone remember Reading Rainbow? I grew up with that show and I liked it a lot as a kid.

Anyway, for your consideration is a book I am going to read in the near future. I feel it is pertinent to every single American and because America's policies have such a HUGE impact on the rest of the world (because we are so super duper awesome) it is worth non-AMERICAns (every letter capitalized in America because we are so super duper awesome (Ophelia!!)) to read it as well.

The book is Unholy Wars by John Cooley. Cooley is an American so you know already that the book is going to be super duper awesome.

By the way, I just got back from a cinco de mayo party so I'm a little buzzing. I am still wearing my Mexican sombrero and a fake mustache. I celebrate other cultures as a way of showing other people that even though I am American and super duper awesome - I still have time to party.

Back on topic!!!

Here is an excerpt from your friendly neighborhood book dealer, Amazon: On second thought they didn't really say too much at all about this book.

The important thing is that Chomsky cites this book repeatedly and we all know how super duper awesome Chomsky is (because he is American).

So go check this one out. Non-Americans may need to wear sunglasses before reading the reviews because the amount of super awesomeness may cause spontaneous combustion.

http://www.amazon.com/Unholy-Wars-Afghanistan-International-Terrorism/ dp/0745319173/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210036034&sr=8-1

Biomachine · Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 11:58 pm Post subject:

I think Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body would be a great follow up after reading Your Inner Fish.

Saffron · Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 7:20 am Post subject: Walden

Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

From Amazon.com:

Thomas Hood · Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 7:53 pm Post subject:

I 'm a Walden enthusiast, Saffron. If it's discussed, I'll be there.

Tom

Lawrence · Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 1:15 pm Post subject: July/August selection

Walden is one of my five all time favorite books. I know BookTalk is not designed as a critique group but it sorta, kinda, is if the authors participate. For this reason, I request the members consider my essay for the July-August non-fiction discussion. I do so with humility not hubris. The comments posted by most of you on my blog show your kind and gentle spirit. I desire my thoughts receive the régime you give published authors. I formed the opinion members of BookTalk are educated, intelligent, and experienced enough not to need an author’s thoughts validated by the capital investment of a publisher to be considered worthy of being included in the public discourse of current issues.

My thoughts are like the horse on the track with two broken legs. If my thoughts are the vapid mutterings of an old geezer, I am begging you to put me out of my misery. My essay is rewritten and off to an outside editor. I’ll post it on the blog and take down the current postings when I receive the edited version. Although the essay is only fifty pages in length, like Dr. Shubin, I could list my references from which my thoughts were derived and they could hold your interest for some time.

It is my opinion my essay represents the essence of free thinking. Why I think that could be the basis of discussion. It is as academic a presentation of how humanity got to where we are as I’ve ever read. It is also not polemic as is much of the material written today on issues of church and state. Needless to say, I volunteer to be the moderator. And I’ve got something to recommend it to you. The Prez called me “dude” after he read it.

Again, my thanks to all of you for letting me in your party.

Thomas Hood · Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 2:05 pm Post subject:

Lawrence, we new guys aren't sure where your essay is.

Does the first chapter begin with the Mumford quote: "At the bottom of Spence’s Utopia, however, lies the conviction which he shares with Plato and all of the other genuine utopians; namely, that in Thoreau’s words less is accomplished by the thousands who are hacking at the branches of evil than by one who is striking at the root"?

http://www.booktalk.org/weblog_entry.php?e=23&start=10

Tom

Lawrence · Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject: Hi Tom

Yes, Mumford's quote is Chapter one. I'm not proficient in this blogging. If you go to view all entries the order of my posts are:
1. Sam Harris comparison
2. Stem cell research
3. The Pope's comments
4. The cover picture for the essay
5. Chapter 8
6. Dedication to lennie
7. Chapters 1,2,3
8. Chapters 4,5,6
9. Chapter 7

As soon as I get it edited I'll post in sequential order. Thanks for trying to get to it. Lawrence

Saffron · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 8:20 pm Post subject:

DWill posted the following quote on another thread about the book Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion by Stuart Kauffman

Lawrence · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 1:56 am Post subject: non-fiction July/August

I think you will be disappointed with Kauffman's book. There is no substance to his speculations. His proposals are the world view of a finite godist like William James, Peter Bertocci and Harold Kushner. I don’t know if Mr. Kauffman started life in a Jewish environment but many people who do end up with a finite godist world view.

If the non-fiction forum wants to do a study of world views the place to start would be Norman Geisler's Worlds Apart. Just a suggestion

Dissident Heart

David Graeber's Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire http://www.amazon.com/Possibilities-Essays-Hierarchy-Rebellion-Desire/ dp/1904859666/.

Product Description

“If anthropology consists of making the apparently wild thought of others logically compelling in their own cultural settings and intellectually revealing of the human condition, then David Graeber is the consummate anthropologist. Not only does he accomplish this profound feat, he redoubles it by the critical task—now more urgent than ever—of making the possibilities of other people’s worlds the basis for understanding our own.” —Marshall Sahlins, University of Chicago

“Graeber’s ideas are rich and wide-ranging; he pushes us to expand the boundaries of what we admit to be possible, or even thinkable.”—Steven Shaviro, Wayne State University

In this new collection, David Graeber revisits questions raised in his popular book, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. Written in an unpretentious style that uses accessible and entertaining language to convey complex theoretical ideas, these twelve essays cover a lot of ground, including the origins of capitalism, the history of European table manners, love potions in rural Madagascar, and the phenomenology of giant puppets at street protests. But they’re linked by a clear purpose: to explore the nature of social power and the forms that resistance to it have taken, or might take in the future.

Anarchism is currently undergoing a worldwide revival, in many ways replacing Marxism as the theoretical and moral center of new revolutionary social movements. It has, however, left little mark on the academy. While anarchists and other visionaries have turned to anthropology for ideas and inspiration, anthropologists are reluctant to enter into serious dialogue. David Graeber is not. These essays, spanning almost twenty years, show how scholarly concerns can be of use to radical social movements, and how the perspectives of such movements shed new light on debates within the academy.

David Graeber has written for Harper’s Magazine, New Left Review, and numerous scholarly journals. He is the author or editor of four books and currently lives in New York City.

............................................................

Graeber is an extraordinary scholar and deeply original thinker...provocative, compelling and smart. Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire is how one anthropologist explores power, the force of authority, and the seemingly universal drive to overthrow tyranny and embrace anarchy....this isnt simply pissed off thugs launching bricks- but sophisticated political theory linked to top notch anthropological scholarship rooted in a deep conviction that the struggle for freedom is an integral component of human existence.

Some links to Graeber's work:

Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology http://www.prickly-paradigm.com/paradigm14.pdf

Anarchism, Or The Revolutionary Movement Of The Twenty-first Century http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/9258

Army of Altruists http://www.sleepykid.org/blog/2007/01/13/army-of-altruists/

Chris OConnor · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 10:38 am Post subject:

I love the idea of reading and discussing Walden. Smile

I'd like to have a poll up within a week so more suggestions AND comments about the suggestions other people have made would be appreciated.

bradams · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 4:42 am Post subject:

I'd be happy to discuss Walden, but as it happens I've been doing a lot of reading about anarchism and the justification of authority so DissidentHeart's suggestion would suit me just fine too.

President Camacho · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 8:04 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't mind Walden. Hood and Saffron were telling me about it and it seems like something I should definitely read.

wrryn · Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject:

It's been ages since I read Walden. In fact, I was probably forced to read it before I could really understand it. I would love the opportunity to read it again and discuss it with this group.


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