What NON-FICTION book would you like to read and talk about in January and February of 2012?

TIMELINE
This book suggestion thread is going up on November 28th and will be closed on or around December 8th. So there is not a lot of time for non-fiction book suggestions. Jump right in and help us with this non-fiction book selection process. Please don't wait for other people to get started.

Once we have enough suggestions a poll thread will go up on or around December 9th. This poll will stay up for 7 - 10 days. Around December 19th we should have a non-fiction book selected as our next non-fiction book for group discussion.

IMPORTANT
Please only make posts in this thread if you are an active member with 25 or more posts on the BookTalk.org forums AND you intend to actually participate in the next non-fiction book discussion.

AUTHORS & PUBLISHERS
If you're an author, publisher or simply a newer member eager to tell us about a book do NOT do it in this thread. You should create a NEW thread and share your book suggestion there. This thread is for selecting our next non-fiction book for group discussion and not a place for advertising books. We do not consider book suggestions for our group discussion books from brand new members, authors or publishers. We welcome such suggestions in this FORUM, just not in this THREAD.

25 FORUM POSTS
If you have 25 or more forum posts AND you intend to actually read and participate in the book discussion please feel free to suggest a couple non-fiction books here. Give us the title and author's name and ideally either a link to where we can read reviews or just post a review or book description right here.

FEEDBACK IS VITAL
We need feedback on ALL books suggested or we'll assume books that didn't receive feedback are not liked by anyone other than the person that suggested them. Please make your book suggestion and then go through all of the other suggestions and evaluate them. Would they make for a good discussion? State your opinion openly. Please don't be shy. If you like a book say so. If you think a particular suggestion is boring, too long, or just not your cup of tea please say so. Again, feedback is extremely important. For us to have successful book discussions we have to select books that a lot of people are excited to read and discuss. Your feedback is vital to the integrity of our book selection process so please offer it.

So what would you like to read and discuss in January and February?

Evolutionary Psychology: A Beginner's Guide
http://www.amazon.com/Evolutionary-Psyc ... 107&sr=8-2



I thought this could be an interesting topic, it's a short, inexpensive book with good reviews. I was going to suggest Robert Wright's book on this topic, The Moral Animal, but I figure it was published 10 years earlier so this might be better.

I recommend -

News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media
by Juan González
Edition: Hardcover
Price: $18.59

A fascinating book, well researched and engagingly written - follows
American media from colonial to present - for example: Did you know
that California Chinese immigrants published newspapers two years
before the first one published in mainland China? That government
postal services, in defiance of federal law, routinely destroyed minority
newspapers rather than let alternative ideas circulate among the
'marginalized'?

Graeber is a key player in shaping the intellectual conscience of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and this book is a highly pertinent examination of one of the key issues driving much of our current global unrest- the ferocious history of Debt.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber

amazon.com/Debt-First-5-000-Years/dp/19 ... 1933633867

Before there was money, there was debt




To Have Is to Owe. Mesopotamian usury, Vedic accounting, American Jubilee: excavating the history of fiscal debt. By David Graeber, Illustrations by Joanna Neborsky.

http://www.canopycanopycanopy.com/10/to_have_is_to_owe

Debt, From Ancient Tool To Modern Weapon

npr.org/2011/07/24/138589354/the-evolut ... -to-greece

David Graeber: The Debt of the American Poor Should Be Forgiven
democracynow.org/2011/9/19/david_graebe ... ebt_of_the

Another bust for non-fiction suggestions? No one has a book they want to read?

I might be up for reading it, but it doesn't look like you have 25 posts. Although you have been here since 2007.

As for the other selections, they're not available at my library, unfortunately. I prefer to borrow nonfiction books, because I tend to not reread them.

Leviathan

Hobbes: Leviathan: Revised student edition (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) [Paperback]

http://www.amazon.com/Hobbes-Leviathan- ... 766&sr=8-1

Hobbes' Leviathan is arguably the greatest piece of political philosophy written in the English language. Since its first publication, Richard Tuck's edition of Leviathan has been recognized as the single most accurate and authoritative text, and for this revised edition Professor Tuck has provided a much-amplified and expanded introduction. Other vital study aids include an extensive guide to further reading, a note on textual matters, a chronology of important events and brief biographies of important persons mentioned in Hobbes' text.

I'd read the debt book for sure but I'd probably not be able to get around to it until February at the earliest. Also, if I can't find one that's reasonably priced, I won't buy it. I'm not paying over 15 dollars for a hardback or 10 for a paperback. It's paper. These publishers are bonkers. They charge 30 today and tomorrow they drop the price to 7 dollars brand new.

I'm already reading a Carl Sagan book so I've about had my fill of evolution/genetics/space for the brief moment but it was a good suggestion.

I just threw my suggestion up there because I have planned to read it. I've just finished reading Two Treatises of Government by Locke, am halfway through with Aristotle's Politics, and so Leviathan is on deck.

I wouldn't be interested in the other selections, and I didn't think writing a negative comment was necessary. You have to figure, if no one posts "yes, I'd be willing to read that one" then we can assume there's not enough interest.

The only suggestion I have for getting more people aware/involved would be an announcement on Facebook. Or maybe a newsletter/e-mail sort of thing that has site updates? I'm kind of confused too; the site has a lot of members. Maybe we have a lot of people who aren't nonfiction fans?

This book is accessible and informative and could make for interesting discussion:

2012 Science or Superstition: The Definitive Guide to the Doomsday Phenomenon by Alexandra Bruce

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/2012-Superstition ... 1934708283

Website: http://www.2012sos.net/the-book/

Google Books: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=N-r ... &q&f=false

Online Text: http://www.archive.org/details/Alexandr ... perstition

I am currently reading this book and consider the author seeks an honest and informed perspective on this mass culture phenomenon of fear of the end of the world on 21 December 2012. She does make errors regarding astronomy, and that is interesting in itself in that many writers on these topics do not have a good grasp on science. However, these errors are mostly small, in the context of a largely factual explanation of the Mayan theory and its advocates, and are worth clearing up in discussion. The three main errors I have seen so far are her assertion that John Major Jenkins, a leading 2012 Mayanist, argues that the solstice will reach the galactic center in 2012, the Cruttenden Bibary Star theory, and the crust displacement theory. Jenkins in fact acknowledges the scientific observation that the solstice passed the galactic center in 1998. Cruttenden's claim that precession is due to a binary star is just wrong, and should not be treated sympathetically. The crust displacement theory is contradicted by Antarctic ice core records that Bruce herself cites. Nonetheless, these superstitions are out there in the public domain, and discussing them can help improve public knowledge of this topic.

I thought I already suggested this book, but I see it's not here. I believe that my book, Breaking the Code - a Father's Secret, a Daughter's Journey, and the Question That Changed Everything, would be an interesting book to discuss. It just came out and is getting a lot of nice reviews and positive attention. In a nutshell, it is a memoir about my father, a WWII veteran, who began having symptoms of PTSD more than 50-years after the war. It was during our unintended journey that I learned what my father really did during the war.

If you'd like to know more, you can read the first three chapters on my website at http://www.storymatters2.com or listen to our recent NPR interview at http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlaye ... =142072750 . Or read some reviews on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Code-Dau ... 025&sr=8-1 .

Thank you for considering Breaking the Code for your next read! ~Karen Fisher-Alaniz

I'm going to throw one out there.

Read this a year ago and it stayed with me for a very long time.

The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine by Somaly Mam

http://www.amazon.com/Road-Lost-Innocen ... 0385526210

I wouldn't be able to host the book as I don't have it and other reasons. But its is worth the read.

I've only been actively voting/participating in nonfiction for a couple of months now, so.. I can't really speak for previous selections. (shrug) My nonfiction taste is mostly limited to history and biographies, with an occasional psychology book.

"The Road of Lost Innocence" is at my library, so if it were selected I'd be willing to give it a go.

Yes I was going to say that not many history or biographical books are submitted. I'd really like to read a good book on the history of the Chilean coup. The Road of Lost Innocence does sound good, but unfortunately not on Kindle