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WANTED: Book suggestions for our January & February 2012 NON-FICTION group discussion!

Collaborate in choosing our next NON-FICTION book for group discussion within this forum. A minimum of 5 posts is necessary to participate here!
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Chris OConnor

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WANTED: Book suggestions for our January & February 2012 NON-FICTION group discussion!

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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?
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Re: WANTED: Book suggestions for our January & February 2012 NON-FICTION group discussion!

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Evolutionary Psychology: A Beginner's Guide
http://www.amazon.com/Evolutionary-Psyc ... 107&sr=8-2
The evolutionary approach to the human mind is becoming more and more influential, but its claims and assumptions are often misunderstood by proponents and critics alike. This slim but important volume gives us a very readable - and much needed - overview of what evolutionary psychology is and is not. Daniel Nettle, University of Newcastle

Robin Dunbar, Louise Barrett, and John Lycett offer a crisp and accessible introduction to evolutionary psychology's key principles and findings. By shining the light of Darwin's big idea on human behavior and thinking they show how genetic and cultural evolution might work together to predispose our central human traits, our moral inclinations, and even our uniqueness. David G. Myers, Professor of Psychology, Hope College, and author of The Pursuit of Happiness

I like this book very much. It is well written and easy to read, and clears up many of the most persistent misunderstandings about evolutionary psychology. The many examples make clear why evolutionary psychology should underpin all areas of psychology rather than being treated as a separate area itself. Susan Blackmore, author of The Meme Machine
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.
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Re: WANTED: Book suggestions for our January & February 2012 NON-FICTION group discussion!

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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'?
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Re: WANTED: Book suggestions for our January & February 2012 NON-FICTION group discussion!

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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
Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems—to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it.

Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that for more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.

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
"Life is sad, life is a bust, all you can do, is do what you must, you do what you must do, and you do it well, I do it for you, honey baby can't you tell?" Bob Dylan
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Re: WANTED: Book suggestions for our January & February 2012 NON-FICTION group discussion!

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Another bust for non-fiction suggestions? No one has a book they want to read?
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Re: WANTED: Book suggestions for our January & February 2012 NON-FICTION group discussion!

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jRup wrote: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'?

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.
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Re: WANTED: Book suggestions for our January & February 2012 NON-FICTION group discussion!

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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.
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Re: WANTED: Book suggestions for our January & February 2012 NON-FICTION group discussion!

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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.
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Re: WANTED: Book suggestions for our January & February 2012 NON-FICTION group discussion!

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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.
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Re: WANTED: Book suggestions for our January & February 2012 NON-FICTION group discussion!

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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?
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