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Q4, 2007 Nonfiction Book Suggestions

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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Dissident Heart

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Re: Q4, 2007 Nonfiction Book Suggestions

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The Power of Art by Simon SchamaFrom Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Schama presents eight remarkable artists who created their masterworks against a backdrop of personal and professional distress. From politically charged commentaries (David, Picasso, Turner and Rembrandt) to intensely personal visions of the world (van Gogh and Rothko) and the reinvention of the divine (Bernini and Caravaggio), Schama takes these masters' hallowed works off the museum wall and drags them through in the mud and muck that went into their creation: Bernini's savage attack on his mistress with a razor, Caravaggio's rapacious gutter lifestyle, Turner's hands-on (and more) approach to painting, David's willingness to follow his political allegiances no matter the cost. Schama's approach succeeds admirably in breaking away from conventional art history; throughout, he comes across like a cool British uncle talking about art late into the night. He renders these canonical works and their creators immediate and hip, conveying what it might have been like to be shocked by their audacity and sheer newness. This book should be of great value in a classroom, making an enormously appealing introduction for students encountering these artists for the first time. Though professional art historians will not find much new here in the way of research and analysis, anyone even remotely interested in art will find much to enjoy.Copyright
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Re: Suggestion

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Another suggestion:Lawless World - Philippe Sands QC(I think the American version has a slightly different subtitle. I'm assuming I have the British version which has the sub-title 'The whistle-blowing account of how Bush and Blair are taking the law into their own hands' but the American one seems to be subtitled 'America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules -- From FDR's Atlantic Charter to George W. Bush's Illegal War'.) An introduction to international law, its importance and its abuse. I came across this in a second hand book store yesterday for 2.50, so far so good. The reviews have been positive.www.amazon.com/exec/obido...letereviewFrom Publishers WeeklySands, a British international lawyer and law professor, delivers a cool, reasoned lashing to the Bush administration for leading
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Dissident Heart

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Here's a book that explores the limits, and dangers, and human, all-too human dimensions of science; specifically, medical science.Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul GawandeEditorial ReviewsAmazon.com: Gently dismantling the myth of medical infallibility, Dr. Atul Gawande's Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science is essential reading for anyone involved in medicine--on either end of the stethoscope. Medical professionals make mistakes, learn on the job, and improvise much of their technique and self-confidence. Gawande's tales are humane and passionate reminders that doctors are people, too. His prose is thoughtful and deeply engaging, shifting from sometimes painful stories of suffering patients (including his own child) to intriguing suggestions for improving medicine with the same care he expresses in the surgical theater. Some of his ideas will make health care providers nervous or even angry, but his disarming style, confessional tone, and thoughtful arguments should win over most readers. Complications is a book with heart and an excellent bedside manner, celebrating rather than berating doctors for being merely human. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly: Medicine reveals itself as a fascinatingly complex and "fundamentally human endeavor" in this distinguished debut essay collection by a surgical resident and staff writer for the New Yorker. Gawande, a former Rhodes scholar and Harvard Medical School graduate, illuminates "the moments in which medicine actually happens," and describes his profession as an "enterprise of constantly changing knowledge, uncertain information, fallible individuals, and at the same time lives on the line." Gawande's background in philosophy and ethics is evident throughout these pieces, which range from edgy accounts of medical traumas to sobering analyses of doctors' anxieties and burnout. With humor, sensitivity and critical intelligence, he explores the pros and cons of new technologies, including a controversial factory model for routine surgeries that delivers superior success rates while dramatically cutting costs. He also describes treatment of such challenging conditions as morbid obesity, chronic pain and necrotizing fasciitis the often-fatal condition caused by dreaded "flesh-eating bacteria" and probes the agonizing process by which physicians balance knowledge and intuition to make seemingly impossible decisions. What draws practitioners to this challenging profession, he concludes, is the promise of "the alterable moment the fragile but crystalline opportunity for one's know-how, ability or just gut instinct to change the course of another's life for the better." These exquisitely crafted essays, in which medical subjects segue into explorations of much larger themes, place Gawande among the best in the field. National author tour. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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Re: Suggestion

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The polls are on hold till we migrate over to the new Phpbb forums.
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Chris OConnor

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Re: Suggestion

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If someone would like to help me narrow down the book suggestions to 3 or 4 that can appear on the poll I would really appreciate it. I am going through some personal stuff right now and my schedule is slammed. Also, I am working on this change of forums behind the scene.Maybe just go throught the current suggestions and make a post about what books you think should or should not be on the next poll. This would be extremely helpful.
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My nominations:A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja, by Joost R. HiltermannThe First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language, by Christine KenneallyThe Name of War: King Phillip's War and the Origins of American Identity, by Jill LeporeThe Gods of the Greeks, by Karl & Carl KerenyiAgain, I'm naming mostly books that I suggested. But then, there weren't that many people making suggestions this round, so it was practically inevitable.
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Re: Suggestion

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Complications is an excellent book. However, I read it a couple of years ago and I'm not sure re-read it. The author's new book is on my bookshelf, and I'm more interested in reading that one even though my wife says it isn't as good.
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I know you're trying to narrow down the suggestions at this point, but I ran into two books in Borders today (the other was "The Trouble With Physics"), both by physicists, and both of which criticized the emphasis in contemporary physics on string theory, and I thought it might be worthwhile taking a look at one of them.Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory And the Search for Unity in Physical Law, by Peter WoitFrom Publishers WeeklyString theory is the only game in town in physics departments these days. But echoing Lee Smolin's forthcoming The Trouble with Physics (Reviews, July 24), Woit, a Ph.D. in theoretical physics and a lecturer in mathematics at Columbia, points out
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New suggestions are fine. We're going through some major changes right now so we can bend the rules and time lines and do whatever seems right over the next few weeks. Our site should be up soon. What a weird coincidence, but our original hosting company, www.neureal.com , appears to be going out of business, hacked, or experincing major problems. We left just in time. Check out a forum that our new web guy designed. If you actually create a free acount you will see a ton of features (Mods) that you just cannot see when you're a mere visitor and not logged into an account.www.fishingterritory.com/
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Since I have a Ph.D. in theoretical physics, I could answer any questions people might have if we select a physics book.While web-surfing, I discovered this book, which sounds fascinating.The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Kleinwww.amazon.com/Shock-Doct...0805079831Quote:The neo-liberal economic policies
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