Earlier today I found the following book in the bookstore. I've read two other books by Hochschild, both of which were excellent.

To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 by Adam Hochschild
http://www.amazon.com/End-All-Wars-Rebe ... 0618758283

World War I stands as one of history’s most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation. In a riveting, suspenseful narrative with haunting echoes for our own time, Adam Hochschild brings it to life as never before. He focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of the war’s critics, alongside its generals and heroes. Thrown in jail for their opposition to the war were Britain’s leading investigative journalist, a future winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and an editor who, behind bars, published a newspaper for his fellow inmates on toilet paper. These critics were sometimes intimately connected to their enemy hawks: one of Britain’s most prominent women pacifist campaigners had a brother who was commander in chief on the Western Front. Two well-known sisters split so bitterly over the war that they ended up publishing newspapers that attacked each other.

Today, hundreds of military cemeteries spread across the fields of northern France and Belgium contain the bodies of millions of men who died in the “war to end all wars.” Can we ever avoid repeating history?

I read Night when I was in college, i. e. a very, very long time ago. It was part of a course on Death & Dying. I was not aware of the other two works, but I would be interested in reading these, Night is very deep & provocative. I think it could generate some thoughtful conversations.

I absolutely loved the abridged audio-book version of: Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees by Roger Fouts

I would love reading the actual 400+ page book. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380728222

Mammal, while this book looks great and might make for an excellent discussion please read the very first post in this thread which contains the rules.

We need more feedback on the current suggestions.

Or maybe we need one more suggestion... Due out in June is Stephen Meyer's Signature in the Cell
It would definitely provide a different point of view than the status quo at BT... Anybody interested?
See more at: http://www.signatureinthecell.com/about-the-book.php

The foundations of scientific materialism are in the process of crumbling. In Signature in the Cell, philosopher of science Stephen C. Meyer shows how the digital code in DNA points powerfully to a designing intelligence behind the origin of life. The book will be published on June 23 by HarperOne.

Unlike previous arguments for intelligent design, Signature in the Cell presents a radical and comprehensive new case, revealing the evidence not merely of individual features of biological complexity but rather of a fundamental constituent of the universe: information. That evidence has been mounting exponentially in recent years, known to scientists in specialized fields but largely hidden from public view. A Cambridge University-trained theorist and researcher, director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, Dr. Meyer is the first to bring the relevant data together into a powerful demonstration of the intelligence that stands outside nature and directs the path life has taken.

Dawn wrote:Or maybe we need one more suggestion... Due out in June is Stephen Meyer's Signature in the Cell
It would definitely provide a different point of view than the status quo at BT... Anybody interested?
See more at: http://www.signatureinthecell.com/about-the-book.php

Unless I see otherwise, it looks pretty slick but it's just more propaganda starting from a creationist assumption. Here's a quote from one of the author's articles:

DNA stores instructions for life functions in the form of a four-character digital code. Based on our experience, we know that systems possessing such information invariably arise from minds, not material processes. We know that software comes from programmers. We know that information--whether inscribed in hieroglyphics, written in a book, or encoded in a radio signal--always comes from an intelligent source. So the discovery of a digital code in DNA provides compelling evidence of a prior designing intelligence.

So complexity requires a designer. Gee, how original, we've never seen that argument before.

Dawn, we don't read books promoting creationism or ID or faith. I take pride in the quality of our book selections and think this is a point of differentiation between BookTalk.org and everyone else.

I can't tell if that book is supposed to be about philosophy or science... Is it trying to prove Creationism, or is it trying to prove Creationism is science?

The Compass of Pleasure by David J. Linden

The Compass Of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, And Gambling Feel So Good
By David J. Linden, hardcover, 240 pages, Viking, list price: $26.95

Unless you're at the kind of cookout where words like amygdala and dopamine get tossed around instead of Frisbees, you're probably not thinking too intently about what's going on in your "medial forebrain pleasure circuit." That might change if you read neuroscientist David J. Linden's The Compass of Pleasure, a hugely entertaining look at why we enjoy the things we enjoy. They're not all vices, either — your brain can be stimulated by sex and drugs, but it also derives pleasure from working out and, believe it or not, paying your taxes. There's hardcore biology here, but it's tempered with personal anecdotes, penetrating observations and quotes from the likes of comedian Mitch Hedberg and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. If you're science-phobic, don't worry: Linden is incredibly smart, but comes across as the funny, patient professor you wish you'd had in college.

This synopsis from NPR sounds interesting.