BookTalk.org

Let's have a casual yet quick discussion where we work towards picking our next Non-Fiction book for group discussion. The key to this process is not make hit-and-run suggestions. Make a suggestion and then read everyone else's suggestions. Comment on the books people are suggesting. Would you read/discuss them or not? If we can pick a book in the next week without having to do a poll that would be ideal. But to be able to bypass a poll we need feedback on the suggestions - not just suggestions.

So what would you like to discuss starting February 1, 2013?

Here's one I'm planning to read:

Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
http://www.amazon.com/The-Happiness-Hyp ... ap_title_0

Booklist review: Using the wisdom culled from the world's greatest civilizations as a foundation, social psychologist Haidt comes to terms with 10 Great Ideas, viewing them through a contemporary filter to learn which of their lessons may still apply to modern lives. He first discusses how the mind works and then examines the Golden Rule ("Reciprocity is the most important tool for getting along with people"). Next, he addresses the issue of happiness itself--where does it come from?--before exploring the conditions that allow growth and development. He also dares to answer the question that haunts most everyone--What is the meaning of life?--by again drawing on ancient ideas and incorporating recent research findings. He concludes with the question of meaning: Why do some find it? Balancing ancient wisdom and modern science, Haidt consults great minds of the past, from Buddha to Lao Tzu and from Plato to Freud, as well as some not-so-greats: even Dr. Phil is mentioned. Fascinating stuff, accessibly expressed.

I think the people who read the other selection by Haidt enjoyed the book, and this sounds like it could be a good discussion.

Haidt's book has great reviews and I think it would make for an interesting discussion. Thanks, Dexter.

"A Crime Worse Than Murder" You will never read a book quite like this one. A true story that almost seems to be fiction at times... but it is most certainly non-fiction. Please take a look at my book at:
www.acrimeworsethanmurder.com
and forgive me for plugging my own book.
Barbie

Against Method (Fourth Edition) [Paperback]
amazon.com/gp/product/1844674428/ref=oh ... 03_s00_i00

Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist [Hardcover]
amazon.com/gp/product/0446515892/ref=oh ... 08_s00_i00


A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy Of Godel And Einstein
amazon.com/gp/product/0465092934/ref=oh ... 06_s00_i00

Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung
amazon.com/gp/product/B0058M85NE/ref=oh ... 09_s00_i00


Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea [Hardcover]
amazon.com/gp/product/0312382081/ref=oh ... 09_s00_i00

Jared Diamond has a brand new release coming out in a few days. We've read and discuss 2 past Diamond books so clearly he is one of our favorite authors around here.

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?
By Jared Diamond

Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, from air travel and telecommunications to literacy and obesity. Yet for nearly all of its six million years of existence, human society had none of these things. While the gulf that divides us from our primitive ancestors may seem unbridgeably wide, we can glimpse much of our former lifestyle in those largely traditional societies still or recently in existence. Societies like those of the New Guinea Highlanders remind us that it was only yesterday—in evolutionary time—when everything changed and that we moderns still possess bodies and social practices often better adapted to traditional than to modern conditions.

The World Until Yesterday provides a mesmerizing firsthand picture of the human past as it had been for millions of years—a past that has mostly vanished—and considers what the differences between that past and our present mean for our lives today.
This is Jared Diamond’s most personal book to date, as he draws extensively from his decades of field work in the Pacific islands, as well as evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians, Kalahari San people, and others. Diamond doesn’t romanticize traditional societies—after all, we are shocked by some of their practices—but he finds that their solutions to universal human problems such as child rearing, elder care, dispute resolution, risk, and physical fitness have much to teach us. A characteristically provocative, enlightening, and entertaining book, The World Until Yesterday will be essential and delightful reading.

I'd be willing to read Diamond's book. And out of Stahrwe's picks, the book on Godel and Einstein would be my choice.

I posted my list in a hurry so I did not include much comment or information. Since some interest has been expressed in one of the books I am providing additional information here.

amazon.com/World-Without-Time-Forgotten ... thout+time

A World Without Time

I read the Kindle version of this book over the summer and found it so interesting that I purchased a hard copy to lend to friends.

Here is the description of the book from Amazon.

"It is a widely known but little considered fact that Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel were best friends for the last decade and a half of Einstein's life. The two walked home together from Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study every day; they shared ideas about physics, philosophy, politics, and the lost world of German science in which they had grown up. By 1949, Gödel had produced a remarkable proof: In any universe described by the Theory of Relativity, time cannot exist. Einstein endorsed this result-reluctantly, since it decisively overthrew the classical world-view to which he was committed. But he could find no way to refute it, and in the half-century since then, neither has anyone else. Even more remarkable than this stunning discovery, however, was what happened afterward: nothing. Cosmologists and philosophers alike have proceeded with their work as if Gödel's proof never existed -one of the greatest scandals of modern intellectual history. A World Without Time is a sweeping, ambitious book, and yet poignant and intimate. It tells the story of two magnificent minds put on the shelf by the scientific fashions of their day, and attempts to rescue from undeserved obscurity the brilliant work they did together."

Hard copies of this book can be purchased for under $5 from Amazon.

I read the Kindle version of this book over the summer and found it so interesting that I purchased a hard copy to lend to friends.

This is a serious endorsement. Thanks, Stahrwe.

Hello everyone! I am Gerald H Eller, author of "Liberty for None and Injustice for All", which I self published. It is the first and only book I will write! I am a victim of corporate and legal neglect and ignorance, my story is about my SSN being confused with a convicted felon since 1997 through now, which caused the denial of credit cards, jobs and other unbelievable happenings that will shock you. It is about how the credit reporting agency's reported inaccurate and untruthful information on my credit report and how all my public officials ignored and neglected to help me, the demise of my military career and the ineptitude of our legal system from local attorney's to numerous Federal judges that will concern and scare you. I tried to write it in a story and dramatic way, yet wanted to express the serious troubles of our political and legal system to open the eyes of the common person and hopefully warn them. It is not a happy or uplifting story but it is true and needs to be shared and told and if it can help prevent one person from experiencing what I have then it was worth writing. I would love for my book to be considered for a book to be read in January or anytime after! Thank you, Jerry
www.jerryeller.com