Q3, 2007 Nonfiction Book Suggestions

[Chris OConnor]

Q3, 2007 Nonfiction Book SuggestionsJuly, August & September 2007This thread is for making (general interest) NONFICTION book suggestions for 3rd Quarter of 2007 (July, August & September). For those that are new to BookTalk I will briefly explain our book suggestion process.We read and discuss 2 different nonfiction books concurrently each quarter. 1 book is a "freethought" nonfiction selection1 book is a general interest nonfiction bookBOTH are non-fiction, but one is specifically of interest to freethinkers.There is a suggestion thread created for each of the above two categories. The thread you are in now is where you make your general interest nonfiction book suggestions. Books that represent and promote freethought should not be added to this thread. Please use the above Q3, 2007 Freethinker Book Suggestions thread. We should probably come up with a better term than "general interest," since we don't read "just any" nonfiction book around here. Our focus is on books that are highly rated, of broad appeal, are available on Amazon.com, and are apt to generate deep thought and quality discussion. Books about specific obscure events or people are probably not going to be exciting to most of our members, so please put some thought into your suggestions. Important1. Provide the title, author, copied and pasted review or summary, and a link to Amazon where we can read more. 2. Please comment on other people's suggestions. This is probably the most important thing you can do. Don't make a suggestion and then vanish. Be ACTIVE in this thread.So what general interest nonfiction books would you like to read and discuss for Q3, 2007?And as I mentioned in the above freethought suggestion thread I'd really like to select our Q3, 2007 (July, August & September) books early this time. It is in our best interest to give plenty of advance notice so visitors and members have time to order the upcoming books at least 3 weeks before the start of the next reading period. So provide your suggestion now so that they have a chance of appearing on the poll!

[Chris OConnor]

Recently an author stopped by our site and suggested her upcoming book for consideration. After looking it over the book does indeed seem like a good read and one that would stimulate quality discussion as an official selection.Ilona Meagher's new book, described below, doesn't hit the stores till May 1, 2007, but we're suggesting books for our July, August & September discussion period right now, so this shouldn't be an issue.Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops by Ilona MeagherBook DescriptionPost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in our returning combat troops is one of the most catastrophic issues confronting our nation. Yet, despite the fact that nearly 20 percent of the over half million troops that have left the military since 2003 have been diagnosed with PTSD, and that many who suffer symptoms are unlikely to seek help because of the stigma of this terrible disease, our government and media have remained silent. Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops is a grassroots call to action designed to break the shameful silence and put the issue of PTSD in our returning troops front and center before the American public. In addition to presenting interviews with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffering with PTSD, such as Blake Miller, the famous "Marlboro Man," this book will be the most comprehensive resource to date for concerned citizens who want to understand the complex political, social, and health-related issues of PTSD, with an eye toward "moving our nation to care" to do what is necessary to help our fighting men and women who suffer from PTSD. About the AuthorIlona Meagher is editor of the online journal PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within. Her collaboration with ePluribus Media has resulted in the PTSD Timeline, a database of reported PTSD incidents. She has appeared in numerous media outlets, and has been interviewed on Fox News about the issue of PTSD in troops returning from Iraq.

[Dissident Heart]

Two books by the same author to be read in succession: On Bullshit and On Truth by H.G. Frankfurt.On Bullshit was the winner of the 2005 Bestseller Awards, Philosophy Category, The Book Standard. On Truth is the author's sequel. Both are very brief, but together could prove an entertaining, provocative and illuminating examination of what we mean by BS and telling the Truth.On Bullshit , from Princeton University Press: Quote:One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory."Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.On Truth , from Booklist: Quote:Frankfurt wrote the little bookOn Bullshit (2005) that became a surprise runaway best-seller. It focused on, as the title indicates, people "who are attempting by what they say to manipulate the opinions and the attitudes of those to whom they speak." This sequel, equally brief, trenchant, and deeply thoughtful, is another extended essay, this one on a topic closely related to the first. Frankfurt takes the position that a "deplorable mistake" would be unleashed abroad if there should develop in today's world a widespread lack of caring for the "value and importance" of truth. He finds a disregard for truth "endemic" among publicists and politicians, but he has discovered a similar attitude growing among authors. Frankfurt works with a broad canvas here, averring, "A society that is recklessly and persistently remiss in [supporting and encouraging truth] is bound to decline." Without an appreciation for truth, humans can not consider themselves--take pride in themselves--as rational animals, separate from other animals in that regard. The author is an emeritus professor of philosophy at Princeton, and despite its brevity, this provocative meditation is not light reading.

[RaulRamos]

Here goes my suggestion:Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of StrangersI agree with the idea that knowing the title a bit more in advance allows all of us to start reading 'at the same time'. Some of the US titles take time to get over here.

[Chris OConnor]

The Final Move Beyond Iraq: The Final Solution While the World Sleepsby Mike EvansBook DescriptionIn The Final Move Beyond Iraq, Mike Evans addresses the greatest threat America has faced since the Civil War: the Islamic revolution, or Islamofascism. While the United States debates the best way to solve the situation in Iraq, the terrorists are claiming victory and planning to take their show to American soil once again. Drawing from extensive interviews with prime ministers, CIA directors, and other insiders, Evans looks at the history and ideology behind the Islamic revolution to explore its very real threat to U.S. interests --why radical Islamic terrorists will only step back when they fear us, why victory in Iraq is important to U.S. security, why the United States and Israel cannot sit idly by and let Iran achieve its desire for nuclear weapons, and why stabilization in Iraq now would sound defeat rather than victory. The Final Move Beyond Iraq is a wake-up call to mobilize millions to action. America is fighting for its life in the first war of the twenty-first century. From the Back CoverCould we lose the war on terror? America is fighting for its life in the first war of the twenty-first century. The battle is for the soul of America, and ground zero is Iraq. While the United States debates, the terrorists are claiming victory and planning to take their show to American soil once again. In The Final Move Beyond Iraq, best-selling author Mike Evans gives us a wake up call, demonstrating conclusively that: An Islamic revolution is spreading and is on the brink of becoming America's greatest threat since the Civil War. A·Immediate withdrawal from Iraq would be disastrous and will embolden terrorists to attack America at home. A·Iran is playing a major role in the current violence. A·The U.S. must strike Iran within the next twelve months, or the next President may be presiding over a nuclear 9/11. American soldiers are risking their lives for our freedom. We must see this war through to the end--or our next battle will be much, much worse.

[Chris OConnor]

The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Scienceby Natalie AngierFrom Publishers WeeklyPulitzer-winning science writer Angier (Woman: An Intimate Geography) distills everything you've forgotten from your high school science classes and more into one enjoyable book, a guide for the scientifically perplexed adult who wants to understand what those guys in lab coats on the news are babbling about, in the realms of physics, chemistry, biology, geology or astronomy. More important even than the brief rundowns of atomic theory or evolution

[Chris OConnor]

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and Warby Nathaniel Philbrick From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. In this remarkable effort, National Book Award

[Chris OConnor]

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip ZimbardoFrom Publishers WeeklyPsychologist Zimbardo masterminded the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, in which college students randomly assigned to be guards or inmates found themselves enacting sadistic abuse or abject submissiveness. In this penetrating investigation, he revisits

[Chris OConnor]

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael BeahFrom Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. This absorbing account by a young man who, as a boy of 12, gets swept up in Sierra Leone's civil war goes beyond even the best journalistic efforts in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare. Beah's harrowing journey transforms him overnight from a child enthralled by American hip-hop music and dance to an internal refugee bereft of family, wandering from village to village in a country grown deeply divided by the indiscriminate atrocities of unruly, sociopathic rebel and army forces. Beah then finds himself in the army

[Chris OConnor]

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill From Publishers WeeklyScahill, a regular contributor to the Nation, offers a hard-left perspective on Blackwater USA, the self-described private military contractor and security firm. It owes its existence, he shows, to the post