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Non-Fiction Book Suggestions Wanted: Mar. & Apr. 2009


Please use this thread for suggesting good books for our March & April 2009 Non-Fiction book discussion. Include a link to where the book can be researched and purchased on Amazon.com, and it would really be appreciated if you left comments on the book suggestions other members make. Smile

In no particular order, I would suggest the following five for non-fiction reads.


After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination, Kirkpatrick Sale
God Is Not Great: Why Religion Ruins Everything, Christopher Hitchins
Notes From Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Original Wisdom: Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing, Robert Wolff
Saving the Appearances: A Study In Idolatry, Owen Barfielder Hitchins

In his work, Sale argues for the problems inherent in the shift from early to late neolithic existence and its implications for civilized life today

Hitchins does a masterful job of laying out the atheistic critique of all faith.

Notes is Dostoevsky's classsic critique of modern rationalism (maybe considered fiction by some)

Wolff gives us a collage of knowledge gained from his time with indigenous peoples in places we have never been.

Barfield's is a classic critique of western philosophical and scientific rationality


These can all be found on amazon.com

This is my first, humble offering.

sandy krolick (zietz) - newbie

I don't think Notes From Underground can be classified as non-fiction even if it is somewhat of a memoir. I've read it once, it reads like a novel.

It is common to provide links to amazon for your selections and to do an short summary for each. It is much easier to click than to do a search. I'm not expert on how many titles you can nominate and expect to get short listed but I am sure that would depend on the quality of the selections. Normally 3 books are chosen from every ones nominations based on interest from other users, these final 3 are subject to an official vote.

Great ideas though. Thanks!

...I thought I did a one sentence synopsis of each work. And I did note that Dostoevsky might be considered by some as fiction. Sorry about no Amazon links, but I will work on that protocol. I won't post so many in the future, just thought it would be good to have a few ideas.

Thanks again,

regards,

sandy

Thanks can be given to people you think deserve them next to the quote button in the upper right of the message body window for each reply.

How about Jimmy Carter's latest work, There can be peace in the Holy Land: A Plan that will work

http://www.amazon.com/Can-Have-Peace-Ho ... 734&sr=8-2

The Sense of an Ending by Frank Kermode
http://www.amazon.ca/Sense-Ending-Studi ... 969&sr=8-2

Here's part of the blurb from Amazon: "Examining the works of writers from Plato to William Burrows, Kermode shows how they have persistently imposed their "fictions" upon the face of eternity and how these have reflected the apocalyptic spirit. "

The Meaning of the Body by Mark Johnson
http://www.amazon.ca/Meaning-Body-Aesth ... 252&sr=1-1

Blurb: "Johnson uses recent research into infant psychology to show how the body generates meaning even before self-consciousness has fully developed. From there he turns to cognitive neuroscience to further explore the bodily origins of meaning, thought, and language and examines the many dimensions of meaning

MaryLupin just so you know it is unfair to provide so many good choices. How is anyone supposed to decide?

Grim wrote:MaryLupin just so you know it is unfair to provide so many good choices. How is anyone supposed to decide?

Don't. Read all three.

Well I think that I might.

In terms of discussion books I would like to second the nomination for The Poetics of Space. It had the most reviews and all of them were positive. I also like the description of "It requires careful, preferably leisurely reading, with the possibility of moments to pause and digest and re-read the words." Sounds like a good cup of tea, my own cup of tea to be precise.