*** Non-Fiction Book Suggestions for June & July 2010 ***

[Chris OConnor]

Please make quality non-fiction book suggestions for our June and July 2010 book discussion here. Include a LINK, book description, and ideally a few words about why you think your suggestion would be great as a discussion topics. Don't forget the link to Amazon.com or somewhere we can read more about the book.

And please do NOT make suggestions here if you have less than 25 posts on our forums.

[Iluvbookz13]

You Know Your Way Home - A Wonderful Memoir by Suzanne Jauchius

Amazon.com Link
You Know Your Way Home.com

Description:

This book is a memoir about a woman, named Suzanne Jauchius, gifted with the ability to sense and picture things that have happened in the past or will occur in the future. She is no regular creepy voodoo or witch kind of psychic -- what she does is much more down-to-earth than that. The book is about her struggles in life, and how she "stepped willingly into the unknown" and tried to be "normal." I found this to be a very captivating story, unlike most personal biographies. It has its own intangible element that makes it hard to put down, and easy to love.



Why would this be fun/cool for discussion?:

It branches off many different ways. Discussion could be had on psychics and psychometry. Is this psychic stuff real? Can you turn it on/off? Does it require a certain gift/talent? Can anyone do it? These are some questions that could kick off. Another point is how the police forces were reluctant to allow her to help in multiple different cases -- should the Police be more open to psychics? What benefits are there in seeing a psychic? Does it affect your life? A final, deeper point is how she reaches especially out to those people who are pretending with their lives; the book gives them a life ring to grab onto and come back down to earth with their lives. How does seeing a psychic affect your life? Does this book help people find their true identity? Can it influence your mental health? These are all ideal questions that could turn into hot discussions on the forums.

[GaryG48]

My non-fiction recomendation is:

Intellectuals by Paul Johnson
400 pgs 1990

Johnson takes several famous intellectuals to task for not being very nice people. His theme is expressed quite well by Rousseau, "I have things in my heart which absolve me from being good-mannered."

It is a quick read, Johnson's style is light and accessable by everyone.

Here is the Googlebooks blurb: "A fascinating portrait of the minds that have shaped the modern world. In an intriguing series of case studies, Rousseau, Shelley, Marx, Ibsen, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Bertrand Russell, Brecht, Sarte, Edmund Wilson, Victor Gollancz, Lillan Hellman, Cyril Connolly, Norman Mailer, James Baldwin, Kenneth Tyan, Noam Chomsky, and others are revealed as intellectuals both brilliant and contradictory, magnetic and dangerous."

Now that "dangerous" part make me think people on this board would get into discussions about the fit of normal moral codes to above(?)-normal people.

And the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Intellectuals-Pau ... 0060916575

[farmgirlshelley]

Animal Factory by David Kirby

[oblivion]

I would like to receommend Nicholas Hagger's "The Last Tourist in Iran".

From Amazon:
This is the first book on Iran to combine travelogue with in-depth historical reflection/getting to the heart of the Iranian Islamic mind. This is a reflective look at the cultural heritage and present nuclear crisis in Iran. Iran's cultural and spiritual heritage is now threatened by policies that may trigger international intervention. A source of Western civilization, it may be destroyed by its main beneficiary, Western civilization.This travelogue is a tour of Iran and explores the rich history of this pivotal country: the Achaemenians (Cyrus/Darius/Xerxes), the Sasanians, the Zoroastrian religion of 2,500 years ago; the Islamic period, the Safavids, and the Revolution which dethroned the Shah and made Iran an Islamic Republic. The Islamic idea is caught by observations of the well of the Hidden Imam and of its expression through the architecture, tiles and calligraphy of historical mosques. The Revolution is brought to life by visits to Ayatollah Khomeini's living rooms in Qom and Tehran, and to the Shah's White Palace. And the confrontational policy of contemporary Iran that threatens to engulf Iran's cultural heritage in the same way that Saddam's policy wreaked havoc on Iraq's cultural legacy is caught in a drive past the nuclear site at Natanz, which has many anti-aircraft guns round it.

http://www.amazon.de/Last-Tourist-Iran- ... 812&sr=1-4

[Chris OConnor]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

[Interbane]

I recommend Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills by Russel L. Blaylock.


Top Review:

It is almost a cliche in this day and age for someone to ask the waiter at a Chinese restaurant 'no MSG, please,' as is the waiter's knowing smirk in response. MonoSodium Glutamate (MSG), or 'The essence of taste' (as coined by the Japanese), is used as a 'taste-enhancer' in nearly every form of processed food on the market today, though 'taste addiction' may be a more correct term. But what exactly does it do? And how is it harmful?
Dr. Russell L. Blaylock answers these questions and poses some startling evidence as to the eventual consequences of a heavy MSG-diet in his book _Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills_. In basic terms, MSG (and other, similar agents) pierces the blood-brain barrier and over-stimulates the neurons of a brain to a deadly degree. Habitual intake among animal experiments has shown the development of tumors, memory loss, and a whole host of neurodegenerative diseases as the end result of excess excitotoxin intake, including Alzhiemer's, Parkenson's, Lou Gerhig's etc.

Walk into any gas station in the United States (or grocery store, for that matter) and, upon close investigation, you will find that 75%-90% of the available food has been 'enhanced' to some degree by excitotoxins. The chemical agents are often disguised by such ambiguous terms as 'spice' and 'natural flavors' or, my personal favorite, 'hydrolyzed vegetable protein.' A consumer society must have consumer slaves to keep it functioning; MSG is the crack cocaine of the food industry...and it is legally perpetuated by slush-fund advocates and a pork-glutted FDA. As proven again and again, money talks, ... [you can finish the maxim for me].

Blaylock's thesis is written in a technical style, but the use of repetition throughout each chapter hammer in his myriad points into the reader with precision and power. An important book for anyone concerned with the health of self and family. You are what you eat---but do you know _what_ it is you are eating, below the surface of taste/fulfillment?

[Robert Tulip]

Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber

A classic of modern sociology, setting Christianity within the framework of the emergence of modern capitalist society, against the Calvinist views of the founding fathers of the USA such as Benjamin Franklin

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protes ... Capitalism

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is a book written by Max Weber, a German sociologist, economist, and politician, in 1904 and 1905 that began as a series of essays. The original edition was in German and has been released. Considered a founding text in economic sociology and sociology in general, the book was translated into English for the first time by Talcott Parsons and appeared in 1930.

In the book, Weber wrote that capitalism in northern Europe evolved when the Protestant (particularly Calvinist) ethic influenced large numbers of people to engage in work in the secular world, developing their own enterprises and engaging in trade and the accumulation of wealth for investment. In other words, the Protestant ethic was a force behind an unplanned and uncoordinated mass action that influenced the development of capitalism. This idea is also known as "the Weber thesis". Weber, however, rejected deterministic approaches, and presented the Protestant Ethic as merely one in a number of 'elective affinities' leading toward capitalist modernity. Weber's term Protestant work ethic has become very widely known. The work relates significantly to the cultural "rationalization" and so-called "disenchantment" which Weber associated with the modern West.

Full Text Online: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moriyuki/abukuma ... frame.html

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/WEBER/toc.html

PDF: http://www.ebooks-library.com/author.cfm/AuthorID/742
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3248130/Max-W ... Capitalism

[wilde]

Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn.


I was going to suggest this earlier, but I wanted to wait until it was in paperback! The paperback edition comes out on the 27th of this month. It has about 480 pages, and about 16 pages of photos.

Description:

The story of Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow that most people know is very... romanticized, to say the least. Bonnie and Clyde were, in fact, never very successful criminals. (In fact, the infamous John Dillinger hated them, but that's in Public Enemies.) Most of the book focuses on Bonnie and Clyde, as well was the rest of the Barrow Gang. The book also covers the police and their investigations, including the final shootout that ended in the death of Bonnie & Clyde. The photos are also very interesting, and it includes the infamous photo of Bonnie and Clyde's bodies after the final shootout.


Why is this good for discussion?:

Go Down Together is both entertaining and interesting, as it provides facts (Some of which aren't common knowledge) in a way that keeps the reader riveted. It is essentially written as a biography, but at times you feel as if you were reading a novel. You'll find the real story of Bonnie and Clyde is very fascinating. I think many discussions could be had about the very nature of Bonnie and Clyde's relationship. More discussion topics could include threads about the members of the gang and police, how Bonnie and Clyde met, the robberies, and how the real story differs from the one many people know.

[Chris OConnor]

Do you guys think we have enough books suggested to do a poll next week? If anyone has any final suggestions please make them now. We need to have 3 or 4 books on the next non-fiction poll. Ideally 4.