Any good books to read?

[Idealism]

Hey guys just wanted some new material once I'm done with what I am currently working on:

The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein (highly recommended thus far, almost done)
The Illustrious Dunderheads, Rex Stout

Leave the title, author, and a brief description please!

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

1. I'm working on Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson

The book compares Roman and British imperialism (complete with the expanded military and reduced civil liberties) to American foreign policy since World War II. Johnson focuses primarily on the role of American military bases abroad as its basis for its brand of imperialism. It's comprehensive and pretty interesting.

[valleyreport]

2. Good Read!

"How to Win Every Argument: A Guide to Critical Thinking"

A must.

[babylonsister]

3. DUers would have fun with this one. And welcome. nt

[JDPriestly]

21. Author? That sounds interesting!

[valleyreport]

41. How To Win Every Argument-Nicholas Capaldi

Great book

ISBN 1-56731-330-2

Originally published as "The Art of Deception", Prometheus Books

[customerserviceguy]

4. I've been reading "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond

it explains how certain groups of people acquired the means to overcome other groups of people by virtue not of being "better people" but by having been lucky enough to have come from the right continents, which gave vastly different geographic advantages.

There was a PBS special on it a few years ago, you can find written transcripts of the three part series, it really got me eager to read the book!

[Idealism]

8. Question

Is the book about how some people happen to be born in more affluent areas of society and therefore more opportunities in life?

[customerserviceguy]

19. Not exactly, it goes way before what we understand as "affluence"

It starts at a time when humanity was equal, at the end of the last Ice Age. It examines the distribution of domesticable foods and animals on each of the continents. And then it explains why things spread, or did not spread.

For instance, Eurasia is arranged primarily along an East-West axis. Crops developed in the Fertile Crescent could expand along a latitudinal range, and cover more of a distance in Eurasia. The Americas have a North-South axis, and a very narrow isthmus connecting them. Crops that were domesticated in a temperate area South America could not easily traverse through the tropics to the same zone of latitude in North America.

When you add up many of these subtle things, over a period of thousands of years, you see why Eurasians had the tools it took to conquer peoples who did not have these things.

[Idealism]

23. Ahh talks about Alexander the great then and hollisticism?

[customerserviceguy]

37. The book did not mention Alexander, except in passing

when discussing domestication of animals, it tried to distinguish between a tamed animal (such as the elephants that Alexander was supposed to have crossed the Alps with) and a truly domesticatable species.

[BurtWorm]

40. (That was Hannibal who crossed the Alps with elephants.)

[BurtWorm]

39. It takes more of a scientific view of history--not at all a 'great man' view.

It's about how the environment has shaped human history by determining, for lack of a better word, the technologies that succeeded and made humans so successful in certain parts of the world. It begins with a question Jared Diamond was asked several years ago by a New Guinean friend about why Europeans were colonizing New Guinea and not New Guineans Europe. Most historians in the past would have appealed to racist assumptions, but Diamond shows how critical environment is. You'll have to read it to see how elegantly he makes his case.

[Fleshdancer]

11. GREAT book

:thumbsup:

[buzzard]

16. The Third Chimpanzee is also good.n/t

[customerserviceguy]

20. Yeah, I can't wait to get into that one!

Professor Diamond makes his books quite informative and engaging.

[codjh9]

25. I should read that too, but you all should REALLY read 'Collapse', also by Diamond. I'll recommend

it in another thread sometime soon. An examination of past cultures that failed, as well as some who didn't, and a look at some things happening today, with ominous portent if we don't wake up. Millions around the world ARE awake, but still not enough of us - to environmental and other related problems (food, water, oil, etc.).

[Danascot]

26. I read "Guns, Germs and Steel" some time ago

and thought it was one of the most interesting books I've read. Be sure to read his newer book, "Collapse", about how societies/civilizations collapse due to environmental degradation... with clear implications for the modern human race. It's like taking a really interesting college course (without the tests and papers). It's long and I found it at the library as an audio book I listened to while driving.

Another book that is sort of in a similar vein and that I really liked is The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin.

[customerserviceguy]

38. Thanks to all above

I do intend to get into Jared Diamond's other books, he sure made prehistory come alive! I had to toss off the image of my old anthropology professor back at the University of Washington in 1975, we joked that his monotone would have made the Human Sexual Behavior class boring!

[babylonsister]

5. Once you donate, you can access the fiction and non-fiction forums

on DU. In case you didn't know, this is another great facet to DU.

[Shardik]

6. If you enjoy novels, Clyde Edgerton or Larry Brown

With Edgerton, start with Rainy.

With Brown, start with Joe.

Both are two of the best voices in Southern Lit since Faulkner.

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. They have heavy competiton with Tom Franklin, then.

He just wrote his forst book, Hell at the Breech, a novel based "on real events that took place in the 1890's that pitted poor white sharecroppers against the landowners who controlled their fates".
Takes place in Grove Hill, Al. 40 miles from here, where Franklin grew up.
He lives in Oxford, Miss. now.
His writing is so lyrical and descriptive, his characters so real, that I kept losing the plot.
And it was a joy to read the last page, sit and think about the events, characters, and then
begin the story all over again.
He is good.
He is Rick Bragg good. And I love reading Rick Bragg's books about his family.


Now, since we are talking about the South, and books, I will confess that I live in Harper Lee's town, in fact her house is about 4 blocks across the way from me. So reading southern writers and southern stories is a natural around here.
Tom Franklin is one not to be missed.

[Are_grits_groceries]

33. Didn't know him. Thanks for the rec.

Did you know that Lee's neighbor used to be Truman Capote? She based Dill on him. She also went with him to research the book "In Cold Blood."
Read Ferrol Sams. He writes novels about growing up farming before WWII in Georgia.(Love Rick Bragg). Pat Conroy's books are great. "Lords of Discipline" is based on
the Citadel where he went to school. The Citadel alums and families practically put a fatwa on him. The Citadel is exactly like that no matter what they say. I know
people who went there. He does need an editor who will control him. I loved "Beach Music" but it seemed to ramble over about a brazillion subjects. His second book, "The Water is Wide" is based on his experience teaching on a SC sea island.

[dixiegrrrrl]

48. ty for your further book recs.

To anyone who might be interested, our town has a famous an annual condensed version of
"To Kill a Mockingbird", every May, locals play the characters, first half takes place outside the courthouse, 2nd half everyone moves into the famous courthouse court room, which is closed the rest of the year. big tourist draw, sells out months in advance ( tho in this new economy, who knows).
The 1st story of the historic courthouse is now a Mockingbird Museum, open daily.
Lots of stuff related to Ms. Lee and Capote, and to other well known artists, like the Gee's Bend quilts.

Ms. Lee's sister, Alice Lee, is 90 something and still goes every day to her law office.
My next door neighbor has her over for lunch once in awhile, I say hi but don't intrude.

I loved Ferrol Sams and read his books many years ago, then more recently.
Pat Conroy seems to write under the influence of something that makes him ramble
( that is all I will say about that) but can be an education to read.
I will look into the Water is Wide...do I have a memory of that being a movie also?

[Idealism]

7. Good stuff guys, keep it coming :)

Thanks for the advice, Sister. I am still trying to figure out what I can do on here. Liberal_Lurker that book sounds very interesting, as does that essay on winning every argument, definately will be looking into those.

[CoffeeCat]

9. I loved "The Host"....

...written by Stephanie Meyer.

It's a very interesting and thought-provoking science fiction.

A break from reality could be soothing right about now!

[Jennicut]

12. Excellent book. She has a book made into a movie coming out now too, Twilight

about teenage vampires. My Dad, a lover of science fiction, gave me the Host and it really blew my mind.

[CoffeeCat]

15. "The Host" really is a mind blower isn't it?

It made me think about the human condition.

I couldn't put it down. I'd never read anything like it. The concept and the story line were
so original.

Too bad it would be an impossible movie to make.

I'll have to look into "Twilight."

[Jennicut]

18. Yeah, it would be hard to make it into a movie

with the person's body and voice in their head being different entities. I am going to start reading Twilight soon, there are lots of books in the series. Have not had time with school but maybe during winter break.

[Loki]

10. The Worst Hard Time

The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan. The convergence of the worst economical and ecological disaster in recent US history, the people and their will to survive makes a compelling read, one that has eerie parallels to what we may face in the future. It was awesome and sobering.

[man4allcats]

13. I'm currently reading one of Naomi Wolf's books,

The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. I have Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine, but I haven't started it yet. If you're interested sometime in a good nonpolitical, nonfiction read, check out Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild. It came out in '96 and is the story of a young idealistic guy who chucked it all and went to live in the Alaskan wilderness. He didn't survive. It is a fascinating story. A friend of mine actually went to high school with some of this kid's siblings. Anyway, I recommend the book. I gave my original copy to a friend some years ago and just recently purchased a replacement which I will probably reread over the holidays. I'm pretty sure the book has since been made into a movie, perhaps not long ago if I recall correctly.

[alfredo]

14. "My Name is Red" Orhan Pamuk "The Dark Side" Jane Mayer "News of

A Kidnapping" Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I also recommend an earlier book of his called "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

"Shalimar the Clown" Salman Rushdie

Anything by Sarah Vowell is good. I really liked her "Assassination Vacation." "Take the Cannolia" is pretty good too. Sarah Vowell writes like she speaks, so it might be good to check her out on Youtube or at the "This American Life" website. Hearing her will add a whole dimension to her writing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMYo0v93RFM&feature=related

David Sedaris' "When you are Engulfed in Flames" Was excellent.
From the above book Very funny reading
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBdymtyXt8Y&feature=related

[IDemo]

17. Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

Fiction, 900+ pages. Based partly on the author's life: as an escapee from prison in Australia, he finds himself in Bombay and lives multiple roles, from operating a medical clinic in the slum to running with organized crime.

The writing will absorb you completely from the first paragraph, and if you're like me, you will find yourself saddened as you read the final few pages that it had to have an ending.

http://www.amazon.com/Shantaram/dp/192076920X

[Idealism]

22. Has anyone read "Obamanomics?"

I was looking through a catelog at my library and it was checked out, any clues?

[bluetrain]

24. Remainder by Tom McCarthy. Half-Life by Shelley Jackson.

[concerned canadian]

27. The Assassin's song by M.G. Vassanji

A definite page-turner, only 336 pages. Here is the description from the publishers (i know copy and paste is lazy, but i couldn't do justice to this book in my own words, however briefly:

About this Book

M.G. Vassanji’s magnificent new novel provides further proof of his unique, wide ranging and profound genius. The Assassin’s Song is a shining study of the conflict between ancient loyalties and modern desires, a conflict that creates turmoil the world over – and it is at once an intimate portrait of one man’s painful struggle to hold the earthly and the spiritual in balance.

In The Assassin’s Song, Karsan Dargawalla tells the story of the medieval Sufi shrine of Pirbaag, and his betrayal of its legacy. But Karsan’s conflicted attempt to settle accounts quickly blossoms into a layered tale that spans centuries: from the mysterious Nur Fazal’s spiritual journeys through thirteenth century India, to his shrine’s eventual destruction in the horrifying "riots" of 2002.

From the age of eleven, Karsan has been told that one day he will succeed his father as guardian of the Shrine of the Wanderer: as the highest spiritual authority in their region, he will be God’s representative to the multitudes who come to the shrine for penance and worship. But Karsan’s longings are simpler: to play cricket with his friends, to discover more of the exciting world he reads about in the newspapers his friend Raja Singh, a truck driver, brings him from all over India.

Half on a whim, Karsan applies to study at Harvard, but when he is unexpectedly offered a scholarship there he must try to meld his family’s wishes with his own yearnings. Two years immersed in the intellectual and sexual ferment of America splits him further, until finally Karsan abdicates his successorship to the eight hundred-year-old throne.

But even as Karsan succeeds in his "ordinary" life – marrying and having a son, becoming a professor in suburban British Columbia – his heritage haunts him in unexpected ways. And after tragedy strikes, both in Canada and Pirbaag, he is drawn back across thirty years of silence and separation to discover what, if anything, is left for him in India.

Both sweeping and intimate, The Assassin’s Song is a great novel in the grandest sense: a book that captures the intricate complexities of the individual conscience even as it grippingly portrays entire civilizations in tumult.

[izzie]

28. Don't ask me I just got done War and Peace.

I am re-reading from what I have or I go to the PC. Not very new in either place.

[Sophree]

30. That depends- do you want fiction or non-fiction?

For fiction- I've been really into John LeCarre lately, particularly Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, and Smiley's People. It's British Cold War spy stuff. Really fun and engaging.

Of course, anything by Douglas Adams is great- if you like off-the-beaten-path, quirky sci-fi(ish) fiction. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Both great!

Non-fiction, I haven't been reading as much lately. One good one that I just read for a class, but would have read anyway (it's really good!) Is "Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library: How postmodern Consumer Capitalism Threatens Democracy, Civil Education and the Public Good," by Ed D'Angelo. I can't recommend it highly enough- the author has such a strong base of knowledge in philosophy, history, civics, economics- and puts this all together in such a coherent way. Excellent read.

[McCamy Taylor]

31. "The Watchmen" by Alan Moore

Best graphic novel of all times. Alan Moore is a genius. I have read it 3 or 4 times over the past couple of decades, and it just gets better and better.

[negativenihil]

42. i agree 100%

i just recently finished reading Watchmen myself and hot DAMN what an epic series.

don't let the fact that its a comic detract you - it's WAY ahead of it's time.

[KakistocracyHater]

32. The Christ Conspiracy

by Acharya S-an AMAZING book that is mega-researched with alot of footnotes & ancient texts showing how much the Bible was intellectual property theft, so MANY GODS were JUST like Jesus. It was truly a mind transformation for me, huge!

[Dinger]

34. Edgar Sawtelle, Wow!

That damn book kept me up till 2 a.m. last night!

[Are_grits_groceries]

35. Read "The Art of Racing in the Rain." nt

[malaise]

36. Broken Government: How Republican

Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches. Excellent book.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/books/review/Rosen-t.html?_r=1&ref=review&oref=slogin
New York Times Book Review.

[Evoman]

43. The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil.

by Philip Zimbardo.

Ever heard of the Standford Prison Experiment? This is the guy who did that experiment, and he talks about it in detail. The book is basically about authoritarianism, and how easily people can turn "evil" and do things you didn't think they were capable of. It's not an easy read, and the topic will weigh on you for months after you read it (or change you completely, like it did me).

Here is the authors description (from his website).

"Rather than providing a religious analysis, however, I offer a psychological account of how ordinary people sometimes turn evil and commit unspeakable acts. As part of this account, The Lucifer Effect tells, for the first time, the full story behind the Stanford Prison Experiment, a now-classic study I conducted in 1971. In that study, normal college students were randomly assigned to play the role of guard or inmate for two weeks in a simulated prison, yet the guards quickly became so brutal that the experiment had to be shut down after only six days.

How and why did this transformation take place, and what does it tell us about recent events such as the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses in Iraq? Equally important, what does it say about the "nature of human nature," and what does it suggest about effective ways to prevent such abuses in the future?

Please join me in a journey that the poet Milton might describe as making “darkness visible.” Although it is often hard to read about evil up close and personal, we must understand its causes in order to contain and transform it through wise decisions and innovative communal actions. Indeed, in my view, there is no more urgent task that faces us today."

[Idealism]

45. I believe I read about the experiment,

Was it where people were told repeatedly to press a button that would send electricity into another person, whom they thought they could hear but not see, and how an overwhelming majority would 'give in' to an authority figure in a lab coat?

[Evoman]

46. No...but along the same lines.

A group of volunteers were separated into two groups. One group became inmates, the others became jailers. By the sixth day, the jailers were pretty much physically and mentally torturing the inmates. The fucked up part is that the inmates could have quit anytime they wanted, but they were so "into" their roles, that they did not.

Scary shit.

[Idealism]

47. Wasn't that part of the same experiment?

The 'jailers' were the ones pushing the button on shock therapy, the 'inmates' were the ones being electrocuted? Ive read about both of them, not sure if my memory is compacting both experiments into one node ~_~

[Evoman]

49. Nope, different experiments. Illustrate the same thing, though.

[Marr]

44. The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk.

Why not read the other side's seminal works? This one might shock you with some of it's Conservative "values" that are present today but never expressed.

[MH1]

50. "The Bridge at the Edge of the World" by James Gustav Speth

Because pros write better than I do, here's an excerpt from the WaPo review on Amazon.com:

Contemporary capitalism and a habitable planet cannot coexist. That is the core message of The Bridge at the Edge of the World, by J. "Gus" Speth, a prominent environmentalist who, in this book, has turned sharply critical of the U.S. environmental movement.

Speth is dean of environmental studies at Yale, a founder of two major environmental groups (the Natural Resources Defense Council and the World Resources Institute), former chairman of the President's Council on Environmental Quality (under Jimmy Carter) and a former head of the U.N. Development Program. So part of his thesis is expected: Climate change is only the leading edge of a potential cascade of ecological disasters.

"Half the world's tropical and temperate forests are gone," he writes. "About half the wetlands . . . are gone. An estimated 90 percent of large predator fish are gone. . . . Twenty percent of the corals are gone. . . . Species are disappearing at rates about a thousand times faster than normal. . . . Persistent toxic chemicals can now be found by the dozens in . . . every one of us."

One might assume, given this setup, that Speth would argue for a revitalization of the environmental movement. He does not. Environmentalism, in his view, is almost as compromised as the planet itself. Speth faults the movement for using market incentives to achieve environmental ends and for the deception that sufficient change can come from engaging the corporate sector and working "within the system" and not enlisting the support of other activist constituencies.

Environmentalism today is "pragmatic and incrementalist," he notes, "awash in good proposals for sensible environmental action" -- and he does not mean it as a compliment. "Working only within the system will . . . not succeed when what is needed is transformative change in the system itself."

In Speth's view, the accelerating degradation of the Earth is not simply the result of flawed or inattentive national policies. It is "a result of systemic failures of the capitalism that we have today," which aims for perpetual economic growth and has brought us, simultaneously, to the threshold of abundance and the brink of ruination. He identifies the major driver of environmental destruction as the 60,000 multinational corporations that have emerged in the last few decades and that continually strive to increase their size and profitability while, at the same time, deflecting efforts to rein in their most destructive impacts.

"The system of modern capitalism . . . will generate ever-larger environmental consequences, outstripping efforts to manage them," Speth writes. What's more, "It is unimaginable that American politics as we know it will deliver the transformative changes needed" to save us from environmental catastrophe. "Weak, shallow, dangerous, and corrupted," he says, "it is the best democracy that money can buy."

Above all, Speth faults environmentalists for assuming they alone hold the key to arresting the deterioration of the planet. That task, he emphasizes, will require the involvement of activists working on campaign finance reform, corporate accountability, labor, human rights and environmental justice, to name a few.

http://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Edge-World-Environment-Sustainability/dp/0300136110/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226944571&sr=8-1

I read it a month or so ago, and I thought it was excellent. It's a treasure trove of references on economic theory and why our current capitalist model won't work. Speth isn't anti-capitalism though - it's just the current implementation that doesn't work.

[Idealism]

51. The librarian recommended that to me

I forgot about it until you, thanks! I hear its quite captivating