Links and Future Possibilities

Books that have been recently mentioned as future possibilities:

The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (396 readable pages [512 pages including notes, acknowledgements, etc..]). Jason's Comments: I highly recommend it. Here is a preview to a future blog posting of mine about this book and another. The book looks at the personalities and the political issues and philosophies of the day. The author describes it as a "panorama," and it isn't just a sequence of data, dates, and numbers. It looks at what peope were thinking and why they were thinking it. I've learned about Hoover's background as a mining engineer. It also discusses a junket to Russia in the 1920's to examine Russian society after the recent Bolshevik revolution.

Happiness: The Science behind Your Smile (184 readable pages; 224 pages including footnotes, etc...) Jason Comments: I have a full review on my blog HERE. This is not a self help book. This book looks at the science and psychology of the fuzzy, but important concept of happiness. It looks at the role that happiness plays in what makes us tick, as a part of evolutionary psychology.

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century (272 pages) From Amazon: ...Friedman maps what he sees as the likeliest developments of the future, some intuitive, some surprising: more (but less catastrophic) wars; Russia's re-emergence as an aggressive hegemonic power; China's diminished influence in international affairs due to traditional social and economic imbalances; and the dawn of an American "Golden Age" in the second half of the century. Friedman is well aware that much of what he predicts will be wrong--unforeseeabl e events are, of course, unforeseen-- but through his interpretation of geopolitics, one gets the sense that Friedman's guess is better than most.

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

Bee Season by Myla Goldberg Laura's comments: (was made into a fantastic film starring Richard Gere & Juliette Binoche) - An eccentric family falls apart at the seams in an absorbing debut that finds congruencies between the elementary school spelling-bee circuit, Jewish mysticism, Eastern religious cults and compulsive behavior. Nine-year-old Eliza Naumann feels like the dullest resident of a house full of intellectuals-

-her older brother, Aaron, is an overachiever; her mother, Miriam, is a lawyer; and her father, Saul, is a self-taught scholar and a cantor at the community synagogue. She surprises herself and the rest of the Naumanns when she discovers a rare aptitude for spelling, winning her school and district bees with a surreal surge of mystical insight, in which letters seem to take on a life of their own. Saul shifts his focus from Aaron to Eliza, devoting his afternoons to their practice sessions, while neglected Aaron joins the Hare Krishnas. Seduced by his own inner longings, Saul sees in Eliza the potential to fulfill the teachings of the Kabbalah scholar Abulafia, who taught that enlightenment could be reached through strategic alignments of letters and words. Eliza takes to this new discipline with a desperate, single-minded focus. At the same time, her brilliant but removed mother succumbs to a longtime secret vice and begins a descent into madness.

The Secret History of Science Fiction - Kelly/Kessel, editors (a collection of modern sci fi short stories) Laura's comments: (a collection of modern sci fi short stories, looks super cool) - Genre-bending anthologists Kelly and Kessel (Rewired) select a wide range of post-1970 stories by authors who occupy the nebulous land between literary and genre. Offerings like Margaret Atwood's Homelanding, a vignette about alien life, and Steven Millhauser's The Wizard of West Orange, which conclusively demonstrates that any story centering around a new science is science fiction, make it clear that nongenre authors have been writing stories that appropriate many genre tropes. But while the title will attract genre fans, li-fi readers who might otherwise be drawn in by T.C. Boyle and Don DeLillo may well be put off by the Tachyon imprint and the words science fiction, undermining the editors' assertion that the walls that separate the mainstream from science fiction are, in fact, crumbling.

Rooftop Diva: A Novel of Triumph after Katrina, by D. T. Pollards Annie's comments: Hey guys, this particular book i know the author's wife. apparently he received good PR from Essence magazine. it's fiction (grounded in truth) about katrina victim. sounds interesting but haven't picked it up yet. it's $2.00 at Amazon right now! in paperback.

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell Annie's comment: supposed to be the male version to the chick book - "hooking up"..and also supposed to be funny. something different...

Fools' Heaven: Love, Lust and Death beyond the Pulpit

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English by John McWhorter

A survey of the quirks and quandaries of the English language, focusing on our strange and wonderful grammar. Why do we say "I am reading a catalog" instead of "I read a catalog"? Why do we say "do" at all? Is the way we speak a reflection of our cultural values? Delving into these provocative topics and more, Our Magnificent Bastard Language distills hundreds of years of fascinating lore into one lively history.

Covering such turning points as the little-known Celtic and Welsh influences on English, the impact of the Viking raids and the Norman Conquest, and the Germanic invasions that started it all during the fifth century ad, John McWhorter narrates this colorful evolution with vigor. Drawing on revolutionary genetic and linguistic research as well as a cache of remarkable trivia about the origins of English words and syntax patterns, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue ultimately demonstrates the arbitrary, maddening nature of English— and its ironic simplicity due to its role as a streamlined lingua franca during the early formation of Britain. This is the book that language aficionados worldwide have been waiting for (and no, it's not a sin to end a sentence with a preposition).

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin

Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 1), by J.R. Ward Annie's comments: is an erotic paranormal romance series by author J. R. Ward. The series focuses on six vampire brothers and warriors who live together and defend their race against Lessers, de-souled humans who threaten their kind.

Dianetics Dianetics can remove the aberrations which make man a selfish and anti-social creature.... It holds hope that man may at last dispense with the ugly institution of war, because wars are the end product of social aberrations at the national level... Dianetics can rectify the mental short circuits which bring accidental death, can increase longevity, minimize the pain of child-bearing and present Mankind with vast new intellectual vistas... HUH? Veena and I are curious to read this.

How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life, by Thomas Gilovich (224 pages): Comment from Amazon: Sports fans who think that basketball players shoot in "hot streaks," and maternity nurses who maintain that more babies are born when the moon is full adhere to erroneous beliefs, according to Gilovich, associate professor of psychology at Cornell. With examples ranging from the spread of AIDS to the weight of Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, he skewers popular but mistaken assumptions. Faulty reasoning from incomplete or ambiguous data, a tendency to seek out "hypothesis-confirming evidence" and the habit of self-serving belief are among the factors Gilovich pinpoints in his sophisticated anaylsis. However, in the book's second half, his debunking of holistic medicine, ESP and paranormal phenomena is superficial and one-sided, marred by some of the very tendencies he effectively exposes in the "true believers."

Coming Attractions: The Making of an X-Rated Video (26 pages) Editorial Review at Amazon: The late UCLA psychiatrist Stoller ( Porn: Myths for Our Time ) and Levine, a journalist and screenwriter with X-video credits, have collaborated on an unusual (and necessarily explicit) oral history of the world of erotic films. The voyeuristic and curious may learn much, as well as lose what Levine calls "lurid misconceptions," through such interviewees as a male actor who confesses fears of AIDS or a female counterpart who cites Piaget in discussing the emotional unreadiness of 18-year-old women for the trials of public sex. There are provocative observations: one porn director calls her work "a document of contemporary Western sexuality"; a male producer believes it's healthy for men to see violence against women; a female actress maintains that women from dysfunctional families go into porn for "adoration and love." Levine himself dubs the industry a "hideout for arrested development cases." Surrounded by much incidental verbiage, these points would benefit from more explication. There are no photographs, either. Product Description at Amazon: In this book, Dr. Robert J. Stoller, one of the world`s leading experts on human sexual behavior, joins with I. S. Levine, a professional writer and director with experience in the making of X-rated videos, to examine the backgrounds and motivations of the participants in an adult heterosexual X-rated video, Stairway to Paradise. Their interviews with performers, writers, directors, producers, and technicians provide unique insights into the mechanics and aesthetics of this type of video, the psychological make-up of the people involved, and the legal and moral implications of such films.

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (192 pages): Jason's comment: I read this a long time ago. I think that Joe has as well. Feynmen won a Nobel prize in Physics, and this is a book of his were he explains some of the wacky and mystical behavior of light. The book contains no math and is inteded to be read by a wide audience. Amazon's Product Description: Celebrated for his brilliantly quirky insights into the physical world, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman also possessed an extraordinary talent for explaining difficult concepts to the general public. Here Feynman provides a classic and definitive introduction to QED (namely quantum electrodynamics), that part of quantum field theory describing the interactions of light with charged particles. Using everyday language, spatial concepts, visualizations, and his renowned "Feynman diagrams" instead of advanced mathematics, Feynman clearly and humorously communicates both the substance and spirit of QED to the layperson. A. Zee's new introduction places both Feynman's book and his seminal contribution to QED in historical context and further highlights Feynman's uniquely appealing and illuminating style.

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, by Levitt and Dubner (288 pages). Both Joe and Mary have read this book.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking , by Malcolm Gladwell (320 pages). Amazon Review: Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea. Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell's ideas about what Blink Camp might look like.

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, by Eric Hoffer (168 pages). Someone suggested this book to me after reading my American Thinker article (also published on my blog). Comments by Amazon reviewer Eugene Jewett: Written 50 years ago this classic book has been dusted off in the wake of the Taliban's bombing of the Pentagon in Washington DC and the WTC in NYC. The book concerns itself with the active phase of mass movements which are dominated by a true believer, a man of fanatical faith who is ready to sacrifice his life for a holy cause. The 19 suicide bombers who have wreaked so much havoc on America are fanatics of this sort. Eric Hoffer attempts to trace the fanatic's genesis and to outline his nature... Hoffer allows that to understand the various facets of the fanatical personality requires an understanding of the practices of contemporary mass movements. Written circa 1951, he studied the Nazi's, the Fascist's, and the Communist's because it was here where the successful techniques of conversion had been perfected and applied... Hoffer's beginning notion is that "people with a sense of fulfillment think the world is good while the frustrated blame the world for their failures. Therefore a mass movement's appeal is not to those intent on bolstering and advancing a cherished self, but to those who crave to be rid of an unwanted self. He continues by saying that the true believer "cannot be convinced, only converted". This basic tenet of the story is about human nature and its susceptibility to totalitarianism both secular and sectarian.

Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee - This is the first book of an 18th-century Chinese detective series written by a westerner who lived and worked in the east for a good portion of his life.

The Killings at Badger's Drift - The first book of the Inspector Barnaby Mysteries.

A Touch of Frost - The first book in the inspector Frost series.

Flashman - The first book in the (you guessed it) the Flashman series! This series follows the misadventures of the fictional 19th century British officer Harry Paget Flashman. He is a coward and a lecher who constantly find himself in the center of major historical events and manages to stumble through them looking like the hero.

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens, 336 pages. I’m not an atheist and I don’t agree with the premise of the book, but thought that that this might be a good read because: 1) I generally enjoy writings by Christopher Hitchens.
2) I thought that this could be a great book for discussion. 3) The table of contents includes a “Reading Group Guide”
In some ways, I think that this book would be much more interesting to read than a book which merely confirmed my beliefs. I’ve heard two radio interviews with Hitchens while he was promoting this book. I agreed with some of the points that he made in his radio interviews, and disagreed with others. I really wanted to go deeper into his arguments than they we able to go into during the radio interviews. He is extremely direct about his opinions, and he obviously feels that all religions are false and that we’d be much better off without these misguided beliefs. He sounds a bit cynical, but he claims he isn’t nearly as cynical as people like Richard Dawkins.
Background on Christopher Hitchens: Christopher is a strange, but interesting bird. He has a very liberal history, though he isn’t a typical liberal. He once considered himself a Trotskyite and was a correspondent for Socialist organization. He was actively against the Vietnam War. However, he despises the Clintons and strongly supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Interesting Links:

Books that have been recently mentioned as future possibilities:

Other Future Possibilities mentioned a long time ago: