Reading that opens the mind - Books

[Skull]

Think we have it tough now? Read In Order to Live;

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, Maryanne Vollers: 9780143109747 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

 

[Skull]

Coming 20 June, The Real RFK Jr, by Dick Russell:

‘The Real RFK Jr.’: New Book Chronicles Kennedy’s Path to Leading Medical Freedom Champion

A new book by Dick Russell provides the first in-depth account of how and why Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became involved in America’s public health crisis and, in particular, the chronic disease epidemic afflicting children in the U.S

 

[midcan5]

An excellent excellent read.

'American Whitelash' 'A Changing Nation And The Cost Of Progress' By Wesley Lowery

'A masterful blend of narrative history and empathetic reporting.'

AMERICAN WHITELASH | Kirkus Reviews

The author of They Can’t Kill Us All returns with a timely investigation into the historic roots of violent White resistance to non-White Americans.

www.kirkusreviews.com

 

[2aguy]

An excellent excellent read.

'American Whitelash' 'A Changing Nation And The Cost Of Progress' By Wesley Lowery

'A masterful blend of narrative history and empathetic reporting.'

AMERICAN WHITELASH | Kirkus Reviews

The author of They Can’t Kill Us All returns with a timely investigation into the historic roots of violent White resistance to non-White Americans.

www.kirkusreviews.com

Oh....so it is a fantasy book.....good to know.

 

[ScorpioRising007]

Someone asked recently which writer influenced you most, and I list three, Albert Camus, Thomas Wolfe, and Feodor Dostoevsky. For Camus it was all his writings, Wolfe's 'You can't go home,' and D's 'Devils' and 'Brothers Karamazov.'

So I complied a more modern list of reading that challenges and will surely make you think. And raise your IQ as well. Four asterisks are excellent first reads. Most is nonfiction, I will add fiction writers at end.

What We Leave Behind By Derrick Jensen
[ame=[MEDIA=amazon]1583228675[/MEDIA]: What We Leave Behind (9781583228678): Derrick Jensen, Aric McBay: Books[/ame]

Media / Hate / Ecology ****
[ame=[MEDIA=amazon]1931498571[/MEDIA]: The Culture of Make Believe (9781931498579): Derrick Jensen: Books[/ame]
[ame=[MEDIA=amazon]0375714499[/MEDIA]: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (9780375714498): Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky: Books[/ame]

Burning All Illusions : A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom by David Edwards
[ame=[MEDIA=amazon]0896085317[/MEDIA]: Burning All Illusions : A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom (9780896085312): David Edwards: Books[/ame]

Politics - rhetorical thought - excellent ****
[ame=[MEDIA=amazon]067476868X[/MEDIA]: The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy (9780674768680): Albert O. Hirschman: Books[/ame]

Deer hunting with Jesus ****- excellent picture from a hick on hicks - said with respect.
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307339378/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War (9780307339379): Joe Bageant: Books[/ame]

Two excellent introductions to political thinking
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0745635326/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians (9780745635323): Adam Swift: Books[/ame]
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/019929609X/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: An Introduction to Political Philosophy (9780199296095): Jonathan Wolff: Books[/ame]

Great Depression and Bubbles
[ame=[URL]http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195326342/?tag=usmb-20[/URL]: The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (9780195326345): Eric Rauchway: Books[/ame]
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0140238565/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: A Short History of Financial Euphoria (Penguin business) (9780140238563): John Kenneth Galbraith: Books[/ame]

Poverty Global Issues
Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0143114875/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (9780143114871): Jeffrey D. Sachs: Books[/ame]
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0143036580/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (9780143036586): Jeffrey Sachs: Books[/ame]

Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393324397/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: Globalization and Its Discontents (9780393324396): Joseph E. Stiglitz: Books[/ame]

Economics
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465031099/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: How The West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation Of The Industrial World (9780465031092): Nathan Rosenberg, L.E. Birdzell Jr.: Books[/ame]
Great Depression
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393337669/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal (9780393337662): Kim Phillips-Fein: Books[/ame]
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0674715586/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: A Propensity to Self-Subversion (9780674715585): Albert O. Hirschman: Books[/ame]

Liberal thought - Waldron is excellent
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521890578/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought (9780521890571): Jeremy Waldron: Books[/ame]
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0674005112/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (9780674005112): John Rawls, Erin Kelly: Books[/ame]

Serious fun, thought provoking.
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061686549/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: What Have You Changed Your Mind About?: Today's Leading Minds Rethink Everything (9780061686542): John Brockman: Books[/ame]
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060841818/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: What We Believe but Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty (9780060841812): John Brockman: Books[/ame]
EDGE

History
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679730052/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 (9780679730057): Eric Hobsbawm: Books[/ame]

Evil - understanding a topic that confuses all.
Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing by James Waller
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195189493/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (9780195189490): James Waller: Books[/ame]

Ideas - a survey from fire to ....
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060935642/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud (9780060935641): Peter Watson: Books[/ame]

Ethics - profound and deep
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/019824908X/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: Reasons and Persons (Oxford Paperbacks) (9780198249085): Derek Parfit: Books[/ame]

Other stuff to challenge you.

"Is Democracy Possible Here? Principles for a New Political Debate" By Ronald Dworkin

"The Morality of Freedom" By Joseph Raz.
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0198248075/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: The Morality of Freedom (Clarendon Paperbacks) (9780198248156): Joseph Raz: Books[/ame]

Liberal Rights" Jeremy Waldron See Chapter 2 Page 35
Liberal rights: collected papers ... - Google Books

[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/019280281X/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: Ideology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (9780192802811): Michael Freeden: Books[/ame]
[ame=[URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521638763/?tag=usmb-20"]Amazon.com[/URL]: Liberty before Liberalism (9780521638760): Quentin Skinner: Books[/ame]

Modern writers worth reading William Vollman, Richard Powers, and the books below are all excellent.


* Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance By Robert Pirsig
Darkness At Noon By Arthur Koestler
Angle Of Repose By Wallace Stegner
Go Tell It On The Mountain By James Baldwin
Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison
Man's Fate, André Malraux
Sophie's Choice By William Styron
The Fall, The Plague, Albert Camus
An American Tragedy By Theodore Dreiser
The Heart Of The Matter By Graham Greene
The Sound And The Fury By William Faulkner
To The Lighthouse By Virginia Woolf

I loved Albert Camus book "The Stranger". I also loved Fyodor Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment" and "Demons".

I also Loved "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
"Lolita" by Vladimir Nobokov
"A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess
"Ulysses", "A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man", "Finnegan's Wake" by James Joyce.

James Joyce I found very challenging to read and really changed my whole perception of many things to say. Fitgerald nailed it on the head the way I feel deep inside... always struggling to get that American Dream that I never can grasp or attain. Lolita - taboo desires older men often get for younger women... leading to dark criminal behavior. Burgess, Camus and Dostoevsky explored crime and punishment... what is just punishment for the crime... exploring even symphony for the villian/ criminal himself. I guess we often have fantasized about doing crimes ourselves... had dark desires...but never followed through for moral reasons. So I guess it is easy to identify with the criminal and feel symphony since that could of easily been ourselves if we made different choices in our lives.

 

[midcan5]

Check this book out, it covers Trump's rise. Well done and spot on. Short too.

'The Trouble With Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time' Brooke Gladstone

www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/34525527

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Vanity Fair by Thackeray
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

They tell you all that you need to know about human nature and they also make you laugh.

 

[Skull]

Dark Aeon

With an academic background in both science and theology, Allen confronts the paradox of what he calls “good people constructing a digital abomination.” Dark Aeon is nothing less than a cri de coeur for humanity itself. He takes us on a roller coaster ride through history and the emergence of Scientism, and from government-mandated mRNA vaccines to the weird visions of cyborg billionaires like Elon Musk.

 

[Skull]

As in a Thomas Paine pamphlet or a clarion call from Paul Revere, Levin alerts his fellow Americans to the destruction this country is facing, and rallies them to defeat the threat in front of us—more looming than ever. He writes, “Every legal, legitimate, and appropriate tool and method must be employed in the short- and long- run to defeat the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party must be resoundingly conquered in the next election and several elections thereafter, or it will become extremely difficult to undo the damage it is unleashing at breakneck pace.”

The Democrat Party Hates America

 

[ScorpioRising007]

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions - Edwin Abbott

One of my favorite books I have ever read. Loved the book. Changed the way I look at the world.

 

[Skull]

Dark Aeon by Joe Allen is a must read:

Dark Aeon

Humanity Is Consumed by Relentless Transformation Like a thief in the night, artificial intelligence has inserted itself into our lives. It makes importan...

www.skyhorsepublishing.com

Many YouTube interviews about the book.

 

[Unkotare]

With so many of my students borrowing books from the bookshelf in my classroom, I'm revisiting a lot of books I haven't read in years. It's sort of nostalgic.

 

[Unkotare]

Unfortunately, my son is reading To Kill a Mockingbird in his ELA class right now. What a tedious load of crap. I must have read it 50 times by now. Ham-handed, one-note doggerel. Of course almost every teacher is conditioned to exclaim "Oh, that's my favorite book! It changed my life!" whenever it's mentioned.