For those of you who aren’t inclined to read all 688 pages of Rifkin’s sweeping retelling of human history and the role empathy plays in our interpersonal and intercultural affairs, here’s a video providing a brief overview of The Empathic Civilization, which was published earlier this year.
Archive for the 'Books' Category
photo by ckaroli
One of my favorite annual posts, here are my top reads from 2009. While I read about 50 books a year, only a handful are standouts.
Broken Heartland: The Rise of America’s Rural Ghetto by Osha Gray Davidson (NF)
I haven’t spent much time in the flyover states, but I have driven cross-country twice. When you wander off the AAA flagged gas stops in your travel guide, the patent poverty of some parts of our country is heart-breaking.
Davidson’s books gets to bottom of what has gone wrong in rural America that has left so many families in precarious financial situations, if not outright destitution. The American obsession with scaling successful businesses into monopolistic vertical enterprises has crippled the family farmer that can’t compete with big Agro, nor the lobbyist dollars that make sure agro policy helps the industrial farms at the expense of the little guy.
The Green Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems by Van Jones (NF)
Hopefully the author’s name sounds familiar; he serves as a green jobs advisor to the Obama administration.
This book outlines the potential of the Green Economy with regards to the environmental, social, and fiscal impact. By investing in clean energy, we’re also investing in a massive influx of blue collar + jobs that require a bit more than a high school diploma to provide a living wage and career opportunities. Since environmental devastation hits low-income communities the hardest (pollution, health risks, etc), the green economy would not just clean up areas struggling financial but bring solid jobs to those regions. It’s an easy read chock full of interesting anecdotes and success stories.
The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler (NF)
You’ll never grocery shop the same again. Kessler’s book details how the food industry, from processed snacks to chain restaurant meals, carefully formulates each edible item it sells, maximizing palitability via the proper sugar to fat to salt ratio. Most aspects of our lives can be considered a social construct, but our national eats, they’re following a food scientist’s blue print.
The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle (F)
I should warn you that this book is heart wrenching; even so, I couldn’t put it down. The night I read it, I meant to stop at page 50. Instead, I made it to the final page, 390.
Kittle introduces us the Laden family, a young widow and her two adolescent sons who have been struggling to hold it together since the death of Mr. Laden two years ago. Sarah accidentally finds herself in the center of another tragedy: the arrest of a neighborhood couple for child pornography and pedophilia following Sarah saving their son Jordan from his suicide attempt. After Sarah’s eldest son Nate connects with Jordan, he convinces his mom to foster Jordan, which will irrevocably change all of their lives.
The Dark Side by Jane Mayer (NF) (added 12/31/09)
This books looks as the culture and climate that allowed the Bush administration to thoroughly trample the Constitution, as well as international treaties preventing torture, in the post 9/11 years. It reviews how criminal behavior became accepted via stealthily-written legalese. It’s required reading for informed citizens.
Special Topics in the Calamity of Physics by Marisha Pessl (F)
A page-turner I couldn’t wait to pick up each day. A brilliant high school senior with a nomadic, academic father settles at a seemingly arbitrary high school for her final year of secondary school. The characters are much more intimately entwined that a first glance would indicate, and the double meaning of teacher Hannah Schneider’s words is only revealed in the final chapters.
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace (F)
This fall marked the one year anniversary of D.F.W.’s suicide. His loss still strikes a cord with his fans.
I loved this book. Alternating short overheard conversations with interview vignettes that run several pages, Wallace is able to tease out complicated characters with just a few paragraphs or pages. Some of the characters I wish he had dwelled upon a bit longer. Others I couldn’t wait to be freed of.
For those of you who don’t like books, there’s always the movie adaptation that came out this year.
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: These books were not necessarily published in 2009. They do not necessarily belong on a list of best books ever, books to read before you die, or best kept secrets. It’s just a list of the books I enjoyed most in this calendar year.
Related: Favorite Reads of 2008
The interior of the former Detroit Public Schools’ book depository is the first of many heart-breaking photos in James Griffioen’s Vice Magazine photo essay. It’s not only sad to see a place of learning abandoned, but that so many resources that could have been used by other school districts and charities were left to rot is just criminal.
Via The Daily Dish
photo by badjonni
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
You’ll look up and down streets. Look ‘em over with care.
About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.
from Oh The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
HarperCollins provides voracious readers with an opportunity to preview upcoming titles, provided they are willing to write an honest review.
Once signed up for the First Look Program, you’re allowed to enter the raffle for any upcoming titles that are of interest to you. New titles are posted at the beginning of each month, and the raffle readers selected by the end of the month.
From self-help to business tomes to cookbooks to chick lit to poetry, you can be one of the first reading the next best seller. What’s better than free books? Really!
Look for the Program Sign-Up link halfway down the link list in the right hand column.
photo by photocapy
I’m doing some tidying up of my unread book piles, pulling out titles that peaked my interest a few years ago, but that I’m no longer inclined to need. Given the rise of the used book market, it isn’t worth posting to half.com, when I’m likely to bring in $1 or less for most of the tomes I want to send on to their next home.
The next best thing to money is another book, which is why I list books in need of a good home at BookMooch. At BookMooch I earn points for each book I send to a fellow member. In turn, I get to use those points to mooch books from other users.
But like any retailer experiences, some books just aren’t flying off the shelves in your chosen location or demographic. Thus, I’ve been looking for alternative places to distribute books in need of new homes.
Your local library
The most obvious choice for donation is your local library, most of which will give you a receipt that you can probably use to write off the donation come tax time. Older books aren’t likely to go into circulation, but they may wind up being sold as part of the regular used book sale fundraising.
For those of you looking for more creative places to donate your used books, there are plenty of options.
Prisons
Looking to get rid of old college textbooks? Already solved that quarterlife crisis and don’t need those self-help books any more? Look no further than your local prison. While the rules vary from prison to prison, many accept a variety of educational and recreational reading materials, since their library budgets are limited.
We all know the resale value of college text books is limited since new editions with different pagination are constantly being issued. Here’s an opportunity to really pay it forward.
- Books Behind Bars provides information about what types of reading materials are accepted by prisons all around the country and to whom you should ship your donation
Prisons also gladly accept used fiction, particularly paperback since it’s easier to ship.
- Books to Prisoners is a volunteer organization that ships requested titles to individual prisoners nationwide. They send out close to 10,000 books a year are are always looking to replenish their stockpile.
Troops
People are still looking for ways to support the troops abroad. Shipping your collection of Stephen King paperbacks to deployed soldiers is one way to go.
Low-income kids
Basic literacy will forever be a key component of early childhood education. Unfortunately not all school libraries are well-stocked and not all families can afford to buy books for home. These groups try to put books in the hands of young learners throughout the country. So if you have gently used children’s titles to get out of the house, consider these two groups.
- Books First distributed more than 15,000 books to teachers and their classes in 2007, benefiting more than 2000 pupils.
- Project Nightlight reaches out to homeless children, providing “individual tote bags each filled with a security blanket, an age-appropriate book, and a stuffed animal to children (ages 0-10) in homeless shelters.” They are always looking for like new books to be included in their care packages; if you’re as obsessive about your books as I am about mine, most of them are like new.
When all else fails, Got Books? The group ensures no books winds up in a landfill. Some books they sell, donating half the proceeds to a variety of charities, and others they donate to schools.
photo by araswami
I am a notoriously bad pancake maker and have long resigned myself to restaurant pancakes. Not any more.
These are the best pancakes ever, and I wanted to share the recipe (from Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2007). I used unsweetened coconut flakes in mine.
Overall, Cooking Light puts together an amazing cookbook of their previous year’s magazine recipes. Some of my favorite recipes hail from their publications.
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp flaked sweetened coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 (13.5 oz can) light coconut milk
1 tbsp butter
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine coconut milk, butter, and egg, stir well. Add coconut milk mix to flour mix, stirring until smooth.
2. Pour about 1/4 c batter per pancake onto a hot nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet. Cook 3 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Carefully turn pancakes over, cook 2 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.
Yield 4 svgs, 3 pancakes each
300 calories/29% from fat; 9.7g fat, 7.6g protein, 46.6 g carb, 1.4g fiber, 60mg chol, 521 mg sodium, 14mg calcium
photo by extranoise
“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”
“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.”
B. F. Skinner, 1904-1990, psychologist
I’d be embarassed, except that people buy me books like I Always Look Up the Word Egregious and The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate. While I’ll never be a party animal, I’ll always be the first person you’ll call when you’re stumped.
Your turn. What book are you?
You’re The Dictionary!
by Merriam-Webster
You’re one of those know-it-all types, with an amazing amount of
knowledge at your command. People really enjoy spending time with you in very short
spurts, but hanging out with you for a long time tends to bore them. When folks
really need an authority to refer to, however, you’re the one they seek. You’re an
exceptional speller and very well organized.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
photo by moriza
I try to read about 50 books a year. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. In all likelihood, I’ll get to another 4-8 books before New Year’s Day (since holidays are great days to curl up with a good book), so I may need come back and another title or two to the the list below.
But for now, the books below make my list of best reads this year.
Rather than give away the ending of a novel or write a precis of each non-fiction tome (which could each be a post until themselves), I’ve provided a brief paragraph summing up what you’ll find cover to cover.
Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray by Helen Fisher (NF) (added 1/2/09)
Though this book is about 15 years old, there’s still plenty of relevant study and anecdotal data to supporter Fisher’s hypotheses about love and reproduction. It’s fascinating to read about certain behavioral patterns that appear across a variety of cultures and what common biochemical threads unite romantic relations regardless of what part of the world you are from.
The Scandal Plan: Or: How to Win the Presidency by Cheating on Your Wife
It’s an election year; I needed to be entertained. A Presidential candidate is just too vanilla and uninteresting to the American people, so his campaign fabricates an affair and its exposure to drum up support from the American people. A wag-the-dog scenario.
Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism
Journalist Goldberg takes a look at Christian extremists and their efforts to infiltrate (quietly or openly) the infrastructure of our society, in order to slowly dissolve the separation of church and state. Revisionist history would have you believe the found fathers sought theocracy, not the clear split between the government and religion which they actually saw as necessary after watching the divisive relations of the two in Europe. Christian Nationalists continue the fight to bring intelligent design/creationism into schools whenever they can muster the community support.
The faith-based initiatives launched by Bush ( which Obama supports) funnels government money to religious groups for community work. Despite government funding, they are allowed to discriminate in hiring policies, with many groups choosing to only hire candidates who can embrace the Bible. . . Christian groups receive the bulk of this funding. In return, some leaders of this movement are working to systematically get supporters in places of power in government and education, so as to expand the reach of their theocratic goals. A disturbing and enlightening read after seeing the power of the Christian Right in the 2000 and 2004 elections.
Intuition
Call it a continued passion for medical ethics stemming from my undergraduate years. . . but this book captivated me from beginning to end. Researchers spend years toiling away in labs hoping to make a breakthrough that will yield a cure or a vaccine for cancer. Can the pressure get to be too great? Do scientists sometimes cut corners or hide discouraging data to move research forward? What does that mean to the integrity of the research and the funding of the research itself?
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
I’ve already blogged about Klein’s book. The $800 billion Wall Street bail out provides a great example of disaster capitalism at work in America. After insisting that the world will come to a screeching halt without the bailout, legislators forked over the billions after negligible negotiating. Shock and awe at work. (PS. Here’s Klein’s defense against criticism from the libertarians/supporters of Friedman economics.)
The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us
We live in a globalized economy. With so many of our service jobs being outsourced to India and manufacturing jobs outsourced to China, you should be sure to understand the growth of the two economic behemoths over the last decade. Meredith also gives you pause when considering the trajectory these countries are on and what it means for our future (globally and as Americans) and our access to the limited resources we need to keep our economies active.
How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America
Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade changed America. Access to birth control and the ability to plan a family meant a better quality of life for the next generation and a greater involvement of fathers in the parenting process. Allowing women to get in and stay in the work force on their own terms shook up American culture for the better. Legal access to birth control and abortion have greater significance than the sexual revolution, though pro-life leadership is typically rooted in controlling women’s sexuality. (Page regularly blogs about reproductive issues for the Huffington Post)
When the Rivers Run Dry: Water — The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century by Fred Pearce (NF)
Pearce reviews the state of the water supply around the world. He looks at the dessication of once water-rich areas and the excess flooding in other regions that leave hundreds of thousands homeless. In his travels he examines the technology (dams, aquifers, qanats, water seeding, drip irrigation, etc) and politics (pacts between states and countries that split water resources). Instead of forcing water to bend to the will of settlements, we should instead “go with the flow” and look to simpler technology used for thousands of years, as well as modify our infrastructure for more efficient use of water.
Good Grief
An unexpected widow climbs out of a personal breakdown to relight her life passions and put her own needs on the front burner. In focusing on her interest in baking, she launches a successful business and provides support to a troubled teen, helping them both get their lives back together.
Disclaimer: These books were not necessarily published in 2008. They do not necessarily belong on a list of best books ever, books to read before you die, or best kept secrets. It’s just a list of the books I enjoyed most in this calendar year.
What books are on your own list of notable reads of 2008?
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