News:

Look, I haven't mentioned Zeus, Buddah, or some religion.

Main Menu

HAF Book Club: November Poll

Started by Sandra Craft, October 17, 2017, 03:29:00 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Sandra Craft

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani
Inspired by James Baldwin's 1963 classic The Fire Next Time, Ta-Nehisi Coates's new book, Between the World and Me, is a searing meditation on what it means to be black in America today...[a] powerful and passionate book...  [written as a letter from father to son]

The Broken Ladder, by Keith Payne
How inequality affects the way we think, live, and die. Payne explains with simplicity and lucidity how our inequality and our perceptions of inequality have influenced our lives for better or worse. It is an easy read that is most capable of having us examine our attitudes and senses of self-worth.

Confessions of a Barbarian, by Edward Abbey
Ending with an entry written 12 days before his 1989 death at age 60, the diaries of the late environmentalist and novelist (The Monkeywrench Gang) are adolescent in spirit, with all the virtues and vices that word implies. Abbey is capable of startling self-righteousness; his fulminations against writers he considers second-rate seem to be motivated as much by jealousy as by genuine bewilderment at his rivals' success. Yet such moments are cut with welcome self-mockery: He calls himself "E. Abbey, famous unknown author.'' Though he traveled over the world, he finds his spiritual home in the American Southwest, and some of his most moving writing here pays lush homage to the austere landscape or lashes out at those poised to destroy it. Abbey the lover is as vocal as the moralist: exuberantly priapic tributes to one woman after another fill these pages.

Crazy From the Heat, by David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth recounts with trademark showmanship and canny self-awareness the antics of the feverishly bacchanalian entertainment world. In the same gleefully honest and delightfully discursive voice his many fans have come to relish, Roth gives readers a backstage pass to his long strange trip from obscurity to rock stardom, his ups and downs with the Van Halens, and much more that will raise the eyebrows of even the most jaded music industry afficionado.

Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life's Origin, by Robert M. Hazen
Life on Earth arose nearly 4 billion years ago, bursting forth from air, water, and rock. Though the process obeyed all the rules of chemistry and physics, the details of that original event pose as deep a mystery as any facing science. How did non-living chemicals become alive? While the question is (deceivingly) simple, the answers are unquestionably complex. Science inevitably plays a key role in any discussion of life's origins, dealing less with the question of why life appeared on Earth than with where, when, and how it emerged on the blasted, barren face of our primitive planet.

The Invention of Nature, by Andrea Wulf
The acclaimed author of Founding Gardeners reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the process created modern environmentalism.

Reality check, by Donald R. Prothero
How science deniers threaten our future. The shabby tactics of science deniers sparks this astute exposition of what we lose when science is sidelined.  Delves into the realm of climate change, biodiversity loss, and over population.

What Nietzsche Really Said, by Robert C. Solomon & Kathleen M. Higgins
Friedrich Nietzsche's aggressive independence, flamboyance, sarcasm, and celebration of strength have struck responsive chords in contemporary culture. More people than ever are reading and discussing his writings. But Nietzsche's ideas are often overshadowed by the myths and rumors that surround his sex life, his politics, and his sanity. In this lively and comprehensive analysis, Nietzsche scholars Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins get to the heart of Nietzsche's philosophy, from his ideas on "the will to power" to his attack on religion and morality and his infamous Übermensch (superman).





Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Icarus

Thank you for the concise synopsis Sandy. The selections tend to be slightly heavy duty. None even close to exceeding the capacity or probable interest of our readers. I believe they are appropriate choices.

(confession; I have already read two of them)

Sandra Craft

OK, we've got a five-way tie here.  Unless somebody else votes and breaks it, I'm just going to draw titles out of a hat.  I'll do it, I have a hat.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Sandra Craft

At least we got it down to a three-way tie, which is an improvement.  Thanks, guys.

I'm picking What Nietzsche Really Said, by Robert C. Solomon & Kathleen M. Higgins, out of those three since it's been on the shelf the longest.  Time to make it a bride instead of a bridesmaid.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Davin

Ordered it, should get to me by the 1st, but I won't be starting it until the 4th.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

Biggus Dickus

I'm going to pick this up this week. Normally would download to my Nook, but feel like I need an actual visit to the bookstore, so maybe I'll get a hard copy.
"Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair."

Sandra Craft

My copy is also on order, probably get it by mid-November.  In the meantime, I'm reading Diary of a Young Girl for another book club.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

xSilverPhinx

Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on November 07, 2017, 10:49:36 PM
...  In the meantime, I'm reading Diary of a Young Girl for another book club.

You're busy  ;D
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Sandra Craft

Quote from: xSilverPhinx on November 07, 2017, 11:13:11 PM
Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on November 07, 2017, 10:49:36 PM
...  In the meantime, I'm reading Diary of a Young Girl for another book club.

You're busy  ;D

I long to be challenged.  I avoided Anne Frank's diary for a long time because I thought it would be too depressing, but so far it's not despite the appalling conditions she's living in.  The diary really communicates her spirit very well.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

xSilverPhinx

Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on November 07, 2017, 11:24:00 PM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on November 07, 2017, 11:13:11 PM
Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on November 07, 2017, 10:49:36 PM
...  In the meantime, I'm reading Diary of a Young Girl for another book club.

You're busy  ;D

I long to be challenged.  I avoided Anne Frank's diary for a long time because I thought it would be too depressing, but so far it's not despite the appalling conditions she's living in.  The diary really communicates her spirit very well.

I read it a long time ago, and remember mostly fragments. However, I do recall the depressing realisation I had when I finished the book: it was the diary of a girl, who was around my age at the time, and that she would die soon after the last entry.  :(
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Davin

I just finished it yesterday, I'm still thinking about it though.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Davin on November 14, 2017, 02:50:34 PM
I just finished it yesterday, I'm still thinking about it though.

I just got it Saturday, take me a few days to start since I need to finish Anne Frank's diary first.  Did skim thru the What He Said book tho  and it doesn't seem nearly as dense as I'd feared.  I'll go ahead and start a discussion page for it.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany