Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Recent Additions to my To-Read List

Today the Artsy Reader Girl is hosting top ten lists on recent additions to TBR piles. These are books which are either on my to-read Goodreads list,  are Amazon bookmarks, or were books I took a photo of in the bookstore so I could look for reviews later.


Them: Why We Hate Each Other -- and How To Heal, Ben Sasse

Sadly relevant and badly needed, going by the premise. I looked inside while shopping and it had chapter on the decline of civic culture and institutions, meaning it doesn't just blame social media. (That's part of the problem, but I'm eager to see what Sasse says. )



How the Canyon Became Grand and In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000-Year History of American Indians
Spotted at the Grand Canyon Visitor's Center. I'd arrived early to watch the sun rise over the Canyon (an experience I recommend, but DRESS WARMLY!), and was waiting for my helicopter flight over the canyon.(Also an experience I recommend. It's absolutely unforgettable.)


The City of Tomorrow: Sensors, Networks, Hackers, and the Future of Urban Life,  Carlo & Ratti




Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
Although facebook has its uses, it and social media make stable democracy and accurate-enough-to-be-useful news extremely  difficult.




Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, Peter Godfrey-Smith
...I've given embarrassingly little thought to octupi.  Usually when animal intelligence comes up, it's always dolphins and chimpanzees.


Human Scale Revisited: A New Look at the Classic Case for a Decentralist Future, Kirkpatrick Sale
The original Human Scale was one of my favorite books of 2014, and I look forward to seeing its updated edition.


Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution
One of my favorite segments of Planet Earth II was the episode on animal life within major cities, and this seems to be devoted to that topic.



The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
I probably don't need to read this given that it will just validate something I already believe (that power is unfailingly corruptive), but it may have new angles beyond the usual ones.



From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World in Search of the Good Death, Caitlin Doughty
A thoughtful reflection on global traditions about death and dying, I think. I was very much impressed by Doughty's memoir of how she overcame her own fear of death by working in the funeral service.

16 comments:

  1. Interesting list! I need more non-fiction in my life, so I'll have to check some of these out.

    Happy TTT!

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  2. Wow--great to see some really different titles for a change. I'll be following you!

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    1. Thank you! ...and likewise, as I see you have nonfiction in your TBR stack as well. :)

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  3. I'm not really big on nonfiction but some of these definitely caught my eye. Particularly Other Minds.

    Great list!

    Here's our TTT: http://jennreneeread.blogspot.com/2019/01/top-ten-tuesday-and-most-recent.html

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    1. It's amazing how little we still know about the world, isn't it? Happy TTT!

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  4. Other Minds is in my Science/Biology pile I'm working through... Human Scale and Darwin Comes to Town are on my Amazon Wish List..... So maybe at some point I'll read them!

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    1. You may get to Other Minds before me -- I haven't bought it yet and don't plan to any time soon, as I already have quite a few science reads at the ready. It's just on my radar for the moment!

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  5. Ugh. Ben Sasse is the worst. He is all talk but when it comes to actually making decisions for the greater good, he always falls back to the party line. Blech.

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    1. I haven't heard of him beyond this book. . Quick wiki reveals he's referred to Trump as a "'megalomaniac strongman", so surely he can't be the worst. ;)

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  6. I don't read a lot of non fiction these days but I do read political books. I have quite a few on Trump, Hillary Clinton and Obama to get to plus a ton of UK political books.

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    1. My politics tend to be wonkish...I do a lot of reading about foreign policy or locally-oriented stuff on street design.

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  7. They all look like great reads, but I can only comment on Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith. That was one of my top reads of 2017 and is a fascinating meditation on the nature of consciousness and the amazing lives of the Octopus.

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    1. That may be why this book caught my eye more than usual while browsing around. I'll look forward to it all the more, then.

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  8. I got my husband the Ben Sasse book for Christmas and he's enjoyed what he's read so far. I think he'd really be into the anti-social media book as well. (He's a journalist so has to use it a lot, but what you pointed out about news drives him up a wall. I'm intrigued by The Dictator's Handbook for myself.

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    1. What unfolded over the weekend is a perfect example -- one picture creates a story that damns teenagers, who are then exonerated when more serious-minded people try to look for those fact-and-context things that twitter and facebook don't have time for.

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