What are you reading now?

[jstadvl]

just finished "visitation" by Peretti.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Hidden Prey by Sandford. 15th Prey book I'll have read.

 

[Bada0Bing]

I ordered the audiobook of Hot, Flat, and Crowded. I've started listening to audiobooks at work now instead of music and have found it more productive for me.

This book was way too long. It had great discussions, but was too repetitive.

The final 1/3 had some great stuff in it though, such as revamping the power grids and utilizing our current power plants more efficiently to bridge the gap to better sources of energy.

 

[Mulli]

I am reading a great (and long) book about Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. I think that is the author's name.

I finished an Andrew Jackson book "American Lion."

Next up on Mulli's "One Book on Each President" is Martin Van Buren. So I am going to read up on the revolutionary heavyweights before moving on to the dopey Presidents leading up to Lincoln.

 

[Heucrazy]

"Tick tock"

by Dean Koontz

 

[Yuma]

"Tick tock"

by Dean Koontz

Great book! Dean Koontz is the man!

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Lots of different Japanese books.

 

[Bada0Bing]

Mirroring People by Marco Iacoboni

Mirror Neurons are the most important neuroscientific discovery in decades -- some say 'ever.' These clusters of cells were once thought to somehow help plan movement. (when I was in Grad school, my neuropsych prof admitted 'we call it the premotor cortex because it's in front of the motor strip -- not because we know what it actually does.')

Well, 15 years ago, a group of crazy Italian neuroscientists stumbled into the realization that small groups of these cells only fire when an animal performs a complex action, like picking up a raisin and putting it in the mouth. Same motions but no raisin = no cell activity.
But wait -- they fire when they watch another monkey pick up a raisin and put it in his mouth.
And when a human experimenter picks up a raisin and puts it in his mouth.
And when they see a movie of a monkey or human doing the same action.

Other cells react when they see someone pick up a cup, still others when someone breaks open a peanut.
Whoa-ho! Those exact same cells also react when they HEAR the sound of someone opening a peanut out of sight!

The race was on -- Mirror neurons in humans respond instantly (under 100 millisecs) to facial expressions, to gestures and goal-directed sequences, and to the objects that fit with those actions. Thus the cells that fire when you pick up an apple and bite it, also fire when you watch someone do that, and fire when you see an apple (or peach or muffin or similar-sized edible), and when they hear the sound of an apple being bitten, and when you read about it and imagine it...

In humans, the cells can learn to code for symbols -- so if you are told that a red arrow indicates how much pain someone you can't see is experiencing, mirror neurons in another area of the brain associated with feeling your own pain and recognizing pain in others become more active as the arrow shows more pain. Single brain cells show abstract and conceptual thinking.

Mirror Neurons are the biological source for insight into other people's feelings and motivations (and thus for all of culture), for empathy, for learning social behaviors, abstract ideas and concepts, language, and probably charisma and brand loyalty!

The book is really fascinating and written in a fairly entertaining yet logical style, but I have to wonder if someone with no scientific or biology background would follow it comfortably. While supposedly aimed at a lay audience, it's probably better suited for people with some general familiarity with the life sciences.

This was a fascinating book. I must have said to myself "wow that makes sense" a hundred times.

 

[TheKid_1]

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
This was an awesome book. Highly recommend it.

 

[justAndy]

Recently read "The Gone-Away World" by Nick Harkaway.
A novel that incorporates war, adventure, romance, sci-fi,farce, and psycology - like nothing I've ever read.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

Never in Doubt : Remembering Iwo Jima
by Lynn Kessler and Edmond B. Bart (Hardcover - May 1999)

Reading about what my Grandfather was doing during the war.

Crazy stuff.

 

[Pariah]

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"Child of God," by Cormac McCarthy

Amazon.com Review
"Scuttling down the mountain with the thing on his back he looked like a man beset by some ghast succubus, the dead girl riding him with legs bowed akimbo like a monstrous frog." Child of God must be the most sympathetic portrayal of necrophilia in all of literature. The hero, Lester Ballard, is expelled from his human family and ends up living in underground caves, which he peoples with his trophies: giant stuffed animals won in carnival shooting galleries and the decomposing corpses of his victims. Cormac McCarthy's much-admired prose is suspenseful, rich with detail, and yet restrained, even delicate, in its images of Lester's activities. So tightly focused is the story on this one "child of God" that it resembles a myth, or parable. "You could say that he's sustained by his fellow men, like you.... A race that gives suck to the maimed and the crazed, that wants their wrong blood in its history and will have it."

 

[Pariah]

Recently read "The Gone-Away World" by Nick Harkaway.
A novel that incorporates war, adventure, romance, sci-fi,farce, and psycology - like nothing I've ever read.

I just looked this up. I think I'm going to check it out.

 

[Louis]

Currently reading The Way of the World by Ron Suskind.

Easily one of the best, and maddening, and scary, books I've read about the US and Bush's defense policies.

The way Suskind intertwines the stories with the Bush policies to show the affect on people is amazing.

Recently finished Infected by Scott Sigler. Overall I was pretty disappointed with that book.

 

[jstadvl]

just started 2012 by Pinchbeck, among others, "the Red Tent" ad two others. Time will tell which gets finished first.

 

[NHEIB84]

Just finished "Don't Know Much About History" by Kenneth Davis.

Excellent review of US history. An entertaining and informative non-fiction.

 

[Mulli]

I am currently reading a book about the presidencies of both William Henry Harrison and John Tyler.

Believe it or not it, it is interesting.

 

[Burg72]

"the know-it-all" by a.j. jacobs. its really funny. its about this guys mission to read the encyclopedia. sounds boring but its not

I'm in the middle of this book also. So far so good.

 

[dodie53]

rain fall

 

[Louis]

Just bought

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

From Publishers Weekly
In a gripping account, Millard focuses on an episode in Teddy Roosevelt's search for adventure that nearly came to a disastrous end. A year after Roosevelt lost a third-party bid for the White House in 1912, he decided to chase away his blues by accepting an invitation for a South American trip that quickly evolved into an ill-prepared journey down an unexplored tributary of the Amazon known as the River of Doubt. The small group, including T.R.'s son Kermit, was hampered by the failure to pack enough supplies and the absence of canoes sturdy enough for the river's rapids. An injury Roosevelt sustained became infected with flesh-eating bacteria and left the ex-president so weak that, at his lowest moment, he told Kermit to leave him to die in the rainforest. Millard, a former staff writer for National Geographic, nails the suspense element of this story perfectly, but equally important to her success is the marvelous amount of detail she provides on the wildlife that Roosevelt and his fellow explorers encountered on their journey, as well as the cannibalistic indigenous tribe that stalked them much of the way.

The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Economist and New York Times columnist Krugman's stimulating manifesto aims to galvanize today's progressives the way Barry Goldwater's The Conscience of a Conservative did right-wingers in 1964. Krugman's great theme is economic equality and the liberal politics that support it. America's post-war middle-class society was not the automatic product of a free-market economy, he writes, but was created... by the policies of the Roosevelt Administration. By strengthening labor unions and taxing the rich to fund redistributive programs like Social Security and Medicare, the New Deal consensus narrowed the income gap, lifted the working class out of poverty and made the economy boom. Things went awry, Krugman contends, with the Republican Party's takeover by movement conservatism, practicing a politics of deception [and] distraction to advance the interests of the wealthy. Conservative initiatives to cut taxes for the rich, dismantle social programs and demolish unions, he argues, have led to sharply rising inequality, with the incomes of the wealthiest soaring while those of most workers stagnate. Krugman's accessible, stylishly presented argument deftly combines economic data with social and political analysis; his account of the racial politics driving conservative successes is especially sharp. The result is a compelling historical defense of liberalism and a clarion call for Americans to retake control of their economic destiny.

My Lobotomy by Howard Dully

From Publishers Weekly
At age 12, in 1960, Dully received a transorbital or ice pick lobotomy from Dr. Walter Freeman, who invented the procedure, making Dully an unfortunate statistic in medical history—the youngest of the more than 10,000 patients who Freeman lobotomized to cure their supposed mental illness. In this brutally honest memoir, Dully, writing with Fleming (The Ivory Coast), describes how he set out 40 years later to find out why he was lobotomized, since he did not exhibit any signs of mental instability at the time, and why, postoperation, he was bounced between various institutions and then slowly fell into a life of drug and alcohol abuse. His journey—first described in a National Public Radio feature in 2005—finds Dully discovering how deeply he was the victim of an unstable stepmother who systematically abused him and who then convinced his distant father that a lobotomy was the answer to Dully's acting out against her psychic torture. He also investigates the strange career of Freeman—who wasn't a licensed psychiatrist—including early acclaim by the New York Times and cross-country trips hawking the operation from his Lobotomobile. But what is truly stunning is Dully's description of how he gained strength and a sense of self-worth by understanding how both Freeman and his stepmother were victims of their own family tragedies, and how he managed to somehow forgive them for the wreckage they caused in his life.

Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker

Amazon.com Review
Bestselling author Nicholson Baker, recognized as one of the most dexterous and talented writers in America today, has created a compelling work of nonfiction bound to provoke discussion and controversy -- a wide-ranging, astonishingly fresh perspective on the political and social landscape that gave rise to World War II.

Human Smoke delivers a closely textured, deeply moving indictment of the treasured myths that have romanticized much of the 1930s and '40s. Incorporating meticulous research and well-documented sources -- including newspaper and magazine articles, radio speeches, memoirs, and diaries -- the book juxtaposes hundreds of interrelated moments of decision, brutality, suffering, and mercy. Vivid glimpses of political leaders and their dissenters illuminate and examine the gradual, horrifying advance toward overt global war and Holocaust. Praised by critics and readers alike for his exquisitely observant eye and deft, inimitable prose, Baker has assembled a narrative within Human Smoke that unfolds gracefully, tragically, and persuasively. This is an unforgettable book that makes a profound impact on our perceptions of historical events and mourns the unthinkable loss humanity has borne at its own hand.

Don't know which one to start first.

 

[dodie53]

sniper one
by
sgt. dan mills

 

[Zeno]

I just finished Enders Game by Orson Scott Card

I'm surprised I never got to that book before, its been out for like 20+ years. It was a very good read, kind of hard to imagine children acting or talking that way but it was a good read nonetheless.

 

[Bada0Bing]

You must be registered for see images

From Publishers Weekly
Broadening his approach to diet and health beyond the four blood types, naturopathic physician D'Adamo (Eat Right 4 Your Type) profiles six GenoTypes and explains how readers can reprogram gene responses to lose and maintain weight, repair cells, avoid illness and age well. D'Adamo draws on epigenetics, the study of the interaction between genes and environment, to argue that tailoring diet and lifestyle to GenoTypes (genetic survival strategies that predate ethnicity and race and correspond to such external traits as body type, jaw shape and teeth patterns) is the most effective means to achieve optimum health. While conditions in the prenatal environment—our own and our ancestors—have profound effects on our genes, D'Adamo contends, readers can take control of their inheritance by turning on positive genes and silencing negative ones through methylation, histone acetylation and other biological processes. He provides methods for readers to determine their types; these include body measurements, fingerprints, and personal and family history. D'Adamo's dietary recommendations are flexible and consist of lists of foods that enhance each GenoType and foods to limit or avoid, but readers can find meal plans and recipes on the author's Web site. D'Adamo's engaging writing style, enthusiasm for his subject and personalized advice will appeal to those who enjoy taking a hands-on approach to their health and exploring new theories. (Jan.)

It had its interesting points. The teeth shape discussion was interesting. So was the fingerprint discussion. I learned lots of tidbits that make sense when you think about the evolution of our species. It also explained why some diets work better for some people than others.

I don't agree with his philosophy that everyone fits neatly into one of his six categories. I see it more as a long spectrum that people have tendencies to fit into some categories more than others. I am mostly a Nomad, but I could have easily fit into two other categories if I answered the questionnaire slightly differently.

The author has a blog that I plan to add to my weekly reading. Looks interesting if you enjoy reading about the science behind your diet.
http://www.dadamo.com/B2blogs/blogs/index.php?blog

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son).

 

[Pariah]

Recently read "The Gone-Away World" by Nick Harkaway.
A novel that incorporates war, adventure, romance, sci-fi,farce, and psycology - like nothing I've ever read.

I'm reading this now. Good, so far.