{"id":375,"date":"2009-09-16T19:20:27","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T01:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/?p=375"},"modified":"2009-09-16T21:03:31","modified_gmt":"2009-09-17T03:03:31","slug":"summer-one-liners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/?p=375","title":{"rendered":"Summer One-liners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since I haven’t taken the time to write even brief reviews of the books I’ve read over the last several months,\u00a0 here’s a list of them in roughly the order they were read.\u00a0 As, or if, reviews are added, they will link from this page.<\/p>\n

Shut Up, I’m Talking – Gregory Levey<\/a>\"\".\u00a0\u00a0 Very funny memoir by a Canadian writer in New York who ends up working briefly as a speech-writer for the Prime Minister of Israel.<\/p>\n

The Age of American Unreason – Susan Jacoby<\/a>.\u00a0 Sobering look at anti-rationalism in America over the last four decades and its ill effects on our nation.<\/p>\n

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid – Jimmy Carter<\/a>\"\".\u00a0 June book club selection.\u00a0 President Carter’s version of the history of the Israeli-Palestine conflict.\u00a0 Not widely regarded as completely accurate, disturbing nonetheless.<\/p>\n

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East – Sandy Tolan<\/a>\"\".\u00a0 Fascinating story about two families and one house in Israel\/Palestine.\u00a0 Recommended by a friend at work in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Minds – Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini<\/a>\"\".\u00a0 Survey of many of the ways we fool ourselves.\u00a0 Other than some confusing editing in one section, a very interesting look at cognitive science’s understanding of our mental blind spots.<\/p>\n

Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts – Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson<\/a>\"\".\u00a0\u00a0 Mostly about confirmation bias, covering the gamut of ways we fool ourselves through self-justification.<\/p>\n

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time – Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin<\/a>. \"\" July book club selection.\u00a0 Poorly written, but very inspirational example of the power of a single human.<\/p>\n

Why Evolution Is True – Jerry A. Coyne<\/a>\"\".\u00a0 Lucid overview of evolution and natural selection, with very clear explanations of all the types of evidence for both.\u00a0 Minimal (compared to Prothero) but strong criticisms of creationism.<\/p>\n

Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction – Susan Blackmore<\/a>\"\".\u00a0 My re-entry into trying to understand consciousness, again.\u00a0 Accurately sub-titled, good overview with an intriguing nod to Buddhist meditation as a means of understanding.<\/p>\n

Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness – Daniel C. Dennett<\/a>\"\".\u00a0 Analysis of the main philosophical distractions keeping us from moving forward toward understanding consciousness.<\/p>\n

Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance–and Why They Fall – Amy Chua<\/a>\"\".\u00a0 Given, via her thesis, that tolerance supported the rise of all hyperpowers and intolerance contributed to their declines, Chua analyzes how this applies to the USA now.\u00a0 Nice historical review of the power and place of previous hyperpowers too.<\/p>\n

Infidel – Ayaan Hirsi Ali<\/a>\"\".\u00a0\u00a0 Amazing story of her journey, and disturbing insight into civil war in Somalia and the manifestations of Islam in eastern Africa.<\/p>\n

Statecraft: And How to Restore America’s Standing in the World – Dennis Ross<\/a>\"\".\u00a0\u00a0 August book club selection.\u00a0 Good review of recent examples of good and bad statecraft, prescriptive lists for successful negotiating and mediating, and analysis of what USA needs to do next in regards to foreign policy actions.<\/p>\n

The Mind of the Market: How Biology and Psychology Shape Our Economic Lives – Michael Shermer<\/a>\"\".\u00a0\u00a0 Great refutation of the standard homo economicus<\/em> explanation.\u00a0 Goes far beyond just describing our economic behavior.\u00a0 Shermer would have been better served by a grander, less marketing-driven title.<\/p>\n

Buddhism without Beliefs – Stephen Batchelor<\/a>\"\".\u00a0 Recommended by Susan Blackmore.\u00a0 Sincere meditations on Buddhist meditation without religious trappings\/distractions.<\/p>\n

Zen without Zen Masters – Camden Benares<\/a>\"\".\u00a0 Silly book I’ve had for years.\u00a0 No content or guidance.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 May re-read after another twenty years.<\/p>\n

Buddhism Plain and Simple – Steve Hagen<\/a>\"\".\u00a0 More detailed than Batchelor (but with less impact on me), also free of religious distractions, focuses on awareness.<\/p>\n

Encountering Naturalism: A Worldview and Its Uses – Thomas W. Clark<\/a>.\u00a0 Nice introduction to many of the aspects of naturalism.\u00a0 There is no such thing as contra-causal free will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I haven’t taken the time to write even brief reviews of the books I’ve read over the last several months, here’s a list of them in roughly the order they were read. As, or if, reviews are added, they will link from this page.<\/p>\n

Shut Up, I’m Talking – Gregory Levey. Very funny memoir […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[11,40,38,39,16,15,8,36,13,41,25,18],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions\/397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}