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Current Non-Fiction reads

Karen Armstrong's The Great Transformation: The World in the Time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah. Fascinating and very detailed history of the rise of the major world religions in the millennium BC, approaching them all on equal footing, tracking the changes in society that led to them, and how they dealt differently with similar needs.
 
beer good said:
Karen Armstrong's The Great Transformation: The World in the Time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah. Fascinating and very detailed history of the rise of the major world religions in the millennium BC, approaching them all on equal footing, tracking the changes in society that led to them, and how they dealt differently with similar needs.
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I have read several of Armstrong's books, but not this one yet. In The History of God, she covers some of the same ground.

I just finished a biography of Turgenev by V. S. Pritchett. He puts more emphasis on the work than the life, devoting many pages to describing each book, its plot, characters and mood. A useful source for lazy students.

I am about to begin a brief biography of Julia Child. Looks like fun. I still remember her waving that cleaver.
 
silverseason said:
I have read several of Armstrong's books, but not this one yet. In The History of God, she covers some of the same ground.
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I've read several of hers before too (though not History of God), and obviously there's bound to be some overlap in information. But the context she puts this in is very interesting.

Have you read her The Bible: The Biography, btw? Kind of curious about that one, since even if she's very good about citing her sources in the one I'm reading now, I'm really interested in the pure research part of it as well - ie, how we know this in the first place.
 
Few days ago I finished my first non-fiction.

Joan-The mysterious life of a heretic who became a saint- Donald Spoto

What an incredible read.This book touches on everything 1400 France.The Hundred Years War, God, church and peoples beliefs, Charles the 7th, England and their relations with France,but most of all it tells the story of Joan of Arc and how this seventeen year old girl with the "voices from God" transformed a nation.

It's a very informative and powerful biography, highly recomend it:)
 
I'm still on The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond. I put it aside for several weeks while I was reading other books, but I'm going to carry on with it today.
 
The Happiness Hypothesis by Haidt. This book combines an account of recent studies of the mind, how it works, what makes us happy, etc., with the wisdom of the ages and sages: Buddha, Ecclesiastes, Machiavelli. Thought-provoking contrasts and a good read with minimal jargon.
 
Hitler's Willing Executioners - Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, focuses on the tens of thousands of actual perpetrators, ordinary Germans, and addresses the question of how they could have brought themselves to participate in such horrible events.
"Explaining why the Holocaust occurred requires a radical revision of what has until now been written. This book is that revision. . . . . Simply put, the perpetrators, having consulted their own convictions and morality, and having judged the mass annihilation of Jews to be right, did not want to say 'no' "
 
Recent non-fiction boos read:

Title: F.A.T. Balance Diet
Sub-Title: 10 Steps to Weigh Loss Freedom
Author: Kevin Jones
Publisher: Fitness Lifestyle
ISBN: 978-0-9768998-3-9
Presentation: Paperback
Genre: Non-Fiction/Health and Fitness

Title: The Secret of Transitions
Sub-Title: How to move effortlessly to higher levels of success
Author: Jim Manton
Publisher: Robert D. Reed Publishers
ISBN: 978-1-931741-91-0
Genre: Business / Career
Presentation: Paperback

Title: Defeating the 8 Demons of Distraction
Sub-Title: Proven Strategies to Increase Productivity and Decrease Stress
Author: Geraldine Markel, Ph.D.
Publisher: Managing Your Mind, LLC
ISBN: 978-0-9791279-4-6
Genre: Non-Fiction/Personal Management/Self-Help
Presentation: Soft cover

Title: UnBreak your Health
Author: Alan E. Smith
Publisher: Loving Healing Press
ISBN: 9781932690361
Genre: Non-Fiction/Health/Information
Presentation: Soft Cover

Title: How to Get Your Husband to Listen to You - Understanding How Men Communicate
Authors: Nancy Cobb and Connie Grigsby
ISBN: 978-1-59052-742-9
Publisher: Multnomah Books (A Division of Random House Inc.)
Genre: Non-Fiction/Women/Marriage/Self-Help/Communication
 
Peder said:
Hitler's Willing Executioners - Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, focuses on the tens of thousands of actual perpetrators, ordinary Germans, and addresses the question of how they could have brought themselves to participate in such horrible events.
"Explaining why the Holocaust occurred requires a radical revision of what has until now been written. This book is that revision. . . . . Simply put, the perpetrators, having consulted their own convictions and morality, and having judged the mass annihilation of Jews to be right, did not want to say 'no' "
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I have this one coming to my stack. The premise is something I've often thought.
 
Just started The Agenda by Bob Woodward. It's about personality clashes and decisionmaking in the Clinton White House. It's been a fascinating read up to this point, I stayed up an extra hour reading, it was just that good. Hopefully that keeps up.
 
I am reading The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond. It is one of his earlier books, preceding Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse. The Third Chimpanzee is about human evolution, that is, the evolution of the human species. DNA studies show that we are more closely related to chimpanzees than gorillas. Thus, we are the third chimpanzee, along with the standard kind and pygmy chimpanzees.

Diamond is interested in more than bones. He is also exploring the human life cycle and sexual traits. Your testicles (if you have them at all) are larger than the gorilla's, but smaller than the chimpanzees.
 
Grand Theft Jesus by Robert S. McElvaine.

I attended a Lutheran school from pre-school through eighth grade, and I can't understand how 3/4 of what passes for "Christianity" these days runs contrary to what Jesus is quoted as saying in the Bible.

And I am loving this book.
 
I'm reading Jared Diamond's book Collapse, having just finished Tim Heald's biography of Princess Margaret and a book about 19th and 20th century Japan. I enjoyed The Third Chimpanzee when I read it a few years ago; I'm glad you're enjoying it, silverseason.
 
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