Book Recommendations

[rcbusmc24]

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

By Jonathan Haidt
Non Fiction - Psychology/ Philosophy

Drawing on his twenty-five years of groundbreaking research on moral psychology, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt shows how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings. He shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and he shows why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns.

In this subtle yet accessible book, Haidt gives you the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation, as well as the curse of our eternal divisions and conflicts. If you’re ready to trade in anger for understanding, read The Righteous Mind.

https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Min...s%2C241&sr=8-1

[DDTSGM]

Amazon one-click makes it too easy to buy things!

[Guerrero]

A few weeks ago, I reread "Clear and Present Danger" by Tom Clancy. I had read it a couple time before maybe 25 and 30 years ago, and my worn-out paperback was still on my shelf.

The bad:
1) I realized that I'm not into Tom Clancy's writing style any more. His prose is just not that great; his real draw is the technology and the intelligence info. He write is a pulp-author kind of way, and CaPD has a few ham-handed foreshadowing phrases that made my eyes roll, along the lines of "He could not see now how big a mistake this would turn out to be..."

2) Way to many moving parts. The cast of characters in this book was huge, considering the story. I had to keep looking back to see who joe FBI dude in Alabama was (for example), and Clancy could have omitted a bunch of minor plot lines.

3) He needs an editor: on a related note, several of the above characters we could do without, and their plots simplified.

4) Jack Who?: for being a Jack Ryan novel, he's pretty inconsequential to the book until about 3/4 of the way through. Clancy could have substituted in just about any analyst-type and it would have been just as interesting.


The good:
1) The main plot is well done, with a plausible story. The back-cover blurb is one of those "Ripped from the headlines!" sorts, but in this case, it's true.

2) Clancy did his homework. Extrapolating from the copyright date, Clancy probably wrote this in 1988-89. At that time, the world at large didn't know too much about Pablo Escobar (on whom the novel's villain is clearly based). Having read "Killing Pablo" by Mark Bowden, Clancy had a whole bunch of details that were spot-on (some of them were dramatized) to the real Cartel operation, down to a couple of the minor characters who were really close to real-world people. True to Clancy's strengths, the tech used against the Cartel was in line with what we really used.

3) Most of the main characters are good, Chavez (in his novel debut) and Clark especially, though Clark is already Mr. SEAL Force Ranger Ninja Recon Squad 6.

4) The ending still gets me. As mentioned above, the novel has about 20,000 plot threads, but the main ones get pulled together at the end in a very dramatic way that I still like after all these years.


The Verdict:
A bit dated and long in the tooth, but worth reading at least once, ever more than 30 years after first publication.

[Darth_Uno]

Just wrapped The Wisdom of Crowds, the third book in Joe Abercrombie's latest First Law trilogy.

I'd have to dig back to see what I posted about it so far, but this is easily my favorite series and author.

(Stormlight Archives and Chronicles of the Black Company are both very close seconds.)

[Moylan]

We have all the original Richard Scarry books, which are great. (Then there are all the books put out by his estate after he died, which are not worth buying.) But back when we were the parents of kids who were the right age for Richard Scarry, you really couldn't get ahold of the unabridged version of What Do People Do All Day? The abridged version is something like 60 pages, and the unabridged is about 90. I looked around for the real version sporadically, but it was always expensive if you could find a copy. Evidently, somebody finally realized this book should be available again, and so...it is. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/b...ichard-scarry/

Just bought a copy for a friend with young kids.

[Coyotesfan97]

We have all the original Richard Scarry books, which are great. (Then there are all the books put out by his estate after he died, which are not worth buying.) But back when we were the parents of kids who were the right age for Richard Scarry, you really couldn't get ahold of the unabridged version of What Do People Do All Day? The abridged version is something like 60 pages, and the unabridged is about 90. I looked around for the real version sporadically, but it was always expensive if you could find a copy. Evidently, somebody finally realized this book should be available again, and so...it is. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/b...ichard-scarry/

Just bought a copy for a friend with young kids.

Cars and Trucks and thing that go!

I also saw Make Way For Ducklings which was one of my favorites.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/b...ert-mccloskey/

The Story of Ferdinand

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/b...robert-lawson/

The StoryAbout Ping

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/b...by-kurt-wiese/

[Moylan]

Cars and Trucks and thing that go!

That was the favorite here. Where's Goldbug?

[feudist]

Deadman's Crossing by Joe Lansdale. Weird West genre.

The Reverend Jebidiah Mercer is an obedient servant of God. To that end he wanders the West with his matched pair of ivory gripped Colt's .44 cartridge conversion loaded with silver bullets looking for capital E Evil. When he finds It he sends It to Hell. Or, back to Hell.
He fears and hates God and only serves him because he fears Hell. His philosophy is "You're born, you suffer and then you're punished."
So, in 4 stories we observe as he finds assorted beasts, monsters, rival gods and lost souls and without "pity, or fear, or remorse" kills them. He's not doing it for Goodness and Justice, he's rubbing out the competition or punishing God's wayward employees.
The author has a wry eye for humor/horror and his hopeless protagonist is sharply drawn as a man who disturbs anyone who encounters him-that lives to tell about it, because he doesn't hide what he doing or Who for. And his opinion of Them.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Relentless - a Grey Men novel.

Hadn't read this series before and picked it up at the library. Hero is the usual super ninja spy but this time he is sick due to a past injury and that's a handicap. Liked that for a touch in this kind of bug. Complicated but interesting plot. Ends with the typical corrupt government after him. Just a minor cliche for a good read.

[Stephanie B]

The Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People, Lost and Found by Rick Bragg.

Some book reviewer said that it was "warm-hearted and hilarious". I thought it was pretty damned melancholy.