Hi friends,
I enjoyed a few
great nonfiction books again this month, learning about everything from the
history of dinosaurs, to the psychology of octopus, to what love means. A bit
of a hodge-podge of subjects but all good reads. Aren’t books great?!
I’m looking for good
fiction recommendations still, and want to read something well-written, clear,
and unbiased about energy policy. Let me know if you have any suggestions in
those categories or others.
Special shout out to
my old friend, Logan Smith, for recommending several of this month’s books!
Happy reading,
Tonya
P.S. Note that all summaries are taken from goodreads.com.
Rating: ★★★ / G
Recommendation: Sure
Review: We need to practice love. Now that I’ve read this book this seems obvious, but it took
Fromm’s well-reasoned arguments and flowing style to make me realize that love,
like any other art that needs to be developed, must be practiced. I think that
some people have more of a natural proclivity towards loving, but I know that
this is something that I need to develop. Fromm distinguishes between different
kinds of love: brotherly love, erotic love, love of self, maternal and paternal
love, and God’s love. In this manner, the book reminded me of C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves, which I also recommend.
I think that these distinctions are helpful to understand how to develop the art
of love, but I also think that there are probably more types of love beyond
this, and I’d be interested in hearing what other categories you all think
exist. There were several areas that I didn’t entirely agree with Fromm, but
the largest one was his distinction between maternal and paternal love. He
asserts that maternal love is unconditional but paternal love is given or
withdrawn in response to good or bad behavior. In my brief experience, I’ve
observed that the love my husband has for our child, soon to be children, is
just as unconditional as my own. What do you think?
Summary: Most people are unable to love on the only
level that truly matters: love that is compounded of maturity, self-knowledge,
and courage. As with every art, love demands practice and concentration, as
well as genuine insight and understanding. Erich Fromm explores love in all its
aspects—not only romantic love, steeped in false conceptions and lofty
expectations, but also brotherly love, erotic love, self-love, the love of God,
and the love of parents for their children.
War by Sebastian
Junger
Rating: ★★★★ / PG-13-R
Recommendation: Yes
Review: Combat is something that I hope
to never personally experience, and reading this book made me even more grateful
to those who volunteer for it. Junger was embedded on-and-off with an Army
platoon in 2008 that was fighting in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, an area
which experienced some of the most action of the war. Junger uses his
great action-writing skills to bring the combat sequences to life in all their adrenaline and horror, but he also writes very compellingly about the
emotional and psychological states of the soldiers he grows to know so well.
One thing that has particularly stayed with me is his conclusion that love is a
critical part of combat. He concludes, and I agree, that love is the only
reason that men are willing to risk their lives for each other in combat, a
situation that lacks any evolutionary reason to do so. Ironically, love enables
war. It was especially interesting to read this after reading Fromm’s The Art of Loving, which discusses brotherly
love. Brotherly love seems to be the type of love that motivates these men. If this is
the case, it seems to me that the power of brotherly love is extremely
underestimated and underutilized.
Summary: Junger turns his brilliant and
empathetic eye to the reality of combat--the fear, the honor, and the trust
among men in an extreme situation whose survival depends on their absolute
commitment to one another. His on-the-ground account follows a single platoon
through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's
Korengal Valley. Through the experiences of these young men at war, he shows
what it means to fight, to serve, and to face down mortal danger on a daily
basis.
Rating: ★★★★★ / G
Recommendation: Yes
Review: I’ve listened to several of
Goodwin’s big books and found them fascinating but a little too in depth and
exhaustive at times, which is why I really enjoyed this book. Goodwin analyzes
the leadership styles of the four presidents that she has studied in depth:
Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. She
provides great overviews of their early lives and how their leadership styles developed,
and then concludes with case studies from their time as presidents. I loved
learning more about each of these leaders and contrasting their very different
styles. As expected, Lincoln is still my favorite. His magnanimity and brilliance
are awe-inspiring, and I’m a huge fan. This book comes at an interesting time
in the history of our nation, and is a great read for anyone interested in
history or developing leadership skills.
Summary: In Leadership,
Goodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely—Abraham
Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in
civil rights)—to show how they recognized leadership qualities within
themselves and were recognized as leaders by others. No common pattern
describes the trajectory of leadership. Although set apart in background,
abilities, and temperament, these men shared a fierce ambition and a
deep-seated resilience that enabled them to surmount uncommon hardships. At
their best, all four were guided by a sense of moral purpose. At moments of
great challenge, they were able to summon their talents to enlarge the
opportunities and lives of others.
Rating: ★★★★ / G
Recommendation: Yes
Review: This is the second book that I’ve
read about octopus, and while the first, OtherMinds by Peter Godrfey-Smith, discussed more about the biology and evolution of
octopus, this one focused more on the behavior and intelligence of octopus,
which I thought complemented what I’d learned in the first nicely. Turns out
that octopus are pretty amazing creatures. They are highly intelligent and have
unique personalities. While we usually associate intelligence in animals only
with mammals like dogs, dolphins, and great apes, octopus seems to be equally
if not more intelligent than these species, but have taken a completely
different evolutionary path to get there. Montgomery tells a fascinating story
of her own discovery of these amazing creatures and her relationships with
several octopus at her local aquarium. This book definitely reinforced to me
how amazing the variety of life on this wonderful planet is.
Summary: In pursuit of the wild,
solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced
true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of
French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with
strikingly different personalities—gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious
Kali, and joyful Karma. Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this
mollusk as she tells a unique love story.
The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs: A New History of a LostWorld by Stephen Brusatte
Rating: ★★★★ / G
Recommendation: Yes
Review: Dinosaurs!! I’m not going to
lie, reading this book made me want to watch Jurassic Park , and definitely made me feel like a little kid
again. It’s a simple, high-level telling of the about 200-million-year long history
of dinosaurs. Brusatte does their history justice as he describes how dinosaurs
grew from just one among many different types of life on earth to true dominance
over their ecosystems to the epically dramatic extension that cleared the way
for the rise of mammals – and humans yay!! He explains clearly and
interestingly new methods of research that are illuminating even more dinosaur
history as technology progresses. He sometimes diverges into semi-relevant
tales of his paleontology explorations, but gratefully doesn’t wander too far
or too long from the central narrative. The best part of this book: the two entire chapters
devoted to the king of dinosaurs: T-Rex!
Summary: Brusatte traces the evolution of dinosaurs
from their inauspicious start as small shadow dwellers—themselves the
beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the
beginning of the Triassic period—into the dominant array of species every
wide-eyed child memorizes today, T. rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus,
and more.
No comments:
Post a Comment