Books, non-fiction best reads in 2007
Because I absolutely *must* do this before the end of January, or it will have to get skipped . . .
In brief, the criteria-- I read the book all the way through in 2007 (or was at least close to the finish by new year's), no-rereads, publication date irrelevant, and am convinced I like it enough to recommend really highly.
As with last year, a shorter non-fic than fic list, both because I read fewer non-fic books (I read just as much nonfiction, if not more, but newspapers and blogs and magazines were a huge part of that; as long as I'm dong a best-of, my favorite magazine column of 2007 was Katha Pollitt in The Nation; my favorite blog was The Sideshow, both for political commentary and because it is the best place for links to other interesting blogs/commentary, and whilst I could have fun doing a top 10-list here w/everyone from Glenn Greenwald to Echidne of the Snakes, I suspect the number of people actually reading *my* blog might drop to flat zero if I did that), and because, for some bizarre reason, they just don't stick in my mind as well.
I can't for sure remember the December/January reading time of Paul Krugman's "The Conscience of a Liberal," so while it is good enough to make the short list and I recommend it highly, it's going on next year's.
Anyway, here goes . . .
1. Evolving God by Barbara J King. Beautifully written book about notions of spirituality in general and the whole concept of god evolved, with the theory that it has its roots in the same part of our brains & thought processes that produces empathy, to oversimplify a lot. Also contains a lot about empathy and social interaction among non-human animals, espeically apes, and a lot about differing concepts of spirituality and deity. One of the rare books on religion that should manage to appeal to everyone from the more traditional theists to to the atheists on my f-list, and also anyone who's an animal lover. It isn't specifically making an appeal for animals rights or better treatment of animals for their own sakes, as opposed to just because preserving biodiversity is good for humans, but I can't see how anyone reading this book could NOT think of that. (if someone who is turned off by the notion of animal rights is on my friends list, this shouldn't turn you off the book, necessarily, that's my interpretation and not the point of the book)
2. Helen Caldicott's Why Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer -- not the best written of the books, but given the increasing number of people, most troubling the increasing number of people on the left, who want an immediate massive investment in nuclear power and think it is the only way to save us from globabl warming, I think this is the most *important* book that came out last year, or at least it would be if it had gotten lots of attention. Alas, books & articles promoting nuclear, which already has a lot of money invested in it, get much the bigger promotion than books explaining in a lot more detail why it isn't even a particularly good short term solution--grossly expensive and beyond risky. In the same vein, the Utne reader had nice piece on this subject in their most recent issue, and Scientific American has a cover story on how solar could be supplying all our energy needs by the end of the century, even without new technology (which one would presume will come about, since solar has yet to see really big time investment, alas that Carter lost in '80; we'd probably already be mostly solar and minimally fossil fuel if he had won reelection). My original review w/discussion of a book that took the totally opposite point of view is here: http://mojave-wolf.livejournal.com/30198.html#cutid1
3. Terry Glavin, The Sixth Extinction: Journeys Among The Lost and Left
Behind. Wow. In a lot of ways, the best written and most fun to read non-fiction book I've ever read. Docked a couple of spots because the author annoys me a few times with his dismissive views towards animal intelligence and those who think whales are up there on a level with humans (complete w/pointless shots at Carl Sagan), but other than that you could certainly make a strong case for this being far and away the best book of the year, fic or non-fic. I went on about this at great length in two separate places earlier this year, which I will link to, but first a quick summary from one of those: A beautifully written,
lyrical book, as can be gleaned from from chapter titles such as "Valley of the Black Pig", "The Singing Tree of Chungliyimti", and "The Last Giants in the River of the Black Dragon".
Most of the first half of the book is concerned with the lost of wild land
and species. The second half is mostly concerned with the loss of human
cultures, languages and domestic plants/food crops. One may be dismayed to learn of "patent-protected 'terminator' seeds that produce plants that kill their own seeds or refuse to grow at all unless sprayed with one of the company's herbicides." One may find
oneself agreeing with Richard Manning that the great agribusiness
revolution of the 1960's is "the worst thing that has ever happened on the
planet",that solved (some) local problems only by exchanging them for
unprecedented, global-scale problems."
Despite the author's optimistic view, by the time I got to the finish, I
saw it more as an ode to things passing away than as an optimistic work
showing how humanity is working to save things. Yes, many humans are. More
are working to enrich themselves however possible, and those w/the most
power and least actual need to enrich themselves are doing this in the
worst possible way.
http://mojave-wolf.livejournal.com/30198.html#cutid1 (for review # 1, before I'd finished, concerned w/writing style as much as anything else)
http://mojave-wolf.livejournal.com/32485.html#cutid1 (once I'd finished, w/lots more detail, esp about the latter parts of the book)
Those three were way ahead of everything else, but also making my top 5:
4. Deep Economy, by Bill McKibben (edited from original review) Points out how traditional economics as taught and practiced in most places these days fails to account for all sorts of social and environmental costs, and towards a sort of economics that does these things. Also does a nice job of illustrating that there are all sorts of environmental damage beyoned global warming or even pollution and habitat destruction -- northern China as an example of the kind of catastrophe the whole world is going to face from diminishing water sources unless we get more responsible about our usage of this, amongst other things. And takes apart a lot of big agriculture propaganda against smaller or more localized farming.
I confess, some stuff in the book kinda rubbed me the wrong way -- while I
certainly agree we have a responsibility for each other, the emphasis on
community was a little too much for my anti-social taste, & I nearly quit reading when he said "the rest of this book is devoted to the economics of
neighborliness" (don't stop there, btw, the rest of the book is actually
really good); didn't care for his overall excessive cheeriness or his
repeated mentions of being a Sunday school teacher or his being way, way
way too kind in his evaluation of all sorts of people and arguments, but
then, this may be exactly the kind of person/book/argumentation most
likely to reach those people who still resist more
environmentally/socially friendly ways of life.
5. Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali A really gripping if sometimes problematic memoir. Don't always agree with her politics or her analysis, but nonetheless an extremely worthwhile read. For a longer take, http://mojave-wolf.livejournal.com/33707.html
For what it's worth, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" would have made the list in the #4 spot, except I've heard people cast doubts as to its authenticity, and I haven't had time to check it out. Certainly, most of it rang true to me, but there was one point in particular where I wondered about embellishment, so holding off on ranking/reccing it for right now.
Fiction reviews (that will probably be a top 20, because I'm indecisive about narrowing things down) will hopefully finally show up tomorrow or Tuesday.
In brief, the criteria-- I read the book all the way through in 2007 (or was at least close to the finish by new year's), no-rereads, publication date irrelevant, and am convinced I like it enough to recommend really highly.
As with last year, a shorter non-fic than fic list, both because I read fewer non-fic books (I read just as much nonfiction, if not more, but newspapers and blogs and magazines were a huge part of that; as long as I'm dong a best-of, my favorite magazine column of 2007 was Katha Pollitt in The Nation; my favorite blog was The Sideshow, both for political commentary and because it is the best place for links to other interesting blogs/commentary, and whilst I could have fun doing a top 10-list here w/everyone from Glenn Greenwald to Echidne of the Snakes, I suspect the number of people actually reading *my* blog might drop to flat zero if I did that), and because, for some bizarre reason, they just don't stick in my mind as well.
I can't for sure remember the December/January reading time of Paul Krugman's "The Conscience of a Liberal," so while it is good enough to make the short list and I recommend it highly, it's going on next year's.
Anyway, here goes . . .
1. Evolving God by Barbara J King. Beautifully written book about notions of spirituality in general and the whole concept of god evolved, with the theory that it has its roots in the same part of our brains & thought processes that produces empathy, to oversimplify a lot. Also contains a lot about empathy and social interaction among non-human animals, espeically apes, and a lot about differing concepts of spirituality and deity. One of the rare books on religion that should manage to appeal to everyone from the more traditional theists to to the atheists on my f-list, and also anyone who's an animal lover. It isn't specifically making an appeal for animals rights or better treatment of animals for their own sakes, as opposed to just because preserving biodiversity is good for humans, but I can't see how anyone reading this book could NOT think of that. (if someone who is turned off by the notion of animal rights is on my friends list, this shouldn't turn you off the book, necessarily, that's my interpretation and not the point of the book)
2. Helen Caldicott's Why Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer -- not the best written of the books, but given the increasing number of people, most troubling the increasing number of people on the left, who want an immediate massive investment in nuclear power and think it is the only way to save us from globabl warming, I think this is the most *important* book that came out last year, or at least it would be if it had gotten lots of attention. Alas, books & articles promoting nuclear, which already has a lot of money invested in it, get much the bigger promotion than books explaining in a lot more detail why it isn't even a particularly good short term solution--grossly expensive and beyond risky. In the same vein, the Utne reader had nice piece on this subject in their most recent issue, and Scientific American has a cover story on how solar could be supplying all our energy needs by the end of the century, even without new technology (which one would presume will come about, since solar has yet to see really big time investment, alas that Carter lost in '80; we'd probably already be mostly solar and minimally fossil fuel if he had won reelection). My original review w/discussion of a book that took the totally opposite point of view is here: http://mojave-wolf.livejournal.com/30198.html#cutid1
3. Terry Glavin, The Sixth Extinction: Journeys Among The Lost and Left
Behind. Wow. In a lot of ways, the best written and most fun to read non-fiction book I've ever read. Docked a couple of spots because the author annoys me a few times with his dismissive views towards animal intelligence and those who think whales are up there on a level with humans (complete w/pointless shots at Carl Sagan), but other than that you could certainly make a strong case for this being far and away the best book of the year, fic or non-fic. I went on about this at great length in two separate places earlier this year, which I will link to, but first a quick summary from one of those: A beautifully written,
lyrical book, as can be gleaned from from chapter titles such as "Valley of the Black Pig", "The Singing Tree of Chungliyimti", and "The Last Giants in the River of the Black Dragon".
Most of the first half of the book is concerned with the lost of wild land
and species. The second half is mostly concerned with the loss of human
cultures, languages and domestic plants/food crops. One may be dismayed to learn of "patent-protected 'terminator' seeds that produce plants that kill their own seeds or refuse to grow at all unless sprayed with one of the company's herbicides." One may find
oneself agreeing with Richard Manning that the great agribusiness
revolution of the 1960's is "the worst thing that has ever happened on the
planet",that solved (some) local problems only by exchanging them for
unprecedented, global-scale problems."
Despite the author's optimistic view, by the time I got to the finish, I
saw it more as an ode to things passing away than as an optimistic work
showing how humanity is working to save things. Yes, many humans are. More
are working to enrich themselves however possible, and those w/the most
power and least actual need to enrich themselves are doing this in the
worst possible way.
http://mojave-wolf.livejournal.com/30198.html#cutid1 (for review # 1, before I'd finished, concerned w/writing style as much as anything else)
http://mojave-wolf.livejournal.com/32485.html#cutid1 (once I'd finished, w/lots more detail, esp about the latter parts of the book)
Those three were way ahead of everything else, but also making my top 5:
4. Deep Economy, by Bill McKibben (edited from original review) Points out how traditional economics as taught and practiced in most places these days fails to account for all sorts of social and environmental costs, and towards a sort of economics that does these things. Also does a nice job of illustrating that there are all sorts of environmental damage beyoned global warming or even pollution and habitat destruction -- northern China as an example of the kind of catastrophe the whole world is going to face from diminishing water sources unless we get more responsible about our usage of this, amongst other things. And takes apart a lot of big agriculture propaganda against smaller or more localized farming.
I confess, some stuff in the book kinda rubbed me the wrong way -- while I
certainly agree we have a responsibility for each other, the emphasis on
community was a little too much for my anti-social taste, & I nearly quit reading when he said "the rest of this book is devoted to the economics of
neighborliness" (don't stop there, btw, the rest of the book is actually
really good); didn't care for his overall excessive cheeriness or his
repeated mentions of being a Sunday school teacher or his being way, way
way too kind in his evaluation of all sorts of people and arguments, but
then, this may be exactly the kind of person/book/argumentation most
likely to reach those people who still resist more
environmentally/socially friendly ways of life.
5. Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali A really gripping if sometimes problematic memoir. Don't always agree with her politics or her analysis, but nonetheless an extremely worthwhile read. For a longer take, http://mojave-wolf.livejournal.com/33707.html
For what it's worth, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" would have made the list in the #4 spot, except I've heard people cast doubts as to its authenticity, and I haven't had time to check it out. Certainly, most of it rang true to me, but there was one point in particular where I wondered about embellishment, so holding off on ranking/reccing it for right now.
Fiction reviews (that will probably be a top 20, because I'm indecisive about narrowing things down) will hopefully finally show up tomorrow or Tuesday.