MobileRead March 2009 book nominations

[JSWolf]

Since we seemed to have a hard time coming up with book nominations for February, I kind of thought it might be a good idea if we started thinking on the March book.

March
Nonfiction (can be from anywhere, including our library)

This way we can have a lot more books for voting on then we've had before.

This is not to say I'm taking over from PilotBob. Not at all. I just feel it would be nice to maybe have at least 10 books to chose from if possible.



Here are the current eBooks for March that have three nominations and will be up for voting.

The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death by Laurie Notaro

Laurie Notaro has an uncanny ability to attract insanity--and leave readers doubled over with laughter. Need proof? Check out The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death and try not to bust a gut.

Join Notaro as she experiences the popular phenomenon of laser hair removal (because at least one of her chins should be stubble-free); bemoans the scourge of the Open Mouth Coughers on America's airplanes and in similarly congested areas; welcomes the newest ex-con (yay, a sex offender!) to her neighborhood; and watches, against her own better judgment, every Discovery Health Channel special on parasites and tapeworms that has ever aired--resulting in an overwhelming fear that a worm the size of a python will soon come a-knocking on her back door.

In Notaro's world, strangers are stranger than fiction. One must always check the hotel bathroom for hobo hairs and consciously remember not to stare at old men with giant man-boobies. And then there are the lessons she has learned the hard way: Though it may seem like a good idea, it's best not to hire a tweaked-out homeless guy to clean up your yard.

Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine

Intellectual property” – patents and copyrights – have become controversial. We witness teenagers being sued for “pirating” music – and we observe AIDS patients in Africa dying due to lack of ability to pay for drugs that are high priced to satisfy patent holders. Are patents and copyrights essential to thriving creation and innovation – do we need them so that we all may enjoy fine music and good health? Across time and space the resounding answer is: No. So-called intellectual property is in fact an “intellectual monopoly” that hinders rather than helps the competitive free market regime that has delivered wealth and innovation to our doorsteps. This book has broad coverage of both copyrights and patents and is designed for a general audience, focusing on simple examples. The authors conclude that the only sensible policy to follow is to eliminate the patents and copyright systems as they currently exist.

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

he publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species in 1859 marked a dramatic turning point in scientific thought. The volume had taken Darwin more than twenty years to publish, in part because he envisioned the storm of controversy it was certain to unleash. Indeed, selling out its first edition on its first day, The Origin of Species revolutionized science, philosophy, and theology. Darwin's reasoned, documented arguments carefully advance his theory of natural selection and his assertion that species were not created all at once by a divine hand but started with a few simple forms that mutated and adapted over time. Whether commenting on his own poor health, discussing his experiments to test instinct in bees, or relating a conversation about a South American burrowing rodent, Darwin's monumental achievement is surprisingly personal and delightfully readable. Its profound ideas remain controversial even today, making it the most influential book in the natural sciences ever written—an important work not just to its time but to the history of humankind.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

Intuition is not some magical and mysterious property that arises unbidden from the depths of our mind. It is a product of long hours and intelligent design, of meaningful work environments and particular rules and principles. For too long we have thought of intuition as a kind of black box at the very core of who we are and why we act the way we do. This book shows us how we can hone our instinctive ability to know in an instant, helping us to bring out the best in our thinking and become better decision-makers in our homes, offices and in everyday life. Just as he did with his revolutionary theory of the tipping point, Gladwell reveals how the power of 'blink' could fundamentally transform our relationships, the way we consume, create and communicate, how we run our businesses and even our societies.You'll never think about thinking in the same way again.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Why did crime in New York drop so suddenly in the mid-90s? How does an unknown novelist end up a bestselling author? Why is teenage smoking out of control, when everyone knows smoking kills? What makes TV shows like Sesame Street so good at teaching kids how to read? Why did Paul Revere succeed with his famous warning? In this brilliant and groundbreaking book, New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell looks at why major changes in our society so often happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Ideas, behavior, messages, and products, he argues, often spread like outbreaks of infectious disease. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a few fare-beaters and graffiti artists fuel a subway crime wave, or a satisfied customer fill the empty tables of a new restaurant. These are social epidemics, and the moment when they take off, when they reach their critical mass, is the Tipping Point. In The Tipping Point, Gladwell introduces us to the particular personality types who are natural pollinators of new ideas and trends, the people who create the phenomenon of word of mouth. He analyzes fashion trends, smoking, children's television, direct mail and the early days of the American Revolution for clues about making ideas infectious, and visits a religious commune, a successful high-tech company, and one of the world's greatest salesmen to show how to start and sustain social epidemics. The Tipping Point is an intellectual adventure story written with an infectious enthusiasm for the power and joy of new ideas. Most of all, it is a road map to change, with a profoundly hopeful message?that one imaginative person applying a well-placed lever can move the world.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary--and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains is a rare, gem of a book which contains letters written to her sister during her six-month journey through the Colorado Rockies in 1873. Traveling alone, usually on horseback, often with no clear idea of where she will spend the night in what is mostly uninhabited wilderness, she covers over a thousand miles, most of it during the winter months.

A well-educated woman who had known a comfortable life, she thinks nothing of herding cattle at a hard gallop, falling through ice, getting lost in snowstorms, and living in a cabin where the temperatures are well below zero and her ink freezes even as she writes. She befriends desperados and climbs 14,000 foot mountains, ready for any adventure that allows her to see the unparalleled beauty of nature. Her rare complaints have more to do with having to ride side-saddle while in town than with the conditions she faces. An awe-inspiring woman, she is also a talented writer who brings to life Colorado of more than one hundred years ago, when today's big cities were only a small collection of frame houses, and beautiful areas were still largely untouched".

Here are the current eBooks with two nominations for March. They need a third to be voted on.

The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard

As Apsley Cherry-Garrard states in his introduction to the harrowing story of the Scott expedition to the South Pole, "Polar Exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised." Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World is a gripping account of an expedition gone disastrously wrong. The youngest member of Scott's team, the author was later part of the rescue party that eventually found the frozen bodies of Scott and three men who had accompanied Scott on the final push to the Pole. These deaths would haunt Cherry-Garrard for the rest of his life as he questioned the decisions he had made and the actions he had taken in the days leading up to the Polar Party's demise.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us.

In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; what of our everyday stuff may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe.

The Complete Works of Plato by Plato

Plato asked "the questions" that philosophers are still trying to answer 2,500 years later and, moreover, many of his "Dialogs" are extremely witty and fun to read. The introductory essay by Benjamin Jowett that each dialog has only adds to the interest and enjoyment of them.

[DixieGal]

This looks intriguing: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook37028.htm

I was still a little kid in the 60's, born in 1962, but my folks were hippies. I think I'll get this one.

[pilotbob]

I have no problem letting your run the nominations and vote for this month. Knock yourself out.

That said, the category is so broad for the March book I really don't see a problem getting 10 books nominated.

BOb

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I have no problem letting your run the nominations and vote for this month. Knock yourself out.

That said, the category is so broad for the March book I really don't see a problem getting 10 books nominated.

BOb

I agree, I don't think we'll have any issues at all.

[Moe The Cat]

Lilac_jive, you should nominate a book that's on your list of 1001 Books To Read Before You Die. That way, you can kill two birds with one stone.

[JSWolf]

I nominate the following....

The Complete Book of Cheese by Robert Brown

It’s a book. It’s about cheese.

The Highland Fling and How to Teach it by Horatio N. Grant

his short pamphlet is devoted to the Highland Fling, described as a popular fancy dance, especially appropriate for children. The author gives four exercises and descriptions for eleven steps, many with multiple parts.

The Dark Side by Jane Mayer
The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

A dramatic and damning narrative account of how America has fought the "War on Terror" In the days immediately following September 11th, the most powerful people in the country were panic-stricken.

The radical decisions about how to combat terrorists and strengthen national security were made in a state of utter chaos and fear, but the key players, Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, used the crisis to further a long held agenda to enhance Presidential powers to a degree never known in U.S. history, and obliterate Constitutional protections that define the very essence of the American experiment.

THE DARK SIDE is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of how the United States made terrible decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world-- decisions that not only violated the Constitution to which White House officials took an oath to uphold, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. In gripping detail, acclaimed New Yorker writer and bestselling author, Jane Mayer, relates the impact of these decisions - U.S.-held prisoners, some of them completely innocent, were subjected to treatment more reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition than the twenty-first century.

THE DARK SIDE will chronicle real, specific cases, shown in real time against the larger tableau of what was happening in Washington, looking at the intelligence gained - or not - and the price paid. In some instances, torture worked. In many more, it led to false information, sometimes with devastating results. For instance, there is the stunning admission of one of the detainees, Sheikh Ibn al-Libi, that the confession he gave under duress - which provided a key piece of evidence buttressing congressional support of going to war against Iraq - was in fact fabricated, to make the torture stop.

In all cases, whatever the short term gains, there were incalculable losses in terms of moral standing, and our country's place in the world, and its sense of itself. THE DARK SIDE chronicles one of the most disturbing chapters in American history, one that will serve as the lasting legacy of the George W. Bush presidency.

[desertgrandma]

Per Johns last post,........I want Pilot Bob back..............

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by Moe The Cat

Lilac_jive, you should nominate a book that's on your list of 1001 Books To Read Before You Die. That way, you can kill two birds with one stone.

It's all fiction *sigh*

Hrmm, I think I nominate "The Twelve Caesars" by Suetonius (I have to see if we have it, and if not if it's available, it should be).

Or we could read "Origin of Species." MWAHAHAHAHA! (<--evil laugh)

That wasn't serious, no flame wars plz.

[AbFabGab]

I like cheese...

[Dr. Drib]

I'd like to nominate something by Ann Rule, preferably something I just bought, but haven't yet read, [] such as one of these two:

1) Dead By Sunset

(from Publishers Weekly):
Brad Cunningham was handsome, brilliant, a high-school hero in his native Seattle, a football star at the University of Washington. His family background was unusual, with a Native American mother of whom he was ashamed and an Anglo father who was contemptuous of women. As an adolescent, Brad was violent with his sisters and his mother. This pattern continued in his first, second and third marriages but reached its apogee with his fourth wife, Cheryl Keeton, a highly successful lawyer by whom he fathered three sons. When their marriage collapsed and she sought custody of their children, Brad, a bank executive, threatened her; in September 1986, she was found bludgeoned to death in her car on an Oregon highway. The case remained unresolved until Cheryl Keeton's estate filed a civil suit for damages against Brad in 1991. A criminal trial followed in 1993, in which Brad was found guilty of murder and sentenced to a minimum of 22 years. Rule (Small Sacrifices) provides a perceptive character analysis of a malignant, self-centered, charismatic con artist. It's a chilling, haunting portrait. Photos not seen by PW. 125,000 first printing; True Crime Book Club main selection; Doubleday Book Club, Literary Guild and Mystery Guild featured alternates; Reader's Digest Nonfiction Condensed Book Club selection; Tri-Star/NBC-TV miniseries to air in November.


2) Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death

(from Publishers Weekly):
Former Seattle police officer and crime author Rule (Small Sacrifices; Dead by Sunset, etc.) knows a good drama when she finds one: it involves love, betrayal, greed and violence. In the story of Liysa Northon, a woman who murdered her third husband, Chris Northon, in order to collect his insurance money, Rule has found a real-life soap opera. In the fall of 2000, Liysa convinced Chris to go on a camping trip with her and their small son in the remote forests of Oregon. But the idyllic vacation didn't last long; Liysa would later admit to ending her husband's life by shooting him in the head in an act of "self-defense." From where she sits today (in an Oregon state prison), she still professes to have shot Chris only in innocence and fear-emotions she said were caused by her years as a victim of domestic violence. But according to her husband's parents and other sources, Liysa is a manipulative sociopath who spent years crafting a public façade of abuse persuasive enough to justify the cold-blooded murder of her husband. Rule has done an impressive amount of research to reconstruct the history of Liysa's crime and the stories of the main people involved, interviewing dozens of police officers, investigators and private citizens across the country. And if the author's prose is somewhat flat, the fascinating and perplexing drama should be more than enough to keep most readers turning pages.

Don

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'd like to nominate something by Ann Rule, preferably something I just bought, but haven't yet read, [] such as one of these two:

1) Dead By Sunset
2) Heart Full of Lies

Ooh tempting. My mom has read every single Anne Rule book.

Oh if we are doing any book, free or not, I'd like to recommend "Professor and the Madman." I've read it, but seriously, it's so good.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Oh if we are doing any book, free or not, I'd like to recommend "Professor and the Madman." I've read it, but seriously, it's so good.

This months book nominations do NOT have to be free books. They just have to be ebooks! Please put abstracts by your nominations people!

BOb

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

This months book nominations do NOT have to be free books. They just have to be ebooks! Please put abstracts by your nominations people!

BOb

Yes Master

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester.

From Amazon.com:

When the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary put out a call during the late 19th century pleading for "men of letters" to provide help with their mammoth undertaking, hundreds of responses came forth. Some helpers, like Dr. W.C. Minor, provided literally thousands of entries to the editors. But Minor, an American expatriate in England and a Civil War veteran, was actually a certified lunatic who turned in his dictionary entries from the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Simon Winchester has produced a mesmerizing coda to the deeply troubled Minor's life, a life that in one sense began with the senseless murder of an innocent British brewery worker that the deluded Minor believed was an assassin sent by one of his numerous "enemies."
Winchester also paints a rich portrait of the OED's leading light, Professor James Murray, who spent more than 40 years of his life on a project he would not see completed in his lifetime. Winchester traces the origins of the drive to create a "Big Dictionary" down through Murray and far back into the past; the result is a fascinating compact history of the English language (albeit admittedly more interesting to linguistics enthusiasts than historians or true crime buffs). That Murray and Minor, whose lives took such wildly disparate turns yet were united in their fierce love of language, were able to view one another as peers and foster a warm friendship is just one of the delicately turned subplots of this compelling book.

This blurb kind of makes it sound a little boring, but it isn't. I don't do boring

[acprinter]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'd like to nominate something by Ann Rule, preferably something I just bought, but haven't yet read, [] such as one of these two:

1) Dead By Sunset
2) Heart Full of Lies

I would second those books and add another which I would put at the top of the list.

"The Private Patient" by P.D. James

This is an Adam Dalgliesh mystery.

_________

The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you'll go.
~ Dr. Seuss ~

[pilotbob]

OK, trying to make some nominations that fit in the eBooks and eBook readers... Here are two:

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
The premise of this facile piece of pop sociology has built-in appeal: little changes can have big effects; when small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or "tipping point" is reached, changing the world. Gladwell's thesis that ideas, products, messages and behaviors "spread just like viruses do" remains a metaphor as he follows the growth of "word-of-mouth epidemics" triggered with the help of three pivotal types.

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
In The Long Tail, Chris Anderson offers a visionary look at the future of business and common culture. The long-tail phenomenon, he argues, will "re-shape our understanding of what people actually want to watch" (or read, etc.). While Anderson presents a fascinating idea backed by thoughtful (if repetitive) analysis, many critics questioned just how greatly the niche market will rework our common popular culture.

How To Really Stink At Golf by Jeff Foxworthy
As a longtime golfer, Jeff Foxworthy has learned something important about the grand auld game: It’s not who has the highest score, it’s who has the least fun playing it. And now, in his hilarious primer How to Really Stink at Golf, Foxworthy shares his invaluable tips for a lifetime of horrible drives and putts.

(On Intelligence and The Cukko's Egg I wanted to add, but neither was an ebook, at least not in the Kindle store.)

There's tons of good stuff... Like The World is Flat, Outliers, When Your Engulfed in Flames too. But the above three are my official noms.

BOb