by Rupe | Oct 20, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Harold S. Kushner
Date: 20-Oct-04
As a young theology student, Harold Kushner puzzled over the Book of Job. As a small-town rabbi he counseled other people through pain and grief. But not until he learned that his three-year-old son, Aaron, would die in his early teens of a rare disease, did he confront one of life’s most difficult questions: Where do we find the resources to cope when tragedy strikes?
“I knew that one day I would write this book,” says Rabbi Kushner. “I would write it out of my own need to put into words some of the most important things I have come to believe and know. And I would write it to help other people who might one day find themselves in a similar predicament. I am fundamentally a religious man who has been hurt by life, and I wanted to write a book that could be given to the person who has been hurt by life, and who knows in his heart that if there is justice in the world, he deserved better…If you are such a person, if you want to believe in God’s goodness and fairness but find it hard because of the things that have happened to you and to people you care about, and if this audio helps you do that, then I will have succeeded in distilling some blessing out of Aaron’s pain and tears.”
My Thoughts: Ok read. Does give a pretty good perspective on viewing human suffering.
by Rupe | Sep 23, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Noam Chomsky
Date: 23-Sep-04
For more than half a century, the United States has been pursuing a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. Our leaders have shown themselves willing, as in the Cuban missile crisis, to follow the dream of dominance no matter how high the risks. Now the Bush administration is intensifying this process, driving us toward the final frontiers of imperial control, toward a choice between the prerogatives of power and a livable Earth. Noam Chomsky investigates how we came to this moment, what kind of peril we find ourselves in and why our rulers are willing to jeopardize the future of our species.
Lucid, rigorous and thoroughly documented, Hegemony or Survival is Chomsky’s most urgent and sweeping work in years. Certain to spark widespread debate, it is a definitive statement from one of the world’s most influential political thinkers.
My Thoughts: Readl good book. A must read for the historically curious and for those who want a deeper understanding of what going on in the world right now. I really recommend this book.
by Rupe | Sep 23, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Jon Stewart
Date: 23 Sep-04
Jon Stewart, host of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Daily Show, and his coterie of patriots deliver a hilarious look at American government.
Termed a “political king-maker” by Newsweek, and “the Dan Rather of infotainment” by Vanity Fair, Jon Stewart, along with the writers of The Daily Show, combines his riotous wit and razor-sharp insight in this hilarious book.
American-style democracy is the world’s most beloved form of government, which explains why so many other nations are eager for us to impose it on them. But what is American democracy?
In America (The Audiobook), Jon Stewart and The Daily Show writing staff offer their insights into our unique system of government, dissecting its institutions, explaining its history and processes, and exploring the reasons why concepts like “one man, one vote”, “government by the people”, and “every vote counts” have become such popular urban myths.
Among the topics:
– Ancient Rome: The First Republicans
– The Founding Fathers: Young, Gifted, and White
– The President: King of Democracy
– The Supreme Court: 18 Legs, Four Tits, One Mission
– Running for Office: What Are You Thinking?
– The Media: Can It Be Stopped?
– The Future of Democracy: The Constitutional Robocracy and You!
This program contains explicit language.
My Thoughts: Pretty witty. Really liked it a lot. Well recommended.
by Rupe | Aug 18, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Steven Johnson
Date: 18-Aug-2005
Brilliantly exploring today’s cutting edge brain research, Mind Wide Open allows readers to understand themselves and the people in their lives as never before. Using a mix of experiential reportage, personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson describes how the brain works and how its systems connect to the day-to-day realities of individual lives.
Johnson embarks on this path as his own test subject, participating in a battery of tests and experiments in search of a modern answer to the oldest of questions: who am I? He explores how we “read” other people, how the brain processes frightening events, what the neurochemistry is behind love and sex, how our brain teems with powerful chemicals closely related to recreational drugs, why music moves us to tears, and where our breakthrough ideas come from.
Johnson suggests that learning about the brain’s mechanics can widen one’s self-awareness as powerfully as any therapy, meditation or drug. To read Mind Wide Open is to rethink family histories, individual fates, and the very nature of the self.
My Thoughts: Kinda got lost in this one. Between the word Modernity and Self, I wasn’t sure what the central thesis was leading me.
by Rupe | Aug 18, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: General Tommy Franks
Date: 18-Aug-2004
Few individuals have the chance to contribute so much of themselves to the American story as General Tommy Franks. In American Soldier, he captures it all.
The Commander in Chief of the United States Central Command from July 2000 through July 2003, General Tommy Franks made history leading American and Coalition forces to victory in Afghanistan and Iraq, the decisive battles that launched the war on terrorism.
General Franks retraces his journey from a small-town boyhood through a lifetime of military service, including his heroic tour as an Artillery officer in Vietnam, where he was wounded three times.
Drawing on military records declassified for this book, Franks offers the first true insider’s account of the war on terrorism. He puts you in the Operations Center for the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom just weeks after 9/11, capturing its uncertain early days and the historic victory that followed.
When President Bush focused world attention on the threat of Iraq, Franks seized the moment to implement a bold new vision of joint warfare in planning Operation Iraqi Freedom. Rejecting Desert Storm-style massive troop deployment in favor of flexibility and speed, Franks was questioned by the defense establishment, including Secretary of State Colin Powell. Yet his vision was proven on the ground: Within three weeks, Baghdad had fallen.
Franks describes the covert diplomacy that helped secure international cooperation for the war, and speaks frankly of intelligence shortcomings that endangered our troops, and of the credible WMD threats that influenced every planning decision. He offers an unvarnished portrait of the “disruptive and divisive” Washington bureaucracy, and a candid assessment of the war’s aftermath. Yet in the end, as American Soldier demonstrates, the battles in Afghanistan and Iraq remain heroic victories, wars of liberation won by troops whose valor was “unequalled by anything in the annals of war.”
My Thoughts: Pretty good read. Would recommend for the military minded.
by Rupe | Jul 22, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Leil Lowndes
Date: 22-Jul-04
You’ve admired successful people who seem to have it all, seen them chatting confidently at parties and being listened to in business meetings. They’re the ones with the best jobs, nicest parties, and most interesting friends.
But they’re not necessarily smarter than you or even better looking. What it comes down to is their more skillful way of communicating with other people. Now How to Talk to Anyone reveals the secrets of successful communication. With Leil Lowndes’s easy and effective techniques, you will discover how to become a master communicator in life, love, and business.
Combining the latest research with Leil’s trademark wit and warm-hearted observations of human foibles, How to Talk to Anyone shows you how to make an unforgettable entrance and meet the people you want to meet; sound like an insider in any crowd, no matter how little you have in common; use body language to captivate audiences of all sizes; work a party the way a politician works a room; and always come across confident, credible, and charismatic wherever you are.
My Thoughts: Okay read. Nothing earth shattering here – just a good read.
