Book picks similar to
African American Atheists and Political Liberation: A Study of the Sociocultural Dynamics of Faith by Michael Lackey
curious
heathens-and-infidels
non-fiction
philosophy-religion
Ethics in the Real World: 86 Brief Essays on Things that Matter
Peter Singer - 2016
He is also one of its most controversial. The author of important books such as Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, Rethinking Life and Death, and The Life You Can Save, he helped launch the animal rights and effective altruism movements and contributed to the development of bioethics. Now, in Ethics in the Real World, Singer shows that he is also a master at dissecting important current events in a few hundred words.In this book of brief essays, he applies his controversial ways of thinking to issues like climate change, extreme poverty, animals, abortion, euthanasia, human genetic selection, sports doping, the sale of kidneys, the ethics of high-priced art, and ways of increasing happiness. Singer asks whether chimpanzees are people, smoking should be outlawed, or consensual sex between adult siblings should be decriminalized, and he reiterates his case against the idea that all human life is sacred, applying his arguments to some recent cases in the news. In addition, he explores, in an easily accessible form, some of the deepest philosophical questions, such as whether anything really matters and what is the value of the pale blue dot that is our planet. The collection also includes some more personal reflections, like Singer’s thoughts on one of his favorite activities, surfing, and an unusual suggestion for starting a family conversation over a holiday feast.Provocative and original, these essays will challenge—and possibly change—your beliefs about a wide range of real-world ethical questions.
I Ching: The Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth
Hua-Ching Ni - 1983
We 'moderns' can use the sixty-four hexagrams found in the I Ching as a predictive tool to enhance our lives and reconcile our spiritual and physical selves. When one consults the 'I CHing', the hexagram gives the general background of the situation, while the lines indicate the correct way in which to handle the specific circumstance. This masterful translation by Hua-Ching Ni is popular throughout the world.
On Bullshit
Harry G. Frankfurt - 1986
Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory."Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.
Not One of These Poems Is About You
Teva Harrison - 2020
She plunges deep into her inner world, shadowing the progression of the disease. Reality takes on sharp edges: the swell of cancer and its retreat with chemo. Her inner corporeal reality versus her outer manifestation of health, vitality, and femininity. Holding fast to the great love of her life, while preparing to leave him behind. Contemplating who she was before cancer, and who she is now.Starkly honest and wholly profound, Not One of These Poems Is About You distills life to its essence. Teva Harrison continues to gift the world with her clear-eyed insight and her open heart.
High-Status Characters: How The Upright Citizens Brigade Stormed A City, Started A Scene, And Changed Comedy Forever
Brian Raftery - 2013
Oral history of the Upright Citizens Brigade.
Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life
Casey Gwinn - 2018
Hope is the most predictive indicator of well-being in a person’s life in all the research done on trauma, illness, and resiliency. Based on nearly 2,000 published studies about hope, including their own research, Casey Gwinn and Chan Hellman call for rising hope to be the focus not only in personal lives, but in public policy in education, business, social services, and every other part of society. Hope is measurable. Hope is malleable. Hope changes lives. Hope Rising provides a roadmap to measure hope in your life, assess what may have robbed you of the power of hope, and then provides strategies to increase hope. It challenges every reader to be transparent and honest about their own stories of struggle and adversity, calls for the end of shame and blame in addressing the struggles of those who have experienced trauma, illness, or abuse, and provides practical ways to increase your Hope score and thrive because of it.
30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans
Karl Pillemer - 2011
After a chance encounter with an extraordinary ninety-year-old woman, renowned gerontologist Karl Pillemer began to wonder what older people know about life that the rest of us don't.His quest led him to interview more than one thousand Americans over the age of sixty-five to seek their counsel on all the big issues- children, marriage, money, career, aging. Their moving stories and uncompromisingly honest answers often surprised him. And he found that he consistently heard advice that pointed to these thirty lessons for living. Here he weaves their personal recollections of difficulties overcome and lives well lived into a timeless book filled with the hard-won advice these older Americans wish someone had given them when they were young.Like This I Believe, StoryCorps's Listening Is an Act of Love, and Tuesdays with Morrie, 30 Lessons for Living is a book to keep and to give. Offering clear advice toward a more fulfilling life, it is as useful as it is inspiring.
Building the Orange Wave: The Inside Story Behind the Historic Rise of Jack Layton and the NDP
Brad Lavigne - 2013
He was also a key architect of Layton’s overnight success that was ten years in the making. In Building the Orange Wave, Lavigne recounts the dramatic story of how Layton and his inner circle developed and executed a plan that turned a struggling political party into a major contender for government, defying the odds and the critics every step of the way. The ultimate insider’s account of one of the greatest political accomplishments in modern Canadian history, Building the Orange Wave takes readers behind the scenes, letting them eavesdrop on strategy sessions, crisis-management meetings, private chats with political opponents, and internal battles, revealing new details of some of the most important political events of the last decade.
Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech
Keith E. Whittington - 2018
Too often speakers are shouted down, professors are threatened, and classes are disrupted. In Speak Freely, Keith Whittington argues that universities must protect and encourage free speech because vigorous free speech is the lifeblood of the university. Without free speech, a university cannot fulfill its most basic, fundamental, and essential purposes, including fostering freedom of thought, ideological diversity, and tolerance.Examining such hot-button issues as trigger warnings, safe spaces, hate speech, disruptive protests, speaker disinvitations, the use of social media by faculty, and academic politics, Speak Freely describes the dangers of empowering campus censors to limit speech and enforce orthodoxy. It explains why free speech and civil discourse are at the heart of the university's mission of creating and nurturing an open and diverse community dedicated to learning. It shows why universities must make space for voices from both the left and right. And it points out how better understanding why the university lives or dies by free speech can help guide everyone--including students, faculty, administrators, and alumni--when faced with difficult challenges such as unpopular, hateful, or dangerous speech.Timely and vitally important, Speak Freely demonstrates why universities can succeed only by fostering more free speech, more free thought--and a greater tolerance for both.
A Fortress in Brooklyn: Race, Real Estate, and the Making of Hasidic Williamsburg
Nathaniel Deutsch - 2021
. . . To fully understand Satmar, of course, one has to be born into it. But to understand how political prowess and real-estate know-how shaped the group’s current iteration in Brooklyn, it would be wise to start with this outstanding book."—Laura E. Adkins, LA Review of Books The Hasidic community in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn is famously one of the most separatist, intensely religious, and politically savvy groups of people in the entire United States. Less known is how the community survived in one of the toughest parts of New York City during an era of steep decline, only to later resist and also participate in the unprecedented gentrification of the neighborhood. Nathaniel Deutsch and Michael Casper unravel the fascinating history of how a group of determined Holocaust survivors encountered, shaped, and sometimes fiercely opposed the urban processes that transformed their gritty neighborhood, from white flight and the construction of public housing to rising crime, divestment of city services, and, ultimately, extreme gentrification. By showing how Williamsburg’s Hasidim rejected assimilation while still undergoing distinctive forms of Americanization and racialization, Deutsch and Casper present both a provocative counter-history of American Jewry and a novel look at how race, real estate, and religion intersected in the creation of a quintessential, and yet deeply misunderstood, New York neighborhood.
"He Killed Our Janny:" A Family's Search for the Truth
Sherrie Lueder - 2011
But behind the closed doors was a story of drugs, orgies, physical and sexual assault, and constant fear...Book voyeurs who are able to tackle tough subject matter will love this tale." --Kim Cantrell True Crime Book Reviews~~~~~~~~~~BESTSELLING, AWARD WINNING AUTHOR, SHERRIE LUEDER'S GRIPPING TRUE STORY OF A SON AND DAUGHTER'S PAINFUL MEMORIES AND FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL WHILE GROWING UP IN AN ABUSIVE HOME IN THE SUBURBS OF DENVER--THEIR OWN INVESTIGATION INTO THEIR MOTHER'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH--AND RELENTLESS QUEST FOR JUSTICE. This book is the first to explore the mysterious death of Janyce "Janny" Hansen, a former top model from Denver, Colorado. She, along with her husband and children, live in an upscale home in the suburbs. The community sees an affluent, glamorous family. The reality is far different. An abused wife who can't let go. A husband who beats and sexually assaults his adopted children--while running gambling and prostitution businesses from their home. In the early morning hours of September 21, 1984, her husband returns home to discover her lifeless body in his Mercedes convertible parked in the garage--or so he says. Her family is led to believe she committed suicide. Now, 25 years later, her son and daughter set out to prove their mother was killed by her husband, a successful real estate developer rumored to have strong ties to city officials and underworld crime. Many believe the investigation into Janny's death was a cover-up--starting with the coroner's office--and that her husband got away with murder. As their investigation continues, they are led to believe their suspicions are true. Especially, since evidence increases almost daily and points to only one killer--Janny's husband.
Welcome to Hell World
Luke O'Neil - 2019
When he’s awake, he gives vent to some of the most heartfelt, political and anger-fueled prose to power its way to the public sphere since Hunter S. Thompson smashed a typewriter’s keys.Welcome to Hell World is an unexpurgated selection of Luke O’Neil’s finest rants, near-poetic rhapsodies, and investigatory journalism. Racism, sexism, immigration, unemployment, Marcus Aurelius, opioid addiction, Iraq: all are processed through the O’Neil grinder. He details failings in his own life and in those he observes around him: and the result is a book that is at once intensely confessional and an energetic, unforgettable condemnation of American mores.Welcome to Hell World is, in the author’s words, a “fever dream nightmare of reporting and personal essays from one of the lowest periods in our country in recent memory.” It is also a burning example of some of the best writing you’re likely to read anywhere.____________________________________________________________________________"Luke O’Neil is not on staff. " — The Boston Globe"Unbelievable." —Ben Shapiro"The Left’s new low." —Tucker Carlson"A widely read, offbeat newsletter… " —Mike Isaac, The New York Times"Luke O’Neil is one of the few writers who faces our grim reality the way it is, and not the way we wish it was. Compiling Hell World is a sin-eater’s task, and we are indebted to him for doing it.”—Dan Ozzi, co-author of Tranny"One of my favorite things I read all year…” —Frida Garza, Jezebel’s The Best Political Writing 2018"Welcome to Hell World is a distress call from a place where hope still exists, dispatched by a man who clearly sees the insanity of life in America and believes it doesn’t have to be this way.” —Keith Buckley of Every Time I Die, author of Watch"Luke O’Neil is like no other journalist working today, fusing original reporting with memoir and frequently-profane observational humor to create what feels like a new type of truth-telling: precise, fucked-up, infuriating, and, somehow, beautiful. ...This is what it looks like when a gifted writer finds his voice.” —Hamish McKenzie, co-founder of Substack and author of Insane Mode: How Elon Musk's Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil
Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity
Janell L. Carroll - 2004
Janell Carroll clearly conveys foundational biological and health issues, extensively cites both current and classic research, and addresses all material in a fresh and fun way; her book helps teach students what they need, and want, to know about sexuality. Her focus takes into account the social, religious, ethnic, racial, and cultural contexts of today's students. Dr. Carroll has used feedback from the first edition to add even further value to this popular title-streamlining student pedagogy and providing dynamic learning opportunities through Active Summaries at the end of chapters, a new online student tutorial, new video components, and content for Classroom Response Systems. This continues to be the text most representative of today's students, incorporating new sexual position art, a new pronunciation guide, and (for instructors) a new cross-cultural Slang Guide.
Affirmations: How to Expand Your Personal Power and Take Back Control of Your Life
Stuart Wilde - 1987
It will give you a transcendent view that you can use for any endeavor you choose. Many great people in history have understood the simplicity of this power and used it to exhibit genius."--Stuart WildeOnce you understand the concepts taught in Affirmations, you will be able to rightly affirm, "My expectations are truly limitless."
Jesus: A Pilgrimage
James Martin - 2014
Martin also brings together the most up-to-date Scripture scholarship, wise spiritual reflections, and lighthearted stories about traveling through the Holy Land with a fellow (and funny) Jesuit, visiting important sites in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The person at the heart of the Gospels can seem impossibly distant. Stories about his astonishing life and ministry—clever parables that upended everyone's expectations, incredible healings that convinced even skeptics, nature miracles that dazzled the dumbstruck disciples—can seem far removed from our own daily lives, hard to understand, and at times irrelevant. But in Jesus you will come to know him as Father Martin knows him: Messiah and Savior, as well as friend and brother.Includes 29 pages of notes; 6 page bibliography; 4 pages of suggested reading; 16 page index.