[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
I’ve heard good things about that. Didja know she provided the voice of Violet, the disappearing daughter, in The Incredibles?
[/QUOTE]
I borrowed the audio book from my library, & it sounded like I had a cartoon character in the car with me! 
[QUOTE=SuntanTigerTamer]
Slight hijack - I read Taleb’s “The Black Swan” that dealt with the consequences of totally unforeseeable events, and while I loved the subject matter, Taleb came across as so unbearably arrogant that I found it almost impossible to finish. Does this book have all of the auto-biographical BS that made The Black Swan such a hard read?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, Taleb is almost insufferable, but the subject matter makes it worth it. For the record I’ve read both books and I think black swan is a badly padded rehash of ideas he explains more clearly in the first book.
[QUOTE=counsel wolf]
Yes, Taleb is almost insufferable, but the subject matter makes it worth it. For the record I’ve read both books and I think black swan is a badly padded rehash of ideas he explains more clearly in the first book.
[/QUOTE]
I will check it out then, but whoever edited The Black Swan deserves a date with a firing squad…
[QUOTE=HongKongFooey]
Guns, Germs, and Steel
[/QUOTE]
Seconded.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, also by Jared Diamond. Anything else by him too, for that matter.
Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin.
Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti
The Moon’s a Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses by Davin Niven - Hollywood explained clearly and with love, including the damage it does.
Uncle Tungsten and any other book by Oliver Sacks, Island of the Colorblind, The Man who mistook his Wife for a Hat - anything.
Mr God, This is Anna by Fyn - the only theology book this atheist will ever recommend.
*Europe: A History * by Norman Davies.
A book I have enjoyed reading and rereading. Beautifully written and informative.
I haven’t finished it yet, but I was educated on things I had no inkling of by The Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn. I didn’t know why Communism and Communist Russia were bad things until I read this book. I just thought they were, you know, different.
My husband usually recommends Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution by Kenneth R. Miller.
I really enjoyed Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, about the (more often than not) accuracy of snap judgments and how people should rely on their intuition, particularly in dangerous situations. Very thought-provoking, and well-written to boot.
The 48 Laws of Power - learn how to control anyone.
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus]
The 48 Laws of Power - learn how to control anyone.
[/QUOTE]
And there’s a fitting username/post 
Since so many good books have already been mentioned, I’m down to biographies of which I really like this one:
Peter the Great by Robert K Massie
[QUOTE=well he’s back]
(oh and Dung Beetle - I met Dr. Maples when I worked at his dept at UF long ago. He was jokingly called Dr. Death. A nice, interesting guy)
[/QUOTE]
Cool!
[QUOTE=WormTheRed]
…Since so many good books have already been mentioned, I’m down to biographies of which I really like this one: Peter the Great by Robert K Massie…
[/QUOTE]
I’ll see your *Peter the Great * and raise you Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Flexner (an excellent one-volume bio of George Washington), Lincoln by David Herbert Donald (ditto, about the Civil War leader), and Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris (equally good, about T.R.'s presidency). All are just terrific, even if you know nothing about the subjects beforehand.
Has anyone yet mentioned Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror?
If nothing else this book had a remarkable impact on my life. It was the first time a book on history sung to me.
I need to buy a new copy as I’ve worn out the one I bought 20 years ago.
[QUOTE=well he’s back]
(oh and Dung Beetle - I met Dr. Maples when I worked at his dept at UF long ago. He was jokingly called Dr. Death. A nice, interesting guy)
[/QUOTE]
/me has envy.