Vacation reading: your suggestions
Joanne Baker
Monday, 27 July 2009 09:39 UTC
In the 30th July issue of Nature, Books & Arts regular reviewers make their summer reading recommendations — from `Life of Pi’ to `Origin of Species’. What books would you recommend for those on a much-needed break from the bench?”
Updated 03 August 2009 09:48 UTC
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Replies
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I would recommend “How to Get Rich” by Felix Dennis, hilarious reading that is sobriety for the soul.
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My number one book for poolside dipping and dozing is this: Perfumes: The Guide. Written by two perfume nuts, one a biophysicist the other a critic, it contains the most stunning stealth science writing you’ll ever come across. Some entries are no longer than a haiku, some are page-long paens. All blend hard core chemistry with hipster flippancy and erudite cultural discourse. Indoles and acetyls rub shoulders with Prokofiev and Britney Spears. Its Proust meets Peter Atkins. In a good way. Don’t believe me, read The Lanch’s rave review in the New Yorker. You’ll want a copy. [Aesthetes: get the UK hardback, its much the handsomest version].
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I recommend this book:
Spirits of the Earth: A Guide to Native American Nature Symbols, Stories, and Ceremonies
I am very interested in nature symbols and this book is great for people who seek spiritual healing and knowledge. -
One of my favourites is “Animal Crackers” by Hannah Tinti. Very imaginative short stories, related to animals and embedded in very dark humor… perfect for holidays!
I would also recommend a nice sci-fi book: “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. Simple and nice! -
I recommend this book: “Los Altisimos” by Hugo Correa is a excellent novel of science Fiction.
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Isaac Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ series, love it :>
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I’m looking fwd to reading "Born to run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen: by Christopher McDougall
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Born-to-Run/Christopher-McDougall/e/9780307266309/?itm=1
It sounds like it has an amazing cast of characters, a fast-paced narrative, some anthropology and evolutionary science thrown into the mix – plus an exotic location. Perfect for lazy summer reading even if you’re not big into running.. -
Three non-fiction titles for summer reading:
(1) What Every Citizen Should Know About Our Planet (ISBN 978-0-933078-18-5; Anson) (An easy overview of population-climate-environment topics from carrying capacity to “the riddle of a billion homework questions” – Hint: The answer is 38,461 years; for excerpts, go here).
(2) The Party’s Over – Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies (ISBN 978-0-86571-529-5; Heinberg) (A provocative look at the changes that we can expect as the energy resources upon which industrial civilization has recently flourished pass their peak abundance and become increasingly difficult and expensive to extract.)
(3) Hot, Flat, and Crowded (ISBN 978-0-374-16685-4; Friedman) (Thomas Friedman’s usual insights and great writing – this time about the challenges posed by a more crowded world as the world’s poorest nations strive to become “carbon-copies” of America) (Very sobering, but perhaps with a little more optimism than is warranted.)
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