Getting my January Read On

The Mother Tongue - An endearing history of the English language. Highly recommend.

Amsterdam – A novel by Ian McEwan. Not bad, but not great. Read Saturday instead.

Linked – A book about the science of networks. Decent but not fantastic.

The Conquest of Happiness – Russell discusses happiness. More historically interesting at a couple points than highly useful.

The End of Poverty* - Fantastic. An economist thoroughly analyzes the situation. Highly recommend.

You are not a Strange Here – A moving, well-written and disturbingly evocative collection of short stories. Highly recommend.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper - Great! Good tips for critically analyzing the presentation of news. Recommended!

Letter to a Christian Nation – Short and sweet (or sour if you are religious). Harris’ response to the various letters/emails he received after writing the End of Faith. He can be accused of arguing against extremists, but makes many useful points along the way.

A Brave New World – I finally got around to reading this classic. I like the beginning and near the end the best. It is hard to go back in time to get a sense of the ideologies of previous times, and thus delight in his creativity. Recommended if only to understand what it is all about.

The God Delusion - Dawkins tackles the question of God. He too can be criticized for arguing against extremist, but makes even more points. The work is very thorough and makes good argument after good argument of why it is illogical to believe in God. Highly recommended. (After reading this book, I’ve become increasing annoyed at book reviewers who have their head up their ass)

Phew, whatta month! And to think I actually used to write about this stuff as well (scroll down)
Let me know if you want any more detail on any of them.

*I actually stated this one is December and only finished in Jan.