Book Reviews

You are currently browsing the archive for the Book Reviews category.

Last Chance to See: Douglas Adams

06/06/2010 in Book Reviews | No comments

Hands down the most refreshing book I have read in years.  “Last Chance to See” by Douglas Adams fits into the non fiction section with a toe in the humor that characterizes Adams’ most famous series: “The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy“.

Adams recounts his travels around the world in a last ditch attempt to see in person some of the most iconic endangered species.  Reading this book is a bit like watching a well made BBC nature documentary through the eyes of a creative humorist like Adams.  I was delighted to hear the same jovial, matter-of-fact humor in “Last Chance to See” that made him famous in Hitchhiker. Just getting around in each exotic country he travels proves to be a point of interest, as he recounts his American expectations sorrily dashed by contrasting foreign attitudes.

The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice – Hitchens

03/28/2010 in Atheism And Religion, Book Reviews | 7 comments

Christopher Hitchen’s book The Missionary Position was published in 1995, right around the time when my 10 year old brain was being spoon fed Catholicism and my mother was telling me how saintly and wonderful Mother Teresa was.  It is for this reason that I am now just able to read this revealing book on the hypocrisies and depravities of Mother Teresa.  Having met Mother Teresa himself and tour her poor house in Calcutta, Hitchens offers a glimpse into the derisive nature of her work and her heavy hand in politics and money all over the globe.

Hitchens demonstrates how Mother Teresa became a world fad, accepting monetary donations exceeding $50 million over her career.  “Mother Teresa’s global income is more than enough to outfit several first-class clinics in Bengal.  [Her] decision not to do so, and indeed to run instead a haphazard institution… is a deliberate one.” (p.41)  Not only did she run her “hospitals” and poor houses without basic medical supplies, pain medication or knowledgeable physicians, she left nearly all of the $50 million in “donations to the poor” in New York bank accounts, only withdrawing to help pay for elaborate altar chalices and convent building projects.

Hitchens explains why Mother Teresa, despite her inability to funnel donations where the poor needed it most, received so much attention and monetary support: “The rich world likes and wishes to believe that someone, somewhere, is doing something for the Third World.  For this reason, it does not inquire too closely into the motives or practices of anyone who fulfills, however vicariously, this mandate.” (p. 49)

Mother Teresa apparently carried a similar obsession with sex, as does the rest of the Catholic celibate.  She insisted that women submit to their husbands when approached for sex, as this was the way god intended.  On the political front, she was extremely vocal against abortion in all circumstances (even rape).  Mother Teresa would not tolerate birth control, even when the use of condoms may have prevented HIV transmission between husband and wife.  Hitchens comments on her outspoken agenda against the science of reproduction: “It is often said, inside the Church and out of it, that there is something grotesque about lectures on the sexual life when delivered by those who have shunned it.  Given how much this Church allows the fanatical Mother Teresa to preach, it might be added that the call to go fourth and multiply, and to take no thought for the morrow, sounds grotesque when uttered by an elderly virgin whose chief claim to reverence is that she ministers to the inevitable losers in this very lottery.” (p. 59)

Even more shocking was her financial entanglement with Mr. Keating, one of the greatest con artists of the 1980s.  Mr. Keating donated a quarter million dollars to Mother Teresa at the height of his financial scheme.  The money donated was money stolen

Mother Teresa with Charles Keating

from American families who thought they had invested their savings for retirement.  Mother Teresa met with Keating, showered him with praise, gave him a cross that he kept with him continually and even more astonishingly, wrote a letter to the judge on Keating’s case when the man was on trial for fraud in the United States.  The Deputey District Attorney wrote Mother Teresa back, asking her to return the fraudulent quarter million dollars Keating had given her in order to help rectify the lives of those whose money Keating has stolen:  “You urge Judge Ito to look into his heart – as he sentences Charles Keating – and do what Jesus would do.  I submit the same challenge to you.  Ask yourself what Jesus would do if he were given the fruits of a crime; what Jesus would do if he were in possession of money that had been stolen; what Jesus would do if he were being exploited by a thief to ease his conscience?”(p.70)  Mother Teresa never replied.

These sound bites are just a small taste of the dirt Hitchens has dug up on Mother Teresa.  A brief read, this took me only 2 hours to read, but the content is something you are hard pressed to find honestly laid out anywhere else.  The Missionary Position.

Letter to A Christian Nation: Sam Harris (Book Review)

03/24/2010 in Atheism And Religion, Book Reviews | No comments

Letter to A Christian Nation was the first of Sam Harris' books that I picked up. Gathering assumptions from the title, I anticipated a book geared towards the religious infiltration into American politics. I found a bit of that mixed into Sam's book, but even better I found his straightforward approach to tackling American fundamentalists brilliantly refreshing. Written in the first person,[amazon ASIN="978-0307278777"]Letter to a Christian Nation[/amazon] bluntly points out the hypocracies American fundamentalist Christians show in opposing Muslim fundamentalists. Before doing this, he compactly brings down every major dogma of Christianity, laying the ground work for the final punch at the end. He rightly suggests that in order to combat the religious nonsense that drives Muslim suicide attacks, American Christians need to turn that finger around and examine their own radical, exclusive belief system.

Letter to A Christian Nation was the first of Sam Harris‘ books that I picked up.  Gathering assumptions from the title, I anticipated a book geared towards the religious infiltration into American politics.  I found a bit of that mixed into Sam’s book, but even better I found his straightforward approach to tackling American fundamentalists brilliantly refreshing.  Written in the first person, Letter to a Christian Nation bluntly points out the hypocrisies American fundamentalist Christians show in opposing Muslim fundamentalists.  Before doing this, he compactly brings down every major dogma of Christianity, laying the ground work for the final punch at the end.  He rightly suggests that in order to combat the religious nonsense that drives Muslim suicide attacks, American Christians need to turn that finger around and examine their own radical, exclusive belief system.

The entire read took me 2 hours.  Afterward I said aloud: “Yes, I absolutely agree.”  After sitting in contemplation for a moment I decided that it had been the best use of 2 hours in a long time to be enriched with the viewpoint Harris’ offered.  It is one of those books you feel like handing out to a fundy in your family who thinks their religion is the end-all, be-all and everyone else can go suck it.  It is almost as satisfying as knocking someone so pig-headed like that over the head with a board and shouting: “wake up you idiot! you do nothing but isolate yourself from reality!”  Intellectually satisfying.

Get a Letter to a Christian Nation or read Sam Harris’ other best seller: The End of Faith.

The Greatest Show on Earth: Richard Dawkins

01/20/2010 in Book Reviews | No comments

Perhaps the most comprehensive layman’s book on the science of Evolution, The Greatest Show on Earth inspires a deeper understanding of life on planet Earth.

Richard Dawkins is well known for his best selling book The God Delusion where he makes a compelling case against superstitions and religion.  However, in his latest book, Dawkins makes a point to set aside supernatural disagreements and focus on the point of evolution.  He does so in earnest because of the outspoken creationists who mislead young minds into believing the earth is only 10,000 years old and that people rode Dinosaurs.

The Greatest Show on Earth is written in a way that chronologically flows well and makes a point to explain the various ways in which evidence is verified.  Dawkins goes into great length to explain to the average person how carbon dating and zirconium dating function and the strengths and weaknesses of each dating method.  He covers the many experiments and observations being done today to watch evolution take place in bacteria, dog breeds, fish and much more.  Dawkins includes detailed information on fossils and lineage that connect all living things together on the tree of life.

This book is also available on iTunes in audio formate from Audible.com. Dawkins narrates the audio book, which is a great way to glean the most accurate inflection from the author himself.

“The Family” who calls themselves the ‘Christian Mafia’ is exposed

08/19/2009 in Atheism And Religion, Book Reviews, Politics | No comments

Jeff Sharlet has the balls to unearth the dirty secrets of a Christian Mafia in his book "The FamilyThe Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power." This wealthy group was established during the great depression with the idology that power and wealth were bestowed by the christian god and should be things to be sought after. The Family openly admires Hitler, Stalin and Mau as men who understood how to attain and wield the type of power they seek to attain. The Family acts as a lobby group (unregistered) and claims non profit status as a religious organization. They also house prominent members of government in a sort of exclusive resort house call the "C Street House" where the officials are waited on hand and foot and served meals by college girls of the local Catholic College. Some of these men who are part of The Family who have recently been in the news for extramarital affairs have been Senator John Ensign and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, The Family regularily pays for countless statesmen and government officials to travel overseas to befriend third-world dictators and oppressive regimes. It is the philosophy of The Family that these dictators have god given power and deserve to be included in the christian mafia in an attempt to unite powerful, rich men all over the world with the goal of influencing public policy on a global scale.

Jeff Sharlet has the balls to unearth the dirty secrets of a Christian Mafia in his book “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.” This wealthy group was established during the great depression with the ideology that power and wealth were bestowed by the christian god and should be things to be sought after. The Family openly admires Hitler, Stalin and Mau as men who understood how to attain and wield the type of power they seek to attain. The Family acts as a lobby group (unregistered) and claims non profit status as a religious organization. They also house prominent members of government in a sort of exclusive resort house call the “C Street House” where the officials are waited on hand and foot and served meals by college girls of the local Catholic College. Some of these men who are part of The Family who have recently been in the news for extramarital affairs have been Senator John Ensign and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford,

The Family regularly pays for a select group of statesmen and government officials to travel overseas to befriend third-world dictators and oppressive regimes.  It is the philosophy of The Family that these dictators have god given power and deserve to be included in the christian mafia in an attempt to unite powerful, rich men all over the world with the goal of influencing public policy on a global scale.

Sharlet’s book exposes this wicked group in an in-depth manner that draws ties to a large number of elected government officials including President Ford, George W. Bush and Ronald Regan.

Sharlet recently interviewed on Jon Stewart’s Daily show (clip below).  Even better is his interview on NPR. 

LISTEN to the NPR interview HERE

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Jeff Sharlet
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

Walking the Big Wild by Karsten Heuer: Book Review

08/05/2009 in Book Reviews | No comments

My most recent leisure read was Walking the Big Wild by Karsten Heuer. The book was a reflection of the trip Heuer took in an effort to better understand the Y2Y corridor. This was a hot topic 10-15 years back when conservationists like Heuer were trying to work with land owners, loggers, miners and ranchers to portion off a corridor that connects Yellowstone to the Yukon.  Heuer walked this trail in the span of about a year with Webster, his loyal Border Collie.

Bear encounters, hardships, and breathtaking views keep the pages turning.  As you journey with Heuer through the wilderness, you get a taste of the respect he felt by the end of the trip for the big wild.

Heuer’s most recent book published in 2007 is titled Being Caribou: Five months on foot with an arctic herd. After such a rewarding read Walking the Big Wild, I anticipate reading his next adventure.

Quantum, A guide for the Perplexed – Jim Al-Khalili

06/11/2009 in Book Reviews, Science | 1 comment

Quantum, A guide for the Perplexed by Jim Al-Khalili caught my eye at the bookstore because of the glossy pictures and example diagrams.  Being a visual learner, I suspected that the best way to introduce myself to the weird world of quantum mechanics was through visual aid.  This really did prove to be a great choice for my visual learning needs. 

The author assumes of his reader a certain level of mathematical background and heightened interest in quantum mechanics.  Each chapter requires your full attention and often some rereading to grasp difficult concepts.  However, given the task of explaining quantum mechanics to the average person, Jim does a fantastic job explaining complex mathematical and conceptual oddities.  I also enjoyed how he detailed  some history of quantum mechanics and the ‘who’s who’ of the quantum theories.  Jim Al-Khalili is the chair of the University of Surrey’s Nuclear and Particle Physics Division located in the UK.

This is a book that will remain on my bookshelf as reference and to reread again in the future.  You can purchase it on Amazon for about $12 as of the date of this post.

God is Not Great – Christopher Hitchens

04/29/2009 in Book Reviews | 2 comments

Hitchen’s book “God is Not Great” presents a detailed look at why religion spoils everything. The extent of logic and examples he presents concerning many different religious cultures and how they commit atrocities will shock even a moderate atheist. His chapter on child abuse and religion was particularly revealing. He describes in depth the torture inflicted on young children through female circumcision in many religions (including Islam) and male circumcision in the Judeo-Christian religion (among others).

I highly recommend this especially to those who wish to know more when demonstrating to the religious how religion does more harm than good. The minimal “good” that religion produces by no means justifies the increasing number of large scale demonstrations of greed, manipulation and bloodshed incurred by religion. I’ll let Hitchens take it from here and plug his own book:

The God Delusion

04/25/2009 in Atheism And Religion, Book Reviews | No comments

In The God Delusion, Dawkins discusses evolutionary by-products. The example he chooses to use is a moth flying into a flame as a demonstration of what we see as abject stupidity. Why would a moth deliberately fly into a flame? This is not an example of natural selection....it is an example of natural selection gone wrong. Moths evolved to fly at night by using celestial objects as guides: Keep the light source in a certain position and you can navigate, much as we do with a compass which points north. Dawkins notes that it was not until comparatively late in evolutionary history that there was anything like artificial lights to throw off the moths. We see only the moths who get distracted by the flames. We do not see millions of moths who merrily go on their way without self-immolating themselves.

As an ex-catholic and professionally trained musician, I  substitute as organist for local catholic churches in my area.  I find ample opportunity to have a good internal laugh listening to the deception and misinformation that flows from pulpits. Let me explain:

In The God Delusion, Dawkins discusses evolutionary by-products. The example he chooses to use is a moth flying into a flame as a demonstration of what we see as abject stupidity. Why would a moth deliberately fly into a flame?

This is not an example of natural selection….it is an example of natural selection gone wrong. Moths evolved to fly at night by using celestial objects as guides: Keep the light source in a certain position and you can navigate, much as we do with a compass which points north. Dawkins notes that it was not until comparatively late in evolutionary history that there was anything like artificial lights to throw off the moths. We see only the moths who get distracted by the flames. We do not see millions of moths who merrily go on their way without self-immolating themselves.

So, what is the Darwinian answer to religion? Dawkins sees it this way.

My specific hypothesis is about children. More than any other species we survive by the accumulated experience of previous generations and that experience needs to be passed on to children for their protection and well-being. Theoretically, children might learn from personal experience not to go too near a cliff-edge, not to eat untried red berries, not to swim in crocodile-infested waters. But, to say the least, there will be a selective advantage to child brains that possess the rule of thumb: believe, without question, whatever your grown-ups tell you. Obey your parents; obey the tribal elders, especially when they adopt a solemn, minatory tone. Trust your elders without question. This is a generally valuable rule for a child. But, as with the moths, it can go wrong.

Dawkins then continues:

Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is valuable for survival: the analogue of steering by the moon for a moth. But the flip side of trusting obedience is slavish gullibility. The inevitable by-produce is vulnerability to infection by mind viruses. For excellent reasons related to Darwinian survival, child brains need to trust parents and elders whom parents tell them to trust. An automatic consequence is that the truster has no way of distinguishing good advice from bad. The child cannot know that “Don’t paddle in the crocodile-infested Limpopo” is good advice but “You must sacrifice a goat at the time of the full moon, otherwise the rains will fail” is at best a waste of time and goats. Both admonitions sound equally trustworthy. Both come from a respected source and are delivered with a solemn earnestness that commands respect and demands obedience.

Recently I played an Easter Vigil service at a mega catholic church. They did the whole candle lighting bit where the entire place was dark and the only light emitted was from each person’s candle and one giant 4 foot tall candle on the altar. At this point in the service, I had started zoning out until a large moth flying about caught my attention. I watched it with intrigue having just read the part in Dawkin’s book about moths and religion. It flew in and out of a beam of artificial light that shone on the priest reading something from the altar. Then it got distracted by the giant man-sized candle on the altar. It promptly flew over to the candle and immolated itself right there in the flame. It was a very fitting display to myself and anyone else who might have known the resemblance to the moth’s suicide and the horrible side effects of religion on humanity.

The Jesuit maxim “Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man” clearly understand the net result of this principle. Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet

04/02/2009 in Book Reviews, Science | No comments

The latest read was by Neil deGrasse Tyson: The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet

Neil deGrasse Tyson is the hallmark face of today’s front running scientists. Having the brains to converse with Einstein and the social charm to convey complex science concepts to the common person, Tyson is the perfect author for a book such as this. The Pluto files delves into the history of the now demoted orb “Pluto” so affectionately known prior as the smallest planet, but now understood to be the largest orb in the Kuiper belt. It is an anecdotal book, amusing at best that depicts Tyson’s headache of having to deal with the hate mail after the process of defining a planet shoved Pluto out of the Planet club. It was a fun little read that offered insight into the scientific process and how most scientists are not as concerned with what category something is in, but rather its properties and how it interacts with its surroundings.

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson

03/28/2009 in Book Reviews, Science | No comments

A Short History of Nearly Everything is now at the top of my highly recommended books. Packed with witty commentary of the history of just about everything scientific, Bryson’s book appeals to the lay reader who’s curiosity stretched beyond the here and now. I enjoyed how Bryson included all the science necessary to explain and orient a subject, but did so in very human terms, often inserting humor to lighten the mood.

I choose to listen to the audio recording instead of reading the book. I’m glad I took that route because it is a long read, but the audio version was excellent and a pleasure to listen to. It was a wonderful accompaniment to morning walks or long scenic drives.

My favorite quote from the book (which also summarizes the underlying premise of the book):

“…humans are the universes most supreme achievement and it’s worst nightmare at the same time”

Raising Children Who Think for Themselves

03/18/2009 in Book Reviews | No comments

I recently finished reading Raising Children Who Think for Themselves by Elisa Medhus. The premise of the book is that children should be treated with respect and allowed to explore their world fairly with boundaries that are founded on reason.

This book deals in just parenting. What we teach our children should be taught by example. Threats, sheltering and fear are insincere ways of guiding a child into adulthood. If what you teach your children is honest and real, it should be capable of weathering all that the world has to throw at it without tactics, threats or sheltering. If knowledge and reason can knock down what one teaches a child, then a re-evaluation of what is being taught must be conducted. Once a child grows up and has free access to the information he seeks, the parents will have forfeited the child’s trust and confidence in them.

This book spoke to my childhood and provided me with more tangible angles at which to better approach the parenting of my own children. Here are a few gems I picked up along the read:

- rules should prevent children from harming themselves, their surroundings and others. all other rules are just externally driven ways parents manipulate their children’s thoughts and actions. p.91

- we must guide, then step aside p.106

- use discipline, not punishment (guide and teach, don’t control) p. 90

- we must give our children the right reasons to behave and all consequences must logically follow from a child’s choices (good or bad). p.107

- consequences should be natural and logical according to the situation p. 118

- children should be allowed to fail, as failure is a stepping stone to success p.122

I highly recommend this book for all parents and grandparents.

2010: Pscycology studies suggest that Children learn what rules to disobey and which to follow.