Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Are we noble in reason? Perfect, in God's image? Far from it, says New York University psychologist Gary Marcus. In this lucid and revealing book, Marcus argues that the mind is not an elegantly designed organ but rather a "kluge," a clumsy, cobbled-together contraption. He unveils a fundamentally new way of looking at the human mind -- think duct tape, not supercomputer -- that sheds light on some of the most... (more)

Columbine

by David Cullen

On April 20, 1999, two boys left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. Their goal was simple: to blow up their school, Oklahoma-City style, and to leave "a lasting impression on the world." Their bombs failed, but the ensuing shooting defined a new era of school violence-irrevocably branding every subsequent shooting "another Columbine." When we think of Columbine, we think of the Trench Coat Mafia; we... (more)

Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever

Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever

by Walter Kirn

Percentile is destiny in America.” So says Walter Kirn, a peerless observer and interpreter of American life, in this whip-smart memoir of his own long strange trip through American education. Working his way up the ladder of standardized tests, extracurricular activities, and class rankings, Kirn launched himself eastward from his rural Minnesota hometown to the ivy-covered campus of Princeton University. There... (more)

The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger

The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger

by Alec Wilkinson

A true American original is brought to life in this rich and lively portrait of Pete Seeger, who, with his musical grace and inextinguishable passion for social justice, transformed folk singing into a high form of peaceful protest in the second half of the twentieth century. Drawing on his extensive talks with Seeger, New Yorker writer Alec Wilkinson lets us experience the man’s unique blend of independence and... (more)

Beowulf on the Beach: What to Love and What to Skip in Literature's 50 Greatest Hits

Beowulf on the Beach: What to Love and What to Skip in Literature's 50 Greatest Hits

by Jack Murnighan

Feel bad about not reading or not enjoying the so-called great books? Don’t sweat it, it’s not your fault. Did anyone tell you that Anna Karenina is a beach read, that Dickens is hilarious, that the Iliad ’s battle scenes rival Hollywood’s for gore, or that Joyce is at his best when he’s talking about booze, sex, or organ meats? Writer and professor Jack Murnighan says it’s time to give literature another... (more)

How the Beatles Destroyed Rock n Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music

How the Beatles Destroyed Rock n Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music

by Elijah Wald

"There are no definitive histories," writes Elijah Wald, in this provocative reassessment of American popular music, "because the past keeps looking different as the present changes." Earlier musical styles sound different to us today because we hear them through the musical filter of other styles that came after them, all the way through funk and hiphop. As its blasphemous title suggests, How the... (more)

Every Man Dies Alone

by Hans Fallada

"The greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis."-Primo Levi This never-before-translated masterpiece-by a heroic best-selling writer who saw his life crumble when he wouldn't join the Nazi Party-is based on a true story. It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only... (more)

American Adulterer: A novel

by Jed Mercurio

'The subject is American citizen holding high elected office, married and father to a young family'...From its opening line, "American Adulterer" explores the life of a habitual womaniser in hypnotically clinical prose. The subject regards his high libido as physiologically normal; if he goes without a woman for three days, he suffers withdrawal symptoms. Yet this particular philanderer is in no position to live... (more)

What's Next: Dispatches on the Future of Science (Vintage)

What's Next: Dispatches on the Future of Science (Vintage)

by Max Brockman

Will climate change force a massive human migration to the Northern Rim? How does our sense of morality arise from the structure of the brain? What does the latest research in language acquisition tells us about the role of culture in the way we think? What does current neurological research tell us about the nature of time? This wide-ranging collection of never-before-published essays offers the very... (more)

An Underachiever's Diary: A Novel

by Benjamin Anastas

Meet William, a devout underachiever. He enters life as the firstborn of identical twin boys. It is the last time he will beat his overachieving brother Clive, or anyone else for that matter, at anything. This is William’s manifesto for the underachiever. It is the chronicle of a lifetime of failure–part diary and part handbook for self-defeat. At once corrosively funny and surprisingly tender, An... (more)

Resistance: A Novel

by Owen Sheers

1944. After the fall of Russia and the failed D-Day landings, a German counterattack lands on British soil. Within a month, half of Britain is occupied. The seat of British government has fled to Worcester, Churchill to Canada. A network of British resistance cells is all that is left to defy the German army. Against this backdrop, Resistance opens with Sarah Lewis, a twenty-six-year-old farmer’s wife, waking to... (more)

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America

by Matt Weiland, Sean Wilsey

From the bestselling editors of The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup comes an American road trip in book form: original writing on all 50 states by 50 of our finest novelists, journalists, and essayists Inspired by the example of the legendary WPA American Guide series of the 1930s and '40s, now 50 of our foremost writers have produced original pieces of reportage and memoir that capture the 50 states... (more)

Shut Up, I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government--A Memoir

Shut Up, I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government--A Memoir

by Gregory Levey

Shut Up, I'm Talking is a smart, hilarious insider take on Israeli politics that reads like the bastard child of Thomas Friedman and David Sedaris. Now a political writer for Salon, Gregory Levey stumbled into a job as speechwriter for the Israeli delegation to the United Nations at age twenty-five and suddenly found himself, like a latter-day Zelig, in the company of foreign ministers, U.S. senators, and heads... (more)

Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It

Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It

by Elizabeth Royte

An incisive, intrepid, and habit-changing narrative investigation into the commercialization of our most basic human need: drinking water. Having already surpassed milk and beer, and second now only to soda, bottled water is on the verge of becoming the most popular beverage in the country. The brands have become so ubiquitous that we’re hardly conscious that Poland Spring and Evian were once real springs,... (more)

Ribbon Culture: Charity, Compassion and Public Awareness

Ribbon Culture: Charity, Compassion and Public Awareness

by Sarah E. H. Moore

Ribbon Culture explores the history, meaning, and sociological implications of the popular practice of 'showing awareness'. The book suggests that we see the rise of awareness campaigns in terms of a growing interest in personal displays of compassion in a cultural climate where empathy has become a by-word for authenticity. Not only this, but Ribbon Culture highlights charities' use of slick awareness... (more)

My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro

My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro

"When it comes to love, there are a million theories to explain it. But when it comes to love stories, things are simpler. A love story can never be about full possession. Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name . . . . It is perhaps only in reading a love... (more)

How the States Got Their Shapes

by Mark Stein

Why does Oklahoma have that panhandle? Did someone make a mistake? We are so familiar with the map of the United States that our state borders seem as much a part of nature as mountains and rivers. Even the oddities—the entire state of Maryland(!)—have become so engrained that our map might as well be a giant jigsaw puzzle designed by Divine Providence. But that's where the real mystery begins. Every edge of... (more)

Free-Range Chickens

by Simon Rich

In his riotous debut collection, Ant Farm , Simon Rich found humor in some of life’s most desperate situations. Now this former editor of The Harvard Lampoon and current writer for Saturday Night Liv e has returned to mine more comedy from our hopelessly terrifying world. In the nostalgic opening chapter, Rich recalls his fear of the Tooth Fairy (“Is there a face fairy?”) and his initial reaction to the... (more)

I Am Not Sidney Poitier: A Novel

by Percival Everett

An irresistible comic novel from the master storyteller Percival Everett, and an irreverent take on race, class, and identity in America I was, in life, to be a gambler, a risk-taker, a swashbuckler, a knight. I accepted, then and there, my place in the world. I was a fighter of windmills. I was a chaser of whales. I was Not Sidney Poitier. Not Sidney Poitier is an amiable young man in an absurd country.... (more)

Weddings of the Times: A Parody

by Dan Klein, Robert Baedeker, John Reichmuth, James Reichmuth, Kasper Hauser

You are cordially invited to celebrate A Parody of The New York Times Wedding Announcements by Kasper Hauser Along with fully illustrated guides to: Wedding-night sex, Honeymoon hot spots, Formalwear malfunctions, and much, much more. At four o’clock in the Afternoon. Or is it three o’clock? Didn’t you bring the invitation? Huh? Where the hell is the turnoff? Back there. I think I saw... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: very short list

The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind

by Gary F. Marcus