From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation

Written by: Gene Sharp

First line: One of my major concerns for many years has been how people could prevent and destroy dictatorships.

Why you should read this book: Based on a study of numerous countries that made a shift from dictatorship to democracy, Sharp outlines the process of employing proven tactics of nonviolent struggle to overthrow fascist regimes. His findings can be summarized in two words—solidarity and persistence—and the very short book does an excellent job of explaining how to employ these tactics, and why they work. The appendix comprises a list of 198 nonviolent actions that can be employed by the resistance to chip away at a regime's power, generate sympathy for the cause, and cause oppressive governments to crumble and cede power to the people.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You support a fascist dictator.

(george)

Written by: E. L. Konigsburg

First line: Only two people knew that George was probably the funniest little man in the whole world and that he used foul language.

Why you should read this book: A small story about big ideas written by an award-winning author, this book recounts the sixth grade year of Ben Carr, a gifted science student who possesses an unknown academic advantage: a little man named George who lives inside him, makes hilarious jokes, and helps Ben remember all the hard words in chemistry. Ben, George, and their oppositional defiant little brother Howard have always been close, but this year, Ben's obsession with being liked and his admiration for the polished senior who used to be his lab partner has driven a wedge between Ben and his useful inner voice. If Ben can't figure out what really bothers George about William's behavior, he might lost his best friend forever.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You took a couple psychology classes in college and now you're an expert who diagnoses other people's children with serious psychiatric disorders after a couple hours of observation.

Don't Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and New England.

Edited by: Jack Zipes

First line: A long time ago in a kingdom by the sea there lived a Princess tall and bright as a sunflower.

Why you should read this book: There is extensive scholarly material included in the introduction and in part three, but most readers can glean the full force of the message by reading the tales, in which the girls and women take center stage, doing the questing, fighting, adventuring and thinking, wherever they need to be done. These princesses find that they can rescue their own princes, or that sometimes the princes aren't worth the bother and they should go off with some other man who appreciates them more, or that men in general aren't what they need at the moment, and they can find perfect happiness on their own. Some of the tales are better for younger readers, and others are more appropriate for a more mature audience, but they all envision a world where women take action, rather than waiting passively to become a prize for someone else.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Still waiting for your prince to come.

Time for Outrage

Written by: Stéphane Hessel

First line: Ninety-three years old. The last leg of my journey. The end is in sight.

Why you should read this book: More of a small pamphlet, these are the thoughts of a veteran of the French Resistance who survived World War II and helped draft the U.N.’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights. With the perspective of years, he explains why the gap between rich and poor is unconscionable, how indifference is the most dangerous attitude, and why peaceful insurrection is required to fulfill the promise of human rights. Mass media, mass consumption, relentless competition, and an overall lack of respect, he argues, feed the injustices of our world, and must be resisted.

Why you shouldn’t read this book:  You refuse to compromise your support for aggression on either side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics

Written by: Gary Zukav

First line: When I tell my friends that I study physics, they move their heads from side to side, they shake their hands at the wrist, and they whistle, "Whew! That's difficult."

Why you should read this book: After attending an afternoon conference on the subject, the author set out to create a book that would explain, to the lay reader, all the intricacies of quantum physics, using accessible language, without any mathematics at all. The resulting classic work of non-fiction covers the evolution of human knowledge concerning the nature of the universe, combining scientific theories with the eastern philosophy that quantum physics more and more resembles as the nature of our perceived physical reality is revealed to be nothing more than probabilities, not at all what it appears on the surface. Space and time, matter and energy, it seems, are all one single, interconnected thing and, on a subatomic level at least, the possibilities are mind-boggling and perhaps unknowable.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's still kind of difficult.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Written by: Carl Sagan

First line: It was a blustery fall day in 1939.

Why you should read this book: Popular and charismatic scientist, author, and television personality, Carl Sagan bemoans the gullibility of modern audiences and advocates greater funding for science education and experimentation as a bulwark against ignorance, superstitious hysteria, and pseudoscience. Along the way, he advocates for the scientific method, debunks most every popular belief about aliens, UFOs, and New Age thinking, and includes, for the reader's convenience, his "Baloney Detection" kit: a detailed explanation of various types of logical fallacies that impede intelligent thinking about the world. Advocating for equal parts wonder and skepticism, this book is a call for reason in an age where reason is increasingly held in disdain.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You only need one book to tell you about the nature of reality, and you think it was written by an ephemeral, bearded old white guy who lives in the sky.

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

Written by: Bill McKibben

First line: Imagine we live on a planet. Not our cozy, taken-for-granted earth, but a planet, a real one, with melting poles and dying forests and a heaving, corrosive sea, raked by winds, strafed by storms, scorched by heat. An inhospitable place.

Why you should read this book: Global warming, the author's data shows, is not a possible threat for our grandchildren, but a reality that has already begun transforming our lovely blue planet into a hot, dangerous, alien world. Climate change has been set into motion, and all calculations show that we have already surpassed the maximum level of atmospheric carbon dioxide (that would be 350 parts per million) necessary to keep thing comfy and verdant. After presenting pages and pages of chilling and disturbing evidence that we've screwed nature and she's going to screw us right back, McKibben describes what we need to do to survive on this new planet: cutting energy usage, investing in renewable, sustainable energy resources, and pulling back from unchecked and dangerous growth and globalization to create vibrant, functional, and self-reliant communities based agriculture, energy, and human networks (don't worry; we get to keep the Internet).

Why you shouldn't read this book: Possibly the most depressing work I have ever read; if you're enamored of your denial and think that oil and fossil fuels are the future, taking this book seriously could come as a real boot to the head.

What the World Eats

Author: Peter Menzel

First line: Imagine for a moment that it is early Saturday morning in the United States.

Why you should read this book: Seeking to answer the question of what the world eats, this book centers around its food portraits--photographs of twenty-six families from twenty-one countries, posed in their kitchens with a week's worth of food, with the grocery list and budget on the facing page--along with several pages of accompanying text for each family, describing their lives, their relationship to food, and some cultural details, as well as a few recipes. Interspersed among the food portraits are graphs with data about obesity, fast food, literacy, meat consumption, access to drinking water, and more, plus photo collages creating a snapshot of how we eat. Although intended for a younger audience, this well-written and provocative book is appropriate for anyone with an interest in food, nutrition, global economy, and world culture.

Why you should read this book: You're on the supersize-me diet.

The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

Author: Carl Sagan

First line: In these lectures I would like, following the wording of the Gifford Trust, to tell you something of my views on what at least used to be natural theology, which, as I understand it, is everything about the world not supplied by revelation.

Why you should read this book: In an accessible, cumulative argument, Sagan lays out his natural theology, an examination of scientific and spiritual truth based entirely on observable phenomena. His perspective encompasses all that is known of the universe as he takes the reader on a journey through space and time, examining human prejudice and possibility. UFOs, evolution, nuclear war, and the very existence of God are among the gripping subjects held up for impassioned and intelligent scrutiny.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You theology does not allow for quantitative analysis.

From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers

Author: Marina Warner

First line: In her first anthology of fairy tales, Angela Carter included a story from Kenya: while a poor man's wife in the village thrives, the Sultana in the palace grows thinner and scrappier by the minute.

Why you should read this book: It's a far-reaching scholarly examination of the place of women as tellers of tales as well as the characters within tales, with great emphasis on the voice and the power inherent in communication. Historical research reveals the transmission of cultural knowledge and ways in which personal control is expressed or contained through speech, varying throughout time and geographic location. Almost impossibly detailed in scope, this book spans from the oldest recorded stories to modern film interpretations, examining the prejudices and secrets of every story and every storyteller.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You think the Disney version should be the only version.

My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson

Edited and with Commentary by: Sidney Rosen

First line: "What you don't realize, Sid, is that most of your life is unconsciously determined."

Why you should read this book: Milton Erickson was a brilliant therapist who effected widespread change in many of his clients through hypnosis, reframing, startling powers of observation, reverse psychology, and other methods of delving into the psyche to diagnose, confront, and disperse the cause and symptoms of neurosis. This book presents many of his "teaching tales," small stories from real life that serve as uplifting instructional tales, hypnotic inductions, post-hypnotic suggestions, and persuasive reasoning that work on conscious and subconscious levels, along commentary categorizing the tales based on types of problems and solutions and explains how and why each method was effective for the client. Erickson's stories are uplifting, entertaining, funny, touching, and profound, presenting one message that is easily heard and other messages that burrow into the mind and create mental health stability from the inside out.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're busy coddling your neuroses.

Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA

Author: Brenda Maddox

First line: The family into which Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born on 25 July 1920, stood high in Anglo-Jewry.

Why you should read this book: Intensely researched and details, this book recounts the life of the extraordinary scientist, Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray evidence formed the basis of Watson and Crick's discovery of the shape of the DNA molecule, and whose other research into coal and viruses advanced the understanding of many other molecules. From her childhood as an "alarmingly clever" girl who did math problems for fun, to her war work on coal and carbon, her two-year stint working on DNA at King's College, her later work on viruses, and her untimely death from cancer at thirty-seven years old, Maddox paints a clear picture of Franklin's strengths, weaknesses, joys, and defeats. This is an intelligent, uncompromising biography that seeks to build on facts to dispel the positive and negative mythmaking that has transformed Rosalind into a caricature for some and a goddess for others.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You make a practice of borrowing others' research without their knowledge or consent.

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

Author: Barack Obama

First line: It's been almost ten years since I first ran for political office.

Why you should read this book: In language precise and sincere, Obama details his understanding of the American political process and the dreams of the American nation, laying out all the problems facing the American people and outlining potential solutions to those problem. Those who accuse the candidate of having little experience or understanding of politics must read this book to understand his wealth of knowledge, not just about the Constitution, the legislature, our history, the economy, morality, and foreign affairs, but also his in-depth comprehension of diplomacy, compromise, and ways to unite a divided nation. This is clear-headed doctrine that ought to hit the reading list of anyone (regardless of affiliation) who senses that America could be a healthier country than it is, and anyone who is ready to bring their nation into the twenty-first century with honor.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Neither the outcome of the 2008 American presidential election nor the position of the US in global policy have any bearing on your life.

Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler, J.S.P.S.

Author: Jeremy Leven

First line: What can I tell you?

Why you should read this book: When a slightly genius, periodically insane physicist ponders the problem of Einstein's unified theory, he accidentally builds a computer that allows Satan to manifest inside its metal hull, and Satan, finding himself on Earth, decides to avail himself of a little psychotherapy to resolve his issues of anger toward God. By turns blackly hysterical and blackly depressing, the story centers on Sy Kassler (just some poor schmuck, in Satan's estimation), who has lived his life full of optimism that he can somehow help people, and that his own problems with others could be solved just by caring. Sex, murder, betrayal, love, family, and hatred are all deconstructed in a comic-ridiculous and thesis-brilliant novel about the human condition.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You take the concept of evil very seriously and you're damn sure you're not to blame for any of it.

The Annotated Alice

Author: Lewis Carroll, with notes by Martin Gardner

First line: Let it be said at once that there is something preposterous about an annotated Alice.

Why you should read this book: Lewis Carroll, an Oxford don with a predilection for mathematical riddles and a happy talent for poetic parody, wrote layers of meaning into the Alice books. At the same time, readers have imposed their own reality on the stories, and this book helps demystify the secrets the author may or may not have meant to impart as he wove sense into nonsense and vice versa. Explained here are the literary predecessors of multiple references, the bases of jokes about historical and cultural memes of the time, and even the workings of the real life chess game that takes place in the second book.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You revel in nonsense.