Human Origins by New Scientist

This one is a collection of different experts of evolutionary biology and Anthropologist and Archaeologists.

It is dedicated to the evolution for humans, and tries to explain a lot of points from evolution biology perspective. The one thing it does not do is to try answer everything. In fact, it claims that everything that we know about our evolution is changing fast with all the new evidences, and technical advances that we have made in the last two decades.

This is a well balanced book, and avoid creating any hype around the subject. I remember reading Yuval Noah Harari's books which kind of left me with unease. I'm not saying that they are any less important but Yuval's books go too much into interpretation with an storytelling structure. Which is not a bad thing but the one thing it does is that it dilutes the message of science, and adds more of a fictional record.

Hence, Human Origins has done a better job with not sounding very sensational.

Evolution may be a subject for scientist to find out but it gives us a better perspective of where we come from which I believe will make us appreciate what we've now.

Definitely worth a read, and don't try to memorise all the dates because they are still evolving too :) 

Peace

The Science of Mythology by C.G. Jung, Karl Kerényi

This is a collection of four essays by Jung and Kerényi which put together their thoughts on Mythology and Psychology to establish how the two fields can be analysed from a common point of view.

I didn't buy the title for the first time because it sounds so counterintuitive because there is nothing in mythology which can be called as science. Even the dictionary definition is "a collection of myths, especially one belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition". Which I think is well defined because those myths represent a particular thought or narrative which is more imagined rather than found naturally.

So, the myths are treated like that beautiful story. Any further dissection to find out some hidden meanings are going to remove the essence of why it was created in the first place.

I also don't agree to the point that these myths define human psyche. Myths were a collection of thoughts of a smaller group (myth-makers?) which was adopted by a larger group later by different channels (mostly art - poetry, drama, sculpture, paintings, books etc), and became the part of society. But that doesn't mean that they started having a life of their own. Force fitting some of the psychological conditions with a myth was not the best thing. It actually complicated the things much more with some imaginary accounts and characters.

This one really needs an open mind before you start accepting a lot of things here as normal or logical.

I don't have any expertise on any of these two subjects but defining everything within the two myths of Divine Child and Maiden Goddess may be a good idea for religion but it can't go beyond that.

One thing which I missed badly was a pronunciation of a lot of Greek words here which were given as is.

Love

Babur: Timurid Prince and Mughal Emperor, 1483-1530 by Stephen F. Dale

This one is a short biography of Babur based on his autobiography and the accounts of some of his contemporaries. It does include a larger part from the actual translation of the autobiography.

Being short/concise this does cover most of the aspects of Babur's life in short, and doesn't try to overwhelm the reader with a lot of historical commentary which might not be very useful for a non-academic reader.

I didn't read much about Babur actively earlier, and this was my first book which was dedicated to him only. I never liked the idea of putting the soft side of such raiders like Babur who would just kill a few thousand and go back home writing some poetry or praising natural scenery or building next garden. A common argument is that those were the times of hardship, and it was a dog eats dog world but this is a lame excuse. There were poets, artists, astronomers and what not who were not responsible for mass slaughter, and their work was much superior than anyone else.

His autobiography which is the base for all the myths around him can be really read as a narcissistic account. Here he talks only about himself, and never gives credit to anybody or praises anyone who is better than him. And, yes, most of his biographers end up eating out of his hand. The skull towers get a mention in footnote or a blink-miss but the poetry gets the whole limelight.

After completing it I realised that he was just a person low on self esteem who was always looking for acceptance and approval from others. He was less of a dynastic founder but more of a raider who was interested in anything from a sheep to a gold coin. And his whole idea of being special was that he was related to Genghis Khan which in his opinion gives him the right to greatness.

Worth a read if you're into history.

Peace

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

 No question on why I picked it up. I did like the "The remains of the day" and was looking forward to read some more of his works.

The story is about lost memories, and revenge. It asks the question if the lost memories are better be lost. What if we get back all of our memories on a condition that we'll have to take all of them: good or bad. It sounds hypothetical but maybe a comparable scenario would be to check if we can move over the bad memories as an independent choice. The answer is not easy to provide and much difficult to act upon.

We were worse but we did improve to something which we're now. It can be bad or not so bad, best case good enough. But did the worse part can be written off or forgotten. Can you being better than earlier gives you any right to the things that you have now.

A lot of parts start backwards, and it takes time to find out whose perspective we're looking at which might be.a writer's style for this one but this was a bit annoying as a reader because as you progress you've already a few characters in mind based on the pronouns and finding someone else later is bah.

Worth a read even if you're not a fan!

Love

How to Argue with a Racist by Adam Rutherford

It starts with accepting the limitation of this work but claims to prepare the reader from a scientific know-how to see the trap.

I've read the ones which were more detailed, and had better arguments but this one does what it claims to do. This talks about top 4 stories and builds the narrative around it.

The one thing which is a given is that people in power talk about it for their vested interest, and everyone else is getting influenced by it in a wrong way without knowing what they mean when they start showing such behaviour. Yes, science don't have all the answers, and you can't do much when people start filling those gaps with something for their own.

A quick read, and good for the readers who are into it for the first time.

Peace

Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel

 I noticed that I've started thinking about why I picked up my recent books. There is no pattern but I think my choices were a bit dependent on what showed up in the library. And if I had a faint notion about the writer or the topic I'll just pick it up.

I try not to fall for the bestseller label while picking up the book, and this one was a conscious choice even when I was not sure what should I be expecting.

I do remembers a few things here and there, and I remember the name of this writer which showed up in my Youtube suggestions. I do watch some Ted talks but I'm no fan, and think most of them are a bit overhyped. I guess, this Ted behaviour prompt the algorithm to suggest this video from this author. I just remembered the name somehow but didn't register the topic of that Ted talk.

I saw this book, and remembered the name. Hence this one got picked, and what a stupidity to pick this one up.

First thing, if there are any problems in a relationship don't try to find out the solution in your sex life. This sells well in the market but doesn't do anything for the reader. 

Second thing, I don't mind a pex (pep + sex) talk but this one was utter rubbish. If you want to delve deeper maybe take Sex at Dawn which talks about it in more evolutionary terms, and do put some good ideas out to think about.

As an after thought don't go for something which has the Youtube views, and Fortune 500 as the credentials.

Love

The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis

 I didn't watch the series when I came to know that this is based on a book. Usual choice :)

Finally, I got this in my hands, and will say that I got hooked to it. I generally don't stick to the books to complete but this was one of those exceptions which had such a fast running narrative that I finished it in a day.

This is an amazing book with a very tight plot. We can see Beth growing over a period of time from a non-existing child in an orphanage to the queen of chess board.

Of course it has its dull moments which actually felt like being written to add the pages or maybe for the script but that can be overlooked.

Definitely worth a read even if you've watched the series!

Love

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

 The biggest news is that this has an introduction from Carmen Maria Machado, and after reading this you can actually skip the rest of the book. You know on the very first page what is going to happen.

I'm not into thrillers where you don't want the secret to be out until you reach the last chapter. I always appreciate introductions because it gives you a perspective on what you're going to get into. You can have a same or different impression after completing the book but introduction is good to have. But not the one written like this one.

I read the introduction, and lost the urge to read the rest of the book. But I still pushed, and unfortunately I started looking at the whole narrative in the light of how it was going to end. And another thing where I think the whole introduction falls flat is to connect it with feminism but I look at it from a point of unfulfilled desires, and maybe some psychological issues which applies to a character irrespective of the gender.

So much for the introduction!

For the book, it is a dark read but worth reading for the style Kate Chopin was able to portray the mindset of a lonely woman who needed a companionship but felt rejected from everyone she had the expectations from. Edna is no Anna but she is a strong character in her own narrative.

Love

Juliet Naked - Nick Hornby

 I never heard of Nick Hornby until I saw this book, and yes the title got me curious to pick this one up. Why so weak :)

Well, turns out there is no such thing in this one, apart from the title of an album.

The story largely spun around the three main characters Tucker, Alice, and Duncan.

I'll not go into details of a 200 pager but it has some really witty lines, and situational comic elements. And yes a lot of Gooleness and a dead shark.

Quick and light read after the recent heavy lifting.

Love

In the Name of God - The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Ethics and Violence by John Teehan

 Don't go with the title.

This is fairly limited to Judaism and Christianity with a small mention of the other religions. And this was very clearly mentioned as a scope of this work.

So, if you thought you're going to talk about everything than you may be disappointed.

This probes the current form as well as history of two monotheistic religions over a period of time in the light of how the human evolution affected these developments.

I may not be very convinced by all the arguments presented here, and in fact a few of them looked like a force fit into the narrative to drive the point backward. But this definitely gives some key points which we can use to understand how these two religions evolved.

One more thing that I noticed was that it was quite critical of Judaism but the Christianity got a bit lenient treatment. But this can be very personal perception because there were instances where the author openly mentions that he is not in favour or against any one religion.

Its quite scholarly read so will be more suited for the readers who are looking for some serious discussion around this topic.

Peace

The Lies That Bind - Rethinking Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah

 I'm thinking of stop going to the humanity section of the library. This is so full of such titles which pique my curiosity.

But yes I never regretted picking any book from that section.

So, here is this one, and again I didn't know about the author when I took it but this was really good.

The whole narrative was very well defined, and a lot of points/arguments brought forward resonate with the understanding of a common person. It gives you a wide perspective of how different identities were built, and eventually got established over a period of time. I might not agree with the idea that these identities were catered by falsehood even if we don't understand the complexity these were built on.

The identities are largely divided into gender, religion, nationality, class and culture. That is a very wide range to cover because every single one of them fill volumes. But this balanced approach here does justice to all these identities.

Best part is that the author writes about a lot of these from his own experience which is very diverse.

This may not tell you everything about identities but that is not even the aim of this book. This gives you a fair idea, and arguments to construct your own take on identity.

Peace

The Apocalypse - A Brief History by Martha Himmelfarb

 This one was picked up because from the cover it looked like a critical examination of the idea of Apocalypse. And I was not looking for a literal one.

The book does pick up a lot from the apocalyptic literature which someone can really use to dive deeper into it. However, I couldn't add much apart from the different names who defined apocalypse in their own terms.

Which means there is a lot more reading to do before I say if this book was good or good enough.

I'm unsure if I'll go that deep in understanding the whole idea of apocalypse but if you're looking to start from somewhere or want to have an overall perspective, this is a good one to start with.

Peace

Power by Bertrand Russell

Here is another from the philosophy section.

I can't really call it philosophy but more like thoughts on power. And the power is sliced from all the possible angles.

This is really good to give you some food for thoughts as this talks about the wide range of powers that are exercised in the society. Some are good but most of them are unproductive or bad when left untamed. Also, the idea here is to identify when the power is pseudo. It may not be the power but an idea of a person or thought being projected as powerful.

However, the power is a very local or you can say a relative thing. Different things, ideas or people gain power in relative terms. Which means that they are not powerful in isolation but in comparison. And this comparison actually drives how the power is going to used and pursued.

Charlie Chaplin's quote can be added to bring another dimension to power "You need Power, only when you want to do something harmful otherwise Love is enough to get everything done" but we're free to choose what we accept it to be as long as we don't forget that its always relative.

Peace

The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror by Bernard Lewis

 I don't know why this one was picked.

First thing, this is super old (2003) so most of the information is outdated or verifiably available through other sources.

Secondly, the title is so wrong.

The book talks about how the current (in 2003) terrorist activities came it to be what it was. It tries to explore the historical events but fails miserably in bringing anything new. Most of it is rhetorical, and some of it will sound absurd if you've read some of the recent books on similar topics.

Not worth the time.

Peace

Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism by Adrian Kuzminski

Philosophy needs training similar to any other subject out there.

This one was picked to see how much I understand, and I'll say that this was a difficult read. It did took a lot of time to understand what was said, specially when it goes into the abstract thoughts (they are abstract of a first timer but may be coming easily for a trained student).

Anyways, this is a comparative work of philosophy which compares Buddhism with Pyrrhonism (You'll not get the definition here :)

The prime object is to establish the point that Pyrrho visited India with Anaxarchus, and during his visit he interacted with some of the thinkers/practitioners of Buddhism who influenced his philosophical ideas which led to the birth of Pyrrhonism. The philosophy which largely differs from the other branches because it offers a lifestyle and thought process but not really an argumentative kind of philosophy which proves to a particular point.

The idea was to suspend the judgement on anything, and avoid any mental perturbations that these judgements, if made, can possibly produce. This is a difficult thought to understand but the explanation comes from the perception of everything around us, and how it comes to be what it is.

Not the place for such a discussion but if you've recently been disturbed by any thought that doesn't go away than this is going to help.

Peace

Ataraxia

Origins: How Earth's History Shaped Human History by Lewis Dartnell

I picked this one out of curiosity. And, yes it was a good pick.

This talks about how Earth's evolution over a billion years shaped the existence of life (human life) on the planet. How over the years the Earth went through various transformations creating the things/elements which will eventually support the human sustenance. Of course, humans were responsible to identify the use of each of these elements and exploit it.

One thing which is also a central point is that cooling comes more naturally to Earth as compared to heat. Human activities in the last 200 years (largely after the industrial revolution) has been responsible for the heating of Earth (global warming) disproportionately. But cool is more natural (that's why the Ice Ages, and yes that is plural) so one fine day its going to be unbearably cold but not in a lifetime.

Larger point is that human life has always been looked down upon as a speck at the astronomical levels. And that's more than true. Even after all the scientific developments the existence of life as we know can be wiped in a moment, and the cycle of life starts again from null.

So, next time you're worried about something than think about it at a tectonic level :)

Peace

Childhood, Boyhood, Youth by Leo Tolstoy

 Nothing beats Tolstoy.

This one is an autobiography where he has written about the three stages of his early life as Childhood, Boyhood and Youth.

All the three stages have a same detailed exploration of people and situation of his life which he is famous for. One thing which may pose a question is about remembering all this so clearly after such a long time but a close look and you can see that most of the stories are woven around the people which most of us remember from our lives. We may not remember a lot of situations  but we do remember the people (specially the teachers, friends, family etc).

Tolstoy intended to write another part for the Youth but he couldn't do it. What a miss for us!

Well, its a must for fans but for others as well who can initiate in his writing.

Love!

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

I knew Maya always from her quotes. I came across a lot of them specially around struggle of woman, African Americans, repression, rape etc. 

But I never read any of her work, and this is the first one I read. And this is her first autobiography. Yes, there are seven of them so this is not the end.

This is an amazing read. The power of the book is how it can help you to relate with the characters even if you don't know anything about them, and this does a pretty good job. You will immediately feel how that Store would have been like or how that god fearing Grandma would have treated you. Of course, she was brilliant and successful that she could tell her story because I was thinking of all the kids who were not that brilliant academically or got a scholarship. Their story would have been more frightening.

It doesn't make sense to narrate an autobiography but if you jump into it you will come out wiser or more empathatic.

I may not be actively looking for her other books but if I come across another one, I'm definitely going to pick that up.

Love

Fairies, Demons, and Nature Spirits 'Small Gods' at the Margins of Christendom Editor: Ostling Michael

 This is a classic textbook, full of references, and covering a larger range. It consists of essays from different scholars who specialises in knowledge of wide range of cultures, and countries.

Fairies was something which you know from the Disney movies. There are some folklores but they are mostly treated as entertainment, and not really a scholarly discussion. It may not even worth it as well.

Firstly it covers that to show the seriousness the scholars to prove that they exist, they build a whole catalogue. And all these mythical creatures are divided into different categories like somebody defining the flora and fauna of planet earth. There is a catalogue of these creatures who don't exist. What were you thinking.

Secondly, it talks about how the local gods were painted as demons or local minions under the influence of Christianity. To prove it to be the only god, everything else was to either go or marked as demon. Which happened and so went down the history of a whole culture. And, it did later created some tension when people started recalling the values that they have grown with or inherited from the ancestors.

The one thing which was a bit strange was an argument that you can't prove the older thoughts/beliefs wrong in the light of new discoveries (specially scientific ones). Well, if you were so serious about it than those older arguments would have never brought into the discussion. They should have been marked as redundant in the light of new knowledge. However, its unfortunate that they are not only used as a prime argument but put as a self proven truth which no rationality can question.

Complicated to read but maybe worth the efforts if you're into it.

Peace

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers

This is a record of conversation between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers for a documentary, and later Bill Moyers edited those talks to present in a book form. But this is still the record of conversation and not a regular book.

The book format is more like to present the complete talk in a written format so at times it feels like you're listening to two people talking which is a beauty of the presentation.

As far as the narrative is concerned, this was not a good read after Richard Dawkins :) 

This book stands in contrast to what Dawkins says. I've read Joseph's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" and that was a good one as long it talks about myths. However, once you believe those myths to be more than myths than the problem starts. Myths are good to know to understand the cultural nuances as these are the building blocks. These are good for imagination and at times it is a healthy entertainment. It can even build the character to an extent but than we need to toe the line on how far we're going to believe these myths. There are a reasons for calling those literary works as epic but that doesn't dictate the terms in real life.

Myths are good to know, remember, cherish and share. Every era has its own myths, and the best one survives to tell a story. It is good to have healthy myths but more important is to know where you segregate myth from a reality. The path of taking myths for truth is a road down the hills, and it will be a speedy descent.

Peace