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| Image by Nina of Nina Reads |
All about non-fiction today over at Armchair BEA! I love learning about all sorts of things. Science, psychology, the cosmos, history, language, biographies, philosophy, religion, culture. All of it.
I have a skeptic book club and we read one sciencey book a month. This month we're reading The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail--But Some Don't by Nate Silver. It's all about finding the signal among all the noise of hard statistics and combining that with a little human intuition. Fascinating!
The Invisible Gorilla by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons was truly thought-provoking. If I ever get called for jury duty, I will say that I cannot convict on eye-witness testimony alone.
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an amazing biography of her journey out of Somalia and ultimately out of Islam.
Made in America by Bill Bryson. It's a fascinating biography of American English. He travels all around America and finds out why certain areas have their dialects and accents.
I could go on, but I won't. I would have to say that half of my yearly reads come from non-fiction. They've literally changed my life and have truly opened me up to new worlds, ideas, and possibilities!
Hooray for nonfiction! I love meeting folks that love it :) You've listed some that I haven't read which is great. I'm going to check them out.
ReplyDeleteA skeptic book club! I love that idea :)
Our book club met on Sunday about the Signal and the Noise. The real smarties of the group explained to me more about Bayesian statistics and how to apply it in everyday life. Good stuff! I recommend starting one :)
DeleteHooray! I was reading a few Armchair Nonfiction blog posts and so many were poo-pooing nonfiction, so I'm so glad I've found a few who love them :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great book club! I'm guess that you have a good turnout and success with getting people to read the books when you've clearly got people that are stoked to learn.
ReplyDeleteAll sorts of stuff gets talked about in the book club. It's really amazing!
DeleteThese are all great recommendations! I've wanted to read Nate Silver's book since he basically kicked butt predicting the election results in November.
ReplyDeleteIt's a thick book but so worth it. Really makes me think differently about the world.
DeleteThat's a Bryson I haven't read yet--definitely my kind of book.
ReplyDeleteI have the Nate Silver book, but haven't read it yet. I don't follow celebs on Twitter, but I follow him. He always has something interesting to say.
Read it! I'd love to hear your thoughts, Jane :)
DeleteI rarely read non fiction. But those books sound interesting. And so does your book club! How do you sign up for it?
ReplyDeleteJany, come out to Utah and sign on up! We are reading the Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean for June; it's all elements on the periodic table!
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