[RCBinTN]

I too suspect that the book will fill in some blanks.

A big advantage that books have, is that reading them allows days or weeks for the reader to absorb the details/personality of characters.
A TV documentary or a film only has two or three hours to try and achieve the same, and necessarily omits much, or skims over much, because of the inevitable time constraints.

We are clearly realizing the same by watching the TV series "Bosch" after reading all the books by Michael Connelly (the books are recommended). The TV shows are missing most of the interesting details about Detective Hieronymus Bosch, including where he got his name and the classic jazz music that he listened to.

Started reading today:

Volume 1 concluded (I think) in the year 1934 with the great depression nearly
over and many people living in poverty, Hitler and Moussolini are in power and
WW2 is on the horizon.

 

[miketlse]

We are clearly realizing the same by watching the TV series "Bosch" after reading all the books by Michael Connelly (the books are recommended). The TV shows are missing most of the interesting details about Detective Hieronymus Bosch, including where he got his name and the classic jazz music that he listened to.

Started reading today:

Volume 1 concluded (I think) in the year 1934 with the great depression nearly
over and many people living in poverty, Hitler and Moussolini are in power and
WW2 is on the horizon.

I remember much loving the Inspector Morse TV programmes, but then reading some of the books, and realising how much interesting detail could not be fitted into each two hour slot.

 

[PoSR77]

A few recent reads:

https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/philosophy/new-book-jessica-wilson-jun-2021

Really impressed with this one; it's written with that technical and exacting demanding style (including being structured by chapter, section, and subsection to keep everything clearer and easier to follow/refer back to) that the best philosophy (and academic writing overall) consists of imo. Most of the (real, academic) philosophers I read seem at least bright; Wilson seems to simply be a genius and hence following her argumentation is challenging at times (at least for me, and given that I have not more than lightly researched emergence before, though I have more thoroughly researched many of the related sub topics she discusses), though not due to any lack of clarity on her part. Impeccable scholarship and command of the (irreducibly complex) subject matter whether you agree with her stance/conclusions or not. NDPR was impressed too: "this book is a staggeringly impressive work of a philosopher at the very top of her game." Highly recommended if you're into this stuff (intrinsic value) and really an excellent "workout for the brain" (instrumental value) even if you're not. (The paperback came out in July 2023 which I waited for, because it's sanely priced, whereas hardback academic titles are often not).


Something much less demanding...

I read Bakewell's "At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails" a few years back and enjoyed it so I was excited for this one as there is a lack of material (at least popular) on the subject. Simply put: for anyone who is a humanist, or interested in just what humanists are and have done/continue to do, this is a must read.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/552033/humanly-possible-by-sarah-bakewell

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sarah-bakewell/humanly-possible-humanist/


Another fairly easy, but deeply interesting and informative read:

I read Steve Brusatte's 2018 book "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World" soon after it came out, and though I found his tone to be somewhat too conversational or casual for my tastes (I prefer a more serious/scholarly style), the book is a wealth of up-to-date information, presented clearly, about those fascinating creatures, dinosaurs.

Well the above book is more of the same about mammalian evolution. One thing that really was impressed upon me as I read was just how arbitrarily cobbled together mammalian bodies and brains are, and, thus, how our human bodies and brains came to be so imperfect and prone to a multitude of infirmities. (I mean, I know this is how evolution works: doing the best it can with the limited resources it has, and I knew about many of the "bad designs" human bodies have, but to see in detail the timeline of the development of features humans posses fleshed all this out in a more impactful and substantial way).

Reading this book will give you a deep understanding of how many parts of your body/brain came to be as you follow the step by step unfolding of them deep into our mammalian past, all the way back to the synapsids about 300 mya. Absolutely fascinating, and this knowledge provides a better comprehension of yourself and place in the world.

 

[Ryokan]

Well the above book is more of the same about mammalian evolution. One thing that really was impressed upon me as I read was just how arbitrarily cobbled together mammalian bodies and brains are, and, thus, how our human bodies and brains came to be so imperfect and prone to a multitude of infirmities. (I mean, I know this is how evolution works: doing the best it can with the limited resources it has, and I knew about many of the "bad designs" human bodies have, but to see in detail the timeline of the development of features humans posses fleshed all this out in a more impactful and substantial way).

Reading this book will give you a deep understanding of how many parts of your body/brain came to be as you follow the step by step unfolding of them deep into our mammalian past, all the way back to the synapsids about 300 mya. Absolutely fascinating, and this knowledge provides a better comprehension of yourself and place in the world.

In a documentary they proposed that modern humans developed due to early man eating sea food.

 

[Quinto]

 

[abheybir]

 

[Quinto]

 

[steve9019]

 

[RCBinTN]

The 7th book in the Lanny Budd series which spans both world wars. At this
point, the Nazis have just occupied Paris and now own roughly half of Europe,
FDR is convinced of the danger but the American people aren't, and no mention
has been made of work on the atomic bomb. Book #6 was written in 1945, so
perhaps the author was not aware of the work? BTW, this book did not win the
Pulitzer Prize, only book #3 in the series, "Dragon's Teeth," did. All books in the
series were NYT best sellers, however.

 

[DLeeWebb]

​

 

[RCBinTN]

The 8th book in the series, Pearl Harbor has been attacked and the US is in
the war, Germany is in Russia as well as western Europe, and work to develop
the atomic bomb is becoming very much a topic.

 

[steve9019]

 

[Ryokan]

Just discovered this book and have been reading about the story of a now very famous mathematician, which was made into a film.

 

[Gaben22]

Fiction:

Non fiction:

Technical, I always knew the basics but never really deep dived, it is time to do it :

 

[DLeeWebb]