Okian Reading Challenge 2018
Pentru doritori revenim cu forțe proaspete și încă un Okian Reading Challenge. Pentru că evident :-), nu putem începe Noul An fără să lansăm o nouă provocare la citit. Deși suntem mai degrabă sceptici când vine vorba de hotărârile (New Year Resolutions) pe care ni le auto-impunem la începutul anului, pentru 2018 vă propunem 12 titluri care vă vor transforma perspectiva asupra vieții.
Sperăm să vă fie utilă lista și dacă aveți și alte propuneri de cărți similare, vă rugăm să le lăsați mai jos în comentarii, ne-ar fi de mare ajutor. Dacă sunteți curioși ce provocări la citit am avut în anii precedenți (Okian Reading Challenge din 2015, 2016 și 2017), le găsiți pe toate aici.
Cărțile de self-help nu au tocmai o reputație strălucită
Lumea le consideră o colecție de sfaturi răsuflate și îndemnuri pompoase, dar inutile. Multe chiar sunt. Ce urmează mai jos nu este o listă de self help. Ci una compusă din titluri pe teme variate (istorie, sociologie, biologie, psihologie, nutriție) care nu au legătură directă cu individul, ci mai degrabă cu specia sau societatea. Dar citește-le cu atenție și vei constata că din ele îți poți extrage singur grămezi de lecții utile. Cu alte cuvinte, nu vă propunem cărți care vă îndoapă cu soluții mai mult sau mai puțin practice. Pentru Okian Reading Challenge 2018 vă invităm să citiți cărți din care să vă formați singuri opinii noi și planuri realizabile.Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking de Susan Cain
At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society. Our lives are driven by a fact that most of us can't name and don't understand. It defines who our friends and lovers are, which careers we choose, and whether we blush when we're embarrassed. This title shows how the brain chemistry of introverts and extroverts differs, and how society misunderstands and undervalues introverts.
How Not to Die de Michael Greger si Gene Stone
How Not To Die gives effective, scientifically-proven nutritional advice to prevent our biggest killers - heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes - and reveals the astounding health benefits that simple dietary choices can provide. Based on the very latest scientific research, How Not To Die examines each of the most common diseases, chapter by chapter, to reveal what, how and why different foods affect us and how increasing our consumption of certain foods and avoiding others can dramatically reduce our risk of falling sick and even reverse the effects of disease. With emphasis on individual family health history and acknowledging that everyone needs something different, Dr Michael Greger offers practical dietary advice to help you make valuable decisions about your diet in order to live a longer, healthier lives.
Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations de Thomas L Friedman
We all sense it: something big is going on. Life is speeding up, and it is dizzying. Here Thomas L. Friedman reveals the tectonic movements that are reshaping our world, how to adapt to this new age and why, sometimes, we all need to be late. 'A master class ... As a guide for perplexed Westerners, this book is very hard to beat ... an honest, cohesive explanation for why the world is the way it is, without miracle cures or scapegoats.' John Micklethwait, The New York Times Book Review 'Wonderful ... admirably honest ... injects a badly needed dose of optimism into the modern debate.' Gillian Tett, Financial Times 'His main piece of advice for individuals, corporations, and countries is clear: Take a deep breath and adapt. This world isn't going to wait for you.' Fortune
Braving the Wilderness de Brene Brown
‘True belonging doesn't require us to change who we are. It requires us to be who we are.’ Social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW has sparked a global conversation about the experiences that bring meaning to our lives – experiences of courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame and empathy. In Braving the Wilderness, Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarisation. With her trademark mix of research, storytelling and honesty, Brown will again change the cultural conversation while mapping out a clear path to true belonging.
Who Rules the World de Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky: philosopher, political writer, fearless activist. No one has done more to question the hidden actors who govern our lives, calling the powers that be to account. Here he presents Who Rules the World?, his definitive account of those powers, how they work, and why we should be questioning them. From the dark history of the US and Cuba to China's global rise, from torture memos to sanctions on Iran, this book investigates the defining issues of our times and exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of America's policies and actions. The world's political and financial elite are now operating almost totally unconstrained by the so-called democratic structure. With climate change and nuclear proliferation threatening our very survival, dissenting voices have never been more necessary.
The Square and the Tower de Niall Ferguson
What if everything we thought we knew about history was wrong? From Niall Ferguson, the global bestselling author of Empire, The Ascent of Money and Civilization, this is a whole new way of imagining the world. Most history is hierarchical: it's about popes, presidents, and prime ministers. But what if that's simply because they create the historical archives? What if we are missing equally powerful but less visible networks - leaving them to the conspiracy theorists, with their dreams of all-powerful Illuminati? The twenty-first century has been hailed as the Networked Age. But in The Square and the Tower Niall Ferguson argues that social networks are nothing new. From the printers and preachers who made the Reformation to the freemasons who led the American Revolution, it was the networkers who disrupted the old order of popes and kings. Far from being novel, our era is the Second Networked Age, with the computer in the role of the printing press. Once we understand this, both the past, and the future, start to look very different indeed.
The Economics Book
All the big ideas, simply explained - an innovative and accessible guide to economics Bring economics to life with The Economics Book, an essential guide to more that 100 of the big ideas in economic theory and practice covering everything from ancient theories right up to cutting-edge modern developments. From Aristotle to John Maynard Keynes and beyond, all the greatest economists and their theories are featured and the innovative graphics, step-by-step summaries and mind maps help clarify hard-to-grasp concepts. The Economics Book is perfect for economic students and anyone who has an interest in how economies work.
Weapons of Math Destruction de Cathy O’Neil
We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives - where we go to school, whether we get a loan, how much we pay for insurance - are being made not by humans, but by mathematical models. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: everyone is judged according to the same rules, and bias is eliminated. And yet, as Cathy O'Neil reveals in this urgent and necessary book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and incontestable, even when they're wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination. Tracing the arc of a person's life, O'Neil exposes the black box models that shape our future, both as individuals and as a society. These "weapons of math destruction" score teachers and students, sort CVs, grant or deny loans, evaluate workers, target voters, and monitor our health.
Improbable Destinies de Jonathan Losos
So are we humans, and all the plants and animals in the world today, inevitabilities or evolutionary freaks? What role does chance play in evolution? And what could it tell us about life on other planets? In Improbable Destinies, renowned researcher Jonathan Losos reveals what the latest breakthroughs in evolutionary biology tell us about one of the greatest ongoing debates in science. Evolution can occur far more rapidly than Darwin expected, which has opened the door to something that was previously thought impossible: experimental studies of evolution in nature. Drawing on his own work with anole lizards on the Caribbean islands, as well as studies of guppies, foxes, field mice and others being conducted around the world, Losos reveals just how rapid and predictable evolution can be.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Human Kind de Yuval Noah Harari
This is The Sunday Times Bestseller. Planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it. Us. We are the most advanced and most destructive animals ever to have lived. What makes us brilliant? What makes us deadly? What makes us Sapiens? In this bold and provocative book, Yuval Noah Harari explores who we are, how we got here and where we're going. Sapiens is a thrilling account of humankind's extraordinary history - from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age - and our journey from insignificant apes to rulers of the world. "It tackles the biggest questions of history and of the modern world, and it is written in unforgettably vivid language. You will love it!" (Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs and Steel).
Guns, Germs and Steel de Jared Diamond
In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Jared Diamond puts the case that geography and biogeography, not race, moulded the contrasting fates of Europeans, Asians, Native Americans, sub-Saharan Africans, and aboriginal Australians. Life isn't fair--here's why: Since 1500, Europeans have, for better and worse, called the tune that the world has danced to. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond explains the reasons why things worked out that way. It is an elemental question, and Diamond is certainly not the first to ask it. However, he performs a singular service by relying on scientific fact rather than specious theories of European genetic superiority. Diamond, a professor of physiology at UCLA, suggests that the geography of Eurasia was best suited to farming, the domestication of animals and the free flow of information. The more populous cultures that developed as a result had more complex forms of government and communication--and increased resistance to disease. Finally, fragmented Europe harnessed the power of competitive innovation in ways that China did not. (For example, the Europeans used the Chinese invention of gunpowder to create guns and subjugate the New World.) Diamond's book is complex and a bit overwhelming. But the thesis he methodically puts forth--examining the "positive feedback loop" of farming, then domestication, then population density, then innovation, and on and on--makes sense. Written without bias, Guns, Germs, and Steel is good global history.
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty de Daron Acemoglu și James A. Robinson
Why are some nations more prosperous than others? Why Nations Fail sets out to answer this question, with a compelling and elegantly argued new theory: that it is not down to climate, geography or culture, but because of institutions. Drawing on an extraordinary range of contemporary and historical examples, from ancient Rome through the Tudors to modern-day China, leading academics Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson show that to invest and prosper, people need to know that if they work hard, they can make money and actually keep it - and this means sound institutions that allow virtuous circles of innovation, expansion and peace. Based on fifteen years of research, and answering the competing arguments of authors ranging from Max Weber to Jeffrey Sachs and Jared Diamond, Acemoglu and Robinson step boldly into the territory of Francis Fukuyama and Ian Morris. They blend economics, politics, history and current affairs to provide a new, powerful and persuasive way of understanding wealth and poverty.
Sperăm să vă fie utilă lista și dacă aveți și alte propuneri de cărți similare, vă rugăm să le lăsați mai jos în comentarii, ne-ar fi de mare ajutor. Dacă sunteți curioși ce provocări la citit am avut în anii precedenți (Okian Reading Challenge din 2015, 2016 și 2017), le găsiți pe toate aici.