Wooo! More recs!

[telophase]

I must be living right, or something. I mentioned last week that thanks to doing survey, I was getting a $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com, and asked for recommendations. Well, between then and now I got that certificate, I got a completely unexpected $5 certificate from a survey I filled out some time ago and forgot about, and a third survey company sent me a two-part excruciatingly long (an hour to fill out each portion, spread over 2 days) survey on what beverages I drink, when, where, and how they make me feel, for which I got enough points to redeem for $30 in Amazon gift certificates.

So I am rollin' in the virtual dough right now and am planning my Amazon splurge. You guys recommended me fantasy last week, how about interesting nonfiction this week? I've read and liked Mary Roach's books, I've read and like Peter Sagal's The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them), and in the middle of and enjoying Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai, enjoyed Comfort of Things. I like social history, anthropology, science, those weird sorts of books that seem to not quite fit a classification (Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions - economics, psychology, mass psychology, what?). Also cookbooks.

There's also my Amazon wishlist - not for buying-for-me purposes, but to give you an idea of what I've looked at recently and went "Huh. Sounds interesting. Maybe I'll try that one day."

Comments

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds (http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Raven-Investigations-Adventures-Wolf-Birds/dp/0061136050/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226002984&sr=1-1)
- A behavioural biologist studies raven behaviour. I found it very interesting.

An Obsession with Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair with a Singular Insect (http://www.amazon.com/Obsession-Butterflies-Affair-Singular-Insect/dp/0465071600/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226002958&sr=1-1)
- A fascinating look at butterflies and had a lot of new information for me. Lovely written style.

Mutants (http://www.amazon.com/Mutants-Genetic-Variety-Human-Body/dp/0142004820/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226002826&sr=8-1)
I always recommend this book. A deeply fascinating look into the myriad of ways the human body can mutate. In depth explanation of the theories around how development in the womb happens. (Gradient hormone levels forming fingers!) Wonderful essay at the end about the theory aging is due to a series of mutations that didn't develop until after breeding so they are passed on to offspring.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I second the butterfly book. The author, Sharman apt Russell, has a book on the biology and social meaning of flowers, Anatomy of a Rose, which I like even better.

[affreca.livejournal.com]

The Mennonites have put out a series of cookbooks I like because they are about stretching food (thus good for a small food budget). The oldest is More with Less (http://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Cookbook-Janzen-Longacre/dp/083619103X/ref=ed_oe_o), followed by Extending the Table (http://www.amazon.com/Extending-Table-World-Community-Cookbook/dp/0836192648/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_c). The recipes come from all over the world (picked up wherever they sent missionaries). Additionally, Simply in Season (http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Season-World-Community-Cookbook/dp/0836192966/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b) divides their recipes up by the seasons in which ingredients are common. All their recipes are simple and easily adapted (Four fruit crumble can be made with whichever fruit you have around).

[oyceter]

I make a hit-and-run vote for Atul Gawande's Better and Complications, which have nifty medical anecdotes, if you like that sort of stuff (I do very much).

And David Masumoto, who is not science-y or quirky, but writes gorgeously about his family farm in CA and makes me want peaches now.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yes! I cannot recommend Gawande highly enough. Fantastic, genuinely thought-provoking writing.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Laurence Gonzales' Deep Survival: an excellent and extremely readable examination, with hair-raising case studies, of the psychological and biological states people go through while surviving or not surviving extreme situations.

Absolutely American: Really excellently well-written book tracing a class at West Point. I just love the way he puts sentences together, and his anthropological eye for the speech and rituals of the society.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Did you read The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why? There was one point where I went "Oh, so that's why Rachel does all the Red Cross/burning car/whatever stuff!" XD

Not that I remember exactly what part of the book produced that thought, but it may have been something on PTSD and how some people cope afterwards by Being Prepared.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I did and I liked it, but I liked Gonzales' book more. Because Unthinkable is more focused on sociology, there's relatively little overlap.

I also rec Miles Corwin's Homicide Special, about an actual homicide unit in Los Angeles that handles... well... special homicides, defined as anything requiring interdepartmental (like with the FBI) cooperation, anything involving celebrities or otherwise high-profile, and anything that's just plain weird.

[oyceter]

Oh, I forgot! I think both of you might like Thomas Ricks' Making the Corps, which is all about Marine boot camp. I read it in college so am not sure how the politics stand up, though I remember it being very positive on the Army and affirmative action and negative on the Army and sexuality (as in, the Army's attitudes, not the author's). But I liked it enough to lug it around with me even while I was doing the dorm shuffle in college.

[arkanefyre.livejournal.com]

Which survey site do you go to? The ones that I signed up for never have any surveys for me...

[telophase.livejournal.com]

The $20 and the $25/$5 ones came from:

http://us.lightspeedpanel.com/
http://www.valuedopinions.com/

The random $5 one came from http://www.datatelligence.com/ but I think the actual survey may have been administered through another site, as there's no record of it on my datatelligence.com account.

Two other sites I've gotten stuff from before are:

http://www.greenfieldonline.com/
http://www.surveyspot.com/

I've done a product test of a lotion for a $10 Amazon gift certificate through Greenfield Online, and also got on a $30 online focus group evaluating a website. I've gotten $15 through Survey Spot before, and just now looked at my account and saw I'd accumulated another $15 in rewards, so just requested that as a check. Woo!

ETA; If you want to sign up for any of them, email me at telophase14 (at) gmail with the email address and name you want to use with them. For some of them I can get a referral credit. :)

[arkanefyre.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! Emailing you now :D

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'll get to them as soon as I get home - I jsut got hit with Work that Must Be Done in the next 30 minutes. XD

[arkanefyre.livejournal.com]

Not a problem! Good luck with the work! :D

[octopedingenue]

E-mailed you likewise!

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

The Canon: A Whirligig of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier. I forgot how cool just knowing basic science is. Angier's prose is wonderful and elegant. It's been great remembering all of the things I used to know but forgot.

[raucousraven.livejournal.com]

Angier's Woman: An Intimate Geography is also worth a look.

[octopedingenue]

Geeze, WHERE are these cool surveys that you are filling out??? All mine ever do is try to pawn frequent flyer miles off on me.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Check my response to arkaynefire. :)

[oyceter]

Even more!

I liked Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses, although the prose may be too shiny right now and I have some problems with some bits (sadly, I don't remember what bits). I also liked her A Slender Thread, which deals with working at a suicide hot line.

You've read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, yeah?

Laurie Colwin's More Home Cooking was very fun and hungry-making, as is Jen Lin-Liu's Serve the People. I think you might like the latter better, since it has her going around China and working at a noodle stand!

Ann Marie Flemings' The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam is a comic about her great grandfather, who was a stage magician.

I read the Paco Underhill on your wishlist a while ago! I remember thinking it was neat but also a little scary (but I always think that about marketing).

Homer Hickam Jr's Rocket Boys is a great story of 50s boys teaching themselves calculus to build rockets--first small ones, then they want to get into NASA--along with being the story of a failing coal town in Appalachia.

Olivia Judson's Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation is all about bug sex! Well, not totally, but a lot of it is bug and other invertebrates having sex. I find this wonderfully fascinating! I also keep meaning to read Parasite Rex but never quite get my hands on it.

Uh, I'm not sure if you'd find this fun, but I liked Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think, which is on web usability and has footnotes on Hansel and Gretel.

I really like Simon Singh's The Code Book (on cryptography and ciphers) and Fermat's Enigma (on Fermat's Last Theorem); he manages to explain the math so it almost makes sense. Plus, very easy to read and very engaging voice.

Jim Steinmeyer's Hiding the Elephant is ostensibly on how magicians learned how to hide an elephant in plain sight, but is really on the history of stage magic. Really fun.

Have you read Feynman's biographies? They are fun and awesome and he does things like pretend to know how to play drums until he actually can.

Neil de Grasse Tyson writes about astronomy (I've read Universe Down to Earth and Death by Black Hole). Some of his books cover similar material at times, but he's really funny and explains things well, and I get to learn about black holes and stuff in the meantime!

OK, I stop spamming now!