Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom is nearly a decade old but could not be more timely. The book focuses on various forms of superintelligence, but the one most jarring and current is Artificial Intelligence (AI). This books is loaded with incredible insight but
Look Me In the Eye: My Life With Asperger’s is the memoir of John Elder Robison. The brother of Running With Scissors author, Augusten Burroughs, John Elder was diagnosed with Asperger’s at the age of 40. It was Augusten’s prompting that led to John Elder
Rinker Buck’s Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure borrows Mark Twain’s title from the 1883 classic, Life on the Mississippi. But while Twain focused on his early steamboat days, Buck sets out to recreate a journey from Pennsylvania to New Orleans on a
Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West, written by Hampton Sides, is a wonderful biography of the legendary Christopher “Kit” Carson (1809-1868). But it is also much more. America’s wild west was full of many interesting characters, and Kit Carson is near the
I came across Red Caddy: Into the Unknown with Edward Abbey completely by accident. Previously, I was ignorant of Charles Bowden and his writing. I had first heard of Edward Abbey when assigned Monkey Wrench Gang for an environmental history class at Northern Illinois University.
Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild is a beautiful collection of essays about truly wild encounters. Craig Childs recounts his amazing and often unbelievable adventures in moving prose. His writing makes you feel like you are there with him, looking through his eyes. The
Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History by Dan Flores is a well-researched, well-written natural history of the oft misunderstood and maligned canine, the coyote. There is no denying, I am a dog person. I have always been drawn to dogs and have felt a
Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s Journey is a memoir by James Rebanks about his life growing up on a traditional English farm. As a young child, he is taught many practical, important lessons mostly from his grandfather on how to farm and how to be a
The Puma Years is a memoir by Laura Coleman. The story recounts Coleman’s work at a parque in the Bolivian jungle. In 2007, Coleman traveled to a wildlife rescue “parque” deep in the jungles of Bolivia. She was only 24 years old and had already
Despite the less than pithy title, The Truth and Beauty – How the Lives and Works of England’s Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus is a concise work of Christian thinking. I came to know author Andrew