What We Are Reading Today: Sapiens

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Updated 16 August 2022
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What We Are Reading Today: Sapiens

  • The book explains how these revolutions impacted the relationship between human beings and other species of flora and fauna

“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” is a non-fiction history and social philosophy book written by Prof. Yuval Noah Harari and published in 2011.

Harari based this book on a history class he was giving to undergraduate students. The contents of the 20 chapters reflect what is being taught in each of the 20 lectures during the semester.

Sapiens discusses world history from the inception of Earth 4.5 billion years ago to modern-day human footprint. Harari divides the timeline of history into four sections: the cognitive revolution, the agricultural revolution, the unification of humankind, and the scientific revolution.

The book explains how these revolutions impacted the relationship between human beings and other species of flora and fauna.

In section one, titled “The Cognitive Revolution,” there are four subcategories, with the first being “An Animal of No Significance,” that presents the reader with concise definitions of physics, chemistry, biology and history.

Section two, titled “The Agricultural Revolution,” discusses human beings’ domestication of plants and animals and explains that this revolution of interfering with naturally growing plants and wild animals started from western Iran, south-eastern Turkey and the Levant.

Section three, titled “The Unification of Humankind,” mentions that as agriculture required uniformity and cooperation between humans, the concept of collective rules and norms created the first structure of culture.

“The Scientific Revolution,” the final section, brings to light how human inventions and breakthroughs in the last 500 years catapulted humanity into a larger, more complex sphere of existence.

To put it into context, Harari highlights the first detonation of the atomic bomb — Oppenheimer’s weapon of mass destruction — in Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16 1945.

Harari holds a Ph.D in history from the University of Oxford and is now a world history professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

He was awarded the Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in 2009 and 2012. His bestseller and most remarkable publication Sapiens sold more than 12 million copies worldwide.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘A Natural History of Shells’ by Geerat Vermeij

Updated 03 May 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘A Natural History of Shells’ by Geerat Vermeij

Geerat Vermeij wrote this “celebration of shells” to share his enthusiasm for these supremely elegant creations and what they can teach us about nature.

Most popular books on shells emphasize the identification of species, but Vermeij uses shells as a way to explore major ideas in biology.

How are shells built? How do they work? And how did they evolve?

With lucidity and charm, the MacArthur-winning evolutionary biologist reveals how shells give us insights into the lives of animals today and in the distant geological past.


What We Are Reading Today: The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs 

Updated 02 May 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs 

Author: Gregory S. Paul

The bestselling “Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs” remains the must-have book for anyone who loves dinosaurs, from amateur enthusiasts to professional paleontologists. Now extensively revised and expanded, this dazzlingly illustrated large-format edition features nearly 100 new dinosaur species and hundreds of new and updated illustrations, bringing readers up to the minute on the latest discoveries and research that are radically transforming what we know about dinosaurs and their world.


What We Are Reading Today: The Virtue Proposition by Sig Berg

Updated 01 May 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: The Virtue Proposition by Sig Berg

Sig Berg, founder of the Severn Leadership Group, explains what’s missing from traditional leadership, with its emphasis on the rules and rituals of boardrooms and C-suites, and from iconoclastic leadership, which urges you to move fast and break things.

Neither of these embrace virtues, and neither has, nor ever will, deliver consistent superior results.

There is a courageous third way: virtuous leadership.

This book speaks to men and women who witness the absence of virtues and know they can do better, says a review published on goodreads.com.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Stellar English’

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Updated 30 April 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Stellar English’

Author: FRANK L. CIOFFI

“Stellar English” lays out the fundamentals of effective writing, from word choice and punctuation to parts of speech and common errors.

Frank Cioffi emphasizes how formal written English—though only a sub-dialect of the language—enables writers to reach a wide and heterogenous audience.

Cioffi’s many example sentences illustrating grammatical principles tilt in an otherworldly direction, making up a science fiction story involving alien invasion.

 


What We Are Reading Today: A Deadly Indifference

Updated 29 April 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: A Deadly Indifference

Author: Marshall Jevons

Harvard professor Henry Spearman—an ingenious amateur sleuth who uses economics to size up every situation—is sent by an American entrepreneur to Cambridge, England.

Spearman’s mission is to scout out the purchase of the most famous house in economic science: Balliol Croft, the former home of Professor Alfred Marshall, John Maynard Keynes’s teacher and the font of modern economic theory.

After a shocking murder, Spearman realizes that his own life is in danger as he finds himself face-to-face with the most diabolical killer in his career.