Reddit mentions: The best ethnic & national biographies

I love science books. These are all on my bookshelf/around my apt. They aren't all chemistry, but they appeal to my science senses:

I got a coffee table book once as a gift. It's Theodore Gray's The Elements. It's beautiful, but like I said, more of a coffee table book. It's got a ton of very cool info about each atom though.

I tried The Immortal Life of Henrieta Lacks, which is all about the people and family behind HeLa cells. That was a big hit, but I didn't care for it.

I liked The Emperor of all Maladies which took a long time to read, but was super cool. It's essentially a biography of cancer. (Actually I think that's it's subtitle)

The Wizard of Quarks and Alice in Quantumland are both super cute allegories relating to partical physics and quantum physics respectively. I liked them both, though they felt low-level, tying them to high-level physics resulted in a fun read.

Unscientific America I bought on a whim and didn't really enjoy since it wasn't science enough.

The Ghost Map was a suuuper fun read about Cholera. I love reading about mass-epidemics and plague.

The Bell that Rings Light, In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, Schrödinger's Kittens, The Fabric of the Cosmos and Beyond the God Particle are all pleasure reading books that are really primers on Quantum.

I also tend to like anything by Mary Roach, which isn't necessarily chemistry or science, but is amusing and feels informative. I started with Stiff but she has a few others that I also enjoyed.

Have fun!

It sounds like you're off to a good start. You sound pretty close to the right height/weight ratio, so it'll probably be pretty hard to see any big weight changes even with a lot of effort. I had a lot of good luck on a bicycle, largely because running would tear my body up, so good luck to you.

There's some good (and conflicting) advice in this thread already, but working out with friends can help you stay at it. In a similar vein, I started playing pick-up basketball at a park a couple nights a week, made some friends there, and my team of 5 would expect me to be out there so we'd have a full team on those nights. That way I'd be sure to be out there since I knew if I wasn't they'd be upset. It really helped on nights where I could have easily packed it in and stayed home, any almost never did I regret actually going. Another thing you can do is train for an event with someone; maybe a mini-triathlon, half-marathon, century bicycle race.

But I actually came to answer your audiobook question. I had some good luck with This American Life (you can get all of the MP3s for free) for awhile but burned out on it a bit. Then I made myself a musical bike helmet and I'm in freakin' heaven with that thing; it's the perfect amount of split attentions for me. I like fitness cycling to adventure/survival non-fiction, I could manage to push myself since the characters had it so much worse. How can you refuse to go balls out for another 3 minute interval when you're listening to a story where someone's starving to death?

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing was my favorite of that genre, had a brilliant reader.

I also liked Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

And out of that genre, I've recently listened to Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and Moneyball by Michael Lewis and I can't stop talking about either of them.

Good luck and keep at it. I got a lot of silver-bullet advice from a lot of well-meaning friends, but what really helped was finding stuff that worked for me and then ignoring them. I'm down about 50lbs over the 16 months or so.

If she was just diagnosed, I'm thinking it's probably more likely that she's high-functioning since you probably would've noticed earlier on if she was low-functioning. And the fact that she doesn't resist affection is a really wonderful sign! My brother wasn't very affectionate when he was her age but he did have some of those same behaviours - not responding to commands, self-focused etc. The word Autism itself comes from 'auto', so naturally a huge component of Autism is a focus on oneself rather than others which makes for more difficulties in social situations. Like I said, our situations are very different because my brother is 3 years older than me but going back to my 5 year old mindset, how I managed to communicate with my brother was through his common interest which is music. He'd play piano and I'd sit with him, we'd talk about our favourite artists etc. Since your sister is still pretty young, it might be difficult to establish a common interest right now but my advice would be interest yourself in whatever she finds interesting, getting her to talk about what she's doing, what she likes. And I hope that as she gets older, she's put in 'typical' child environments so that she doesn't miss out. I'm really happy to say that my brother had a lot of support when he was younger and now he's 23 and extremely well-adjusted and living in his own apartment and has a job that he loves. I wish I could offer you some reference books or something but all of the ones that I read were for younger siblings of Autistic children. If you're interested though here are a few that helped me:

Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome <-- it's about Aspergers but a lot of the characteristics are similar and more importantly, it provides a lot of information for siblings

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime <-- fictional but takes place completely inside the mind of an Autistic person! And it's an amazing read!

The Reason I Jump

If you don't run barefoot, but think you could be interested, I suggest that, as it will strengthen your feet like mad...but take it easy and pay attention to what your feet are telling you. No pain, no gain, won't pay off here, just make you miserable. Before beginning a running routine, I'd suggest reading Born to Run for a fun, interesting, and enlightening true story read...it is very motivating, and will lead you to the rabbit hole. To go down the rabbit hole, I highly recommend reading Barefoot Running: Step by Step...do this before starting any barefoot running. This book the real deal, with very helpful and accurate information, with references to literature and research for you to follow deeper. The explanations of what to do, how to do it right and wrong, and why, but in very easy to understand language. IMHO and professional opinion. The only drawback is you have to wade through his personal story, but's still worth it.

For the issue of some or a lot of people having problems with what you do with your feet. Educate them, if that is a possibility...win them over with a dose of red pill. If not, and for other reasons, such as misguided store owners, restaurants, etc...I recommend Xero huarachas. The Ventures are the next best thing to barefoot me. They are inexpensive, and you can buy kits for DIY. I started with Ventures, then a kit. Nowadays, I make my own from scratch with my design improvements. Any of these suffice for shoewear where it is required. I've never had someone snicker at my sandals, rather I get positive comments, and "where can I get a pair".

If education doesn't do it, and your tribe/village are too intolerant, find new ones. I know, it's easy for me to say this...I live in an incredibly tolerant city (Asheville NC) where it is almost impossible to stick out like some weirdo. I was initially concerned about what people thought of what I have going on below my ankles, but with experience and time, I grown in confidence, and my care for what others think has unraveled to nothing...if they don't like it...pffft! It's their problem. I'll still be running when they are likely hobbled by knee replacements, thousands spent on crippling shoes and foot orthotics, and otherwise buckets of pain. I'm 51, and do about 20 miles a week, and only saw the light 3 or 4 years ago, thanks to the books mentioned above. I now hike barefooted, even a late summer trip up to a glacier field in Alaska last year.

This is it man, You've got to treat this moment as your last chance. You will fail but you will recover.


Whatever your feeling is temporary. It's ego death.
Figuring from your username, you think a lot.
That's a good thing in general, it means you care. But it's debilitating.

Quite simply, grow a pair of balls. Quit trying to live the world through your thoughts, live in the real world, be present in every moment.

Personally, I would wrap myself in my thoughts as a safe haven. I have tons of good ideas, but I never had the balls to manifest them. I liked being in my safe world where I was god and nothing could harm me.

The only problem with this is that it's fucking lonely. I may elevate my ego by convincing myself the world is shit and I know better than everybody else. I believed that I had the solution to everything; but it's shit, it's all shit, it was me lying to myself to stay in my protected metaphysical bubble where I'm god. Nothing could humble me.

There's nothing wrong with such a meaningless existence, I didn't harm anything, I didn't bother anything, I was miserable but I didn't make the world a worse place. I rationalized that what I did was ok.

But that was bullshit: That's me, that's my story.

But that's also past tense. I would get glimpses into this other realm of consciousness; a feeling of oneness with everything, or belonging, or happiness. It's why religion is so popular, we'll all suffer through this shit together praying that such and such will stave off our meaningless existence; give purpose to a purposeless world.

You have to find something important for yourself, this feeling will go away. How do you get back to it?

Mainly, how do you quite the rational mind, and let the intuitive self guide you?

• Remember when you rationalize, when you put your awareness to that component of the mind, everything else gets less energy. The world is not nearly as linear as your rationality would have you believe.
  To fix this I read Chaos by James Glieck. It thought me how much I can actually gain by thinking; it's not much. We can only grow through new experiences, if we think all the time, we don't get to work with new information.
  
  But that only led me to understanding, how do I take it to the next level of application?
  
  
• This is where I am 98% sure you will fail. The only reason I am writing this post is an exercise to experience my own growth. From a philosophical sense, I can't even verify your existence; how do I know reality isn't just a computer simulation and everything else is a program. The truth is I can't. You'll fail unless you except that this is the only truth. This moment, there is nothing else. The thoughts you have are very real, but only in the certain synaptic patterns your connectome has involved into. In the grand scheme of things, no matter how smart you are. That is your whole worth, that is all you are. If your only your thoughts, that is all you are. Only the neurons firing in your brain. The brain is powerful and can trick yourself into believing that your thoughts are more important than your physical surroundings, but that's your choice.
  
  Quit philosophizing. There is nothing more paralyzing than searching for an overall understanding. That understanding is god, or what people like to call god, or faith, or being, or whatever strokes your ego. I'm an atheist. But I pray to God ALL THE FUCKING TIME. The truth is God does exist. But it's in the manner of his existance. God is your brain, your brain is God. That is all. You are a fucking human. You are a part of the species that eats and shits and dies. You are the part of the species that can contemplate its own existence, sends rockets to mars, manipulate genetic information, communicate 5,000 miles away instantly. You are part of THAT FUCKING SPECIES. Your potential is just shy of infinite. The choice is yours. You have the power of God, not in some benevolent, bullshit, religious, make myself feel good about my self sense. But in the sense that YOU can make the changes you see fit in the world. If you're a thinker, and seek understanding, your ideas are better than 99.9% of the world.
  
  What I did:
  read proverbs in the bible. No bullshit, it talks about God's true being. But it has to be dug out. The beginning of knowledge is fear of the lord. And fear of the lord is fear of death. Hopefully that's a big enough hint on how it should be read. It can't be read with any preconceptions about anything, it has to be read when your experiencing the experience you felt earlier.
  
  Exercise: So FUCKING important. And where you will fail. Start running, read this book www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347142293&sr=8-1&keywords=born+to+run
  we are much more like animals than you wish to believe. don't give up.
  
  Have sex. But not in a nondiscriminatory manner, find someone who you can make feel special And have AWESOME FUCKING SEX, ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Because there are few things, and especially few natural things which will make you feel this good, especially with and for someone you care about.
  
  Solve problems, seek understanding, hold wisdom above all else.
  If you have the balls, do yoga.
  
  Be accountable, I'll be that person for you, keep this post as a journal. It can be something we share. Maybe other people will read it and learn. Most likely not, I doubt you will. But I will, for what it's worth. I'll post every fucking week. Because fuck it; I'll expose my life to the world. It's the least I can do.
  I hope you choose to do the same. We could help each other, I just started on this path and could use advice as well.
  
  Most importantly, quit searching for meaning and be the meaning.
  Become the change you wish to be in the world.
  
  To answer your question, How do I give a shit about the world again?
  Give a shit about yourself first. Then you can have the capacity to give a shit about the world.
  
  tldr:
  
  Good now your getting it. This was too long, you shouldn't have read this post. Get the fuck of Reddit, Get the fuck off the internet. Get the fuck out of your mind, grow a pair of balls, do something you think you can't.
  
  Always remember you can. You may think you can't, but it's only a thought.

I understand what you're saying. Non-fiction books can oftentimes be boring. However, there are some excellent non-fiction books that are about adventure, exciting stories, and suspenseful plots. Fiction is great, and I love a good make-believe story, but I think there's something special you get when you read books that are about real people, real events, and real outcomes. Don't ever use your age as a crutch. You'll have a much better time in life if you push your boundaries a little.

That being said, here are some awesome, thrilling non-fiction books that you would love:

The Outpost A story about the American troops in Combat Outpost (COP) Keating in Afghanistan who were attacked by a Taliban force that outnumbered them 8:1. Two soldiers were awarded Medals of Honor for the heroic actions.

Kon-Tiki This is firsthand account about a team of researchers who sailed across the Pacific ocean in a balsam wood raft to prove that South Americans colonized Polynesia. Amazing adventure story that had huge anthropological significance.

Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer's brilliant and extremely well-written account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster (of which he was a part). Documents the deadliest season in Mt. Everest history, and focuses on the stories of the deaths of some of Everest's premier guides.

A Life in the IRA Joe Cahill was one of the first members of the modern day IRA, and his account of one of the most violent eras in European history is simply jawdropping. The author covers everything from Bloody Sunday to the death of Bobby Sands with accuracy and pathos than only a seasoned IRA leader like Cahill could convey.

There are tons more. These are some of my favorites. Enjoy fiction--there's nothing wrong with it. But don't think non-fiction is synonymous with boring.

TL;DR: The most amazing stories you'll ever read are those that actually happened.

> but not children's books because she is at an adult reading level.

It is great that she is precocious, but she is still a little girl. There are things you won't understand until after puberty and, besides, who doesn't like a good story?

Have her read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. It should be perfect for her and she will love it.

Also get her a copy of Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl. One of the best adventure books ever written. It's a touch slow in the beginning, but once they get to sea you can't put the book down.

If you want to give her something a little bit on the mature adult side, The Universal Traveler is an extremely unique and interesting book. It is mature and adult in terms of abstract concepts. No sex or violence. Nothing offensive whatsoever. Not sure if it would interest her, but it's a terrific method for channeling creativity and working through processes. And much more. She might get more out of it at 14 or 15, but there is something useful inside for everyone. One of my favorite books.

I pretty much only read non-fiction, so I'm all about books that are educational but also interesting :) I'm not sure what your educational background is, so depending on how interested you are in particular subjects, I have many recommendations.

Naked Statistics and Nate Silver's Book are both good!

Feeling Good is THE book on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is good, as is Eating Animals (granted, Eating Animals is aimed at a particular type of eating)

Guns, Germs and Steel is very good.

I also very much enjoyed The Immortal Live of Henrietta Lacks, as well as Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman :)

edit to add: Chris Hadfield's Book which I haven't received yet but it's going to be amazing.

Random selection of some of my favorites to help you expand your horizons:

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is a great introduction to scientific skepticism.

Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris is a succinct refutation of Christianity as it's generally practiced in the US employing crystal-clear logic.

Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor by Anthony Everitt is the best biography of one of the most interesting men in history, in my personal opinion.

Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski is a jaw-dropping book on history, journalism, travel, contemporary events, philosophy.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is a great tome about... everything. Physics, history, biology, art... Plus he's funny as hell. (Check out his In a Sunburned Country for a side-splitting account of his trip to Australia).

The Annotated Mona Lisa by Carol Strickland is a thorough primer on art history. Get it before going to any major museum (Met, Louvre, Tate Modern, Prado, etc).

Not the Impossible Faith by Richard Carrier is a detailed refutation of the whole 'Christianity could not have survived the early years if it weren't for god's providence' argument.

Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman are six of the easier chapters from his '63 Lectures on Physics delivered at CalTech. If you like it and really want to be mind-fucked with science, his QED is a great book on quantum electrodynamics direct from the master.

Lucy's Legacy by Donald Johanson will give you a really great understanding of our family history (homo, australopithecus, ardipithecus, etc). Equally good are Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade and Mapping Human History by Steve Olson, though I personally enjoyed Before the Dawn slightly more.

Memory and the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel gives you context for all the Bible stories by detailing contemporaneous events from the Levant, Italy, Greece, Egypt, etc.

After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton is an awesome read if you don't know much about Islam and its early history.

Happy reading!

edit: Also, check out the Reasonable Doubts podcast.

I understand some of your situation pretty well. I came from a background of no religion at all and a negative feeling of what I thought organized religion was about before becoming a Jew. Also my wife came from a very traditional Buddhist background before becoming a Jew and she also shared concerns about this "getting in the way of a normal life".

The rabbi we first met with insisted that if I was interested in the conversion process that even before starting I had to bring her to meet with him because so much of being a Jew is family oriented so if I wanted to do this, his condition was that we both had to learn. He happens to be Conservative but of the old school variety, closer to what we would now call Modern Orthodox. The thing was that I was very fortunate that my wife was at least willing to learn with me for the sake of learning what this thing I was interested in was about. Even more fortunately she came to her own conclusion that this was for her as well. I cant say if this will be the same for you and your partner or not, but if you two communicate well then perhaps they may be willing as my wife was to see what is what just because it is important to you. As it turns out we ended up affiliating with the local Orthodox community as time went on but thats another story.

The books LazarA mentioned are all great. All I might add would be:

• God, Jews & History by Max Dimont. This is not a religious text per se but gives a decent overview of our history as a people in context of where we have been. Being a Jew isnt just about religious practice, its about being part of a people with a complex history and that history has very much shaped our practice.
  
  
• To Be a Jew by Hayim H. Donin was a decent overview as I recall. It covered about the events of the Jewish calendar and lifecycle among other topics.
  
  If you live in an area with several types of Jewish communities, I'd say meet with several rabbis if possible. Even you think now that you might look at Conservative Judaism, there's a range within that as well as within Orthodoxy and I assume but dont know for myself about the other flavors as well.
  
  Feel free to ask us here any and I do mean any questions you may have as well. I'm also available to answer questions by PM as I'm sure are several other of the regulars here in case you feel you dont want to ask in public. You may get conflicting answers but that is perfectly normal. We have a saying to the effect of if you ask two Jews you will get three opinions.

I've been reading this book recently called Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I've not finished it yet but I couldn't recommend it highly enough to everyone here.

He talks about ultra runners, people who run 50+ miles. The best runners, he notes, are those that do it for fun. It applies to anything in life, and his examples are amazing to read and something I shall apply to every important area of my life.

When I found the right reasons & goals for running, in this case, I made it fun and I've not had to struggle to get out of the door like I used to. I've always been competitive so I currently use my previous times and distance as goals to beat. That will eventually need to change as I hit my limits.

I understand you're just starting out so you're still finding your feet, so to speak, but if running is something you truly want to incorporate into your lifestyle, C25K is the right springboard to start with and maybe check out the book too for some inspiration.

I'm in no way an expert but the book Jews God & History did a good job of explaining it. According to the book the Jews have always put a strong emphasis on knowledge and learning. They were able to acquire knowledge from their conquerors and outlast their oppressors. When a new conqueror came along they helped to facilitate the change of leadership and taught the new conquerors the ways of the subjugated people. This led to them gaining an usual amount of power in many cultures. I highly recommend reading the book. Jews are a small group but make up a huge number of nobel prizes in science and mathematics.


Update: In case you want to read it It's simply written and very interesting. It even goes over how Christianity began. I've read many books but this is by far one of my favorites. I also recommend "Unholy Alliance" By: Peter Levanda. It explains how the Nazis came to believe what they did and the Occult/Secret Societies influence on Hitler.

Wow - that's fascinating. You're the first person I've met who has had experience with both SGI and Scientology - we've noted the similarities here on this subreddit. This one, "Parallels between SGI and Scientology", is a fine place to start if you don't have time to dig through the previous list.

Boy, "happy" is the cult hook of choice, isn't it?

Did you already tell me how long you'd been out? Yeah, it can take a while. I have to tell you, reading others' getting-out experiences and interacting with them has helped me so much. No, I wasn't wrong! Others noticed the same things I did, and their explanations helped me put words to my feelings and reactions and that odd sense of discomfort one can't quite put one's finger on. That's one of my goals here, is to provide the evidence, from as many different angles as possible, that you and the others like you were NOT wrong. You were exploited, and THAT's wrong! Everyone who joined did so because they were idealistic and/or suffering and so all that lofty blahblah about "happiness" and "world peace" really resonated with them. A shame the reality had nothing to do with the advertising, huh?

I really feel for you, going through this difficult untangling process while caring for 4 children on your own. This is you O_O

We walked out of SGI with nothing but the spiritual clothes on our backs - there was no support network, no meetings to help us, no services to facilitate our transition back to "normal", and if your experience was anything like the norm, you weren't able to continue any of the friendships you had inside SGI. "Us vs. them" means that if someone leaves, she becomes "them", not "us", and must be avoided. Besides, what would you talk about? One of the ways people process transitions is by talking about them, and what SGI members wants to listen to THAT???

On your observations re: your friend's 40-year practice. Still looking for the actual proof, are we? Welcome to the reality of the SGI. Nobody is doing better than their peers who don't chant. If they were, we'd be able to SEE it, because it's supposed to be "ACTUAL proof", not "IMAGINARY proof". Where are the leaders of industry and society and politics Ikeda promised us would arise from SGI ranks? There's been plenty of time - if it were going to happen, we'd be seeing it.

A book to add to your list for when you find yourself with an empty nest is Dr. Gabor Maté's "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts". You'll no doubt recognize the Buddhist imagery. That's a link to the .pdf that's available online - sometimes those links don't work, so if you want to read it FOR FREE, just type in "in the realm of hungry ghosts pdf" and your search engine should take you right to it. As you might guess, it's about addicts and addiction and the related neurological research. We're discovering that the brain chemistry that predisposes people to chemical addiction is set during the 3rd trimester of pregnancy based on the hormones coursing through the pregnant woman's blood. As Dr. Maté put it, "Their brains never had a chance." In fact, that's the title of Chapter 17!

So your friend is self-medicating. It's quite possible that he's self-medicating with cocaine because he has undiagnosed ADD - Dr. Maté works with homeless addicts in Toronto, and he found that a great many of the cocaine addicts had undiagnosed ADD/ADHD:

>Cocaine is his other habit apart from narcotics, and like many others, he unwittingly began to use this chemical as self-medication for his undiagnosed and untreated attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
...
>It took a Ritalin prescription to help Remy unburden his mind. He has severe Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Never diagnosed before, he was dumbfounded when I told him about the lifelong patterns of physical restlessness, mental disorganization and impulse-regulation deficiencies that characterize the condition. “That’s me all over,” he kept repeating, hitting his forehead with his palm again and again. “How did you know that much about me? That’s been me since I was ankle high to a flea!”
...
>Now thirty-five, Remy has been an addict since his teenage years. His first drug of choice was cocaine. The heroin habit he acquired in prison is managed successfully with methadone, but he’s rarely been off cocaine since his discharge. After I diagnosed his ADHD, he agreed to stay away from it—at least temporarily, so we could give him a trial of methylphenidate, better known by the trade name Ritalin.

>He was astonished the first day he took this medication. “I’m calm,” he reported. “My mind isn’t going off like a machine gun. I’m thinking instead of just spinning. It’s not fucking going sixty different miles an hour, in twenty different directions. I’m going, ‘Hang on, I’ve gotta do one thing at a time here. Just let’s slow down here.”

I wish that signaled a "happily ever after" for Remy, but it didn't. Still, it provided a glimmer of hope and suggests a possible medical approach for other cocaine users to at least look into.

A high proportion of these individuals with these undiagnosed neurochemical deficiencies in their brains also smoke a lot. Cigarettes are a stimulant as well; they serve a function similar to Ritalin, only not as well. More self-medicating. Yeah, the tobacco, the cocaine, those are addictive in and of themselves, but they're addictive to the people whose brain chemistry is a match for the neurochemical compounds in the tobacco or the cocaine. I tried both in college the first time, never saw the appeal. You know, MOST people are exposed to opiates, yet few become addicted:

>Heroin is considered to be a highly addictive drug—and it is, but
only for a small minority of people, as the following example illustrates.

>It’s well known that many American soldiers serving in the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and early 1970s were regular users. Along with heroin, most of these soldier addicts also used barbiturates or amphetamines or both. According to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry in 1975, 20 per cent of the returning enlisted men met the criteria for the diagnosis of addiction while they were in Southeast Asia, whereas before they were shipped overseas fewer than 1 per cent had been opiate addicts. The researchers were astonished to find that “after Vietnam, use of particular drugs and combinations of drugs decreased to near or even below preservice levels.” The remission rate was 95 per cent, “unheard of among narcotics addicts treated in the U.S.”

Isn't that funny? That's also the remission rate from SGI!! Ima gonna put up a topic about that - thanks!!

>“The high rates of narcotic use and addiction there were truly unlike anything prior in the American experience,” the researchers
concluded. “Equally dramatic was the surprisingly high remission rate after return to the United States.” These results suggested that the addiction did not arise from the heroin itself but from the needs of the men who used the drug. Otherwise, most of them would have remained addicts.

>As with opiates so, too, with the other commonly abused drugs. Most people who try them, even repeatedly, will not become addicted. According to a U.S. national survey, the highest rate of dependence after any use is for tobacco: 32 per cent of people who used nicotine even once went on to long-term habitual use. For alcohol, marijuana and cocaine the rate is about 15 per cent and for heroin the rate is 23 per cent. Taken together, American and Canadian population surveys indicate that merely having used cocaine a number of times is associated with an addiction risk of less than 10 per cent. This doesn’t prove, of course, that nicotine is “more” addictive than, say, cocaine. We cannot know, since tobacco—unlike cocaine—is legally available, commercially promoted and remains, more or less, a socially tolerated object of addiction. What such statistics do show is that whatever a drug’s physical effects and powers, they cannot be the sole cause of addiction.

Most people recovering from surgery or physical trauma are given opiates of some sort or another for the pain, but only a tiny, miniscule percentage ever become addicted.

So while your summary of your friend's situation clearly strikes me differently than it strikes you (I find the studies of addiction fascinating, as in Dr. Carl Hart's "High Price" (might also be available online in a .pdf, but I recommend "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts" first!) - plus Dr. Hart is smmmmmokin' hot, kind of a cross between Bob Marley and Lennie Kravitz), I think that REAL "actual proof" would have been for your friend to get the medical diagnosis and intervention he needs in order to get onto some safer regular medication, if regular medication is what he actually needs. Like the way a certain type of diabetic needs insulin. Because I agree - there's no actual proof anywhere in sight here. And isn't that a tragedy?

Things to occupy yourself with!

• BBC's new show "The Musketeers" -- it is badass, I promise. 10 episodes, totally worth a go! Skip episode 5, however; it sucks
  
  
• Read up on Thomas Alexandre Dumas, one of the most incredible men who ever lived, and who also seems to be on the Assassin Council in the game.
  
  
• Get one of those Unity decals somewhere, slap it on your car, laptop, or whatever. Guillotine time, girl!
  
  
• Throw together a nice little halloween/release date costume. Myself, I'm trying to build a "modern French assassin"-type thing with Ubiworkshop stuff and scarves, hidden blade toys and stuff from all over the place. Gonna take cool pictures with it and wear it to the Hobbit 3 release with my friends, who will also be dressing as completely inappropriate things, like Thor and Master Chief, haha
  
  -- as a matter of fact, you know, I bet we could really make some badass stuff in this subreddit, this Halloween... it's the perfect time to do so, no? Assassin's Creed is pretty anchored into the culture now, people generally will recognize it when they see it, and Unity's pretty big on the "group/customization" aspect this year. I expect to see some stuff, you guys!
  
  Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.

>Seems to me, if you wanted to be in good shape, there are much better ways to do it then spending months training to run an large yet arbitrary number of miles.

Most people do not run marathons simply to 'be in good shape.' That's one benefit of many but an erroneous framing of the issue. You can run to set a goal and meet it. It's not arbitrary; it has a history.

This usually starts out running a lower set of miles and working up. It's seeing tangible benefits for a constructive use of time. This is an important mental foundation of any kind of running but it often feeds into shorter-distance runners pushing themselves to a limit they've never envisioned themselves meeting. This is an emotional high that is very hard to match, though it is not exclusive to running.

Also, some people simply enjoy running. The fact that you see it as merely something to do to stay healthy is inevitably going to ignore that it is also something people can do for fun even if it's not your thing. I don't really see why people enjoy yoga even if I acknowledge some health benefits, but people who take part in yoga are also part of a community and a subset of fitness culture and also enjoy the act of taking part in it.

Building on that, there is a running community, ranging from ultra-marathon runners (if you think ~24 miles is bad, try 100+) to Hash Harriers. Individuals coming together as a group to set a goal and push each other is something from which a lot of people derive personal utility.

Finally, there's nothing that says long-distance running is ipso facto bad for you simply because it is long-distance. There is an argument to be made that much of human evolution focused in some part on the necessity of running for survival. You also need to acknowledge that some people, such as the Tarahumara, have an entire culture that revolves around long-distance running that surpasses the average marathon and colors everything ranging from education and holidays to courting and dispute revolution.

I can't really speak for nipple issues because I wear a sports bra, but needless to say it really shouldn't be enough to tip the scales from all of the above just because it doesn't fit one's neat aesthetic preference for athletic beauty.

Doing something for personal reward, community, and culture is not masochism.

EDIT: I forgot to add that marathons are super accessible. You don't even need to formally sign up for an event in order to run one. It's an egalitarian form of competition - either against yourself or others - that basically requires a shirt, shorts, shoes and fortitude. Some even view shoes as optional. Compare that to hockey, golf or football where they require investment in protective gear or pay-per-play course access at the least (at the most, a membership at a club.)

VFFs are good for allowing barefoot form and not altering it otherwise. They need a strong warning, though...they are too good at protecting soles, and it is much easier to do too much, and overuse injure yourself. If bf from is not good, you'll get abrasive/sheering stress on the skin on the bottom of your feet. If form is dialed in pretty good, no blister problems. VFFs can protect the skin abuse, preventing you from receiving the message that form is not good enough, which can allow over-stressing other anatomy (Achilles and other tendons, calf muscles, etc...). They can mask cues that something is amiss, leading to false sense of security of good form, and you end up overdoing it and soreness or injury results. I prefer these huarachas for when running surface is too hot or sharp/rocky...they look better IMHO, but more importantly, they aren't so problematic as VFFs described above. Also, they slap loudly when form needs work, and are ninja silent when it is perfect.


Read this for fun and motivation, then this
for easy to understand details of kinesiology, and good bf from...it is spot on...everything you need to know is here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_burial_mounds_in_the_United_States

The Mississippian culture built cities, only a few of which survived. These kingdoms covered the area of the midwest and most of the American Southeast. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture) By the time Europeans came, they were already practically gone, but smallpox did the rest of the job for them.

--

One of the problems with discussing pre-Columbian North America is that with South America and Central America, European explorers were largely just hitting the cultures as European diseases were. The explorations into the heart of North America happened after those diseases had already ravaged the area.

The people of the Iroquois confederacy farmed with stone and wood tools (mixing crops to keep the soil from going bad) had a participatory democracy and ideas of freedom that must have been very alien to both Europeans and their southern neighbors.

People like the Comanche don't even show up until the horse is introduced and their quick adoption of it allows them a huge advantage over their neighbors (see Empire of the Summer Moon as a better history, but be prepared - the Wild West was far more brutal than Hollywood has even remotely shown)

Early European accounts are heavily biased and for ages it was assumed as fact. Today historians have to shoulder their way through biased narratives and counter-narratives to try to figure out the truth. As an amateur history buff, I wish them the best of luck.

Oh, also the Maximum Ride series! Should have thought of this one earlier. It's not really short, but it is fast-paced with plenty of action.

You could also try something like Between a Rock and a Hard Place (the book that the film 127 Hours is based on). Several of my junior boys have really gotten into Into the Wild. Into Thin Air, also by Jonathan Krakauer, might also fit the bill, if real-life survival/adventure stories would be interesting to him.

I'd also recommend Chris Crutcher as an author. He tends to write a lot of sports stories (not sure if that's something that would interest your brother), but they're entertaining, realistic, and funny. And quick reads!

Honestly, clean concrete or asphalt is probably the easiest surface to run on. I didn't believe it either until I got the technique down. But, it's true.

When I started barefoot, I ordered a couple books and did some reading.

http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189
and
http://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Running-Step-Shoeless-Technique/dp/1592334652/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1WV43D698B0HHYCVA8FJ

The first book is entertaining. The second book is instructional, and the most help in understanding the mechanics. Telling someone how to run barefoot is like trying to explain to someone how to chew. Think about that for a second, explaining a basic body mechanic isn't that simple to do because people just do it.

Barefoot running, when you're doing it properly, is like that. If something hurts, you're doing it wrong.

Now, I wont say that I run 6 minute miles. Again, I like running, but I wish I were more into it, I have a desk job and I'm old. My best mile is probably around 10 minutes or just under it. But, I usually keep that speed or around it the entire run. I can usually run the fastest at the end of my runs, after all of the joints have loosened up and my form is at it's best.

Buy a book and read if you're interested in it.

I know literally nothing about Everest, and have never gone anywhere you can't plug in a hairdryer, but I've read a few books about climbing, and I'm pretty sure it's nowhere near that simple. Mountains aren't perfect triangles. You have to climb up and down and up and down, and sometimes you start climbing down and realize you're facing a crevasse and you have to go back up, or you have to spend days scrambling across a field of rocks.

In this case, the girlfriend fell early on and may have been too injured to walk, and within a pretty short timeframe they both would have been too weak to make it down alive. It probably made more sense to find shelter and wait for rescue.

Edit: Into Thin Air, Dead lucky, and Touching the Void are all really good reads, if you're interested. Lincoln Hall's story was made into a documentary, and the 2015 Everest movie is pretty good.

Originally as others have noted he was trying to purge china of the four olds. Basically their culture,history etc the closest equivalent would be what the Khmer rouge attempted with year zero. However towards the end though the original aims and goals went out the window, as the party tried to make Mao irrelevant, they wanted him to be a godlike figurehead someone revered but neutered concerning actual policy and control. That's when the greatest excesses of the cultural revolution occurred because Mao retaliated, he more or less gave his wife in others like the red guard who were loyal to him free reign to do what they pleased, at certain points mini civil wars were occurring throughout china. During the cultural revolution, china's government for better or worse was non existent in concerns to controlling what was going on. I still feel sadness reading about the destruction of millennia of history in a few short years. Temples, artifacts all gone, i believe at one point some people even tried to target the forbidden city for destruction which point only due to the some elements of the Chinese PLA intervening was this prevented but it's been a few years since i read up on that incident so i may be a little off.

There's a really good book i read called the wild swans. It not only goes indepth into the history surrounding the horror of the great leap forward and cultural revolution but also gives a nice view of china during the warring warlord period, the japanese vs communist vs nationalist period through the eyes of three generations of women in a chinese family. The author was a red guard when she was younger, her father and mother were top communist officials who ended up being denounced during the revolution, her grandmother was a warlords concubine who had her feet binded it's a fascinating history i recommend if you want an in-depth and easily accessible read concerning the history to pick up the book for a first hand account of Mao's lunacy http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Swans-Three-Daughters-China/dp/0743246985/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454251993&sr=1-8&keywords=china+red+guard

buy this book and start reading it
https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1479256656&sr=8-2&keywords=born+to+run

I always wanted to do sports in high school but never did because I thought I wasn't good enough for it. Then, in my senior year I decided to join anyways and I have to say it was probably the best decision I made. I wasn't fast at first, but just a few months in I shed all my excess weight and started to become exponentially faster. I didn't get tired anymore and I made a bunch of friends and met a bunch of chicks. It was awesome. Also, if you're gonna run and actually want to be a God at it (and to not look like a scrawny anorexic) you should also hit up the gym once or twice a week on the side. 50% of running is upper-body strength (for short-mid-distances)

Honestly, I wouldn't read sales books for motivation. I'd read sales books if you need help on tactics and strategy, but if you need help picking up the phone you won't find much besides "for every 100 calls, you'll get 10 prospects and one close!".

Like sufi_surfer, I read biographies for motivation. This is fantastic and very motivational. I'm also reading this at the moment. It's half business, half bio. And very fucking good.

Have you read [Into Thin Air] (http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-personal-disaster-ebook/dp/B000FC1ITK/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411590869&sr=1-1&keywords=into+thin+air) by Jon Krakauer? I enjoyed reading this one.

I also read [Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage] (http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing-ebook/dp/B006L74DMC/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411590938&sr=1-1&keywords=endurance+shackleton%27s+incredible+voyage), could not put it down. Would still recommend giving it a shot, even though in the other comment you said you weren't interested.

You could also probably find a book about the [Donner party] (http://www.amazon.com/Desperate-Passage-Donner-Perilous-Journey/dp/0195383311/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591075&sr=1-1&keywords=donner+party+books). Have not read this one yet.

I actually really want to read more of these true doom/adventure stories as well. Let me know which ones you'd recommend or find interesting. We can swap notes :) (I'm looking up the Franklin expedition right now!)

Edit: another recommendation is possibly books on North Korea? [Escape from Camp 14] (http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey-ebook/dp/B005GSZZ1A/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591287&sr=1-1&keywords=escape+from+camp+14) coming to mind. It's still got that morbid fascination element to it. Another good one is [Nothing to Envy] (http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North-ebook/dp/B002ZB26AO/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591283&sr=1-1&keywords=nothing+to+envy).

Edit2: Saw you wanted to read about that rugby team that was stranded in the Andes, was this the book you were thinking of: [Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors] (http://www.amazon.com/Alive-Survivors-Piers-Paul-Read/dp/038000321X/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591507&sr=1-1&keywords=alive+the+story+of+the+andes+survivors). The only other book I can think of is [Miracle in the Andes] (http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Andes-Days-Mountain-Long-ebook/dp/B000GCFW6O/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591638&sr=1-1&keywords=Miracle+in+the+andes).

Maybe try out [The Sex Lives of Cannibals] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Sex-Lives-Cannibals-Equatorial/dp/0767915305)? - even if it's just for the first part, about how the author ends up following his girlfriend to a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific because he can't figure out what to do with his life after graduation and collectors are after him about his student loans...(it's funny, and a quick read - plus you learn about a place and people and job you've probably never heard of!)

Or, in a completely different vein - [The Road Less Traveled] (http://www.amazon.com/Road-Less-Traveled-Timeless-Traditional/dp/0743243153/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405947098&sr=1-1&keywords=the+road+less+traveled) - yeah, it's self-help, and maybe a bit new-agey, but it's got some great insights. Again - you don't have to read the whole thing, but the beginning part - about 'life is difficult, and once you accept that, it becomes less difficult' and personal growth and all is great - life-changing for many people.

Maybe you could share a bit more about your interests to get some more ideas? It's hard for some of us to remember being 19 - though I sure remember the anxiety of not knowing what to do with my life, and just bumbling around for a long time. Many (most?) of us felt the same way, and maybe it helps to know that we made it through?

The story of Henrietta Lacks is super interesting, but also really sad. Her cells were harvested at a blacks only hospital without her consent or notification. Later, the doc who harvested them went on to make buckets of money selling the cell line to researchers all over the place. People still make buckets of money off that line, and her family never saw, and will never see, a dime of it.

It wasn't all bad, though, as her cell line also helped to produce standards for cell culturing/storage/growth/an entire industry that all began with her cell line. It literally started a new era of research.

If you ever get a chance to read Skloot's book give it a read. Very eye-opening for me in terms of patient rights and medical ethics at the time.

EDIT: As /u/Halsfield pointed out, there actually has been a legal development in the situation. Two of her surviving family members now sit on a committee that controls scientific access to the DNA, as well as recognition in published papers using this line. There's no reported financial compensation, but apparently the family wasn't all that interested in cashing in. In fact, it sounds like it's opened up a ton of lucrative speaking engagements for her remaining family. I'm glad to see a happy ending, hats off to Rebecca Skloot. Without her, Henrietta would be nothing more than a footnote in history.

EDIT2: I am not as good with details as I'd hoped. Hopkins, where she was admitted, had a black wing and a white wing, and the Dr. who collected the sample did not make buckets of cash. It did spring a healthy business producing/shipping the cells to other researchers, but buckets of money might not be the best description. For clarity's sake I'm leaving my original comment as is.

Thanks! I just wish I could say there were more good things on the list.

And thanks for the Patton recommendation, I'll check that out.

I do recommend anything by John McPhee in the strongest possible terms. It's all non-fiction, and always interesting and often very funny, and about a tremendous range of topics.

Like fishing? Read The Founding Fish, which is all about the American Shad, and I mentioned before.

Like boats? Looking For a Ship is about the merchant marine.

Planes, trains, and automobiles (and more boats)? Uncommon Carriers deals with all of them, and why almost all lobster eaten in the US comes from Kentucky.

Care for tales about why New Orleans is doomed, pissing on lava , and debris flows in LA? The Control of Nature covers those.

Fruit? How about Oranges?

Geology? The Annals of the Former World is a compilation of several shorter books more or less following I-80 across the US.

Sports? Tennis (and basketball to a lesser extent). He's also written about lacrosse in various magazines.

...And a ton of other stuff, ranging from bears to farmers markets to nuclear energy to lifting body airplanes to Switzerland.

Every time one of these pictures is posted I have to recommend the book Aku Aku by Thor Heyerdahl. It's an amazing and true story/history of the people and culture on Easter Island, how they likely got there originally and how they made these fantastic statues. Ties in with his book Kon Tiki about how Pacific Islanders likely migrated. Good stuff, and an easy, great read for the curious.

Basically what souzaphone711 said.

Overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibram_FiveFingers

Vendor: http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/index.htm

A cool info site: http://www.youarethetechnology.com/

The MOST IMPORTANT thing if you decide to give these a try is to EASE into using them. Luckily the guy who sold me my first pair was a true believer and walked me through it. My wife also. Do NOT put these things on and go. Your foot is weak from years of having been encased in shoe support. It takes some time build the muscles back up. If you don't already spend some time in your bare feet start doing so.

Sub-reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/BarefootRunning/

Sub-sub-reddit (for hardcores who want NOTHING on their feet, at all - too extreme for me): http://www.reddit.com/r/barefoot

Read "Born To Run". Though not the focus of the book, this is the book (plus a guy I know who bought some shoes) that got me to try the shoes out: http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189/

The shoes did not just work for me - they helped my wife also. She'd had shin splints, plantar fasciitis, shoe inserts, etc. and she now has six pairs of FiveFingers. She runs much farther than I do (I only go a few miles, she'll do five or six).

If you try it you'll find that people seem to have strong opinions pro or con. The longer someone has been running and buying super expensive shoes and/or been educated in the status quo the stronger they will react.

John McPhee's Levels of the Game is a great illustration of Arthur Ashe playing Clark Graebner in the 1968 US Open. It shows what went through Ashe's and Graebner minds when they were playing and you can really see how much strategy goes into a tennis match.



The way both Ashe and Grabner's personal stories are woven into the narrative is nice too. You can see that L. Jon Werthiem was, inspired by this book when he wrote Strokes of Genius, as they both are stuctured similarly.

After reading this, I really appreciate how talented Arthur Ash was, and also how much skill serve-and-volley tennis takes.

http://www.amazon.com/Levels-Game-John-McPhee/dp/0374515263

I really recommends this to any tennis fan, player or not!

On the basis of Indian Creek Chronicles, I'd say there's a good chance you'd get a great deal out of The Outermost House, one of the classics of modern American naturalist non-fiction. The premise if very simple -- the author, Henry Beston, spent a year living in virtual solitude on the easternmost house on the American coast, keeping notes on what he observed. The result is a brief, zen-like meditation on nature's movement through a single place over a single cycle of the seasons. Highly influential.

Since it looks like you're interested in the cultural conflict between modernity and tradition, I'd suggest The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, which follows the treatment of a young Hmong girl whose immigrant parents struggle with the California health care system in dealing with her undiagnosed seizures.

Great to see John McPhee on your list -- hands down one of my favorite non-fiction writers. Just about anything he's written will be compulsively informative and shift the way you think about his chosen topic. Levels of the Game is a brilliant depiction of a single game between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner, that delves into the way in which personal biography informs how an athlete plays and ultimately contributes to the meaning of the game.

Along similar lines, Yusanari Kawabata's The Master of Go deals with damn near close to all of the themes at heart in the books listed above, and will likely teach you a little about the ancient game of Go, if you have any interest in that. An idiosyncratic pick, perhaps, but it's one of my favorite novels.

Classism definitely exists, but like everything else doesn't exist in a bubble. Class, race, gender, sex, age...these things all intersect and interact in ways that make social realities for people. Academics (which I am not) have different opinions about the extent to which one is more important than another. I would say yes, historically it has been far more difficult for a person of color to move up in American society and yes, that is still the case today. But I'm just a guy on reddit who likes to read. If you're interested in this stuff here's where I started: The Color of Law, New Jim Crow, Ta-Nehisi Coates, the autobiography of Malcolm X, The Warmth of Other Suns

This isn't heavily science-y and a bit journalized, but I really enjoyed Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadaver's by Mary Roach. I also like Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne. There's a lot of overlap with what he teaches at his UChicago Eco & Evo course. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre is also wonderful, but will likely make you angry. Yet another interesting read is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Try Krakauer's other well known book Into Thin Air, and because there's some controversy regarding his version of events, also The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev who was a major player that day.

Krakauer's other book Under the Banner of Heaven is a good "true crime" style story about some Morman murders, but may not be enough like Into the Wild to appeal to you.

Over the Edge of the World is more of a history, covering Magellan's circumnavigation of the earth. It was facinating and definately had intrigue, machinations, and survival elements.

Another book on exploration and survival, Endurance: Shakleton's Incredible Voyage

And another one, Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson. I think this is the one I read, but I can't be certain. It doesn't seem to be as well regarded, but i thought it was still interesting.

A book on diving and survival: The Last Dive, Chowdhury

The Hot Zone could be thought of as science survival. Anyway, you'll probably love the opening bits in Africa, although it does slow way down after that.

Far away from survival, but still about travel are the wonderful Bill Bryson's travelogues. Witty and informative. In a Sunburned Country and A Walk in the Woods are particularly recommended.

Not many historians have that nice, rolling narrative style of Mr. Foote. It's so easy to read and it tells the story in a compact, but intimate way with a focus on the people and their motives.

To answer your question I would look at histories written by journalists such as Barbara Tuchman - Guns of August. I also like S.C. Gwynne's Empire of the Summer Moon, Hampton Sides Blood and Thunder, and Ghost Soldiers. Lot's of good narrative histories out there - just keep looking and share any new good ones with Reddit! Good luck!

Socks is incredibly nice to get. I also enjoy any running material....if he's newer to running then perhaps the following books (which are super cheap) would interest him:

1. Feet in the Clouds
   
   
2. Eat and Run
   
   
3. Born to Run
   
   There's plenty of others....but a good read is nice after a nice run.

Walden is fantastic - he goes into great detail as to how he builds his hut, how he gets his meals and such - Into the Wild really moved me because I was in a similar set of mind like McCandless when I was younger. If you didn't like the film though don't try it. But you might be interested in Krakauers Everest book Into Thin Air.

Jack London's short stories will blow your mind: Of interest to you especially Gold Canyon I think. To Build a Fire was my favorite. He wrote novels too like Call Of The Wild, very good books about the wild and survival.

Here are some books, but nothing specific to injuries.

If she likes the Oatmeal, this is a must-have.

The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances

The classic. It's a good read. Take the science with a grain of salt.

Born to Run

Bill Rodgers auto-biography. An entertaining read, but not greatly-written.

Marathon Man

If she's science-oriented, this is a great book. I love this thing:

What Comes First, Cardio or Weights?

• Jews, God, and History would actually be a good pairing for your book now - while Johnson is more Zionist and philosemitic, Dimont takes a stance similar to Spinoza, which - while still of course being 'pro-Jew,' is more cultural in the context of the world than religious as the 'Chosen People.'
  
• Jewish Literacy is what you are guaranteed to find on every single rabbi's shelf on Earth. Telushkin is an excellent writer, and is concise in his explanations of why we are the way we are and why we do what we do. It's less about a strict history than explaining all those things, but it's still valuable if you want to really get to your roots.
  
• History of the Jewish People - I read this in college. More of a text for students, but valuable all the same.
  
• Josephus is a historical text by one of the greatest historians from the turn of the first millennium. If you choose to get this, I highly recommend having Wikipedia open as you read it.

This is a pretty good book that really popularized a lot of what running has become. It's a good read too.

I was a test subject for Altra running shoes, and they are a pretty good example of the newer trend. (Even though I don't wear them)

Here are the main points:

1. You run on your heel because your shoe has cushioning. That's not a natural running stance and is a huge problem.
   
   
2. A heel strike is super high-impact. You put all your weight right on the heel, which goes right into your ankle, knee, back, etc. You have to move your whole body to compensate.
   
   
3. Landing on the ball of your foot/midfoot is the body's natural way to run.
   
   
4. Landing on the mid-foot allows to foot (arch, tendons, etc.) to flex and absorb the impact. This is much less harmful to your body.
   
   
5. Running this way also fixes upper body form and minimizes excess movement.
   
   
6. By absorbing the shock with your feet and taking smaller strides, with your body in alignment, you run much more relaxed. The body doesn't have to move all over to compensate, and injury is dramatically reduced.
   
   It's pretty simple. You have shock absorbers in your feet. The way we currently run (because of bad shoes) is terrible. You're basically taking a hammer to your heel, knee, and hips and ignoring your feet, which doesn't make any sense.
   
   Does that help?
   
   PM me if you want some more info and don't want to dig through books. I've written papers on this, been in studies, and understand it pretty well for a layman.

Oh man, I could recommend so many.

Kung Fu and Taoism:

The Making of a Butterfly is one of my favorite books. It is about a white kid who starts learning Kung Fu out of a Chinese master's basement back in the 70s, well before Kung Fu was popularized in the West.

Chronicles of Tao by Deng Ming Dao is excellent, a narrative perspective of how Taoism intertwines with the life of a Kung Fu practitioner.

American Shaolin by Matthew Polly is an entertaining and illuminating story that disseminates a lot of the mysticism surrounding the Shaolin Temple.

The Crocodile and the Crane is a fun fictional book that is basically about Tai Chi saving the world from a zombie apocalypse.

My next goal is to tackle The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Of course, I highly recommend the Tao Te Ching and the Art of War as well.

Buddhism: I highly recommend anything Thich Nhat Hanh. Anger and Peace is Every Step are two of my favorites.

Karate and Japanese Arts:

Moving Toward Stillness by Dave Lowry is one of my favorite books, taken from his columns in Black Belt Magazine over the years. A really excellent study on Japanese arts and philosophy.

Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings by Kenji Tokitsu is wonderful. It includes the Book of Five Rings as well as some of Musashi's other works, including many of his paintings.

The 47 Ronin, by John Allyn, a dramatization of the Genroku Ako Incident, is still quite poignant in 2016.

Read this book.

Tigers have big teeth and claws and are strong and have stripes that make them hard to see. Rabbits are fast and good at hiding and finding food and making more rabbits. These are the obvious advantages nature has given them. So what are our obvious advantages? Everybody knows about the opposable thumbs and the big brain. In our society, we get to operate our brains all the time. And we're always picking up little objects and doing things with our hands. So we all know about that.

What we don't know, however, what many of us never realize, what our modern civilization has hidden from us, is that we have another gift nature has given us. Human beings can run. We are literally the best long-distance runners on the planet. Cheetahs can run faster; horses can carry more; oxen can pull harder; but when it comes to long distance running humans wipe the floor with all of them. When you combine this natural ability with our tool use (like our ability to bring water along) and our big brains (like our ability to find and remember where the water sources are) we are practically long-distance superheroes.

The entire human body is built around this, and most people never use it. Once you're used to it, you feel your body is doing the thing it's supposed to do. If you never run, just try it: go outside, run as far as you can, then switch to walking as long as you have to, then run again. You can cover a huge amount of ground this way. And it might surprise you what you can do even without training or significant preparation. The comedian Eddie Izzard trained for just a couple months before running 27 marathons in 27 days. Think about that: if you're in reasonable health and not too old or massively overweight, you could run a marathon in just a month or two. True, you're not going to win against a bunch of people who've been running for years, and you might have to do the run-walk-run trick, but you can make it. And once you've used your body for what it's really for, you feel it.

I think that is largely correct. My sense is that the criticisms of Ohler's book also criticized his tone and the potential negative impact his would could have. Polemic doesn't often foster dialogue.

Other common criticisms of popular history are that it often fails to credit the work of academics and that it is often incorrect or not very nuanced. For example, Empire of the Summer Moon is a very popular book about the Comanche nation. Many of the main points had very recently in the extensively researched and truly brilliant book Comanche Empire. Moreover, Empire of the Summer Moon included inaccuracies that would likely have been caught during the editing of an academic book.

There are academics who see the value of popular history writing because it can so effectively share important material to a general readership. Guns, Germs, and Steel is an example of a book some academics admire. I read it and 1491 because a professor I respected recommended them.

Full disclosure, I'm an academic who works in cultural history and literature. I think about these issues a lot. I'm glad to see them discussed in a wide open forum.

/u/Toptomcat nailed it. Wholeheartedly agree in reference to Bubishi, not very practical but interesting nonetheless. I loved Draeger's CAFA and Unante is comprehensive thesis on the historical origins and lineages of the Okinawan fighting arts. These titles might not be for everyone but I am a history buff in addition to a martial artist so I enjoyed them.

Couple of others:

• Book of the five Rings-Miyamoto Musashi
  
  
• Karate-do: my way of life- Funakoshi
  
  A few off-topic but related titles:
  
  
• Ways of the Peaceful Warrior
  
  
• Autumn lighting
  
  
• American Shaolin
  
  
• The Ronin
  
• Musashi-perhaps on of my favorite novels of all time
  

Ooh! I used to love reading new things that teachers left out for us when we finished tests early or whatever. I don't know what kind of reading you typically arrange, but can I suggest bringing some comics? Even when the subjects aren't distinctly for teens, the medium can be a good way to introduce new topics and characters that they typically wouldn't pick up (kind of like your "ooh, Teen Vogue -- just kidding, it's also political news" plan).

Off the top of my head, I can recommend March, which is about John Lewis and the civil rights movement; Ms. Marvel, who is a young Muslim American superhero; American Born Chinese, which is a really well done coming-of-age story. Just something to consider if you ever want new things to bring in for teens.

You say you like Dan Brown, but what's most revealing is that you like fast-paced, short chapters.

Think of it this way: what you like is short bursts of interesting information that make you say "I wonder how that's going to be important." That's what a lot of people like about Dan Brown's books. He doesn't put in anything odd or unusual that doesn't become important later on. That's part of his formula.

You also like a narrative, or story, with your non-fiction, I'm betting. I'm going to go out on a limb here (and correct me if I'm wrong), but I'm willing to bet the books you're reading about mountains have titles like "Into Thin Air" and "Dark Summit". I doubt you're reading "Tourism and Environment in the Mount Everest Region".

If my guesses are correct, then my advice is to approach the way you have to read in the way you like to read. It's not easy, and it's only a beginning to scaffolding yourself to the level of rigor that you NEED to read at.

If you can, create a narrative for yourself for when you have to read textbook material. No one needs to know. You're Langdon's assistant on this particular mystery. He's got to go talk to the great-GREAT descendant of Hieronymous Bosch. He's left you with a chemistry book and said that the descendant is willing to sell you a completely unknown-til-now Bosch painting for one dollar per atomic weight of gold in the painting. In twenty minutes, he needs you to call and tell him whether it's worth it or not. So, what is the atomic weight of gold, and is it worth a dollar? That's complete nonsense, but you see what I mean?

Another thing you might do is cut your text reading down to what you know you will process. You'll have to change your expectations of reading page after page and processing it all. Mark off stopping points of 3-4 paragraphs and summarize in notes, then progress to 5-7 and summarize, then 8-10. You are not a natural reader of extended text and haven't been trained to do so. You're going to have to train yourself, like you would with a fitness or diet routine, or as a beginner mountain climber.

I love these lists that everyone has compiled here, I've seen some amazing books that I've read and have yet to read. But since no one's mentioned this one, I'd to add a book that I think is really significant to AskWomen and the state of our society today:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. It's about how a black woman died of cervical cancer in the 50s, then doctors took her cancer cells to experiment on without telling her family, and they're basically the only human cells to be replicated in the lab without dying so they've been used in all of medicine, including to develop vaccines like polio -- and yet her descendants live without healthcare. It's an amazingly well written, interesting, and exciting book.

Other than that I recommend Mary Roach as an author, she is very fun to read. My favorites are Gulp: Adventures in the Alimentary Canal and Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

I love this book. It's a great play-by-play of the game with the recorded hopes and fears of the players during the actual game.
"They'll probably play here ... ooh, I didn't expect that."

It's well written with a good narrative that highlights the drama of the game, and includes little biographical and historical asides that bring the game out of the abstract and into a specific place and time, with a peek into the players' personalities and relationships.

It reminds me of John McPhee's excellent Levels of the Game (a similar group-biography organized around a play-by-play of a tennis match).

Almost anything by Oliver Sacks is fantastic. On The Move was great. I listened to it as an audiobook in lab. Very motivating!

Not a new release, and I know there is some controversy, but I loved The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Middlesex. Fiction, not a new release, but a great story with some science mixed in (I may be biased because I happened to be reading this while taking developmental biology and learning about sex determination).

You could pick up yoga or pilates! Something very easy on the body. I like to read motivational books, for example Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. You can totally read other books too! :) You could also look into taking care of your body in other ways - say learning how to do new braids for your hair, taking care of your skin better (shoutout to /r/skincareaddiction and /r/asianbeauty), learning how to mealprep and try new recipes..umm making collages and fashion boards on Pintrest.

As for the eating, I would say to up your protein and fat intake to help you feel satiated & full longer. I used to make these really large fruit smoothies that were relatively low calorie, and sip on them all morning/afternoon to pass time.

I was like you until senior year in high school when I started reading for pleasure. My first two books were Yeager and Malcolm X. For me reading these autobiographies moved me and taught me some stuff that made reading seem both fun and productive. Later that year I went back and read most of the required books that I faked my way through in the previous years of high school. I've since come to appreciate literature and become a reader of most every kind of book and these two books really got me started. I think it was because at that age I wanted to know what living a life was truly all about.

Don't let the fact that you didn't get fully involved in the Foundation as some impediment. The lack of a strong character based plot makes that book kind of a chore. If there are a few historical characters you are really interested in why not find the best biographies associated with them and give them a shot? It worked for me!

In Bill Bryson's travelogue Down under, also known as In a sunburned country, he describes one moment where he was doing boogie-boarding or something like that, but he sank like a stone because he was obese. His traveling companions had a good laugh at his expense. :)

That's a great deal for the Bikilas! I've been running in mine for about a year now and I love them. As long as you start slow and get used to the new form, I think they're really good for you. I had some pretty bad knee and shin issues when I was running in traditional shoes, and all of that went away with my Vibrams.

If you haven't already checked it out and are interested, you should check out Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It's a really interesting book for a runner.

Have you read Born to Run? He talks a bit about flat feet and the benefits barefoot running can have. One of the people in the book actually increased their arches after changing their running style and footwear.

The arch is one of the strongest architectural forms. No builder would ever push supports up into the arch. It would completely negate the strength of the arch. The same may apply to your feet. Why add support to something that is stronger without it? If your feet are truely flat, this may not be an issue.

If you're a fan of Dumas, do yourself a favor and read Tom Reiss' The Black Count , the biography of Dumas's father, and the inspiration for a lot of his writing. It won the Pulitzer last year for non-fiction, and is a great read.

Gang Leader for a Day is now on my must-read list, but it's not the book I was thinking of. This was 2003-4 that I took the class.

The cover is brighter. Like a vibrant contrast-y orange/yellow and bright lighter shade of blue.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, very interesting story about human cell research, the woman whose cells made it possible, and her daughter. It is a compelling true story and describing it makes me want to read it again! And I second (or third) the Mary Roach books; they are sometimes LOL funny.

Its funny because I actually came here to suggest another Bryson book called In a Sunburned Country which chronicles Bryson's visit to Australia- thought this was relevant as OP's love interest is either en route to or already in Australia I figured she'd get a kick out of it.



If you want something that has a mix of love/romance, action, thrill, check out The Shadow of the Wind. I thought this was a good book and is very well written. Zafon is able to paint images with his words in a way that puts you in the story like no other author i've encountered.

I'm sorry. I know what you're going through is really hard.

Cancer is part of the reason I started reading Stoic philosophy tbh. To calm that animal fear of death we all carry.

I'm coming to that moment in my own life as well. Someone I love very much is very ill and I suspect it will come to this sooner rather than later in our family.

I was thinking, I'll probably be the last of my little family to die. Everyone I love will die before me.

My mother will die- she's very ill.

My husband is much older than me.

My sister is older w approaching health issues of her own.

And my younger brother is struggling w mental illness.

I'll probably have to bury them all one by one someday. I dunno that anyone will be left to bury me.

On my worst days I'm sad about it. I feel sorry for myself. Why me? I never asked for it.

But then on other days, I'm grateful for the opportunity. It's one final duty to discharge, one last chance to honor someone very special in my life.

Who else would I want to shoulder my burden?

If I'm not the one to bury them all, then it'll fall to my brother. I love him but his life is a mess even in the best of times. Leave my sister to do it? Her big heart might crack under the strain.

We shared a little bit of time together and it's been lovely. I can do my part.



The funny thing is I'll be dead soon, too. Whether it's a week from now or 100 years it doesn't much matter I guess. I must've read it somewhere but can't recall where (Marcus Aurelius probably):

'We're all dead already, we just haven't been buried yet.'

I try to live my little chunk of time in a way that will leave people around me with a good memory and a warm feeling in their hearts.

Take my blessings with you. I wish you well! Say hi if you see me somewhere on the other side.

Edit: I'm a big reader. These are the books that helped me through the worst of it. Maybe they can help you, too.

• Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, free online ebook
  
  
• The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. It's a super interesting read, all about how cancer has dogged the human race for millenia. How treatment has stumbled and how it's advanced. It really put things in perspective for myself and my mother. Cancer is just one of those human things we all might become subject to
  
  wiki, author discusses book, Amazon
  
  
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. It brings up interesting questions about what it means to live and what it means to die. Like what are you? What's the smallest part of you that is still you? Are you dead if parts of you live on? What if all your DNA lives on and gets replicated over and over for decades, resulting in more biomass than you ever were. What if your DNA goes all over the world, into space even, long after you've succumbed? Are you really dead? How should your family think of you if the last 60+ years of medical research hinge upon the fact that "you" never really died at all?
  
  wiki, Amazon

I am a few years older than you and I have been going hard with books lately. It's not amazing, but I am on track to finishing about ~400 books by the time I am 30. I am also going for quality more than quantity. As in, if I feel like I didn't digest a particular book, I will keep at it and put other books on hold.

In any case, here are my top 3 recommendations:

1.) The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

2.) The 48 Laws of Power

3.) The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Also, Influence by Robert Cialdini is excellent. One of my favorites.

A little cautionary warning about asking people for recommendations though: Be careful about following other people's lists because those book won't vibe with you the same way. Each of us had our own unique life experiences, so you should be ideally choosing your own books. Lists are good for clues/inspiration though. Frequently, books choose me, not the other way around.

Also, try to keep track of the books (and knowledge) you read. I keep a single page HTML page with all the books I read along with a short note in reverse chronological order. I also have the option of putting this list online in the future if I need to.

So, I completely sympathize. I am a crappy runner and am really self conscious about running with just about anyone because they're going to be faster than me and I don't want to slow them down. I agree that your boyfriend should be more understanding and supportive and with everything that's been said so far.

But! Your other question is about motivation. Understandably I've never liked running because I'm not good at it. And I never had any desire to be good at it. That is, until I read this book. The freedom and joy derived from running ultra marathons by the people in the story is inspiring.

I'm still not a great runner. I'm still really self conscious about running. But goddamned if I don't really want to love running now.

If you're keen to learn more, there is an excellent book about the woman whose cells were used to create the HeLa line - 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.' When I did research we worked with HeLa cells and it was pretty interesting to hear about the person who 'donated' them.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181

If you like to read you should check out Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country. Although it's a little outdated (published in 2001), Bryson is an incredible author and an even better travel writer. While it wouldn't necessarily be helpful with money or visa tips, it would be a great lead in to your travels.

Good luck!

If your practice good posture, then the chair doesn't matter at all imo. Also there is a near impossible chance that you are qualified enough to tell this guy that he's wrong. If anything, then I would say a more comfy chair would persuade some one to stay sitting for longer amounts of time, allowing less time for physical activity, which has a positive correlation to good health. Also have you ever heard of the book Born To Run? In a part of it they discuss how humans succeeded evolutionary partly because we were able to run incredibly long distances, tiring out the prey that we hunted. They discuss a tribe in Mexico who run from village to village, sometimes for 30 hours straight without stopping, and they run in barefeet or an extremely thin leather sole. So if this book is correct when it say that running shoes were a detrimental invention for runners (because the tribesman are an example that we have natural cushion on our feet and the shoes makes your feet more sensitive/ bones develop weakly), then I would say my argument has some validity that a comfy chair actually hinders long term comfort.

I just went and stared at my bookshelves and realized that there was a distinct paucity of minority characters.

However, some general recommendations:

feed for the teenager uninterested in the world at large or the dystopian fiction fan.

My Date with Satan Short stories, usually from a female perspective. High schoolers would probably delight in the bad language and messed up characters.

Trickster's Choice; A young adult girl-power fantasy/spy novel with a lot to say about colonialism. My strongest recommendation on this list. Lots of major minority characters also.

Infidel; A heavy-handed memoir about triumph by a woman who "escaped" Somalia and is now a European politician. Controversial for a multitude of reasons and has nothing nice to say about Islam, but you know your students better than I do.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for the scientifically inclined.

Wicked for modern classic fans who'd appreciate deeper meanings.

Kenji is a great martial arts manga, being more realistic in its depiction of martial arts and actual real-world styles than most mangas. Additionally, each art has a number of its key techniques detailed, much like an instruction manual, complete with foot positioning and movements. Great stuff.

Also, it's non-fiction, but American Shaolin is an interesting first-hand account of a westerner's training at the Shaolin temple in China, though most of the interest comes from the author's cultural experiences rather than strict details of his training.

It's important that you convince him to make changes by expressing your desires, and through reason.

If he is unwilling to grow, then you have to grow first; be willing to learn more than you previously wanted, provide opportunities.

This isn't about you, it's about empowering your husband.

I am a direct support professional, and I work with the developmentally disabled; I've learned that getting people to do what you want requires them to really feel free to choose.

Sometimes what you want is going to have to change, because what you pictured wasn't sophisticated enough.

Anything worth doing is going to be difficult.

Start with r/intermittentfasting

Here's some things I found interesting.

https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189

https://www.amazon.com/Move-Your-DNA-Restore-Movement/dp/0989653943

Similar to "move your dna"
https://youtu.be/jOJLx4Du3vU

https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Check out podcasts. Consider all kinds of things. Cbd oil may help with pain, and so will posture/better-movement, and better diet.

One of my all time favorites is Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, about a climbing season on Mount Everest where a lot of things went wrong.

I also enjoy Mary Roach - she has a great gift of being able to convey information while being really entertaining in the process. Stiff is my favorite of hers, but I also really enjoyed Packing For Mars.

Happy birthday!
If you're not down for heights, I think a neat bucket list item is to go on a road trip! Take a long weekend off and go somewhere cheesy, check out the largest bowling pin, take in some weird sights. It's fun, even though its not really possible where I'm from.

As a good non-fiction book, The eternal life of Henrietta lacks. Haven't had a chance to read it, but I love pop science works. I'm not super schooled of microbiology and this seems very nice mix of history, microbio, and a bit of rights of the deceased.

Man, that whole list is completely wrong. The list should be edited to anonymous, pseudonymous, and pseduepigrahs.

But on topic, if we are to accept that there are many biblical authors, We know that god has interacted with them all. I believe some, if not all directly. The only silent covenant I'm aware of where God beamed something into someones head, is Josiah, but he didn't write any books.

So god is directly involved with the authors if we are to accept the traditional attributed authors. So he's sort of coauthoring a book. Like what celebs/important figures do now when they write a tell all book. Like "The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley"

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I'm a fan of time-travel, and history, and I was completely sucked into it. She's got a number of books in the same universe- some comedic, some very dramatic, but The Doomsday Book is my favourite.

If you're at all interested in high fantasy, I'd recommend either Tigana or The Fionovar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. You either love his prose style or hate it, but if you love it, it will definitely take you away.

If you like SF and haven't read them, I'd try either Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos, or David Brin's Uplift Series (I'd skip Sundiver until later, and start with Startide Rising.)

If you're looking for more light-hearted/quirky, I'd try Christopher Moore- either Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal , or The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. If you're into a mix of horror/sf/comedy, try John Dies at the End. They're not deep, but they're fun.

Non-fiction- if you haven't read it yet, Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air is very difficult to put down. If you're travelling with someone who doesn't mind you looking up every few pages and saying "did you know this, this is awesome, wow-how interesting", I'd go for Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants or Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life. They're all very informative, fun, interesting books, but they're even better if you can share them while you're reading them.

Have you ever read American Shaolin, and if so, what were your thoughts on it? Did it influence your decision to make the trip?

One of the bits I liked was when a rival school challenged the kids school to a contest between their best students. The master sent the American to fight, not because he was the best (he wasn't). He just wanted to make the point that his style/school was so good that even a foreigner would win.

I highly recommend reading The Black Count about Dumas' father, whose life The Count of Monte Cristo was based on. Truly an amazing and captivating story, and a very interesting peak into the history around the French Revolution as well.

Came here to say Oliver Sacks (neuroscience).
I picked up a used copy of the DSM-IV casebook; it's very cheap since the DSM-V has come out. Diagnoses may be outdated but the stories are still there!

There are casebooks in other fields, too-- Surgery, multiple specialities, medical ethics, [pediatrics] (http://www.amazon.com/Files-Pediatrics-Fourth-Edition-LANGE/dp/0071766987/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_9_EQ6W?ie=UTF8&refRID=1WJ16SB6971PCJ94TK2S). Your college library ought to have new-ish ones you can read for free.

I'm also encouraged by reading scientific journal articles in medical fields (research is exciting).

Other stuff: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks isn't about a doctor, but it's about a patient and the HeLa cell line that's been so important to medicine. My decision to go into medicine was affected by The Plague, a novel by Albert Camus about a plague-stricken city. (Main character is a doctor, though not exactly a modern MD.)

Check out Ann Transon, and other documented female 100mi. runners. While men have outperformed her, she did hold the record for a time and even now her record is only beat by about a minute, which is negligible over the course of 100 miles. While men will tend to outperform even in these cases, the time differences are multiples smaller than they are in sprinting and marathons.

Some of the theory behind why can be found here. He wrote a book on it called Born to Run if you're interested in looking into the original source materials or criticisms against his methodology. I have the book on order, but I find the theory behind why this might be the case pretty compelling.

*edit: let me go ahead and caveat that by saying while a minute is anything but negligible for athletic purposes, it's more than sufficient to make my point about men and women hunting or at least traveling for the hunt together. While many results are less fantastic, it seems that it's not uncommon for the long distance men and women to be only a few minutes apart.

Barefoot is better!! All of your joints will thank you... Get a nice pair of some New Balance runners, or whatever brand suits you. I've been doing the barefoot thing daily now, work shoes as well as running shoes. It solved some weird knee pain that I started feeling - and my pace has actually improved. Barefoot shoes cost a bit more, but are well worth the price in my opinion!

Also, THIS BOOK has been recommended to me time and time again, and I really need to read it, myself.

So you're saying the state can't refuse service, but everyone else can.

Please please please read some history. Start with March, which is a comic book, and an easy read.

walking is good. walking barefoot (or with Vibram Fivefingers) is even better.

check out this awesome book, one of the most interesting books i have ever read -

Born to Run - Christopher McDougall

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307279189/

And this is an interesting one -

Walk Yourself Well

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0974779113/

Check out The Autobiography of Malcolm X! It's great because Malcolm X's imagery is incredibly vivid and engaging. He provides an interesting point of view from which to see the Civil Rights Movement. It'll help students get into the reasons for his beliefs and how his own views have changed throughout his life, from before he joined the Nation of Islam and until he left it (and got assassinated).

The autobiography was essentially compiled by Alex Haley from a series of interviews he had with Malcolm X. It's written in Malcolm X's voice, so authorial intrusion isn't an issue with this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Malcolm-Told-Alex-Haley/dp/0345350685

Chicago gang life is essentially a shadow government keeping its own brand of order in the ghetto, its pretty scary in some ways, but also actually really interesting to read that there really are "rules" and people enforcing the rules....

here's an interesting book about a university of chicago sociologist who hung out with them for a while.

good read

https://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X

Nice! I am glad they are not fronting with it. The chicago book was written by a sociologist who spent time with a gang that was deling crack. Very interesting. Glad you don't see it. In his case the whole neighbour hood knew about it and you couldn't really separate their lives from the crack gang.

Edit: This is the book im referring to: Gang Leader for a day

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. It was fascinating and read like fiction, despite the fact that the whole thing was non-fiction.

The Rebel Sell: Why The Culture Can't Be Jammed by Joseph Potter and Andrew Heath

The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," The Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction by Rachel P. Maines. A really awesome history of the medicalization of women's orgasms and sexual issues.

Awesome post. I read Born to Run—a book focused on the benefits of forefoot running and it doesn't argue as well as this post does. The comparison between Westbrook and D. Rose with those pictures really make it clear.

Born To Run by Christopher McDougal is all about the virtues of running barefoot and some great storytelling too.

Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger by Michael Matthews are good books that cover a lot of basics thoroughly. I would recommend only getting one of Matthews books as I've heard they are basically copies with pronouns swapped to be geared toward a different audience.

You should check out this book: http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful/dp/1416591060

I had a customer recommend it to me. I've only gotten a few chapters in, but it's pretty well written and I'm liking it.

That's pretty tough... I think if I had to pin down one book that really affected me it'd have to be The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Extremely well researched and fantastically written. A great example of well done literary nonfiction!

Have you seen their Highlights for High School feature?

Also, there are sites like Academic Earth that might be useful.

Here are a few blogs with potential. You'll have to decide for yourself if they have inappropriate content.

Here are a few book recommendations covering various fields, in no particular order (though they should all read #1):

1. A Short History of Nearly Everything
   
2. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
   
3. Einstein: His Life and Universe
   
4. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
   
5. The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
   
6. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
   
7. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
   
8. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
   
9. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
   
10. Cosmos
    
11. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
    
12. The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy
    
13. Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind
    
14. The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human
    
15. The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
    
16. Thinking, Fast and Slow
    
17. Chaos: Making a New Science
    
18. Isaac Newton
    
19. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
    
20. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
    
    And here's a video interview with Richard Feynman they might enjoy.

I second the Horwitz nomination and add Richard Grant, author of "God's Middle Finger" and "Crazy River."
Both of those demonstrate a spirit for and enjoyment of adventure that was the core energy in Bryson's "In A Sunburned Country" and "A Walk in the Woods".

The book Born to Run is a good read on the subject.

Also for those interested in documentaries, Journey of Man contains interesting histories and amazing endurance in a polar climate.

I would highly recommend the book! It's absolutely amazing. Additionally, if you dig it, check out Fatu Hiva, in which Thor Heyerdahl comes up with the inspiration for the Kon-Tiki expedition.

In lieu of actually going to those places, I found two books which describe Kiribati and Vanuatu from a Western perspective. If you're interested in the area please read The Sex Lives Of Cannibals, and Getting Stoned With Savages. Although I prefer the latter, they're both great books and give an interesting perspective on the region.

Could also be your form too. Aim for light, quick steps, almost like you're running on coals. If your steps are too long or heavy, it takes more force per step, which kills your legs.

Don't know if you like reading, but this book is a great one that helped me develop a passion for running: http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189

This was fun :)

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Bonus - hmmmm, this?

I suppose this is a time to mention that Dr. Carl Hart's book High Price was pretty fucking life changing for me.

Obviously, to those that have read it, much of it is still about African American society and Dr. Hart trying to find his place within it as well as outside of it as he was growing up, but the way he speaks about it is still pretty universal. Most importantly though, and the part of the book that was very eye-opening for me was his writings on drugs, addiction in general and our policies on those topics.

His Ted talk is fucking amazing.

If you're interested in what Kiribati is like, this, is a great travel novel written by an american who went to live there

If you like this, you guys would love reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Unreal story and super motivational book.

An 'interesting' perspective, though I think Max Dimont in Jews, God and History gives a much better and more balanced perspective not just on anti-semitism but also a rather good overview of history of the Jewish people. I read it to try and understand the nature of anti-semitism as one of my close friends is Jewish, which are reasonably uncommon in Australia (outside Bondi)

1. El Narco is about the Mexican drug cartel. I'm from Central California so this is a very interesting and important issue to me!
   
   
2. I read "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer. It's about an ascent on Mt. Everest gone wrong. SO amazingly good and well-written!
   
   
3. Infinite Lake.
   
   
4. I have one!
   
   Thanks for the contest :D

Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer

A fantastic book, I've reread it a few times. Jon Krakauer does a great job telling this story, and he talks about the kind of things you don't normally hear about Everest, just like what you're seeing in OP's image.

this isn't fiction, but its a great read if you're interested in communist china and how women were and have been treated in china. I'm part Chinese, and it was kinda required reading:

Wild Swans by Jung Chang

https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Swans-Three-Daughters-China/dp/0743246985

It follows three generations in the same chinese family, showing maos impact on chinese life as a woman.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181

This is a very good book, highly recommend. And it touches on the chicken heart.

I've read born to run while on a beach, it was a good interesting read. Also bought The Animal Dialogues while camping in yellowstone and it was also a great read.

Some of my favorites:

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (non-fiction)

Last of the Breed by Louis L'Amour (fiction)

The Purification Ceremony by Mark Sullivan (fiction)

Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta (fiction)

The first two recommendations focus more on the survival aspect than the last two, but I loved all of them.

I've just finished an incredible book of a man I knew nothing of but found fascinating. It was Quanah Parker and focused on his people (the Comanches) who were among the biggest and most violent tribes of all. They constantly fought with almost any other tribe and were among the first to truly master the horse.

https://www.amazon.ca/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful/dp/1416591060

A great read and exactly what you're asking about, is covered in this book.

For some reason, reading this and the comments/questions below made me think of the book Gang Leader For A Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. Some really interesting insight on the sociology of gangs in Chicago and it reads really fucking well for a non fiction book. I felt like I was just reading a story instead of some dry set of facts. I highly recommend this book.

Any of Bill Bryson's books are very good, but in a similar vein try:

Notes From a Small Island, an account of his time in the UK while traveling the length of the country.

In a Sunburned Country his travels in Austrailia.

Neither Here nor There his travels in Europe.

And though it is not a travel book, my personal favorite by Bryson is a A Short History of Nearly Everything, a history of science along the lines of the the Edmund Burke TV show "Connections" that is how every science textbook should be written. Spring for the Illustrated edition as long as you don't want to carry it everywhere you read, it's too big and heavy to be a good coffee shop read.

Hopefully, this brings attention to the role that John Lewis played in the civil rights era.

I know of him, but I don't know as much as I should, so I ordered the graphic novel he made called March. Apparently it's very good.

Maybe this doesn't fit, but if you're looking to learn more about it Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets provides some really great insights into the gang community and how the day-to-day is run as well as the community efforts the gang bring in an effort to deter being reported to the police

You should really follow the example of one of my personal favorite neuroscientists, Dr. Carl Hart, who has dedicated his life to eliminating many of the myths regarding drugs so we can better formulate rational policy that treats the mental health issues (substance abuse).

I recommend his memoir, High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society, in addition to his Google talk and his Reason TV talk which both go over many of the main points of his book and general research into neuropharmacology insofar as debunking myths about the propensity to addiction with these drugs and the need for universal decriminalization and formulation of separate tracks for substance abusers and casual users (most of the using population).

For the Black Panthers:

There's Malcolm X's biography recorded and written by Alex Haley, writer of Roots.

Another book called Black Against Empire: History of the Black Panther Party, supposedly very good.

For the Irish Republican Army:

Here's an extensive list from Goodreads.

Hope that helps you get started, OP. Knowledge is power. :)

EDIT: and you can always posit specific questions to /r/AskHistorians. They'll take a while to formulate and you may not get a response, but when you do it's usually a good one.

I enjoyed Ed Viesturs book: No Shortcuts to the Top, it was a self focused memoir, yet he shares his views and opinions in a way that came off genuine and down to earth. It is probably different than something you are writing since the focus of the book is entirely on something that made him very famous (First American to climb all 8000m peaks)

I like John Krakauer's books. Into Thin Air was a great firsthand account of a major disaster. It has some controversy, but like anything else firsthand accounts rely on the writers memory of events and those can change wildly from person to person.

Into the Wild is obviously another one of his more famous works. I liked it writing style and level of research, but I disliked the man the book was written about with a passion. Hardly the writers fault there though.

The story of Henriette Lacks is pretty cool.

I also enjoyed the story of The Girl in the Picture

I have a fondness for british history, in particular the tudor era, the napoleonic era, and the victorian era and those times also have some fascinating women. Elizabeth I comes to mind, I've been meaning to read this novel about her life, having enjoyed the author's take on Hevry VIII. I also watched The Duchess which told the colourful but tragic story of the Duchess of Devonshire.

If you listen to podcasts, you could check out Stuff You Missed In History Class. They've recently done episodes on women like Jane Austen and Yaa Asantewaa. There was a really good one about foot-binding, which wasn't about women in particular but did look very much at how the tradition affected women (and how women propagated this tradition.)

>Isn't every living thing?

No. I'm actually reading a book about that right now. Good book, pretty entertaining and informative, I recommend.

Islam: A Short History - Karen Armstrong

Islam: The Straight Path - John Esposito

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Alex Haley

More advanced (should have some understanding of Islam before reading):

The Great Theft - Khaled Abou El Fadl

The Story of the Qur'an - Ingrid Mattson

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

and it is absolutely fascinating and well written.

John Lewis wrote an award winning graphic novel titled "March" that explains a lot about civil rights history in the sixties. https://www.amazon.com/March-Trilogy-Slipcase-John-Lewis/dp/1603093958

Check out the book Born to Run. The main problem is not shoes, but thick shoes like sneakers that don't let your feet flex and bend while they encourage you to strike the ground hard on your heel and not softly on your toes. This has been a much more recent thing. Like the 1950s with the rise of Nike

Couldn't comment when I made this, but if you haven't read Wild Swans by her, you should. It provides a very good narrative for 3 different time periods (pre-communism/revolution/communism) and actual experiences/eye-witness viewpoints. I read it while I was studying Chinese politics, and it opened my eyes. I know this article linked is brief, but Jung Chang is a good writer. While the validity of parts of her other book (Mao: The Unknown story) is debated, she is a worthwhile author to read if you are interested in China.

The link to the guardian article is more informative, but the new book is about empress dowager Cixi
>Her "groundbreaking" new biography will "comprehensively overturn … the conventional view of Cixi as a deeply conservative and cruel despot", said Jonathan Cape, and show how she abolished foot-binding, developed foreign trade and diplomacy, and revolutionised China's education system.

Born to Run is a great read about human performance reads like a novel. I'm making my way through The Story of the Human Body it's more an evolution perspective of the body and I have to say it is going slow but interesting.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks


Synopsis: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta's cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can't afford health insurance. This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew.

Mary Roach is another great nonfiction author.

Chia seeds got very positive press in Born To Run, which is an excellent book whether you enjoy running or not. Additionally, chia seeds are a somewhat balanced source of protein, carbs, fat, and fiber that have the ability to absorb water and turn it into somewhat of a viscous gel. That can be useful if you want to add them to a smoothie to get a thicker texture or make a "pudding", for example. However, never sprinkle them on a salad as they'll generally turn any dressing into what feels like mucous. Overall, I've used them on occasion but am not a fan. YMMV.

This guy's story is really interesting. Parker's Fort, where his mother was captured and the rest of his family slaughtered, is a well kept state park. There was a book written about him, Empire of the Summer Moon, that was a Pulitzer finalist and great read. You can't imagine the violence and turbulence in his world as the Comanche fought the Anglos and Spanish/Mexicans.

It was so hard to choose just one! But The Reason I Jump is really interesting to me as Autism has had a huge impact on my life.

Thanks for the contest!

I think I agree with you, although its kind of hard to tell. Also, for whatever reason tennis has had a strangely high number of very good black players considering that it is (or at least used to be) such a wealthy sport. Arthur Ashe was a top level player despite the fact that for a long time the only people he could practice against were other black players, who frankly weren't that good. Then when a lot of other players were boycotting South African tournaments because of apartheid he decided to go play there to draw attention to how arbitrary apartheid was. He is almost certainly the best philanthropist tennis player of all time but the only people who seem to know about him are tennis fans.

edit: I got most of this info from this book, which might be interesting to you based on the fact that you know who Althea Gibson is.

While not war related, March has a lot of historical context. It details the civil rights movement told through the perspective of Civil Rights leader John Lewis. Great comic, highly recommend.

Would that be the Tarahumara indians? Featured repeatedly in this book Born to Run - an AMAZING read, highly recommend it

If you want to learn more about ultras and distance running in general I highly recommend this book. It's a really great read.

I recently finished The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost. I found it to be an immensely fun read. It's a travelogue that gives great perspectives on the history Western influence on South Pacific nations and the sociology of modern island nations.

There's a great book about Heyerdahl's crossing, written by Thor himself. It's AWESOME. I read it when I was about 10, and have have wanted to make a raft like that one ever since.

Read Born to Run by Chris McDougall. It is a great book and quite insightful. After you are done, get your friend to read it. When he is done ask him when he wants to go running with you.

I just finished Why I jump. The author is a non-verbal autistic boy and he does a good job explaining some of the behaviors associated with autism and what his inner state is like. It's also really short, only took me around two hours, and written in a very clear Q&A format.

Biographies of the Prophet (peace be upon him)

Martin Ling's "Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources"
| Amazon
| PDF
| Audiobook

Sheikh Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarkpuri "The Sealed Nectar"
| Amazon
| PDF (Older edition)


Autobiographies

Muhammad Asad "The Road to Mecca"
| Amazon
| PDF

Jeffrey Lang "Even Angels Ask: A Journey to Islam in America"
| Amazon

| PDF

Alex Haley and Malcolm X "The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley"
Amazon
| PDF

Other recommendations

Firas Alkhateeb "Lost Islamic History"

Hamza Tzortzis "The Divine Reality: God, Islam & The Mirage Of Atheism"

Given your background, some speakers you may find beneficial:

Sheikh Hussain Yee - From Buddhism to Islam

Abdur-Raheem Green - How I Came to Islam

Joshua Evans - How the Bible Led Me to Islam: The Story of a Former Christian Youth Minister

Very much liked
The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat - a book about the discovery of penicillin that aims to correct decades of misinformation

http://www.amazon.com/The-Mold-Dr-Floreys-Coat/dp/0805077782/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341580039&sr=8-1&keywords=mold+in+dr+floreys+coat

Also, for a bioethics book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is great
http://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341580111&sr=1-1&keywords=henrietta+lacks

To be honest, there's a lot of stuff that isn't explicitly social justice stuff that will give you the same basic information. Most of these issues have been around (and known) way prior to the recent rise in activism. Some of the books that were most useful to me were:

1. Whatever it takes by Paul Tough https://www.amazon.com/Whatever-Takes-Geoffrey-Canadas-America/dp/0547247966/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485119870&sr=8-1&keywords=whatever+it+takes
   
   
2. Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin: https://www.amazon.com/Black-Like-John-Howard-Griffin/dp/0451234219/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485119901&sr=8-1&keywords=black+like+me
   
   
3. Pretty much all of the major slave narratives (Frederick Douglass, Olaudah Equiano - there are a couple others that I can't recall right now).
   
   
4. Anything by Toni Morrison (I've only read The Bluest Eye).
   
   
5. Virtually anything by oppressed people anywhere at any time. Vaclav Havel and Ghandi are both extremely relevant and timeless.

I recommend you read a little bit about 'no shampoo' diet and about barefoot running first before dissing the ideas. I'll give you two links to start you off if you're willing to spend some time reading about it.

'An Experiment in Giving Up Shampoo'

'Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen'

I reccommend this book if you are interested in running. Not striking your heel uses your calf like the spring it's meant to be and allows one to run much more efficiently.

Everest is climbed in several stages, with a few day's rest at each camp. The final summit push is a single day up-and-back hike. The base camp for the summit hike is just below 8000 meters. That's where the "death zone" starts - that's high enough that there isn't enough oxygen to support a human, so you need to get in and out ASAP.

The people who die do so because they plonk themselves down at the side of the trail in the Death Zone and don't have the energy or brainpower to get back up, mostly due to hypoxia. Everyone else who's going by them is also maxing out their physical and mental abilities just to haul their OWN body around. Providing meaningful help to someone else just isn't usually possible, because you would BOTH die. About all you can do is hand them another oxygen bottle and hope.

This is also why nobody brings the bodies back down. The physical effort to move your own body is all an individual is capable of up there. Source: Jon Krakauer's excellent book "Into Thin Air".

Have you read The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida and, if so, do you feel that it acurately portrays childhood as an autistic person?

What do you find most challenging in interacting with "normal" or very low spectrum people? What can we do to help make these interactions easier for people like you?

A good read: Dr Carl Hart: High Price Regarding different drugs and their differences/similarties + an awesome biography of sorts.

It's not a textbook, and perhaps it goes against your "not be popular science" stipulation, but The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an amazing book... genetics, cancer biology, medicine, some historical perspective of those fields, tied into one real-life family with its own deep story. I think you will find it awesome and accessible.

I can't see it being a problem. Here's a Goodreads collection of cannibalism books if you need comps. Some appear to be YA.

For research purposes, I would recommend chapters in Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (non-fiction). Contrary to popular belief, The Sex Lives of Cannibals doesn't contain cannibalism. It is hilarious South Pacific travel writing though.

A huevo man! Bahuichivo, Cerocahui y Urique son la mamada. Yo tambien me pase 3 noches ahi. Me salia todos los dias a subir una nueva montaña y ya que llegaba me acostaba en alguna piedra a ver el paisaje y las aguilas volar. Me quede en un luigar que se llamaba La Posada del Oso en Cerocahui y casualmente conocí a un wey que le dicen Caballo Blanco. Es un gringo que organiza un maraton con los tarahumaras y escribio un libro que es super famoso y ha inspirado a mucha gente. El libro se llama Born to Run. Murio el año pasado el wey creo.

Suerte en tu regreso al jale!

And if you want a great follow up read to The Count of Monte Cristo, I highly recommend The Black Count. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307382478/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_0JooDbQ10BCTY

Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.

Rebecca Skloot's book about Henrietta Lacks is a really great read. Whole heartedly recommend reading it.

I'm currently reading 'Empire of the Summer Moon' by S.C. Gwynne. Read the blurb here to see what it's about - it's really interesting and I'm loving it.

>Are you saying that those conditions are so bad that there was no chance the guy would have survived?

Yes

>Are you saying that those conditions would have put whoever tried to help him in physical danger?

Yep

Lots of experienced climbers passed him that day, mostly sherpas who had summitted many times before. They knew there was no hope.

A real rescue attempt of a frozen person like that would have taken days to get him down to base camp. Dozens of people would be required plus all the oxygen tanks and water and food to keep all those people alive. It's very probable someone else would be injured in the attempt and that even if he was alive when they started he would be alive at the bottom.

Really, I'm not trying to be glib or dismissive, but read some books about Everest disasters like Into Thin Air or The Climb.

It wasn't just to change his opinion, but to really understand how society treats LGBT.

Reminds me a lot of Black Like Me, where in the '50s a white guy changes his skin (with medical help and makeup) to become a black man so that he can understand what it means to be black in America.

I think that was a paraphrase, but the quotes they do attribute to Thune are really in line with that philosophy. This is, BTW, contrary to what I understand is the best guidance from the medical community and from drug researchers.

I REALLY wish this was the highest comment, because everyone in this thread would love Empire of the Summer Moon. It reads a lot like science fiction. When the colt revolver emerges it feels like something Tony Stark invented.

It. Is. A. Must. Read.

The old RK surgery had some very strange effects in high altitude climbs. "Left for Dead," is an account of a climber who had vision challenges on Mount Everest. Another account, "Into Thin Air" details the experience of another climber related to eye surgery.

Granted Rainier is not Everest, but climbers need to be mindful that some eye surgeries can cause some climbers problems at high altitudes. Certainly not all surgeries and certainly not all climbers, but it is always good to ask your eye surgeon and other climbers who have had that particular surgery before a serious climb. Rainier is a climb in its own right, but is often a prelude for this list

I don't really have any advice to give you but this may have:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Reason-Jump-Thirteen-Year-Old-Autism/dp/0812994868
They mentioned it on The Daily Show and it has recieved great reviews for dealing with autism.

Here's a video link to the interview. http://youtu.be/IKxiJ-kWve0

I've nothing for ADHD, would autism interest you? The Reason I Jump is fantastic, really touching.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is one of the more recent NYT bestsellers that is also a pretty good biology read. The Hot Zone is a classic, and although it is dated, it will probably regain some of its formal popularity due to the [current ebola outbreak] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_outbreak). I would recommend Creighton if you want a "fun" read, but his works are fictional, predictable, and often infuriatingly inaccurate.

I read a book; https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189

The company I got them from is here; https://xeroshoes.com/shop/

I went with the sandals, can't comment on the shoe versions, but the sandals are great. The shoes are well reviewed and I plan on picking up a pair in the future, I just have no personal experience with them.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. So while it doesn’t scream “happy birthday,” and I guess it isn’t what you’d call inspiring, I found it both interesting and compelling. Very readable. It got kind of trendy, and apparently Oprah did a thing for HBO, which usually kind of scares me away, but it’s a good book all the same.

Here’s the Amazon link.

It's a lot more complex than you might think. I'm not an expert by any means, but it's worth reading some history books to learn more. One I just read that was very interesting was Empire of the Summer Moon

It's got John Lewis in is sit-in comeback tour!

Seriously though, read March. It's harrowing and inspiring and the art is pretty solid.

I gave my brother (who never EVER reads, and doesn't like "hard books") How to stop time also by Matt Haig, he read it in one sitting and then went out and got the rest of his books and read them all in a couple weeks. Christopher Moore is also great, Sacre Bleu is my favourite.

​

for non-fiction: Letter from Birmingham Jailby Martin Luther King, Jr. anything by Audre Lorde or James Baldwin and Anne Frank and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for showing him how to appreciate life.

• March is a series of three graphic novels about the civil Rights movement, it's very exciting while staying extremely historically accurate. I highly recommend this. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1603093958/
  
• Maus by Art Spiegelman about the Holocaust using anthropomorphic animals. It's based on his parents experience of the concentration camps. https://www.amazon.com/Complete-MAUS-Art-Spiegelman/dp/0141014083/
  
• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is set in Tehran, Iran during the 1960's. Telling a very personal tale about life there before, during, and after the Islamic Revolution. https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Persepolis-Marjane-Satrapi/dp/0375714839/

Chuck Thompson, i.e. To Hellholes and Back and J Maarten Troost, i.e. The Sex Lives of Cannibals. Hilarious stuff, really good for passing time on planes.

When I started running a couple years before HRT it did the same. Your muscle are just not used to it.

I had stopped running due to an slip injury mid-Dec 2016. I started running again 3 months ago, at the same time I started HRT. The first two weeks were a bit hard, but it's normal after a 3-month break.

Now I'm back to outrunning ladies on bicycles and kids in roller blades. HRT doesn't stop you from that. Just work your way up, and remember, it's all in your head. One foot in front of the other, till the end.
I usually run 10k a day on my lunch breaks. Everyone says it's too much, but I remind them that to them, it's overtraining and to me, it's just a walk in the park! Also, I've found that since switching to 5finger shoes, I don't have shin issues anymore, as they force me to land correctly on my feet instead of my heels like regular running shoes.

Edit: Check out these two books, they've helped me tremendously:


Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen:
https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189

Spartan Up!: A Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Peak Performance in Life:
https://www.amazon.com/Spartan-Take-No-Prisoners-Overcoming-Obstacles-Performance/dp/0544286170/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495168868&sr=1-1&keywords=spartan+up

If anyone's interested, the book is "In a Sunburned Country,", by Bill Bryson. It's fascinating (and hilarious).

Obviously not a great deal of history of the American Indians or Native Americans(for the PC crowd) before the 1500's but the Comanche Indians fit the bill.

This is a great book about them, vicious as can be.

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful/dp/1416591060

I'm going to recommend Gang Leader for a Day. It's a memoir of a sociology PhD student studying the Chicago projects. His highly personal interactions with its residents -- who ranged from drug dealers and prostitutes to store owners and mechanics -- allowed him to gain unprecedented access to a world that those outside of it barely understood.

His anecdotes brought his cast of characters life: JT, the regional head of the Black Kings gang who justified his crack-cocaine deals were good for his community because he was taking money from society's dregs and redistributing it to the project; or Autry Harrison, a former pimp who severed his formal gang ties to become a Boys & Girls club director; or Officer Jerry, the crooked cop who stole from the project's residents and even threatened Sudhir on numerous occasions if he ever published his research; or Taneesha, who attempted a career as a model while attending college at night before her jealous "manager" beat her badly for signing a contract with a legitimate agency. Although I felt like I was reading the script to a movie at times, this highlighted to me my ignorance of what life in the Robert Taylor Homes project was like.

My primary issue with the work was a lack of discussion about his research itself. He would write, a few times, something like (I'm paraphrasing here) "everything about sociological theory says X, but what I've witnessed is Y" without delving into the details. These moments peppered throughout his narrative would have allowed for a somewhat more formal discourse by introducing some interesting ideas about what sociologists think and how his research differs. His published research must discuss these issues at depth, but an informal, less pedantic approach could have been incorporated into this book.

Believing in equality, and marching against Trump in a show of solidarity for those values, is the point - "achieving equality" happens through legislation and societal evolution. Kind of like how women had to march for suffrage, but the march didn't "achieve" suffrage. If you honestly don't understand the purpose of protest, I suggest you read "March: Book One", or "Freedom is a Constant Struggle".

For your second question: women are still paid less for the same job a man has (the discrepancy of which is even worse for women of color), women are still vastly outnumbered in positions of power (CEOs, World Leaders, etc.), and when they do find themselves in those positions, like Hillary Clinton, they are derided for everything from the pitch of their voice, to the clothes they wear, to their ability to overcome their "emotions".

And I swear to God, if you try to reply with some "but things are so much better!" line: things were also better for women after they won the vote, but it still took until 1993 for Marital Rape to be considered a crime in the U.S. "Progress" is not a road that just ends, where we all pat each-other on the back and look out at our utopia - because humans will always be imperfect, and there will always be something to improve.

I agree with this list of Top 10 Documentaries on Mountaineering. Not exactly on point for what you wanted. Not sure it really exists at this point.

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I really liked Meru. If you don't mind reading here are a few books that got me into it:

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Into Thin Air.

No Shortcuts to the Top.

The Climb.

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Training Books:

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Training for New Alpinism

Climbing: Training for Peak Performance.

Darn, you beat me by 10 minutes. It was a pretty good book. boop

There's a graphic novel about Rep John Lewis and his time as a civil rights marcher with Dr. King in the 1960s. I went to Washington with a delegation of teachers this summer and got to meet him. He's amazing.

Kid's form is terrible. Runs like he just learned how to as a child. That's cute and all, 'run like nobody's watching' and all that. But if you're serious about running, you need to think of your form and the impact it has on your joints and muscles long term.

This book is a somewhat interesting read on the subject.

"Wild Swans" by Jung Chang is a tri-generational memoir spanning across some of the most interesting (and turbulent) times in China's recent history. The entire book was captivating enough that I've been meaning to re-read it for some time now. I'd highly recommend it!

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

"When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10,1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin the perilous descent from 29,028 feet (roughly the cruising altitude of an Airbus jetliner), twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly to the top, unaware that the sky had begun to roil with clouds...

Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed Outside journalist and author of the bestselling Into the Wild. Taking the reader step by step from Katmandu to the mountain's deadly pinnacle, Krakauer has his readers shaking on the edge of their seat. Beyond the terrors of this account, however, he also peers deeply into the myth of the world's tallest mountain. What is is about Everest that has compelled so many poeple--including himself--to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense?

Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement."

And when you want to go the other way: Blind Descent by James M. Tabor.

"In 2004, two great scientist-explorers attempted to find the bottom of the world. American Bill Stone took on the vast, deadly Cheve Cave in southern Mexico. Ukrainian Alexander Klimchouk targeted Krubera, a freezing nightmare of a supercave in the war-torn former Soviet republic of Georgia. Both men spent months almost two vertical miles deep, contending with thousand-foot drops, raging whitewater rivers, monstrous waterfalls, mile-long belly crawls, and the psychological horrors produced by weeks in absolute darkness, beyond all hope of rescue. Based on his unprecedented access to logs and journals as well as hours of personal interviews, James Tabor has crafted a thrilling exploration of man’s timeless urge to discover—and of two extraordinary men whose pursuit of greatness led them to the heights of triumph and the depths of tragedy. Blind Descent is an unforgettable addition to the classic literature of true-life adventure, and a testament to human survival and endurance."

I did when first starting to run in them. Calf smashing with a lacrosse ball really helps a LOT.

Check out some of the barefoot running tips on Vibram's site, and maybe check out Chris McDougall's Born to Run. It takes some time, especially if you've already been running a lot on your heels, but just do a little at a time, and you'll find your pace :)

It isn’t exactly the same, but “Gang Leader for a Day” is fantastic: https://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X

In the UK, John Lewis is a major department store chain.

In the US, John Lewis is a Civil Rights icon who marched with MLK and was arrested over 40 times for peaceful protests. He also authored a NYT bestselling graphic novel and as a Congressman led the recent House sit-ins.

Both are cool. But I like our John Lewis better.

If your a book reader check out "Born to Run"

Its entertaining, educational, slightly biased, and loaded with hyperbole, but its worth the read for sure.

• Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
  
  
• The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs
  
  
• Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

There was an IMAX crew on the mountain on the same trip. They had to abandon their documentary to try and save people's lives. Eventually, they put the footage together and made a doc about the disaster. So, same event, two accounts.

Hereis the book: [http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/0385494785/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382961090&sr=1-1&keywords=into+thin+air]

You can get it used for one cent plus 4 bucks shipping. It was a huge seller and trust me: Is is a VERY good read. You will feel chilled to the bone reading it.

>Gangs are for adults who never grew up

If you have any interest in actually understanding the composition and function of gangs I recommend reading Gang Leader for a Day. Here is a brief article about the book.

being a dedicated barefoot runner myself, two things I can recommend:
Born to Run (a book) by Christopher Mcdougall
Swiss Protection Socks

There is a trilogy of graphic novels about him (he's actually one of the authors) that I would highly recommend to everyone. Here's the first book if anyone is interested.

Heyerdahls book Kon-Tiki used to be required reading in the Canadian education system. Not sure if it still is or not. If not, that's too bad, it's a great read for everyone.

http://www.amazon.ca/Kon-Tiki-Thor-Heyerdahl/dp/0671726528

If you've ever been into running Christopher McDougall's "Born to Run" is a real page turner. Well written and a very enjoyable read, I went from cover to cover in 2 days on my first reading. Link to book

Ghost in the Wires - The story of famed hacker Kevin Mitnick

Any Mary Roach Book if you like Science

In the Heart of the Sea - The true story behind Moby Dick

The Omnivore's Dilemma - A great walk through our food landscape

Gang Leader for a Day - Behavioral Economist embeds with a Chicago Gang

Shadow Divers - My first audiobook. It's a thriller about a scuba discovery of a Nazi Submarine on the Eastern US coast.

The Devil In The White City - A story about a serial killer at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893

It's not a history textbook, rather a family memoir, but I assume you've read Wild Swans? It's really good and covers this whole period.

Agree. The Clipper Round the World Race is the Mt. Everest of sailing, and by Mt. Everest, I mean the [Into Thin Air] (https://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/0385494785) version. An interesting article on the race: 40,000 miles of open ocean — and a boat full of rookies