Reddit mentions: The best regional geography books

To start, don't read Jane Jacobs. This is planner blasphemy, but her stuff is old (albeit relevant) concepts, and while her ideas are generally good, you can get much more rewarding information from other modern reading -- most of which includes her ideas.

A couple that are relevant to your interests:

• The High Cost of Free Parking -- Shoup
  
• Context Sensitive Design for Thoroughfares -- ITE
  
• One Less Car - Furness ----- this one can be a bit preachy, but is good overall.
  
• If you're going to be working the 'burbs, This Book is invaluable. Amazing for historical context.
  
  If you're looking for more technical stuff, I can provide recommendations there, too.
  
  Growth management reading is SUPER valuable to any planner's career over the next couple of decades, at least.
  
  Law helps, too.

The first programming-related thing a company would look for in a candidate for a purely GIS job is Python, no doubt. Especially if you're brand new to programming, start with Python. If you're proficient in ArcGIS already, I recommend this book. You can also start with the easy online tutorials like Korlyth mentioned, but remember that you won't truly learn Python unless you apply it. Come up with a project and practice using your new skills. Then, if an employer asks for a portfolio, you have some good examples to share! A good example would be to analyze a large Excel file, import that data into ArcGIS, make some shapefiles from the data, and then maybe run some spatial analysis on those shapefiles-- ALL within your Python script (you don't even have to open ArcMap!). The big advantage is using Python for automation of repetitive tasks. It's tedious to do some analysis for all the individual counties in a state by hand, but you could practice doing this analysis in a script.

After that, I recommend learning some geospatial R. More and more organizations are starting to use R, and it can be helpful to learn some languages/packages that are not strictly used by ArcGIS. I recommend this book.

SQL might be good to learn since GIS tends to be all about databases. It might be tough to learn if you don't already have a huge database/server to work with, but try to learn what you can. I feel like Python, R, and SQL cover a lot of the non-web aspects of GIS programming.

If you want to take it to the next level, then you could learn some web-based programming. It can be tricky to learn this because there are several languages that work together (ex. HTML puts the content on the web page, CSS edits the content to make it look nice, and JavaScript manipulates the behavior of the content). You could start by building a basic web page (non-GIS) so you can learn these languages individually. Once you have a better idea about syntax and how they work together, you could move to GIS stuff. You could start by using a pre-existing web map service such as CartoDB and using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. to put the web map on your own website and edit it.

I have a variety of books to recommend.
Brushing up on your foundations:
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Functional-Analysis-Karen-Saxe/dp/0387952241
If you get this from your library or browse inside of it and it seems easy there are then three books to look at:

1. http://www.amazon.com/Functional-Analysis-Introduction-Princeton-Lectures/dp/0691113874/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368475848&sr=1-4&keywords=functional+analysis challenging exercises for sure.
   
2. http://www.amazon.com/Introductory-Functional-Analysis-Applications-Kreyszig/dp/0471504599/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368475848&sr=1-2&keywords=functional+analysis (A great expositor)
   
3. Rudin's Functional Analysis (A challenging book for sure)
   
   More advanced level:
   
4. http://www.amazon.com/Functional-Analysis-Introduction-Graduate-Mathematics/dp/0821836463/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
   (An awesome book with exercise solutions that will really get you thinking)
   
   Working on this book and Rudin's (which has many exercise solutions available online is very helpful) would be a very strong advanced treatment before you go into the more specialized topics.
   
   The key to learning this sort of subject is to not delude yourself into thinking you understand things that you really don't. Leave your pride at the door and accept that the SUMS book may be the best starting point. Also remember to use the library at your institution, don't just buy all these books.

Seriously?! Not one person mentioned Renato Rosaldo's Culture and Truth?! It was probably one of the most important books of the 20th century. Rosaldo and his late wife really changed the way ethnographic work was conducted and presented.

While I am a huge fan of Geertz, I recommend reading Victor Turner's The Ritual Process. I am currently re-reading it, and it is not hard to see how the books was truly ahead of its time. Turner may not be as seductive as a writer as Geertz, but his insights are just as amazing.

And for a pretty fun, but slightly out-dated, ethnography Anne Allison's Nightwork is a sick book. It is an ethnography about Japanese salarymen and hostesses.

Hey, sorry for such a huge delay, it was a very busy time at work and I haven't had the chance to gather my thoughts up until now.

Bear in mind - most of the journal sources that I provide are behind a paywall unless accessed from an academic institution with an active subscription.

So, to start, some general reading on the Soviet employment and unemployment - Work, Employment and Unemployment in the Soviet Union by J. L. Porket, and his accompanying article on the same subject - "Full employment in Soviet theory and practice". Another good book on the subject is "Employment Planning in the Soviet Union: Continuity and Change" by Silvana Malle. A general overview of employment practices in the countries of the Eastern Bloc, if a bit outdated - "Employment Policies in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe", edited by Jan Adam.

Another good general source is this report on unemployment in the Soviet Union from 1992, which provides a lot of useful general info.

This article, "Unemployment in the Soviet Union: Evidence from the Soviet Interview Project", provides a good statistical overview of some of the major trends.

As for the people with disabilities, here is a good general article on the topic of disability in the Soviet Union - ""There Are No Invalids in the USSR!": A Missing Soviet Chapter in the New Disability History" by Sarah D. Phillips.

Also, these two works edited by Michael Rasell and Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova, and William O. McCagg and Lewis Siegelbaum respectively - "Disability in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union: history, policy and everyday life" and "The Disabled in the Soviet Union: Past and Present, Theory and Practice". I haven't personally looked at the second one, but one of the editors did publish and help edit some interesting works on the subject before, and, judging by the contents, it should be interesting and applicable.

Skurka's book is good (likely the best way to get up to speed on gear), and his blog is excellent as well.

Other books I like:

• Lighten Up!: A Complete Handbook For Light And Ultralight Backpacking (Falcon Guide) (A bit old, but still a classic and the other "Allen and Mike's" books are also good.
  
• Lyle Brotherton's Ultimate Navigation Manual
  
• NOLS Wilderness Medicine (Be careful; the Kindle instance is actually an old version.)
  
  For current information, these subreddits and sites like BackpackingLight will get you up to speed.
  

The Ultimate Navigation Manual is one of the best reference books to any skill that I have ever encountered, very clearly written with tons of clear photographs and illustrations to help depict concepts. I highly recommend it to anyone that might have need of navigation skills.

There are a ton of starting points.

At the core you have:

Great Learning - Chapter from The Book of Rites, small Confucius section with 9 commentary sections from his disciple, Zengzi.

Doctrine of the Mean - written by the grandson of Confucius and adopted into the c

Analects - pure Confucianism, every word supposedly taken from the works of his disciples. It's very important to get a good commentary on this text. Lau is the traditional version and Dawson is generally picked as the next best. There's also a fantastic commentary from Neo-Confucianist Zhu Xi translated by Daniel Gardner.

Mencius - A later scholar, who learned from Zengzi. He had a slightly different take on things. A must read if you want to study the evolution of Confucianism through the ages.

In addition I would add my former professor's work:
Utilitarian Confucianism: Ch'en Liang's Challenge to Chu Hsi if you want to see the conflicts and divisions in Confucian thought.

The first seems like your best bet.

Infamous Desire: Male Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America

Against Nature: Sodomy and Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America

Sexuality in Colonial Latin America

https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Auditing-Other-Assurance-Services/dp/1259916987/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393624854/

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Maribeth-Assistant-Professor-Geology/dp/1259929655/

https://www.amazon.com/Lone-Star-Politics-Tradition-Transformation-ebook/dp/B07C6JG56L

https://www.amazon.com/Lone-Star-Tarnished-Critical-Politics/dp/1138562696/

https://www.amazon.com/Examples-Explanations-Criminal-Richard-Singer-ebook/dp/B07CLGPC88

https://www.amazon.com/Basics-Public-Budgeting-Financial-Management/dp/0761869751/

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Need all these. Please PM me and provide your prices. Would need some more soon.

​

TIA

My discipline is Geography, so one of my favorites is Feminism and Geography by Gillian Rose, which I think is actually great even for non-geographers. Feel free to skip the bits about the academy. As for the list I mentioned in an earlier comment, Feminism is For Everybody by bell hooks is probably the most accessible and general book that I'd recommend. It should be on your bookshelf. I wouldn't try tackling Judith Butler if you're not in the mood for an academic slog (even though her work is phenomenal), but Gender Trouble is probably her best-known book. A Field of One's Own by Bina Agarwal is a stellar look at farming economies in South Asia through the lens of feminism. A Cyborg Manifesto (PDF link) by Donna Haraway is fairly polemic among feminists, but she's a name that's almost invariably brought up when talking about posthuman/transhuman theory. She's somewhat problematic, but I personally like her writing style.

My first piece of advice is to spend time narrowing your focus. I recommend this book to help you out.

Also, this blog post is particularly relevant for you.

Here's the book my teacher's been using for about a decade. It's really big and comprehensive and prolly better as a reference than something to read from front to back

Lee Kuan Yew, the late former leader of Singapore, talked a lot about geopolitics and the effect of China's rise in particular.
https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Kuan-Yew-Insights-International/dp/0262019124

I don't know much about this one but it looks interesting:
"Non-Western International Relations Theory: Perspectives On and Beyond Asia (Politics in Asia)"
https://www.amazon.com/Non-Western-International-Relations-Theory-Perspectives/dp/0415474744

Check other two comments - also I've found Introduction to Geography, it's good to refresh on basics!

I can highly recommend this book for a bit of light geology-related reading: Supercontinent - Ted Nield

I just bought R in Action on Amazon. Seems to come well-regarded!

Edit: Also ordered R for Spatial Analysis and Mapping.

You're welcome! You might also consider volume 3 and volume 4 of the analysis series by Stein and Shakarchi. There's also a great book by Tom Lindstrøm on the prerequisites to functional analysis, but it might be too basic for your needs.

Geography for Dummies, $15 on Amazon.

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Geography-Dummies-Ph-D-Charles-Heatwole/dp/0764516221

here's one that would definitely be controversial. The Lesser Evil -- Political Ethics in and Age of Terror by Michael Ignatieff. He argues that sometimes it is in fact appropriate to use the lesser evil of techniques for the greater good, particularly with respect to things like "enhance interrogation techniques"

There was another Ignatieff book trollunit recommended to me ages ago and I can't remember the name

Here

Here's the citation you're looking for.

You might also check his latest book: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Spatial-Analysis-Mapping/dp/1446272958/

Since you're speaking German, how about Axel Honneth's book? I haven't read it myself..

I had to re-teach myself stats for my current position since really hadn’t used it since grad school. I am not a statistical expert but I recommend Discovering Statistics Using R . If you don’t know R, it will help you kill two birds with one stone. If you are looking into spatial statistics, look for An Introduction to R for spatial analysis and mapping and this Modern Spatial Econometrics in Practice

Have you tried the packages spdep, spatstat, gstat? In the class I took on this subject, we used these packages along with maptools and GISTools to avoid Arc entirely. This book was our reference:
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Spatial-Analysis-Mapping/dp/1446272958

If I'm not mistaken, the package spdep was developed by the authors of these books:
https://www.amazon.com/Applied-Spatial-Data-Analysis-Use/dp/1461476178
https://www.amazon.com/Spatial-Statistics-Geostatistics-Applications-Information/dp/1446201740

Were you instructed to use geoRglm?