July Non-fiction CAT: Human Science

Welcome to human science month! What is human science you ask? Good question - I was wondering the same thing and resorted to my good friend google to come up with an answer. Interestingly enough, what is called human science used to be called moral science.

According to wikipedia human science is defined as the following:

"Human science studies the philosophical, biological, social, and cultural aspects of human life. Human Science aims to expand our understanding of the human world through a broad interdisciplinary approach. It encompasses a wide range of fields - including history, philosophy, genetics, sociology, psychology, evolutionary biology, biochemistry, neurosciences, folkloristics, and anthropology. It is the study and interpretation of the experiences, activities, constructs, and artifacts associated with human beings. The study of the human sciences attempts to expand and enlighten the human being's knowledge of their existence, its interrelationship with other species and systems, and the development of artifacts to perpetuate the human expression and thought. It is the study of human phenomena. The study of the human experience is historical and current in nature. It requires the evaluation and interpretation of the historic human experience and the analysis of current human activity to gain an understanding of human phenomena and to project the outlines of human evolution. Human science is the objective, informed critique of human existence and how it relates to reality."

That definition just opens up all sorts of options for this month. Some books to consider:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Please feel free to interpret this category as you see fit. I look forward to seeing what everyone ends up reading this month!

I'll be reading Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb.

I am thinking of reading Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels by Hella Winston. This has been on my shelf for ages.

Other possibilities:
You Were Always Mom's Favorite! by Deborah Tannen
The Bad Food Bible by Aaron Carroll
Living with the Monks by Jess Itzler
The Guinea Pig Diaries by A.J. Jacobs

Books I'd recommend for this challenge:

- Brainstorm, by Suzanne O'Sullivan
- Unthinkable, by Helen Thomson
- The Idiot Brain, by Dean Burnett
- With the End in Mind, by Kathryn Mannix
- Gulp, by Mary Roach

I think I'll grab The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, by Sam Kean.

Oh, I'd also recommend The Nocturnal Brain, by Guy Leschziner.

I have two books in mind for this month's challenge, Do No Harm by Henry Marsh, and Superior: The Return of Race Science by Angela Saini.

I'm planning to read The Medical Detectives, a collection of articles first published in the New Yorker.

Recommending The Coming Plague, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Thinking, Fast and Slow.

And The Poisoner's Handbook.

I think that I will finish reading Imbeciles: the Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carry Buck by Adam Cohen which I started reading for an adult education class last year which I expected to be about eugenics but was not. Also, I might read Gulp by Mary Roach which is in my husband's collection.

I will likely plan to read:
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things / Randy Frost, Gail Steketee

>1 LittleTaiko: so a biography or history book would fit?

I will make a goal of finishing Reading People by Anne Bogel. I have started it twice on audio and get bogged down. I have the paperback and think that will be more "user-friendly" for me.
I hope to have time for several others in this category...but maybe not all in July.

My choices for this are The Idiot Brain by Dean Burnett and Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

I think I might squeeze Latinx in here, and have it count for GeoCat as well (a squeeze on both counts!)

Speaking of Mary Roach (#4), I would say her book Stiff would be a good choice too. I'm thinking of reading With the End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix.

Would Yuval Harari's Sapiens fit?

My choice here would be Being Mortal, I've had it on my shelf for a long time.

>15 MissWatson: It sounds like it would fit.

>16 Kristelh: I read Being Mortal when I was widowed. My husband had been sick for a long time. The book was very meaningful and eye-opening to me. It made a lot of sense.

>10 fuzzi: - Yes, I think it would fit based on the definition.

>15 MissWatson: - That definitely looks like it would fit.

>16 Kristelh: >18 LadyoftheLodge: I read Being Mortal four years ago and found it very worthwhile. This year our book club chose it so I re-read...something I rarely do. Everyone was pleased to have read it. Atul Gawande is a very accessible writer and I would read anything he writes.

I would like to get to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks but also have my eye on You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters

>20 beebeereads: I'm putting You're Not Listening on my list. During isolation, one of the things I really haven't missed is listening to monologues, particularly rants. Seems that there's no back and forth any more. No conversational rallies.

>20 beebeereads: Ooh, I have You're Not Listening on my list of ebook holds. My mum read it too and it sounds great.

If you're looking for a book about hearing, as opposed to listening, Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World, by David Owen, was a great read.

>17 LadyoftheLodge: >19 LittleTaiko: Thanks, because it looks very interesting!

>22 rabbitprincess: I read Volume Control last month. I found it very interesting and worthwhile. It is definitely about hearing loss as opposed to "not listening" ;-)

>24 beebeereads: I also liked that it wasn't too long! It was exactly the right length in my opinion.

>24 beebeereads: I added Volume Control to my library wishlist but it must have been at one of the regional libraries and now they are off limits. I have minor hearing loss but now that everyone is wearing a mask I find it's more difficult than ever to "hear" what is being said to me.

I've started You're not Listening.

I've already finished Superior: The Return of Race Science and it was excellent. (I counted it for the June: Society theme too)

I read Do no harm : stories of life, death and brain surgery by Henry Marsh.

I read Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels by Hella Winston.

I read You're Not Listening by Kate Murphy.

I've got The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks still to read and I was also thinking that Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science might fit this month's topic as well.

The book which I just read for the weird title for my BingoDOG card, would fit into this challenge. Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty describes what happens to us after death. Her book answers over 30 questions which children have asked about death. Although it is geared toward children, adults can also learn a lot from this very entertaining book on a serious subject.

>29 VivienneR: That's on my pile for this month too!

I think I'll read Why Learn History (When It's Already on Your Phone). I was leaning toward it for next month as a sort of meta-History sort of book, but I think it fits better here.

I absolutely loved You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb - the combination of memoir and psychology were right up my alley.

August thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/322358

I have finished Sapiens : A brief history of humankind which is exactly what it says on the tin. Well written, concise and a good summary of things I have read elsewhere.

I've finished Henry Marsh's Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery which was well-written and moving.

(touchstones don't seem to be working)

I have finished You're Not Listening.

COMPLETED The Idiot Brain by Dean Burnett

My review:
An overview of what we know about the brain and how it works.

Full of interesting tidbits and the author has a way with humorous metaphors and similes but somehow for me, it failed to really cohere. A diagram of the brain might have helped.

>40 beebeereads: What did you think of it? I was hoping to find a few techniques for conversing with people who are determined to hold the floor, apart from, "Goodness, is that the time? I must be going." But the author is writing for the people who don't listen, to persuade them that listening is of benefit to them.

>42 pamelad: I was disappointed with the "tone of voice" of the author. She seemed to be a little too eager to namedrop in her presentation of research and a little preachy in her attitude towards people who do not always listen as they "should". I did find a few of the chapters interesting enough, but overall, I didn't read anything new. I am constantly challenging myself to listen better and this supported that goal. I think people who are not good listeners wouldn't read this book ;-)

I finished reading Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. I had this on my shelf since 2015 so happy to finally read it and it did not fail to meet expectations.

>44 Kristelh: I read that book in 2015 when I was widowed. It was recommended to me by another widow in our small group grief counseling. I thought it made a lot of sense and also was applicable to what happened when my husband became ill. It really helped me a lot.

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things / Randy Frost, Gail Steketee
4 stars

The authors are psychologists who were the first to really study hoarding behaviour. This tells of some of the psychology of hoarding and presents many case studies of people they worked with. Hoarding is usually associated with OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), but the authors feel that it should be its own category.

People who hoard show different symptoms of different mental health disorders, including OCD, perfectionism, anxiety, and more I’m forgetting. People have different reasons they present for not wanting to get rid of their things, including not wanting to be wasteful, growing attached to their belongings, and more. Their families are affected. The case studies in this book include children of hoarders and how they are affected, as well as children who are, themselves, hoarders. One chapter also looks at animal hoarding.

I can see myself, just a tiny bit in some of the traits the authors present in their case studies, but I don’t go anywhere near the extremes of people who really are hoarders. I found this so interesting.