(Part 2) Best self-help & psychology humor books according to redditors
We found 645 Reddit comments discussing the best self-help & psychology humor books. We ranked the 221 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Stop fucking her, in case she is NOT actually pregnant and lying to you, but actively trying to get pregnant. Also, read about these exact same circumstances in Average American Male by Chad Kultgen
One thing I have learned is you can't trust Trump to only be "joking"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/03/07/president-trumps-jokes-are-no-laughing-matter/?utm_term=.a8d13d9eac34
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> The president’s comments are no laughing matter even if they were intended humorously, which is far from clear. In 1905, Sigmund Freud published a book called “Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconsciousness” making the point that jokes are often a way to vent distasteful desires, either lustful or aggressive, in a socially approved fashion. Humor scholars (yes, they exist) have dubbed this ”relief theory.” While it doesn’t cover every type of joke (e.g., puns), Freud’s insight applies to a lot of what passes for levity.
Okay the more I think about the more I'm pretty sure it is: "You Shall Know Our Velocity" by David Eggers (David Eggers -> David Sedaris?)
Book cover with text starting on it
Doesn't have "Infinite" in the title though. But it is about two people traveling and there are images (not quite clipart? I guess it depends on your definition of clipart) in the text.
Example of images in text: click "look inside" and go to page 16
Plot summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Shall_Know_Our_Velocity#Plot_summary
If that title doesn't sound familiar, it was re-released with substantial edits under the title "Sacrament", and still has text that starts on the front cover: http://www.amazon.com/SACRAMENT-Known-Previously-Shall-Velocity/dp/1932416005
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Develop-Your-Sense-Humor/dp/0766160203
The Meowmorphosis
"One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into an adorable kitten."
David Sedaris has a collection of short stories, Barrel Fever, that is laugh-out-loud funny.
If you like short stories, George Saunders is brilliant.
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline is one of my favorite books. There are scenes in CivilWarLand that reduce me to giggling like a sugared-out 10-year-old.
Saunders' Pastoralia is a more subdued kind of humor, but still very enjoyable.
Well of course Germans have that. I mean they're historically obsessed with scat. There's
Mozart's "Leck mich im Arsch" (K. 231), or a multitude of quotes from Martin Luther like “I’m like a ripe stool and the world is like a gigantic anus.” and “Devil, I have just shit in my trousers. Have you smelled it?”
As the anthropologist Alan Dundes put it:
> "one finds an inordinate number of texts concerned with anality. Scheisse (shit), Dreck (dirt), Mist (manure), Arsch (ass).… Folksongs, folktales, proverbs, riddles, folk speech—all attest to the Germans’ longstanding special interest in this area of human activity.”
He wrote a whole book on the topic.
If I had know that ... maybe I would've been more into the book. This is the copy I have
Learn to Read in Japanese (Roger Lake / Noriko Ura)
Vol. 1 (beginner to intermediate)
Vol. 2 (building on Vol. 1, intermediate to advanced)
And of course:
Breaking into Japanese Literature
Exploring Japanese Literature
Zadie Smith's White Teeth is generally considered one of the best novels of the last decade.
I strongly suggest reading Nabokov's short stories. His writing is full of utterly delicious descriptions.
Let me write a few out for you:
> During the leisure hours when the crystal-bright waves of the drug beat at him, penetrating his thoughts with their radiance and transforming the least trifle into an ethereal miracle, he painstakingly noted on a sheet of paper all the various steps he intended to take in order to trace his wife. As he scribbled, with all those sensations still blissfully taut, his jottings seemed exceedingly important and correct to him. In the morning, however, when his head ached and his shirt felt clammy and sticky, he looked with bored disgust at the jerky, blurry lines.
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> The low-ceilinged barbershop smelled of stale roses. Horseflies hummed hotly, heavily. The sunlight blazed on the floor in puddles of molten honey, gave the lotion bottles tweaks of sparkle, transluced through the long curtain hanging in the entrance, a curtain of clay beads and little sections of bamboo strung alternately on close-hung cord, which would disintegrate in an iridescent clitter-clatter every time someone entered and shouldered it aside. Before him, in the murkish glass, Nikitin saw his own tanned face, the long sculptured strands of his shiny hair, the glitter of the scissors that chirred above his ear, and his eyes were attentive and severe, as always happens when you contemplate yourself in mirrors.
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> After walking back from the village to his manor across the dimming snows, Sleptsov sat down in a corner, on a plush-covered chair which he never remembered using before. It was the kind of thing that happens after some great calamity. Not your brother but a chance acquaintance, a vague country neighbor to whom you never paid much attention, with whom in normal times you exchange scarcely a word, is the one who comforts you wisely and gently, and hands you your dropped hat after the funeral service is over, and you are reeling from grief, your teeth chattering, your eyes blinded by tears. The same can be said of inanimate objects. Any room, even the coziest and the most absurdly small, in the little-used wing of a great country house has an unlived-in corner. And it was such a corner in which Sleptsov sat.
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So fucking delicate. Wordy yet so nimble.
Awww.
I just wanna squish her and hug her and love her and call her George. Poor baby.
:edit:
Also..if you haven't read Cinderella Ate My Daughter! yet...you need to.
I don't even HAVE a girl...but I picked it up at the library one day because I was like, "Oooh. This looks interesting." and boy was it an eye opener. No wonder girls these days are so fucked up!
If you want to read the book that Californication is inspired by, that's "Women" by Bukowski - one fucking AMAZING book.
Ignore the haters about this book - understand that it's written by a ghostwriter as supportive material to the show and read it as a fun weekend popular novel. There's nothing fantastic about it, but it's still an entertaining read.
Also, don't forget Piglet
Umm...
Here's Dan's Vulture article about his cultural references.
I think Dan is right about how difficult it is to address sexism. It is so ingrained in our culture, it is easy to take it absolutely for granted. I think there is just much more visibility with something like racism. Even if we have such a long way to go, it's out there on the table in a much more digestible fashion.
Dan mentions the gender composition of the Community writers room -- it's kind of crazy how big of a deal it was that Rick & Morty closed that gap in season 3.
Of all the foods Erin could've come up with on the spot ... Weetabix? Maybe that came from their Scottish holiday.
Womb blast ... yikes. That could use some rebranding.
Cinderella Ate My Daughter discusses some of these topics in depth -- especially where limited toys for girls are concerned.
My friend has a penis-shaped bottle opener he likes to display prominently at parties. It's good for making straight guys feel uncomfortable.
Kumail's story about showing his penis to his classmates is hilarious ... he just seemed so exuberant about it.
Tarragon of virtue, though.
Sessions since mention of skeleton army:
||||||||Ok, it's a bunch of ebooks, usually in these bundles you get about 15 of them and the bundles cost $15 so $1 each.
If it's stuff like comic books it's usually around 40 items for a normal price for those are like $4-8 each, in the case of books for the more fiction style of books maybe the normal price is usually like $10-20 each, in this case it was 20-25 books so I guess the normal price is $15-20 each and in the case of stuff like the OReilly books the normal price per book is more like $30 and such, in like the Unity asset packs some of those things have a normal price of $50 and so on.
So like for $1:
https://www.amazon.com/Greek-Mythology-Explained-Legends-Goddesses/dp/1633538966 Kindle $12.49
https://www.amazon.com/How-Art-Can-Make-Happy/dp/1452153221 Kindle $9.99
https://www.amazon.com/Where-Why-How-Illustrate-Mysteries/dp/1452108226 Kindle $12.09
https://www.amazon.com/Underachievers-Manifesto-Accomplishing-Little-Feeling/dp/0811853683 Kindle $6.24
https://www.amazon.com/Crap-Dates-Disastrous-Encounters-Single/dp/1452114587 Kindle $4.99
https://www.amazon.com/K-Knifeball-Alphabet-Terrible-Advice/dp/1452103313 Kindle $6.00
I totally don't think ebooks are worth as much as physical books. A physical book takes much more distribution and work to generate and have a much nicer quality and accessibility though it do take up space. So in general I wouldn't buy ebooks at those prices but that's about $61.50 on Amazon to get those ebooks which Humble Bundle charged $1 for.
Here in Sweden were I live education is gratis and you even get a small amount of money to help get by for up to six years of university studies. Then again our taxes are very close to half of GDP and on work income the total taxation is about 3/4 of the income when you've paid all taxes including stuff like VAT and energy and so on. Our system allow people to get pretty useless degrees and our flat salaries and the political ideology make people demand a higher salary just because they have spent equal number of years at university or equal hours at the job not because what they produce was in demand and deserved that payment. So that's a bad system in that it doesn't produce what the market value and lower the production of usable goods and services and waste resources vs something more efficient but it could be solved by offering poor people a loan which they pay back once they have gotten a better job or whatever instead of just not educating them at all.
As an Indian or American citizen rather than a Swedish one a university degree would had cost money here too though. And the school you went to would unlikely had the same reputation as the finest American ones and not necessarily held the same quality. But for those living here their education is paid for by others taxes (which is about twice as large share of the GDP as in America.)
Lol you guys are the best, I love this whole thread. My own personal thoughts, directed at all three of you: ( /u/starlight-baptism /u/Honjin /u/Dennysaurus539 )
In real life I know a lot of otherwise decent people (often relatives) who have what I consider to be hateful, selfish views. Thinking about those people -- like, say, my parents -- creates tremendously complicated emotions within me. That complexity is what I was trying to capture with Matherson. Yeah, he's a dick, but he's also a tremendously sad and lonely person, and you can kinda see how somebody in his position would maybe have the views he does... but then again that doesn't get him off the hook for being such a dick... So if the question is "are you supposed to hate him or empathize with him," the answer is "yes."
Now I'm not going to pretend that I nailed this complexity by any means, but the fact that you guys were able to have a debate on the subject makes me think I got close. Which is why I read your whole discussion with a grin on my face.
George Saunders is the master of building complex characters. He has this amazing story, "The Barber's Unhappiness," in the collection Pastoralia (^(which ^you ^have ^to ^read ^RIGHT ^NOW)), about a man who wants desperately to find love, but his own arrogance and absurdly high standards get in the way. This guy is absolutely detestable but simultaneously so human that you can't help but empathize with him.
So it's a skill I am very actively attempting to learn. What's more interesting - a conflict between an objectively good protagonist and an objectively evil antagonist, or a conflict between two imperfect characters with differing (but internally justifiable) viewpoints?
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Off the top of my mind, specific books they've mentioned that I've enjoyed:
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-Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens
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-Open Letters by Vaclav Havel
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-The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1926-1939 by Antony Beevor
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-So You've Been Publically Shamed by Jon Ronson
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-Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
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I'll try to remember more and add to it as I can recall them.
EDIT
-Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
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-Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick
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-Both Ian Kershaw and Richard Evans' accounts of HItler, Germany, and the Third Reich in WWII
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-Moynihan did a long interview in Vice about Karl Ove Knausgaard, so I would imagine maybe he's a fan
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-Bad Blood by John Carryrou
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-The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
You could check out Women by Charles Bukowski, supposedly the show is loosely based on his life. Becca actually calls Hank a poor-man's Bukowski in an episode.
Alan Dundes' Life Is Like a Chicken Coop Ladder: A Study of German National Character Through Folklore discusses this and more. Interesting book.
> From the publisher
> ...
> Alan Dundes' theses identifies a strong anal erotic element in German national character, citing numerous examples of scatological data from authentic compilations of German folklore.
EDIT: Er, I mean: Yeah, Senious, me too!!
I'm horrible but I am even more horrible at this game. I hope that in practice, I could get better : p book
http://www.amazon.com/How-Develop-Your-Sense-Humor/dp/0766160203
Agreed. You definitely need to read it, then pick up The Te of Piglet.
Here, take a look at this flavor. It's more for parents than for 10 year olds though. LINK
Throwing out a few:
Pastoralia by George Saunders
In the Bedroom by Andre Dubus
Graham Greene's Complete Short Stories
Stay Awake: Stories by Dan Chaon
Oblivion by David Foster Wallace
Read women.
https://www.amazon.com/Women-Novel-Charles-Bukowski/dp/0061177598
I'm glad you liked it!
Maybe try This is where I leave you or We're all Damaged. I also really love Kent Haruf's books.
If you like this idea, check out the book You Shall Know Our Velocity, by David Eggers.
hmmm, I don't know if the great firewall blocks access to amazon or to audible but you can try getting them in audiobook or ebook form.
From amazon, pick up the kindle version. You'll have to download the kindle software, but they have it available for PC, Mac, iPhone/Touch, and blackberry.
The audiobook is offered via audible, but I'd be surprised if it works in China.
This may help you understand
The Average American Male: A Novel. Funny stuff.
I'd add Palahniuk's SURVIVOR too - it's written like a diary, as a man uses the cockpit recorder to explain why he's hijacked a plane and is about to crash it...:
>Tender Branson—last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult—is dictating his life story into Flight 2039’s recorder. He is all alone in the airplane, which will crash shortly into the vast Australian outback. But before it does, he will unfold the tale of his journey from an obedient Creedish child to an ultra-buffed, steroid- and collagen-packed media messiah. Unpredictable and unforgettable.
(ETA: It's in Italian! )
Oh, and of course DIARY!
>Misty Wilmot has had it. Once a promising young artist, she’s now stuck on an island ruined by tourism, drinking too much and working as a waitress in a hotel. Her husband, a contractor, is in a coma after a suicide attempt, but that doesn’t stop his clients from threatening Misty with lawsuits over a series of vile messages they’ve found on the walls of houses he remodeled.
>Suddenly, though, Misty finds her artistic talent returning as she begins a period of compulsive painting. Inspired but confused by this burst of creativity, she soon finds herself a pawn in a larger conspiracy that threatens to cost hundreds of lives. What unfolds is a dark, hilarious story from America’s most inventive nihilist, and Palahniuk’s most impressive work to date.
I love useless knowledge
I have long found this to be an interesting topic as it relates to how laughter/humor might be a reflection of one's morals. Freud's Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious comes to mind.
Here's a pretty comprehensive summary of different philosophies of humor/laughter from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
A good piece from the SEP article:
>Plato, the most influential critic of laughter, treated it as an emotion that overrides rational self-control. In the Republic (388e), he says that the Guardians of the state should avoid laughter, “for ordinarily when one abandons himself to violent laughter, his condition provokes a violent reaction.” Especially disturbing to Plato were the passages in the Iliad and the Odyssey where Mount Olympus was said to ring with the laughter of the gods. He protested that “if anyone represents men of worth as overpowered by laughter we must not accept it, much less if gods.”
>
>Another of Plato's objections to laughter is that it is malicious. In Philebus (48–50), he analyzes the enjoyment of comedy as a form of scorn. “Taken generally,” he says, “the ridiculous is a certain kind of evil, specifically a vice.” That vice is self-ignorance: the people we laugh at imagine themselves to be wealthier, better looking, or more virtuous than they really are. In laughing at them, we take delight in something evil—their self-ignorance—and that malice is morally objectionable.
Right after this section the article goes into the Biblical and Christian views of laughter (mostly negative for the first part of Christian history).
I'm a bit of a short story nut so I really like the Nabokov collection of short stories. I have This. His Autobiography is brilliant as well. I'm only a quarter of the way through The Brothers Kazamarov. It is really good so far, but it isn't an easy read.
Tape distortion is the best distortion. Plus the dichotomy is hilarious since I have that stuff in FLAC and listen with some really good headphones.
Agreed, it's very good! The same author also wrote The Te of Piglet.
If you haven't given Chuck Palahniuk a try, you definitely should.
what're these dreadful feelings in the morning about? like, you feel the weight of all the stuff you are 'supposed' to be doing, but it's too daunting? (That's usually what I've noticed in myself). for that, I find that making a list, writing stuff down, incredibly helpful. Then, scratching some stuff off the list. really. eliminate them. They are guilty of making you feel guilty and their punishment is annihilation! LOL!
also: This book. http://www.amazon.com/The-Underachievers-Manifesto-Accomplishing-Feeling/dp/0811853683
Just finished This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper. Fantastic and heartwarming. Highly recommend.
I'm currently reading (well, before my kindle broke :( :() What Alice Forgot.
Before this, I read We Were Liars, This is Where I Leave You and BJ Novak's One More Thing.
I want to read Shantaram before the movie comes out.
While I personally do not know any, as I am a beginner (for like, 4 or six years due to my lack of studying :D )
u/overactive-bladder had shown me some.
https://www.amazon.fr/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148/ref=pd_sim_14_1/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568364148&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
exploring japanese literature: https://www.amazon.fr/Exploring-Japanese-Literature-Tanizaki-Kawabata/dp/1568365411/ref=pd_sim_14_5/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568365411&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
I saw a different explanation from a book I read..
> France takes its name from the Franks, who ruled that region of Europe in the sixth century. The coat of arms of these Frankish rulers contained three golden toads. Therefore, the aristocracy of the time were called Toads. In contrast, the common citizens were known as Frogs, which was more or less a put down. The toads have since passed into history, but the nickname for the French, "Frogs," still remains.
From this book.
From Diary. Turns out there's also an audiobook version of it on Youtube. Link.
amazon preorder!
I enjoyed this one.
My daughter was into Tinkerbell for hot second when she was about two, but she's just never cared for it after that - matter of fact, she isn't into any licensed characters at all - score - because the clothes and toys and stuff are super expensive and crappy. She does have two brothers who are into Star Wars and superheroes but she never got into that stuff either.
But I definitely made room for her to be interested in them if she wanted to. It IS about choice and I agree, your parents went a bit too far, and agree with everyone else about letting her choose and stressing the good the princesses do.
That said, Moana is my favorite princess, because she's a badass, the movie isn't about her falling in love with some prince, and the music ROCKS, lol. Has she seen that one? To me it's the best 'feminist' Disney movie.
There's a great book called Cinderella Ate My Daughter that's about EXACTLY what you're talking about, a mom who considered herself such a feminist and how her daughter got into all the princess stuff. It's so good. The audio book is amazing. I highly recommend it!
Also she has an amazing book to read maybe when your daughter is older called Girls and Sex which is such a positive, feminist slant on talking to girls about sex.
http://www.amazon.com/Relation-Unconscious-Standard-Complete-Psychological/dp/0393001458
The Average American Male is kinda like that.
It's actually pretty RP in the beginning. It was what I read years ago, before I'd ever heard of reddit, let alone TRP, that got me thinking a certain way.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/159474503X/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/277-1069486-6153549 this is golden!
There's also The Te Of Piglet
It's too bad they're not impressed. I'd say keep trying, but then again, some things need age and wisdom to appreciate.
Don't let their disinterest affect you, that's a great bool and you should enjoy it for you.
Yeah, I got it from Amazon. It's called "The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov"
you should read You shall know our velocity while watching trading places and listening to cunninlynguists
edit listening to Murs is also acceptable
Relevant.
Off the top of my head (w/ brief annotations):
Indecision by Ben Kunkel (hipster w/ general life malaise)
This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (relationship/professional problems + family farce)
The Wishbones by Tom Perrotta (romantic/professional problems, mostly of manchild protagonist's own making)
In any event, all of these are very funny + big-hearted.
There is this: http://www.amazon.com/Relation-Unconscious-Standard-Complete-Psychological/dp/0393001458
Turn that frown Upsidedown and buy yourself this:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Totally-Useless-Information/dp/0806514051/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=W5OIF2PXOMYA&coliid=I1V1ERAC6UT2J3
Don't buy me something. Cheer yourself up!
Short Stories
Mary Gaitskill
Bad Behavior: Stories
Vladimir Nabokov
The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Yellow Wallpaper
Patoralia by George Saunders.
I was never a fan of short stories, but this book amazed me. I suggest it to every single person who asks for literature suggestions. Easy read, but it will captivate and amaze.
Recently Finished:
Colum McCann's Let The Great World Spin
Before that City of Thieves by David Benioff
Currently reading:
You Shall Know Our Velocity! by Dave Eggers
An American who never lived in Germany wrote a book about German sayings, nursing rhymes, folklore etc. He claimed that a surprising amount of them dealt with shit and used psychoanalytical methods to prove that this meant the 'German national character' has an anal erotic fixation, which led to the Holocaust.
Yeah. That escalated quickly.
He was not a trained psychoanalyst, or even psychologist. He had a master in English language and considered himself a psychoanalytical folklorist.
This guy, Alan Dundes, was witty and could write. he was also a professor at the UC Berkeley. His book was a hit and his hypothesis made it into mainstream pop science and became a meme in the end.
To be fair, he also published a book full of Holocaust jokes, which pissed off his fellow Jews, and described American football as a ritualized form of homosexual rape, according to Time Magazin. So we don't feel singled out. The football book was the one that got him the highest number of death threats, btw. The scat book received better reviews in Germany than in the USA, which shows that we do have humor. And also that we are a bit masochistic.
Edit: I may have shortened his hypothesis in an unfair way, and maybe he knows more about psychoanalysis than I think, but other than Dundes, I don't like Freud and I don't have a weird anal scat fixation. So I could never be bothered to do more than quickly skim his texts.
The underachiever's Manifesto. Buy it, read it, thrive -or not.
http://www.amazon.com/Underachievers-Manifesto-Accomplishing-Little-Feeling/dp/0811853683
I've got Fight Clubon My list I really love the movie so now that I realized it's a book I'd love to read that. Happy Early Birthday :)
there are many graded readers out there with exactly what you're describing though.
https://www.amazon.fr/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148/ref=pd_sim_14_1/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568364148&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
exploring japanese literature: https://www.amazon.fr/Exploring-Japanese-Literature-Tanizaki-Kawabata/dp/1568365411/ref=pd_sim_14_5/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568365411&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
also, i am a native middle eastern and i studied arabic there. now that i moved away (thank god) i am anxious of losing my dialect and the written language. i have been looking into getting back into kawa3ed for the harakat part. even natives mess up a LOT. i still remember my arabic teacher saying "i always cringe when i hear a news reporter screw up the kawa3ed lmfao.
Well so much depends on everything. Some basic suggestions:.
Contemporary Science Fiction:
Ted Chaing, Stories of Your Life and Others his short stories are science fiction gems. https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122.
Classical: Vladimir Nabokov Short Stories, amazing prose. Though English was his second language he wrote a good number, especially the later half, in English, often challenging themes from dubious narrators.
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Vladimir-Nabokov/dp/0679729976.
International Fiction: Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore, reductionist, clean prose, with symbolic/metaphorical imagery that blends hard-boiled noir, Japanese animism, and surrealism. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1400079276/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_RxntybB7PYK93
Post Modern: Roberto Bolano, 2666: A Novel, perhaps the odd relative of Murakami in structure if not style. Sometimes rambling, though powerful prose with surrealist moments within graphic and "visceral" scenes. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312429215/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ZAntybTW2XXJX.
Deconstructionism: Mark Danieleski, House of Leaves, carefully crafted entangled adventure horror of a story, explained in the footnotes of an essay, edited by a tattoo artist, written by a blind man of a homemade video of a house gone awry. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375703764/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_XMntyb3RT3RKQ
A start
I also really loved A Suitable Boy. I think it's brilliant.
For a completely contrasting look at India, I recommend the white tiger by Aravind Adiga.
I think The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is absolutely brilliant, one of the best novels of the last decade.
White Teeth is another really wonderful book about multiculturalism and immigrant life that really stands out.
For a rip-roaring old-fashioned adventure yarn, you can't do better than
Sea of Poppies.
Finally for some superior storytelling and brilliant narrative experimentation try Cloud Atlas or Ghostwritten
For whatever reason, you seem to have trouble acknowledging that there are bad Muslims and that it's no small number and that the number of sympathetic Muslims is an even larger number.
And, I don't respond to comments about the Catholic or Christian church. It's a deliberate red herring to talk about anything that is not the subject, which is the condemnation of a religious cult that continues to produce Islamists and Jihadists from within the ranks of conservative Muslims.
You continue to bring up red herrings such as Catholicism and even Black Lives matter when really, you could benefit by reading some books, which I doubt you have.
Might I suggest reading the following (all of which I've read):
But, you're not going to because you're too busy being right. You're too busy condemning anyone and everyone who dares say anything about any number of Muslims or their death cult called Islam. You're too busy telling people they're bigots or Islamophopes yet you refuse to do your due diligence and pick up a book and read about what's going on out there in the real world.
You're too busy blaming us privileged white folk that you're blind to what is going on. People like you are the reason why I'm no longer a liberal.
In answer to your question, what course of action should be taken...not war. The only course I can find is unthinkable. It is based on an assumption that nobody on the left will ever accept. It is that Islam, in it's current form, is not compatible with Western democracy. Until it is, or until we kick them all out, then we will continue to see more of the same.
Until Islam changes, (read Hirsi Ali's book Heretic to find out how it needs to change) we will see more murdering of innocents.
You should give us a little insight as to what genre you like, since every reader is different. Here are a few of my favorites from some random genres.
Fantasy: A Song of Ice and Fire, Harry Potter, Neverwhere, American Gods.
Sci-Fi: The Illustrated Man, Gold.
Dystopian Fiction: The Stand, The Road.
Classic Fiction: Flowers For Algernon,
Philosophy: Thus Spake Zarathustra, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Whatever Else: Fight Club, Fast Food Nation
edit: formatting
The Average American Male
It's hilarious and the whole setting is all around you.
Source.
One of the earlier chapters I think, but it has been a while since I've read it.
I just got around to White Teeth, and it was worth the wait.
This dad definitely forgot to read this if he's blaming Microsoft for his own stupidity.
And thus, Salman Rushdie received a fatwa for titling his book The Satanic Verses and using them as metaphor in his novel of fiction.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Satanic-Verses-Novel-ebook/dp/B004KABDMA/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1348345835&sr=8-1
!
Don't lie. You love the poo.
Anthropologists agree, Germans love poop
Edit: Jesus christ, no need for all the downvotes, just a lighthearted commented on a post that's going to be downvoted to oblivion, anyway...no one takes this book seriously anymore.