ASM098 Books, Books, and More Books

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books books and more books all that and more on this week's episode of ask sciencemic

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welcome to ask science mike the weekly podcast where i answer your questions about science faith and life we're just coming back from a winter break and a long book tour so i don't actually have questions for this week's show but i didn't want to skip it again so instead i thought we'd do something you asked me about all the time a review of books i've recently enjoyed so what do you say let's get it started well as i mentioned in the show's vamp or intro i don't have us questions for this week's show it's not that you haven't sent in questions believe me that's not the problem uh i thought i had a poll left over from before i went on tour that the patrons had voted on and i got about halfway into that episode before i realized i was literally redoing like episode 84 of ask science mike it's been a long time since we've had an in studio version of the show other than my little uh kind of christmas top of my head conversation we had a few weeks ago so i'm kind of getting back into the rhythm of what it's like to be at home i do have a lot of events coming up and travel but i'll be home more and most episodes for the first half of this year are going to be these episodes in studio so next week we'll be back to a normal question and answer show and as i thought about what to put out on monday i realized all the time people ask me about books i've enjoyed and why and because i read so much it's really hard to do to offer like a reading list but i just read too much to tell you what my favorite books are on any given topic and certainly not overall it's like asking someone if they go on a walk out in the woods which were their favorite leaves right it's just it's an impossible question to answer but i thought i might just kind of go through and just grab some books off the shelf i've enjoyed and tell you why completely at random so that's what i've done before we do that there are a few things i'd like to let you know one i will be traveling and going to a few cities in the next few weeks so i'll be uh in grand haven real soon uh i'll be doing a writing for your life seminar online so if you're a writer uh i'm doing that with some other authors rachel held evans is one uh we'll be talking about the the writing process i'll specifically be giving a talk uh with q a about podcasting how to build a podcast platform which is something i get asked about a lot so you can be anywhere and be a part of that you can see me at vinings lake church in the atlanta area real soon right after that i'll be going to san francisco california actually if you work for google i'll be giving a talk on the google campus and then be with the century club in san francisco which by the way usually sells out so don't wait to get tickets for that and then i'll immediately go to chapel hill north carolina right after san francisco to do an ask science mike live so if you'd like to know the dates if you'd like to know where you can get tickets if tickets are required just go to asksciencemike.com and then click on the events button or you can go to my facebook page at facebook.com slash mike.mcarg m-c-h-a-r-g-u-e or just search for science mike and click the tour dates tab both of those will get you in touch with my events there's more on the calendar than that that's just what's happening in the next few weeks i also want to mention i've been doing a finding god in the waves autographed copy giveaway which i've really enjoyed there's uh you know some people can't get to book events and i was trying to make it possible for anyone who wants a chance to get a signed you know personalized copy of the book to do so so if you go to findinggodonthewaves.com giveaway i'm doing a giveaway now it's technically over because it started on october 31st and went for eight weeks and i just signed eight books to mail out but we're gonna do it a few more weeks here's why there were a ton of entries at first and then uh a couple weeks only like two or three people entered so if you're thinking uh you know i don't have a chance at winning if you entered in one of those low weeks you had a great chance at winning so i think we'll do a few more weeks of this so just go to findinggodinthewaves.com giveaway and if the page is there that lets you submit your email address then i'm still running the giveaway okay uh i just enjoy it i like uh connecting with people i've liked getting you know the notes from the winners and and seeing what specifically what they want me to sign and then if there's no cost there's you know you're not this isn't like a a marketing thing uh if you have to check to subscribe to my email list it's not just an email capture strategy there's no catch here there's no cost literally if you win we email you ask you you know how you want your name spelled i write you a note in the book and then we ship it to you straight from my house okay that's the whole thing uh and that's really all the announcements i've got so let's talk about some books i've recently enjoyed and here's what i'll do in the show notes for this week's show on asksciencemike.com it's just going to be a bunch of links to these books i won't include like my review i don't even know what i'm going to say for my review of these books but so don't worry about writing it down okay so you can just go to the website click on a link and get to the book you'd like to see and these are in no particular order some of these are memoirs some of them are novels some of their science books or theology books i literally just looked at a few bookshelves and and grabbed some books i really enjoyed so let's start with a book called lab girl uh by hope gerund i don't know if i'm saying that name correctly there's a lot of authors whose names i don't know if i will say correctly but i'm assuming like me what they really want is their books mentioned more than a correct pronunciation their name anyway lab girl is a memoir and i have an autographed copy i'm really proud of um about what it's like to be a woman working in science so it's a really fascinating very frankly emotive and mind-expanding book because it talks about science um kind of at a philosophical level like the role of science what science does then takes you into a look at what it's like to actually do science but then also to kind of look a little bit at gender and intersectionalism through what it's like to be a woman in the sciences uh this is not an obscure book it's done extremely well in bookstores so if you've heard about it already i apologize but i've just got to say i really enjoyed lab girl it's a great book another book i really really really liked that i actually got at powell's in portland which makes me like it even more is a book called join this is a novel uh by steve uh taltaki tautigee i have no no idea but it's uh it's a novel about what would happen if humans could join their consciousnesses together so multiple individuals suddenly form a single consciousness so i love the mind-bending sci-fi premise an examination of what relationships are what the individual is so it's just a fantastic read i don't want to spoil it by saying too much uh it even it even undermines the role economics and privilege play and access to technology and those kind of self-reinforcing phenomena so join is a fantastic book uh here's what i got when i visited uh the west bank palestine in israel it's a book called blood brothers by elias chockler he is a christian living in palestine and he's describing firsthand what israel has been like since israel was formed at a nation from the perspective of a palestinian christian it is phenomenal with all that's happening politically with all the energy around the middle east and the holy land today this is a great book to read to understand a deeper perspective on that conflict and the roots of it and you know a lot of the conversation is what about you know arab muslims versus you know ethnic jews in israel palestine but this is the perspective of a arab christian a palestinian christian so it's it's a phenomenal phenomenal book uh which is frankly a forgotten perspective a lot what what christians are going through in israel here is another novel i loved absolutely loved called saturn run it's by john sanford and steinstein anyway it is a hard sci-fi book so this is the kind of book where someone is talking about space travel and did the math so the orbital mechanics check out uh and i love books with that level of detail seven eaves was another that i enjoyed because of the orbital mechanics as much as anything else and this is a look at what happens uh when an alien ship is spotted by saturn and an international race to get there first don't want to spoil it but it's a great read it's a huge book an absolutely massive tome as hard sci-fi so often is but but i found it just immensely enjoyable good food for thought and a reasonable approximation of what a first contact scenario could look like for humanity out of sorts by sarah bessie is just terrific uh i know a lot of people listening to the show are going through some form of faith transition or have been through some form of faith transition and the subtitle on out of sorts is making peace with an evolving faith how do we deal with a faith that not only has changed but continues to change and how do we become people of peace in that process and at peace with ourselves at peace with god it's a phenomenal book by sarah bessey christopher moore who wrote a book called lamb a gospel according to biff which is a hilarious irreverent deeply moving look at the life of jesus through his fictional childhood best friend who has edited out the gospels also wrote a couple of books one's called a dirty job and the other is called secondhand souls and that's a series of people about people who do the job of death collecting souls like normal people one day you get a book a manual and you find that you can see souls and it becomes your jobs to collect them it's just really fun read he's a humorist but kind of an existential dark humorist which is right in my wheelhouse dark matter by blake crouch that's another novel that looks at the implications of the quantum mini worlds hypothesis in our lives through a storytelling device if i tell you more about it it ruins the story i found this book to be incredible now it reads pretty conventionally at first don't give up on it just because it starts up conventional if you like weird books because it gets deeply strange a little past the midway point here's another sci-fi novel i did a lot of novels last year i was so tired from touring that i did way less non-fiction than i usually do these are things i read while i was on tour but diaspora by greg egan is actually a little bit older book but it looks at uh kind of a post-singularity humanity what is it like for people after they've left their physical bodies and interstellar travel and and what it's like to be a digital being and the tension between humans that are still organic and humans that are digital and what that would look like a really really great read i have to mention tanizi coats uh it's actually tanahizi coats between the world and me uh i i've talked about that book a lot but i recently re-read it no matter how many times i read the book it's great um it's a it's a good first book for white people uh trying to learn about the black experience in america before you get into kind of a more intense critique um it's just a phenomenal book it's a letter to his son about what it's like to live in the world uh okay another book this is this was not a recent book but uh one i love searching for sunday by rachel hall evans uh rachel's written a lot of books this one's actually my favorite book that she's written uh it's about our relationship with the church as displaced or christians in exile but we don't really feel like we fit anywhere i think a lot of people listen this show that would be their experience and searching for sunday really spoke to me in the experience of trying to redeem a relationship with the church thin slices of anxiety was a ton of fun this is kind of like a picture book it's called observations and advice um to ease a worried mind i don't have a lot of anxiety but this helped me understand people with anxiety a lot better than i did and if you suffer from anxiety i think the solidarity it could be helpful so it's a really really fun book really good zadie smith i'm halfway through swing time um and i'm really enjoying it i can't tell you more about it because i'm not done with it but i i am really enjoying that read okay so that's from the living room bookshelf so here's some books uh in my office i'm really enjoying words can change your brain by andrew newberg you know andrew newberg if you listen to the show he wrote uh how god changes your brain one of my favorite books in the world and this book is about the neuroscience of better conversations more intimate conversations more persuasive conversations basically relating to others better through conversation and it is 10 out of 10 home run amazing book another book i really enjoyed how to not be wrong the power of mathematical thinking this is a book about not falling into cognitive biases and using math to understand the world better it's amazing a field guide to lies is also really really good um that's uh more of a social science book um about how to tell when people are lying but in an age of fake news a field guide of lies is a really good book and i'm gonna add that because i didn't have it on my list uh let's see the body keeps the score is unbelievable it's about uh our body's relationship to trauma and grief and stress um one of the most eye-opening books i've ever read one of the best summaries of a state-of-the-art understanding interdisciplinary to how we deal with trauma uh don't miss that one i mean it is incredible i'll add this one too consciousness and the social brain is a really really good book and it basically debases the notion of an individual consciousness and puts forth a theory of a consciousness that is inherently social or multimodal uh it's a it's a great read uh there's a collection of short stories now called arrival previously called stories of your life and others the movie arrival was based on one short story in this book and it is one of the best short story collections i've ever read the stories are all based on alternate takes on cosmology or consciousness or time just mind-bending and beautiful just one of the best books i've read in a long time now people ask me all the time about books about interpreting the bible so a couple i've enjoyed is one everything pete ends has ever written [Laughter] but if you want more specifically start with the bible tells me so or the sin of certainty uh biblical literalism a gentile heresy by john shelby spong is terrific as is why christianity must change or die also by bishop spong really undermine some of the assumptions of those of us who are in evangelical or post-evangelical faith context and the bible although why christianity must change or die probably challenges everyone's assumptions about theology another book that i really enjoyed that's kind of biblical criticism how to read the bible was zealot by reza aslan it was incredible i mean absolutely mind-blowing look at a historical figure of jesus now remember when you get book recommendations from me do not assume these are safe books that these would reinforce any sort of orthodox christianity that's not a consideration in the books i select particularly why christianity must change or die and zealot probably just make a basic assumption that the resurrection and the virgin birth and all those things are ridiculous notions right so if that's important to you in the books that you read don't read those books but it doesn't matter to me i don't have to agree with everything in a book to read it grounded by diana butler bass uh which is kind of a a look at christian pantheism i enjoyed a lot especially because there's not a lot of books that have a a christian perspective that are not theistic in nature so this this is a a non-theistic look at christianity specifically pantheism i i think it's fair to say i don't know if she would agree with that assessment um but that's kind of what i took away from it the divine dance by richard rohr and mike morrell uh was phenomenal um michael mike morell is a friend of mine uh i know richard rohr pretty well and um really enjoyed the book uh it's it's kind of a look at the trinity and trinitarian theology the reason i'm into trinitarian theology is a conversation with richard rohr which you may have heard on the internet through the liturgist podcast and this book explores some of those ideas really really beautifully and i guess maybe the last book i would talk about today is by james lindsey who is an atheist mathematician and thinker and he wrote a book called everybody is wrong about god now it has an assumption that god doesn't exist of course i'm just going to read you the back cover of this so you can kind of understand i don't want to speak for james's work here everybody is wrong about god and the air is one of the most consequential ever made by humankind no corner of the world has been untouched by religious violence or conflict the problem is the very idea of theism or belief in the existence of god and by extension atheism or non-belief in the existence of god just as nietzsche declared god dead more than a century ago now it is now is the time to declare atheism dead too as james lindsay argues theism has been so thoroughly and utterly discredited philosophically sociologically and scientifically that it no longer warrants serious consideration so i wanted to read that because for a huge swath of my audience this book is going to be too much it's just it's just going to be too much not for me i loved it i absolutely loved it now where i would disagree with james pretty heavily i guess i have more respect for the psychosocial underpinnings of theism as a belief system and question the ability of society to be completely post-theistic but i do find an incredible merit in the idea that theism as a default position and atheism as a reaction to that default position aren't necessarily a healthy posture for the species or even logically consistent remember i am a christian but i am not a theist i'm a non-theist and a lot of the things people ascribe to god philosophically and theologically i do not and james lindsay is kind of the same thing for an atheist he's he's uh he doesn't like being labeled an atheist because it's like being labeled in reaction to something he does not believe it's a fantastic fantastic book but if you have any emotional investment in theism as an idea you may find this book really hard to read but i wanted to recommend it anyway because i enjoyed it so i really want to know if this was helpful because every literally every day emails tweets facebook posts whatever people asking me what i'm reading asking for recommended reading i cannot put together just a recommended reading list i read too often but if little point in time snapshots of things i'm reading and enjoyed are helpful let me know tweet me leave a comment on this episode on asklandsmike.com if this was helpful we'll do more of these or if you like me talking about books but the way i talked about them here wasn't helpful would you like me to do fewer books in deeper detail or just list a bunch of books with no commentary i do this show in response to all of you this is not my show it's a it's completely your show i never know what i want to talk about until you ask me until you tell me what you want to hear so if kind of occasional book shows are helpful let me know i'll keep doing them if they weren't let me know and i'll never do one again so we're in the new year it's 2017. by the way i know there was no show last week i have found releasing shows on the holidays is a bad idea i did one for christmas but they get downloaded like a tenth as much of any other shows i do people just don't and that's good you shouldn't be listening to my podcast uh during the holidays it's good to fill your life with other things in those seasons but we're in a new year uh getting back into the swing of things so i want to thank the usual crew of course all my patrons you've been so patient during the period of the tour when i i ignored patreon we didn't post anything people kept contributing to the show thank you thanks for making this show possible thanks for making my life possible thanks for helping my family have health insurance i do i really genuinely appreciate it uh i want to thank greg nordin uh for everything he does to edit the show i think andrew golucky for his help with pre-production and the the uh treadmill he's about to get back on preparing the polls every week picking the questions for the patrons to vote on for what makes it to the show well thank all of you for listening and this amazing experience i have where you're just my life we we're doing life together i have so enjoyed going from city to city to city and meeting you all and spending time with you we're going to continue to do that i so value our time together every week it is so life-giving for me i i'm such a weirdo just really a strange person especially a strange christian and the fact that so many of you make this program a part of your lives every week i can't express how validating that is for me how uh affirming what an antidote to loneliness that is when i first came back to faith boy i'd never been so lonely right because i wasn't christian enough for christians and i wasn't skeptical enough for atheists it's kind of out there on my own it turns out there's a lot of us so thank you and uh well i'll talk to you next week