To Try a New Sword on a Chance Wayfarer

Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (2/16/2012)

2012-02-16T23:44:43-08:00

The US should attack Iran, because Iran is threatening the US by saying it will fight back if the US attacks it.

All options are on the table regarding Iran, except the option of not going to war.

The Tea Party's war on mass transit.

The mystery of exploding pig poop.

An interesting (and funny) profile of Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto.

You sluts get off my lawn!

Religious apologists aren't actually dumb.

I could see this happening.

Last-minute drunken valentine.

A real War on Christmas.

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Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (2/12/2012)

2012-02-12T22:03:38-08:00

Sciencey links in honor of Darwin's birthday edition!

Is your cat (literally) making you crazy?

Flow, and how to get it.

Cancer drug reverses Alzheimer's symptoms in mice.

The facial expression-emotion connection may not be all that simple.

How Adele's "Someone Like You" makes people cry.

The peppered moth story is solid.

A group's intelligence depends in part on its members' ignorance.

Jeremy Lin is not a fluke.

Racial/ethnic shifts in metro areas.

Valentine's Day Prisoner's Dilemma.

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Prop 8 and the To Kill a Mockingbird effect

2012-02-12T01:45:51-08:00

With the recent court decision upholding the finding that California's anti - gay marriage law, Proposition 8, is unconstitutional, there's been a lot of talk about the weakness of the arguments in Prop 8's favor. This piece by Dahlia Lithwick is pretty typical:

So there you have it: That’s the best case that can be made against gay marriage. An appeals court dissent that rests on the premise that states needn't act rationally, or offer evidence of rationality, or even be rational in creating classifications, so long as someone publishes a study and someone else believes it. That's the best they've got, it seems.

That is not legal argument or empirical evidence. It is the death rattle of a movement that has no legal argument or empirical evidence. Nobody disputes the fact that Americans opposed to gay marriage believe passionately in their ideas and arguments. But that doesn’t necessarily mean those arguments should win in a court. The best thing that could have happened in the Prop 8 case just happened. The dissent has no clothes.

Now, I agree completely that the arguments are weak. As I've said before, it was the realization that there is no rational argument against gay marriage (there is only prejudice) that changed my mind and made me favor marriage equality. So I'm with Lithwick and everyone on that.

But. The dissent has no clothes, but Judge N. Randy Smith, a distinguished judge of long experience, argued that it does. Think about that for a minute. Why would he do that?

As Liz Newcomb points out, "Smith's reasoning seems incredibly weak." And that's the problem. She goes on to say:

The very weakness of his justification worries me. Now, the Supreme Court has done some good civil rights decisions, but they've also done some terrible ones -- Korematsu (Japanese internment, for instance) and Bowers (upholding sodomy statutes). So Smith's dissent illustrates a danger. It just goes to show you that some judges will grasp at straws to justify doing the wrong thing. And in this polarized, ideological climate, that worries me if this goes to the Supremes.

Smith's dissent reminded me of the trial in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, set in 1930s Alabama. As defense lawyer Atticus Finch clearly demonstrates, Tom Robinson, the black defendant, is obviously not guilty of raping Mayella Ewell, the young white woman who accuses him. After the case goes to the jury, Atticus's 12-year-old son, Jem, is discussing it with Reverend Sykes, minister of the local black church:

"...but don't fret, we've won it," he said wisely. "Don't see how any jury could convict on what we heard -- "

"Now don't you be so confident, Mr. Jem, I ain't ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man...." But Jem took exception to Reverend Sykes, and we were subjected to a lengthy review of the evidence with Jem's ideas on the law regarding rape....

Much to Jem's shock, the all-white jury, of course, finds Robinson guilty, not because the evidence rationally points in that direction, but because of the dictates of their prejudice: the word of white people must always be taken over the word of black people.

I call this the "To Kill a Mockingbird effect": the willingness of people to ignore rational evidence and render a verdict based on prejudice.

Because that's exactly what Judge Smith did. He dissented not because the evidence rationally pointed in that direction, but because of the dictates of his prejudice: marriage is a heterosexual institution. (And he probably did so while being completely incapable of understanding that that's what he did.)

The To Kill a Mockingbird effect is why I have to offer the same warning as Reverend Sykes if the case proceeds to the Supreme Court: "Don't you be so confident." It won't matter how weak the case is if the prejudices of five justices dictate another verdict. And I'm afraid they certainly seem likely to in the case of at least four of them.

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Goodbye Whitney

2012-02-12T00:13:10-08:00

As you've probably heard by now, Whitney Houston has died at age 48. The cause of death hasn't been announced yet, but the best guess is obvious. And even if it turns out that drugs didn't kill her, they'd already ravaged her, robbing her, and all of us, of that wonderful voice.

It's been 20 years now since her peak, and I think a lot of people have forgotten or don't know what Whitney Houston once was, and how influential she's been. She changed the way people sing. Almost every pop and R&B singer today tries to sing like Whitney. Or if not like her, like someone else who tries to sing like her.

She was that good -- that great, I should say. Other than Barbara Streisand, I can't think of another singer in popular music with the same combination of technical virtuosity and pure vocal beauty. And even Streisand couldn't match the kind of pyrotechnics that Whitney could generate with a song like "I Will Always Love You."

And of course she was beautiful as well. Just absolutely gorgeous.

This brilliant performance is how I'll always remember her. Only about 21 or 22 years old, she misses her cue or something and has to rush into the start of the song, but she's completely unfazed, and she has everything: a commanding stage presence, remarkable beauty, a marvelous voice, great technique, and above all, joy -- the pure joy of a young genius, certain in herself and her gift. Fuck drugs.

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Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (2/9/2012)

2012-02-09T22:34:45-08:00

Repulsive progressive hypocrisy.

Is the white working class "coming apart"?

Thinking about death while being an atheist.

Evolution: only a theory.

Rider and horse save boy from charging grizzly.

Whatever happened to the spitball?

The only Asian-American in the NBA.

In honor of Black History Month. (I suspect somebody at that store's been watching too much Dave Chappelle [video -- language NSFW/C/P].)

I still do this kind of thing pretty much every time my spouse is late coming home.

And it's still not too late to vote on the Brodies! I'd appreciate your vote for "Discussing potato chips with your future son-in-law* - Kuri" in the "Best Religion-and-Parenting Discussion" category. (I'm nominated in three other categories too, but I don't want to be greedy.) Anyway, there's tons of other good stuff to read there too. You should check it out if you haven't yet.

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Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (2/7/2012)

2012-02-07T21:36:49-08:00

By now you probably know that the 9th Circuit Court (one step below the US Supreme Court) ruled California's anti - gay marriage Proposition 8 unconstitutional. There's some good analysis and some links to commentary here.

Truth, lies, and Afghanistan.

Why Planned Parenthood isn't easy for the Right to destroy like ACORN was.

Related: Planned Parenthood saved me.

Presidential pardons heavily favor whites.

Michigan GOP Senate candidate's crazy racist website.

New candidate for dumbest Congressman.

When I came out...

Cognitive neuroscience!

Top 25 auto correct fails.

Who's looking at whom at the gym.

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Why books are better than Kindles

2012-02-06T18:27:46-08:00

Because you never find random foreign money in used Kindle editions of The Canterbury Tales.

One cruzeiro: not legal tender, even in Brazil

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Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (2/5/2012)

2012-02-05T23:42:31-08:00

US drone attacks target rescuers and mourners.

One town's war on gay teens.

Atheism in America: Godlessness is the last big taboo in the US, where non-believers face discrimination and isolation.

Native American 7th-grader suspended for speaking Menominee in front of teacher.

Komen's flailing continues.

The cost of football glory.

The world's heaviest insect is 3,500 times as massive as the world's smallest invertebrate.

And I just bought a house with a wood-burning fireplace, dang it.

Vermont inmates sneak a picture of a pig into official decals for state police cars.

Read the mouse-over text for the punchline.

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Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (2/2/2012)

2012-02-02T22:22:24-08:00

The Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure (the pink ribbon breast cancer foundation) has decided to put abortion politics ahead of women's health.

Damage control is underway, but it's pretty clear that the Komen Foundation has committed itself to being an anti-choice breast cancer foundation rather than a breast cancer foundation.

The Obama Administration brags about its assassination program while claiming in court cases that it's so secret it can't even confirm its existence.

Twenty-five percent of Romney's campaign money has come from 41 donors.

Tyler Clementi's suicide and Dharun Ravi's trial.

Scientists are drilling through two miles of Antarctic ice to reach one of the largest lakes in the world. (What could possibly go wrong?)

This is hilarious, but on the other hand, half the country is starving because of that fat fuck.

When is White History Month?

"[Defendant] also owed plaintiff ... a duty of care not to drink under age, or to fire bottle rockets out of his anus."

So it begins. The greatest battle of our time.

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Shameless self-promotion (Vote for me!)

2012-02-02T21:21:20-08:00

It's time for the Brodies again. The Brodies, if you don't know, are internet awards for the (mainly) ex/post/former/recovering/New Order/struggling/etc Mormon side of teh interwebs.

I'm nominated in four categories (look for 'kuri'):

Funniest Humor Piece: Book of Mormon Zombies
Most Insightful Discussion of Mormon Beliefs, Practices, and Culture: The Power of the penis
Best Philosophical/Theological Discussion: Understanding Biblical parables
Best Religion-and-Parenting Discussion: Discussing potato chips with your future son-in-law*

I hope you'll vote for me, but even if you don't, click over and take a look. Tons of great posts and blogs have been nominated, and you don't even have to be Mormony to appreciate most of them.

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Cool people with the same birthday as me

2012-01-31T19:51:46-08:00

Today is my birthday.

Also born on January 31:

Tokugawa Ieyasu, 1543, the first Tokugawa shogun
Franz Schubert, 1797, Austrian composer
Zane Grey, 1872, American writer
Jackie Robinson, 1919, American baseball player
Norman Mailer, 1923, American writer
Philip Glass, 1937, American composer, Philip Glass, 1937, American composer
Connie Booth, 1944, American writer/actor
Nolan Ryan, 1947, American baseball player
John Lydon ("Johnny Rotten"), 1956, English singer/legend
Justin Timberlake, 1981

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The mystery plant

2012-01-29T21:47:38-08:00

This plant is growing in the backyard of my new house.

I don't know what it is. I don't think I've ever seen one before. It's deciduous and kind of viney, with all these puffy, cottony things on it.

If it was up to me, I'd probably call it a "sage vine," because when there's a light breeze, the white puffballs all bob up and down like a conclave of elderly bearded men nodding wisely.

Or maybe I'd call it a "Shih Tzu vine," because it kind of reminds me of those little dogs.

But those aren't it's real name. Anybody know what it is?

I really want to know.

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A boxful of failure

2012-01-27T23:40:50-08:00

55 books, or thereabouts

Moving to a new home creates many opportunities. Today, 10 years after I abandoned my attempt at getting a PhD, I finally got rid of most of my political science books.

I'm not sure why I kept them so long. Of course, as any book lover -- not just any reader, but a Book Lover -- will tell you, one doesn't just get rid of books. One keeps them and displays them as a sort of visual, decorative record of what one is or has been interested in -- of who one is, in a way.

But the thing about these books is, I never loved them. In fact, I never even truly read most of them. In grad school -- in the social sciences, anyway -- on the way to your comprehensive exams, you don't actually read books, you process them to extract information. And because you have so many books and articles to read, you need to process them as quickly as possible, no matter how well or badly written, how interesting or dull they may be. You must know what's in them.

So you develop shortcuts. Maybe you read the first and last chapter, and the first and last paragraphs of each of the other chapters, and glean the main ideas of the book, whatever it is the author is trying to argue, that way. (And you do the same with articles: you read the abstract, the introduction, and the conclusion.) If the work will have direct bearing on your own research, of course, you delve in more deeply. And once in a blue moon, maybe, you find a book that you actually enjoy reading, and you read the whole thing. And then you feel guilty for having spent so much time on one book.

So these books weren't books that I loved in any sense. They had been tools for information gathering, not objects of intellectual or emotional desire.

Still, the 65 or so I owned out of the hundreds of books that I "read" during grad school once held great symbolic meaning for me (as did the hundreds of articles that I copied and filed away). Ten years ago, I would not have dreamed of getting rid of them. Five years ago, it would have been a struggle.

Finally, some empty space

But today, well, today what I felt was mainly a little bit surprised at how little it meant to me to box up those books and drop them off at the public library's donation bin. I titled this post "A boxful of failure," because that's what that box represents: my biggest career-type failure. But I'm over it. I'm not failing anymore; I'm having a little bit of success in my own way. So I feel glad to have gotten rid of the books, but not in some big "Finally I've put this behind me" way. I feel glad because now I have room for a lot more books in my bookcases. I switched to reading library books a few years ago because I literally had no more room for books in the tiny house we were renting.

Not that that's a concern anymore, actually. In our new place, I could easily triple my existing bookshelf space without any problem. And the advent of ebooks brings up the question of buying physical books at all. Still, it feels good to know that I can buy about 55 more books before I even have to think about new shelving.

I think I'll hit the used bookstore for some genre fiction. Revisiting Asimov's Foundation series sounds good right about now.

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Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (1/18/2012)

2012-01-19T06:07:50-08:00

Ron Paul invokes Golden Rule, Republicans boo.
Romney straps worker to roof of campaign bus. (Why this is funny. And a pithy one-panel take on the same theme.)
"Dog whistling" is not done accidentally.
Rupert Murdoch meets the internet.
Murder is no longer one of the top 15 causes of death in America.
The Red Flags of Quackery.
The Mormon Church extols religious freedom while BYU expels students who convert from Mormonism.
Jerry Coyne deepens his discussion of the (non)existence of free will.
Google Translate whispers.
Vintage dinosaur art (I got this book back when I was around six years old. It was a favorite for a long time. My mom even made her own painting of one of the pictures [T. Rex vs. Triceratops] so I could hang it on my wall.)

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Return of the attack of the killer porns!

2012-01-17T12:47:00-08:00

The LDS (Mormon) church's attitude towards pornography worked well enough before the internet. Pornography was a Very Big Deal. It was Evil. It was also kind of rare and exotic. It took a certain amount of effort, and the risk of public exposure, to get it. You had to go somewhere and find it, and maybe someone you knew from church would see you buy that magazine or come out of that forbidden store. So porn was easy to avoid. It was easy for church members to feel set apart from "the filthy things of the world."

If Mormons did indulge, then the furtiveness, guilt, and shame that the church teaches would usually make them quickly throw away the porn. They'd feel sad and pray a lot, but since getting more porn required an effort, it was easy enough not to. "Repentance" was simple and easy.

But now porn is always available. If you have internet — if you live an ordinary life, in other words — porn is never more than a few seconds away. You can't throw your porn away anymore. There's always more. And, unless there's someone monitoring your computer use, there's little worry of getting caught. Those are important changes.

Because the furtiveness, guilt, and shame that the church teaches obviously prevents Mormons from casually enjoying porn, but it also prevents them from casually not enjoying it.

By that I mean that it's hard for Mormons to simply indulge once in awhile and feel a little guilty but not really worry about it. They've been taught that porn is a Very Big Deal and its Evil. So not only can they not think, "That was fun" and go on their way, they can't simply think "Oops!" and go on their way either.

Now they're faced with this Very Big Evil Deal, but they can't get away from it. Porn is always there waiting for them. And there's a whole culture of "porn addiction" surrounding them. There's no one there to tell them that it's actually pretty normal behavior, that pretty much everybody does it, and few people have a problem with it, so don't worry if you do it once in awhile. Everybody acts like it's a Horrible Sin and a Danger rather than a mild self-indulgence at worst, and no one believes that more than the poor wankers themselves.

And that's where some of them fall into a sort of porn death spiral. They feel guilty and ashamed, and what makes them feel a little better? Porn. But that makes them feel guilty and ashamed again. So they need more porn. More guilt and shame. More porn. A vicious circle results, and something very like addiction does occur.

And this is going to continue until the church finally comes to its senses and lightens up. I think the church's treatment of porn will eventually, after many years and a lot of suffering, come to resemble its treatment of youthful masturbation. It has to go from its current 1950s-Mark-E-Peterson-tie-your-hand-to-the-bedpost attitude to something more realistic. It has to treat porn the way it treats youthful masturbation: the church won't come out and say "Everybody does it, so its no big deal." But everybody does do it. So it's no big deal. That's how every sensible bishop treats it now. (I realize that there are probably plenty of not-sensible bishops out there, but the mainstream attitude now is that it's just not that big a deal.) The church has to realize that porn is no big deal either. Until it does, it's going to go on creating "porn addicts."

See also:
Attack of the killer porns!
Discussing potato chips with your son-in-law

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Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (1/16/2012)

2012-01-18T22:36:01-08:00

"Most of you have no idea what Martin Luther King actually did."

Everything that's wrong with American journalism summed up in one sentence: "I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge 'facts' that are asserted by newsmakers they write about."

And a parody: Should Vanity Fair be a spelling vigilante?

How doctors die.

A medical study of the Haitian zombie.

More NCAA "justice."

Feel the Christian love.

When kangaroos attack.

A really nice photo essay/memoir involving Mormon missionaries.

Commercials are annoying.

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An actual internet conversation

2012-01-14T22:37:36-08:00

This actually happened.

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Earworm: Nellie the Elephant

2012-01-14T10:47:23-08:00

The only way to get rid of an earworm is to give it to someone else.

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump

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Thursday haiku: Checkout Girl 6

2012-01-12T05:00:00-08:00

After many months,
I see that she still works there.
And that I'm still old.

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Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (1/8/2012)

2012-01-08T19:06:49-08:00

An innocent man who was detained (and tortured, of course) at Guantánamo Bay for seven and a half years.

Another innocent man who was detained (and tortured, of course) at Guantánamo Bay for five years.

The evil of indefinite detention.

Why Americans don't care about civilians killed in its wars.

The myth of Japan's failure.

Trauma from leaving religion.

Salman Rushdie on his friend and defender Christopher Hitchens.

Yoga can be bad for you.

Oregon's football uniforms.

Cosplay in 1980.

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Posts I didn't write in 2011

2012-01-06T05:00:11-08:00

I actually start a lot of posts that I don't finish for one reason or another. Many of them I integrate with other, related, posts, but some I don't finish at all. These are some of their titles. If any of them sound interesting, maybe I'll finish them if you ask me nicely. ;)

Conversion and deconversion, part 1: conversion.
Conversion and deconversion, part 2: deconversion.
When Phoebe Cates was the sum of all that is desirable.
Religion and professional wrestling.
Connections, or, how it feels to be me.
Book review: The Girl Who Played with Fire.
I used to worry that too much critical thinking was bad for my kids.
How to fix America.
I really wanted to still like Joseph Smith.
If you have a racist friend...
The cruelty of Mormon monogamy.
Six years ago today, I realized that America is doomed.
What it was like to know God.
Book review: The Lew Archer mysteries.
My God, drunk or sober.
Return of the attack of the killer porns.
Book review: Red Sky at Morning.
"Why is that policeman so mean?"

Any of those sound like they're worth finishing?

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Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (1/5/2012) possibly NSFW/C/P

2012-01-05T21:52:52-08:00

(This post includes an image that may not be safe for work/children/prudes.)

Fourteen-year-old American citizen deported to Colombia.

"America’s Foreign Policy Community is now dropping the pro-freedom charade and talking openly (albeit euphemistically) about the need to oppose Arab democracy."

"[Ron] Paul is making one contribution to the foreign policy debate that could have enduring value. ...Paul routinely performs a simple thought experiment: He tries to imagine how the world looks to people other than Americans."

How psychopaths took over Wall Street.

Marvel lawyers argue IRL that mutants aren't human.

PayPal orders buyer to destroy vintage violin in order to receive a refund.

A heartwarming story of brotherly love.

The Banished Word list (does anyone still say "Thanks in advance"?)

What would you do with 250 copies of the Book of Mormon?

Question of the day: Is it objectification or is it art? Your answer will help me decide whether to buy this poster for my new house.)

Pink Floyd's "Back Catalogue"

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Thursday haiku: 21st century man

2012-01-05T05:00:04-08:00

Road rage seething, I
don't shoot the motherfucker,
I write poetry.

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The best of kuri 2011

2012-01-03T23:47:27-08:00

My favorite posts from 2011 include:

In which I discover infinite regress in a cake,

Discussing potato chips with your son-in-law,

Understanding Biblical parables: The Wheat and the Tares,

I, Nephi, zombie hunter,

Frodo Son of Drogo,

and

My greatest moment in sports.

On my blog during 2011, I also:

Explained why people can't help laughing when a Mormon says, "My underwear is sacred!"

Wrote some haiku,

Proposed a more reasonable approach to pornography for the Mormon Church,

Continued the Adventures of Leonard McCoy, Space Doctor, during which Bones, Kirk and Spock encountered Tony the Tiger and Tweety Bird,

Helped readers understand some Biblical parables,

Was comforted by Twitter after the Japanese earthquake,

Discussed some things that I liked about Mormon theology,

Considered what makes a person or a religion "decent,"

Was sexually tense,

Mourned an irrevocably damaged relationship,

Presented some favorite Bible quotes,

and

Pondered the mystery of... The White Tiger.

How was your year?

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Books I read during 2011

2012-01-05T09:34:05-08:00

These are the 85 books I read during 2011.

Ratings:
**** Highly recommended
*** Recommended
** Meh
* Don't bother

85. Graceling, Kristin Cashore ****

84. Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order), Aaron Allston **

83. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, Steven Pinker ****

82. The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick ****

81. The Walking Dead, Vol. 13: Too Far Gone, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

80. The Walking Dead, Vol. 12: Life among Them, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

79. The Walking Dead, Vol. 11: Fear The Hunters, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

78. The Walking Dead, Vol. 10: What We Become, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

77. The Walking Dead, Vol. 9: Here We Remain, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

76. The Walking Dead, Vol. 8: Made to Suffer, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

75. The Walking Dead, Vol. 7: The Calm Before, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

74. The Walking Dead, Vol. 6: This Sorrowful Life, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

73. The Walking Dead, Vol. 5: The Best Defense, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

72. The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories, Rudyard Kipling ***

71. Bossypants, Tina Fey ***

70. The Walking Dead, Vol. 4: The Heart's Desire, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

69. The Walking Dead, Vol. 3: Safety Behind Bars, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

68. The Walking Dead, Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

67. The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye, Robert Kirkman, et al. ****

66. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle ****

65. Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You A Better Friend to Your Pet, John Bradshaw ****

64. Life Itself: A Memoir, Roger Ebert ****

63. 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports, Kostya Kennedy **

62. Contagious, Scott Sigler ****

61. Infected, Scott Sigler ****

60. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand ****

59. The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman ****

58. The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman ****

57. The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman ****

56. Coming of Age in Mississippi, Anne Moody ****

55. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins ***

54. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, Robert E. Howard ***

53. Slugging It Out in Japan: An American Major Leaguer in the Tokyo Outfield, Warren Cromartie with Robert Whiting ***

52. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens ****

51. A Dance with Dragons, George R. R. Martin ****

50. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins ***

49. A Feast for Crows, George R. R. Martin ***

48. The Samurai Way of Baseball: The Impact of Ichiro and the New Wave from Japan, Robert Whiting ***

47. A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin ****

46. The Beekeeper's Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America, Hannah Nordhaus ***

45. The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear, Seth Mnookin ***

44. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan ****

43. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, F. Scott Fitzgerald, et al. ***

42. SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper, Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin ***

41. A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition, Ernest Hemingway ****

40. The Wolfling, Sterling North ****

39. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins ***

38. The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly ***

37. Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, Marcus Luttrell ***

36. A Clash of Kings, George R. R. Martin ****

35. A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin ****

34. Life, Keith Richards ****

33. The Help, Kathryn Stockett ****

32. An Exclusive Love, Johanna Adorján ****

31. Comeback, Richard Stark ****

30. Firebreak, Richard Stark ****

29. Lemons Never Lie, Richard Stark ***

28. All Things Wise and Wonderful, James Herriot ***

27. God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible, Adam Nicolson ***

26. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson ****

25. The Science of Battlestar Galactica, Patrick Di Justo and Kevin Grazier ***

24. The Memory Chalet, Tony Judt, ****

23. Flashfire, Richard Stark ****

22. Backflash, Richard Stark ***

21. True Grit, Charles Portis ****

20. The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean ****

19. Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know, Alexandra Horowitz ***

18. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas ****

17. The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Are Telling Us, Sheril Kirshenbaum ***

16. Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1, Mark Twain ****

15. My Life As a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft, Bonnie Nardi **

14. Joan Jett, Todd Oldham *** (review)

13. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott ****

12. Blindsided: Surviving a Grizzly Attack and Still Loving the Great Bear, Jim Cole with Tim Vandehey **

11. Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart ****

10. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, Atul Gawande ***

9. The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, Thomas Larson ***

8. Moon Knight, Vol. 1: The Bottom, Charlie Huston ***

7. The Elephant to Hollywood, Michael Caine ***

6. Sleepless, Charlie Huston ***

5. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Charles C. Mann ****

4. My Dog Tulip, J. R. Ackerley ****

3. Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, Chelsea Handler ***

2. The Natural History of Unicorns, Chris Lavers ***

1. Children of Dune, Frank Herbert ****

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