Engaging Reads for the Aging Mind

Tonight I spent the evening at my local Barnes & Noble store reading (skimming, actually) an array of books, which included:

"The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America" - by. David Horowitz

As the B&N website says [from the publisher],"We all know that left-wing radicals from the 1960s have hung around academia and hired people like themselves. But if you thought they were all harmless, antiquated hippies, you'd be wrong." "Horowitz exposes 101 academics - representative of thousands of radicals who teach our young people - who also happen to be alleged ex-terrorists, racists, murderers, sexual deviants, anti-Semites, and al-Qaeda supporters." David Horowitz's riveting expose is essential reading for parents, students, college alums, taxpayers, and patriotic Americans who don't think college students should be indoctrinated by sympathizers of Joseph Stalin and Osama bin Laden. The Professors is truly frightening - and an intellectual call to arms from a courageous author who knows the radicals all too well. "

My thoughts: Interesting book but very one-sided. Its tone is very anti-leftist/anti-liberal in itself. Also, I sometimes got the impression that it challenges readers to think inside the box (*sarcastic laugh*). I personally don't care to buy this book because purchasing it would ultimately mean contributing to Horowitz's own radical causes. However, I don't mind sitting around reading it for free at B&N. Thanks to this book, I now know more about some very intriguing professors across America's colleges and universities, whether or not I agree with the supposed teachings of each of them. Perhaps this book especially appeals to me since I, myself, am going to be a college professor one of these days! Moreover, another interesting thing about it was that one of the so-called "101 Most Dangerous Academics in America" is a professor at the university I currently attend. Oooh!

"Fleshing Out Skull & Bones: Investigations into America's Most Powerful Secret Society" - Chris Milligan (Editor)

As the B&N website says [from the publisher], "This chronicle of espionage, drug smuggling, and elitism in Yale University's Skull & Bones society offers rare glimpses into this secret world with previously unpublished documents, photographs, and articles that delve into issues such as racism, financial ties to the Nazi party, and illegal corporate dealings. Contributors include Anthony Sutton, author of America's Secret Establishment; Dr. Ralph Bunch, professor emeritus of political science at Portland State University; Webster Griffin Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin, authors and historians. A complete list of members, including George Bush, George W. Bush, and John F. Kerry, and reprints of rare magazine articles are included."

My thoughts: Ever since seeing the movie, "The Skulls," I have been very interested in learning more about this supposedly all-powerful society. As one character says in the movie, "If it's secret, it can't be good." Guess I'll find out whether or not I agree after I buy and read this book!

"Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Related Subjects" - by. Bertrand Russell

As the B&N website says [from the publisher], "Dedicated as few men have been to the life of reason, Bertrand Russell has always been concerned with the basic questions to which religion also addresses itself -- questions about man's place in the universe and the nature of the good life, questions that involve life after death, morality, freedom, education, and sexual ethics. He brings to his treatment of these questions the same courage, scrupulous logic, and lofty wisdom for which his other work as philosopher, writer, and teacher has been famous. These qualities make the essays included in this book perhaps the most graceful and moving presentation of the freethinker's position since the days of Hume and Voltaire."

"I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue," Russell declares in his Preface, and his reasoned opposition to any system or dogma which he feels may shackle man's mind runs through all the essays in this book, whether they were written as early as 1899 or as late as 1954.

My thoughts: A seemingly intriguing read, whether one agrees with or rejects the author's ideas. I might buy this one with my left over Christmas gift cards.

"His Bright Light" - by. Danielle Steel

As the B&N website says [from the publisher], "From the day he was born, Nick Traina was his mother's joy. By nineteen, he was dead. This is Danielle Steel's powerful personal story of the son she lost and the lessons she learned during his courageous battle against darkness."

My thoughts: As the book discusses, the "darkness" Steel lost her son to was manic depression (more popularly termed "bi-polar disorder"), which led him to take his own life. I can tell, just from the first few pages, that this is probably a book well worth the time it takes to read.