The Reading List/Bookstore - Random Stuff Aisle

Welcome to the Random Stuff Aisle, arranged by the messy guy on our staff. Here you'll find some random reading favorites to help you pass whatever time you have waiting for the next bizarre thing to happen during the new normal. As always, if you want to buy it, we provide a link for that too. Yay. Enjoy.

Bookstore links: Zombies | Survival Skills | Random Stuff

Book \| Kindle	After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones If your looking for an excellent supernatural/horror story book, but only have time for shorter than full book stories because you're foraging and fighting, Stephen Graham Jones has you covered. After the People Lights Have Gone Off offers fifteen stories depicting the horrors and fears of the supernatural and of the everyday. Here is a synopsis of some of the tales: in "Thirteen", horrors lurk behind the flickering images on the big screen; "Welcome to the Reptile House" reveals the secrets that hide in our flesh; in "The Black Sleeve of Destiny", a single sweatshirt leads to unexpectedly dark adventures; and, the title story, "After the People Lights Have Gone Off", is anything but your typical haunted-house story.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Schulz To err is human. Yet most of us go through life assuming (and sometimes insisting) that we are right about nearly everything, from the origins of the universe to how to load the dishwasher. In Being Wrong, Kathryn Schulz explores why we find it so gratifying to be right and so maddening to be mistaken. Drawing on thinkers as varied as Augustine, Darwin, Freud, Gertrude Stein, Alan Greenspan, and Groucho Marx, she shows that error is both a given and a gift; one that can transform our worldviews, our relationships, and ourselves. How's that for holed up in a post-apocalypse bunker banter?
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Beloved by Toni Morrison If we're going to feature a book to engage a conversation, Beloved ticks all the right boxes. Written by Toni Morrison, a Nobel Laurette in literature, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (and many more accolades) with this story of a slave who escaped to Ohio, only to understand that years later she was still not free. The subject of the story, Sethe, has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many terrible things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is sure to be a conversation starter at pre-apocalypse cocktail parties and post-apocalypse around the campfire chats.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates In a profound bestseller, described by CNN as one of the most influential books of the decade that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. This book is not only perfect book for provoking conversation but is likely an appropriate book during these times of race conversations.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Cosmos by Carl Sagan Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time, in which Carl Sagan reveals the journey of a planet that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space. Featuring a new Introduction by Sagan’s collaborator, Ann Druyan, full color illustrations, and a new Foreword by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos retraces the fourteen billion years of cosmic evolution that have transformed matter into consciousness, exploring such topics as the origin of life, the human brain, Egyptian hieroglyphics, spacecraft missions, the death of the Sun, the evolution of galaxies, and the forces and individuals who helped to shape modern science.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Inside the Black Vault by John Greenewald Jr. If you believe we can't possibly be the only intelligent life in the universe, or are an abduction victim yourself, you may find John Greenewald, Jr.'s investigative work to be very interesting and conversation-worthy. This book relies on more than two million pages of declassified government documents covering subjects related to UFOs, the JFK Assassination, chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, and top secret aircraft. Inside The Black Vault: The Government’s UFO Secrets Revealed takes you on a journey within the secret world of unidentified aerial phenomenon that has plagued the military since at least the 1940s. Each chapter explores various agencies and their documents, and breaks down the meaning of why some of the most important documents are relevant to proving a massive cover-up.
Book	Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain A deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine—now with all-new, never-before-published material. It's a fun and alarming book that is sure to be a great topic for all your conversational opportunities.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his 30th birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God - except Biff, the Messiah's best friend, who has been resurrected to tell tell is a miraculous story, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, corpse reanimations, demons, and much more. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	On the Road by Jack Kerouac Typed out as one long, single-spaced paragraph on eight long sheets of tracing paper that he later taped together to form a 120-foot scroll, this document is among the most significant, celebrated, and provocative artifacts in contemporary American literary history. It represents the first full expression of Kerouac's revolutionary aesthetic, the identifiable point at which his thematic vision and narrative voice came together in a sustained burst of creative energy. It was also part of a wider vital experimentation in the American literary, musical, and visual arts in the post-World War II period.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain If you're looking an interesting and out of the ordinary topic to discuss during the long nights of the zombie apocalypse, look no further. In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.
Book \| Kindle	Secret History: Conspiracies from Ancient Aliens to the New World Order by Nick Redfern Welcome to the ultimate compendium of conversation starters. From ancient aliens to the New World Order, this book examines, explores, and uncovers the hidden, overlooked, and buried history of mankind. Researcher Nick Redfern investigates the stories, mythologies, lore behind incredible events and clandestine groups of yesterday and today. More than 60 entries dig deep into the manipulation of events by influential groups.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Slapstick or Lonesome No More! by Kurt Vonnegut Slapstick presents an apocalyptic vision as seen through the eyes of the current King of Manhattan (and last President of the United States), a wickedly irreverent look at the all-too-possible results of today’s follies. But even the end of life-as-we-know-it is transformed by Kurt Vonnegut’s pen into hilarious farce—a final slapstick that may be the Almighty’s joke on us all.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson In a thrilling narrative showcasing his gifts as storyteller and researcher, Erik Larson recounts the spellbinding tale of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The White City (as it became known) was a magical creation constructed upon Chicago's swampy Jackson Park. Dr. Henry H. Holmes combined the fair's appeal with his own fatal charms to lure scores of women to their deaths. Whereas the fair marked the birth of a new epoch in American history, Holmes marked the emergence of a new American archetype, the serial killer, who thrived on the very forces then transforming the country.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku New York Times bestselling author and world renowned physics professor, Dr. Michio Kaku, tackles the most fascinating and complex object in the known universe: the human brain. This fascinating book unveils the astonishing research being done in top laboratories around the world—all based on the latest advancements in neuroscience and physics—including recent experiments in telepathy, mind control, avatars, telekinesis, and recording memories and dreams. The Future of the Mind is an extraordinary, mind-boggling exploration of the frontiers of neuroscience that is certain to be a conversation point in before and after the zombie apocalypse.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt This Pulitzer Prize winning novel follows Theo Decker, a 13-year-old who miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. But he is tormented by a longing for his mother and clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into a wealthy and insular art community. As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love -- and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle. The Goldfinch is a mesmerizing, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention. What better subject to discuss when the lights go out?
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	The Hynek UFO Report By J. Allen Hynek Originally released in 1977, this new edition by the world's foremost authority on UFOs distills 12,000 sightings and 140,000 pages of Project Blue Book evidence into a coherent explanation. A US Air Force–sponsored UFO-basher for years, Hynek had completely changed his tune by the late 1960s. Whether you believe in little green men or an official government cover-up policy, The Hynek UFO Report is rational, logical, and realistic, and is required reading. It is for anyone interested in UFOs, the possibility of extraterrestrial life, and the role of the US government in hiding the truth from the public.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	The Vital Question by Nick Lane We do not know why complex life on Earth is the way it is, or, for that matter, how life first began. In The Vital Question, award-winning author and biochemist Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, advancing a solution to conundrums that have puzzled generations of scientists. Building on the pillars of evolutionary theory, the author draws on modern research into the link between energy and cell biology, in order to deliver a compelling account of evolution from the very origins of life to the emergence of multicellular organisms, while offering deep insights into our own lives and deaths. Whether you're walking and chatting on a post-apocalyptic highway, or want fodder for a cocktail conversation, this rigorous and seriously interesting book is perfect for the job.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	The World According to Garp by John Irving This National Book Award winning novel follows the life of the bastard son of a feminist leader, who grows up to be a writer. It is a novel rich with 'lunacy and sorrow'; yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust. It provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases."
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Theories of International Politics and Zombies: Revived Edition by Daniel W. Drezner Of course, even though it is considered rude, politics is a favorite topic to waste conversation time away, whether hiding in your attic or jogging to a designated post-apocalyptic evacuation site. So, it's worth knowing what would happen to international politics if the dead rose and started feed on the living. Daniel Drezner's book applies generally accepted international relations theories to a zombie war. It explores the plots of popular zombie films, songs, and books to predict realistic scenarios for the political stage in the face of a zombie threat and considers the validity of such scenarios.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Think Like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner In this thought provoking book, the authors use their blend of captivating storytelling and unconventional analysis to teach each us all how to think a bit more productively, more creatively, more rationally. In Think Like A Freak, you'll be given a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems, whether your interest lies in minor lifehacks or major global reforms. The topics range from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain. Along the way, you’ll learn the secrets of a Japanese hot-dog-eating champion, the reason an Australian doctor swallowed a batch of dangerous bacteria, and why Nigerian e-mail scammers make a point of saying they’re from Nigeria. Don't miss out on this excellent read.
Book \| Kindle \| Audio	Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman In his New York Times bestselling, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, world-famous psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, will take you on a tour of the mind and explain the two systems that drive how we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation―each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions. Just because you're on the run from flesh-eating undead, you maybe hungry, and probably haven't showered in days, doesn't mean you shouldn't be smart and understand how to make decisions - and have intelligent conversations about cognitive decision-making with fellow refugees.