10 Most Interesting Books of the Last Decade
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Most Interesting Books Review
I have compiled this list of the 10 Most Interesting Books of the Last Decade after completing a project of research to establish exactly which are the most interesting books of the last ten years.
Over many years I have been a writer and avid reader of books, so it gave me great pleasure to undertake this task of the most interesting books review.
You will find in this list a varied array of subject matter and you will discover some great pieces of literary work by highly talented authors.
In this modern fast paced world that we all now live in it is good to see that the enjoyment of reading is still firmly a part of our everyday activities.
Browse through the most interesting books review and if there are any books that you have not read, but would like to, just click.
Then you can sit back in a comfortable chair with a full glass and do your own personal review of some wonderful literature.
So for your reading pleasure here is the list of the 10 most interesting books of the last decade.
Enjoy your reading.
#10 Most Interesting Book of the Last Decade
Burning Books
By Matthew Fishburn
Burning Books
Amazon Price: $41.77 (as of 02/22/2012)
Matthew Fishburn offers an original and often disturbing perspective on a dark chapter in literary history. He has a genius for drawing unexpected connections and he writes with the kind of elegance that was long ago banished from most academic books. What makes Burning Books so impressive is the author's going well beyond the usual instances. The book is supported by an excellent bibliography and notes, and there is a fine selection of reproduced posters, cartoons and photographs which enhance the value of the text.
#9 Most Interesting Book of the Last Decade
The Hundred-Year Lie
By Randall Fitzgerald
The Hundred-Year Lie: How to Protect Yourself from the Chemicals That Are Destroying Your Health
Amazon Price: $7.43 (as of 02/22/2012)
This provocative and frightening look at the synthetic chemicals used by the processed foods, pharmaceutical and chemical industries delivers an excellent, up-to-date summary of "what is really in our food, water, vitamins, prescription drugs, childhood vaccines, cosmetics, and in our homes. The "hundred-year lie" dates from 1906, the year Congress enacted the Pure Food and Drug Act. Utilizing a range of articles from science journals and government reports, along with interviews with scientists and environmentalists, Fitzgerald looks at synthetic chemicals-from artificial sweeteners to antidepressants-that are diminishing our health. Throughout, Fitzgerald explodes various myths such as that one right dose of a particular drug works for everyone and that all food additives have been tested for safety.
#8 Most Interesting Book of the Last Decade
Future Hype
By Bob Seidensticker
Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change
Amazon Price: $5.62 (as of 02/22/2012)
Conventional wisdom says that technology change is exponential, giving us an ever-growing number of exciting new products. According to this view, we live in an unprecedented golden age of technological expansion. Not so, according to Future Hype. Author Bob Seidensticker, who has an intimate understanding of technology on professional, theoretical, and academic levels, asserts that today's achievements are not unprecedented. He explodes nine major myths of technology, including "Change is exponential," "Products are adopted faster," and "The Internet changes everything," and he argues that we can't control technology change unless we know how it changes. Examining the history of tech hype, Seidensticker uncovers the inaccuracies and misinterpretations that characterize the popular view of technology.
What Makes A Book Most Interesting?
The word "interesting." literally means: Engaging or exciting and holding the attention or curiosity. Arousing a feeling of interest. A state of curiosity or concern about or attention to something. Involvement with or participation in something. An excess or bonus beyond what is expected or due. Something, such as a quality, subject, or activity that evokes this mental state.In Edward DeBono's book, I Am Right You Are Wrong, he answers the question about what makes something interesting:
"There is always interest in a pattern-rich repertoire. If around any subject there is a rich networking of patterns, that subject becomes interesting."
What these authors have managed to do is to make the mundane memorable, they are not one-dimensional, they have learned the principles of amazing storytelling, they know how to be more challenging and they have expanded their references.
#7 Most Interesting Book of the Last Decade
Our Culture, What's Left Of It
By Theodore Dalrymple
Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses
Amazon Price: $10.60 (as of 02/22/2012)
Rampant alcoholism and drug use; increasing illegitimacy; children raised without any form of parental supervision or guidance; the destruction of traditional morals and respect for law and order; a refusal to see the dangers of failing to insist upon the assimilation of foreign, even hostile, immigrants are contributing to the deterioration of our society. By implication, Dalyrmple makes it plain that this same kind of social destruction will soon infect and ultimately destroy all the Western nations.
#6 Most Interesting Book of the Last Decade
History On Trial
By Deborah E. Lipstadt
History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier
Amazon Price: $4.11 (as of 02/22/2012)
In a much-publicized case, David Irving, the author of numerous books about WWII, sued Emory University historian Lipstadt and her British publisher, Penguin, for libel. Lipstadt had called Irving a Holocaust denier in a book about the Holocaust denial movement, and Britain's libel laws put the burden of proof on her to show that the charge was true. Did that mean proving the Holocaust had happened? Was Lipstadt, as Irving claimed, trying to restrict his freedom of speech, or was he restraining hers? Was the courtroom the proper place to examine historical truth? The press hotly debated these issues, but as Lipstadt relates in this powerful account, she and her adept lawyers felt they simply had to discredit a man who had said that "no documents whatsoever show that a Holocaust had ever happened.
Taking A Short Break
A Few Words From Your Host
You are half way through the 10 Most interesting Books of the Last Decade.So far you have discovered some really great novels, but the most interesting top 10 list now continues with books that are even more interesting.
Please take the time to leave a comment with your thoughts about this list of top 10 most interesting books of the last decade.
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#5 Most Interesting Book of the Last Decade
The Things That Matter
By Edward Mendelson
The Things That Matter: What Seven Classic Novels Have to Say About the Stages of Life
Amazon Price: $7.74 (as of 02/22/2012)
What Mendelson accomplishs, and brilliantly, is to analyze these novels as extraordinary representatives of changes in moral and cultural mores in the 19th and 20th centuries. He offers a fascinating glimpse into the hidden visionary narrative in Wuthering Heights; convincingly finds that Middlemarch ("Marriage") and other of George Eliot's novels "expound more knowledge than any other body of fiction in English, and more wisdom than most"; and credits Woolf with groundbreaking insights into human emotions. As literary guides to these seven books, Mendelson's essays offer significant intellectual pleasure.
#4 Most Interesting Book of the Last Decade
Coincidence, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz
By Edward B. Burger
Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas
Amazon Price: $8.97 (as of 02/22/2012)
The book consists of four parts. The first part is on "Understanding Uncertainty" and covers topics related to chaos, coincidences, and statistics. The second part, "Embracing Figures", deals with cryptography and patterns and has an especially nice section on `sizing up numbers' which deals with orders of magnitude and topics which should be a part of anybody's quantitative literacy. "Exploring Aesthetics" is the subject of the third part, which includes discussions of fractals and chaos and a nice introduction to the coffee cups and doughnuts of topology. The final section, which is entitled "Transcending Reality", deals with the fourth dimension and various notions of infinity.
#3 Most Interesting Book of the Last Decade
The End of Youth
By Robert Gibson
The End of Youth: The Life and Work of Alain-Fournier
Amazon Price: $16.20 (as of 02/22/2012)
For over half a century, Robert Gibson has published extensively on Alain-Fournier's life and work and is now acknowledged as the leading authority on this subject in the English-speaking world. Gibson provides a re-appraisal of Fournier's complex love-life, his undervalued career as a journalist, a re-examination of the long and complicated genesis of "Le Grand Mealnes", the fullest analysis in any language of all his poetry and prose together with an authoritative overview of the remarkable range of critical interpretations to which his haunting masterpiece has been subject. The result is a compelling piece of literary detective-work and a human story sensitively and movingly told. Lavishly illustrated, this is a book which will appeal both to the serious scholar and the general reader.
What Contents Make These Books Interesting?
Books can cover a varied set of subject matter, but it is worthy of noting that this list of the top 10 most interesting books of the last decade contains novels that are historic, full of facts, revealing, exploring the truth and very informative.Maybe this is the formula as to why they became the top 10 most interesting books of the last decade.
Ok, so now we are down to the last two books in the top 10 most interesting books list.
Any guesses as to which books they are?
Enjoy your reading.
#2 Most Interesting Book of the Last Decade
Slaughterhouse Five
By Kurt Vonnegut Jr
Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
Amazon Price: $5.59 (as of 02/22/2012)
Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
Don't let the ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held) is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is as important as any written since 1945.
#1 Most Interesting Book of the Last Decade
The Adventures of Mr Marigold
By Michael Tobias
The Adventures of Mr Marigold
Amazon Price: $50.00 (as of 02/22/2012)
Michael Tobias's breathtaking novel, The Adventures of Mr Marigold, was first published in New Zealand, and is illustrated by the great nature photographer Craig Potton (who also did still imagery backgrounds for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "King Kong") The Adventures of Mr Marigold is a groundbreaking fiction - it is at once eloquent, complex, wry, disturbing and forever enchanting. At well over 1,800 pages, this is the closest the 21st century is likely to get to a modern day Don Quixote. It is Ulysses, Remembrance of the Things Past, The Divine Comedy, the Meditations of Saint Augustine, and of Marcus Aurelius, Sartre's Nausea, and Beckett's Waiting for Godot - in one book whose originality and relevancy, brilliant literary style and inexplicably lush prose - every sentence -will leave true readers breathless, sleepless, astounded and joyouse.
More Most Interesting Books
Frozen Dreams
Frozen Dreams
Amazon Price: (as of 02/22/2012)
This is the compelling personal story of a young woman who is determined to finally make more of her life. Portland was where Celeste had made her home, but it was not the place that she had one day hoped to be. And now she was going to do something about it, no more hesitating and no more of her frozen dreams. Setting out to change her life she meets many along the way that try to confuse her, but she is not going to let anything stand in her way.
In Danger of Dying
In Danger of Dying
Amazon Price: (as of 02/22/2012)
The unexpected crash of a maximum security prison bus in front of Stamford Town bank allows the escape of three dangerous convicts who in desperation decide to take hostages and enter the bank where they set up an armed siege. Police Inspector Pat Abbott deploys a special team led by negotiator Scott Bradley to secure the hostage's safe release. But Scott has much more than just the convicts to watch out for in this action filled suspense thriller.
Everything Top 10
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byJust Really Great Short Stories
Just Really Great Short Stories
Amazon Price: (as of 02/22/2012)
Here is a really great combination of compelling short stories and thought provoking questions for you to read while you have your coffee. Whether you are sitting in your armchair at home, having a break in the office, taking a walk in the park or relaxing in bed you will find this book just right.
Very Interesting Articles
Living on the Lost Edge of Time
By James Chapman
Living on the Lost Edge of Time
Amazon Price: (as of 02/22/2012)
Jennifer is a romantic at heart and adores reading in the tranquil calm of the old house that is her home. But everything changes when her sleep is suddenly disturbed in the middle of the night. Rising to investigate Jennifer soon finds herself immersed in a dark and mysterious adventure. She has lived alone in the old house for the last three and a half years since her mother died and never before had felt there was any need to think she should be afraid. But Jennifer does experience real fear and in the depths of the darkness she discovers a love that is destined to change her life forever.
And Some Most Interesting Places
Take A Few Moments And Share Your Thoughts About These Books
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pufek77
Feb 21, 2012 @ 10:38 am | delete
- Nice lens, but i'm not a book person.
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baseballbrains
Feb 15, 2012 @ 1:07 am | delete
- Good list and nice lens, very well done
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Edutopia
Feb 13, 2012 @ 2:53 am | delete
- Slaughterhouse Five included in the list seems like a cop-out since it wasn't originally writ within the last decade.
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Ericastanciu
Jan 9, 2012 @ 2:26 pm | delete
- All your lens are so interesting and informative.
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seosmm
Nov 25, 2011 @ 4:29 pm | delete
- Good info. Very nice lens!
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vikksimmons
Nov 21, 2011 @ 1:47 am | delete
- Thanks. I've made a note to pick up Mendelson's book and I'm thinking about the Tobias one, too.
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Positive_cake
Oct 31, 2011 @ 9:35 pm | delete
- That's really interesting! I am so sure to check out Burning Books! :-) You may find my article interesting. i wrote about the top ten classic books...just purely my opinion. however, you can only find it via the direct link : http://www.squidoo.com/top-10-classical-books :-) do comment and like it!
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mercin
Oct 29, 2011 @ 10:39 pm | delete
- Interesting list. The only one I've read is Slaughterhouse Five.
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jksterling
Oct 22, 2011 @ 10:27 pm | delete
- Great list, thank you.
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ana_nimoss
Oct 12, 2011 @ 5:44 pm | delete
- I never heard of these books...gotta check them out. Thanks.
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Domique21
Sep 1, 2011 @ 5:19 am | delete
- very informative. Thank you for posting.
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grifith
Aug 14, 2011 @ 10:10 am | delete
- Very Interesting Books. Thank You
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ellagis
Aug 2, 2011 @ 12:29 pm | delete
- Thank you for your lens, I´ve "stolen" your suggestion!!! :)
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Travel_Zone
Jul 27, 2011 @ 5:41 am | delete
- Our Culture, What's Left Of It By Theodore Dalrymple has been the Most Interesting Books of the Last Decade ....its very interesting.....Nice 2 c that u mentioned it....Good lens
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MamaBelle
Jul 20, 2011 @ 8:37 am | delete
- I'm sad to say I haven't read any of these. I'll have to give them a try!
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fantasticallyfictional
Apr 16, 2011 @ 2:59 am | delete
- A superb lens - I'm definitely going to have to check out some of those books!
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Philippians468
Apr 13, 2011 @ 1:26 am | delete
- thank you for sharing this interesting list! cheers
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careermom
Apr 7, 2011 @ 1:07 pm | delete
- LOL.. I'm really going to have to stop reading these lists... I'm going to bankrupt myself acquiring additional books. Very interesting list.
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sallemange
Mar 24, 2011 @ 2:47 am | delete
- Love this list. Some titles I wasn't aware of too. I must get reading!
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Rewards4life
Mar 7, 2011 @ 10:07 am | delete
- What a great list, some really interesting books. Unfortunately I have not read any on your list but when I get through my ever growing "to read" pile I will be back for some ideas. Any lens which encourages reading is a must, nice work.
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My name is James Chapman and I have been a freelance writer for over ten years and really enjoy doing book reviews. Buy A Book Today
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The Alchemist
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