The Science Book Club Meetup Group

 
 
 

304 pages [Anthropology]

• Hardcover
• Kindle
• Audiobook

Description
"Incredible… timely… clarifying." —Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Twitter

“Engaging, extensively documented, well-organized, and thought provoking.” —Booklist

“Entertaining and provocative.” —Publishers Weekly

"Often zingy and colorful… Civilized to Death is unquestionably well-timed… Ryan is right to highlight the aspects of modern life that have gone off the rails.” —Undark

“[A] prescient book about the nature of progress… Civilized to Death will make you see our so-called progress in a whole new light.” —Book Riot

"This is not just a book, it's a revolution. Every person needs to read this book and unlearn the negative tropes we've been taught to believe about human nature, wake up to the shackles of consumerism, and discover who we really are as a species." —Neil Strauss, New York Times bestselling author of The Game

“This book takes on 'progress' as a guiding ethos—and does so with gusto.” —The Stranger

“It is increasingly clear to many of us that the way we have been living is no longer sustainable, at least as long as we want the earth to outlive us. …Civilized to Death is an important guide in this conversation.” —Psychology Today

"A fascinating read." —Seattle Times

"Every great once in a while, a book comes along that makes you rethink everything you thought you knew. Civilized to Death is without question one of them." —Jesse Bering, PhD, author of The Belief Instinct

“Christopher Ryan is one of the most interesting and provocative thinkers of our time. Everyone should read him—you might well disagree but you’ll definitely think differently." —Johann Hari, New York Times–bestselling author of Lost Connections

"Read this book and you will never look at the world in the same way again. …Humans evolved to survive and reproduce. They were all successful with the second adaptation, with overpopulation that has resulted in famine, overcrowding, and civic strife. Human survival was made possible by the brain's remarkable intelligence. But why hasn't that intelligence produced happier, healthier men and women, even in 'civilized' countries? Christopher Ryan provides the answer in this provocative book, which is destined for classic status. It demonstrates how people are being civilized to death, both literally and metaphorically. It presents a stark picture of how the human experiment may be winding down if not winding up. But it also provides some solutions, brilliant roadmaps that you will find nowhere else, neither in politician's utopian scenarios or futurists' speculations." —Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., co-author Personal Mythology

Praise for Sex at Dawn
“Sex at Dawn has helped me understand myself and the world so much more clearly.” —Ilana Glazer, co-creator of Broad City

“Sex at Dawn is the single most important book about human sexuality since Alfred Kinsey unleashed Sexual Behavior in the Human Male on the American public in 1948.” —Dan Savage

“Funny, witty, and light… Sex at Dawn is a scandal in the best sense, one that will have you reading the best parts aloud and reassessing your ideas about humanity’s basic urges well after the book is done.” —Newsweek

“Sex at Dawn challenges conventional wisdom about sex in a big way…. This is a provocative, entertaining, and pioneering book. I learned a lot from it and recommend it highly.” ­—Andrew Weil, MD, author of Healthy Aging

“Sex at Dawn is a provocative and engaging synthesis… that has the added benefit of being a joy to read.” —Seed magazine

About the Author
Christopher Ryan, PhD, and his work have been featured just about everywhere, including: MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Times of London, Playboy, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Outside, El Pais, La Vanguardia, Salon, Seed, and Big Think. A featured speaker from TED to The Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House to the Einstein Forum in Pottsdam, Germany, Ryan has consulted at various hospitals in Spain, provided expert testimony in a Canadian constitutional hearing, and appeared in well over a dozen documentary films. The author of Civilized to Death and the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Sex at Dawn, Ryan puts out a weekly podcast, called Tangentially Speaking, featuring conversations with interesting people, ranging from famous comics to bank robbers to drug smugglers to porn stars to authors to plasma physicists.

 
 
 

304 pages [Anthropology]

• Hardcover
• Kindle
• Audiobook

Description
"Incredible… timely… clarifying." —Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Twitter

“Engaging, extensively documented, well-organized, and thought provoking.” —Booklist

“Entertaining and provocative.” —Publishers Weekly

"Often zingy and colorful… Civilized to Death is unquestionably well-timed… Ryan is right to highlight the aspects of modern life that have gone off the rails.” —Undark

“[A] prescient book about the nature of progress… Civilized to Death will make you see our so-called progress in a whole new light.” —Book Riot

"This is not just a book, it's a revolution. Every person needs to read this book and unlearn the negative tropes we've been taught to believe about human nature, wake up to the shackles of consumerism, and discover who we really are as a species." —Neil Strauss, New York Times bestselling author of The Game

“This book takes on 'progress' as a guiding ethos—and does so with gusto.” —The Stranger

“It is increasingly clear to many of us that the way we have been living is no longer sustainable, at least as long as we want the earth to outlive us. …Civilized to Death is an important guide in this conversation.” —Psychology Today

"A fascinating read." —Seattle Times

"Every great once in a while, a book comes along that makes you rethink everything you thought you knew. Civilized to Death is without question one of them." —Jesse Bering, PhD, author of The Belief Instinct

“Christopher Ryan is one of the most interesting and provocative thinkers of our time. Everyone should read him—you might well disagree but you’ll definitely think differently." —Johann Hari, New York Times–bestselling author of Lost Connections

"Read this book and you will never look at the world in the same way again. …Humans evolved to survive and reproduce. They were all successful with the second adaptation, with overpopulation that has resulted in famine, overcrowding, and civic strife. Human survival was made possible by the brain's remarkable intelligence. But why hasn't that intelligence produced happier, healthier men and women, even in 'civilized' countries? Christopher Ryan provides the answer in this provocative book, which is destined for classic status. It demonstrates how people are being civilized to death, both literally and metaphorically. It presents a stark picture of how the human experiment may be winding down if not winding up. But it also provides some solutions, brilliant roadmaps that you will find nowhere else, neither in politician's utopian scenarios or futurists' speculations." —Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., co-author Personal Mythology

Praise for Sex at Dawn
“Sex at Dawn has helped me understand myself and the world so much more clearly.” —Ilana Glazer, co-creator of Broad City

“Sex at Dawn is the single most important book about human sexuality since Alfred Kinsey unleashed Sexual Behavior in the Human Male on the American public in 1948.” —Dan Savage

“Funny, witty, and light… Sex at Dawn is a scandal in the best sense, one that will have you reading the best parts aloud and reassessing your ideas about humanity’s basic urges well after the book is done.” —Newsweek

“Sex at Dawn challenges conventional wisdom about sex in a big way…. This is a provocative, entertaining, and pioneering book. I learned a lot from it and recommend it highly.” ­—Andrew Weil, MD, author of Healthy Aging

“Sex at Dawn is a provocative and engaging synthesis… that has the added benefit of being a joy to read.” —Seed magazine

About the Author
Christopher Ryan, PhD, and his work have been featured just about everywhere, including: MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Times of London, Playboy, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Outside, El Pais, La Vanguardia, Salon, Seed, and Big Think. A featured speaker from TED to The Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House to the Einstein Forum in Pottsdam, Germany, Ryan has consulted at various hospitals in Spain, provided expert testimony in a Canadian constitutional hearing, and appeared in well over a dozen documentary films. The author of Civilized to Death and the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Sex at Dawn, Ryan puts out a weekly podcast, called Tangentially Speaking, featuring conversations with interesting people, ranging from famous comics to bank robbers to drug smugglers to porn stars to authors to plasma physicists.

 
 
 

by David Wallace-Wells, 320 pages [Ecology]

• Paperback
• Hardcover
• Kindle
• Audiobook
• Library: https://fcplcat.fairfaxcounty.gov/search/title.aspx?ctx=1.1033.0.0.1&pos=1&cn=303184

Description
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE
“Potent and evocative…. Wallace-Wells has resolved to offer something other than the standard narrative of climate change…. He avoids the ‘eerily banal language of climatology’ in favor of lush, rolling prose.” —Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“The book has potential to be this generation’s Silent Spring.” —The Washington Post

“The Uninhabitable Earth, which has become a best seller, taps into the underlying emotion of the day: fear…. I encourage people to read this book.”—Alan Weisman, The New York Review of Books

"Most of us know the gist, if not the details, of the climate change crisis. And yet it is almost impossible to sustain strong feelings about it. David Wallace-Wells has now provided the details, and with writing that is not only clear and forceful, but often imaginative and even funny, he has found a way to make the information deeply felt." —Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated

“A brilliant new book…. a remorseless, near-unbearable account of what we are doing to our planet."—John Lanchester, The New York Times Book Review

"David Wallace-Wells argues that the impacts of climate change will be much graver than most people realize, and he's right. The Uninhabitable Earth is a timely and provocative work." —Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

"An excellent book…. Not since Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature thirty years ago have we been told what climate change will mean in such vivid terms." —Fred Pearce, The Washington Post

"One of the very few books about our climate change emergency that doesn't sugarcoat the horror." —William T. Vollmann, author of No Immediate Danger

“Clearly and engagingly written, widely informed, with references supplied in extensive and detailed endnotes, this overview of the present status of the climate emergency and our response to it is completely captivating: it is our own story, happening here and now.”—Lydia Davis, Times Literary Supplement

“Powerfully argued…. A masterly analysis of why—with a world of solutions—we choose doom.” —Nature

"This gripping, terrifying, furiously readable book is possibly the most wide-ranging account yet written of the ways in which climate change will transform every aspect of our lives, ranging from where we live to what we eat and the stories we tell. Essential reading for our ever-more-unfamiliar and unpredictable world." —Amitav Ghosh, author of Flood of Fire

“Urgent and humane…. Wallace-Wells is an extremely adept storyteller…. A horrifying assessment of what we might expect as a result of climate change if we don’t change course.” —Susan Matthews, Slate

“If we don’t want our grandchildren to curse us, we had better read this book.” —Timothy Snyder, author of Black Earth

“Lively…. Vivid…. If you’ve snoozed through or turned away from the climate change news, this book will waken and update you. If you’re steeped in the unfolding climate drama, Wallace-Wells’s voice and perspective will be stimulating.” —David George Haskell, The Guardian

“Wallace-Wells has a gorgeous command of the English language, and knows how to lay down prose that moves the reader at such a clip that one feels like a Kentucky Derby–exhausted mare at the end of each chapter…. Wallace-Wells sets himself and his analysis of climate change apart from the predominant voices of leadership in the field.” —Laurie Garrett, The Lancet

“Beautifully written…. As climate change encroaches, things will get worse. Much worse. And David Wallace-Wells spares no detail in explaining how.” —Kate Aronoff, Bookforum

"A brilliant and unsparing analysis of a nightmare that is no longer a distant future but our chaotic, burning present. Unlike other writers who speak about human agency in the abstract, Wallace-Wells zeros in on the power structures and capitalist elites whose mindless greed is writing an obituary for our grandchildren." —Mike Davis, author of Ecology of Fear

"A lucid and thorough description of our unprecedented crisis, and of the mechanisms of denial with which we seek to avoid its fullest recognition.” —William Gibson, author of Neuromancer

"David Wallace-Wells has produced a willfully terrifying polemic that reads like a cross between Stephen King and Stephen Hawking. Written with verve and insight and an eerie gusto for its own horrors, it comes just when we need it; it could not be more urgent than it is at this moment. I hope everyone will read it and be afraid." —Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon

### About the Author

David Wallace-Wells is a columnist and deputy editor at New York magazine. He has been a national fellow at the New America Foundation and was previously the deputy editor of The Paris Review. He lives in New York City.

 
 
 

by David Wallace-Wells, 320 pages [Ecology]

• Paperback
• Hardcover
• Kindle
• Audiobook
• Library: https://fcplcat.fairfaxcounty.gov/search/title.aspx?ctx=1.1033.0.0.1&pos=1&cn=303184

Description
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE
“Potent and evocative…. Wallace-Wells has resolved to offer something other than the standard narrative of climate change…. He avoids the ‘eerily banal language of climatology’ in favor of lush, rolling prose.” —Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“The book has potential to be this generation’s Silent Spring.” —The Washington Post

“The Uninhabitable Earth, which has become a best seller, taps into the underlying emotion of the day: fear…. I encourage people to read this book.”—Alan Weisman, The New York Review of Books

"Most of us know the gist, if not the details, of the climate change crisis. And yet it is almost impossible to sustain strong feelings about it. David Wallace-Wells has now provided the details, and with writing that is not only clear and forceful, but often imaginative and even funny, he has found a way to make the information deeply felt." —Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated

“A brilliant new book…. a remorseless, near-unbearable account of what we are doing to our planet."—John Lanchester, The New York Times Book Review

"David Wallace-Wells argues that the impacts of climate change will be much graver than most people realize, and he's right. The Uninhabitable Earth is a timely and provocative work." —Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

"An excellent book…. Not since Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature thirty years ago have we been told what climate change will mean in such vivid terms." —Fred Pearce, The Washington Post

"One of the very few books about our climate change emergency that doesn't sugarcoat the horror." —William T. Vollmann, author of No Immediate Danger

“Clearly and engagingly written, widely informed, with references supplied in extensive and detailed endnotes, this overview of the present status of the climate emergency and our response to it is completely captivating: it is our own story, happening here and now.”—Lydia Davis, Times Literary Supplement

“Powerfully argued…. A masterly analysis of why—with a world of solutions—we choose doom.” —Nature

"This gripping, terrifying, furiously readable book is possibly the most wide-ranging account yet written of the ways in which climate change will transform every aspect of our lives, ranging from where we live to what we eat and the stories we tell. Essential reading for our ever-more-unfamiliar and unpredictable world." —Amitav Ghosh, author of Flood of Fire

“Urgent and humane…. Wallace-Wells is an extremely adept storyteller…. A horrifying assessment of what we might expect as a result of climate change if we don’t change course.” —Susan Matthews, Slate

“If we don’t want our grandchildren to curse us, we had better read this book.” —Timothy Snyder, author of Black Earth

“Lively…. Vivid…. If you’ve snoozed through or turned away from the climate change news, this book will waken and update you. If you’re steeped in the unfolding climate drama, Wallace-Wells’s voice and perspective will be stimulating.” —David George Haskell, The Guardian

“Wallace-Wells has a gorgeous command of the English language, and knows how to lay down prose that moves the reader at such a clip that one feels like a Kentucky Derby–exhausted mare at the end of each chapter…. Wallace-Wells sets himself and his analysis of climate change apart from the predominant voices of leadership in the field.” —Laurie Garrett, The Lancet

“Beautifully written…. As climate change encroaches, things will get worse. Much worse. And David Wallace-Wells spares no detail in explaining how.” —Kate Aronoff, Bookforum

"A brilliant and unsparing analysis of a nightmare that is no longer a distant future but our chaotic, burning present. Unlike other writers who speak about human agency in the abstract, Wallace-Wells zeros in on the power structures and capitalist elites whose mindless greed is writing an obituary for our grandchildren." —Mike Davis, author of Ecology of Fear

"A lucid and thorough description of our unprecedented crisis, and of the mechanisms of denial with which we seek to avoid its fullest recognition.” —William Gibson, author of Neuromancer

"David Wallace-Wells has produced a willfully terrifying polemic that reads like a cross between Stephen King and Stephen Hawking. Written with verve and insight and an eerie gusto for its own horrors, it comes just when we need it; it could not be more urgent than it is at this moment. I hope everyone will read it and be afraid." —Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon

### About the Author

David Wallace-Wells is a columnist and deputy editor at New York magazine. He has been a national fellow at the New America Foundation and was previously the deputy editor of The Paris Review. He lives in New York City.