Saturday, July 25, 2009

Timeless Must-reads

People of the Lie by Dr. Scott Peck

I’m a reader. I love the evolution of a story or the explanation of new ideas, the flow of the phrases, and the choice of the words; the way a book feels in my hands and the sound of the pages gently swishing against one another as they’re turned. I love curling up with a book in a comfortable chair near a window through which the rays of the Sun come in to the room, gently landing on the pages as if the Sun, too, wants to read.

The library has been a good friend over the decades, although I’ll admit to having purchased books over the years to add to my own amateur collection of paperbacks, textbooks, and bestsellers. We readers are like that; we always like to have a book near at hand.

And, readers know that books are worth reading more than once. Between the covers may rest words of history, of romance, of scientific theory, or of a life similar to or completely different than our own. There are some books that are timeless, books that contain questions or answers or perspectives that seem relevant regardless of the era or the changes in pop culture.

People of the Lie is one of them. Though a bestseller in the eighties, the words, the theories, the questions and possible solutions are still as relevant today. With the troubles facing our country, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the economy, and a growing sense of dissatisfaction amongst the public, perhaps it is even more so.

The book attempts and succeeds in carefully holding up a mirror to our selves as individuals, as communities, and as a country. Delicately, though the sharing of stories and the explanation of theories, Dr. Peck helps us each to acknowledge the evil in each of us, how this evil typically manifests, and the responsibility that we hold in an interdependent world.

But, if creating an explanation, a definition, of human evil wasn’t enough of a task, Dr. Peck vividly examines how we are all interconnected, relating to one another in manners that, for better or worse, will have an effect on someone.

For those who have not yet read the book, it is a valuable resource, an aide in self-inspection and a path towards insight. Evil, as defined by Dr. Peck, is not what one might typically consider when they first hear the word: Satanic, Criminal, Insane. Rather, evil as defined by Dr. Peck is a much more common, though equally as destructive, series of behaviors that can govern someone’s relations with others.

Are you a parent? A child? A teacher? A student? A therapist? A patient? A human? This book applies to everyone and it has a great deal to offer the reader who is willing to do some deep psychological work. The true price may be, however, not the cost of the book but, rather, the willingness to look into that painful mirror that Dr. Peck so graciously holds up to our eyes.


Peck, Scott. People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil. New York. Simon and Schuster, 1983.





Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools by Jonathan Kozol

Although the words flow gracefully, Savage Inequalities is a difficult book to read. Written upon the pages is the truth, a substance that can sometimes be bitter to learn. However, it is truly a timeless book that should neither be discarded nor dismissed.

Jonathan Kozol placed a bright light on the inequalities between American schools when this book was published in the early nineties, and it is a light that reveals the disgrace that we, as citizens, have allowed to go on for far too long. Unfortunately, if one listened to President Obama’s speeches over the past year on the need for education reform, it was clear that some of these horrible conditions continue to exist.

So clearly, Kozol shows the talent, the brilliance we have wasted throughout time by not nurturing the minds of the youth who could have grown to be doctors or scientists or teachers. Without doubt, he describes how entire areas of families and children have been simply ignored, pushed aside, and forgotten as if they were unimportant; how attempts have been made to educate children in unsafe, unsanitary, and unsatisfactory conditions.

Although apathy appears present in some of the regions, it is an apathy born of having cries for help ignored for generations. Yet, apathy does not prevail; rather, there are still many crying out, fighting for the improvements to the schools, the equality guaranteed under the law, and an intent to try to educate all of the youth of tomorrow and encourage their potential.

Changes to the public school system, however, can only come when the public-at-large understands and knows of the crises in the public school system and the gross inequalities between the individual schools. By sharing with us his first-hand accounts of having visited some of these schools, of the research he uncovered on the issues, and of his conversations with school personnel, students, families, and leaders, Jonathan Kozol has pulled back the curtain to reveal to us these truly Savage Inequalities.

Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York. HarperPerennial, 1992.




Common Sense by Thomas Paine

Common Sense may have again found fame, in part, due to a copy of the book being a prop in the hit movie, National Treasure. But, this book contains timeless arguments, arguments that Paine originally authored anonymously, that are an important part of our national history.

Thomas Paine wrote an emotional publication that argued for our independence from Britain, and he punctuated the argument with stories, reminders of harsh British invasions and of the British military controlling the colonists on certain occasions.

As a written work, it is a legendary; as a photograph of our past, it is a timeless reminder of where our country once was, what many earlier people battled on the road to freedom, and all that has been won and lost along the way. Between the lines on the pages, there are quiet reminders of the souls that have been lost in wars past and wars still raging; there are the whispers of those who fought for and designed the historical documents that guarantee us our freedoms as well as the rights and responsibilities that come with that freedom; and there are gentle yet silent nudges to remind us that the freedoms that we have can be taken away if we ignore their value and, apathetically, allow them to slip from our grasp.

Although the book was primarily written about the need for America to be free of British rule, it could, with only a few slight changes, be an argument that would appropriately apply in any era to any situation in which the ruling power impeded progress, individual freedom, and national independence.

Although Common Sense can be found in hardback and paperback, it can be read on-line here:
http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/index.htm





People who enjoy reading the horror genre may enjoy any of the selections mentioned at

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1084088/frightening_tales.html?cat=38


For an additional 15 selections of both fiction and non-fiction in multiple genres with brief descriptions of the books, try

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/984972/15_mustread_books_you_may_have_overlooked.html?cat=38



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