books about: archaeology

books about: archaeology

books:

Archaeology

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Michael Pollan

Penguin, 2007

Literally Can't Put this Book Down
This is an amazing book. It may sound extreme, but the information in this is mindblowing. Not only is it extremely well written, but it explores the different sides of the same topic, giving you multiple perspectives. I had started reading my friend's copy on a ...

The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream

John Zogby

Random House, 2008

polling discoveries support cautious optimism
Disclosure: I'm in a new partnership with Zogby's company, and only read this book because of it -- and was happy to discover that it gave me a sense of optimism about the next powerful generation. It's a fast read: a delightfully straightforward explanation of why ...

The Cabinet of Curiosities (Pendergast, Book 3

Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Grand Central Publishing, 2003

Best Pendergast Book
I have read all of the Pendergast novels and other various Preston/Child works and find myself always thinking of this one as my favorite. Although I like the "Diogenes Trilogy" (Brimstone, Dance of Death and Book of the Dead), this one seemed to really work my ...

Excavation

James Rollins

Harper, 2000

Just READ IT!
Everyone has their own opinions, and this is mine. Excavation is one of the most unique, interesting, and thrilling books I've ever read. And I've read thousands of books through my life. Does that age me? lol James Rollins has the gift of making an unrealistic plot ...

Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler

Brad Matsen

Twelve, 2008

Provocative, entertaining, full of fresh revelations
With Titanic's Last Secrets, Brad Matsen, author of the acclaimed Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss, once again shows why he is one of the most gifted, accomplished writers on anything to do with the sea. In tackling history's most famous ship disaster, he ...

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Jared Diamond

W. W. Norton, 2005

Fascinating!
It took me a while to open this book, as I was absolutely convinced that, with a title like Guns, Germs and Steel, the subject could only be war. Eventually, however, I opened the book, and was absolutely fascinated by it. The premise of the book is Yali's question. ...

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

Neil Shubin

Pantheon, 2008

Well-written and entertaining book deserves a place on your shelf
If you are interested in a good, nontechnical book on how much our body design owes to our evolutionary past, this book could be for you. Shubin is an excellent writer. There is not a boring page in the book. He has a real knack for making complex ideas understandable ...

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women

Geraldine Brooks

Anchor, 1995

nine parts of desire...ten parts intrigue
Geraldine Brooks takes us inside her personal trip trough the Islamic world and gives as close to an UNBIASED view of the treatment of Islamic women that i could imagine. she is careful to point out the reasons that are given for wierd practices. She doesn't shy away ...

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries ...

Robert Kurson

Ballantine Books, 2005

Fascinating and well-written
The best work of non-fiction I've read in the past 5 years. Shadow Divers is compelling on so many levels--as a biography of men who risk their lives as wreck divers, as a look into the perils of deep wreck diving, and for the history of WWII and the German U-boat ...

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.)

Jared M. Diamond

Harper Perennial, 2006

Diamond is Brilliant
A good read for anyone who's interested in anthropology or evolution. One of Diamond's main points in this book is that humans are not so different from our biological cousins, the apes. In fact, he says, we are more genetically close to chimpanzees than some species ...

The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return (The Earth Chronicles)

Zecharia Sitchin

Harper, 2008

This may be the most important book of our time
Having read several of Sitchin's books before I read this one, I am amazed and so grateful that he has put all the elements of his work together into this one beautiful summary. Since the whole is greater than the parts, the book just brings our comprehension up to a ...

Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China (P.S.)

Peter Hessler

Harper Perennial, 2007

An Amazing Book
Totally different from his wonderful River Town book, but just as interesting. Peter Hessler, not quite seamlessly, pulls together a bunch of subjects. We hear more about what happened to his students; we learn about his wheeling and dealing Uigher friend who ...

Riptide

Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Grand Central Publishing, 1999

Another great book by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
After reading The Relic and Brimstone (both books by Preston and Child and with the fictionilized character Pendergast) I decided to read something different. Believe me, this is probably one of the best books I have ever read. A true adventure. You will not be able to ...

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World

David W. Anthony

Princeton University Press, 2007

Massive scholarship, generally convincing
In this massively researched book, Anthony brings together hundreds of findings from archaeology and linguistic studies to support his thesis about the origins of Indo-European language and culture. The book is not easy reading for the non-expert; many chapters are ...

The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850

Brian M. Fagan

Basic Books, 2001

Vividly Written and Extremely Valuable History
The author of this book is not an environmental determinist, but he makes a plea for us to observe weather as best we can, not only in our time, but in history, and study its interplay with human social, political, artistic, and military activity. He speaks of ice ...