What BOOK are you reading right now?

Just finished Blood Safari by Deon Meyer. He's a South African author, he apparently writes in Afrikaans, which is then translated into English. Excellent, excellent writing.

I have not read this, but I would like to.

Mama’s Last Hug
FRANS DE WAAL -
My new book Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They tell Us about Ourselves will be published by Norton, New York, on March 12, 2019.
I write all my books in English, but this one will come out first in French in mid-November. Soon thereafter in English, Dutch, German, Japanese, Turkish, Russian, Polish, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Greek, Italian, and so on.
The book starts with the story of Mama, the famous alpha female of the Arnhem colony of chimpanzees, which lives on a large forested island at Burgers Zoo in the Netherlands. Mama died at the age of 59. Her last hug with Professor Jan van Hooff was filmed and went viral on the Internet.

I gave Mama her name precisely because of her matriarchal position in the Arnhem colony. She not only took center stage in the colony’s social life, but also maintained its outside relations, such as with people at the zoo. She was a true diplomat and peacekeeper, who held the world’s largest zoo colony together for over forty years.
After a description of Mama’s life, my book delves into evidence for emotions in animals, starting with primate facial expressions. People sometimes disrespectfully describe these expressions as grimaces -- misled by the apes in Hollywood movies, who are trained to pull weird faces for our amusement -- but primates have an incredible variety of expressions that are just as meaningful to them as our own expressions are to us. These expressions are very similar to ours and engage the same facial muscles under similar emotional circumstances. Apes laugh when tickled, pout when disappointed, and produce a fierce frowning stare when angry. Charles Darwin concluded long ago that if apes use expressions similar to us under similar circumstances, the underlying emotions are probably similar, too.

One of the main take-aways from this book is that there are no uniquely human emotions. All of our emotions can be found one way or another in other species, especially those close to us. The whole idea that there is just a handful of basic emotions (fear, anger, disgust) that we share with other animals, and that all other emotions (jealousy, guilt, love, hope) are uniquely human doesn’t make sense. The book explains that the continuity between us and other species is all-encompassing. Emotions are like organs. There are no organs that we can do without and there are no organs that are unique to us. We share all of them with other vertebrate animals, from frogs and rats to elephants. No exceptions.
One chapter explains why we may speak of a sense of fairness in other species, and even of free will, while another chapters discuss mammalian empathy. There are also reflections on the Will to Power, as Nietzsche called it, and its role in politics, such as in the below lecture on the role of the alpha male.

Emotions engage both body and mind to prepare an animal for adaptive action, such as escape or attack. The body is sometimes forgotten when people discuss emotions, but the main power of the emotions comes from how they affect heart rate, body temperature, stomach, breathing, voice, and so on. This makes it easy to measure human and animal emotions: they are visible on the outside.
Feelings behind the emotions are harder to know, however. In humans, we often get our information from language (we show our emotions, but talk about our feelings), which is a notoriously unreliable way of knowing what others feel. You may tell me that you are “sad,” but how do I know that your sadness is like my sadness? I can’t feel what you feel. Because we value feelings so much, emotion research on humans has become very dependent on language.
With animals we don’t have the same problem, but we have the different problem that they don’t tell us anything about their feelings. We have good reasons to assume that they feel, however, because they remember where they encountered stimuli that are pleasurable or painful, and learn from these experiences. How could they learn anything if they felt nothing?
The manifest presence of emotions in most animals has moral implications. The last chapter discusses animal sentience. We are beginning to think differently about the inner lives of animals, which means that our treatment of them will have to change. We cannot keep acting as if animal well-being doesn’t matter.
Finally, I discuss human emotions at length. We love to emphasize our intellect, and sometimes assume that rationality is the dominant factor in our lives. This is an illusion, however. We are intensely emotional beings, much more bodily engaged with and reactive to our social environment than we think, making us just as emotional as the creatures around us.

CHAPTERS of Mama’s Last Hug
Preface
1 – Mama’s Last Hug
An Ape Matriarch’s Farewell
2 – Window to the Soul
When Primates Laugh and Smile
3 – Body to Body
Empathy and Sympathy
4 – Emotions That Make Us Human
Disgust, Shame, Guilt, and Other Discomforts
5 – Will to Power
Politics, Murder, Warfare
6 – Emotional Intelligence
On Fairness and Free Will
7 – Sentience
What Animals Feel
8 – Conclusion

About myself: I am a biologist and ethologist, who has all his life studied the behavior and cognition of monkeys and apes. I was born in the Netherlands, but live and work in Atlanta, in the USA. My positions are C. H. Candler Professor in Psychology, Director of the Living Links Center at Emory University, and Distinguished Professor at Utrecht University. I have been elected to the (US) National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. In 2007, I was selected by Time as one of The Worlds’ 100 Most Influential People Today. My books for the general public have been translated into over 20 languages. My academic writing can be found here.

Advanced Praise for Mama’s Last Hug
“I doubt that I've ever read a book as good as Mama's Last Hug: Animal and Human Emotions, because it presents in irrefutable scientific detail the very important fact that animals do have these emotions as well as the other mental features we once attributed only to people. Not only is the book exceedingly important, it's also fun to read, a real page-turner. I can't say enough good things about it except it's utterly splendid.”
—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

“Before I realized Frans de Waal's connection to Mama's actual last hug, I sent the online video link to a large group of scientists saying, ‘I believe it is possible to view this interaction and be changed forever.’ Likewise, I believe that anyone reading this book will be changed forever. De Waal has spent so many decades watching intently and thinking deeply that he sees a planet that is deeper and more beautiful than almost anyone realizes. In these pages, you can acquire and share his beautiful, shockingly insightful view of life on Earth.”
—Carl Safina, author of Beyond Worlds: What Animals Think and Feel

“After you've read Mama's Last Hug it becomes obvious that animals have emotions. Learn how they resemble us in many ways.”
—Temple Grandin, author of Animals Make Us Human and Animals in Translation

“Frans de Waal is one of the most influential primatologists to ever walk the earth, changing the way we think of human nature by exploring its continuity with other species. He does this again in the wonderful Mama’s Last Hug, an examination of the continuum between emotion in humans and other animals. This subject is rife with groundless speculation, ideology, and badly misplaced folk intuition, and de Waal ably navigates it with deep insight, showing the ways in which our emotional lives are shared with other primates. This is an important book, wise and accessible.”
—Robert Sapolsky, author of Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

“Fascinating. Frans de Waal makes us think long and hard about the true nature of animal emotions.”
--Desmond Morris, author of The Naked Ape

“A captivating and big-hearted book, full of compassion and brimming with insights about the lives of animals, including human ones.”
—Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens and Homo Deus

“De Waal is the ultimate zoological magician. His animals hold up mirrors and make you see yourself. Whether you find that terrifying or exhilarating is up to you. He is prescient, unnerving, politically explosive, and always downright entertaining. He can unmake and remake you, and you should let him.”
Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast

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Carol Clothier
Carol Clothier The description of the book ("See More") is like a book report and well worth the read. Those of us who are now criticized as loving our fur friends too much or are caught understanding their requests may feel a little more grateful for these studies and great books.
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Patsy Nakell
Patsy Nakell this is one book I cant wait to read..
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Jean-daniel Martino
Jean-daniel Martino "La dernière étreinte" title in french and comes out in 14 november.
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Kate Tkatch
Kate Tkatch Looking forward to this.
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Now reading NISEI about second generation Japanese Americans. It shows how much discrimination Japanese Americans suffered at the hand of white Americans in this country from the very beginning of the migration from Japan to the USA. It was interesting to learn that many migrants moved from Hiroshima to Hawaii, the same pattern that our family experienced. My father was born in Maui, Hawaii, and moved to California with his two brothers to California in the early 20th century. I think it was around 1912 when they were still teenagers. Even though Japanese Americans suffered much discrimination from the beginning of their arrival from Japan, I'm glad they had the wherewithal to come to the USA. Many settled in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Many also settled in South America, and there is still a large Japanese settlement in Brazil. A Brief History of the Japanese in São Paulo - Culture Trip
https://theculturetrip.com › South America › Brazil
May 17, 2017 - One of the most visible migrant groups in São Paulo is the Japanese, who began arriving in Brazil at the start of the 20th century. Today, São Paulo is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. I learned about this on my visit to South American many decades ago. It was interesting to see that the Japanese who settled in Sao Paulo did the same thing as those who settled on the West Coast of the US. They started businesses like restaurants and laundries before their children started going to college. Even then, discrimination was strong, and many did their professional practice in the Japanese community. Fast forward to today: My older brother is an attorney who worked for the State of California. My younger brother is a physician, an ophthalmologist, who was one of the first to do eye surgery by laser in San Joaquin Valley, and also became a politician who served two terms in the California State legislature, and also as Mayor of his town a couple of times. So the book covers many of the same experiences as our family members. Both my brothers and I served in the US military, as did my cousin in the 442nd Infantry during WWII. This is not to imply that all Japanese Americans are successful or middle class. We have our share of the poor and destitute.

I haven't a notion of when my ancestors arrived here. On the paternal side, they were poor folks from Georgia before they came to Texas. On the maternal side, beyond Oklahoma, becomes a fog. It's good that you know your history. It keeps you better grounded for the future.

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/the-most-decorated-unit-in-american-history-442nd-regiment/ All this while the white majority put us Japanese Americans into concentration camps without being charged with any crime. Also, their ignorance of the US Constitution on, "equal justice under our laws." The Most Decorated Unit in American History — (442nd REGIMENT)
By Duane Vachon - September 6, 2015

That cartoon is not that far fetched. Our son is an avid reader, and one of his bedroom in Austin is flooded with books. He's also the supervisor at the University of Texas reference library.

2nd Dec 2018... got 2 going at the same time. Karin Slaughter's "Genesis" got a bit too gruesome to handle so took a break and plowed into Lee Child's "Die Trying". Earlier I finished "Wild Fire" by Ann Cleeves... the Shetland series. Loved the TV series of Shetland. Read Lee Child's "A Wanted Man" and his latest "Past Tense". Not that anyone really cares of course.

Well, I read Lee Child. In fact, Past Tense will be the next book I read. I too have had books that were too depressing. Greg Iles comes to mind. He's an excellent writer, but a bit too much for me.

Read the Quran/Koran. Still believe in women's rights?

I`m currently reading The Lord Of The Flies. Greatest book ever. Check my comments on it here — https://pamhaag.voog.com/blog/lord-of-the-flies-book-report/comments

Finished:
Joyride Vol. 3, a disappointing end to a pretty solid and rollicking scifi trilogy.
Royal City, Vol.1: Next of Kin, an unorthodox ghost story/semiautobiographical(?) family story on loss and addiction. Affective emotionally but ultimately not my cup of tea. I would still recommend this graphic novel to serious readers who usually hold their noses up high in disdain for superhero novels as being emotionally and politically irrelevant to "real life."
Tales from the Inner City (odd title) but a surreal and oddly majestic work of experimental short story telling. Must experience this one (without any heads up on its contents).

Currently reading:
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Intelligent life after homo sapiens? Don't bet on primates to succeed millenniums into our bleak, dead end of a future.

When breath becomes air by Paul Kalanithi. This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living?

tsar, I'm still wating for a book about intelligent life during homo sapiens. I should live so long.

I've started on The Looking Glass Wars. After a great prologue, the first chapter irritates me already. It's the story of the girl on whom Alice in Wonderland was based, a fictional girl, to be sure. But the first chapter begins with wars and intrigues and I hope it soon moves beyond, because this stuff bores me. If you have read it I could use some encouragement.

I got Thomas Dolby's "The Speed of Sound: Breaking the Barriers Between Music and Technology: A Memoir".

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When I saw Bowie playing at the Milton Keynes Bowl back in the late 80s/early 90s, Dolby was in Bowie's band.

Southampton boys The Men They Couldn't Hang were one of the supports, but they never even got to meet Bowie.

I've started rereading Letting Go by Philip Roth. I read it when a was in college (a LONG time ago), and I remembered liking it. So far so good.

When Twitter is a force for good:
Stephen King’s Tweet Prompts Book Review Rethink by Portland Paper

I just started reading "The Reykjavik Assignment" by Adam Lebor. The reason I bought this book are 1. I paid $1 for it, and 2. I have visited Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland some years ago. I'll try to report back on this after I read through some of the chapters. If it's boring, I may toss it.