Starry Messenger, Cosmic Perspective on Civilization by Neil deGrasse Tyson: A+
The author is one of the great explainers of our universe on a level with Carl Sagan. But he takes it a philosophical step further to talk about current social, religious and political divisions and what an understanding and use of scientific methods can do to alleviate our internal prejudices and hopefully help bring forth the commonality of what we can share. Never preachy or using technological language to explain what he calls the cosmic perspective he relies on things we can relate to on a human level. Using a sunset to talk about beauty, in discussion of a line from Keats “ Beauty is truth and truth is beauty – that is all” he proposes that knowing the scientific truth behind the beauty of a sunset, in no way negates our enjoyment of the beauty. Over all this is a fascinating read on how to navigate in today’s world and be a better human being. He urges us as human beings to do whatever it takes to avoid fooling ourselves into believing that something is true when it is false, or that something is false when it is true.