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Humans
Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up | Tom Phillips
'This book is brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant' Jeremy Clarkson 'F*cking brilliant' Sarah Knight AN EXHILARATING JOURNEY THROUGH THE MOST CREATIVE AND CATASTROPHIC F*CK-UPS OF HUMAN HISTORY In the seventy thousand years that modern human beings have walked this earth, we've come a long way. Art, science, culture, trade - on the evolutionary food chain, we're real winners. But, frankly, it's not exactly been plain sailing, and sometimes - just occasionally - we've managed to really, truly, quite unbelievably f*ck things up. From Chairman Mao's Four Pests Campaign, to the American Dustbowl; from the Austrian army attacking itself one drunken night, to the world's leading superpower electing a reality TV mogul as President... it's pretty safe to say that, as a species, we haven't exactly grown wiser with age. So, next time you think you've really f*cked up, this book will remind you: it could be so much worse... FURTHER PRAISE FOR HUMANS: 'Very funny' Mark Watson 'A light-touch history of moments when humans have got it spectacularly wrong... Both readable and entertaining' The Telegraph 'Chronicles humanity's myriad follies down the ages with malicious glee and much wit ... a rib-tickling page-turner' Business Standard 'A timely, irreverent gallop through thousands of years of human stupidity' Nicholas Griffin, Ping-Pong Diplomacy: The Secret History Behind the Game That Changed the World
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
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julesG
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#BookMail from @jenniferw88 - in lieu of the Blind Date Book, which I'd already read, I got a surprise book from Jenny.

Thank you!

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Hooked_on_books
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Pickpick

This is a fun, very funny history book about stupid things humans have done through history. With chapter titles like, “Why Your Brain is an Idiot,” and stories including a German Uboat in WWII undone by a toilet malfunction, I snort-laughed all the way through this one.

julesG Sounds like my kind of history book 1y
squirrelbrain And it‘s yellow too! @julesG 1y
julesG @squirrelbrain The paperback is not yellow 😭 1y
52 likes5 stack adds3 comments
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Nikki_E
Mehso-so

Conflicted about this one. Okay outline but was definitely missing stuff. If a book was a YouTube video...this would be it.

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Nikki_E
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Next read

43 likes2 stack adds
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Marynikum
Pickpick

Hilarious book about the blunders of our species over our relatively short history. I‘ve never read a historical book that had me laughing out loud like this one did. Totally worth reading.

2 likes1 stack add
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Arvena
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A very readable book with lots of new information, interesting and engaging, mostly funny and depressing in equal measure.

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RamsFan1963
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1. Tagged. It was this or Mythos, and Humans had me laughing harder.
2. Purple
3. N/A It's been a pretty bland week, work-home-work- home, nothing interesting about it.
4. Yes and Yes
5. Will do!! 👍👍

#friyayintro @howjessreads

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RamsFan1963
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Pickpick

Whew!! Barely got this one finished under the deadline. Its very funny, in a sad kind of way, how we humans continue to mess things up, even when we have the best intentions.
4 💥💥💥💥

#SummersEndReadathon @Clwojick

Dragonfairykats I don't know if it shows up or not on your end, but my like button isn't working (along with my email folders) I think my tablet is trying to tell me something... 5y
68 likes3 stack adds1 comment
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RamsFan1963
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1. Almost finished with this book, very funny in a lovely snarky, irreverent way.
2. Work, work, work...and for Labor Day...work 😡
3. Cherry Vanilla
4. No. I took piano lessons for years but it never stuck.
5. Will Do!!

#friyayintro @howjessreads

TheDaysGoBy Boo! Sorry you‘re working all weekend! Hope you still find some down time to enjoy yourself 5y
Crazeedi Me to on cherry vanilla!! Maraschino cherries!! 5y
57 likes2 comments
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RamsFan1963
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I hate to use a Hitler-Trump comparison, but what other recent US president comes to mind when you read that paragraph?

Karisa If the hateful imbicel fits. . . 🤷‍♀️😪 5y
RamsFan1963 @Karisa I could have posted more and more, page after page of this chapter sounded so much like Trump it was friggin scary!! 5y
Leftcoastzen Sad but true. 5y
See All 6 Comments
Megabooks One interesting thing I learned in my last audiobook (First in Line about US VPs) was that the presidential briefing they read with breakfast was about 20-40 pages and a similar one is given to the VP. Pence‘s is still that length, but Trump made it known he wanted 1-2 pages and usually has someone else read it (Kushner or Jr) and summarize it for him. Summarize the summarized summary. Obviously the man is not a big reader! 😳 5y
RamsFan1963 @Megabooks I can't trust a leader who doesn't read. 5y
Megabooks @RamsFan1963 No. I‘m listening to one about the First Ladies by the same author and Ford was once asked, “What was the last book you liked?” And he turned to Betty and said, “What is the last book I liked?” Now the book made it sound like he wasn‘t a reader, but I‘ve blanked on the spot, too, though. 5y
60 likes6 comments
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LibraryCin
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Pickpick

I quite enjoyed this. I expected there to be a lot of environmental stuff, and there was some, but there was much more. Some of the humour is sarcastic, but that‘s ok. The funniest was the photo at the very end, after a paragraph of doom, then a paragraph of positive, then a photo (not going to say what it‘s of – I don‘t want to spoil it!). That photo really made me laugh after the positive words in the previous paragraph! Cont in comments...

LibraryCin Some of the anecdotes were short and some were longer and went into more detail. I did lose a bit of interest in a couple of the longer ones, but mostly it was interesting. Some of it was history I (broadly) knew about and some of it was stuff I either didn‘t know about, or just didn‘t know much about (i.e. Ghengis Khan – no, he wasn‘t he one who make the stupid mistake…). Overall, though, quite enjoyable! 6y
11 likes1 comment