A thought provoking book
935130
This is a very thought provoking book. It is scripturally sound and well written.  I would recommend it to anyone who is trying to discover a better way to " walk the walk".
2080965
This is an interesting, thought-provoking book with considerable insight and many fine suggestions.
1278674
This book is not a quick read.  One must ponder nearly every written sentence; but that is not a turn off.  It is a challenging and informative read.  If you believe in God you can readily understand why the book is broken into two divisions.  By the time you get to the second division you may be learning some laws you never consciously acknowledged.  The further you read the more you wish you had read this book sometime back because it could have helped you through some tight places in your personal life.
Take your time. Read with your pen in your hand and a thick note pad.  You will be thinking about what you have read for a long time.  It will probably cause you to further search some of the ideas presented. Bobs Girl
3103734
I enjoyed the book although the ending was a little disappointing. IT was thought provoking and I would recommend it to others.
4243823
I am a avid reader of various topics and subjects and, I would have to say that this is one of the best books that I have ever read. It is quite thought provoking and makes you expand your thinking.
3446036
The Giver is a thought provoking book.  The community is controlled by a group of elders who believe they are protecting the people of their community.  The people in the community experience a life without pain and little emotion and no memories of the past.  This is seemingly a wonderful life except it is a life controlled by a committee.
There is however, one individual the Giver, who carries the burden of all memory, emotions and suffering for the community.  He is like Jesus who died on the cross and took all of our sins with Him except the Giver is not perfect. Therefore, every number of years a new child is picked by the committee to be the receiver of all the pain, memories and emotion.  The current giver passes this on to the new giver and so the community continues until one receiver no longer plays by the rules of the community.
The burden of being the reciever is great and they bare much pain during this time.  I like how Jonas became the receiver and took up all the memories and realized all that is wrong about the community.  I dislike that there is no lovingness between the members of the community.  They have no pain but the also lack any real passion or love.  It made me appreciate that although life can be difficult (there is real good and real bad), these two conflicting emotions are what bring vitality to life.
1587035
A great, thought provoking book. It seemed to me to be very well researched and I really enjoyed it even though  at times the subject matter made it difficult to read. It is a good book club choice.
4482459
A very interesting and thought provoking book. I re-learned origins and confusion around common things such as traffic lights, pizza and all. A must read for all
295701
I really liked this book. It is now one of my favorites. It challenges you to think. Many of the ideas discussed in the book are open-ended for you as the reader to interpret, and it leaves you with a sense of deepness. This book opens your mind to many new ideas and thoughts, and really proves to be a pondering stimulator. Other than all this, of course, it has a great plot, and moves along at a great pace, leaving the end a mystery to the reader. You should definately read this.
2554110
I was drawn to this book by its wonderful title and the recognition that I'd collected a number of quotations by its author without really knowing anything about him.

I found this book to be something of a curate's egg. In places it uses language to develop ideas in a really clear way. In other parts the language and structure of the description seems to make the ideas rather impenetrable. On balance, however, the ideas win through.

(Having found out a little more about R. Buckminster Fuller I have learned both that this is one of his more accessible volumes, and that his other books may well be worth the challenge.)

It is a book with some wonderful ideas, not least the one captured in the title, that the Earth is a spaceship travelling through space escorted by the Moon and following its mother ship, the Sun. Though written in the 1970 this metaphor, or perhaps its simply a realisation, provides a framework which encompasses many of the problems of sustainable living we are currently grappling with.

Equally the book has some very vivid and enlightening imagery with which to entice the reader to see and begin to challenge their current paradigm. It for example begins with a story of Global Pirates which is used to describe the recent history of western civilisation, its creation of empires and the division of the world into those that have and those that have not. In a dozen pages or so it describes our current paradigm for how the world works and some of the key characteristics of our environment and the thinking this has created.

For example our understanding of need and scarcity, the role of nationality, the use of knowledge. I found the description very thought provoking and began questioning many of the assumptions that drive my, and possibly our current behaviour. He outlined the assumptions that there will always be shortages of resources and food, which underpin a view of haves' and have-not's and our need to protect what we have, often at much greater cost than sharing what we have.

This is a thought provoking book, which though in parts challenging, is concise enough to warrant some re-reading. The ideas may shake your understanding and beliefs, which may be one of the most powerful ways of enabling change.
3442973
Good book.  Thought provoking.  Enjoyed reading it.
3494196
Amazing thought provoking book, deals with a lot of subjects including the growth of parochial and communal forces and the private battles of a young boy the protagonist of the story. Will make you think after you have finished reading the book
1839144
This book provides an interesting view of life that could be useful to many people.
1231171
This book is thought provoking.  It causes the reader to think about his life.  I found that I could not put the book down as I began to read.  The book speaks to the reader long after its final thoughts.  As the author suggests,"Look forward."
1690274
A strikingly thought-provoking book, Yuval Harari's "Homo Deus" is not something that you will be able to read without having your opinions challenged. Whether or not you believe in the future that Harari envisions, the author makes some convincing arguments for the current and future development of the "superhuman". But beware, Harari is a bit of a chameleon, and often I found myself not knowing what the author really believes himself. This is appropriate in a book designed to have you trying to reach your own conclusions. Some of the book rephrases and extends parts "Sapiens", an earlier volume by the same author (and well worth the read, if you have not already).
In a short review it would be difficult and perhaps misleading to try and summarize such a far-reaching book, but here are some topics discussed:
 Differences between humans and other animals
 Human domination of the planet, how and why, and for how long?
 Are humans "superior" to other animals?
 Humanism as the most important religion, and how biotech and A.I. might threaten it
 What comes after humanism?

This book should be required reading in American high-schools, but, sadly, for obvious reasons this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

One final note: The opening section of the book may strike some readers as too outrageous, what with its science fiction-like descriptions of a future world. I find in general that the author is too optimistic in terms of what he imagines our technology is capable of.
3431515
This is a great and enlightening book.  It is truly thought provoking.  I am recommending it to everyone I know.
345785
A wonderfully  written , thought-provoking book. I was unable to put it  down until the end.  I think it would appeal to all types of readers.