"Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children"

If I ever have kids, I'm going to have them raised by wolves.

I've thought about it seriously. For awhile, I thought I'd have them raised by the state, but then I thought about it, and I decided that wolves would probably do a better job. Plus, since there aren't any wolves in Australia, I could take the kids to some socialist paradise in Europe where, in the unlikely event that the wolves fail in their parental duty, the state can take over and raise the kids to be happy, singing comrades. Or something like that.



"On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War"

This may well be the most compelling work of non-fiction I've read - and I read a lot of non-fiction. Dave Grossman is a former paratrooper, instructor at West Point, psychologist and now Professor of Military Science at Arkansas State University. His understanding of killing draws on his vast experience in these widely divergent fields, and so he brings a great deal of insight into what he sees as a relatively recent concept.