This is a list of potential reading material for our book club. I haven't read all of these books yet, but they all look like they could make for good discussion.

• Sense and Goodness Without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism (Carrier, Richard)
  
• Why Evolution Is True (Coyne, Jerry)
  
• Origin of Species, The (Darwin, Charles)
  
• Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (Dennett, Daniel)
  
• Freedom Evolves (Dennett, Daniel)
  
• Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Ehrman, Bart)
  
• Divided by God: America's Church-State Problem--and What We Should Do About It (Feldman, Noah)
  
• End of Faith, The: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (Harris, Sam)
  
• Moral Landscape, The: How Science Can Determine Human Values (Harris, Sam)
  
• Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson (Hecht, Jennifer Michael)
  
• Portable Atheist, The: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever (Hitchens, Christopher)
  
• Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism (Jacoby, Susan)
  
• Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction (Kuo, David)
  
• Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America and Found Unexpected Peace (Lobdell, William)
  
• American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation (Meacham, Jon)
  
• Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism (Mills, David)
  
• Demon-Haunted World, The: Science as a Candle in the Dark (Sagan, Carl)
  
• Family, The: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (Sharlet, Jeff)
  
• Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time (Shermer, Michael)
  
• Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment (Zuckerman, Phil)
  

Also suggested:

• Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution (Carroll, Sean) suggested by Bill
  
• God Delusion, The (Dawkins, Richard) suggested by Tim
  
• Greatest Show on Earth, The: The Evidence for Evolution (Dawkins, Richard) suggested by Tim
  
• Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (Ehrman, Bart) suggested by Barbara
  
• Your Religion Is False (Grus, Joel) suggested by Alice
  
• Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (Hirsi Ali, Ayaan) suggested by Barbara
  
• Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind (Hurley, Matthew; Dennett, Daniel; Adams, Reginald) suggested by Matt
  
• Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (MacKay, Charles) suggested by James
  
• God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World (Prothero, Steven) suggested by Matt
  
• When God Was a Woman (Stone, Merlin) suggested by Starla
  
• Spiritual Snake Oil: Fads & Fallacies in Pop Culture (Edwards, Chris) suggested by Alice
  

And past book club selections:

• Letter to a Christian Nation (Harris, Sam) (7/16/2010)
  
• 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God (Harrison, Guy) (8/20/2010)
  
• Don't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style (Olson, Randy) (9/17/2010)
  
• Christian Delusion, The: Why Faith Fails (Loftus, John) (10/15/2010)
  
• Infidel (Hirsi Ali, Ayaan) (12/10/2010)
  
• Infidel (Hirsi Ali, Ayaan) (1/14/2011)
  
• Christian Delusion, The: Why Faith Fails (Loftus, John) (2/18/2011)
  
• God Without God (Epstein, Greg) (3/25/2011)
  
• Blank Slate, The: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Pinker, Steven) (4/29/2011)
  
• Blank Slate, The: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Pinker, Steven) (5/20/2011)
  
• Authoritarians, The (Altemeyer, Robert) (6/17/2011)
  
• Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science From Bunk (Pigliucci, Massimo) (7/8/2011)
  
• Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science From Bunk (Pigliucci, Massimo) (8/28/2011)
  
• Grand Design, The (Hawking, Stephen) (10/14/2011)
  
• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Feynman, Richard) (11/12/2012)
  
• True Believer, The: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (Hoffer, Eric) (1/8/2012)
  
• War of the Worldviews: Science vs. Spirituality (Mlodinow, Leonard; Chopra, Deepak) (2/12/2012)
  
• Hitch-22: A Memoir (Hitchens, Christopher) (3/11/2012)
  

I would like to suggest

The god Delusion (Dawkins, Richard)

And since there were some evolution suggestions-

The Greatest Show on Earth (Dawkins, Richard)

I have both of these on audio books. If anyone wants to borrow them, I can bring them to a meeting. I loaded them both on my Ipod. The Greatest Show on Earth makes reference to pictures in the book. Both are unabridged editions.

I'm about half way through Sam Harris's End of Faith, and have read A Letter to a Christian Nation.

I do have Breaking the Spell, by Dan Dennett, but have not read it yet.

I would be willing to read about anything listed, but would like to say that I have bought "Infidel" after seeing this woman interviewed. Sounds like a fantastic story. She has a new one, "Nomad", out, but it won't be available at discount prices so thought I'd start with "Infidel." I also really like Bart Ehrman, and recently bought his "Misquoting Jesus" but haven't read it. If I recall the title correctly, he wrote a great book "Jesus: An Apocolyptic Prophet", which I read several years ago and loved. Lastly, Darwin would be great to reread anytime.

Sounds like a great list. Science, classics, autobiography of survivor of radical sect...nice variety.

I would like to recommend "The Authoritarians" as well. It's available free online. (I can provide a link later when I get to a real computer.)

http://home.cc.umanit...

although very easy to find when Googled.
Free is always good. :)

I also own and have already read Infidel. I gave it four stars on Amazon, and enjoyed it enough that I bought The Caged Virgin as well, though I haven't read it yet. I have a huge amount of respect for Ayaan, I can see how you could read the story and be appalled that things like this happen, but I also think it is inspiring reading about such a strong woman. That she was able to have the impact that she has had, is also encouraging.

I am currently reading "The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer (mid 20th century mind). He examines the parallels between all fanatics whether religious, political, etc. and how they come to be. It is also interesting from the point of view of the atmosphere in the 1950's. (book published in 1951). So some history also if you read between the lines. It is a pocket book of 151 pages, so not too long. However, it does take concentration. It may be free on the net. I highly recommend it. And it would be something different from just the atheism picture.

Carol, I absolutely love this idea. I looked it up on Amazon, and every chapter sounded like something I'd like to read. I also tend to enjoy a lot of writings from the post World War II era. It seems the war tended to breed a certain wisdom and ability to prioritize.

There were multiple paperback editions published of this book, with a large number of cheap used ones available. I got one for 29 cents plus $3.99 shipping, reprinted in 1989. I figure I'll read this even if we don't do a book club on it, but I'll be happy if the others are as interested as you and I are.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (PDF)