“I’ve always been fascinated and baffled by belief systems. But more recently I’ve grown increasingly frustrated and frightened by belief systems among allegedly educated people that defy logic, science and even common sense. I must have read (during a late-night googling jag) a description of Yuval Noah Harari’s “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” that described its cognitive (not biological or historical) approach. As in: how and why we think, and hence behave, the way we do.

“Harari offers no easy answers, but a number of convincing theories. For instance, just about everything that matters to us – take money, for example – is a product of human imagination. That is, money is symbolic. It stands for, rather than “is,” something – and Harari traces how that came to be. He speculates that human were probably happiest as hunter gatherers, when (in the face of slim pickings) we could simply pick up and move on. But once we became crop and livestock dependent, we found ourselves at the mercy of the weather… gods (if you see where I’m going with that one.) With pestilence, droughts and flooding came superstition, sacrifice, incantations and the notion that someone bigger, better, stronger and smarter had to be in control.

“Harari is not suggesting that we give it all up and take up bows and arrows (although I do see them as preferable to AR-15s). This is a fascinating work filled with credible revelations and peppered with laugh-out-loud (why did I never think of that?) parallels between our behaviors those of close relatives we think as less evolved. In the end, Harari’s message is both sobering and oddly uplifting. There is no limit to the cognitive powers of the human brain — if only we’re willing to learn.” — CAROLYN SWARTZ, Executive Director, Maine Jewish Film Festival

Mainers, please email to tell us about the book on your bedside table right now. In a paragraph or two, describe the book and be sure to tell us what drew you to it. We want to hear what you are reading and why. Send your selection to pgrodinsky@pressherald.com, and we may use it as a future Bedside Table.