This book was an exceptional read. While it was assigned as a course book, it is the only course "textbook" I purchased rather than rented. I plan on reading and rereading this book in the future, and have already recommended it to several family members and friends. This is the type of book that should be required for students to read, but it's also versatile enough to read it for a book club or for "fun" (note that fun is in quotation marks because it is a difficult/sad read). This book is not written like academia; rather, it is written so that anyone can enjoy it, be educated, and learn more about the topic regardless of where they are at or their education level. Highly recommend it to anyone regardless of their walk of life or discipline. Everyone can take something away from this book.