off the rack

"No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam" by Reza Aslan. This is one of those books that you feel a little smarter after reading. The book does just what the title suggests, explaining Islam and the world it exists in, but in an understandable way. Azlan lists the books he read to research this book at the end in the book's index. That list goes on for five or six pages and you feel that he has taken the most necessary facts from those books and filtered them into this one. He also has a few definite opinions that seem fair and balanced and in the end attractive compared to so much of the rhetoric you read and hear on this subject.