http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/64845 en-US Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:41:24 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 1151684 Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:41:24 -0700
author: Barbara Ehrenreich
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 03/05
date added: 04/21/08
shelves:
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The subject matter of the book is interesting, but the author comes across as full of herself, prejudiced, classist, etc. The premise is that the author would attempt to live on minimum wage jobs without outside help. The message that it is extremely difficult, or impossible, to make do on minimum wage jobs is a very good and important one; unfortunately it’s spoiled by the tone of the book. The author seems to believe she is intrinsically better than others by virtue of having a PhD. In the end she repeatedly praises herself for being in spectacular shape and being able to physically do some difficult jobs like housecleaning; however, she herself mentions, in passing, that she’s only so fit because she’s had the benefit of gyms and trainers, and she only undertakes each job for a few weeks, so of course she manages! At times she writes things that try to make her sound not arrogant or prejudiced, but they seem more like they were stuck in half-heartedly. Overall a very disappointing book with an important message. Somebody else should write a popular book on the same topic, but without all of the nonsense.
]]> 1958817 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 07:45:34 -0700
author: Robin Robertson
name: Ellie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 06/14/07
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]]> 1924102 Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:07:50 -0700
author: Roy Richard Grinker
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 06/07
date added: 06/13/07
shelves:
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The author convincingly argues that there is not an autism epidemic. The book is about autism as a disease, autism in society, and his autistic daughter. It is very well written and an enjoyable read.
]]> 1151476 Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:04:31 -0700
author: Steve Ettlinger
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 05/07
date added: 06/13/07
shelves:
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Sensationalist. This ought to be a good book, but the author ruined it. I gave it two stars because the subject matter rescues it a little bit. There is no depth to this book, the writing is poor, and the author is a complete sensationalist who half the time doesn't seem to understand the chemistry behind what he is explaining.
]]> 1331238 Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:01:36 -0700
author: Kenneth R. Miller
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 06/13/07
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The first half is great, and the second half is mediocre. I would love for everybody I know who doesn't "believe in" evolution to read the first half of this book, which does a great job of refuting all of the arguments against it.
]]> 1331162 Sun, 20 May 2007 18:49:34 -0700
author: Audrey Niffenegger
name: Ellie
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/20/07
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]]> 1331152 Sun, 20 May 2007 18:48:58 -0700
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Ellie
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/20/07
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]]> 1152003 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:45:34 -0700
This chapter is followed immediately by “Words that Heal,” in which we are again treated to samples of Lown’s perfect clinical skills. He’s so perfect that patients “walk out of [his] office looking stoned, high, floating on air. When they’re from out of town, they ask for the best restaurant in Boston, because they want to celebrate.”Later he dishes out personal advice and reports with pride that a patient “anointed” him “a great guru;” he also lashes out with fury at a patient, yelling at him uncontrollably, but miraculously curing the patient of all of his family problems in the process. Because almost all medical problems are in fact emotional, caused by family tension, according to Lown. He suggests that medicines don’t work well because they are over-prescribed; all most patients need is a smack on the head (metaphorically speaking) to convince them to get their family life in shape, and then they’ll be all better! Magic! Thanks to him, an Indian man is un-dispossessed by his mother; an Orthodox Jewish man learns to love and accept his gay son and his lover, and even march in gay pride parades! Lown truly is a miracle worker!

This book is a complaint about modern doctors for not being more like Lown himself (that is, perfect in every regard). He doesn’t even give consideration to the stresses put on doctors by insurance, malpractice, etc. Modern medical education is soulless and modern doctors are no better. He seems to indicate that he understands the push to do procedures because taking histories doesn’t pay, but he doesn’t consider that doctors (particularly primary care doctors) might actually WANT to do more thorough histories if they weren’t trying to struggle for enough money just to pay their malpractice insurance and make ends meet.

There are interesting portions of this book, and it has some good advice for interacting with patients. Some of the claims about the origin of the healthcare crisis may even be partially correct, though I feel strongly that he ignores the many factors working against physicians in his question to blame it all on the failings of the modern doctor.

(review edited to fit length requirement!)]]>
author: Bernard Lown
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1999
rating: 1
read at: 08/05
date added: 05/10/07
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I began this book with a great deal of interest. The beginning of the preface proved compelling, arguing that a large part of the modern healthcare crisis is caused by doctors relying too much on expensive diagnostic tests and not enough on a thorough history and physical examination. From there, however, the book went downhill fast. Lown goes on to laud his many wonderful achievements in the course of his career, sounding quite proud of himself. His tone throughout the book is self-congratulatory, and he writes from a pedestal, looking down on all patients and seemingly most people who are not himself or one of his beloved mentors. In fact, Lown even uses the word “childish” to describe modern patients’ fascination with technology! Following a number of chapters filled with stories of his miraculous diagnoses and life saves, we reach a chapter called “Words that Maim.” This chapter is filled with stories of doctors scaring patients to death, literally, with words, or saying horrible and manipulative things. All are stories of other doctors, of course; not one story about himself. (There is actually one small anecdote about Lown himself, but no harm comes to the patient he mentions.) In many of the stories, Lown is in fact the one who has to repair the damage done by callous doctors.

This chapter is followed immediately by “Words that Heal,” in which we are again treated to samples of Lown’s perfect clinical skills. He’s so perfect that patients “walk out of [his] office looking stoned, high, floating on air. When they’re from out of town, they ask for the best restaurant in Boston, because they want to celebrate.”Later he dishes out personal advice and reports with pride that a patient “anointed” him “a great guru;” he also lashes out with fury at a patient, yelling at him uncontrollably, but miraculously curing the patient of all of his family problems in the process. Because almost all medical problems are in fact emotional, caused by family tension, according to Lown. He suggests that medicines don’t work well because they are over-prescribed; all most patients need is a smack on the head (metaphorically speaking) to convince them to get their family life in shape, and then they’ll be all better! Magic! Thanks to him, an Indian man is un-dispossessed by his mother; an Orthodox Jewish man learns to love and accept his gay son and his lover, and even march in gay pride parades! Lown truly is a miracle worker!

This book is a complaint about modern doctors for not being more like Lown himself (that is, perfect in every regard). He doesn’t even give consideration to the stresses put on doctors by insurance, malpractice, etc. Modern medical education is soulless and modern doctors are no better. He seems to indicate that he understands the push to do procedures because taking histories doesn’t pay, but he doesn’t consider that doctors (particularly primary care doctors) might actually WANT to do more thorough histories if they weren’t trying to struggle for enough money just to pay their malpractice insurance and make ends meet.

There are interesting portions of this book, and it has some good advice for interacting with patients. Some of the claims about the origin of the healthcare crisis may even be partially correct, though I feel strongly that he ignores the many factors working against physicians in his question to blame it all on the failings of the modern doctor.

(review edited to fit length requirement!)
]]> 1151979 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:37:06 -0700
author: Tova Mirvis
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 08/05
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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This is an excellent book about two observant Jewish families whose lives are woven together. One is very frum, living in Brooklyn, while the other is very modern and lives in New Jersey. The daughter from the frummie family wants to become more worldly and modern, while the son from the modern family goes to Israel and becomes very frum. And then of course the two meet, fall in love, and get married. I love this book because it describes worlds I know so well, and describes them beautifully. It is funny and touching. It explores the many facets of religion, and of personal motivation and religious differences. The end is a bit too perfect and unrealistic, but I can forgive that because it’s also wonderful. I think I’ll probably want to read this book again someday soon. It’s so nice to read a book about my own world that actually displays an understanding of that world rather than befuddlement. The one weird thing is the way Mirvis kept writing “kosher” when she should have said “kashrus”; I assume it was to make the book more accessible to non-Jewish readers, but then so many other Hebrew and Yiddish terms were used that were never explained, so I really don’t know.
]]> 1151948 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:35:30 -0700
author: Michael J. Collins
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 07/05
date added: 05/10/07
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I thought it was really cool when I read the description of Collins on the back flap and saw that he has 12 children. He’s Irish Catholic, I guess, but he doesn’t come across as the least bit religious in the book. I think he and his wife don’t have so many children for religious reasons so much as because they just love having children. In any case, this description of the four years of orthopedic surgery residency at the Mayo Clinic is awesome. It’s very engrossing, with lots of medical details and patient stories. The insights Dr. Collins has about human life and mortality are interesting, but not the best part of the book. He’s very good at describing scenes and engaging the reader in what’s happening. One thing I could never get over was how after treating so many people for injuries sustained from accidents while driving drunk, even a few people who are mentioned as not having blood alcohol levels above the legal limit but still being impaired, Dr. Collins and his fellow residents continue to go out and drink and then drive home. Overall this is a really excellent book. I read it all in one night – couldn’t put it down.
]]> 1151934 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:33:59 -0700
author: Frank Herbert
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.38
book published: 1987
rating: 2
read at: 01/05
date added: 05/10/07
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The whole time I was reading this book I couldn’t figure out whether I liked it, and then I couldn’t even really understand the ending, and I’m still not sure if I liked it. It’s certainly very different, and not as good as, Dune, but I didn’t expect them to be the same. The story is that there are these creatures called Dreens who live on the planet Dreenor, and everything in the universe is the result of their “idmaging,” which is creating things from the protoplasmic essence of the universe. They created Earth, but now some of them want to destroy it (“erase” it). A teenage Dreen who thinks he’s a hot-shot steals the ship that’s supposed to erase Earth and gets into a crash with an Earth ship carrying a spoiled rich jerk who’s father is extremely powerful and whose family is superbly screwed up. Both are injured in the crash, and they end up sharing the same body. The details of sharing the same body are pretty funny. Over the course of the book the Dreens try to decide whether to send additional Dreens to erase Earth, and the people on Earth struggle with each other for power and money. There is a war between the Chinese and the French on Venus. There are something called Spirals that carry Dreen spaceships through the universe, and which humans are beginning to discover. There is the very strange uncle, the Raj Dood, of the guy who shares his body with the Dreen, and his wife Osceola, who live in a swamp in Florida but use the Spirals to travel to Venus regularly. Overall a strange, somewhat humorous, but overall confusing book. It feels like a half-baked concept in many ways, as so much is never explained or not explained in time to make sense for much of the book. And the end is confusing; what ever happened to the Dreens? They went to another dimension or something, but they supposedly didn’t even know about different dimensions. And now the future of Earth lies on the two remaining Dreen left. Ryll, the teenage Dreen, doesn’t act like a teenager much; doesn’t he ever miss his family? Overall the book was fun but not great.
]]> 1151902 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:32:59 -0700
author: Michael Crichton
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at: 01/05
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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Unfortunately, Crichton is too convincing in his anti-global warming propaganda piece. The story is great, sure, but this book is just that – a very thinly veiled piece of propaganda for the right wing oil industries and politicians who want us to believe that there’s no such thing as global warming. And he is very, very convincing. My mother says she read that he’s actually receiving kickbacks from oil companies. I can’t even counter the arguments, so I’ll have to read more about it. Crichton is even self-righteous, claiming he wants his readers to decide for themselves and providing a long bibliography. Of course he knows that one in a hundred people will actually look anything from that list up, so he can be confident that his book is doing its job. As for the story, it boils down to a global conspiracy by militant environmentalists to actually create natural disasters, deadly ones, to convince the public that global warming is going to horribly change the world in the near future. The lawyer who is the main character ends up in many life-or-death situations struggling to find out the secret and save lives by stopping many of these disasters (a huge glacier breaking from an ice sheet, a flash flood that would kill school children on a picnic, etc.) from happening. I found the book entertaining but overall disturbing in its implications.
]]> 1151889 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:31:43 -0700
author: H.G. Wells
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1896
rating: 5
read at: 05/05
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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I had seen at least one movie version of this book, and perhaps even read it before as a child, when I picked it up last night. It really is an excellent book, though some of the sentiments are a bit outdated. It addresses the meaning of humanity, religion, scientific progress. At points it is frightening and at others poignant. The description of the screams of animals as Moreau vivisected them is very disturbing. The story reads as both a nightmare and a commentary on man. I’d like to read more by Wells, especially after reading the biography of him in the front of this volume. Apparently he was extraordinarily prescient in predicting the future.
]]> 1151874 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:30:42 -0700
author: Sinclair Lewis
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1925
rating: 5
read at: 05/05
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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I was a bit apprehensive before starting this book, because it was published in 1924 and I thought perhaps the language and structure would be too old-fashioned and it would be terribly boring and a drag to get through. I was very pleasantly surprised, however. The language itself is a bit old-fashioned, but the structure is not, and the book is thoughtful, funny, and enjoyable to read. It’s about this guy Martin Arrowsmith who goes to college and then medical school (“medic school;” apparently back then you didn’t have to go to college first), and his life as a doctor. He tries out private practice in a semi-rural area, public health, private practice as part of a large and rich partnership in the city, and his real love in life, research. I was surprised that the themes match so closely with the themes in medicine today. The issues of doing procedures only for profit, commercialism in medicine, the idea of “selling out”, the difficulties of being a small-town doctor, the lure of research, funding for research and the absurdity of the direction of research institutes, and so many others. Martin as a student rails against selling out and doing procedures for profit, just becoming a doctor for the money, and then at one point is drawn into a practice where he is forced to do just that. He believes research is the loftiest of goals, and in fact reveres his mentor Professor Gottlieb as almost a saint or a god of research. As a public health official he is faced with a director spouting silly poetry about cleanliness and in fact giving in to all of the businesses and doing nothing for the real scientific goals of containing disease. When he travels to a Caribbean island to treat the plague with his newly discovered bacteriophage, he forces himself to run a scientific experiment of it and only treat half of the people in a certain village, in order to have controls. His beloved wife Leora dies, which is a very sad part of the book. He remarries into high society but hates it, he returns to research and makes something of a name for himself. I can’t go through the entire book in detail, but overall the issues it addresses are still so relevant, and the writing is very good, so I think it is a very good book. The weakest aspect is the portrayal of Leora, who is really just a shell of a person who is content to sit around all day and worship Martin. And the book doesn’t seem to have any real plot structure, just sort of travels along at the same pace and then suddenly ends. But neither of those is enough to seriously diminish the overall quality of this excellent book.
]]> 1151869 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:29:49 -0700
author: Michael Crichton
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 05/05
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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The premise is pretty cool: a company creates a little nanotech thing that’s supposed to spy for the army by flying around and making complex camera-like (actually eye-like) structures and then transmitting images. There are some problems in the design and programming, particularly regarding their tendency to be dispersed by the wind. Some of them get out of the compound in the desert where they’re being manufactured, and they take on a life of their own and become completely independent and start killing animals and then people. Of course, since it’s a Michael Crichton book. Anyway, the science in it is pretty cool, with all of the programming/computing stuff, nanotechnology, and even bacteriology. It’s written well and the characters are compelling. The biggest problem comes right at the end, when a virus that is supposed to kill the bacteria living in the swarm kills them on contact. Crichton knows better than that; in fact, he had described viral behavior not too much earlier in the book. He didn’t give any time for incubation or anything, just poof! the swarm contacts the virus and dies. So overall a fun book to read, but the end isn’t satisfying.
]]> 1151838 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:29:17 -0700
author: Orson Scott Card
name: Ellie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 05/05
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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A really great book about Ender Wiggins, who is taken at the age of six to live in a military training institute where he is trained to be a great commander. He rises much more quickly than the average child because he is being groomed to be the commander of the entire international fleet against the buggers (what a horrible name Card picked for his aliens!). In the end he thinks he is still training but he’s really fighting the battle, and he destroys the entire bugger race. I kept thinking about the issue of child soldiers in the world today. I think the psychological aspects of the book are very interesting, with the relationships between Ender and his siblings, Ender and the other children, Ender and the instructors, and Ender with himself. Some of Orson Scott Card's typical themes come through, but less so than in the other books and series I've read by him. And after the twist in the story, I was thinking to myself that it ought to have been predictable, but I was so caught up in the telling that I wasn't thinking ahead to predict. One thing that Card tends to do which I sort of don't like is at some point later on in a book when he wants to advance the story quite a bit he has the characters go through years and years of their lives without really saying much about them. So by the end of the book, Ender is what, 20? 21? and I still felt like he was 11. Actually quite a bit of the end felt like it had just been tacked on to the book and wasn’t nearly as good as the rest. I didn’t really like the bit where Ender was receiving psychic messages from the dead bugger queen, or that she had somehow gotten into his head and recreated parts of his dreams. And the computer program at the battle school that somehow got Peter’s picture and created new things just for Ender was never explained. In any case I think this is the best book by Card I’ve read so far, and I could even see myself re-reading it at some point. There’s a lot to think about in it, and it’s also an engrossing story. [It’s very unfortunate that Orson Scott Card, a writer with such great imagination and ability, also happens to be a crazy right-wing weirdo. It’s not just the Mormon preaching he does in his books, but apparently he also posts on right wing web sites all sorts of nonsense and rubbish, including stuff about John Kerry being hostile to the military that he posted prior to the election. I wish he wouldn’t use his books to promote his right wing ideals, but at least I can just read them for the stories and try to ignore the rest.]
]]> 1151821 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:26:09 -0700
author: Orson Scott Card
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.30
book published: 1996
rating: 2
read at: 05/05
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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This is really more of a religious and political commentary than a science fiction novel. Card has some really interesting characters and tells a good story, but unfortunately his books have way too much Mormonism in them to completely appeal to a non-Mormon audience. Although it seems like the ends of the series are more religious than the beginnings. Perhaps he is getting more sure of himself with regard to using his religion in his books. In this book the Mormon imagery just gets out of hand, and a lot of the book isn’t even action but tons of dialogue or discussion about religion and government. The “bad guys” in this book are the ones who want to separate church and state! But no worry, they experience a vision from God (okay, it’s actually just Shedemei in her starmaster’s cloak, but she was sent by God, after all), and they reform their ways and go around preaching the true gospel of equality and, presumably, theocracy. I do think the three species of people are pretty cool, though.
]]> 1151806 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:25:17 -0700
author: Orson Scott Card
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at: 05/05
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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The end of the Alvin Maker series (I think; maybe another is planned?). The whole store got more and more Mormon as time went on, and it became obvious that Alvin was a fantasy world version of Joseph Smith (apparently even the name Alvin comes from Smith’s history; Alvin Smith was Joseph’s brother who died). That said, there are still a lot of interesting aspects to the book. Unfortunately this is the worst of the series. It starts after a number of years break from the last book, but it doesn’t bother to explain what happened in those years (I mean whatever happened between Verily and Harmony???). Even things that supposedly happened just a bit before the start of the book (like whatever happened with Abe on the boat) aren’t explained at all. So the reader is constantly confused about a lot of things. Also, a lot of the newer characters are completely flat, especially Abe Lincoln. Overall the series was entertaining, but this last book was a big disappointment, and the strong Mormon influence can be sort of disconcerting. It was also weird to have Alvin as some sort of Moses figure leading slaves into freedom. The whole use of American Indians as some sort of holy special people is trite and weird, and Card’s portrayal of them shows that he doesn’t really know that much at all. The idea that they couldn’t be true to their past and continue to live among white men is sort of strange, and the almost infantile portrayal of their culture is actually demeaning. Although it did lead me to read more about Indians, which is cool. And while supposedly advancing the ideal of racial equality, Card actually continually points out all of the difference between the races he describes, at least in this fantasy world where the races each have different powers.
]]> 1151796 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:23:22 -0700
author: Orson Scott Card
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.14
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at: 01/05
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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This is a really weird book. The main character is seduced by and marries a succubus who happens to actually be a 12 (or 11?) year old girl (not such a nice image there). There’s some sort of evil dragon that has to be let out of a box, where the heart of a dead child is still living with the dragon inside it, and the girl, who is a witch, wants to get it out. So she tries to get the main character to do this for her. And her grandmother is trying to stop her. She’s actually laying in a bed in a nursing home like a vegetable, but her soul is apparently out doing all sorts of important things like keeping the dragon in its box. This is an entertaining book, with thankfully not too much religion in it (as Card is wont to do), but also rather strange, and overall not one that’s going to stay with me.
]]> 1151781 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:22:37 -0700
author: Tracy Kidder
name: Ellie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 01/05
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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This is a great book about Dr. Paul Farmer. Kidder is always truthful and reports everything accurately, which allows the reader to see Farmer for who he really is: an amazing, somewhat arrogant but perhaps necessarily so, extremely hard-working man who has not only changed healthcare in Haiti but has revolutionized worldwide treatment of TB. Compared to Paul Farmer we must all feel incompetent.
]]> 1151767 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:21:44 -0700
author: Berton Roueche
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1996
rating: 1
read at: 01/04
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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This is a collection of this guy’s writings about medical cases. They were mainly written in the 70s and 80s, it seems, and his old-fashioned chauvinism shines through. There also seem to be quite a few factual errors. I definitely wouldn’t call it a good book; the cases aren’t even all that interesting and he doesn’t say anything to make them more so.
]]> 1151750 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:20:57 -0700
author: Tess Gerritsen
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 01/04
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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I think Gerritsen is obsessed with parasitic infections; this time, the parasite is extraterrestrial in nature and eats up a bunch of astronauts who catch it from their experiment payload. Lots of gross imagery of decomposing bodies disintegrating in zero gravity and blobs of goop and alien parasite stuff. Also the parasite is rapidly evolving to contain genes from whatever it infects, which is creepy. Weird stuff man.
]]> 1151742 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:20:14 -0700
author: Tess Gerritsen
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 01/04
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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This thriller is about teenagers in a small Maine town going berserk and becoming super-violent due to a parasitic worm infection. Fun read, weird premise.
]]> 1151728 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:19:04 -0700
author: Jeremy Jackson
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
review:
An entertaining book about a kid who runs track. Another kid on his middle school team borrows his spikes and races in his place in a meet, and proceeds to win a state record. Then, while the van is traveling home, it crashes into a river and everybody on board dies. The main character was riding with his parents and he lives. He goes sort of psychologically batty and does nothing but run. He starts winning all of the state records, and he doesn’t even remember what’s happening to him or anybody from his old team. He goes to high school and starts remembering things, and is by far the best runner in the state and gets all of the records in everything. He gets involved in some shady thing with a guy who pretends to be using him for research into physiology and pays him huge amounts of money and buys him a car, but really he’s just trying to bribe the kid into coming to the state school for college so he can run for them. At one point the kid gets banned from running because he “cheated” by not reporting people who had spiked him on purpose. Then in the end he is at a press conference where he’s supposed to sign at the state school, but instead he says he will go to that school but won’t run for them, and exposes the whole entire scandal. There are lots of other details like love interests, and the kid finally being allowed to attend the honors part of his school, where he does really well. Overall, the book is entertaining but not a great work of literature or anything. Lots of it is just unbelievable, like the weird amnesia stuff.
]]> 1151723 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:17:23 -0700
author: Martha N. Beck
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2001
rating: 1
read at: 01/04
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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Totally flaky woman thinks she sees and feels angels just because her fetus has Down Syndrome. Completely unbelievable book but interesting if you want to get some insight into flaky crazy people.
]]> 1151707 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:15:26 -0700
author: Rachel Carson
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 01/04
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
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She was amazing. This book has so much interesting science and insight. It was so strong for her time! Definitely enjoyed reading it, learned a lot about the historical use of pesticides. I’m sorry we still use so much; definitely scared me some.
]]> 1151699 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:14:09 -0700
author: Bill Bryson
name: Ellie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 03/05
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
review:
This should be required reading for everybody. Not only does it explain basic science in a way that everybody can understand it, and focus on the more important aspects of science for every person to know, but it is entertaining and amusing. The descriptions of scientists’ personalities is really interesting. He even makes geology fun.
]]> 1151671 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:10:12 -0700
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 1151665 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:09:56 -0700
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 1151660 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:09:39 -0700
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 1151655 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:09:20 -0700
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Ellie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 1151651 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:08:46 -0700
author: Michael Pollan
name: Ellie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 1151646 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:08:15 -0700
author: Eric Schlosser
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 1151559 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:07:41 -0700
author: Michael Pollan
name: Ellie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
review:
Another one of my favorite books. Everybody should read it. Michael Pollan is an engaging writer, and I learned so much about agriculture and food production from this book. When I finished I wanted to pick up and buy a farm and become a grass farmer!
]]> 1151499 Thu, 10 May 2007 17:01:49 -0700
author: Jared Diamond
name: Ellie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 01/03
date added: 05/10/07
shelves:
review:
This is one of my favorite books of all time. I like Diamond's overall theory, and I think it partially (but not fully) explains why some societies prospered over others. I also simply enjoyed reading the book; it is full of extraordinarily interesting information, and it is written very well.
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