Emily

Emily rated a book 3 of 5 stars

Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion
by Elizabeth L. Cline

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Excellent background on the history of fashion, where our clothes come from and how this has changed so dramatically over the last century. It also really makes you think twice about what you buy and calls into question as to whether more money reall...more

Emily rated a book 2 of 5 stars

Little Bee
by Chris Cleave (Goodreads Author)

read in November, 2012

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This book had some very good moments, but overall, I could not give it more than 2 stars. There is some beautiful prose within, however, in many instances they seemed a bit cliche. It is a very heavy story as far as content goes, however, the charact...more

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The Myth of Sanity: Divided Consciousness and the Promise of Awareness
by Martha Stout

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The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science
by R. Douglas Fields

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Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
by David Eagleman (Goodreads Author)

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Emily rated a book 4 of 5 stars

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
by Jon Ronson

read in November, 2012

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Emily rated a book 2 of 5 stars

Divergent (Divergent, #1)
by Veronica Roth (Goodreads Author)

read in October, 2012

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This contains spoilers, so if you have not read this book, beware:

First, I didn't HATE this book. Well, not by the time I finished it anyway. However, at several points I did have to resist the urge to throw it across the room and not pick it up agai...more This contains spoilers, so if you have not read this book, beware:

First, I didn't HATE this book. Well, not by the time I finished it anyway. However, at several points I did have to resist the urge to throw it across the room and not pick it up again. But I trudged through it and in the end, I have to say it was OK. I only say that because toward the end I was actually somewhat interested in what was going to happen. But everything prior to that bordered on maddeningly stupid.

The jumping from trains elicited the first eye-roll of many. That was just stupid and completely illogical.

Abnegation and Dauntless are just idiotic, for different reasons and would be complete and utter failures IRL. Abnegation would essentially just end up starving themselves to death since taking food from others would be "selfish". They take the whole selfless thing WAAAAY too far. Annoyingly so. And the Dauntless would be dead, seeing as essentially they are nothing more than sociopathic assholes that like to party everytime someone dies, which I am assuming would be a daily thing. I'm not really sure about the other factions since little to nothing is really said about them, other than Candor being a bunch of assholes, the Erudite being a bunch of know-it-all assholes and Amity being naive airheads.
Beyond that, there is little to nothing done in the way of actually helping the reader create this world in their minds.

All that being said, my biggest gripe with this book is her handling of the Al character. She takes on the highly sensitive topic of teen suicide as though she were describing how to wash dishes. It is more or less glossed over and I was left absolutely horrified. Sure, Beatrice says something about how it wasn't the brave act Eric made it out to be, but other than that, it just kind of faded away into the background. NTM, Al was just about the ONLY likeable character in the whole thing (the only human one anyway) and she goes and has him off himself, then pretends like he never existed in the first place. If as an author you take on such a sensitive subject, I suggest you handle it with a little more brevity than Ms. Roth did. Truthfully that is the number one reason I would not recommend this book.

I could also go on and on about the plot holes so large you could fit a solar system inside them, the overall gross immaturity of the whole thing (yes, I understand it is YA fiction, but that doesn't mean you need to dumb it down like she has) and her overall inability to make you give a flying rats ass about any single character in this book, but I see that has been done in spades in previous reviews.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. And I will not be reading any of the others.(less)

Emily rated a book 2 of 5 stars

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
by Dan Ariely

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This was just ok. It was mostly him reiterating his experiments that he performed involving largely college students. As an aside: why, oh why, do these people never involve any adults in their studies? I understand that being academics, college stud...more

Emily rated a book 3 of 5 stars

The Anatomist's Apprentice by Tessa Harris

The Anatomist's Apprentice (Dr. Thomas Silkstone, #1)
by Tessa Harris (Goodreads Author)

read in October, 2012

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The beginning of the book was quite boring, but by the middle of the book, I was at least interested in finding out what happened. So it did it's job of keeping me interested and occupied. But I think that was mainly because A) I have some sort of st...more The beginning of the book was quite boring, but by the middle of the book, I was at least interested in finding out what happened. So it did it's job of keeping me interested and occupied. But I think that was mainly because A) I have some sort of strange fascination with 18th century Europe and B) being in the medical field myself I was fascinated with the whole science/medical history part of it. But thats really where it ended. Unlike others here, I liked Thomas, but his character was a bit dull. It definitely would not have hurt to develop him into a more 3 dimensional character. Also, yes, the love story was SEVERELY lacking. It's like it pops out of nowhere, and considering the fact that this ends up being the reason WHY Thomas becomes so involved, it really should have been better developed than it was. None of the characters were particularly likeable. Lydia was essentially a peice of talking meat. And as for the rest, you just ended up hating or merely tolerating them. Where we supposed to feel empathy for the captain at the end? I sure didn't. That all being said, my biggest complaint is in the ending and the way in which "all is revealed". I felt like I was watching a really bad community play. All of a sudden people start dropping like flies and it becomes one long confessional. Kind of like if you have ever seen the movie "Clue" where they spend all this time trying to figure out the whodunit, only to have each person confess within the last few minutes so that the stupid story can end already. Not to mention, even though forensics hadn't really even been invented yet (nor would it be for a very long time after) the whole premise was that Thomas would use science to find out the truth, only to have science have pretty much nothing to do with anything in the end. I was mildly entertained, but overall, it wasn't a very good book. I will not be reading any more of the series (if there ever are any). The author recieved a PhD in history. Perhaps she should have left the writing to the writers and acted as a expert source instead.(less)

Emily wants to read

The Missionary Position by Christopher Hitchens

The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
by Christopher Hitchens

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Emily rated a book 3 of 5 stars Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Excellent background on the history of fashion, where our clothes come from and how this has changed so dramatically over the last century. It also really makes you think twice about what you buy and calls into question as to whether more money reall...more
Nov 13, 2012 07:30am · see review
Emily rated a book 2 of 5 stars Little Bee by Chris Cleave (Goodreads Author) read in November, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book had some very good moments, but overall, I could not give it more than 2 stars. There is some beautiful prose within, however, in many instances they seemed a bit cliche. It is a very heavy story as far as content goes, however, the charact...more
Nov 12, 2012 12:51pm · see review
Emily wants to read The Myth of Sanity: Divided Consciousness and the Promise of Awareness by Martha Stout	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 02, 2012 02:28pm
Emily wants to read The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science by R. Douglas Fields	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 02, 2012 02:25pm
Emily wants to read Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman (Goodreads Author)	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 02, 2012 02:17pm
Emily rated a book 4 of 5 stars The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson read in November, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 02, 2012 01:21pm
Emily rated a book 2 of 5 stars Divergent (Divergent, #1) by Veronica Roth (Goodreads Author) read in October, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This contains spoilers, so if you have not read this book, beware: First, I didn't HATE this book. Well, not by the time I finished it anyway. However, at several points I did have to resist the urge to throw it across the room and not pick it up agai...more
Oct 30, 2012 09:56am · see review
Emily rated a book 2 of 5 stars Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This was just ok. It was mostly him reiterating his experiments that he performed involving largely college students. As an aside: why, oh why, do these people never involve any adults in their studies? I understand that being academics, college stud...more
Oct 25, 2012 07:56am · see review
Emily rated a book 3 of 5 stars The Anatomist's Apprentice (Dr. Thomas Silkstone, #1) by Tessa Harris (Goodreads Author) read in October, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The beginning of the book was quite boring, but by the middle of the book, I was at least interested in finding out what happened. So it did it's job of keeping me interested and occupied. But I think that was mainly because A) I have some sort of st...more
Oct 25, 2012 07:45am · see review
Emily wants to read The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice by Christopher Hitchens	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 11, 2012 09:20am

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