false 5 114 112 true 5637628 read 1 true 4578178 currently-reading 1 true 4578177 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65816246 Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future (Hardcover) by Chris Mooney
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65815961 to: Packing the Court: The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court (Hardcover) by James MacGregor Burns
Packing the Court</i>, by James MacGregor Burns, is a frustrating book. On the one hand, it is a very readable, often fascinating history of the Justices of the Supreme Court, written from the perspective of a researcher interested in how the uneven time frame Justices get selected in affect the court and the other branches' response to the sometime out of touch Court. It has a great deal of interesting information about the Justices, the weird process that got them too the court, and the intricate relationship between the court, the Congress and the issues of the day. The discussions of Bush v. Gore, of the Roberts Court, and of Howard Taft and his full fronted assault on working Americans were particulalrly well done and interesting. Burns' history also does a very good job of demonstrating that there has never been anything other than an activist Court in our history. If that was all this book was about, then I would recommend it heartily. But that is not what Burns wants his book to be about. He wants his book to be a devastating attack on the very concept of judicial review and the Court's place in American politics. Unfortunately for Burns, he doesn't make that case with anything close to the skill with which he tells the history of the Court.

It is a very interesting look at the the history of the Court told well and from a point of view not often heard. It also has some good arguments and an interesting thesis. But those arguments aren't fully fleshed out and the thesis isn't proven so much as asserted. Packing the Court is a rare beast: a political polemic too heavy on the history and too light on the polemic. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/61788647 to: The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastards, #1) by Scott Lynch
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57944209 to: Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible & Why We Don't Know About Them (Hardcover) by Bart D. Ehrman
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57944189 to: Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament (Paperback) by Bart D. Ehrman
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57943722 to: Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency (Paperback) by James Bamford
This book makes one thing completely clear: our national security apparatus has devolved into a festering stew of paranoia, violence worship and authoritarianism run amok. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57943132 to: An Autumn War (Long Price Quartet, #3) by Daniel Abraham
This book is more plot driven than the last two, but it still has the fine writing and well drawn characters of the first two. It is darker -- with some of the more disturbing aspects of the world that have been hinted at in the past books displayed in all their depressing glory -- than the first two but still highly enjoyable. It also has the most compelling ending of the series. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57942930 to: A Betrayal in Winter (Long Price Quartet, #2) by Daniel Abraham
Much like a Shadow in Summer, the first book in this series, the plot is not the point. There is enough plot to keep the characters moving, but it is really the characters and the world building and the fine writing that make this book so much fun to read. The ending feels a bit rushed, but that just might be because you want to spend more time with the characters. ]]>