false 7 163 138 true 5718973 read 1 true 552386 currently-reading 24 true 552385 to-read 50 false 2803968 non-fiction <![CDATA[new comment from Gina]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6914879 Jen's review of What Is the What
by Dave Eggers

I loved this book. It's heartbreaking. I hope you enjoy it too. ]]> <![CDATA[Gina added 'The Brothers Karamazov']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53360680 The Brothers Karamazov (Paperback) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> <![CDATA[Gina added 'Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78667965 to: Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance (Hardcover) by Atul Gawande
bookshelves: non-fiction
I appreciated this book. That's the best way to describe my reaction. Gawande does not glorify doctors nor does he condemn them. He looks at medicine as we all should, a job that is done by people. People make mistakes, people are also innovative and determined and take risks. As someone going into the field of public health a lot of issues raised by Gawande are applicable to the field of psychology as well (e.g., the question of whether doctors should participate in state executions reminds me of the debate among psychologists about participating in "terrorist interrogations"). This was an easy read and it opened my eyes to the pitfalls and triumphs of medicine. ]]> <![CDATA[Gina added 'Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78668374 Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (Paperback) by Jon Kabat-Zinn
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Gina is on page 73 of Better: A Surgeon's... ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78667965 Gina is on page 73 of 288 of Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance ]]> <![CDATA[Gina added 'Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4265689 to: Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen (Paperback) by Shunryu Suzuki
bookshelves: non-fiction
]]> <![CDATA[Gina added 'Infinite Jest: A Novel']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78540196 Infinite Jest: A Novel (Paperback) by David Foster Wallace
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Gina added 'Invisible']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77957054 Invisible (Hardcover) by Paul Auster
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Gina added 'Let the Great World Spin: A Novel']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76551908 to: Let the Great World Spin: A Novel (Hardcover) by Colum McCann
This book was beautifully written. Centavos is my favorite chapter. It's the kind of book where not a whole lot necessarily "happens" and yet the language is captivating. One can tell that McCann took great pains to think about how best to weave the chapters (all told from the point of view of a different character) together. It's thoughtful, moving, funny and sad. I loved it. ]]> <![CDATA[Gina added 'The Hour I First Believed: A Novel']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45126380 to: The Hour I First Believed: A Novel (Hardcover) by Wally Lamb
I'm a Wally Lamb fan so I feel like 2 stars is "harsh." Problem is, I wouldn't say that I that the novel was much more than "ok." There were a few chunks of the book, the well-researched coverage of Columbine and some surprise twists near the middle and end of the novel that I enjoyed. The rest, however, was simply ok. I think the main problem for me was that I found the narrator quite unlikable- and not in an unlikable but you're rooting for him anyway kind of way. In fact, his wife is pretty unlikable as well. So that was the problem for me. I couldn't connect at all with the characters and therefore found myself enjoying the less fictional aspects of the book (i.e., the coverage of Columbine) much more. Oh, and similar to the big chunks of "I know this much is true" that I skipped, this book also includes writing by one of the characters that seemed important to the plot, but not so important that when I skipped all of those parts I feel I missed out on anything special. I've never been a fan of authors who include "books" or "short stories" by their characters (and this was worse, it is a character's dissertation)-- Irving and Lamb have both done this-- and the writing is inevitably never that great.

There were a few lines in there though worth quoting and that's much more like the Wally Lamb I enjoy. Here's my favorite: "We lived, lulled, on the fault line of chaos" ]]>