false 29 256 179 true 5677471 read 0 true 1841584 currently-reading 77 true 1841583 to-read 48 false 2301810 fiction 28 false 2727730 art-and-design 27 false 3576381 social-issues 22 false 2380128 memoir 20 false 2300524 food-and-cooking 17 false 2457503 pop-culture 16 false 2425170 business-and-econ 15 false 2300518 teen 15 false 2300795 history 11 false 2380145 graphic-novel 7 false 3363908 eco 7 false 2306197 photography 6 false 4175515 biography 3 false 3404321 computer-geekery 3 false 5300820 didn-t-finish 0 false 4684323 animals http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81387443 to: Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession (Hardcover) by Julie Powell
bookshelves: food-and-cooking, memoir
I didn't hate this book or Julie Powell nearly as much as everyone else. But wow. This was TMI without a point. I started skipping through the melodrama to get to the grisly butchery sections which were the book's saving grace. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81386488 to: Simple Home: Calm Spaces for Comfortable Living (Hardcover) by Mark Bailey
bookshelves: art-and-design
I am such a sucker for this style. Nothing revolutionary here, just lots of perfect moments captured on film. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80537612 to: Tinsel: A Search for America's Christmas Present (Hardcover) by Hank Stuever
bookshelves: business-and-econ, pop-culture, social-issues
I loved this book. I love that you get a journalstic approach combined with a Sedaris-style ability to see the absurd. I love that Stuever made me love and root for Palin supporters. I love this author. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80347365 Angry Fat Girls: 5 Women, 500 Pounds and a Year of Losing It...Again (Hardcover) by Frances Kuffel
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80346682 The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth (Paperback) by Irving Kirsch
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80176717 to: Gimme Shelter (Hardcover) by Mary Elizabeth Williams
bookshelves: memoir, social-issues
Nothing makes you feel better about your own housing plight than talking to a New Yorker. Williams quest to find a home for her growing family without losing her soul is fascinating. There is a little of everything here: city vs. suburbs, appropriate home sizes, the housing bubble, gentrification, and parental choices. A lot of other reviewers find Williams to be overpriviledged and delusional, but I completely disagree. It is not delusional to want a modest home in a decent and diverse neighborhood without having to sell you soul to the corporate overlords. But maybe I'm just a little to close her brand of delusion. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79752167 to: Odd Ball Knitting: Creative Ideas for Leftover Yarn (Paperback) by Barbara Albright
bookshelves: art-and-design
'Eh. There are some great pictures and okay patterns, but there is very little here about actually using up a stash. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79751897 to: The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (Hardcover) by Michael Lewis
bookshelves: biography, social-issues
A very well-structured and well-written book. Michael Oher's story is unforgettable, but Lewis' understanding of football and his ability to explain the game is what makes this book. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79751514 to: The Cheese Chronicles: A Journey Through the Making and Selling of Cheese in America, From Field to Farm to Table (Paperback) by Liz Thorpe
bookshelves: food-and-cooking
I liked this one, but I found the reviews of individual cheeses kind of boring. I would have liked more personal stories from her visits to the farms and her life in the industry. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79750177 to: The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz (Hardcover) by Eric Shanower
bookshelves: graphic-novel
My obsession with the Wizard of Oz is longstanding. Shanower stays faitful to the original story, but utilizes his format to speed up the pacing where the book became bogged down in repetition. Skottie Young's artwork blew me away and the coloring by Jean-Francois Beaulieu, so important to the entire story, is unbelievable. My student and I have spent the past twenty minutes trying to figure out their technique. This is the definitive version of this much loved tale. ]]>