http://www.goodreads.com/user/updates_rss/247446 en-US Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:23:32 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 3997456 Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:23:32 -0700 Review5638475 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5638475 Headache Survival PA (Paperback) by Robert S. Ivker
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> 3737081 Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:35:02 -0700 Review5423516 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5423516 Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Paperback) by Jared Diamond
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> 3736653 Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:28:12 -0700 Review5423183 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5423183 Harvest for Hope (Hard copy) by Jane Goodall
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> 2987532 Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:17:05 -0700 Review4809727 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4809727 to: Fast Food Nation (Paperback) by Eric Schlosser
bookshelves: need-to-re-read
]]> 2987512 Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:16:50 -0700 Review4809709 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4809709 to: The Omnivore's Dilemma (Hardcover) by Michael Pollan
bookshelves: need-to-re-read
]]> 2986925 Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:10:04 -0700 Review4809222 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4809222 to: Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet (Hardcover) by Frances Moore Lappé
3 1/2 Stars.
]]> 2982906 Mon, 20 Aug 2007 08:12:46 -0700 Comment97091 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1761599 Writerlibrarian's review of Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously
by Julie Powell

Ha! Thanks for the response! It really is rather difficult to fit all the nuances of reviewing a book into such a simplistic five star system. I mean, where do we put books that we love even though we recognize the writing as somewhat lacking? Or the reverse where we recognize a stroke of brilliance in the writing but we just don't connect to the story? I like your idea for dealing with these nuances. ]]> 2775864 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:44:29 -0700 Review4636504 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4636504 to: Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously (Paperback) by Julie Powell
I love the concept, I really do; not so much the finished product.

Had she not made the fuuny reference to my favorite line in Casablanca near the begininning of the book, I never would have been able to finish it. The thought of finding another gem like that made me stick with it even when I wanted to throw Julie out of a twenty-story window. The whiny, self-absorbed, melodramtic, narcissistic, trite (yet on occasion deliciously funny) Julie Powell decides to take up a project to add meaning to her life, or at least to distract herself from dealing with it: She decides that she is going to cook every single recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and that she is going to do it in the time span of a year.

Julie never mentions how many hours she actually works in a week at her "oh pity me, the lowly secretary who still makes enough money to live in New York and buy enough food to cook every single recipe in the Julia Child MtAoFC cookbook" job, but I honestly have a very difficult time believing that she worked full time, commuted, did the grocery shopping, cooked every single recipe in the book, wrote a blog, and yet still had time to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (I mean, really, does anyone that gave this book five stars actually cook?!?) She does make the point very clear that she didn't clean at all that year. And she did allow herself to gain an untold amount of weight rather than work out. I suppose that gave her a little extra time to devote to this project. And on top of all that she expected her husband and her friends to support her insanity, wholeheartedly and unabashededly. Eric should have kept a blog for the year about putting up with Julie!

For a book about cooking, there is a sad lack of description regarding the various recipes. Sure, she does go into detail about excavating bone marrow and dismembering lobsters, but what about the food? I didn't get the impression that she actually loves food so much as that she has a gluttonous relationship to it. Don't want to deal with your feelings? That's okay, just stuff them down with extremely high fat foods and ignore the consequences. I have no patience for this sort of self defeatist behavior; the average overweight american who refuses to take responsibility for their own health and instead assumes a false sense of pride over being carefree about their food choices. And then just accepts a dependence upon pharmaceuticals to manage the ill effects. Is it really any wonder that heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States?

This may have been an entertaining blog, but the "My bleaders like me, they really like me!" tone did not translate very well into a book. If you have any interest whatsoever in her story, save yourself the money (and grief) of reading this book and just read her blog blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/0...

]]> 2801328 Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:26:54 -0700 Review4657601 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4657601 Silent Spring (Paperback) by Rachel Carson
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 2801193 Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:24:25 -0700 Review4657493 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4657493 to: Bibliotherapy: The Girl's Guide to Books for Every Phase of Our Lives (Paperback) by Beverly West
Since I never seem to tire of reading books about books, this was at least an entertaining and light read. Lacking, but not so terrible that I couldn't slog my way through it.

The authors did not strike me as true readers; rather as women who came up with a clever way to market books. (They have a whole series of "Girl's Guide" books.) I'm actually not even convinced that the authors have read more than a few of the recommended books, which are for the most part obvious and predictable. Most of them are bestsellers and/or required reading for a high school english class. However, to be fair, I love being reminded of how much I love books and Bibliotherapy did accomplish at least this.

I came away with the following lists . . .

Books that I actually own and which are therefore already on my neverending to-read list but which I have not read as of yet:
1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
2. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
3. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4. Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen
5. 1984 by George Orwell

Books that never seemed interesting before yet suddenly beg to be read:
1. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
2. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
3. Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher
4. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Books that I had never heard of before that I will at least look into now:
1. Having Our Say by the Delany Sisters (Reason: One of the sisters confessed that she was afraid that when she met St. Peter at the gate, that he would say, "Lord, child, you were mean." I love that.)
2. A Small Farm in Maine by Terry Silber
3. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
4. Lost Horizon by James Hilton

Will I ever actually read any of the books listed above? Certainly some of the books in the first list, perhaps some in the second, probably not any in the third. For the simple reason that my to-read list grows faster than I could possibly keep up with. ]]>