tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37077435059622905662012-01-25T21:24:15.782-08:00Reviews of books of many stripes.Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.comBlogger1361100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-11512745334798130212012-01-25T21:24:00.000-08:002012-01-25T21:24:15.809-08:00

Lippman takes "thrillers" in a different direction. I don't know if it's even fair to describe this book as a member of any genre, really.A group of five young people find each other. There are two girls and three boys, the three boys all brothers and the two girls friends. They do a lot of exploring together, and one day happen upon a shack far from anywhere, and learn that an old black man

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-60451240337954236082011-12-15T16:41:00.000-08:002011-12-15T16:46:57.598-08:00

I avoided Maeve Binchy's work for years because I had the impression that it is heart-warming fiction with happy endings and simple stories. And so it is, judging by this book. But I have to admit I liked it more than I expected. Binchy seems related, to an extent, to her Scottish cousin (not literal cousin) Alexander McCall Smith. Both celebrate the community developed by persons together in

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-7909495721211063422011-12-15T16:38:00.000-08:002011-12-15T16:38:36.341-08:00

A young woman leaves home and grows up. I think one might summarize the book this way, but it really isn't a "coming of age" book in the usual sense.Emma Roberts, 26, heads from her home in England to France to complete her dissertation on formal gardens. Living in small tight quarters, she works daily in the library, lives almost monastically. At the library, though, she meets Francoise, a

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-63422094322077668902011-09-04T12:01:00.000-07:002011-12-31T17:20:30.969-08:00

A Jewish family in Argentina during the Dirty War suffers an unimaginable loss. Kaddish and Lillian and their son Pato are managing to get by with Lillian's work and with Kaddish's occasional work when the police arrest Pato and take him away. Kaddish's work consists of destroying family names on tombstones in the disreputable part of the Jewish cemetery, so that persons with those names can

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-10901115239443574422011-09-04T09:16:00.000-07:002011-12-31T17:23:02.123-08:00

 The title refers to a ditty used to teach Southern children how to spell Mississippi: M - I - crooked letter, crooked letter - I - crooked letter, crooked letter... It's a story that had to happen in Mississippi or a similar southern state. Two boys, growing up in the 70s, one black, one white, become friends. But secret friends, because such a friendship was not acceptable then. The two

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-55918863392042264432011-08-21T09:59:00.000-07:002011-09-04T12:03:30.231-07:00

 I never know, when I buy a book by an author I have not heard of, whether it will be just okay or something more. Every now and then I get excited. That's the case here. I loved this book and I will be looking for more by this author.Max, an architect, is in a plane crash that kills his partner Jeff. In the minutes before the crash he moved from his seat to be with a young boy who is traveling

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-25356488620535771762011-04-04T20:05:00.000-07:002011-04-04T20:05:04.169-07:00

Yet another writer from upstate New York. Like Joyce Carol Oates and Richard Russo, Gates takes us to a workingman's world - but not quite. Doug Willis is somehow dissatisfied with his life. He mocks his work and makes unfunny, often bitter remarks to his wife, and he spends more time away from home than he does there, giving his children a sense that he hardly lives there. Finally he reaches a

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-31673772474724501662011-03-05T13:34:00.000-08:002011-03-05T13:35:53.206-08:00

Another set of terrific short stories by this remarkable Canadian writer. The title story is actually a fictionalized version of a real life, and it sits at the very end of this volume. The rest are intimate glimpses into important episodes of several lives.So what does it mean - Too Much Happiness? It may be that there is no such thing. Maybe that just when we think all our wishes have been

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-22214398076506915192011-03-04T09:02:00.000-08:002011-03-04T09:02:20.528-08:00

This is an unusual book. I don't know what to make of it, and I feel like I am not fully qualified to read it, frankly.The main character, Elizabeth Costello, is an elderly - but not really old - writer, who finds herself invited to various functions where she delivers rather obscure speeches. Much of the import of the book lies in these speeches, or in conversations at dinner. In a sense that

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-1304265141965712342011-02-16T12:56:00.000-08:002011-02-16T12:56:23.884-08:00

I was born in 1946, in the U.S. My family is not Jewish. I grew up, though, with the images from World War II, particularly the horrors of concentration camps. I have read books and magazines and seen films about this subject and in my dreams I often see the crowded trains and I think about how they ate, how they defecated, what they were thinking. I see in my mind the lines of the newly-arrived

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-7727450400453439452011-02-07T16:54:00.000-08:002011-02-08T09:41:12.063-08:00

Intense is how I would describe Peter Carey's writing, from the books of his I have read. It certainly describes this one.Told alternately from the point of view of the boy Che and from the caretaker Anna, this story is set in the 1970s, occasionally harking back to the 1960s for background. Anna is about to begin a career as a professor at Vassar when she is called back to a former life by an

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-22481258472717332102011-01-30T10:49:00.000-08:002011-01-30T10:49:44.709-08:00

Several reviewers refer to this tale as "Dickensian" and I have to agree. It stars a young boy, Ren, an orphan who is adopted by a con man, Benjamin, because Ren is missing one hand. Benjamin makes up any number of stories about the missing hand, and uses the sympathy of others to take their money. He soon learns that Ren has a way with stealing in any case, and is glad he doesn't have to teach

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-68337914029134217812011-01-21T08:29:00.000-08:002012-01-01T10:01:46.423-08:00

A writer of fiction, Elizabeth McCracken found herself in France in an old house in the country, pregnant. She and her husband like to visit different places when not required to be home. Thus the French country. The two of them arranged for a midwife and had access to a hospital about 40 minutes away. All checkups went well, until the last one, when there appeared to be something amiss.The

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-16938257386392049872011-01-21T08:26:00.000-08:002011-01-21T08:26:24.559-08:00

At times I like the spare, abrupt prose Oates sometimes uses. At other times I feel it distances me from the subjects. I had difficulty this time, not being able to connect closely to the rape victim, her daughter, or their unusual "benefactor". Nevertheless, I was compelled to keep reading. This is a story of horrific violence, not only the rape itself but so far beyond. And not just violence

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-92187791369449478952011-01-20T16:24:00.001-08:002011-01-20T16:24:58.721-08:00

In this book-length indictment of the use of cow’s milk for human consumption, Keon leaves no stone unturned. Exhaustively, he offers us information on why cow’s milk is not good for humans, either children or adults; on contamination of milk products; on how the calcium in milk does not do a body good, in fact it weakens bones; on the association of dairy products with a myriad of human diseases

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-73737748641941363742010-12-12T07:11:00.000-08:002010-12-12T07:11:35.419-08:00

The body artist is a woman who uses her body to create stories, images, different characters. She is a performance artist and her body is her medium. In this story Lauren, the woman, the body artist, is facing the sudden death of her husband, a famous man. She is living in a rented house in a lonely location on the coast, trying to sort out her life and to continue working on her body. After she

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-85073377234602534462010-12-12T07:05:00.000-08:002010-12-12T07:05:12.800-08:00

I have honestly never read anything like this before, and I don't quite know what to make of it.Clearly it's funny. It's sacrilegious. It's political and timely. Sort of.Misha Vainberg, son of an enterprising Russian who took advantage of the changing of the guard - from communism to capitalism - to enrich himself, is the star of this strange adventure. Misha travels to the U.S. to obtain a

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-47008432235392847642010-12-09T10:22:00.000-08:002010-12-09T10:22:00.102-08:00

This is a remarkable little book. And "little" it really isn't. I started reading it thinking I'd just get it out of the way and maybe learn a little on the way. But it really captivated me and I learned a great deal more than I expected.Years ago I read The Fatal Shore, about the founding of Australia. For years I carried around the unfair assessment of Australia that a colony founded with

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-20502731316292505712010-12-09T10:17:00.000-08:002010-12-09T10:17:07.776-08:00

It has been something of a theme in the last few of Ehrenreich's books that the middle- and lower-classes get to carry the cross. When bad things happen, it's their fault,whether the bad things happen to them or to somebody else. In Bait and Switch, Ehrenreich specifically targets the coaches and seminars aimed at newly-unemployed white collar workers, telling them how to change their looks and

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-16208289973118111782010-12-08T16:37:00.000-08:002010-12-08T16:37:38.802-08:00

Before getting this book I heard some chapters on the radio. When I was listening to some chapters on the radio, randomly, I thought the book was nonfiction. I was a little disappointed to find that it is fiction. However, it is based in large part on experiences in the author's life so I believe we can take many of the details as real.The main character, Kimberly Chang, arrives in New York from

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-88136639828121652682010-12-08T09:04:00.000-08:002010-12-08T09:04:27.253-08:00

Good stuff. A novel about a town and a school, and subsequently about certain persons who cross lines to be in both places. The town is Haddon and the school Haddon School. For various reasons, the townspeople do not embrace the school and there is a rift between the two that few cross. An incident at the school brings the two together in a way, an uneasy way. Carlin Leander, a naturally

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-27671714873056929232010-12-07T12:19:00.000-08:002010-12-07T12:19:26.424-08:00

Ethan Hawke can write, clearly. Better than many with bigger names in writing. This simple novel is about growing up, changing, learning to love, learning to commit. The two characters are James and Christy. They have both been around a bit, are no longer starry-eyed and too young, yet neither is yet thirty. James lets the world take him where it will, and doesn't as a rule stand up to

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-36950039812522988292010-12-07T12:16:00.000-08:002010-12-07T12:16:14.762-08:00

A post-9/11 novel. I have now read, I think, three that might be put into this category. Two affluent couples live in Manhattan in 2001. We glimpse their lives just before the attack on the World Trade Center and then follow them in its aftermath. Most particularly we follow Corrine, from one couple, and Luke, from another. After the attack, Corrine finds her way to a soup kitchen that was set up

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-67537106122415466112010-12-06T17:57:00.000-08:002010-12-06T17:57:28.000-08:00

Relentless. That's the word that kept coming to me as I was reading this.The book follows the life of Juris Rudkus, who arrives full of hope from Lithuania as a young man in the early 1900s, and who finds himself in "Packingtown", the edge of Chicago where the stockyards existed. He enthusiastically takes on one job after another, gets ground down by it, underpaid and overworked, and subject to a

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-23383956856450489772010-12-06T13:14:00.000-08:002010-12-06T13:14:21.608-08:00

As promised, Mary Gordon "circles" her mother in this curious memoir. She grabs memories from others along with her own, and tries to piece together how others saw her mother, to get at a more complete picture.At the end, she says she doesn't want to forget her mother, and it's apparent that writing about her helps her remember. But it isn't just memories that color the story.We learn of her

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-79298315854960188132010-08-21T13:48:00.000-07:002010-08-21T13:48:57.838-07:00

There are some literary books, I have to admit, that aren't meant for me. I think of myself as omnivorous when it comes to books, reading many genres, many styles, fiction and non, and liking many unexpectedly. Then there are those with which I never can connect. This is one of those books. It is written almost poetically, in short sentences and paragraphs, almost abruptly. Odd little bits are

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-79125001610395502482010-07-18T11:20:00.000-07:002010-07-18T11:20:39.948-07:00

A short, easily-read novel of a woman who, essentially from birth, wants to leave everything behind, wants to part with her "earthly possessions". Charlotte Emory grows up hearing stories about her birth: her mother, who was fat, gave birth unexpectedly, not knowing she was pregnant. She was in such a fog that afterwards she contended that she'd been given the wrong baby. Charlotte's father, a

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-91643904039082243112010-07-14T13:00:00.000-07:002010-07-14T13:06:58.625-07:00

Greene brings home the AIDS epidemic in Ethiopia in this book, by making it personal. She doesn't spare us the statistics, which are too large to be comprehensible, but she intertwines the numbers with the names. A small sample of names, drawn mostly from the orphanage created by one woman, Haregewoin Teferra. Haregewoin is already on the wrong side of middle age when she loses her grown

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-75171749121423201632010-05-15T17:27:00.000-07:002010-05-15T17:27:42.352-07:00

One of the good things about reading Joyce Carol Oates' novels, for me, is that she is so prolific and I have read so few of her books. I was taken by the first I read, I don't even remember which it was, and have scooped up those that have crossed my path since. Oddly I have not ordered them specifically, just found them on shelves in used book stores and in book boxes and in bookcrossing zones

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-76139096790666211182010-04-02T11:09:00.000-07:002010-04-02T11:13:35.889-07:00

With spare, simple prose, Murakami evokes a dream-like story, full of allegory and illusion - or is it?The main character is Mari, a 19-year-old student who is spending the night away from home. We find her in Denny's at first. A young man comes in, recognizes her as someone he met once a while back, and sits down to talk. The talk tends to be about Mari's sister Eri. Eri is beautiful, so

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-61078727652441214732010-04-01T19:54:00.000-07:002010-04-01T19:54:27.085-07:00

Second in the three-part series by Larsson. Too bad there can't be any more! This one is a real thriller, almost from the beginning. There is no guessing which way it will turn and who will get hurt. We begin with Mikael Blomqvist, journalist and publisher of Millenium, a magazine that exposes the truth about a wide range of issues through extensive investigative work, discussing the

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-88270031896536954312010-04-01T13:13:00.001-07:002010-04-01T13:16:04.767-07:00

I didn't particularly like The Joy Luck Club, finding the voices too much alike, and did not really want to read this one. However, it found its way to me and I decided to give her another try.Again, Tan focuses on the differences in cultures and generations in China and the U.S., contrasting the "modern" with the traditional Chinese and Chinese-American. More, though, this story is about one

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-64869808861202570472010-03-31T08:52:00.001-07:002010-03-31T08:54:02.984-07:00

Although the book and its title is about Lisbeth Salander, the majority of the story involves the investigation of a woman's disappearance over 40 years before, and the investigation is by Mikael Blomkvist, a discredited journalist. Salander's story is intertwined with Mikael's until the two finally meet and connect in a way neither, perhaps, has before.Salander is an antisocial 25-year-old woman

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-2130746814320766222010-03-31T08:47:00.000-07:002010-03-31T14:55:05.473-07:00

I read Munro’s Runaway and decided she was a new favorite author. So I was happy to find another of her books on the notable books lists.This one is more truly autobiographical than Runaway, and in fact almost historical. Munro traces her own family back several generations, learns what she can about them, and tells little stories about them here, before she reaches her own generation and settles

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-42972751256751626102009-12-29T07:42:00.001-08:002009-12-29T08:09:14.246-08:00

The latest in the Harry Bosch series, this one goes into territory rarely experienced by Bosch. Bosch and his partner Ferras are assigned what appears to be a routine liquor store robbery. The owner, John Li, was killed before he could reach his gun. The killer took the disk from the digital camera for that day, but left two other disks that Li had saved. Bosch looks through the two carefully

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-25940920213743952272009-12-27T08:09:00.000-08:002009-12-27T08:33:01.851-08:00

Second in the series. Elements of Dexter's life change fairly rapidly. It is probably wise to read these books in order.In this novel Dexter is faced with another serial killer whose work makes Dex swoon with envy. Oh wait, this killer doesn't always kill, quite. He does worse. What he creates from his victims is unimaginable. Dexter would be happy to watch the further evolution of this character

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-71363075704871399552009-12-24T06:11:00.000-08:002009-12-24T13:18:12.230-08:00

The first in the series. We meet Dexter, lovable serial killer, for the first time.In some ways he is hardly lovable. Although Dex has learned from his foster father to channel his need to kill so that he only kills those "worth killing", he clearly enjoys the task and revels in the pain and blood attendant to it. He readily admits to having no conscience, no real feelings, to faking it. Yet

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-11400048628172101692009-12-23T14:38:00.001-08:002009-12-24T06:10:27.232-08:00

In this episode of the Isabel Dalhousie series, Isabel is living with Jamie, the father of their young son, to which they are both dedicated. Isabel continues to feel some embarrassment that she is older than Jamie and that he dated her niece Cat before becoming interested in her. Makes for some awkward moments, especially considering that Cat doesn't take such things well. A philosopher by trade

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-67365569405933231572009-12-13T09:05:00.000-08:002009-12-22T17:50:45.102-08:00

The story of a family - especially the story of one man and one son - who are affected for life by an experiment gone wrong. Also a cautionary tale about psychiatric drugs, albeit a subtle one.Will Friedrich, an ambitious psychologist struggling as a teacher at Yale University, hears of a plant that has remarkable effects on depressed persons. He embarks on a research project to investigate the

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-30973218519565536162009-11-17T08:53:00.000-08:002009-11-18T09:57:11.470-08:00

What a pleasure! An interesting array of characters and plenty of action, but that is not all.The central character is Joanne, who suffers a great loss when she is six. We get to pick up on her life thirty years later, where we find she has become a doctor, is married and has a baby son she adores - and may be threatened by the same man who destroyed her family 30 years before. Joanne is kind and

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-51254625623472695352009-09-25T07:13:00.000-07:002009-09-25T07:26:04.521-07:00

I read voraciously, yet it is rare for me to enjoy a book so thoroughly as I enjoyed this one (this blog does not contain reviews of all the books I read; only the ones I consider notable for some reason).Sittenfeld, after reading a biography of Laura Bush, realized that the former first lady is a complicated person, an interesting person. Her life seems like a novel. So she decided to write it.

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-44227434819603409822009-08-06T07:57:00.001-07:002009-08-06T08:02:08.585-07:00

Oh, the choices we make!A story of a house that isn't really about the house, but instead about three people from different worlds, all flawed in serious ways. The three become bound together the day one of them, Deputy Sheriff Lester Burdon, shows up at the house of Kathy Nicolo, another of the three, to tell her that her house is going to be auctioned off by the county to pay a bill that, in

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-9006735923816146182009-08-06T07:49:00.000-07:002009-08-06T07:54:46.617-07:00

Some might call it a "wild ride", for that it certainly is. But that description leaves out interesting details.This is a tale where even the good guys can't be trusted. We don't know until the end if they will do the right thing or be caught up in their obsessions. For obsession is the name of the game here. Obsession, love, betrayal. One instance after another of betrayal and prevarication.Matt

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-24887289177700023712009-07-12T10:59:00.001-07:002009-07-12T11:10:42.308-07:00

I really enjoyed this book. It's a family biography with a sharp edge, tempered by humor. I read Burroughs' "real" memoir, The Wolf at the Table, before reading this one. The Wolf concerns itself with the early years, the years Augusten spent with both parents, and most particularly with his father. We soon come to realize how cruel his father was. There are episodes in that story that made my

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-87355906969235770902009-06-30T10:28:00.001-07:002009-06-30T10:31:29.320-07:00

The "Lincoln Lawyer" returns. After a year's hiatus, during which time defense attorney Mickey Haller goes through rehab and stays straight, Haller is abruptly thrown back into the world of law when a fellow attorney is murdered. Haller takes over most of the cases, including the "franchise": a prominent film producer accused of murdering his wife and her lover.In addition to having to get up to

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-57965065768934397112009-06-30T10:14:00.001-07:002009-06-30T10:17:00.050-07:00

An extraordinary book. Small and simply written, this tale of Lilian Leyb is also poetic, beautiful, and full of characters we can believe in even as we laugh at their unexpected actions. Most of all, the character of Lillian is solid, strong, far from perfect yet yes, perfect.Lillian finds herself in Manhattan with nothing but an address pinned to her coat. She speaks no English but does speak

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-25228229861998972962009-06-24T08:39:00.000-07:002009-06-24T08:45:29.310-07:00

I expected to like this book. I have done a great deal of reading about mental illness and the horrors that pass as cures, including lobotomy. Seeing lobotomy from the patient’s perspective is a rarity.The story is certainly compelling. The telling of it is not. I suspect that a combination of the natural talents of Howard Dully and his co-writer, along with the effects of the lobotomy, is why

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-1966446209545405972009-06-06T07:41:00.000-07:002009-06-30T10:32:58.774-07:00

This book became almost like an old friend to me. The chapters are short, so I could grab and gulp one down quickly in odd moments, and set it aside, feeling a sense of accomplishment. At the same time, of course, by picking up and letting down I didn't fully become engaged with the characters early. Or maybe it's just that kind of book: easy to read yet easy to set aside.At least at first. The

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-6636372715614811892009-05-24T21:45:00.000-07:002009-05-24T21:49:46.748-07:00

There is always something different about listening to a book as opposed to reading it. I enjoy listening to audio books as I drive around town and especially when I am on a long trip, but the experience is very different from reading one at my leisure, when I can ruminate over a passage or reread a section easily.I admit that I did not hear - or absorb - every word on this CD set. Certainly I

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-70558604361974880442009-05-20T15:38:00.000-07:002009-05-20T15:44:52.724-07:00

Malcolm Gladwell loves studies and statistics. He hunts down the lesser-known and bends them to his will - in a good way!In this book, Gladwell takes on the myth of the self-made man (or woman). He treks down various roads: the roads of birth dates, birth years, cultural backgrounds, and especially the road of opportunities. He finds connections between these elements and the potential for

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-26147509232511301542009-04-29T14:53:00.000-07:002009-04-29T14:59:57.094-07:00

A young man - I do not recall ever learning his name - is involved in a strange accident and comes out of it not quite whole. He has all his limbs but he isn't able to use them as fluidly as in the past. Like a person with cerebral palsy (or, I suspect, other brain injuries), he has to learn to tell his muscles to take certain actions. He starts by imagining eating a carrot, learning every tiny

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-1992481680290589032009-03-16T18:53:00.000-07:002009-03-16T18:55:18.768-07:00

I dipped in and out of this book for months. In between those dips i finished whole books, gulped them like milkshakes, enjoying the quick read. This book deserves more than a quick read. More, it's the kind of book I almost live in for a while.The star of this show is Sully - Don Sullivan - a 60-year-old man who somehow lets "stupid streaks" take over. He isn't by any means stupid. He hasn't

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-63080321271298387932009-02-15T10:01:00.000-08:002009-02-16T07:45:06.165-08:00

Barbara Kingsolver is not a bad sort. I have enjoyed her novels in large part because of the connections the characters have with the land. And in this nonfiction work she offers useful information and a point of view that, for the most part, I share. Yet I had trouble getting through the book. It lived with me literally for months because I would pick it up, read a page or two, put it down

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-25050065797784416382009-02-11T06:39:00.001-08:002009-02-11T06:47:40.397-08:00

I should know better. Or maybe not. I found this book on the Publisher's Weekly notable books list for 2008. It was listed under "mass market". Mass market paperbacks do not have to be bad, I can certainly attest. In this case, though, I should have looked more closely before ordering the book from a fellow paperbackswap member.I did not realize it was in the category of "romantic suspense", a

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-72502001483713803952009-02-03T09:37:00.000-08:002009-02-03T09:53:15.297-08:00

A plug:There is a new book on atheism that looks excellent (I have read some of it). The book is called The Atheist’s Way: Living Well Without Gods and it’s written by Eric Maisel, known for his many books in the creativity field. I have read a couple of his other books and find his approach refreshing and straightforward. David Mills, author of Atheist Universe, endorsed The Atheist’s Way this

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-57823026093015825672009-02-02T12:05:00.000-08:002009-02-02T12:30:21.850-08:00

I listened to these stories in my car, on my CD player. I think the impression a book has can vary significantly depending on how it is "read", and in this case the audio version may not have been my best choice.Fine Just the Way It Is is a set of short stories, specifically Wyoming Stories, as its subtitle says. The stories take place in the frontier days, in the present time, and in between.

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-80631123246342312432009-01-25T12:14:00.000-08:002009-01-25T19:56:12.512-08:00

The primary message of this book is that animal shelters and humane organizations in the U.S. have lost their way. They have become killers of animals. The author takes an approach to the killing that I had never considered, that the shelters themselves are responsible for the killing, not the general public.Winograd indicts the leaders of several major animal protection societies, including

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-7219446285076751442008-12-28T07:13:00.000-08:002008-12-28T07:24:20.746-08:00

The story, of Liesel, a young German girl during world war II, is told by Death. And Death has an odd way of speaking. It’s a combination of sly, often grim, humor in the storytelling, and interjections of bold-face explanations, sometimes translations of words, sometimes descriptions of a character’s thinking process. For example,*** HE SURVIVED LIKE THIS ***He didn’t go into battle that

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-88471162879822145622008-12-17T13:37:00.000-08:002008-12-17T13:45:27.211-08:00

The Cloud of Unknowing was a book written in the 14th century, a "spiritual guide". It urges a young monk not to search for knowledge about God but to know God through love (I simplify, of course). There is nothing in this book, the one by Thomas Cook, that makes direct reference to the earlier work, except the way of knowing, of getting through that cloud, getting there through love.We begin

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-76211305234139551632008-12-08T08:48:00.000-08:002008-12-08T08:52:43.769-08:00

First, what this book is not:* A romantic novel. The cover and name might suggest that it is one of those dark romantic novels involving a maiden subject to the whims of her master. Not so. Even though there is a young woman locked up.* A journey into an England that never was. Mr. Taylor takes great pains to create an England that really was, in fact, although the main characters did not

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-55235503895958330862008-11-26T09:20:00.000-08:002008-11-26T09:37:28.488-08:00

Hard-boiled detective Amos Walker of Detroit takes on a seemingly simple case: pay the suitor of an heir to walk away. The case quickly goes wrong, however, and Walker instead finds himself working for himself.In his quest he comes across a former baseball hero, a suspicious land owner, a mob-style union organizer, and several other unsavory, interesting, and less-than-savory characters. The

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-39381484615491110952008-11-18T08:18:00.000-08:002008-11-18T08:20:14.273-08:00

I had not heard of this series until the day I bought this book. I was looking specifically for this one and could not find it under the author's name. Fortunately, a Borders employee recognized it as one of this series and he found it on another shelf."Hard Case Crime" publishes old and new pulp mysteries, in low-cost editions. Many current mystery writers have written for the series, taking on

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-43197157754639376052008-11-16T10:13:00.001-08:002008-11-16T10:18:22.532-08:00

When I read a book like this I wonder how did she do it? How did she come up with the idea, the words? How did she escape sentimentality and embrace such beauty?The Shadow Catcher is the intertwining of the story of Edward S. Curtis, famed American Indian photographer, and the story of Marianne Wiggins' own hunt for how her own father lived and died. Both the story of Curtis and the story of

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-35791225627513832462008-11-14T07:02:00.000-08:002008-11-14T07:08:39.288-08:00

More a story of a man and a woman than a mystery of deaths in Chinatown, this novel is in that select category of mysteries that go beyond the genre.Craig, a police detective, is working undercover to capture the gangs in Chinatown responsible for a slew of deaths from illegal drugs. His obsession with the case takes him beyond the limits of the department and into his own savings. He spends

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-56890916268224115492008-11-04T10:50:00.000-08:002008-11-04T11:02:58.770-08:00

Burroughs reads his own book in this CD edition.I think listening to the author affects my perception of the work, and that perception is not, perhaps, as good as it might otherwise be.Burroughs is an experienced reader, yet his technique is odd. His phrasing is out of sync with the meaning of the sentences, as he breaks where one would not normally break, emphasizes words probably not emphasized

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-78341425629911809942008-10-27T09:52:00.001-07:002008-10-27T10:10:38.612-07:00

Long ago I happened upon a couple of books by Margaret Drabble at a used book store. I read them and loved them and compared this Margaret to another: Margaret Atwood. So of course I had to have this book.Those earlier books were lovely stories about women, thoughtfully written and deeply absorbing. This one, written so many years later, has a grace and beauty that only years of writing can

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-90009782331841673102008-10-26T11:21:00.000-07:002008-10-26T15:16:29.635-07:00

I'm frankly a little mystified by my own reaction to this book. I am a citizen of the USA who is not blinded to the faults of this country's leaders nor to the ignorance of so many of its citizens. I am awake and aware. So it would seem natural that I would understand how a highly-educated, ambitious Pakistani, living in the U.S., might gradually renounce his country of residence and go to the

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-29977062996424137252008-10-18T15:49:00.000-07:002008-10-18T16:05:16.414-07:00

It felt like cheating in a way to read this book for the notable book challenge. Although I read a lot I do find that "notable" books tend to take longer to read than the genre books I read just for pleasure. This book fit into both categories so it was like a special treat, a guilty pleasure.Two young sisters, 11 and 15, disappear from the mall in Baltimore on Easter weekend 1975. After intense

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-91254780612728756312008-10-16T09:36:00.000-07:002008-10-16T09:41:47.875-07:00

What a surprising, lovely book! I was entranced from the very beginning and carried through on a wave of delight all the way to the end.A powerful businessman from Japan, Mr. Hosokawa, is given a birthday party in a South American country. The country's leaders are hoping to persuade Mr. Hosokawa to open a factory there. To persuade him to come to the party they dangle the perfect gift: the

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-43022171524578092902008-10-16T09:29:00.000-07:002008-10-16T09:35:00.867-07:00

Ann Patchett has a distinctive style of writing and a distinctive approach to her stories, if my reading of just two is an indication.Like Bel Campo, Run is written cleanly, at a slight distance, simply. The narrator does not get in the way yet there is a kind of warmth to it.At the end of this book is a conversation with Patchett, in which she says she likes to explore what happens when

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-13825825963805290152008-10-10T07:55:00.000-07:002008-10-10T07:58:17.262-07:00

A long, complex story of war, deceit, and occasional honor in Vietnam and beyond. The tale features William "Skip" Sands, who joins the CIA and comes under the wing of his uncle, known far and wide simply as "the Colonel". Skip is assigned to work on a massive number of index cards, cataloging intelligence from "everywhere". This reasonably safe task leads to his involvement in the murder of a

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-74424929803001082602008-10-09T10:19:00.000-07:002008-10-09T11:03:25.459-07:00

The bridge of sighs is a bridge in Venice that prisoners cross to get to the prison. The name came from the suggestion that a prisoner would sigh when looking through the windows in the covered bridge, knowing it was their last look at the city before being taken to their cells.Louis C. Lynch crossed his own bridge of sighs as a young boy, and from then on one might surmise that he was in a sense

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-26359137397540266332008-09-22T09:43:00.000-07:002008-09-22T09:57:51.534-07:00

Something of an old story in new drag. Ruth teaches sex education in a school district that has recently seen the growth of a couple of fundamentalist Christian churches. The school board, influenced by these new neighbors, votes to require the teaching of abstinence-only sex education, which Ruth abhors but nevertheless chooses to do, in hopes that some enlightenment will eventually make it to

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-54748671042702470942008-09-16T10:43:00.000-07:002008-09-16T10:51:07.257-07:00

A collection of short stories revealing both the dark and the brilliant sides of different lives. The subjects range from death - unintended murder, death by illness, death of a dog - to love - lost, regained, lost again - to just somehow living. The stories all reveal the innermost feelings of a mind, the regrets, the nagging doubts, the guilt, and more than once I asked myself "would I have

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-27050778172761107902008-09-12T11:28:00.000-07:002008-09-12T11:34:01.122-07:00

The theme is an interesting and important one. Kate, a very young child, suffers from a rare, aggressive cancer. Her best hope is to get cord blood and possibly a bone marrow transplant from a matched donor. Her parents go through in-vitro fertilization with a fertilized egg that matches the sick child's in the important aspects. Anna is born to save Kate.Anna's body is used several times over

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-5170898781121441792008-09-09T19:25:00.000-07:002008-09-09T19:34:32.627-07:00

One reviewer called this book "stunning". While such adjectives are overused this one certainly applies in this case. This unassuming book packs a surprising punch.Veronica is one of several children, somewhere in the middle of the group, who grow up, with a mother who is almost invisible and a father who dispassionately hits when people are in his way, near Dublin. The story centers around the

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-8827401253798600522008-09-02T10:26:00.000-07:002008-09-03T15:45:53.224-07:00

I was in elementary school when this classic was published, several years after Kerouac finished the first draft. That first draft was one long scroll (120 feet long, all one paragraph, all taped together so Kerouac could type without stopping to change paper), which has only recently been printed in its entirety. The version that Kerouac saw in print, though, is what Matt Dillon reads on this CD

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-84857121156589954112008-08-30T11:43:00.000-07:002008-08-30T13:14:11.401-07:00

I bought the CD version of this book because it looked interesting. I had not read anything else by Burroughs, and I understand this is a departure. The book is read by the author, which seemed a good thing.I am not sure about that last at this point. Burroughs has recorded his other books as well, on CD, in his "normal voice", according to him. In interviews with him and at the end of this

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-5226114899960246992008-08-25T17:22:00.000-07:002008-08-25T17:54:50.919-07:00

A friend made me a copy of the CD version of this book. She thought it was hilarious (as apparently do many others, based on the Amazon ratings). I warned her that I might not enjoy it, given my reaction to Jacobs' first book (The Know-it-all). On the other hand, I am able to overcome preconceptions. I also don't turn down free books, whether or not I think I'll like them.I listened to it while I

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-61102378297045750612008-08-25T09:14:00.000-07:002008-08-25T09:22:18.698-07:00

The story of Alice Sebold's rape, which happened when she was just finishing her first year in college. The rape was brutal, committed by a stranger, and 18-year-old Alice was a virgin.Unlike many rape victims, Alice did not place blame on herself. She also wanted to talk about it - but often could not. Starting at the police department, where she made her report, she was faced with people who

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-58049860656035161092008-08-05T10:07:00.000-07:002008-08-05T10:13:42.932-07:00

The lives of a small family living in Manhattan after Sept 11, 2001. More particularly, the life of Keith, who stumbled out of the first tower clutching someone else's briefcase. Who then stumbles into another version of his life.We first meet him as he tries to figure out where and what he is and where he is going. His thinking is confused and he finds himself at the door of his estranged wife,

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-90085313406352154052008-08-04T07:31:00.000-07:002008-08-25T09:36:30.564-07:00

“I have a glandular problem,” sneers the unattractive, heavy, odoriferous mother of a serial killer in the television series Bones.Here you have a rather typical, if overdone, version of a fat person as shown on television or in the movies. If she's fat there is something fundamentally wrong with her. She's unlikeable, she smells, she blames a condition or others for her fat. She's morally

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-22067858911332177812008-07-30T07:56:00.000-07:002008-07-30T08:01:49.014-07:00

The gravedigger's daughter takes on several names over her lifetime in her attempts to escape her past. The effort is a strain that she is willing to bear until near the end, when she tries to recover a bit of what was lost.Rebecca Schwart grows up in a cemetery, the daughter of a European immigrant who had to escape Germany to save his family's life. Rebecca is born on the ship in the New York

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-18276586271256712942008-07-22T08:20:00.000-07:002008-10-14T15:25:40.607-07:00

The title and subtitle are misleading. Although the so-called "China Study" forms the basis for the conclusions in this book, the book goes well beyond that one study. This is also not a diet book. This book is about the connection between food and disease, more specifically about how animal protein affects our health negatively. The subtitle does not overstate the case when it refers to the

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-30985176414404600632008-07-05T09:08:00.000-07:002008-07-05T09:09:50.262-07:00

Robin Robertson’s new cookbook, Vegan Fire and Spice, is garnering rave reviews from all over. And with good reason. The dishes are easy to make, use commonly-available fresh ingredients, and offer a splendid array of tastes. Many of us who have been vegetarian or vegan for a while reach a point when we want to do more than order Indian take-out. We want to make Indian take-out. Not to mention

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-25813424768660646252008-05-04T07:20:00.000-07:002008-05-04T10:04:16.019-07:00

Books that focus on the supernatural rarely attract me. Horror stories rarely attract me. Yet now and then I will find myself reading a book that fits in these categories and for some reason will like it.Such is the case here. Jude Coyne, aqing heavy metal star, is living with "Georgia", a woman almost thirty years younger than he is. He calls her Georgia because that's where she's from. Her

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-36255911734598764622008-04-28T08:15:00.000-07:002008-04-28T08:20:14.085-07:00

An extraordinary blend of investigative reporting and imagination, originally printed in 1983. Nicholas Gage, who emigrated at the age of nine to America from Greece in 1949, was haunted by his mother's death. His mother, Eleni, was tried and executed in his little mountain village in 1948, by communist guerrillas, who controlled the village during the civil war there.Gage wanted to know who was

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-41561349995367331112008-04-14T17:59:00.000-07:002008-04-14T18:05:40.137-07:00

A terrific book. Groopman takes on the task of figuring out how doctors make decisions about treatment. He finds that the majority of medical mistakes come from certain types of thinking patterns that doctors fall into. He offers simple suggestions to both doctor and patient to help the doctors break out of these patterns in particular cases.Patients and doctors can benefit most by understanding

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-27747001104421584242008-04-13T08:15:00.000-07:002008-04-13T08:19:24.478-07:00

A memoir about a family living on the edge, deliberately.Walls is born to parents who are highly intelligent and creative but whose own presumably (and suggested) dark pasts make them both junkies for excitement and change. Thus they live from hand to mouth, rarely staying in one place longer than a couple of months, for the early part of Jeanette's childhood. Jeanette's father is an

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-54225985466318849212008-04-06T12:15:00.000-07:002008-04-06T12:24:49.499-07:00

I confess to a perhaps unnatural fascination with "true crime" stories. I have read many, from the very good to the unbelievably bad. But that isn't the primary reason I wanted to read this book.When I visited a special motel in Desert Hot Springs one year the owner told me that Steve Hodel had been there and had told him his story about the Black Dahlia (Elizabeth Short) murder. The motel owner

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-81803438509140800862008-03-27T11:06:00.000-07:002008-03-27T11:20:58.093-07:00

I think by now we all know people act irrationally, especially given the recent spate of books using research from the new field of behavioral economics. Many of us despair of ever making a dent in other people's beliefs by use of rational argument backed up with solid evidence. Even highly intelligent persons will review the reasoning and nevertheless jump to this position: I see the evidence

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-65475307034979202252008-03-26T16:09:00.001-07:002008-03-26T16:15:45.931-07:00

In this book Gawande focuses on performance: how well doctors do what they do.He finds a few who step out from the rest, who are in effect "rogues" because they won't settle for "standard practice". Especially representing this group is a doctor who works on patients with cystic fibrosis. He invented a special jacket these patients can wear that pounds their chests (using air) to loosen mucus

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-61312189003303771562008-03-22T08:09:00.001-07:002008-03-22T18:16:26.178-07:00

Levitt and Dubner repeatedly say that this book does not have a "theme". And in the sense that Blink or The Tipping Point have themes, they are right. But it does have a fundamental focus: on "conventional wisdom".Levitt, as an economist, has made his name by asking different questions - like "do teachers cheat?" - and by finding ways to sort data to get the answers he is looking for. Dubner

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-494850312758617762008-03-12T14:44:00.000-07:002008-03-12T14:53:16.838-07:00

You may have suspected it. In spite of the incredible expense poured into our health care system we aren't any healthier. Here, then, is the proof confirming your suspicions and the why.Near the end of the book Abramson, a long-time family doctor who has an extensive background in statistics, epidemiology, and health policy, puts it simply: the bad news is that many of our celebrated advances in

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-53849314794790460772008-03-06T11:49:00.000-08:002008-03-06T11:53:29.940-08:00

The reviewer comments on the back cover of this book say “An inspiring portrait of the human-animal bond...”. “Funny, touching, and insightful...”. “Rewarding memoir...”. I might have said as much about other books on humans and animals, but not this one.Jon Katz tells us straight out that his goal in taking on the care of three border collies, a herd of sheep, and two donkeys is to better

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-65121871554144865102008-02-22T09:46:00.000-08:002008-02-22T09:55:42.616-08:00

A delightful book that defies easy categorization. Most of this book is devoted to answering questions about the future: how will we feel when we have attained a certain goal? when we have lost a loved one? when we have reached a certain age? How will we feel if we develop a severe permanent disability? All of these questions, centering on how we feel, are answered: not as good as we expect, not

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-71769692142440767012008-02-21T06:53:00.000-08:002008-02-21T07:01:11.820-08:00

I am sorry I waited so long to read The Bell Jar. I had some vague idea that I would not like it, that it would be full of anguished cries from someone long dead.Instead it is a short, clearly-written account of a young woman's descent into what some call "madness" but what Plath herself described as a "breakdown", and her subsequent move back into the real world again. It is written with a

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-84322804615497793562008-01-19T17:58:00.000-08:002008-01-19T18:06:30.121-08:00

The book I and likely many others have been waiting for. The book that asks why the focus on cancer has so much been on cure and so little on prevention. The book that asks why we know so little about the environmental basis for cancers.Davis, an epidemiologist, actually thought of this book many years ago, but was persuaded to set the idea aside or risk her own career. Now that she is

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-25518979515225719702007-12-19T09:48:00.000-08:002007-12-19T10:02:48.608-08:00

Why are some people fat? Why do they stay fat or regain weight after losing it?In Rethinking Thin, Kolata doesn't have the absolute answer to those questions but she takes us a lot farther than most. We've all heard various "facts" about obesity and dieting over the years, so often that many of us don't question their truth. Kolata asks different questions and gets surprising answers from

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3707743505962290566.post-29813239270937048042007-12-09T15:49:00.000-08:002007-12-09T15:55:38.877-08:00

Ruth Rendell creates main characters who are not always on the right side of "right", who for their own peculiar reasons (some easier to understand than others) sometimes behave rather badly. I have read other books of hers and for that reason I don't expect everything to turn out all right nor do I expect the protagonist (it's usually a woman) to make her way honorably at all times. Another

Judith Lautnernoreply@blogger.com2