Books read in Auguseptember: very short reviews
Will Read Again
Kathleen Stein, The Genius Engine: Where Memory, Reason, Passion, Violence, and Creativity Intersect in the Human Brain, Wiley, 2007
All about the prefrontal cortex. Good summaries of recent research. My only quibble is that it should use more diagrams and flowcharts to summarize pathways.
Lois Frankel, See Jane Lead: 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work, Business Plus, 2007
Useful tips.
Could Read Again
Alvin Swartz, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 25th Anniversary Edition: Collected from American Folklore, HarperTrophy, 1986
Picked up for banned books week (and because it wasn't a long book). Has references as well as the stories.
Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation: A Challenge to Faith, Bantam, 2007
One of many of its type- short, readable (short was a theme this month).
Multiple (Essay Collection), A Leaky Tent is a Piece of Paradise: 20 Young Writers on Finding a Place in the Natural World, Sierra Club Books, 2007.
Joys of the outdoors- entertaining stories.
Sherrill Kahn, Creative Embellishments: For Paper, Jewelry, Fabric and More, Martingale and Company, 2007.
Nifty ideas.
In Good Taste
(The book Taste ought to get it's own essay on the intersection of Taste, Class, Clothing...)
Letitia Baldrige, Taste: Acquiring What Money Can't Buy, Truman Talley Books, 2007
I wouldn't call this book particularly well written, but it does capture the look and feel of (a type of ) upper-class sensibilities, so it works as an inadvertent cultural anthropology study. She seems blind to the reality that if you don't have money you'll need lots of spare time to aquire taste. Money buys time, and lack of money hinders free time.
Good for: if you were going to spend time with the rich, or if you were going to write about them, this book will help you understand them.
Crista Weil, Fierce Food: The Intrepid Diner's Guide to the Unusual, Exotic, and Downright Bizarre, Plume, 2006
Nice details on how, why, and where for the various foods she covers. Classifies each food into several categories such as smelly, dangerous, 'has eyes,' 'takes extended preparation,' etc.
Meh
MP Dunleavy, Money Can Buy Happiness: How to Spend to Get the Life You Want, Broadway, 2007
I didn't feel like the target audience. Not a bad book, but most of the ideas weren't relevant to me.
Brian Stableford, The Blind Worm, Ace Double, 1970.
I hadn't planned to read on the playa- I didn't bring any books. But one of my fellow campers had picked up a stack of Ace Double for his trashy beach reading, and this came in handy during one extended dust-storm. As I read through Stableford's The Blind Worm, the book flavored the howling empty whiteness- dust of a former sea from 20000 years ago- outside. If you know the wonderful current works of Stableford, then you can see the seeds of his greatness when reading TBW. But it was an early work (his 2nd novel) and to me it didn't flow.
Kathleen Stein, The Genius Engine: Where Memory, Reason, Passion, Violence, and Creativity Intersect in the Human Brain, Wiley, 2007
All about the prefrontal cortex. Good summaries of recent research. My only quibble is that it should use more diagrams and flowcharts to summarize pathways.
Lois Frankel, See Jane Lead: 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work, Business Plus, 2007
Useful tips.
Could Read Again
Alvin Swartz, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 25th Anniversary Edition: Collected from American Folklore, HarperTrophy, 1986
Picked up for banned books week (and because it wasn't a long book). Has references as well as the stories.
Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation: A Challenge to Faith, Bantam, 2007
One of many of its type- short, readable (short was a theme this month).
Multiple (Essay Collection), A Leaky Tent is a Piece of Paradise: 20 Young Writers on Finding a Place in the Natural World, Sierra Club Books, 2007.
Joys of the outdoors- entertaining stories.
Sherrill Kahn, Creative Embellishments: For Paper, Jewelry, Fabric and More, Martingale and Company, 2007.
Nifty ideas.
In Good Taste
(The book Taste ought to get it's own essay on the intersection of Taste, Class, Clothing...)
Letitia Baldrige, Taste: Acquiring What Money Can't Buy, Truman Talley Books, 2007
I wouldn't call this book particularly well written, but it does capture the look and feel of (a type of ) upper-class sensibilities, so it works as an inadvertent cultural anthropology study. She seems blind to the reality that if you don't have money you'll need lots of spare time to aquire taste. Money buys time, and lack of money hinders free time.
Good for: if you were going to spend time with the rich, or if you were going to write about them, this book will help you understand them.
Crista Weil, Fierce Food: The Intrepid Diner's Guide to the Unusual, Exotic, and Downright Bizarre, Plume, 2006
Nice details on how, why, and where for the various foods she covers. Classifies each food into several categories such as smelly, dangerous, 'has eyes,' 'takes extended preparation,' etc.
Meh
MP Dunleavy, Money Can Buy Happiness: How to Spend to Get the Life You Want, Broadway, 2007
I didn't feel like the target audience. Not a bad book, but most of the ideas weren't relevant to me.
Brian Stableford, The Blind Worm, Ace Double, 1970.
I hadn't planned to read on the playa- I didn't bring any books. But one of my fellow campers had picked up a stack of Ace Double for his trashy beach reading, and this came in handy during one extended dust-storm. As I read through Stableford's The Blind Worm, the book flavored the howling empty whiteness- dust of a former sea from 20000 years ago- outside. If you know the wonderful current works of Stableford, then you can see the seeds of his greatness when reading TBW. But it was an early work (his 2nd novel) and to me it didn't flow.