I've been put on another project at work (in addition to my regular work, because clearly I need more than a regular work load). I've spent hours listening to a bunch of IBM consultants talk about internal controls. The result? A new drinking game: every time we hear the word "leverage" or "process" or "documentation", we must take a drink. I' ( Read more... )

It seemed to take forever for me to finish In the Name of Identity, in part because I kept going back and rereading sections. Maalouf's book is fairly short (~150 pages) but has some huge ideas. His style is very accessible and the tone of the book was philosophical without being dense or reliant on a lot of jargon. Maalouf wonders about the ( Read more... )

I finished Johnson's Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, the third book of his trilogy on American empire. His basic thesis is that "republican checks and balances are simply incompatible with the maintenance of a large empire and a huge standing army."  (p. 60)   I took several pages of notes but don't think I'll be writing a review, ( Read more... )

Amy Goodman’s radio/TV program Democracy Now! is inflating my TBR and TBB outrageously. I picked up Chalmers Johnson’s Blowback after he was interviewed last month or the month before.

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While I like the idea of behind the scenes cooking stories and the idea behind his odyssey, I'm less enchanted with Bourdain's over-testosteroned voice and style. I suppose the camo shirt he's wearing on the cover should've warned me, shouldn't it? [Talk about the stereotyping and conclusion jumping I just did. Whew! I should be ashamed of myself.] ( Read more... )

The Washington Post's Book World has posted its 10 best books of 2006 here.

Not a single genre fiction book on the list. I've only read one of the books on the list, The Omnivore's Dilemma, which they reviewed here and which I reviewed (sort of) here. I've also bookpimped it to The Biochemist and a colleague and my mom.

I love the occasional scenes in Queer as Folk in which Debbie and Brian get stoned together. Their relationship cracks me up and touches me all at once (yeah, I'm just a sentimental marshmallow). She doesn't like him on several levels and a lot of his behavior bothers her...but she loves him anyway and sees the good in him, too ( Read more... )

I had a long, long post written about The Omnivore's Dilemma, and it disappeared into the ether. Grrr. Semi-reconstructing below.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is a fascinating book. What is the omnivore's dilemma? That as human beings, we are able to eat nearly anything, but because we aren't limited to a single food item (like, say, the koala's ( Read more... )

Finished this book, too. While there were pieces of it that I question, it was fascinating and makes me think about the food industry and government regulation.

Review to come.

Thanks to The Colbert Report for first interviewing Michael Pollan, then to Beth for reminding me about the book.

This book came to my attention when Doug blogged about it for SB Day. I checked a copy out of the library, and requested copies of the articles linked in the book review through my local library’s periodicals department. My take on the book is very much in line with Dutton's review for the Washington Post Book World.

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