Plenty of critics have assailed the authors of SuperFreakonomics for their take on climate change in the fifth chaper. Elizabeth Kolbert, writing for The New Yorker, brilliantly turned their own take on horse manure in the book’s beginning against them. Perhaps the best takedown and analysis of the furor is over at Foreign Policy, and Read More
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Freakonomics, Super edition, belated review
I finished Superfreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, last week but, with the president’s visit and increasing election coverage, haven’t had time yet to give you an update. So here it comes, though I’m not going to review it, per se. As you may know, the book’s stirred some controversy because the scientist quoted Read More
‘Every Patient Tells a Story’
While Jeff Morganteen has gone off to France to get his carte vitale, I can tell you that after I read T.R. Reid’s efficiently informative book I grabbed “Every Patient Tells a Story,” by Connecticut physician Dr. Lisa Sanders. Sanders does not dive into the health care debate. Instead, she details the topic she consults Read More
SuperFreakonomics, preview 2
I’m still working on finishing SuperFreakonomics and offering my take, but I wanted to weigh in on one thing quickly: I’m not sure what this book offers that’s new. Unfortunately for the authors, their own success might be the problem. I’ve mentioned their blog before, but they have also helped launch the writing career of Read More
SuperFreakonomics, pending review
A couple of weeks ago, I got my hands on an advance copy of SuperFreakonomics, the follow-up by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner to their 2005 bestseller. I wanted to have a review for you by tomorrow, when it’s due to go on sale, and I’m oh-so-close to having it done. First, I wanted to Read More
Back ‘On the Road,’ again and again
Next Wednesday, Oct. 21 is the 40th anniversary of the death of Jack Kerouac. For a retrospective on Kerouac’s seminal work, On the Road, please read the essay from our guest blogger, Roy J. Nirschel*, below. In the spring of 1968 as Paris burned and protest filled the streets of America, including my hometown of Read More
Health care without the insurance, and the prescription
Still on the search for a fix for his sore shoulder, Reid leaves Canada before the end of the book to visit India and pay out of pocket at an ayurvedic clinic. I’ll save you the suspense: After weeks spent eating healthfully, relaxing, and being intensely massaged, Reid’s shoulder felt better and had a better Read More
Non-fiction fiction
I’ve realized, somewhat belatedly, that in my post about not reading enough fiction I erred in adding Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt to the list. My conscious brain realized that it was biography/memoir, but my subconscious brain always confuses McCourt with Ian McEwan, who actually does right fiction. Angela’s Ashes is still more narrative and Read More
