I picked up Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood this summer and slowly worked my way through most of it, only to leave it lying unattended by my bedside for months. Not that it isn’t a gripping tale. The non-fiction, which details the murder of a family of four in rural Kansas, often has the same Read More
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Archive for the ‘Book review’ Category
A good take on SuperFreakonomics
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
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
Fiction recommendations
I’m often embarassed by the paucity of fiction books on my shelves. I don’t know why I care. But while many I know suck down the latest Oprah book or books at the top of bestseller lists for weeks, like The Kite Runner and anything by Nicholas Sparks, I find out about a new Andrew Jackson biography Read More
Listening to the Good Book
I’m not a huge audio book fan, but I often find myself driving between 6 and 8 on Saturday evenings. That might not mean much to you, but to me it means tyranny: every public radio station between New Haven and Brooklyn — at least the ones I’m aware of — play only “A Prairie Read More
