Category: Book Review

Book Review: Consider the Fork

Consider the Fork: How Technology Transforms the Way We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson I do love books that delve into the history of a small subject, like the book on Salt, or Oranges, or red dye. I also like those that wander a bit, but still talk seriously about the mundane necessities we …

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Book Review: Crucial Conversations

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson This book reads like a textbook, because it sort of is. It’s about something that all of us need, but don’t know we need: how to have conversations with people about important topics without ruining everything. How to have a conversation in which …

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Book Review: The Secret Life of Pronouns

The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us by James W. Pennebaker If you have a nerd-gasm about statistics, linguistics, and social psychology, this is a must-read book. Bonus points: the author has done the research himself, so it’s not just rehashed from another book you’ve already read (though I’ve seen his …

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Book Review: Redshirts

Redshirts by John Scalzi The first three chapters of this book were available as a preview on Scalzi’s blog, and after I read them, I kept thinking about the story and wondering where it was going to go. Finally picked up a copy and finished out the story. It’s almost like there are four different …

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Book Review: Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Half epistolary, half true-crime-style narrative, this book amazed and compelled me. It starts out when Amy, Nick’s wife, has gone missing. Nick dutifully calls the police, then starts to fall apart as the evidence that he murdered Amy piles up. Amy’s story begins in her journal, as she tells about …

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