Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read The success of this book relates mostly to the compelling nature of the tragedy that spawned it. Even before reading this book, I’d heard the story of these Urugayans who crashed into the Andes back in 1972. It seemed like the perfect book to …
Tag: book review
Mar 14
Book Review: Chasing Harry Winston
Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger I read THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and found it an amusing escapist read, and assumed that this would fall along similar lines. It does. The protagonists are three young, successful, attractive women living in New York who are disappointed with their mostly perfect lives. The three women meet one …
Mar 12
Book Review: The Pocket Therapist
The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit by Therese Borchard This book is a quick read, with short one or two page chapters that each have simple headings. I wasn’t expecting much. I usually don’t care for the sort of touchy-feely, feel-good, get-in-tune-with-yourself stuff, but I was hoping this would provide some sort of blueprint …
Mar 10
Book Review: The Smart Swarm
The Smart Swarm by Peter Miller This is one of those rare, great books that manage to talk about many different fields of science and weave them together. It uses the habits and organizations of social animals (bees, ants, starlings, etc.) and relates it to how people interact with one another. It touches on everything …
Feb 23
Book Review: Anatomy of an Epidemic
Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker This book is written with an agenda, and I usually don’t like one-sided arguments, but in this case, the argument is one that I was already disposed to believe: namely, that taking mind-altering drugs does …