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Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
Penguin Books, 2007
Life Changing
The editorial reviews tell you what the book is about, so there's no need to re-do that here. To say this book is compelling doesn't even begin to describe the impact it has.
Strangely, there have been some negative reviews, saying the book is not well written and ...
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Sarah's Key
Tatiana de Rosnay
St. Martin's Griffin, 2008
Exceptional
"Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay is an exceptional novel. The lives of two disparate characters are followed in this book. One is American writer Julia living in current day Paris. The other character is a French girl (Sarah) who's story begins in 1942 during World ...
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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Michael Pollan
Penguin, 2007
Will Change the Way You Think
For me, there is no greater praise for a book. I'm 3/4 through the book now, and already, it has challenged my views on food, farming, markets, and the US. And I kinda want to be a "grass farmer."
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The Coming Insurrection (Semiotext(e) / Intervention)
The Invisible Committee
Semiotext(e), 2009
A PLAUSIBLE REALITY
Fifty years ago I escaped to the United States from Communist Cuba.
Last night I finished reading "The Coming Insurrection."
This morning, after a sleepless night, and obsessed with bitter memories of the "unbelievable" Stalinist takeover of my former country--a ...
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The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (Vintage Departures)
David Grann
Vintage, 2010
Best Non-Fiction Read Since Shadow Divers
Once the corpses start piling up you will not be able to put down this book. Nor will you ever romanticize the Amazon again or doubt that it could and did sustain a major advanced civilization. This is the Avatar of armchair travel and shows that our own planet is ...
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A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror
Larry Schweikart, Michael Allen
Sentinel Trade, 2007
Excellent
Most of the 1 star ratings are simply ideological bias. This was a refreshing and enjoyable read, and amazingly relevant for understanding mess we find ourselves in today. There are also great helps at the authors' website if you're using it to teach high school or ...
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
Crown, 2010
Author! Author!
I'd like to start by saying thank you Henrietta for your strength, courage and sacrifice; and thank you Rebecca and Deborah and the entire Lacks family for telling us your heartwarming, heartbreaking, captivating and just plain wonderful story. Reading Rebecca's book ...
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A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present
Howard Zinn
Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2005
Zinn's History of the US: 1492 to Pressent
What an excellent book! I ordered it because I had the pleasure of hearing Howard Zinn on Bill Moyers program prior to his recent death. It is a history written from an entirely different viewpoint than any text book history that I am aware of.
It is what I ...
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On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System
Henry M. Paulson
Business Plus, 2010
Too tense to be an adventure story
Our nation was extremely fortunate in its economic team in the fall of 2008. Hank Paulson's account of what happened reads like a cliff-hanger. No self-respecting author would put his hero through the sustained pressure that Hank and his team endured. I am not a ...
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Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime
John Heilemann, Mark Halperin
Harper, 2010
Game Change Review
This book is well written and holds one's attention. Authors clearly captured the emotion and essence of each "moment" they wrote about. I gained a better understanding of the politicians and their political actions from reading this book. Highly recommended.
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Going Rogue: An American Life
Sarah Palin
HarperCollins, 2009
I, Sarah Louise Palin, do solemnly swear
After following and commenting on these reviews for the past several months, I decided to read this book. This book was incredibly moving and uplifting. Now I can see exactly why the progressives, aka, liberals are deathly afraid of her. She is a person who believes ...
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This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
Carmen M. Reinhart, Kenneth Rogoff
Princeton University Press, 2009
Tables & graphs hard to read in Kindle version
Tables and graphs being a substantial part of this book, perhaps the core of the book, it is disappointing to find that the print in the tables and graphs is not resizable and requires a magnifying glass to read. This is a very poor implementation of the book in the ...
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Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend
James S Hirsch
Scribner, 2010
The greatest ballplayer of all time deserves this book!
For those of you who are too young to know what Willie Mays was like, let me just say that he was the greatest baseball player in my lifetime and possibly of all time. This book covers every little facet of his life from the very beginning and through the golden years. ...
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Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and ...
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Viking Adult, 2009
a refreshing view of reality
The prevailing view of the news media and seemingly most politicians is that this was just a big bank bailout. In reality the powers that be saved the whole financial system from collapse. Systemic failure would have been a tragedy of proportions never seen before.
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When You Reach Me
Rebecca Stead
Wendy Lamb Books, 2009
Excellent
Read this book on a 3.5-hour bus ride into NYC. A perfect read, perfect book, great mystery and lovely characters. My 10-year-old son read it later and loved it too.
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