Atul Gawande’s premise seems too simple: modern professions have become so complex and varied and specialized that they cannot be managed without written checklists. The author is a surgeon and uses lots of examples from his profession- highly skilled, highly trained, nerves of steel doctors who forget to wash their hands leading to infection and [...]
Archive for the ‘book review’ Category
Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day: Book Review
Posted in book review, cooking on May 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I like bread more than I like chocolate. My stepmother Betty (no bakeries in Heath!), Carina, and I have all been conducting various no knead bread experiments to try to replicate the kind of bread we love at home. This Reinhart is some kind of bread guru and has a significant following. His recipes are [...]
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh: Book Review
Posted in book review, tagged book review, evelyn waugh, journalism, scoop, writing on April 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Recommended by Pat and Henry Leuchtman, this cynical and very funny story of poor William Boot, nature writer and heir to the threadbare family seat in Boot Magna, who through no fault of his own becomes a lauded foreign correspondent in a made up country in a made up war. Very interesting to me as [...]
Freedom Manifesto by Tom Hodgkinson: Book Review
Posted in book review, tagged book review, freedom manifesto, idling, tom hodgkinson on April 22, 2010 | 2 Comments »
The boyfriend gave me this book and then seemed surprised when I declared my intention to quit my job and take up a bohemian vagabond lifestyle. It’s his own fault. Librarians need to be very careful about those little rectangles they throw around.
Miles from Nowhere by Barbara Savage: Book Review
Posted in book review, tagged cycling, escapism, memoir on April 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This memoir by Barbara Savage of her and her husband’s 28,000 mile ride around the world in the late ’70s has a strange tone: she’s forever classifying people, friendly/unfriendly, generous and stingy- this starts in the US where we learn how mean people are in North Dakota compared to the nice Michiganders. She is not [...]
True Deceiver by Tove Jansson: Book Review
Posted in book review, tagged book review, nyrb, true deceiver, tove jansson on March 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This NYRB classic is a sharp cold slap disguised in Jansson’s characteristic clear prose. In a small island village far north two women establish a mutually beneficial relationship. The older woman has relied on illusions and money to smooth her way in life. The younger woman has relied on her scrupulousness and honesty to make [...]
Moo by Jane Smiley: Book Review
Posted in book review, novel, tagged book review, campus farce, jane smiley, moo on February 28, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Why are campus satires so funny? Because anyone who has spent time in a college town can picture these characters down to the ground. Smiley’s sharp writing shifts pov all over campus; a sensitive and hardworking research hog, a local farmer who has plans to revolutionize farming if he can just get past the secretary [...]
Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon: Book Review
Posted in book review on February 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Don’t read this book if you like Chabon’s writing, it will bore you to tears. Do read if you want a mid-quality daddy memoir. I now know way too much about his homelife, but his observations come back at odd times and are insightful although of limited scope: legos, his wife’s mental illness, his mom’s [...]
Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us by Alyssa Katz
Posted in book review, real estate, tagged alyssa katz, book review, first time home buyers, our lot on January 7, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Ms. Katz goes into gruesome detail with classic readable muckraking style- you get to know a lot of characters as she explains what can only be described as a nationwide conspiracy on every level to inflate home prices and commit mortgage fraud. She says “titling a show Flip this House or Flip That House is [...]
Thanksgiving
Posted in book review, tagged gardens, heath, real estate on November 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I’ll be in lovely Heath, MA until Friday morning. My plans include inspecting the property my mother left me and greg. I’m reading a book called “Working with your Woodland”- I have hopes that I can design a little Japanese style garden on the acreage and that will keep me from buying some decrepit old [...]
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