Universal Book Reviews

June 24, 2009

Book Review: Storm World – Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming

Filed under: Non-Fiction, Science Book — Tags: , , , , , , , , — lynn @ 10:05 pm

Storm World

Chris Mooney. Mariner Books 2008, Paperback, 416 pages, $0.17

Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson

Rating: Must Read

Losing a major US city ought to be a wake up call to Americans that something has gone wrong.  Following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Chris Mooney explores the connection between global warming and increased hurricane strength in Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming.  In the wake of Katrina, politicians and the news media seized on the question of whether Global Warming caused the record-breaking hurricane season of 2005.  However, are politicians, who need to please their constituency to get reelected, and the news media that needs to sell stories, really the best sources for determining the connection?

Mooney’s book has value in that he skips the party-line rhetoric and sensationalist media and interviews the meteorologists, the people best qualified to understand hurricanes and their influencing factors.  Notably, he talks with William Gray, Chris Landsea, and Kerry Emanuel, meteorologists all on differing sides of the debate.

Mooney drives home the point that whether or not global warming is manmade or a naturally occurring phenomenon and whether or not it has any impact on tropical weather systems, the fact is that we do live in a storm world. Tropical storms and hurricanes are going to occur.  They are going to strike our cities.  With so many people living in harm’s way, the question should really be, what are we going to do about it?  “So whatever we do about global warming, we should be preparing ourselves for hurricanes (including possibly stronger ones) no matter what.”

While Mooney does discuss the faulty levee system that ostensibly caused the massive flooding in New Orleans, I wish he had delved a little deeper into engineering solutions our coastal cities can use to protect and safely evacuate their populations.  That said, Storm World is particularly thought-provoking, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about the science behind hurricanes and the relation to global warming.

May 29, 2009

Book Review: The Merry Maines, a Shaggy Cat Story

Filed under: Adventure Novel, Crime fiction, Fiction — Tags: , , — lynn @ 10:56 pm

The Merry Maines

Garnet Quinn. BookSurge Publishing 2009, Paperback, 222 pages, $14.99

Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson

Rating: An excellent and fun book to read!

I enjoyed reading about the adventures of feline friends, Hawkeye and Bhu Fan, in “The Merry Maines, a Shaggy Cat Story” by Garnet Quinn.  Aside from being cats, a Maine Coon and a Korat have very little in common, especially these two cats.  They come from different worlds, country and city, and are of different lineages, homegrown cats and Eastern royalty.  The two meet by chance, and become friends, their friendship transcending their differences as they work together to thwart the threats to the cattery and to their human, Beth.  However, as they get to know each other and as Bhu Fan, affectionately called Boo by Hawkeye, gets to know the family of shaggy cats, she realizes that they really are quite similar after all.

What struck me most as I read was how well Quinn knows cats!  Everything about the cats, what do and say and how they interact with humans and with each other, is completely believable.  Given the right circumstances and motivation, cats can do some pretty amazing things.  My own cats prove this point to me daily!

May 4, 2009

Book Review: Doubt is Their Product

Filed under: Non-Fiction — lynn @ 9:30 pm

Book Review: Doubt is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health

Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson

Rating: Must Read


Doubt is Their Product

David Michaels. Oxford University Press, USA 2008, Hardcover, 384 pages, $16.21

“Doubt is Their Product” by David Michaels explores how industry sows seeds of doubt in the eyes of the public that their product might not be as dangerous as scientific studies imply.  In the 1950’s, the Tobacco Industry, “…understood that the public is in no position to distinguish good science from bad.  Create doubt, uncertainty, and confusion.  Throw mud at the ‘antismoking’ research under the assumption that some of it is bound to stick.  And buy time, lots of time, in the bargain.”  Industry can create doubt so easily because simply put, there is no such thing as absolute certainty in science.  Not even the Law of Gravity is absolutely certain.  Industries, including Big Tobacco, understand this and whenever there is a study that shows a link between their product and a risk to public health, they exploit uncertainty to convince the public and policymakers that their product just might not be that dangerous.

Through a myriad of examples, Michaels shows that creating doubt goes way beyond cigarettes.  Manufacturers of chemical dyes, asbestos, pharmaceutical drugs, and even microwave popcorn have followed the example of the Tobacco Industry.   To these industries and companies, it is better to deny than it is to admit wrongdoing and change their practices.  The examples and the fact that we still rely on the “body in the morgue” method, where industrial workers must first die from working with these chemicals, to even question the safety of a chemical are unconscionable.   Sometimes the effects of a chemical on health is so obvious, such as 100% of chemical dye workers developing bladder tumors, but doubt is a powerful foe to the truth that some substances are simply dangerous.

Fortunately, Michales does more than just paint a dire picture of how money and power trump common sense and health; he posits a series of solutions towards the end of the book.  One such example is rather than waiting for workers to become ill or drop dead, chemical manufacturers ought to be required to determine whether a substance is safe or not.  Of course, there can be no absolute certainty, but people must be protected, “on the basis of the best evidence currently available.”

“Doubt is their Product” is a real eye-opener and ought to be read by everybody who cares about health and safety.

March 16, 2009

Book Review: The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest’s Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews

Filed under: Non-Fiction — Tags: , , , , — Jaketurk @ 2:11 pm


The Holocaust by Bullets

Paul A. Shapiro (Foreword). Palgrave Macmillan 2008, Hardcover, 272 pages, $14.73

Book Review: The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest’s Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews

Reviewed by: Jake Turk

Rating: An Excellent Book

Great books about the extermination camps are legion, but less attention is given to the “front line” of the Holocaust: the Einsatzgruppen (“task forces”), the advance legions of mass-murderers who killed 1.5 million Jews in occupied Eastern Europe. Rather than the gas chambers and crematoria of the death camps, the vast majority of the Einsatzgruppen’s victims were merely shot in plain sight not far from their own homes. All too often, their Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish neighbors offered varying degrees of complicity to the executioners.

Father Patrick Desbois has written a worthy new addition to the scant library of literature on the Einsatzgruppen. Lifelong curiosity over a painful chapter in his own family history led this French Catholic priest across Europe to the unlikely destination of post-Soviet Ukraine. There, Father Desbois and a hand-picked team of investigators moved from village to village, soliciting testimonials from elderly Ukrainians who witnessed (and were often recruited to participate in) the crimes of the Einsatzgruppen as children sixty years earlier.

Academically and emotionally, “Holocaust by Bullets” can’t compare with the soul-wrenching experience that is Richard Rhodes’s “Masters of Death,” which I read last summer. But Father Desbois writes with a passion and admitted lack of academic objectivity that probably makes his account more accessible to more people. He also takes a stubbornly optimistic or at least hopeful view that is lacking in Rhodes’s book.  Readers solely interested in the atrocities themselves may grow impatient with Father Desbois’s autobiographical account of his evolution from youthful secularist to adult Catholic, but the book is easily worth the abundance of awards it has earned since its publication last year.

March 15, 2009

Book Review: Survival of the Sickest

Filed under: Non-Fiction — Tags: , , , — lynn @ 9:57 pm

Survival of the Sickest

Sharon Moalem. Harper Perennial 2008, Paperback, 304 pages, $5.44

Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson
Rating: A Great Book

It seemed somehow appropriate to write a review of “Survival of the Sickest” when I was stuck at home feeling quite sick.  However, it is not the flu that author Dr. Sharon Moalem is referring to but rather the long-term sicknesses that plague us.  This book posits the idea that some of the ailments we struggle with today may have actually had a purpose as humans evolved.  Moalem calls these ailments “evolutionary compromises,” meaning that while they are not good for us in the long term, these traits allowed us to survive far worse conditions that could have killed us before we could reproduce.  How did humans ever manage to survive such crises as the bubonic plague, poor quality drinking water, the Last Ice Age, malaria, and more?  Simply put, we evolved.

I found this book to be incredibly fascinating and insightful.  I had never really thought about why conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol, the ability to metabolize alcohol, hemochromatosis, and anemia existed in the first place.  It makes perfect sense to me that diabetes could have some purpose, such as helping my ancestors survive an ice age, rather than simply being an effect of poor diet and lack of exercise.

That said, I found the book to have a very haphazard organizational scheme.  By about midway through the book, he was no longer talking about genetic disorders but the mechanisms of the genes, such as being turned on or off given the situation.  While fascinating, I think the book could have been ordered in such a way to make it entirely coherent.

January 28, 2009

Book Review: AIDS Sutra

Filed under: Documentary, Non-Fiction — Tags: , , , , — pratima_jayaram @ 12:05 am

AIDS Sutra

Amartya Sen (Foreword). Anchor 2008, Paperback, 352 pages, $5.61

Author: Multiple Authors (Anthology)
Pages: 345
Rating: An Excellent Book

Reviewed by: Pratima Jayaram

AIDS Sutra presents a side of India which is rarely seen before. This is one such book which needs to be read by a wider audience. It will definitely open your eyes to the harsh realities faced by people in the underdeveloped & underpriviliged societies of India.

AIDS Sutra is an anthology put together by the ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’, which is a collection of ‘untold stories from India’ by 16 renowned authors. These stories deal with a wide range of subjects, all with a common theme of the major problem facing the developing world (HIV/AIDS), starting from those innocent children who acquire this deadly disease by birth, to sex workers, homosexuals and transgendered people.

India is home to 2-3million HIV cases. Ignorance and prejudice have been the two most contributing factors for the rapid spread of this deadly disease; it is still stigmatized and people live in denial. This is where books such as ‘AIDS sutra’ play an important role. These stories not only humanize the tragedy of the HIV/AIDS victims, but also admire their courage and respect the victims without getting sentimental or showing pity. Authors such as Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Kiran Desai, Shobha De, Nalini Jones, Siddhartha Deb, William Dalrymple have uncovered the realities behind this epidemic by writing candid yet refreshing stories about their real-life encounters with the AIDS victims in India. Amartya Sen’s introduction in the beginning, about the injustice committed through prejudice is extremely thoughtful and downright awesome!

The very first thing that you realize after reading this book is the fact that ignorance about AIDS is still widespread in India. Though India does put up an image of a developing country and a growing technology giant, when it comes to matters of sexuality, it is still in dark and has a long way to go! It is this kind of an attitude which is actually impacting the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS to a large extent. Sooner the people realize it, the faster will be the progress.

If you are planning to pick up this book at any point, let me warn you – the facts stated in the book through these stories are extremely disheartening and depressing. This book, as a fiction would be very heart-breaking; so you can imagine how sickening and horrifying it could be as a non-fiction (based on true stories). It took me nearly 1.5 months to finish this. Every story would have such a deep impact on my emotional state that it would just get impossible for me to continue reading. I have given up reading this a couple of times during the course; but finally decided that I need to read it to get the real picture of the state of this disease in different parts of India – which otherwise you would never get to see…

If you have read this book, I would love to know if you share my views and if you really did manage to read it completely or did you give it up midway, unable to deal with the depression.

January 27, 2009

Book Review: Socks Socks Socks

Filed under: Non-Fiction — Tags: , — lynn @ 9:58 pm

Socks Socks Socks

Elaine Rowley (Editor). Xrx Books 1998, Paperback, 114 pages, $10.00

Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson

Rating: An Excellent Book

christmas stockings “Socks Socks Socks” is sure to satisfy sock knitters of all skill levels from beginning to advanced knitters.  There are even some projects labeled as “Adventurous Level.”  The levels are relative to your experience with knitting socks.  While there is a review of sock knitting in the beginning of the book and an appendix of various techniques, the book does assume that you know how to knit a pair of socks.

The socks are all designed to be knit on double-pointed needles, but I’m sure many could be knit up on circular needles.  One project, Two Socks Two Ways, has instructions for knitting the socks either by hand or by machine.

The book is divided into sections based on the types of socks: Simple Socks, Kids Socks, Lace Socks, Color Socks, Texture Socks, Whimsical Socks, and Icelandic Socks.  I made the pair of stockings pictured above based on the “My Christmas Stocking” pattern on page 12.  I enjoyed making them and gave them to my sister and her husband for Christmas.  They loved them!

December 16, 2008

Book Review: The King’s Daughter a novel of the first Tudor queen

Filed under: Historical fiction — Tags: , , , — lynn @ 11:31 pm

The King’s Daughter. A Novel of the First Tudor Queen (Rose of York)

Sandra Worth. Berkley Trade 2008, Paperback, 416 pages, $4.43

Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson

Rating: An Excellent Book!

The King’s Daughter presents a fascinating portrait of England’s little-known queen, Elizabeth of York.  She is daughter of Edward the Fourth, wife to Henry the Seventh, and mother of Henry the Eighth.  She is also the grandmother of Queen Elizabeth (Henry VIII’s daughter), but the women of the same name never met.  As the eldest daughter of the king, Elizabeth of York’s duty is first and foremost to England, and her life, as told in this book, portrays both the joys and heartache inherent in such a life.

Although she was royalty and would eventually give birth to a future king, Elizabeth was not a free woman.  She was subject to both the whims of her scheming mother and to the politics of the day.  When her father is killed in battle, she goes in and out of sanctuary with her family to seek protection from the people who would wish them dead.  The most freedom she ever had was in the court of Richard III and his wife, Anne, where she served the queen.  After Richard’s death, she married King Henry VII which solidified his claim to the throne by uniting the previously warring York and Lancaster houses.  Even as queen, she was restricted.  Henry’s mother watched over Elizabeth and her children like they were prisoners.

A powerless queen could have easily slipped through the cracks of history, had Sandra Worth not told her story in The King’s Daughter.  Here we see a queen who while very restricted, is a beautiful person who shares that beauty with those around her.  And more amazing still, she sees beauty and good in those who are hated and feared like Richard III and Henry VII.  She shares her money with the poor, she encourages mercy in the king, and she gives the greatest gift to her sisters.  They are free and allowed to marry for love, something she could never do.  This is a woman who deserves to be remembered.

November 9, 2008

Book Review: The Complete Guide to Traditional Jewish Cooking

Filed under: Blogroll, Cookbook, Non-Fiction — Tags: , , , — Annayevs @ 1:36 am

The Complete Guide to Traditional Jewish Cooking

Marlena Spieler. Anness Publishing Ltd. 2006, Paperback, 512 pages, $12.95

Rating: Pretty Good

There are so many things from my childhood I wish I knew how to make.  So when I saw a recipe for what sounded familiar, I bought the book and wanted to try this recipe, as well as others.

The book I bought is called The Complete Guide to Traditional Jewish Cooking and I tried several recipes, just to see how I like the book.

One of the recipes I tried was for “Aubergine Caviar From Bessarabia” (page 89) .  I had to remember that aubergine is an eggplant (and that a courgette is a zucchini). For years I’ve been wanting to make a dish that I remember one of my grandmas making, but I remember very little of it.  I remember it had garlic, eggplant, and was spreadable on bread.

When I read this recipe, I thought “Aha!  I’ve found it!”  And I did!  I did make this recipe and it turned out pretty well.  It looks terrible, but don’t be deterred by that.  A grilled eggplant that was put through the food processor doesn’t look good, but it tastes fantastic!

The other recipe I tried was for what the book called an “Apple Strudel” on page 446.  This recipe gave me much more trouble.  First, I couldn’t find the filo dough in the proportion the book specified, so I used what I could find at my local grocery store. Secondly, I think the directions weren’t completely clear.  At one point, the directions have me roll up dough like a “Swiss roll”.  I don’t know what that means.  So I rolled it up like a burrito. Thirdly, because I couldn’t find the the correctly dimensioned dough and wasn’t able to figure out all the directions, I ended up having TWO strudels instead of one.

So I gave one to my grandmother and one to my dad.  We ALL agreed that there was entirely too much butter even though I used about 3/4th of what the recipe called for.  In the end, my strudel didn’t really look like the pictures in the book, though those pictures were somewhat helpful, but not completely.

Overall, I think I will try other recipes, but I’ll make sure I can understand everything.

N.B.  Skim the books in the bookstore to see if you recognize the ingredients.  Books that were published outside the US use metric measuring system (this book uses both, which makes it easy), and they also call things differently.  As I mentioned, courgette and aubergine were the first words I ran into in this book that I had to think about, but much of the world calls cilantro “fresh coriander”.  I’m sure there are other words, but these are the ones I found so far.

October 31, 2008

Book Review: Extreme Pumpkins II

Filed under: Non-Fiction — Tags: , , , , , — lynn @ 9:06 pm

Extreme Pumpkins II

Tom Nardone. HP Trade 2008, Paperback, 96 pages, $1.43

Rating:  An Excellent Resource

Reviewed by Lynn Peterson

Tom Nardone is at it again and this time with even more extreme pumpkins in his new book Extreme Pumpkins II.  From snot to dirty diapers, he continues the legacy of disturbing pumpkins.  In this book, he even finds uses for rotting pumpkins, something few people aside from those who compost can achieve.

I’m especially fascinated by his carving of squash.  It gave me a moment of why didn’t I think of that?  Squash are pumpkin-like, and they’ve got goo you can scoop out, so why not.  He makes use of squash to make a space alien, an alligator head, and my favorite, Godzilla attacking a village of little pumpkins.

Extreme Pumpkins II is going to continue motivating people to try new and interesting ways of carving pumpkins and creating bizarre pumpkin sculptures.  My friend, Ethan, has taken extreme pumpkin carving to a new level by underwater pumpkin carving.  Below is a picture of Ethan and the pumpkin he carved while Scuba diving.

underwater pumpkin carving

Photo credit: Tamara Thomsen

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