Friday, February 27, 2009

Elsewhere, U.S.A.

Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms, and Economic Anxiety Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms, and Economic Anxiety by Dalton Conley


My review


rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was expecting Elsewhere, U.S.A. to be a diatribe railing against the modern world's tendency towards cell phones, virtual networking, and the shift away from "traditional" family mealtimes and the like. Instead, it was an even-handed look at the forces that have caused this shift and what it means for our country. Well-written and interesting.


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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Remarkable Creatures

Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species by Sean Carroll


My review


rating: 3 of 5 stars
Sean Carroll does a great job illuminating the discoveries, voyages, and people that contributed to our current understanding of evolutionary theory. From Darwin and Wallace to Leakey and Pauling, Remarkable Creatures goes around the world and across disciplines. There's evolutionary theory, paleoanthropology and molecular biology, all explained clearly, simply and interestingly.


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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Numbers Game

The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News, in Politics, and in Life The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News, in Politics, and in Life by Michael Blastland


My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Numbers Game is a fascinating book about statistics in the media and how they can deceive, confuse and hopefully enlighten. The authors, who host a BBC radio show on the same topic, do a wonderful job collecting examples of statistics and how they can be misleading. Unfortunately, now I trust numbers in the media even less than I did, which wasn't much. I'd highly recommend this to anyone who reads or hears statistics in the media, which is just about everyone.


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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Morning adventure

Decided to have a little family adventure this morning - there was a dusting of snow in Reno, so we decided to drive down to Carson City, visit the grandparents and deliver Valentine's cookies, then find some place to sled. Sofia, of course, had to wear a pretty dress until the last possible moment. This is a dress that Grandma Gail made for her. She totally loves the dress, but was not so happy about the matching hair ribbon this morning...



We visited with Mich's grandparent, and Uncle Bob, who was in town. Here's julien pulling a face while at their place:



We then continued onto visit "regular Nanny" (as opposed to Great-Nanny) and "Grandpa Toast" (long story). Mich's mom was using her new oven to bake a pie, which was smelling awesome. Might have to do that myself this afternoon. Julien and Grandpa got to dissect the owl puke that they got for Christmas. Interesting. Not super exciting, but - a science moment, anyway...



Getting the kids ready for sleddong, then. Sofia was loath to take off her pretty dress and put on snow stuff. We eventually talked her into it, but not without some tears:



We decided to head all the way out to Markleeville - some good snow there, but we weren't able to find a very good hill. The sledding experience kind of degenerated into a big family snowball fight, which was pretty fun anyway. Sofia had a good time once she got out there:



We had lunch at the grocery store/deli in Woodfords, and came home. Nice morning.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

We'll Always Have Paris

We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light by John Baxter


My review


rating: 3 of 5 stars
Part biography, part history of the sexy side of Paris. Interesting stuff; I liked the biographical story better...


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Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Tourist

The Tourist The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer


My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
Bit of a departure for me here, I'm not much of a fiction reader, and when I am, it's usually an author I've read before. Glad I took a chance on this - The Tourist is a gripping, well-balanced spy novel with enough action, tradecraft, plot twists and intrigue to keep me interested without being overwhelming. Sounds like it might be made into a movie - it doesn't read like it was written expressly for the purpose, but could have an interesting adaptation.


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Sunday, February 1, 2009

Rasl

Rasl Volume 1: The Drift Rasl Volume 1: The Drift by Jeff Smith


My review


rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm not a big graphic novel reader, but got sucked into this one while cataloging. It's by Jeff Smith, who wrote the very popular Bone series. As far as I can tell, it's the story of a scientist investigating multiple universes who gets too involved in his work and ends up being chased across them. I think I'll continue with the next volume when it comes out, the story is compelling.



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