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Cutting for Stone (Vintage) 208 reviews
Abraham Verghese
Vintage, 2010
Unforgettable Journey
"Cutting for Stone" is one of those novels whose size and reputation could easily intimidate its prospective readers. It comes in at almost 550 pages, after all, and most of the story takes place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, of all places. Its main characters are Ethiopian, Eritrean, Indian, British, or some mix of those nationalities and, even when the action moves to New York City, it is to a part ...
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Rules for Radicals 113 reviews
Saul Alinsky
Vintage, 1989
Superb
This is a book about how to play the political game to WIN. Don't get me wrong-I am conservative politically, but I recognize genius when I see it. Alinsky was a brilliant and ruthless tactician. As a book of strategy for social change, it can have no equal. He is honest about using dishonest & unfair tactics, manipulating people and the dirt nature of his game. He explains why it is OK-and ...
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An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness359 reviews
Kay Redfield Jamison
Vintage, 1996
bipolar
Excellent biography. It talks about the development of bipolar symptoms throughout a life and one woman's efforts to deal with/control it. Her most important point for me, is to make sure you have the network in place to confront you and get you treatment when the symptoms take over your life.
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The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (Vintage Departures) 230 reviews
David Grann
Vintage, 2010
A true adventure story
This was a fascinating story about one man's obsession with finding a "lost" city in the Amazon. The description of the wild life crawling(and swimming) around the jungle environs was more horrifying than anything science fiction could produce. At its core, this story is a testament to all of those explorers whose curiosity was so overwhelming that it compelled them to put themselves in harm's ...
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Push: A Novel502 reviews
Sapphire
Vintage, 1997
TRULY UNFORGETTABLE!
This is dysfunction to the Nth power! Incest, all kinds of abuse, trauma, just the most vile treatment anyone can imagine! The only way she could survive her terrifying, miserable existence was escapism, by becoming the characters she watched on TV, listening to music. The ending of hope and triumph was worth enduring the read through experiencing the horror this poor girl lived through. Have not ...
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The Road (Movie Tie-in Edition 2009) (Vintage International)2115 reviews
Cormac McCarthy
Vintage, 2009
This is not a novel...it's a poem.
This is not a novel. A novel is story in book form. A story has a beginning and an end. A story in book form has chapters, a plot, names of people and places. Sentence structure and proper punctuation.
The Road has none of these. McCarthy has written us a poem. The darkest poem ever written maybe. The world is dead. Civilization is dead. Nature is dead. Humans are no longer humans. The ...
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage)811 reviews
Stieg Larsson
Vintage, 2009
Must read!
I fell in love with the first of these three books, not being able to put it down for hours. Loved the storyline and can't wait for the third!
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Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism 39 reviews
Temple Grandin
Vintage, 2006
Fantastic book!
If you have any questions about Asperger's or high functioning autism, read this book. Temple Grandin provides an insight that I have never thought about before. Her squeeze machine is amazing and her understanding of animals was revolutionary to the cattle industry.
A great book!
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time1544 reviews
Mark Haddon
Vintage, 2004
amazing read!
this book is one of my favorite books of all time. it is a must read that is almost impossible to put down. i love it, the characters are awe-inspiring and the writing material is great!
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The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America877 reviews
Erik Larson
Vintage, 2004
Can't put it down
Devil in the White City is a page turner. If you like history and mystery - this is your book.
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The House on Mango Street632 reviews
Sandra Cisneros
Vintage, 1991
The House on Mango Street is Where the Heart Is
Living on Mango Street sounds as if it would be sunny, colorful, and beautifully exotic. For Esperanza Cordero in Cisneros' novel, her small, worn house and shabby neighborhood is nothing like a dream. Various vignettes describing elderly neighbors, playmates, and family members shape the life of a young girl searching and striving to become something more than the Mexican girl who lives at 4006 ...
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Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage)257 reviews
Gary Taubes
Anchor, 2008
Best book on diet I've read
I've read the whole gamut of books telling me what I should be eating. Everyone has an opinion. The difference in this book is that Taubes presents the science. He doesn't cherry pick to make his point. He reviews all of the science. And he's actually read all those research papers and is smart enough to be able to show us their shortcomings and the biases in how they've been interpreted ...
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Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison45 reviews
Michel Foucault
Vintage, 1995
Wow
I'm not a big fan of theory in the English discipline. I'm more on the creative writing side. However, I thoroughly enjoyed Foucault's discussion on the Panopticon. If anything, just skip to that section and read it. I'm surprised that more prisons are not like that. Brilliant visionary and nice read. Don't get discouraged by the timely references in the beginning. It sets up the meat of the ...
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Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life121 reviews
Martin E. P. Seligman
Vintage, 2006
Powerful and lifechanging
I first spotted this book at my local Goodwill story. The title alone captured my attention. When I read the back cover, I knew I had to buy it. But I did so with a great deal of skepticism. I was skeptical about several things. First, I'm not a big fan of self-help books. I generally only buy them when I am truly desperate. I've found most of them are good at theory. They are helpful for ...
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Stumbling on Happiness263 reviews
Daniel Gilbert
Vintage, 2007
Simply awesome
You know those incredible insights you can get after smoking a good splif? and i know u do. Well every paragraph in this book creates those same epiphanies and ah ha moments with the difference being thaf these will stay on the page to reread later while most of your stoned profundities are long gone. Daniel must have some good stuff to entertain his brain which is nothing short of genius you ...
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Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)297 reviews
Jeff Lindsay
Vintage, 2009
Makes the excellent TV version seem tedious.
This review also covers other books in the series, as well as the derived TV treatment.
Clearly the writers and producers of the TV series have a healthy respect for the original work, as the first half of the book and Episode One of the series track more closely than most adaptations. Many complete lines of dialog or internal monologue are transferred virtually verbatim. From that point on, ...
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Invisible Man298 reviews
Ralph Ellison
Vintage, 1995
This book should be on Kindle
I read this book in High School and College and I would like to be able to down load it on Kindle. Loved this book.
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The Girl Who Played with Fire (Vintage)425 reviews
Stieg Larsson
Vintage, 2010
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The three books by Steig Larsson were amazing. They were the type that you had to deviate from the norm and take extra time to read because you were desperate to know what happened next. What a shame he died. I feel the world has lost a great storyteller.
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Unaccustomed Earth: Stories (Vintage Contemporaries)206 reviews
Jhumpa Lahiri
Vintage, 2009
Glistening Prose
Mark Twain is reported to have said that the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is like the difference between a fire and a firefly. Jhumpa Lahiri has a knack for getting it right, and her prose practically glistens on the page. Her stories are not particularly uplifting or inspiring, but they seem real--real stories of flawed and struggling human beings who are also ...
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Lark and Termite (Vintage Contemporaries)59 reviews
Jayne Anne Phillips
Vintage, 2010
Stunning!
I thought this was an absolutely stunning book. I felt the descriptions of how Lark cared for Termite and the sections where we were treated to his view of things were very moving.
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