Michael Wolraich moves you ten detailed and fascinating chapters, through the progressive politics of Theodore Roosevelt’s era. In the story you will get to know the players like “Fighting Bob” La Follette and Teddy himself as well as a larger cast of personalities. This well researched history takes you through a time in American politics that has been largely forgotten.
I found the book riveting and the story fun and education as my understanding of this period and the players was limited.
If you are interested in this topic I encourage you to browse through the discussion forms at History Book Club and read all the great information that club moderators put together as well as many comments from the author himself!
the “can’t-throw-it-away” type, the “can’t-put-it-back” type, and the “first-two-combined” type.
When I gave this to my wife on mother’s day my mother-in-law was also over at our home celebrating. When my wife opened the gift she rolled her eyes, but my mother-in-law shrieked. She said she had had this book on hold at the library for months, waiting to read it.
Since my mother-in-law has such a reaction we made sure she had a copy. As she read it (she reads faster than my wife) we discussed it and the book interested me. It’s a short read. While 224 pages long the text is large. So, I decided to read it as well. So, now we have three copies in the family.
As I read the book though, I found it read surprisingly fast and smooth. I also found lots of tid-bits to use. Kondo states, that you should clean house in a particular order:
The best sequence is this” clothes first, then books, papers, komono (miscellany), and lastly mementos
I agree with this list as the easiest things to drop are listed first. However, books would come after papers and komono for me.
As this all these self-help type books there are things you will take away from them and others that you will prefer to leave.
Star Wars: Chewbacca is one of the most recent comic book complications in the new Star Wars Cannon. I had to wait a long time for this one to come in from our library.
The story starts with Chewbacca stranded on a strange planet after crash landing. Soon trouble finds him in the form of a tween girl. She needs his help and lovable caring Chewbacca is there for her after his usual complaints that no one can understand.
The story follows the battle against the bad local bad guys and eventually Chewbacca and his new little pal have to part ways. Chewbacca proceeds to his original destination Kashyyyk, his home planet, where he is able to finally deliver a box. We are never told what is the box, but I got the feeling it was the remains of a fallen comrade.
Yes, I got one. I pre-ordered Kindle Oasis with a brown cover on the first day possible and just received mine, two days after the official launch. Since there was a delay you could infer that the demand was pretty high for this gadget. As of now, they are out of stock on most configurations. Most reviews I read said wait this time and don’t get it, since it wasn’t a substantial upgrade from the Voyage.
I have to disagree. The fact that the Kindle Oasis finally has a bezel big enough to hold the kindle single-handed without accidentally turning the pages, is a huge benefit. Also, increasing the number of internal lights is very nice. The additional battery life is nice, but the Voyage lasted long enough for me already.
Kindle Comparison Chart
A lot of reviewers were also comparing the Oasis to the Paperwhite model. This is a mistake. You should compare it to the Voyage. I did and it is dramatically lighter and thinner, at least on the non-battery sides of the Oasis. Oasis, as you can see in the above chart is 4.6 ounces. The Voyage is 6.3 ounces. A difference of 37%!
I quickly figured out how to change the name of the kindle and discovered that it was not trying to automatically download books, it was just populating what books I had bought, but not downloading them.
I ended up pushing most of the books that I had bought to the Kindle Oasis. It now has around 150 books on it and I can’t wait to start reading them. I’ll do another update when I have had some time to read with it and see if I really do like it better than the Voyage. I already like how the cover comes off easier and the look of the cover. Although, it seems to scratch easily.
I read with it for a bit tonight and I did switch from hand to hand often. It is a nice feature that you can switch from hand to hand and the screen automatically rotates. The page turns are fast. It is very light in your hands and easily held with one hand, unlike the Voyage.
I think this is a good upgrade from the Voyage. Maybe those reviewers that thought it wasn’t didn’t read on their Kindle every day. Maybe only real serious readers can see the advantages that this new Kindle Oasis can offer.
When comparing this to the other books in the series like Greg Rucka’s Before the Awakening. It doesn’t do to well. The story was extremely slow to start. Don’t get me wrong the book reads very fast. It took me two days and I had a ton of interruptions in reading. I’m glad I read this only because I know its not integral to the story of the Force Awakens.
The story follows Luke on a mission he is doing for the Rebel Alliance. Although, he never gets to the mission in the book (too bad, might have been a better story). He feels himself attracted (via the Force) to a planet he has never been to before. He visits the planet and figures out why the Force was calling him, unfortunately his presence has not gone unnoticed. A new bad guy finds him. The story is little ruined by the fact that we all know Luke makes it.
No surprises and a slow story earns this book 3 stars. One star for being about Star Wars included. If you are following along in the series you can skip this one, but its under 200 pages and written for a much younger audience so the book goes very fast. Just don’t expect it to be your favorite Star Wars novel.
In the interest in full disclosure I received Alive by Scott Sigler book and a copy of Alight, the second book in the series, as part of a giveaway. My opinions are my own. Now that that is out of the way. Go read this book! NOW! You don’t need to read the rest of this review.
Still here? What! Why? Go read the damn book! Ok fine, so you don’t believe me huh? I read quiet a bit and there are very, very few books that I think everyone should be screaming READ THIS NOW! This is one of those books. It makes me angry that no one told me to read this. What is wrong with you people? This book is that good!
This book losses a lot of what it is if I or anyone else tells you pretty much anything. I loved the constant surprises in this book. Everyone throws around the page-turner word a lot, I probably use it too much as well. This book really is a page turner. It usually takes me much longer to read a 345 page book. This week I also went back to work, so I’ve hard hardly any time to read. Every single free moment I was reading this book. I HAD to find out what happened next.
I totally bought into the very likable characters right away. The environment the story takes place is unique. I can’t say much more but you feel yourself paying very close attention to the descriptions of things as you try to figure out what is going on.
Very basic introduction to the book. Female young lady wakes up in total darkness trapped in some kind of box. That is in the description of on goodreads and amazon, so I don’t feel I’ve given away anything. Just go read this. It is amazing. Scott Sigler hit a home run! I can’t wait to read Alight! But I’m going to take a break from this story line, so that I don’t have to wait so long for the third book Alone coming out on October 25, 2016.
Squeezed by Alissa Hamilton is a great kind of non-fiction, but you have to be ready for it. Coming off some very thrilling YA novels, I found it difficult to slow down and really process Hamilton’s points. I did find myself getting lost in all the information, but I enjoyed that feeling and I like researching again as well. I enjoy learning things like 96% of all oranges grown in Florida are processed into juice. There was a lot to take in from this book. I’m going to lay out the essentials here so you can skip the rest of the review if you want. But before I do, did I like this book? Yes, it gets 4 our of 5 stars. Having said that this book is not for the faint of heart. It can be dry for those not interested in the particular topic. I’ve always been fine with dry books as I’m interested in everything. Consider yourself fairly warned.
If you buy orange juice at the store and it has a best buy date of more than a few days, it is heavily processed.
By heavily processed I mean, pasteurized.
By pasteurized, I mean boiled and they suck all the air out.
When they boil it it loses its nutrients, when they suck the air out the flavor goes to.
What is left (orange colored sugar water) is stored in tanks for around a year before it is processed some more.
When they take it out of the tanks the add fresh orange juice (just a little) to try to add back that orange flavor and smell that they removed. Most processors also add flavor pack, which are mostly water that has been perfumed with synthetic human engineered smell to add back the orange smell that was removed.
Most know that Tropicana Pure Premium is not from concentrate. Few know what it is. p.147
I knew going into this book about the pasteurization, and I remember hearing about flavor packs, but I didn’t really know what that was. Hamilton made that clear in her book. But mostly, her book was about policy. Policy and politics from 1961 forward. This policy and politics dictated why we have the orange juice that we have today. The FDA decided that since flavor packs are made from oranges (not the case anymore) that it didn’t need to be put on the label. So, if you see anything at all about flavor packs, it might say natural flavors on the label, but this is not always the case. A lot of processors wiggle their way out of putting anything like that on the label or in the nutrition facts section.
Many consumers would be shocked and disappointed to learn that most processed orange juice, a product still widely perceived to be the definition of purity, would be undrinkable without an ingredient referred to within the industry as “the flavor pack”. p. 159
…you taste the bulk concentrate that hasn’t has the essence added back it just tastes like sugar. p.161
Here is another quote from the book that goes over the lifecycle of making pasteurized orange juice:
…pasteurized, deoiled, put into an aseptic tank farm, and the brought out, blended, add-back [added] and put into the package. p.156
Another disturbing thought is that some of the oranges could have been bacd, but how is the consumer to realize this when it is boiled (for added shelf life, not consumer safety) and removed of all taste and smell. The flavor pack that is added could very well cover any lingering bad smell caused bad oranges that made it through any quality assurance testing. It can have “a protective or masking role.”
Watch the advertisement below carefully, Anita Bryant never says directly that the oranges are from Florida in this add but that the orange juice is. The orange juice from Brazil is processed in Florida, but it is not Florida oranges.
Another eye opener is that fact that most of our orange juice is coming from Brazil now, which doesn’t have the same FDA or governing bodies that we do have here. Why Brazil? Does it taste better? Nope, it is only because it is cheaper, most agree that it is inferior do the oranges grown in Florida.
Below is a short interview that the author, Alissa Hamilton gave to a local news outlet.
The book was very enlightening, I discussed that fact that back in the 60’s the average homemaker was believed to be incapable of processing too much information, like what pasteurization meant.
And I love this quote:
Brennan had evidence that processed orange juice has so dulled consumers’ senses that they were becoming attuned to the taste of less-flavorful juice. He questioned whether North Americans desired, or would even find palatable, fresh squeezed. p.99
Great tidbits that I learned from reading this:
Orange derives from the French or which means gold
Florida’s prolific Sunshine Tree was not planted until 1560
Southern China was the first to grow the sweet orange commercially
By the 1960’s 75% of purchased food had undergone some form of processing
The FDA estimates that over 3,000 food additives are in use
Just two more things I want to share about this book. Did you know Bing Crosby made millions selling the stuff in these commercials? And before that on radio?
And lastly I leave you with this quote:
It is difficult to find an orange juice consumer who is not bothered by the fact that a product that is made out to be fresh sits in storage, sometimes for upward of a year, and is made palatable only by the addition of a flavor pack.
I’m a fan of Bill Bryson. It all started with A Walk in the Woods. Yes, the book that was recently made into the 2015 movie A Walk in the Woods. I really loved A Walk in the Woods when I listened to it on a long road trip. Since, then I have read several of Bryson’s Books. I tried A Short History of Nearly Everything, but I was unable to finish it. I found it very long winded and not very funny at all, but that was a long time-ago and I want to go back and try that one again. Most recently, I read Shakespeare: The World as Stage. I liked it. I was not a stuffy history on all the Bards work. It was very readable.
I’ve read a lot more of his works but let’s get back to Notes from a Small Island. I checked this book out because I read the New York Times book review Bill Bryson’s ‘The Road to Little Dribbling’ and I was very excited to read Bryson’s newest work. But there was a problem. This book is actually the second in a series. I had not read the first. You guessed it, Notes from a Small Island was the first in the series. Written in 1995, the book follows Bryson around the UK as he tries to see some of his favorite places again and some places he has never seen. The New York Times review of Notes from a Small Island was not as glowing as his newer work. Michiko Kakutani, gives his review that is not as I said glowing, but okay. I wasn’t extremely excited to read an okay, book, but I thought well Mr. Kakutani doesn’t know Bryson, like I do. I’ve read a lot of his work and I find him funny.
As he travels through the country largely using public transportation and walking he regales the reader with his dry pithy humor. His particular humor does make me laugh, but it was often employed by making fun of famous (or at least known) personalities from the UK. Example, “the landlord was as fat as….. or the dense twit was worse than …..” I just didn’t get these references. This book seemed to be targeted at Brits. At least to really understand these references. That being said there is a lot of humor that you can understand, even if you don’t know anyone from the UK.
This YouTube video review of the book gives you a good idea of what I mean of the UK humor. This obviously is done by a UKer:
Long blog post short, I gave this book 3 stars. Just average. However, if I had understood more of the jokes, this would have been an easy 4 star book.
Golden Son by Pierce Brown is a great, great book. I just this moment finished it. I started it the moment finished book one in the series, Red Rising. At first, I was reeled into the story as it picked up right where they last book left off. However, while reading I noticed that this book was much more wordy than the last. I still laughed and was caught with awe and surprise at places in the book, but I did notice a slow down in parts of the book. The pace was not consistent and I think it hurt the story.
I whole-heartily gave Red Rising 5 stars. It earned them. It is by far the best book I’ve read this year. But, Golden Son is different. It still earns 5 stars, just barely. I want to compare it directly to Red Rising, but is that fair? If it was not part of this series it would be a 5 star book easily. But in comparing it to Red Rising it just is not that good.
Anyway, if you haven’t read Red Rising, read that first. This is the second book in the series. Once you’ve read that come back.
Okay, read it? Good. That was fast. You’re a fast reader! Anyway, this book continues to follow Darrow as he rises in the Gold Society. Some major mysteries are unveiled in this telling of his story. But they don’t have a huge build up, its just bang this is Ares, and you’re like WTF, really? That was surprising, and there are more surprises like that in the book. And it ends on a huge cliffhanger, not as good as Red Rising (again), but very good.
I’m going to take a break then read Morning Son. I have it, but I am beginning a book with a book club soon, so it will have to wait. And honestly, it will be good to have a little break from the fiction for a while.
This is not a good update. I’m way, way behind on reading this. I should be around 16 almost 17% through the book. When I last checked in with you in February I was at 6.3%. I am now at 7.2%. I have not been picking on this book very often. Even the fact that it is on my phone has not helped me read more. I thought that would increase my reading of it since I always have my phone so it is more convenient for me to read the book. But, there is always something else that I want to read more than this book.
I also thought that if I got all the War and Peace episodes from the new 2016 television mini-series that would get me more into reading this book. It has not. I’ve read 35 books so far this year. Most of them, I’ve read after having already started War and Peace, but I just can’t bring myself to pick up this book and as for the television show, I can’t seem to work up the excitement needed to turn that on either. There is just always a book I would rather spend my time with instead of watching anything on tv.
Currently, I’m avoiding War and Peace by reading Notes from a Small Island and Golden Son. Both much more immersive than War and Peace. Any suggestions on how I can get excited about reading War and Peace?
