1 to 5 of 5
Review Date: 7/20/2012
Anyone who wants to know Al Gore's true motivations should research his investments with former Goldman Sachs executives. Gore makes millions of "green" energy companies, which is directly subsidized by his trips to Captiol Hill to lecture the government into putting more money into failing energy companies.
Even the notoriously liberal New York Times in Nov 2009 remarked at his role as both "advocate and investor."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/business/energy-environment/03gore.html
See for yourself if you don't believe me.
Even the notoriously liberal New York Times in Nov 2009 remarked at his role as both "advocate and investor."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/business/energy-environment/03gore.html
See for yourself if you don't believe me.
Review Date: 8/14/2012
Helpful Score: 1
I enjoy Ambrose as an author and historian, and this book was an excellent quick read that sort of gives a more in depth look at something he often encounters in his writings on history and war. The chapters are not long, and each skims a relationship between brothers and male friendships. Ranging from some historical ones like Eisenhower and his brothers, Custer and his brothers and others, he also looks at some combat veterans he's encountered over his work and also spends 3 chapters at the friendships and bonds he's formed with men like his brothers and his father. While the book is not long or in depth, it's a quick read you can return to if you like some feel-good look at male friendships. While the book itself doesn't look at the psychological aspects of male friendships at all, it does provide some good examples and anecdotes of what real male friendship has provided great leaders and average men over their lifetimes. It also shows the breadth of things that can bring men together as well as the impact of male friendships in differing times of the human lifespan.
Review Date: 12/9/2012
I haven't read all of Palahniuk's work since I kind of felt the latter stuff like Snuff kind of just delved into his literary pattern of finding small tidbits of information about life and somehow weaving them into a tawdry storyline wasn't all that interesting after he's done it a few times. This, however, is Palahniuk's first book, the fourth chapter of which was just written on it's own and later turned into a novel.
The book I liked a lot for it's edgy, fast moving, stream of consciousness format. I think the difference between his "good" and "bad" books is that books like Choke or Fight Club actually have a tangible, moving story which gets your invested in the characters and storylines more. The little info tidbits like "Here's how you make dynamite" and "Baggage handlers are called throwers" seem incidental and add to the story, vs the later books like Snuff where the story seems incidental to him telling you interesting factoids and anecdotes. Just FYI the book is pretty descriptive in it's violence and language and sex. Definitely for the on board R-X adult reader.
Second, since there's no way to untether this from the movie of the same name, they are different animals. The book/movie relationship reminded me in many ways of American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. Both books contain similar elements, characters and situations with some changes between the book and movie. In both cases the books are actually edgier and delve more into adult subject matter. One thing I do enjoy more about books and these authors is they can and do tackle subject matter darker than you could in a mass marketed Hollywood film. Palahniuk in this version actually writes an epilogue that details many of the stuff that has arisen since the book was originally published ranging from the movie to the real life "fight clubs" that were inspired by or preceded the book. I found that actually pretty insightful for him to write about his experience going from an unknown author struggling to find an audience to his work to being world renowned and copycatted almost overnight. I suspect other bibliophiles will enjoy it as well.
The book I liked a lot for it's edgy, fast moving, stream of consciousness format. I think the difference between his "good" and "bad" books is that books like Choke or Fight Club actually have a tangible, moving story which gets your invested in the characters and storylines more. The little info tidbits like "Here's how you make dynamite" and "Baggage handlers are called throwers" seem incidental and add to the story, vs the later books like Snuff where the story seems incidental to him telling you interesting factoids and anecdotes. Just FYI the book is pretty descriptive in it's violence and language and sex. Definitely for the on board R-X adult reader.
Second, since there's no way to untether this from the movie of the same name, they are different animals. The book/movie relationship reminded me in many ways of American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. Both books contain similar elements, characters and situations with some changes between the book and movie. In both cases the books are actually edgier and delve more into adult subject matter. One thing I do enjoy more about books and these authors is they can and do tackle subject matter darker than you could in a mass marketed Hollywood film. Palahniuk in this version actually writes an epilogue that details many of the stuff that has arisen since the book was originally published ranging from the movie to the real life "fight clubs" that were inspired by or preceded the book. I found that actually pretty insightful for him to write about his experience going from an unknown author struggling to find an audience to his work to being world renowned and copycatted almost overnight. I suspect other bibliophiles will enjoy it as well.
Review Date: 2/28/2023
I really didn't like this book.
It's mostly 300 pages of why she hates her mom and why she blames her mom for ruining her life.
There are no constructed stories, just a new vignette every 1-5 pages, so there are 90 chapters.
I found nothing about the book funny.
Just describing borderline abuse and then going on page long rants about internally hating someone without ever saying it to them isn't my cup of tea.
She has a long history of saying whatever as an actress so I'm pretty suspicious after reading this and learning more online. I think it's fake.
It's mostly 300 pages of why she hates her mom and why she blames her mom for ruining her life.
There are no constructed stories, just a new vignette every 1-5 pages, so there are 90 chapters.
I found nothing about the book funny.
Just describing borderline abuse and then going on page long rants about internally hating someone without ever saying it to them isn't my cup of tea.
She has a long history of saying whatever as an actress so I'm pretty suspicious after reading this and learning more online. I think it's fake.
Review Date: 10/1/2012
Helpful Score: 1
I write this book with full disclosure and revelations about its content. With Paleo being such a large diet craze right now, I checked out the book. I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for about a year and a half and wanted to check out the book's contents and philosophies.
Things I liked about the book included the more detailed delving into things like physiology and what things like carbohydrates and refined foods do to our anatomy and bodies. The main crux of the book is that our digestive systems have not evolved out of the agrarian age, and are therefore not equipped to properly deal with the results of pastoralization, mainly grains and refined foods and sugars. The book goes into some historical notions for why the author believes this, and fundamentally I think his evidence is solid. There is also some workout information contained in the book which is helpful.
Things I did not like about the book was a kind of odd humor and especially a snarkiness to vegetarians and vegans. Actually putting down other people who are trying to get healthy and being compassionate to animals seems a bit much, and even though he mentions it early in the book, he never gets around to discussing the issue on more than a superficial, personally anecdotal level and the occasional insult. Second, my other major issue with the book seems to be the unexplored contradiction about grass/range fed meat versus corn/grain fed meat. For most trying to go full Paleo I would assume finding major sources of meat that weren't fed the chief ingredient you're decrying would be a primary point, but it really wasn't anything more than glossed over in the text.
Overall I enjoyed the book and thought it had a lot of useful information. The author's attempt at humor and put downs of differences from his prescribed diet were the sole sticking points for me. However, considering all the damage to the environment and pain and suffering due to animals that are still caused by meat based diets, I'll stick to a modified form of Paleo that includes no meat and a reduction in grains and carbs. Other books I'd recommend or films would be Forks over Knives, Skinny Bitch or anything Michael Pollan.
Things I liked about the book included the more detailed delving into things like physiology and what things like carbohydrates and refined foods do to our anatomy and bodies. The main crux of the book is that our digestive systems have not evolved out of the agrarian age, and are therefore not equipped to properly deal with the results of pastoralization, mainly grains and refined foods and sugars. The book goes into some historical notions for why the author believes this, and fundamentally I think his evidence is solid. There is also some workout information contained in the book which is helpful.
Things I did not like about the book was a kind of odd humor and especially a snarkiness to vegetarians and vegans. Actually putting down other people who are trying to get healthy and being compassionate to animals seems a bit much, and even though he mentions it early in the book, he never gets around to discussing the issue on more than a superficial, personally anecdotal level and the occasional insult. Second, my other major issue with the book seems to be the unexplored contradiction about grass/range fed meat versus corn/grain fed meat. For most trying to go full Paleo I would assume finding major sources of meat that weren't fed the chief ingredient you're decrying would be a primary point, but it really wasn't anything more than glossed over in the text.
Overall I enjoyed the book and thought it had a lot of useful information. The author's attempt at humor and put downs of differences from his prescribed diet were the sole sticking points for me. However, considering all the damage to the environment and pain and suffering due to animals that are still caused by meat based diets, I'll stick to a modified form of Paleo that includes no meat and a reduction in grains and carbs. Other books I'd recommend or films would be Forks over Knives, Skinny Bitch or anything Michael Pollan.
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