Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
Sunday, August 29th, 2004
Hardcover (available in trade), 274 pages, 2001
Rating: 9/10
Reason for Reading: A Cook’s Tour has to be the worst show on television for a vegetarian to get addicted to, but I can’t resist Bourdain’s bad-ass, snarky, damn-the-man attitude.
Synopsis: Lacking inspiration as well as experience with international cooking styles, Bourdain takes off from his restaurant in New York in a whirlwind tour of the world in search of the perfect meal. But this isn’t Bourdain hopping from four-star restaurant to four-star restaurant, although he does hit a few. Bourdain is a firm believer that the best food experiences also involve the people at the table and the atmosphere of the place, which leads him to many home-cooked meals and crazy situations that the average restauranteur or tourist would never expect to be in.
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Posted in Non-Fiction, Humour, Culture, Literary Travel, Cooking | No Comments »
Friday, July 23rd, 2004
Hardcover (available in trade), 343 pages, 2003
Rating: 9/10
Reason for Reading: A buzz book.
Synopsis: In Reading Lolita, Nafisi chronicles her life in Iran as a university professor during a time of war and repression. In order to have a chance to speak more freely about English literature, she starts up a small discussion group with seven of her female students, which quickly moves from books to a more personal look at how reading affects them and their lives in an atmosphere where their thoughts must be hidden from the public eye.
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Posted in Non-Fiction, Biography, Culture, Religion, Literary Criticism | No Comments »
Monday, May 31st, 2004
Hardcover (available in trade), 279 pages, 2000
Rating: 9/10
Reason for Reading: A recommendation from Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust.
Synopsis: Gladwell takes a fascinating look at the people who start trends and epidemics, and the little things that can push something from locally hot to internationally cool. Why did crime drop suddenly in New York City in the 1990s? How did Sesame Street become almost requisite viewing for kids? Why do ’stop smoking’ campaigns aimed at teenagers fail? The answers might surprise you.
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Posted in Non-Fiction, Culture, Advertising, Business | No Comments »
Friday, May 14th, 2004
Hardcover (available in trade), 336 pages (incl. 44 pages of notes, index and bibliography), 2004
Rating: 7/10
Reason for Reading: The spectacular, attention-grabbing cover.
Synopsis: Kingston investigates the role that women take on when they become a wife, as influenced by things like marketing blitzes from the bridal industry, feminism, the recent backlash against feminism that produced such books as The Rules, and the economic consequences of marriage. The main focus is on the past fifty years, when previously concrete ideas of a “wife” changed and endless possibilities of what defined a wife emerged.
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Posted in Non-Fiction, Culture | No Comments »
Monday, March 1st, 2004
Hardcover (available in trade), 256 pages, 2004
Rating: 7/10
Reason for Reading: I think the tv show is hilarious.
Synopsis: Television’s Fab Five continue their quest to improve straight men, this time in book form. Each expert focuses on their area of expertise in an individual section: food and wine (Ted); grooming (Kyan); interior design (Thom); fashion (Carson); and culture (Jai).
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Posted in Non-Fiction, Etiquette, Humour, Fashion / Beauty, Television, Culture, Self-Help, Cooking, Interior Design | No Comments »
Sunday, December 21st, 2003
Hardcover (available in trade), 278 pages, 2002
Rating: 7/10
Reason for Reading: Loved The Corrections and happened to walk by How to be Alone at the library.
Synopsis: In this collection of thirteen essays, Franzen gives his opinion on a variety of aspects of modern life that lead to a more isolated society, including the decline of the reader, smokers, dealing with diseases like his father’s Alzheimer’s, and how suburbia is winning out over big cities at the cost of the artistic community.
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Posted in Contemporary, Non-Fiction, Culture, Literary Criticism, Essays | No Comments »
Saturday, November 22nd, 2003
Hardcover (available in trade), 249 pages, 2003
Rating: 9/10
Reason for Reading: I liked Stupid White Men, as well as Moore’s documentary, “Bowling for Columbine.”
Synopsis: Moore explores post-September 11, 2001 America, and how the event has been exploited and lied about for political gain, including trying to justify the war in Iraq. He also looks at how America’s wealthiest have exploited not just other countries, but their fellow countrymen as well. He finishes up by arguing that most of America consists of RINOs - Republicans in Name Only, and how America needs to change it’s idea of ‘liberals’ to get rid of Bush in the upcoming election.
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Posted in Non-Fiction, Humour, Culture, Current Affairs, Politics | No Comments »
Monday, September 15th, 2003
Hardcover (available in trade), 224 pages (incl. 80 pages of appendix and index), 2003
Rating: 7/10
Reason for Reading: It sounded interesting.
Synopsis: Through a series of surveys conducted in 1992, 1996, and 2000, Adams explores how Canadians and Americans stack up against each other, values-wise, and argues that the two countries are actually growing apart in ideals rather than blending together as one.
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Posted in Non-Fiction, Culture, Current Affairs | No Comments »