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Two Readers in Love

Two Readers in Love

As we attempt to catalog our library and work towards our moving date, we can't help but notice a question forming on the lips of our friends, relatives, and recently – and most pointedly - our movers: “Why so many books?”

Like so many of life's profundities, perhaps we can best explain ourselves in song (and an annoying pseudo-hipster... more »
  • PA, USA
  • member since May 20, 2008

Reviews

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Displaying 1-10 of 104 reviews
  • The Youth Pill: Scientists at the Brink of an Anti-Aging Revolution
    • Rated 4 stars

    Don't let the huckster come-on title put you off this book; I speculate that it was slapped on by the publisher's marketing department. The book itself is actually a well-written tour of the biology and the business of aging.

    Two Readers in Love wrote this review Monday, November 26, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • Transcendence
    • Rated 1 stars

    Disingenuous.This purports to be a book by a medical doctor presenting the pros/cons of transcendental meditation; however, most of the 'evidence' is produced by the Maharishi Institute itself (which sells the course required to learn transcendental meditation, requiring over a thousand dollars in fees, which is not clear anywhere in the book, but is alluded to in the appendix.)

    Two Readers in Love wrote this review Tuesday, July 31, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • Bigfoot: I Not Dead
    • Rated 4 stars

    Husband read book aloud to me. Maybe need right mood, but we find many many funnies. Now talk like Bigfoot all day. Surprise: it not get old.

    Two Readers in Love wrote this review Saturday, November 12, 2011. ( reply | permalink )
  • Quirk
    • Rated 4 stars

    I really enjoyed Quirk; as expected it gave me a new appreciation of the diversity of the human experience, and as an unexpected bonus it gave me a much deeper appreciation of the surprising diversity of the *mouse* experience.

    Two Readers in Love wrote this review Sunday, September 11, 2011. ( reply | permalink )
  • Breakthrough!
    • Rated 3 stars

    A solid, albeit at some points workmanlike, tour through the top ten breakthroughs in medicine. This book is at it's best when it is describing the historical accidents surrounding medical discoveries; I wont's soon forget many of the anecdotes about early medical cases.

    After plotting out the many benefits accrued by the slow triumph of evidence-based medicine, the inclusion of "Integrative Medicine" in the final chapter seem a bit incongruous- or at least premature - but the chapter on alternative treatments does give the author a good excuse for a digression into the history of medicine in the 19th century in the United States.

    Overall: a worthwhile, quick read.

    Two Readers in Love wrote this review Wednesday, August 31, 2011. ( reply | permalink )
  • Everything that can happen in a day
    • Rated 1 stars

    “Everything That Can Happen In a Day” is based on the author's email list/tumblr blog, where he “gave away” ideas to inspire his readers to act. Some of the readers sent in photographic evidence of their actions.

    This sounded intriguing, until I started reading, and quickly discovered the bulk of these “open source” ideas amounted to a collection of hackneyed teenage pranks, e.g.: Put an "Out of Order" sign on an ATM... Cut a dollar bill in half... Write a message on a dollar bill... Fax a note to a random business... Pick wildflowers from private property... Mail envelopes to fake address in different countries in order to have it returned to you... Send a package to a fake address … Send an art package to the White House... (At this point the reader begins to wonder if the author was beaten up by a postal worker as a child, as he really seems to particularly enjoy inconveniencing mail carriers.)

    Mixed in among the list of stunts were challenges to set up odd situations for the express purpose of photographing them; the predictable responses come across as a high-concept version of 'planking' e.g. Take a self-portrait of your head in a tree... Take a photo of a friend jay-walking... Take a photo of a friend climbing a fence... and so forth, ad nauseam.

    The seventy-seven ideas are printed one to a page in large print, and adding the full-page photo responses fleshes this out to just one hundred and forty-five pages; and yet somehow the book still seems much longer than its shallow premise requires.

    Two Readers in Love wrote this review Tuesday, August 30, 2011. ( reply | permalink )
  • Drink, Play, F@#k
    • Rated 3 stars

    A parody that is better (perhaps because it is more self-aware) than the origina, although the ending feels like a tacked on feel-good rom-com formula (perhaps in homage to the original?).

    Two Readers in Love wrote this review Thursday, August 18, 2011. ( reply | permalink )
  • Collier's Junior Classics
    • Rated 5 stars

    Oh, how I loved this set as a child! What a gift my parents gave me; I wish I had been able to keep them, as some of the stories still haunt me. I still remember the lovely line-drawn illustration, especially of the moon-godmother (?) at the top of the tower.

    Two Readers in Love wrote this review Wednesday, August 17, 2011. ( reply | permalink )
  • Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk
    • Rated 5 stars

    Imagine the stories Aesop would write if he was surveying American culture today and you'll have a general idea of the contents of this little book; although, much like many of Aesop's original tales, despite the adorable anthropomorphic animals, these stories are not meant for children. This satiric collection mostly hits the right balance of humor and pathos, only occasionally giving into the temptation to beat the moral over the head (e.g. "The Vigilant Rabbit" where each point is literally beaten over the head with a stick, wielded by a rabbit.) My absolute favorite in the collection was "The Sick Rat and the Healthy Rat," followed closely by "The Crow and the Lamb," and "The Grieving Owl." I found myself thinking back over them long after I first read them, at odd moments; what I'm trying to say in my awkward way is that although they are funny, these stories stayed with me.

    Ian Falconer, best known as the illustrator for the Olivia series of children's books, gives a wacky kind of innocence to the picture accompanying each tale, which perfectly complements the bite of the fables. (I need to get a framed copy of his adorable interpretation of the curious owl listening intently to the hippo's anus.)

    Two Readers in Love wrote this review Sunday, June 12, 2011. ( reply | permalink )
  • One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
    • Rated 4 stars

    For anyone who enjoyed the last "Thursday" series, well, then you are bound to enjoy the Next. I read this funny reboot in one sitting (and no kittens were harmed!)

    Two Readers in Love wrote this review Friday, May 13, 2011. ( reply | permalink )
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Displaying 1-10 of 104 reviews