missed

• Rated 1 stars

“horrible. full of complete bs, speculation based upon speculation, no source materials worth a damn. Tosses things in that are unrelated needlessly.”

missed wrote this review Wednesday, December 29, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“The Media: Journalism in Crisis, is apparently a companion book for a documentary, and it reads like one. A minimal amount of text discussing a particular subject is made, with the remainder of chapters being descriptions of a person, a quotation from said person, and their photograph. This is extremely distracting and, like television today, makes it difficult and prevents me from thinking or paying attention to what is being said.

A good book, in my opinion, will give some sort of brief history of journalism in its myriad forms, and then demonstrate how it's changed and how, as the title suggests, it's in crisis. Based on what I've read, it's not journalism that's in crisis, but this book definitely is. Fractured, hard to follow, at times incorrect (e.g. cable wasn't "born to get viewed out of the clutches of the then big business at ABC, CBS and NBC." It was born to help get these broadcasts to areas that were unreachable due to local geography... this is Media 101 for any media student.)

Is Journalism changing dramatically? Are opinions invading news? Are people no longer getting their information from a small number of "trusted sources"? Is it an interesting topic? Absolutely on all counts. But this is not the book you should read if you want to learn about this important topic.”

missed wrote this review Friday, June 25, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“I really enjoyed reading this book! Mauro is a former magazine writer, so he definitely knows how to write comfortably for the public.

Twilight is the story of the 1939 New York World's Fair, or "World of Tomorrow." It had humble beginnings with two down-on-their-luck people coming up with the idea, and then taking it to those who not only supported the World's Fair concept, but ran with it and saw it to completion. The hero of the story is George Whalen, a great New York dandy who was compared to PT Barnum for his showmanship (he pretty much created New York City's famous ticker tape parades). Whalen, a spendthrift, fought hard to get the vision of World of Tomorrow to be executed, dealing with such greats as Fiorello LaGuardia and Robert Moses to push his passion through all sorts of barriers. It's a fascinating ride that Mauro takes us on.

At the heart of the story is how the World's Fair was promoting peace just as the world was on the brink of war. Germany was threatening, and then took over, huge swaths of Europe during the course of the Fair's development and execution, and a number of pavilions were closed or memories of countries which technically no longer existed by the time the second season opened. New York City was also at the brink of war, in a way. Bomb scares were too common, and passion against the Bund ran extremely high. In fact, a bomb went off during the second season of the Fair, killing two detectives, and maiming several others. One of those detectives, Detective Lynch, is a secondary story in this book.

Another secondary story is that of Albert Einstein, featured on the cover (and memorialized on the original title of the book). Einstein participated on the first day of the Fair, and later dedicated the Palestine Pavilion. Mauro also uses Einstein to as a foil of peace vs. war, with the peace-loving Einstein asking the FDR administration to begin researching atomic bombs in order to beat the Germans at the same task.

To be honest, the Lynch and Einstein stories only distracted from the book. Einstein's participation could have been limited to what he actually did at the Fair, and Lynch's story, weaved on occasion throughout, could have been limited to the chapter on the bomb.

Whalen comes out as the tragic hero in this tale, and it's a fascinating story.

This book is a definite recommendation to anyone who loves to learn about New York City history. ”

missed wrote this review Wednesday, June 16, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“I found it a bit difficult to get into this book. This is very much a biography, or rather autobiography, of the creation of the interdisciplinary climate science and the battle to get climate concerns recognized, not only by governments and the public, but by other scientists as well. What I found interesting about the book was how climatology developed over time, how models were developed, forecasts corrected, and the like. Climate change is, and has been, a very important part of the public's interest since the first Earth Day, and this book may be of interest to those who are interested in the overall history of the climate change question, but if your interest is learning about climate change itself and how theories and hypotheses progressed, you may be somewhat disappointed.”

missed wrote this review Monday, June 7, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“A bit disappointed in that the book is a cross between Crichton and Brown. I would have preferred having a very in-depth world, rather than writing aimed more at regular readers.”

missed wrote this review Monday, May 17, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“I had issues with this book. Pat Brown is a self-taught profiler. That's not the problem. My problem is that she expresses a lot of prejudice in her writing, and in her work, yet does not clearly demonstrate the data with which she comes to her conclusions. At the same time, none of the cases profiled in this book have lead to successful prosecutions of individuals. Has Brown ever had a case that has seen the conviction of those she accuses?

The book does read well, however, and the stories she presents are fascinating. It is more of a memoir than anything. Like other reviewers, I assumed that I would learn a bit about the (inexact) science of profiling. You will not get that from this book.”

missed wrote this review Monday, May 17, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“"Saint Patrick" reads like someone's college thesis, which isn't, in this case, a bad thing. Rogers writes extremely well, and I found it very easy to follow his well-sourced tome. The problem here is that not much is truly known about St. Patrick. What we do know about him comes from the two extant writings attributed to him (found at the end of the book, which is a good thing) and legend, of which there are seemingly endless legends about Ireland's most famous priest.

Rogers does a good job in bringing us into the world that Patrick was born into: the Roman Empire has collapsed, Ireland is the end of the known world, and is filled with nothing more than cannibalistic barbarians. Patrick, born the son of privilege, is kidnapped and forced into slavery as a teen, sent to the farthest reaches of Ireland to toil. Upon his escape, Patrick begins what becomes a rebellious, yet legendary move towards the Church, becoming the Bishop of Ireland and the first true missionary to bring the Word outside of the Roman empire.

And there Rogers stops. I would have liked to have known much more about Patrick: how his life ended, more about the myths and legends surrounding him, more about how he affected the Church overall, how he became a saint. Rogers provides none of this, which is unfortunate. He does leave us with a very good introduction to the Saint, but not much more.”

missed wrote this review Saturday, May 15, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“I'm not a regular Onion reader. Nor am I a follower of the A.V. Club. Nathan Rabin, therefore, is an unknown to me. He's the head editor of the A.V. Club portion of the Onion, and I think this memoir has inspired me to take a closer look at the Onion and it's talented writer, Rabin.

This is a memoir that uses pop culture as a means through which Rabin tells his story. That was my attraction to it: I'm a sucker for Chuck Klosterman's sardonic, ironic reminiscences about the culture both he and I grew up in, and I wasn't disappointed. Rabin perfectly wraps his story in key cultural moments, things that meant a lot to him while he was living his troubled life.

At times, Rabin is a bit too emo for my tastes, but I forgive him for it. He's a talented writer who I look forward to reading more from.”

missed wrote this review Friday, May 14, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“Not long after Infinite Jest was published, David Lipsky headed out to the Midwest and joined David Foster Wallace's last leg of his book tour for several days worth of traveling and interviewing, with the initial result being an article for Rolling Stone. Fast forward to the present, with Wallace dead, having killed himself, and Lipsky sitting on the numerous tapes of that road trip many years ago. What follows is pretty much a transcript of what was said, and what they were doing, while the interviews were going on.

Although Of Course is therefore an important document for anyone looking to understand Wallace better, especially before, during, and shortly after his magnum opus was written. Lipsky periodically interjects with observations from the present day within brackets. I would have preferred, rather, graphs rather than comments, as I found them distracting. Otherwise, good book on such a fascinating yet tragic talent.”

missed wrote this review Wednesday, May 12, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Confessions is not going to teach you how to take a good photograph, per se. It does excel in showing you the myriad tools found on compact cameras that can aid you in getting high quality shots. In fact, each page has one or two really good tips that can really help someone who is looking to take full advantage of the camera. If you want to know what specific things, such as f-stop or ISO mean and how best to use them to your advantage, this book might be a good supplement to whatever other how-to photography book you may have.

The last portion of the book focuses on more advanced topics, such ad HDR, infrared and panoramas. I found the chapters on how to use Photoshop Elements to be a good introduction into that program.

I would have liked some more details on how he took some shots, specifically what sections of the scene he focused on when deciding his settings. I found the book a little too general for my taste.”

missed wrote this review Wednesday, May 12, 2010. ( reply | permalink )