Social Sciences Books - Page 23

Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time

Valerie Bertinelli

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Total reviews: 194 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Valerie Bertinelli, then: bubbly sitcom star and America's Sweetheart turned tabloid headline and rock star wife. Now: actress, single working mother of teenage rock star, and weight-loss inspiration to millions.

We all knew and loved Valerie Bertinelli years ago when she was girl-next-door cutie Barbara Cooper in the hit TV show One Day at a Time, and more recently when she starred in numerous TV movies and co-starred in Touched by an Angel. From wholesome prime time in America's living rooms, Valerie moved to late nights with the hardest-partying band of the decadent eighties when she became, at twenty, wife to rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen. Losing It is Valerie's frank account of her life backstage and in the spotlight: the ups and downs of teen stardom, her complicated marriage to a brilliant, tormented musical genius, the joys of motherhood, and her very public struggle with her weight.

Surprising, uplifting, and empowering, Losing It chronicles Valerie's journey as she finds new love, raises a terrific kid, and motivates other women to take back their lives.

Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Picador)

Oliver Sacks

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 111 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Captivating, yet Redundant, Dive into the World of Disorders 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Introduction
The sequence of independent and amazing analyses of disorders poses as a great introduction into what complications are possible in the brain and how the body will respond. Despite providing many similar examples that illustrate the same point, Sacks does a great job portraying his own astonishment at these disorders along with a glimpse of his reasoning behind them. More so, I particularly liked how Sacks' descriptions were simple and clear so that a wide variety of readers other than neuroscientists would be able to relate and follow the stories.

Brief Synopsis
The book is divided into four sections: losses, excesses, transport, and the world of the simple. Each section contains a variety of examples that convey the significance of the section. The first section, losses, starts off by Sacks outlining a brief history of neuroscience and the science behind neurological losses, which is followed by the chapter titled after the book. In this account, Dr. P., a renowned musician with severely impaired vision, has great difficulty recognizing simple objects and is diagnosed with complications within the parietal and occipital lobes. Other stories of losses follow such as accounts about proprioception, phantom limbs, visual complications, and aphasia.
The second section, excesses, describes a variety of cases where patients have enhanced perceptions and on some accounts feel "too well" or "dangerously well" (90). These stories look at Tourette's syndrome syphilis, Korsakov's disease, and schizophrenia. However, different from the first section, a number of these patients feel blessed and "could not imagine life without Tourette's" (98) as they feel "free" and "drunk" (101).
The third section, transport, focuses on patients with reminiscence that have strong and relatively consistently reoccurring memories. Mrs. O'C is somewhat deaf but once had a dream of her childhood in Ireland and from then on had frequently reoccurring Irish songs played in her head at deafening volumes. The rest of the section accounts similar cases of `musical epilepsy' and reminiscence along with an interesting case of an increase in the perception of smell based on a dream.
The fourth section, the world of the simple, recalls accounts of Sacks working with retardates and how these are, based on Luria's experience, "the most moving and interesting of his entire professional career" (173).

Opinion About Book
The book is well divided and an interesting narrative of Oliver Sacks' encounters as a neuroscientist in the 1970s and 1980s. One of the most interesting features of the book is how he decided to explain his observations and how shocked many of the outcomes appeared to him, as was apparent with his style of language and grammar used. For example, nearly every sentence contained several parts, each separated by multiple commas and contained a variety of interesting and exciting adjectives. After reading several recently published novels and articles, the cases he described in 1985 are now more thoroughly explained yet his observations provide a more naive, innocent, wide-eyed perspective into these neurological complications and probably laid down some of the grounds for recent discoveries and knowledge. This perspective allows the reader to better relate and understand the circumstances as Sacks seems to be in a similarly uninformed boat. My favorite example of this style of description is within chapter ten called "Witty Ticcy Ray," where Sacks describes Ray, a man with a slight case of Tourette's syndrome, and how he has come to accept and love his "disorder." Most notably, I enjoyed how Sacks felt shocked on how Ray "could not imagine life without Tourette's" since this disorder was characterized by a sudden burst of energy and a production of nervous tics, jerks, and. Nevertheless, Ray's life was defined by this disorder and gave him a "drunk" feeling that opened his creative side.
Another great story is within chapter two titled `The Lost Mariner," where Jimmie G. had suffered from retro amnesia in 1970 due to excessive drinking and was unable to remember anything after his war days in 1945. I enjoyed how Sacks proved this disorder to the otherwise ignorant Jimmie G. by placing a mirror in front of him and how shocked Jimmie was at this discovery. (However, Jimmie G. forgot all about it within several minutes and went right back to his normal belief as he had severe amnesia.) Jimmie G. was even amazed at his brother's image and how he had aged so much in such a short period of time relative to Jimmie and claimed "some people age more than others." Sacks' skill for writing these narratives in a logical and comprehensive manner from multiple perspectives enhances the stories even further by providing small details that allow the reader to fully understand the problem and diagnosis. It is also very helpful to have the postscripts after most chapters that highlight his main points and also discuss more in detail the significance of such disorders and complications and why they are so important.
Despite being well organized and interesting, I felt the Sacks' writing was a bit choppy and overflowed with commas and punctuation. Very few sentences were easy to read and, in some cases, sentences spanned nearly entire paragraphs, as is apparent on page 151. In addition, since the book was written in 1985 and Sacks is from London, his vocabulary, grammar, and style will seem unorthodox to someone of American origin.

Summary
Overall Sacks produced a very high-quality novel, despite the long-winded sentences and excessive punctuation usage, and provided a very interesting and captivating sequence of stories. His perspectives along with his details of each account make him a reliable narrator. More importantly, he presented cases that are relatively common and provide great insight into how these patients feel and cope with such disabilities and complications. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to learn more about neurological disorders without too much technical language and prior knowledge. It will lay a great foundation of conditions while sparking further interest in the field of neuroscience.

Editorial Review:

"The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" is populated by a cast as strange as that of the most fantastic fiction. The subject of this strange and wonderful book is what happens when things go wrong with parts of the brain most of us don't know exist ...Dr Sacks shows the awesome powers of our mind and just how delicately balanced they have to be' - "Sunday Times". 'Who is this book for? Who is it not for? It is for everybody who has felt from time to time that certain twinge of self-identity and sensed how easily, at any moment, one might lose it' - "The Times". 'This is, in the best sense, a serious book. It is, indeed, a wonderful book, by which I mean not only that it is excellent (which it is) but also that it is full of wonder, wonders and wondering. He brings to these often unhappy people understanding, sympathy and respect. Sacks is always learning from his patients, marvelling at them, widening his own understanding and ours' - "Punch".

Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality

Rob Bell

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Total reviews: 102 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

good, not great 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I love Rob Bell and was really looking forward to reading this book. I found the chapter titles interesting, but was somewhat disappointed with the content. There were plenty of thought provoking ideas and perspectives, but overall I felt it to be dreary. I would recommend reading it, I may even give it another shot and try it again in a year. Maybe I missed something or need to be at another place in my life. Either way, I think Bell is bright, interesting and has a wonderful perspective on Christianity and our role in this life.

Antiquated 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Should have looked more closely at the author before purchasing. Although it's a refreshing view of the beauty of sex and the spiritual connection it creates between you and God, it also has a very conservative sexual undercurrent. My sense was that the author would not consider a queer relationship as applicable to his theory and he also strongly advocates for abstinence before marriage, which is something that I think is antiquated.

Editorial Review:

God and sex go together. You can’t separate the two, says Rob Bell, because this physical world is intimately linked to deeper spiritual realities. And so, in order to make sense of sexuality, at some point you have to talk about God. With beauty and unusual insight, Sex God explores this connection.

The Freedom Writers Diary : How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them

Freedom Writers, Zlata Filipovic

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Total reviews: 140 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Straight from the front line of urban America, the inspiring story of one fiercely determined teacher and her remarkable students.


As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of “unteachable, at-risk” students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders.”

With funds raised by a “Read-a-thon for Tolerance,” they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California, where she declared that Erin Gruwell’s students were “the real heroes.” Their efforts have paid off spectacularly, both in terms of recognition—appearances on “Prime Time Live” and “All Things Considered,” coverage in People magazine, a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley—and educationally. All 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from high school and are now attending college.

With powerful entries from the students’ own diaries and a narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an uplifting, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students.

The authors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, an organization set up to pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuition. Erin Gruwell is now a visiting professor at California State University, Long Beach, where some of her students are Freedom Writers.

Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President

Brian Lamb, Susan Swain, C-SPAN

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Written from a variety of perspectives, pro and con, these essays provide a balanced view of a complex Lincoln 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

On February 12, 2009, our nation marks the Bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The present volume contains 68 essays by 55 writers who are among those best versed in the history of Lincoln and the Civil War.

Parts 1-4 discuss "Log Cabin to White House," "Wartime President," "Character," and "In Memory." Part 5 includes eight of Lincoln's speeches.

Writers include James M. McPherson, Harold Holzer, Stephen B. Oates, Shelby Foote, and Doris Kearns Goodwin, and critics such as Lerone Bennett, Jr. and Thomas DiLorenzo, who examine the many sides of Lincoln concerning presidential power, leadership, racial reconciliation, and American values.

These essays, both pro and con, help one gain a balanced view of a complex Lincoln, an alleged "racist" and "white supremacist" who grew and evolved into a statesman described by Mario Cuomo as a "progressive pragmatist."

Note: Complete transcripts of interviews with authors--along with video and other features--are available at [...].

About the Editors:

Brian Lamb is C-SPAN's chairman and CEO and longtime on-camera interviewer, noted for his "just the facts" style of interviewing. Many of the essays in this book are drawn from Booknotes, Lamb's long-running author-interview program, while others were conducted for C-SPAN's special history series on Lincoln and on the American presidency. Lamb lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Susan Swain is President & co-Chief Operating Officer of C-SPAN. For more than twenty-five years, she has been an on-air interviewer for the program. A regular moderator of Washington Journal, she's interviewed hundreds of members of Congress, policy experts, journalists, and several presidents. She lives in Northern Virginia.

Editorial Review:

In a handsome, gift-quality volume celebrating the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, America’s top Lincoln historians offer their diverse perspectives on the life and legacy of America’s sixteenth president. Spanning Lincoln’s life—from his early career as a Springfield lawyer, to his presidential reign during one of America’s most troubled historical periods, to his assassination in 1865—these essays, developed from original C-SPAN interviews, provide a compelling, composite portrait of Lincoln, one that offers up new stories and fresh insights on a defining leader.

Edited by C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb and Susan Swain, illustrated with Lamb’s photographs of Lincoln landmarks, and promoted throughout the year on C-SPAN, Abraham Lincoln is a wonderful compendium of information and deeply-informed analysis that deserves a prominent place on every bookshelf.

Hopes and Dreams: The Story of Barack Obama

Steve Dougherty

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The First Biographical Portrait Ever of This Key Political Figure

Written by a leading journalist and filled with more than 100 color photographs, this authoritative and up-to-the-moment new biography provides much-needed perspective on one of the most important figures on the national political stage.

An lively overview of Obama’s life, this timely book begins with his difficult childhood as the son of a Kansas-born college student and a black Kenyan who abandoned the family, moving through his election to president of the Harvard Law Review (the first black student ever), his early political career (including his loss of a congressional race in 2000), his own family life with wife Michelle and two daughters, his 2004 election to U.S. Senator, and his emergence as a symbol of hope for America. Including his own words and comments from both his critics and supporters, Hopes and Dreams is essential reading for all those interested in the man who is being talked about as a candidate for our highest office.

No political figure in recent memory has generated the interest that Obama has, and many compare his appeal to that of a rock star. Only forty-five years old, Barack Obama is certain to play an important role in America’s future. Here is his inspiring story to date, in words and revealing images.

Passionate Marriage: Love, Sex, and Intimacy in Emotionally Committed Relationships

David Schnarch

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Total reviews: 99 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Are you differentiated? 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

If you're not, you need to read this book! The passionate Marriage is an excellent book written in a personable manner with excellent anecdotes that demonstrate the concepts the writer is explaining. Reading this book helped me recognize where I wasn't differentiated and where I needed to do some serious internal work to help myself. It's also helped my marriage a lot, in terms of how my wife and I communicate.

If you're having trouble in your marriage or just want to communicate better and have more intimacy, read this book. It will help both you and your partner(s) connect with each other.

Great 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have learned that it's fine to think about myself first, even during sex. This book freed us from the specter of uneven sexual desire, and battles about oral sex. I also recommend an amazing book in this topic I Love You. Now What?: Falling in Love is a Mystery, Keeping It Isn't

Editorial Review:

A sexual and marital therapist explains how to achieve emotional, sexual, and personal fulfillment and intimacy with one's partner in a committed relationship. Tour.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition

Edward R. Tufte

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Total reviews: 96 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Ups and Downs of Tufte's Book 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

It definitely was interesting and educational to read and see Tufte's presentation on Visual Dispaly of Quantitative Information. He illustrates the good, the bad, and the ugly of graphic displays over the centuries. However, I was hoping to see more examples of current computer graphics that should be emulated in this edition instead of terse comments and skeletal constructs in this area.

Easy and fun to read 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I was able to read this fairly quickly. (stealing a few hours here and there at work).

Although I did not find any direct solutions to my current problems - it definitely opened my imagination to consider new possibilities.

Masterpiece of graphic design proves timeless and universal 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I returned to Tufte's first classic book of graphic design principles over 20 years after first discovering it. At the time, I was the corporate librarian for a major electric utility, and the explosion in the organization and creation of information by individuals with new personal-computer hardware and software was just beginning (I had an IBM PC-XT with 640Kb of RAM and two 360k floppies--no hard drive).

Now, I wondered, aside from the masterpiece of graphic design that "Visual Display" of course still represents, did Tufte's theories of graphics design still apply in a world where those computers at our fingertips pack the power and sophistication of the best publishing equipment? The answer is yes: Tufte's guidelines are timeless and universal, and most of his examples predate the computer era and even the 20th century.

The guidelines boil down to the single principle of making design choices that result in the simplest possible display of complex data. While that may not sound profound, Tufte provides simple and practical rules for implementing sound design choices, and the resulting improvements in your documents and web designs will be noticeable.

Editorial Review:

A modern classic. Tufte teaches the fundamentals of graphics, charts, maps and tables. "A visual Strunk and White" (The Boston Globe). Includes 250 delightfullly entertaining illustrations, all beautifully printed.

They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It

Brigitte Gabriel

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Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

They Must Be Stopped is New York Times bestselling author Brigitte Gabriel’s warning to the world: We can no longer ignore the growth of radical Islam--we must act soon, and powerfully. Gabriel challenges our western and politically-correct notions about Islam, demonstrating why radical Islam is so deadly and how we can halt its progress.

Brigitte Gabriel speaks her mind:

*Fundamentalist Islam is a religion rooted in 7th century teachings that are fundamentally opposed to democracy and equality.

*Radical Islamists are utterly contemptuous of all “infidels” (non-Muslims) and regard them as enemies worthy of death.

*Madrassas in America are increasing in number, and they are just one part of a growing radical Islamic army on US soil.

*Radical Islam exploits the US legal system and America’s protection of religion to spread its hatred for western values.

*America must organize a unified voice that says “enough” to political correctness, and demands that government officials and elected representatives do whatever is necessary to protect us.

Brigitte Gabriel has fearlessly faced down critics, death threats, and political correctness, and is one of the most sought after terrorism experts in the world. They Must Be Stopped is her clarion call to action. Gabriel thoroughly addresses the historical and religious basis of radical Islam, its frightening encroachment into societies around the world, and its abuses of democracy in the name of religion.

 

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion-Year History of the Human Body

Neil Shubin

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Total reviews: 78 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Could have used an Inner Editor 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I should confess up front that my not loving this book is partly my own fault. Given Shubin's academic pedigree -- and it is impressive -- I expected the work to be more substantive. That he decided to write for a more general audience is not so much a problem as a simple disappointment.

But that's only part of my issue with the book. Simply put, it's poorly written. While literary style is not the forte of the majority of scientists, you'd expect them to have at least relied on a competent editor. Most offensive of all was his labored redundancy; important sentences were deemed so important that they were sometimes used -- essentially verbatim -- multiple times; if a point could be made in a short paragraph, Shubin used three.

Still, he has some interesting stories to tell, and while their connections to broader concepts are sometimes forced in rather painful transitions, the episode and ideas should hold the attention of most general readers.

There Really is Nothing (Entirely) New 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a somewhat breezy overview of the deep links between humans and all other animals that have lived on earth, including not merely fish but worms, jellyfish and even the earliest one-celled creatures. Choosing different aspects of the human body (e. g. hands, heads, sense of smell, hearing, vision etc) Shubin describes how they developed from features present in ancient forms. The earlier forms often served quite different functions but were modified over eons of time in ways quite traceable through the fossil record or DNA. Indeed one of Shubin's main points is that the ancient forms were not replaced but were virtually endlessly modified over time to assume and support (often awkwardly) new functions and support different ways of life. The bodies of living animals (including humans) are thus in many respects Rube Goldberg devices, jury rigged amalgams of various parts, many of which originally served far different purposes.

Shubin writes clearly and with obvious enthusiasm for his subject. The book is short and is an overview intended for a general audience. It does not presume any scientific background nor does it present detailed argument or evidence for its positions. It is not aimed at those who are familiar with the field. There is a subtext against intelligent design, but this position is never explicitly articulated much less argued. It is present only in the implications that follow from Shubin pointing out how many of the modern forms fit their current functions clumsily. The drawings in the book, unfortunately, are only sometimes helpful. The book also has fairly extensive suggestions for further reading. Overall a very good, and very basic, work of popular biology.