Reviews

Five things I hate about Rick Moody:

1. His writerly tone can be absolutely obnoxious. I mean overbearing, arrogant, snotty, condescending, downright rude to the reader.

2. His world view is bleaker than mine, which makes me jealous.

Are you one of those people who has never seen When Harry Met Sally? If your answer is yes, I say what are you waiting for? They say that laughter is the best medicine, and this movie is worth a few laughs. Yes, it’s a chick flick about male/female relationships, but it pokes fun at both genders—in a good way! A collaborative effort by the hilariously talented duo Nora Ephron (writer) and Ron Reiner (director) during their marriage, this film presents many insights into the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that drive men and women either closer or further apart.

Michael Crichton, one of my favorite authors, died in 2008. To pay homage to him, I decided to reread his first book (published under his real name), The Andromeda Strain. Written in 1969, I was afraid it would be very dated but to my surprise it wasn’t. The plot centers around a group of scientists investigating a downed satellite.

Elizabeth Reis, Associate Professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the History Department at the University of Oregon, shines a bright light into a dark alley in the history of American medicine.  The question for medical professionals: how to treat intersex patients, or, in other words,

The best category I can come up with for this book is: chick lit with dogs. The heroine, Dawn, on the rebound from a bad relationship, struggling with a second bad relationship and in the process of stumbling into a good relationship (finally!), discovers one day that she can understand the speech of dogs. This leads to interesting complications. Her dogs are hilarious, if somewhat foul-mouthed. And they may be good judges of character but their relationship advice is, as she discovers, often suspect. Dogs simply have different priorities than humans.

When Fine bought his 41 acre ranch in New Mexico, he had four goals in mind. “1. Use a lot less oil 2.  Power my life by renewable energy 3. Eat as locally as possible 4. Don’t starve, electrocute myself, get eaten by the local mountain lions, get shot by my UN-fearing neighbors, or otherwise die in a way that would cause embarrassment if the obituary writer did his or her research.”

Micah Dalton is a cleaner. He “cleans up” other agent’s mistakes. When his mentor supposedly commits suicide, Micah investigates. It is non-stop action and intrigue in London, Italy and the U.S.A. as Micah hunts for the killer. What is different here is that Micah has the help of the victim as a re-appearing ghost, or is it a reaction to a psychotropic drug given to him by the killer?

I went through a phase where I read nothing but Christian Chick Lit. I couldn't get enough of the pink covers with high heels and little dogs. My favorite has to be The Whitney Chronicles by Judy Baer. Whitney is the traditional 30-something protagonist looking for "Mr.

This is a wonderful cookbook for people with any kind of food allergies.