tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43758057370017902102024-02-20T04:08:52.272-05:00...or too many booksOldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-16079917541053869442011-02-11T13:02:00.000-05:002011-02-17T01:07:20.634-05:00A Return to Abundance, Book 1: Money and happiness, abundance and prosperity, money and the unconscious mind: a mythological, psychological, historical, and family of origin look at money & its powerI have a shameful secret. Despite 25 years working in the financial industry, I can’t handle money. I live paycheck to paycheck like many Americans. I have mortgage and credit card debt like many Americans. Unlike many Americans, I know that I shouldn’t be living this way. I know the correct way to spend and save my money yet somehow I am unable to put any of my knowledge into practice.
OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-75352776330482754302011-02-07T12:56:00.000-05:002011-02-17T01:01:12.359-05:00Elder Abuse: A Family GuideMost of us will eventually be responsible for moving an elderly relative into a nursing home or ourselves become a patient in a nursing home. These are wrenching decisions and enormous lifestyle changes, yet how much do any of us know about nursing homes?
Thankfully there is now a source of information as well as guidance on where to find information about this vital topic. Inspired by her OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-40001906564347601682011-01-25T13:04:00.002-05:002011-01-29T01:11:51.645-05:00Morning Miracle: Inside The Washington Post: A Great Newspaper Fights For Its LifeI couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book. Although not a reader of The Washington Post, I am well aware of the reputation of this great periodical and the legends who work there, both past and present. How is it faring in an era when newsprint is being steadily replaced by websites and blogs? How is it changing to meet these challenges?
Author Dave Kindred first takes us through the early OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-7715664243153970262011-01-13T13:16:00.001-05:002011-01-20T01:21:28.459-05:00Oh, Beautiful: An American Family in the 20th CenturyOne of the reasons a lot of people give for not reading books on history is that they are not relevant to their lives. I have to agree with them that most history books are boring recitations of dates, wars, treaties and the important figures of those eras accompanied by dry analyses. It is difficult to imagine what life would have been like for ordinary people during those times.
John Paul OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-37899955744582301832010-12-23T13:17:00.000-05:002010-12-31T01:21:02.980-05:00The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet SpyAlthough born a Baby Boomer, I was raised by parents for whom WWII was the defining event in their lives. Every year on December 7, my mother sent me off to school with the admonishment to remember that it was Pearl Harbor Day. My family watched every movie ever made about the war and all of the television series set during the war.
The Cold War with its accompanying Duck and Cover Drills OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-34769392728700498802010-12-15T13:32:00.001-05:002010-12-21T01:40:08.009-05:00Just Enough JeevesIf you have never read anything by P.G. Wodehouse, this book is an excellent place to start. It contains two novels and a collection of short stories, all featuring Bertie Wooster and his omniscient manservant, Jeeves. The stories collected here span most of Wodehouse’s career, from among the first Jeeves stories to the last.
One drawback to reading an anthology like this is that it is much likeOldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-37222205186072870702010-12-07T13:14:00.000-05:002010-12-16T01:15:40.722-05:00Cleopatra: A LifeThe reviews of this book present an interesting dichotomy. Scholarly reviewers rave about author Stacy Schiff’s ability to flesh out the life and times of a queen about whom very little is known. Other reviewers complain that there is very little about Cleopatra herself in the book. Although not a professional historian, I am firmly in the camp with those who stand in awe of this recreation ofOldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-47050425366993367772010-11-25T13:10:00.002-05:002010-12-03T01:13:36.734-05:00Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving AmericansThe title of this book, Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans is a bit off-putting. Reading it, I mentally prepared myself for a diatribe written by a disgruntled low-level employee out to get his pound of flesh. We all know that health insurance companies are in the habit of denying coverage and raising premiums,OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-21096342211392241402010-11-02T13:44:00.001-04:002010-12-14T14:46:05.273-05:00Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin QueenI was so excited when this book arrived from Amazon.com. I couldn’t wait to dive into it. After all, it promised a brand new view of Elizabeth I, “…portrayed here as the product of women….” The reader is assured that it is “…a thrilling new angle by the brilliant young historian Tracy Borman.” The author herself guarantees that she has “…focused the story upon those women who help to reveal OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-86663712293451463702010-10-26T13:21:00.000-04:002010-10-27T01:23:43.521-04:00George Eliot in LoveMany years ago when I first became aware of George Eliot as a Victorian woman who openly lived with a man without benefit of marriage, I eagerly sought out her novels thinking they would be as scandalous as her life. Imagine my disappointment upon discovering that the books were conventional Victorian novels, no different from the books of Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope or Henry James, all of OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-28048594023175522362010-10-22T13:39:00.000-04:002010-10-23T01:41:17.510-04:00Growing, Older: A Chronicle of Death, Life, and VegetablesI was a little put off when this book landed, unsolicited, in my mailbox. I don’t like being reminded that I am growing older. Reading the blurbs on the back cover, I was intrigued by the fact that the author was a widow who had lost her husband of forty years quite suddenly and didn’t miss him. That alone was enough to encourage me to read the book.
It turns out that after his death, she OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-53846466884771693652010-10-19T13:35:00.001-04:002010-10-23T01:38:56.214-04:00The Dark Game: True Spy StoriesI haven’t read a Young Adult book since, well, since I was a young adult. After a lifetime of reading “adult” books, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book, meant for a young audience, readily held my attention.
What was particularly satisfying was the amount of historical background provided for each spy. Their life and times are described in enough detail to give a well-rounded OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-42646236049327734152010-10-08T12:57:00.001-04:002010-10-16T00:59:11.735-04:00Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s FutureMany years ago when I was in college (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth), there were no required courses other than the ones for your major. You better believe I didn’t crack a math or science text for four years. But, once I graduated and entered the real world, I discovered that there is a reason why those courses are taught. Contrary to what many disgruntled students will tell you, that OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-20273913056126134262010-09-16T12:50:00.001-04:002010-09-18T00:55:19.687-04:00Killer Colt: Murder, Disgrace, and the Making of an American LegendI really have to start reading the book blurbs more carefully when I enter the Book Giveaways on GoodReads. This is the second book I have received that is not what I thought it was when I signed up. I thought this book was about Samuel Colt and the invention of the Colt Revolver, a nice segue from the previous Giveaway, They Rode for the Lonestar; the Texas Rangers having made the Colt OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-63257006884262992192010-08-09T13:29:00.000-04:002010-08-20T01:33:01.449-04:00The Great Silence: Britain From the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz AgeThe Great Silence, a history of the aftermath of WWI as experienced by the people of Great Britain is curiously relevant as we wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The issues facing returning soldiers then are the same as the issues facing returning soldiers now: disfiguring injuries, PTSD (called “shellshock” during and after WWI) and a lack of jobs. A significant difference for OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-31674925403045738812010-08-02T13:22:00.001-04:002010-08-20T01:29:14.409-04:00Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human SocietyWhenever I read a book that I really like, I always check out the bibliography to see if there are other books on the subject that I might like to read. I pay special attention to books that are specifically mentioned in the text of whatever book I am reading. Lately, one title has come up over and over, Guns, Germs, and Steel. I read it when it was published in 1997. Because so many authors OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-218992627463339232010-07-26T13:28:00.000-04:002010-07-27T01:34:25.926-04:00They Rode for the Lone Star: The Saga of the Texas Rangers, Vol. 1: The Birth of Texas--The Civil WarThe usual criteria on most sites that sponsor book giveaways, is that you have posted reviews of similar books in the past. This is good for the giveaway sponsors. They are assured that you have actually read the books and that you post reviews. But it’s frustrating for reviewers who wish to widen the type of book that they read and review. I find myself reading and writing reviews for the same OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-80358751680547958032010-07-19T13:17:00.002-04:002010-07-23T01:25:35.038-04:00Ruminations From the GardenThis book was not at all what I expected. Somehow, when I read the blurb about it on the Early Reviwers’ page on LibraryThing, all I took away from it was that the author had planted a garden and tended it by hand while ruminating on our dependence on oil. Even the book jacket quoted the author "What will happen if the oil runs out or becomes so expensive we can’t afford to buy it?" I was OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-42303723312513285612010-07-12T12:54:00.000-04:002010-07-16T00:57:07.358-04:00Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of IslamBack in the early 1980’s while the Cold War was still raging, I used to joke that I must be on some FBI and/or CIA watchlist because of my growing collection of books on the Soviet Union, including books (in translation) authored by Soviet writers who were not dissidents. My curiosity about all things Russian stemmed from my idea that you can’t "hate" an enemy that you know nothing about.
Fast OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-17646388465476537172010-07-01T13:00:00.001-04:002010-07-02T01:06:47.996-04:00Betsy Ross and the Making of AmericaNormally when I review a book, I first read the book and write my review, then I read reviews written by other people. In the case of Betsy Ross and the Making of America, my introduction to the book was via a review in the New York Times Book Review dated May 9, 2010. It was not a flattering review. The reviewer, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a professor at Harvard, accuses the author, Marla R. OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-65027728129727117132010-06-22T19:01:00.001-04:002010-06-23T01:06:55.963-04:00The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional MemoirThis is another Book Giveaway on Goodreads.com that I entered on a whim. It turned out to be much funnier than I had anticipated. The author had me midway through the prologue where he describes transporting five baby goats from his farm in upstate New York to Manhattan, a trip that takes several hours, during which time the goats develop diarrhea and he is forced to drive with his head out the OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-51733073151539233162010-06-15T00:54:00.000-04:002010-06-16T01:01:51.007-04:00The Promise: President Obama, Year OneBarack Obama is not a saint. What a relief. The Promise: President Obama, Year One, written by Jonathan Alter, a Newsweek reporter, is a refreshing change from the worshipful treatment of President Obama in Game Change. Mr. Alter provides an even-handed treatment of the first year of the Obama presidency. He shows us a president who is all too human, making mistakes in both personnel and policiesOldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-67639316424613391982010-06-01T13:14:00.000-04:002010-06-03T01:20:24.364-04:00Red November: Inside the Secret U.S.-Soviet Submarine WarWhen you encounter a sentence like: "Despite the thickness of his wet suit, the cold still launched his testicles into his throat", you know that you are reading a Guy Book. Written for Guys by a Guy. W. Craig Reed has been reading too much Tom Clancy and too many Soldier of Fortune magazines. His macho posturing spoils an otherwise fascinating book on submarines and submarine warfare in the OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-40366274314055081372010-05-12T13:23:00.000-04:002010-05-13T01:27:55.184-04:00Monet's Passion: Ideas, Inspiration, and Insights from the Painter's GardensEvery gardener knows about Monet’s magnificent gardens at Giverny which inspired so many of his paintings, but very few gardeners have the opportunity to visit those gardens and experience them in person. Lucky for us, Elizabeth Murray who is a gardener and photographer, has written a book about Giverny that is lavishly illustrated with her own incomparable photographs.
She spent a year as a OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4375805737001790210.post-11309396274609238692010-05-01T13:05:00.000-04:002010-05-05T01:11:09.505-04:00The Moon is a Harsh MistressI read a lot of science fiction in high school. I was deep into teenage angst, certain that my life was "the worst life ever!!!" and therefore sought escapist literature. Although my homelife was indeed worse than most, entering adulthood, I discovered that one could escape the shackles of a dysfunctional family and establish healthier relationships with other people. I put aside science OldRoseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10307114475443602351noreply@blogger.com0