Liz Selbst
Messy. The narrative got really messy at points. But the writing is seriously amazing, enough so to make me forgive the inconsistencies and the multiple narrative voices.
Raw, deeply sad (maybe tragic), beautiful like a hard punch to the jaw, and very tightly stitched up by the final story. Wow.
This was good, but not quite as great as I had heard. Too much florid description of Owen's room. The ending was tedious and unnecessary.
the most interesting research has already been published elsewhere. also gets kind of tedious and self-apologetic. still, ventakesh opens the door for undeniably important kinds of sociology.
Pretty solid. Veers a little into self help/ pop psychology territory, but mostly does a good job reporting the neuroscience of introversion.
It's affirming to hear other people need to recharge after lots of people time, but it's hard to imagine this book will really find an audience with extroverts.
The facts of this book are not a huge surprise, particularly if you're at all familiar with factory farming. But as Foer points out, straightforward and clear statistics are the basis of any rational discussion about global food production, so he thinks they are worth laying out again.
Probably the most interesting discussion in this book (to me) is about what kind of food systems conscientious consumers should support– Foer is rightly concerned that simply opting out of eating factory-farmed meat does nothing to alter how the rest of the world eats.
honestly?...overhyped. the impeccable binding and cotton-thread pages are particularly self-indulgent.
Painfully outdated and 200 pages too long. Felt like being in a bad meeting about meetings.
this review was more interesting than the book http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2009/06/22/090622crat_atlarge_sanneh?currentPage=all
definitely one of the less obnoxious pop behavioral economics/psychology books now in vogue. perhaps the best insight in the book is the notion that we are least prepared and worst equipped to understand the consequences of some of the most rare, complicated, and important economic decisions we make in our lives, whereas we are very well equipped to make mundane economic choices.
however, none of the policy proposals outlined are actually that groundbreaking or innovative. people act irrationally, people procrastinate, participation in organ donor programs increases markedly under opt-out schemes – insights like this are not earth-shattering.
lastly, it's kind of a boring read after a few chapters, and it is filled with cloying asides about Sunstein and Thaler's lunch dates, their email exchanges, tennis games, etc etc. also seemed to have a strange predilection for examples involving food, calories, and weight loss.