Two Sentence Summary: Today, “Pulitzer” is mostly just a word — the name of the most prestigious prize in journalism. But the prize’s namesake, Joseph Pulitzer, was an American immigrant who’s story represents a rags-to-riches tale that illuminates how American journalism developed into what it is today.
One Sentence Review: Morris’ biography reads a lot like a novel (and with a character as insane as Pulitzer, why not?), occasionally gets bogged down in detail, but is always fun to read.
Book Review
Two Sentence Summary: Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman, went to John Hopkins for treatment for cervical cancer. Doctors took some of her cancer cells without her knowledge, and those cells grew into the first line of immortal human cells that are still used in medical research today
One Sentence Review: Author Rebecca Skloot deftly weaves three stories together into a book that explores the development of medical ethics and evolution of how individuals and the medical establishment think about the human body and who has control of it.
I’m secretly a huge football fan. I think it comes from all the years I spent talking with my dad while strategized his picks for his Fantasy football leagues. It was a way for us to be close, and through watching games and listening to his commentary I managed to pick up quite a bit about the sport. I’m no expert, but I can hold my own when football chat comes up.
I’m also a major fan of the inspirational sports movie, so of course I went and saw The Blind Side in theaters, then grabbed a copy of the book to read when I was done.
One Sentence Summary: Magic is real, as college student Quentin Coldwater is about to find out, but being a magician isn’t going to be the fun and games he expected it would be.
One Sentence Review:The Magicians is an older and somewhat wiser look at magic and what we believe about fantasy that works most of the time, but stumbles a bit when it gets to think-y.
Sometimes I think a book comes along at just the right time — it hits a chord you didn’t know needed to be hit, or speaks on some way that makes the impact of the book more than the sum of it’s part. That doesn’t diminish how good the book is, just amplifies what it’s about.
This week, I had one of those books — Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt.
One Sentence Summary: Hunger: An Unnatural History is an overview of the science, sociology, and moral implications of hunger and it’s impact across the globe.
One Sentence Review: This book covers a little too much territory for my tastes, but it still provides a well-written and important overview of the impact of hunger on an individual and society.
One Sentence Summary: Memoir: A History is exactly what the title implies — an overview of how memoirs have evolved from the early days of spiritual autobiography to the current trends of celebrity memoir and contested truth.
One Sentence Review: This book is a must read for anyone interested in reading memoirs or enjoys talking about truth and writing and how we’ve gotten to the type of memoirs we can read today.
One Sentence Summary: In this memoir, Lamott explores moments that test faith and explore her own quirky relationship with God.
One Sentence Review: If you can enjoy Lamott’s neurotic but open personality, Traveling Mercies is a joy to read.
One Sentence Summary: In 1920s New York, two forensic scientists started a cat and mouse game with criminals to detect and prove the use of poison for murder.
One Sentence Review: Blum’s book combines murder, mystery, and easy-to-understand chemistry into an easy to read package.
One Sentence Summary: Near the end of WWII, 36 young men volunteered to starve themselves as part of an experiment to understand the basics of human nutrition needs.
One Sentence Review: The book is at it’s strongest when focusing on the experiment and the experiences of the subjects, but loses some momentum when it tries to step out and address too many large issues.
