Rating: 4/5 Eleanor Harman, Ian, Montagnes, Siobhan McMenemy, and Chris Bucci (eds.), The Thesis and the Book: A Guide for First-Time Academic Authors, 2nd edition (University of Toronto Press, 2003). Writing a PhD dissertation? Finished writing? Hope to publish it (or part of it) in book form? Then you must read this...
Rating: 5/5 Anne Fadiman, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998). I just finished reading the most wonderful book! It came up in one of the editing mailing lists I subscribe to. (I wish I could remember who recommended it!) It’s a series of essays by Anne Fadiman (someone...
Rating: 2/5 Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York: Pantheon Books, 2002). Herman and Chomsky assert that the best way to understand modern mass media and how it operates is using a “propaganda model.” They introduce the model and then give a slew of...
Rating: 5/5 University of Chicago Press, The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed. (University of Chicago: 2010). It’s unusual to “review” reference works, perhaps, but the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS, or the “orange bible” [don’t let the dust cover fool you, the book is actually bright orange]) is too exceptional to not...
Rating: 4/5 Seth Mnookin, The Panic Virus (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011). This book is a history of both vaccination itself and its opponents. The take-away message is that the media is not the place to go for truly balanced and accurate information about science and health. They are far more interested in ratings...
Rating: 3/5 Mike Brown, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2010). When Pluto got demoted, I remember hearing about it, but I apparently didn’t care enough to do any reading about it. I had no idea how it happened or why. So when I saw this book sitting on the shelf, I felt a...
Rating: 4/5 Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane L. Baker, The Recipe Writer’s Handbook: Revised and Expanded (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001). Well this is a book for editors. What it is is a style guide specifically for cookbooks. Should you use “green onions” or “scallions”? “Red pepper” or “red bell pepper”? What are...
Rating: 5/5 Kenda Creasy Dean, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church (Oxford University Press, 2010). I’ve been holding off writing this review so I could let the book percolate a bit in my head. Regardless of where you might stand theologically, the debate/struggle/discussion...
Rating: 3/5 Norman J. Hyne, Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Drilling and Production (Tulsa: Pennwell, 2001). In my new job I edit materials surrounding the regulation of natural resource production in Alberta. While I have a background in science in general, oil and gas is not something I’ve had lots of...
Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985). And now for something completely different. As yet I haven’t reviewed any church-related literature, of which I read a great deal. Certainly not because I am ashamed in any way of my faith. Any who know me at all well are aware...