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Rating: 4/5 Neal Stephenson, Anathem (New York, NY: William Morrow, 2008). This is a book that’s all about the journey. It’s quite long (almost a thousand pages), and I’d certainly classify it as a “slow burn.” The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world (but not your run-of-the-mill post-apocalypse) in which...

Rating: 4/5 Robert Charles Wilson, Spin (New York: Tor Books, 2005). I managed to squeeze in at least one new book this summer. Wilson’s Spin is a sci-fi novel that follows two families (three main protagonists) as the world tries to figure out what happened to the suddenly invisible stars. The narrative alternates...

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Rating: 4/5 Marty Makary, MD, Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012). A vital issue, harrowing stories, and reasonable solutions. The problem is the corporatization of health care and the lack of incentives to improve health...

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Rating: 4/5 David Wong, John Dies at the End (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2010). David Wong is the pen name of Jason Pargin, senior editor at Cracked.com . If you’ve never visited the site, and you’re OK with a little coarse language, check it out. You will laugh out loud. This book is a fascinating cross between...

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Rating: 4/5 Shirley O. Corriher, CookWise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed (New York: William Marrow, 2011). I thought BakeWise was a much better book. Not only does this book (which was written before BakeWise, I’ll grant) spend half the book talking about baking, I think the book could have been better organized as...

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Rating: 4/5 Susan G. Purdy, Pie in the Sky: Successful Baking at High Altitudes; 100 Cakes, Pies, Cookies, Breads, and Pastries Home-Tested for Baking at Sea Level, 3000, 5000, 70000, and 10000 feet (and Anywhere in Between) (New York: William Morrow, 2005). If you bake, and you live above 3000 feet, then this book is...