Customer Comments

Michael C has commented on (5) products.

The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy, But Doesn't, What Shouldn't Make You Happy, But Does by Sonja Lyubomirsky

Michael C, January 22, 2013

Only in recent decades have researchers been paying systematic attention to actual emotions, not least of which is the prize of happiness, which everybody wants to maximize. Lyubomirsky is an insider in this unfolding effort and also a skilled tour guide. This is real self-help material, as opposed to so much PBS fluffery and haranguing. The best aspect here is the emphasis on detailed knowledge of how emotions actually happen and evolve. Will power alone is not nearly enough. If it were, why would we continue to need these kinds of books?

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Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Michael C, August 16, 2012

Navel-gazing trivia fobbed off as wisdom. And sophomoric writing, too. The definition of over-rated and over-hyped.

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(4 of 8 readers found this comment helpful)

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Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow

Michael C, April 7, 2012

What malarkey. Maddow doesn't understand her own topic, and her finding that the original intentions of the Founding Slaveholders is being violated is stale as it is pointless and misguided. Eisenhower's farewell speech happened in 1961. We need a twee, preening, over-rated talking head to restate it now? Why?

The real story is not "drift," but empire and normalcy. Corporate capitalism requires permanent war spending, to keep itself out of permanent depression. They don't teach you about those things at Stanford, though, do they?

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(2 of 29 readers found this comment helpful)

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A Moment in the Sun by John Sayles

Michael C, September 21, 2011

An amazing achievement. Sayles manages to weave together a half dozen major characters and story lines, all while capturing all the idioms perfectly, subtly illustrating huge social and historical problems, and giving readers a history lesson about the rise of U.S. imperialism. And, quite unlike so much other current historical fiction, the writing is utterly unpretentious. Sayles is loyal to the story and the characters and the ideas, not his own ego.

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(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)

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At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

Michael C, September 21, 2011

This book is filed under Americana and Home Design, but it's actually more of a social history, with some science thrown in. As always with Bryson, it's a winner. The writing is crisp and engaging, and the book conveys a world of fascinating, hidden or forgetten facts and ideas. The only slow spot is when Bryson takes a side-trip into English country mansions.

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