Customer Comments

I give books low ratings to warn possible buyers or readers so they may avoid the book. In this case, I would emphasize that warning, the book is not worth a look. Avoid it like the plague. I thought it might be humorous but it is just stupid. Good books and information on mental health here: mwir-mentalhealth.blogspot.

This book is full of great photos of interesting insects but there is no table of contents or index and no organization, just photos and no information about who took the photos. So that is it. It is amazing that Smithsonian would publish something like this. If you would be satisfied with such a book, buy it but there are many better books on insects. E.g., mwir-lifesciences.blogspot.com/p/books-insects.

The first thing I do with a nonfiction book is look at the bibliography if there is one. A good book will have a good one. This book has one that is a bit over 2 pages and is not good at all. That is a bad sign. The book has had good reviews and was a runner up for the Pulitzer. It is hard to see why. The book has almost nothing worth reading in its 445 pages. The author writes more about herself than any other subject. She doesn't seem to know anything about the science of aging and she has no interesting ideas. Not recommended. Better books on the subject here: mwir-eldercare.blogspot.com/p/books-ageing.

Sleep Apnea affects a large % of people especially elder people. The common prescription now is for CPAP machines in spite of the fact that 50% of patients cannot tolerate them. There are also oral devices and surgery but they also have problems. This book is unique in offering an alternative, breathing exercises and other practices that can be done at home. It isn't clear that this method will work for everyone but if it works for you, it is far superior to CPAP etc. because it is a cure and doesn't require life long dependence on a machine or a device. Highly recommended. for other sleep related books see: mwir-preventivehealthcare.blogspot.com/p/books-sleep.

This is a terrific field guide. I have looked at many of them and many other books on mushrooms and this is the only book I recommend. Some reviewers complained that the pictures are drawings rather than photos. The drawing are great and probably better than the photos in other books. The four authors and seven illustrators are all excellent, and the drawings and writing are great. I am not a mushroom hunter but I appreciate this sort of guide for its scientific value. There are an incredible number of mushroom species so that any book can only deal with a small percentage but the best books, like this one, focus on the ones you are most likely to find. I highly recommend this book. Most Peterson books are excellent. Other information and books on mushrooms here: mwir-alternativeag.blogspot.com/p/mushrooms mwir-alternativeag.blogspot.com/p/books-mushrooms

David Horowitz used to be a Marxist and a Leftist activist and magazine editor. He was attacked for being irresponsible and too radical. But he turned completely around and became a radical right winger and Trump supporter going too far for even his other right wing friends. It is sad because he is an intelligent person. I don't pretend to know what caused the change in his opinions but he has made a lot of money in the process. This book has nothing to recommend it, nothing of value. That is true of all of his right wing books and his other writings and his websites, etc. It is tragic to see an intelligent person go down so low.

This book has received a great deal of attention and good reviews. It is written as narrative nonfiction and not analytical nonfiction. I found it not clear or useful. There are much better books on history. See here: mwir-history.blogspot.

If you see any reference to chaos or chaos theory in the title of a book, avoid it. Klaas is an intelligent person but this book is not worth reading, it is a good example of why intellectuals are ridiculed by many people with common sense. They waste their time diddling about and end up saying nothing useful. This book is classified as philosophy and there are many books of philosophy that are a waste of time. But some are not. Better books here: mwir-philosophy.blogspot.

Best selling books that promise to tell you how to liberate yourself are almost always disappointing. This is no exception. There must be 200 lists of things to think about or do and the repetition of cliches is mind numbing. If you tried to follow the advice in this book, you would drive yourself into a frenzy of self promotion. This woman has a great talent for making money by advising people to do obvious things and feeling great about that. If you want to improve your life and seek one good piece of advice, avoid all books of this kind completely. Read serious books of literature: mwir-communications.blogspot.com/p/books-literature.

There are two signs that this is not a good book, 1. no bibliography, 2. a two page conclusion that says virtually nothing. If you write a serious book, you need to have a very good bibliography to show that you did serious research and you need to have a serious and convincing conclusion. If you don't do these two things, you have failed. The book is repetitive and simplistic, not surprising given the failure of the two things first mentioned. Why do educated people bother writing books like these? Do they really think they are good books? The idea of the book is a good idea and many people have written about it in much better books. Here are some useful books: mwir-mentalhealth.blogspot.com/p/books-self-help.

The author is a Nobel Prize winner but this book will put you to sleep. She avoids controversy and therefore has very little of interest to say, she is a typical academic unfortunately. There are good things in the book if you can stay awake long enough to find them. But there are better books. Look here: mwir-womensrights.blogspot.com/p/books-gender-gap.

The author is a journalist and while the book is ambitious and tries to cover a lot of ground, it is superficial and useless. For example, the chapter with sleep apnea in the title doesn't discuss remedies for sleep apnea at all. There are better books on sleep here: mwir-preventivehealthcare.blogspot.com/p/books-sleep.

RFK JR has totally discredited himself by joining Trump. His books led the way as he tried to discredit Fauci and others with his crackpot ideas. It is sad that one of the Kennedy clan would turn out to be either an idiot or a madman. His family should have him committed to a mental hospital to protect society. He has probably lost many of his followers by joining Trump but there are still many anti-vaxxers pursuing their crusade to kill children. Vaccines are one of the most important tools we have to fight disease and people who oppose them are causing great harm.

This is an ambitious book that flounders by attempting to do too much and ending up doing nothing well. One indication of how bad the book turns out to be is the further reading section. It is less than 3 pages and tremendously unimpressive. If an author can't put together a good bibliography, that is a sign of total incompetence. This book is difficult to categorize and clearly not worth reading. Better material and book on evolution here: mwir-evolutionscience.blogspot.

This book takes on the old nature vs. nurture argument and sides with nature claiming that DNA determines "who we are". The author has been severely criticized for over stating this and I agree. There is no doubt that DNA determines much of what people and all living things become, possibly all in some cases but environment and internal will is also important. I had a friend who came from an unfortunate background, did poorly in public school, joined the army during the Vietnam War and seemed destined for a poor life. He took advantage of the educational opportunities offered by the military and rose to high status. He ended up a top executive in a Japanese hospital where he made significant improvements and wrote a number of excellent articles about health care. I don't know if his DNA destined him for all of that of if he did it by his own will power. He may be an exception to the rule but I think there are a lot of exceptions in both directions. Information and books on genetics here: https://mwir-genetics.blogspot.com/

This is a common sense book but it is nothing special. The author is Canadian which may explain why she never mentions Medicare.gov in terms of their ratings of nursing homes. This is a valuable source of information about nursing home quality. The other fault of the book is the lack of discussion of financial issues. For elders, this is often the most important problem especially when long term care is involved. There is better information and better books on elder care here: mwir-eldercare.blogspot.

The author is a doctor and the book seems to be well written but the theme is that vegetable oils cause heart disease and other health problems. The evidence consists of correlations and this is not scientific. There is no bibliography. I don't think there is a convincing case but the book does raise suspicions. I would suggestion looking elsewhere for better science. More on nutrition here: https://mwir-nutrition.blogspot.com/

This is a journalistic book that won't tell you anything you didn't already know unless you were asleep since the 2020 election. You may like to relive that period by reading this book but you won't find any serious analysis or insights. There are hundreds of better books about Trump. mwir-democracyandpolitics.blogspot.com/p/books-trump-2020. mwir-democracyandpolitics.blogspot.com/p/books-trump-pre-2020.

This and other books by Anthony William are best sellers and have been recommended by many celebrities. This book has no notes and no bibliography. The author claims to have mystical powers and has not medical training. Celery juice is a large part of his program for health. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. This is a classic example of mass hysteria. Better examples of alternative medicine can be found here: mwir-altmed.blogspot.

This is a detailed account of the attempts to overturn the 2020 election and a description of what was done to stop those attempts by honest, brave people. It is amazing how many people tried to help an obvious criminal like Trump reverse an election using crude and stupid methods. All of the legal attempts were shot down by judges including the Supreme Court in spite of the 3 conservative Justices appointed by Trump himself. That shows how idiotic Trump's attempts were. The system held because there were enough honest people and Trump and his allies were not only dishonest, they were bumblers of the worst sort. More on Trump and his cronies here: mwir-democracyandpolitics.blogspot.com/p/books-trump-2020 ; mwir-democracyandpolitics.blogspot.com/p/books-trump-pre-2020; mwir-democracyandpolitics.blogspot.com/p/trump.

This book was popular and still sells well. It was published in 2012, the author did not publish any other book. There is no index or notes. There are 13 pages of references. The author claims to be able to cure a number of diseases with nutrition. Most books that make similar claims are not to be believed. If this book's claims are true, the author would have been a lot more famous by now than he is. The science in the book seems dubious and the writing is a bit incoherent. There are many similar books that are not worth reading. Alternative medicine has some good books but a great many duds. Better information and books here: mwir-altmed.blogspot.

There is a one star review by "The Forester" on Amazon for this book. It is worth reading.

There are some good aspects to this book, the ideas about plant intelligence are good and have been dealt with in better books. Two basic problems plague this book, the author is a journalist not a scientist so her knowledge is weak and she writes in the style of narrative nonfiction which means there is a massive amount of unnecessary material. If you have a strong interest in the subject, you may want to try reading the book anyway but there are better books. Books and other information on naive plants here: mwir-nativeplants.blogspot.

The author is a minister and a professor, the book is well written and well organized. However, her logic justifying abortion is not convincing. She attempts to make a distinction between pre nates and humans that simply does not make sense. A fetus is human and will become a complete human if nothing goes wrong. All the fancy footwork and logical tricks in the world won't change that. The author has a discussion of personhood that goes nowhere and she finally gives up. She simply has nothing coherent to say about it. If she thinks she has solved this issue, she is fooling herself. An abortion is the taking of a life, the prevention of a fetus becoming a full human being. No one can argue with that. Pro choice people have many arguments for allowing abortions but no answer to that basic fact. It may make sense to allow abortions but it is morally wrong if taking a life is morally wrong. We need to find ways to improve the use of contraception so that there is less need for abortion. People who work at abortion clinics say that many women seeking abortions know little or nothing about contraception. Information and books on this subject can be found here: mwir-abortiondebate.blogspot.

I don't have any way of rating this book since I don't have an education in this field. It has received rave reviews. I have reservations because it seems to be an example of scientists looking for evidence of what they want to believe. One odd and very negative feature is that their suggested reading list contains just 4 books all written by themselves. I have never encountered that before. I hope there will be reviews by people more competent than myself. Other books and information on families here: mwir-families.blogspot.

The author is a professor of anthropology at Notre Dame. I gave up a fellowship to graduate school because I felt academics spent too much time talking and writing in ways that didn't make much sense. This book is an example of this phenomenon. There is not much real substance and a great deal of opinion that does little to educate or enlighten. Some anthropology books are interesting and based on serious research, this one is not. Better books here: mwir-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/books-anthropology.

I need to correct my earlier review. Although this is an impressive book as I said before, the recipes are really just random combinations of fruits, pineapple, strawberries, cherries, mango, banana, blueberries, etc. with greens and some added spices. You can do all of these yourself, there is no real science and no nutritional information or secrets. The photos are good but you don't really need this book. I bought it and I will donate it. Other information and books on nutrition and diets here: mwir-nutrition.blogspot.

There is another book with a similar title by this author which is identical. Why two books with different titles???? The books are narrative nonfiction and because of that not worth reading. Too bad because the subject is important. Better books on this subject here: mwir-disease.blogspot.com/p/books-pandemic.

This book is the best of the smoothies books in spite of not having nutritional information with each recipe. There are 169 pages of recipes, every other page is a photo but many pages have two recipes so there are almost 160 recipes. Most of them are good and doable. Most of the other smoothie books have a lot fewer and not as good. These authors seem to have done better research and experimentation. Highly recommended. I don't really know how healthy these smoothies are but I suspect they are quite healthy. Other books on diets here: mwir-nutrition.blogspot.com/p/books-diets.

Both authors are knowledgeable and good analysts but unfortunately a book like this becomes outdated quickly. I picked it up thinking it might still be worth reading but it is simply way too old being published 13 years ago. There are good parts in it but too much has happened since it was written so that it is no longer relevant. Better books here: mwir-europe.blogspot.com/p/books-russia.

Authors Stephen Bright, James Kwak and Bryan Stevenson, who wrote the Foreword are exceptional men and this is an extraordinarily good book about the injustice of out courts. Anyone familiar with our criminal justice system will appreciate this description and call for change if they have a desire for real justice. Of course, the need for change is not limited to this area. We need to transform our society in many ways that determine equal opportunity and human dignity. Other books on this subject here: https://mwir-law.blogspot.com/p/books-criminal-justice-2016.html https://mwir-law.blogspot.com/p/books-criminal-justice-pre-2016.html

The author has good credentials and good intentions but the book is not scientific. It is more like narrative nonfiction with little evidence for the author's opinions. Too bad because this is an important subject. Better information and books on nutrition here: mwir-nutrition.blogspot.

The smoothie recipes in this book look good but there are only 36 pages of them. The rest of the book contains other recipes and information. That qualifies as false advertising. Unfortunately no smoothie book seems to be much good, That is why I bought this one. I will use the smoothie recipes and maybe the others but I don't like being misinformed.

This book is being promoted as a sort of mystical New Age inspired book. "packed with timeless wisdom" Actually, it is a nothing special, repetitious and extremely boring book. I don't doubt that the authors tried to impart wisdom and meant to help people but they were not good writers or thinkers. Don't bother. Better material and books on Indigenous Americans here: https://mwir-indigenousamericans.blogspot.com/

This is a well intentioned book but naive. No discussion of taxes, federal deficit, social democracy. Income guarantees are not a good idea, equal opportunities, free education, free health care, social democracy etc. would be. We need to tax the wealthy and corporations fairly. The author is not good at economics or politics. Better material and books on progressive issues here: mwir-progressives.blogspot.

There are extremely few great books on personal finance and this is not one of them. It has some common sense, same as many of the books in this field but it is not great or even better than average. There is a very short bibliography that includes a few good books and a few bad ones like those by Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey and Tony Robbins. The fact that this author includes those 3 in his short bibliography shows that he doesn't really care about his readers and doesn't work very hard to find books. Not recommended. Better material and books here: mwir-financialhealth.blogspot.

This is a well intended book but not well written or well organized. There is a good 5 page bibliography but no index which is a sign of how disorganized this effort was. I would not recommend the book or even know what category to put it in. Better material and books on global warming here: mwir-globalwarming.blogspot.

Evan Thomas is a prolific and admired writer but he is not a trained historian. He is a journalist and his talent for research is limited. This is a book for people who like reading about wars and general history and it is not particularly accurate or profound. There are better books on WWII. For example: mwir-history.blogspot.com/p/books-history-wwii.

I have evaluated all three of Dr. Chatterjee's books and found them not worth reading. He seems to take ideas from other people and claim them for his own and write very useless books. Many people seem to think they are good. This is a typical phenomenon today given the level of education. You can almost be certain that best selling books will be not worth reading.

Abigail Shrier, the author, is a journalist, not a scientist of any sort. She attempts to critique many people and practices involved in the mental health field based on her research. There is no index and a 2 page bibliography. Her writing is not terrible but it is not very convincing or intelligent. Why anyone would think that the considerable problems of the current generation of children can be blamed on therapist is a mystery to me. First of all, only a small % of children are seen by therapists, second, there are a great many other factors involved today. Only an extremely well informed and intelligent person would be capable of sorting everything out and figuring out what the problems are. This author is not that person. Mental health is a far more complicated subject than this book considers. Better material and books on the subject here: mwir-mentalhealth.blogspot.

This is an excellent book that details how corporations are able to take a large part of the money that is supposed to go to the poor by managing the programs and diverting much of the money to themselves. Corruption is the name of the game. The corporations have a vested interest in keeping people poor so that this whole scheme continues. Anne Kim is a journalist but writes like a scholar and has done a great service to her country. Highly recommended Other information and books on this subject here: mwir-equalopportunity.blogspot.

Johann Hari is a talented writer, he has written four previous books that have done well. He is not a scientist, he is a journalist but he writes about complex scientific subjects. He probably should do more research or work with a real scientist because this book and the others fail in some significant ways to clearly analyze the subjects he takes on. He writes narrative nonfiction and personal anecdotes, it is good for what it is but it is not good science. Better books on nutrition here: https://mwir-nutrition.blogspot.com/p/books-nutrition.html

The first edition of this book is surprisingly good and this second edition appears to be not much different but could have some improvements. The book is quite detailed and and has many interesting ideas. You probably won't feel like you need to read everything but there are many good sections. Books on logic and critical thinking are often not terribly useful but this one is clear and coherent. Highly recommended. Other books worth reading on the subject here: mwir-researchandstats.blogspot.com/p/books-rationality.

This is an excellent book that describe 10 of the major authoritarian leaders in the world and explains how this phenomenon is happening and what it means in terms of the threat to world democracy. The author writes clearly and knows the stories well. He does not embellish or try to scare people, the book is objective and fair. Highly recommended. Other books on dictatorships: mwir-dictatorships.blogspot.com/p/books-dictatorship.

Mary Jo McConahay is an excellent journalist and this is an important and well researched book. It is not an anti-Catholic book, it is an expose of the conservative Bishops in the US and the people like them who have opposed the Pope and all of the progressive measures in the church. Some things will shock people because these conservatives have no limits to their evil ways. They are aligned with the rest of the Christian nationalists in the US who support Trump and the other right wingers. Everyone should read this book and every library should have copies. Other books on this subject here: mwir-democracyandpolitics.blogspot.com/p/books-religion-politics.

This book has had a lot of positive reviews so I thought it would be worth reading. I tried to read it but found it incoherent and the writer seems to be in love with his own exotic writing rather than devoted to saying something clear and important. Not recommended. Good information and books on Global Warming here: https://mwir-globalwarming.blogspot.com/

Jesse Wegman presents the arguments for abolishing the electoral college and effectively argues against the cases for keeping it. The basic issue is whether every vote should count regardless of where it is. If there were no electoral college, everyone would know that their vote would be counted no matter what State they lived in. Now if someone is a Democrat living in a State dominated by Republicans, that person has no chance that his vote will make any difference. More people will vote if we do away with the electoral college. This book is worth reading. More books on this issue here: mwir-democracyandpolitics.blogspot.com/p/books-electoral-college.

Johann Hari is a journalist not a scientist. He has written some good things but this book does not make any great contribution to the science of human consciousness. It is common sense and other books and articles have plowed these fields before. Nothing you need to read. There are better scientific books and better popular books. Interesting books here: mwir-education.blogspot.com/p/books-cognitive-science.

Jonathan Haidt has written a number of best selling books. He is usually correct in his arguments but he has a tendency to overdo things as he does in this book. He doesn't need 385 pages to tell us that technology is driving our kids nuts. And we should have known most of this already. His solutions are common sense, his bibliography is useful but also fairly well known. He is cashing in on a subject that is in the public domain already. Better material and books here: mwir-families.blogspot.

This is an impressive book in many ways but it is theoretical and academic so that many people will find it difficult to understand and appreciate. My main problem is that the author does not discuss the corruption involved in the various gun lobby and gun manufacturers huge payments to legislators. This corruption should be the main focus of any discussion of gun control and gun rights. The right wing legislators are essentially selling their votes to the gun interests and are accomplices in the bloodshed that results. More information and book here: mwir-violence.blogspot.

I have looked at quite a few books on Encaustic Art and this is clearly the best one. Lissa Rankin is a doctor and this is her only book on art but she knows the subject extremely well and the photos are terrific. Highly recommended. Other material and books on art here: mwir-art.blogspot.

This is a great book with about 185 volunteer vacation opportunities. The 11th edition was published in 2012 so there may be a number of changes in these programs. Perhaps these authors or others will update the book. For anyone willing to spend time and in many cases travel, these are terrific ways to get experiences. The book is extremely well done. There are other similar books that may also be worth looking at. Highly recommended.

There is some good information in this book and the author did do some good research but the book is unfortunately an example of what is wrong with narrative nonfiction. The author includes all sorts of personal information that has nothing to do with coral reefs so that the book is much longer than it should be and will alienate many if not most readers. There are better books on coral reefs and ocean issues in general. This book is not recommended. Books on oceans and ocean life here: mwir-earthscience.blogspot.com/p/books-oceans; mwir-earthscience.blogspot.com/p/books-ocean-life.

The author is a psychiatrist with no training in nutrition. The publisher Balance specializes in self help books which no respectable publisher would be likely to take on. This book has some odd ideas like advising more meat and fewer vegetables and fruits. There is no bibliography. Vegans and vegetarians won't care for the book. I doubt if there is anything worth reading in the book. Better information and books on nutrition here: mwir-nutrition.blogspot.

Possibly the most over-rated book in the last few years. The author is arrogant and ignorant. He attempts to write a vast book and fails at everything. Give it a miss.

The argument of this book is a valid one and the author did substantial research. There are 67 pages of notes, however, there is no bibliography and in a book that is largely about economic issues, there are few statistics and only two tables, no graphs. This is the author’s first book and the writing is dense and difficult to read. Many of the details are not important. This is an example of academic writing plus leftist point of view that could have been much more focused and hard hitting if the author had considered what was the most important points to make and left much of the other things alone. Nonfiction books should always have a bibliography.

David Runciman has written a number of books that have had good reviews including this one. I found this one lacking in coherent or intelligent substance. It is a typical academic example of a book with nothing important or clear to say. You can turn to almost any page and find something useless. Better information and books on current issues here: mwir-globalization.blogspot.