chinook24
The Seattle Public Library
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chinook24's rating:
Added Jan 28, 2020
chinook24's rating:
Added Nov 19, 2019
Comment:
Margaret Atwood cannot write a bad book, she is great. I was disappointed in the book. To me it was just a fleshing out of Handmaiden's tale, adding some positive characters and " resistance" fighters" in the saga of Gilead. It felt like it was written for the TV series, to diminish the evilness of the story and to create an underground resistance movement based in Canada. The plot's core "baby Nicole" was not drawn in detail, and sacrificed as a device to hold 3 sub-stories together.
As such, it did not add a great deal to the Gilead story. I would have much rather read about the revolutionary movement began, how Gilead took over, and its early history with areas that broke off. Here's hoping. It is still a remarkable story from a great creative mind.Margaret Atwood cannot write a bad book, she is great. I was disappointed in the book. To me it was just a fleshing out of Handmaiden's tale, adding some positive characters and " resistance" fighters" in the saga of Gilead. It felt like it was…
A WarningA Warning, Book
Book - 2019Book, 2019
Added Nov 12, 2019
Comment:
It is very common practice for publishers to release "advanced" copies to book reviewers. They read the book, review it and a hype about a book occurs before it is released to the public. How do you think that first editions have comments on their covers from other writers or reviewers.
And as for your credibility; into the dumpster.It is very common practice for publishers to release "advanced" copies to book reviewers. They read the book, review it and a hype about a book occurs before it is released to the public. How do you think that first editions have comments on their…
The PioneersThe Pioneers, BookThe Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
by McCullough, David G.Book - 2019Book, 2019
chinook24's rating:
Added Jul 14, 2019
Comment:
The book reads like the vanity histories that towns pay to have written about their history. The book is about the original settles who came to Ohio from New England. His primary sources are diaries and letters from these people. There are a few pages about Aaron Burr and his activities but doesn't come to any specific conclusions about his activities, just a reporting of what people said.
What really disappointed me was the lack of balance and per-settlement history of Ohio. It is like the "Pioneers" stepped into empty space. First Peoples ("Indians") had lived in Ohio for thousands of years and yet the book refers to them only a few times, mainly regarding battles with colonists as they moved west taking more land. Nothing about their pre-history other and some notes about mound building.
Clearly not a complete or an even handed or an academic history of the times, nor the area. I think the author is riding on his reputation.The book reads like the vanity histories that towns pay to have written about their history. The book is about the original settles who came to Ohio from New England. His primary sources are diaries and letters from these people. There are a few…
chinook24's rating:
Added Jun 17, 2019
Comment:
As a memoir, it is a disappointment. Although not intended, the listing of a series of trips and explorations, just becomes a list of "look at me and my life of privilege". He's gone to dozens or hundreds of places where none of us will ever get a chance to go. In doing so he has contributed more to global warming and pollution than a hundred normal people. And worst of all, he has done all of this on other people's dimes; he went to the Arctic and got to pretend to be an archeologist, he got to go to Africa to pretend to be a an human anthropologist, he got to go to Antarctica to pretend to be pretend to be a meteorologist searching for bits from outer space. All this imposing on real professionals and diverging resources from real science so that he can write little written beatific messages to us, the great unwashed. Complete with 6 pages of acknowledgements it reads as a catalog of an indulged life. Am I jealous, yes, I'd give an arm for just one of these opportunities.As a memoir, it is a disappointment. Although not intended, the listing of a series of trips and explorations, just becomes a list of "look at me and my life of privilege". He's gone to dozens or hundreds of places where none of us will ever get…
The Princeton History of Modern IrelandThe Princeton History of Modern Ireland, Book
Book - 2016Book, 2016
chinook24's rating:
Added Mar 21, 2019
Comment:
Not a history, rather a series of essays revising opinions and providing a commentary on the state historical thought. The book assumes that the reader has already read one or two histories of Ireland since 1600.
The Big LieThe Big Lie, BookExposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left
by D'Souza, DineshBook - 2017Book, 2017
chinook24's rating:
Added Feb 12, 2019
chinook24's rating:
Added Dec 16, 2018
Inconvenient FactsInconvenient Facts, BookThe Science That Al Gore Doesn't Want You to Know
by Wrightstone, GregoryBook - 2017Book, 2017
chinook24's rating:
Added Nov 04, 2018
Comment:
Another dreary self published book by a petroleum engineer who had to greatly enlarge type face in order to stretch his book to 143 pages. Same approach “throw enough mud against a theory and maybe someone will think that some of it may stick. For example “truths”
#57 Sea level rise began 15,000 years ago. (at the end of the last ice age. So)
#58 Recent sea level rise began 150 years ago. (At the end of the little ice age. So)
#59 Melting the north polar ice cap, will not raise sea level. (Ice floats. So? Nothing about the Antartic, Greenland or land based glaciers.)
#60 Most Antarctica is cooling and gaining ice mass. Let’s draw a 30 year chart and say that 2008 was the mean). So let's look at 40 years:
This from 2019 "Science Daaily" Jaan 15, 2019 "Antarctica losing six times more ice mass annually now than 40 years ago"
"Antarctica experienced a sixfold increase in yearly ice mass loss between 1979 and 2017, according to a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Glaciologists from the University of California, Irvine, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Netherlands' Utrecht University additionally found that the accelerated melting caused global sea levels to rise more than half an inch during that time."
Lots of charts lots of scales, and lots of CO2 proxies, sometimes the yearly amount of Carbon burned, Sometimes the cumulative level of CO2 and sometimes something else. Scales vary widely sometimes millions of years, sometimes thousands of years, sometimes less than 100, sometimes less than 50. Charts can be and in this book are manipulated to make points that would not be meaningful if scales were and Y scales were consistent.
Most of all, there is not counter theory, all of this is happening naturally, we can’t explain the natural factors, but it must be natural; I said so.
An hour of wasted time.Another dreary self published book by a petroleum engineer who had to greatly enlarge type face in order to stretch his book to 143 pages. Same approach “throw enough mud against a theory and maybe someone will think that some of it may stick. For…
Inconvenient FactsInconvenient Facts, BookThe Science That Al Gore Doesn't Want You to Know
by Wrightstone, GregoryBook - 2017Book, 2017
chinook24's rating:
Added Sep 16, 2018
Comment:
Interesting how a self published book by an oil geologist can refute the consensus of climate scientists in 120 pages. Any one can cherry pick data to support their political view-point. This book could not get a legitimate publishing house to support the book, has not received a review by a fact checking reviewer, or how someone would write a glowing review in a library blog about a book that the library has not yet decided to purchase.
Other reviewers have already pointed out how this book edits data, and selects "facts" to support its points.
However, no one can refute the ever increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, nor the basic physics of the greenhouse effect or the increasing temperature and acidification of the oceans.
How do you refute basic physics? Physical science is not an opinion that can be refuted.Interesting how a self published book by an oil geologist can refute the consensus of climate scientists in 120 pages. Any one can cherry pick data to support their political view-point. This book could not get a legitimate publishing house to…
Added Aug 22, 2018
Comment:
At best 3 short stories, author, Epstein, and Kafka, none of which actually comes to a conclusion, an intertwining, or much of anything. Lots of false cards, (the fallen man,, the family of David, the lost suitcase of Kafka, the abducted author) none of which does much more than take up written space. Not traditional written, think of the non-plot conclusion of Ulysses. Odd, interesting, but out of the norm. Not a particularly notable book.At best 3 short stories, author, Epstein, and Kafka, none of which actually comes to a conclusion, an intertwining, or much of anything. Lots of false cards, (the fallen man,, the family of David, the lost suitcase of Kafka, the abducted author)…
Digital Photography MasterclassDigital Photography Masterclass, Book
by Ang, TomBook - 2017Book, 2017
Added May 23, 2018
Comment:
A reasonably good book on the art of photography types. My complaint is that it is illustrated by indifferent and boring photographs. They are surprisingly uninspiring examples of what the author is talking about. The book is also somewhat out of date.A reasonably good book on the art of photography types. My complaint is that it is illustrated by indifferent and boring photographs. They are surprisingly uninspiring examples of what the author is talking about. The book is also somewhat out of…
Added Apr 25, 2017
Comment:
Disappointing, It almost reads as another version of the Joy Luck Club. Tan fails to discuss the cultural and political history of Shanghai during this chaotic period of history. The gangs, the rise of the Communists, the takeover of Chang gets the shortest and most passing references. The narrative's focus. the lives of high class prostitutes, has little or no meat on these bones. The book could have been about writers, or jewelers. Being a prostitute serves only as a backdrop to her stories of 3 generations of women. The story of the kidnapping and return to the 3rd generation is virtually unbelievable. How can a high class person, with money and contacts just let her daughter be taken is it a best an clunky plot device to bring the mother and daughter back together. All the men are bad or foolish. All the women are good.
And having the mother and daughter sailing off in the the happy sunset at the beginning of the really bad times of WW 2 gives us all a happy and contented ending. Jane Austin of the 21st century without the writing talent.Disappointing, It almost reads as another version of the Joy Luck Club. Tan fails to discuss the cultural and political history of Shanghai during this chaotic period of history. The gangs, the rise of the Communists, the takeover of Chang gets…
Added Dec 01, 2016
Comment:
Ms French is an author who happens to write mysteries. I love that so much of her books are about people, how they live and how they interact with the police. It does get to the end and resolves the mystery, But the book takes its time rather than the rush rush that you would get from Hamitt or Chandler. Take your time, enjoy the ride, another grand book added to the series.Ms French is an author who happens to write mysteries. I love that so much of her books are about people, how they live and how they interact with the police. It does get to the end and resolves the mystery, But the book takes its time rather…
The Stranger in My GenesThe Stranger in My Genes, BookA Memoir
by Griffeth, BillBook - 2016Book, 2016
Added Dec 01, 2016
Comment:
C- A very interesting book about the tradegy of finding out that you are not your father's son, learned from a DNA test. The book itself is rather weak in dealing with the consequences of this discovery. Parties involved were still alive and you can see that these older people were protected by the author. Because of this flaw, the book skirts much of what could have been a very interesting attempt do deal with this problem. In avoiding much of the issue the book is quite thin and a lot of material only tangentially related to the topic is added to bring the volume up to 188 pages. A great topic not adequately addressed.C- A very interesting book about the tradegy of finding out that you are not your father's son, learned from a DNA test. The book itself is rather weak in dealing with the consequences of this discovery. Parties involved were still alive and you…
But What If We're WrongBut What If We're Wrong, Audiobook CD[thinking About the Present as If It Were the Past]
by Klosterman, ChuckAudiobook CD - 2016Audiobook CD, 2016
Added Sep 05, 2016
Comment:
The book is something of intellectual T-ball. He sets up an easy target and takes a swing at it.
What music is going to be recognized in the future? What movies are important? Will the NFL be less violent or less mportant? Will there be any more important science discoveries? Will the world be the same as today? Will we think the same as today? Who is the worst and best presidents?
Since virtually all of the topic relate to matters of opinion, there is little doubt that opinions, (his straw men) are going to change. The world will be different that it is now, because our thinking will be different. Our information will be more complete and more accurate.
To suggest our thinking and consensuses are going to change is a matter that doesn't require discussion. It would be egotistical to suggest that we know it all now. It shouldn't take a long book to realize or prove that.
Thus to me, the book was unimportant. It tried to prove what we already know. 'As Homer would say duhhhhh.The book is something of intellectual T-ball. He sets up an easy target and takes a swing at it.
What music is going to be recognized in the future? What movies are important? Will the NFL be less violent or less mportant? Will there be any…
Chariots of the GodsChariots of the Gods, DVD
DVD - 2010DVD, 2010
Added Aug 09, 2015
Comment:
What utter and complete drivel. To suggest that ancient civilizations are incapable of the great feats of architecture and art that they created is utter nonsense. It is creating a premise and then finding facts that might possibly support it is poor logic and awful science.
Is it possible that aliens have visited earth? Not likely but possible. But to suggest that they made it here with conventional rockets defies all of Einstein's science.
The first time I saw it, it was interesting. The second time it became a comedy. Prepare for a laugh.What utter and complete drivel. To suggest that ancient civilizations are incapable of the great feats of architecture and art that they created is utter nonsense. It is creating a premise and then finding facts that might possibly support it is…
Comment: