Marie Kondo's book is an interesting book; however, ...
921919
Marie Kondo's book is an interesting book; however, there were few things that she wrote about that I didn't already know.  I am an organizer myself and practice many of the things she delineates in her book.
1780279
This book is packed with interesting information, delightful and astounding tidbits testifying to the huge amount of research that went into it. However, the delivery leaves quite a bit to be desired, which is surprising given that Mr. Becker, as a journalist, is a professional wordsmith. The narration in each chapter is splintered and whenever there is some story flow, it is uneven, which is exasperating. Despite these shortcomings it is still worth ploughing through because the topic is fascinating.
3575429
I really liked the book. It covered a lot of interesting historical material as well as the main topic. Two items stand out in my mind, but there are many others: 1. the Foucault pendulum discovery severed the ties between science and church. It overturned the Aristolean view the church held that the earth did not move. This is a very important historic event. 2. The event that happened on Dec. 2, 1851. Louis-Napoleon, the elected president of France, overthrew the government and declared himself ruler as Napoleon III. It may seem a stretch, but this may have parallels in our political future of this country. Napoleon III had a strong desire to make France over in the manner he desired. Can we think of someone in our country (U.S.) who might want a make over? Hmmm. Although my background is in mathematics, I liked the historic interplay between the physcists and mathematicians who were essentially insulted and embarrassed by the Foucault discovery.

Another reviewer above was not happy with the book and remarked that the science was wrong. It would have been good if he gave some references or other details why he felt that way. If one is bent on a scientific treatise about this, perhaps a book like Waves, Vol. 3, of the Berkeley series on physics would fill the needs the reviewer and others. It might be a worthwhile to pass his claims by a newsgroup such as sci.physics.
4243798
I thought that this book was well researched and as a historian, I thoroughly enjoyed the perspective given. I thought that the author did a good job of introducing to readers how accusations of witchcraft evolved from the explosion of the Salem Witch trials. There were, however, several issues that I've found with the book.

I think the organization left a little be desired. I understand that he was breaking it up into laws, medical, etc., but jumping around geographically and chronologically made the entire thing a little disjointed.

Additionally, I think that the last chapter of the book is in need of an update and/or expansion. The author addresses modern neopaganism with an air of superiority and writes it off entirely, condemning it and passing it off as a sham. While I think that this is an entirely valid viewpoint, I think it is also important, as a historian, that the author address the cultural phenomenon that neopaganism has become. Admittedly, neopaganism has developed quite a bit in the five years that the book was published, but I believe that he fails to address the sects of the neopagan community that address that modernity of their religion. Instead of casting modern pagans as disillusioned, I think the author would do well to revisit the cultural expansion of neopagnism and perhaps spend more time investigating, instead of writing it off as an afterthought and grouping all pagans in the with the likes of Gardner and Crowley (especially considering the pentacle on the cover).

The book was very informative, but the cover was misleading and I think Davies could expand the audience of readers by spending more time addressing modern practitioners of "witchcraft."
1899965
While at least two points must be given to the author and the publishers for this being the only book (as far as I can tell) on the market on this topic a further two points should be deducted for the fact that this book is not really so much a book on fisting as a book describing and endorsing the sexual lifestyle of the author. The personality of the author comes through much too loudly on the pages. One deduces that the author is an overconfident, extroverted, promiscuous, middle class, urban bisexual who is fond of fisting (giving and receiving) and body piercings. She comes across as a real scene queen and to me the book seems to be mostly about her desire to be at the top of her scene by showing off her knowledge on a niche area of sexual practice and recounting her sexual exploits (she certainly seems to have had many lovers). What she actually says about fisting, littered between musings about her lifestyle, is mostly right, I just wish she said more about fisting and less about herself.

If one is interested in the topic then I guess this is not a bad read, and it has become a bit of an iconic title so it's interesting to read for that reason as well, but there are websites (if you search hard enough, such as [...] and [...]) that will give just as much core information without the egotistical multipartner bisexual scene stuff that pervades "A Hand in the Bush". Note that the description of fisting in "Screw the Roses" (the book) is not too bad; if you have "Screw the Roses" and read a variety of websites on the topic you probably don't really need "A Hand in the Bush".

I guess I would recommend this title to anyone who is interested in the subject of fisting but I would also point out that the book is imperfect by reason of the annoyingly brazen literary style of the author and because I only partly trust her very scene based information - I would not trust any of what she says unless I know it to be true by reason of my personal experiences or because of verification from other reasonably trustworthy sources. To be fair though, because of my own experiences and because of the reading I have done elsewhere on the subject, I think what she says about fisting is mostly right but if you are a more or less heterosexual woman in a more or less monogamous relationship this book is probably not going to wet your appetite to engage in this activity as much as it would if you are a loud and proud bisexual who is extroverted enough to sleep with a small pool of lovers. Because I think she mostly gets the actual factual information right I'll give the book an extra point - it is worth reading, but only marginally so.
96529
I found this an interesting and well-written book about a subject that was new to me, namely the implications for the future which result from fact that population control has led to gender imbalance in many countries. There are two shortcomings, however. First is the fact that the author clearly has a very large axe to grind: right from the start we hear about how awful it is to have an excess of males over females, and I don't think the author has proved this. We're told a lot about the dire effects of too much testosterone, and get lots of examples of men behaving badly, and the book implies that gender-selection of sons is going to lead to disaster. But the comparison with the lawless Wild West, where males outnumbered females many times over doesn't seem relevant to the modest imbalances in modern societies where gender has been selected, and the counterexample of today's Alaska is simply pooh-poohed. It's certainly true that men have trouble finding wives in many Asian countries, but are their difficulties more serious than the problems that would have arisen without population control? The second problem is that the book takes an anecdotal approach. We're treated to a lengthy cliff-hanger story about rescuing trafficked women (OK, I admit this was exciting), and we hear about cats scampering through hospital halls with female fetuses in their mouths (well, only one cat), but the book would have been more convincing with a thorough statistical treatment of exactly what the situation is in various countries.
2819623
This is an interesting but, to me at least, ultimately frustrating book in which the author writes a series of short essays on her family snapshots and memorabilia.  I read the book because I'm also working on a project dealing with family photographs of the American West from the 1880s to the 1960s and I wanted to see how someone else dealt with similar material.

Kitchen writes,"Let's agree that the picture speaks more than a thousand words, that words are fickle, subject to revision.  That the past can be altered, resurrected, expunged." (p. 117)  Sorry.  No can do.  I'm a historian.

I enjoyed the book, which deals with a German-American family, something that echoes my own background and that I haven't seen lots published on.  However, when I got to the essay "Rain Coming from a Bright Sky," I was stopped in my tracks.  This photograph, which is in the archive of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, shows a group of guards from Auschwitz having fun on a bridge.  One of them is playing an accordion. And one of the guards is her cousin Karl, who had earlier been presented as almost the double of her American relative Carl.  And the essay is a meandering, creative-writing style piece that speculates that one of the female guards liked one of the other guards.  But, seriously, something more substantial needs to be said here.  Kitchen throughout seems to act as if she could just make up the past of the snapshots, and maybe with the ones without a context and nothing written on the back, she can.  But this one is different.  She needs to come to terms with it in some way, to engage with history.  But she doesn't.  After this essay, I read the rest of the book but it had ceased to charm me.  And I noted that the German side of the family isn't given in the family tree at the beginning of the book and isn't mentioned after the Auschwitz photo.

Ultimately, I was disappointed by the book.  I feel it could have gone deeper but it didn't.
864780
A hot mess of a book, but still worth reading. Michael Knight is now a postmodern conventionally educated scholar, and that is beginning to show. He has obviously read VERY widely and the book contains countless extremely interesting tidbits about magic and magical ideas in Islamicate tradition. But all of this wonderful research is embedded within a curious postmodern framework that can be off-putting and irrelevant to the story. The story he COULD have told is the story of magic and related ideas in the history of Islam and Islamicate culture. THAT story would have been a fascinating and interesting tour through a history that is not well known, especially to outsiders and Western-educated Muslims (like us). And he provides some of that and that is why the book is worth reading. But he is also eager to "correct" our supposed misconceptions about religion and history and too much pleading takes up too much space in this book. Then again, many people seem to want that kind of "mandatory re-education/rectification of names", so maybe you will like that part too. But personally, I would have preferred more historical details, fewer lectures about orientalism and "the clash of civilizations".
Best new bit of information for me: that Ibn ul Arabi claimed he had sex with the Arabic letters in paradise. I wish i knew more about the context of that particular quote. But like many fascinating little details in the book, Michael mentions it and moves on. He has clearly read a lot, I wish he had spent more time presenting the information he has collected and less time lecturing us about how "opening space for new fields of knowledge potentially decenters traditions of jurisprudence, even forcing increased opening of an Islam outside normative Muslim legal traditions" and suchlike. Sure, that would be nice. But let us hear the story first, then we can figure out what it means for magic to be (as he describes it) "deconstructive".
Not that I disagree with his project of "engagement and deep intersection", just that I wanted more of the facts, less of the postmodern interpretation.
4581714
I wouldn't say it was life-changing, but Ms. Kondo has some interesting insights into human creatures and how they relate to "things."  I happen to like living with some creative, meaningful clutter in my life.  But her advice helps me understand my selections.
1661383
The author, George Friedman is the founder of a private intelligence company and is considered an expert on that and international geopolitics. He writes this book describing the points that he feels are festering with problems that have led to wars in the past. He says the European Union is failing to stop these challenges to peace and stability.
There are useful maps throughout to help the reader picture what Friedman is trying to prove. He also explains his, his family's and Europe's in general, past history which lends a more personal look and understanding of some of these problems and the saga of past events. The reader can see the results of the past and what might come to fruition in the future.

With that said, the title might lead one to feel that the contents of the book are predictions for Europe's future, when in fact it seems that there is more of an emphasis on the past events that might lead and add to impending troubles
The analysis that is done is interesting, but in some cases it seems to ignore some of the changes in modern life such as the interconnection of the world by internet and a more global perspective both in communication and travel than had occurred prior to WWII.

Still there are interesting perspectives here from an author who has some proven insights on global trends. Those who wish to learn more about the European situation and what could be future difficulties might like to digest the concepts in this book.
530609
This is a powerful read on a critical topic, albeit the presentation of the topic is slightly disorganized. Duhigg starts with a presentation of the habit loop, centered often in psychological demonstrations related to public health. However, he later shifts toward a focus on consumer and managerial psychology, not clearly tied to his original analysis of the habit loop. The work is fascinating and I certainly recommend it, but it has this minor flaw of non-cohesion that leaves room for similar works to overtake it.
2750169
The option Gress is writing about consists in a renewed and deepened devotion to Mary, the mother of God. This is good, and in parts the book is interesting, inspiring, informative. I have no arguments with this. However, I have big problems with her presentation of historical events. She writes about the Spanish Reconquista, the battle of Lepanto, Columbus' voyages, as if Mary was the chief player. For instance, we read about the reconquest of Spain after the Moslem conquest of it: "....for more than five centuries....Christian crusaders had little or no traction in regaining their once Catholic land." However, online historical maps show that Christian kingdoms had regained about 20% of it by 800 AD, and about 50% by 1100 AD,and over half by 1200AD. Then we read that in 1212AD King Alfonso VIII took Mary to be his patron. "The reconquista had begun."

Then a page or two later she writes: "Finally, in 1492, under the military standard of Mary, Christianity retook Spain after 781 years of Islamic occupation." Well, they conquered Granada, which since about 1250 had been a small Moslem outpost occupying part of the southern coast. {They  had been content to leave it alone for over 200 years. Probably the conquest of Constantinople by other Moslems, then the conquest of Greece and the appearance of an Ottoman fleet in the Adriatic convinced the Spanish monarchs that they shouldn't leave an outpost where the Ottomans might land.}

So the whole Reconquista was very gradual, and both sides had numerous defeats and victories. And I had the same negative reaction when I was reading some of her other historical accounts, that this is a cartoon view of history.

I'd also like to say something about the concept of Mary as "Mediatrix of all graces". Gress obviously supports this title, and quotes recent saints who appear to endorse it, but what does it mean? Normally, when I ask Mary, or a saint, or my friend to pray for me, I have enlisted a mediator who will address God on my behalf. And Mary is the mediator par excellence, as she is Mother of God, and we take her intervention at the wedding feast as Cana as a model of her work.

However, when you call someone "Mediatrix of all graces", you could be saying that all graces (every type of grace) could be obtained through her. But also might be obtained by addressing a member of the Trinity directly. Or you could be saying that the human race doesn't obtain any graces which don't come through her. Or perhaps that Abraham received grace from God otherwise, but nowadays it is always and only through Mary. Although I remember the Gress addressed the difference between worship (only God) and reverence (to Mary and the saints) I don't believe she addressed the possible interpretations/misinterpretations of this title, which the Church has not officially endorsed, but which she appears to favour.

So although I found this book interesting and an easy read, I have problems with it too.
2757875
I found Purple Reign to be a very interesting read, especially considering my interest in The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Interviews done for the book in addition to interviews taken from previous magazine gave excellent  insight to the personality and talent of O(+> in addition to the  circumstances in which he writes his music. A great deal of information was  given to me of which I was previously unaware and it was a very  comprehensive book.
However, I find it doubtful that much of this  information is completely accurate.  In any unauthorized biography, one  must be aware of the fact that interviews and information from vindictive  ex-employees is probably not all that reliable.  There seems to be a  polarity in the book: one group of people raved about how fantastic a  person Prince is, while the other group of people couldn't stop talking  about how much of a jerk he was.  There were some believable sources (Wendy  & Lisa, Alan Leeds, Eric Leeds, etc.), but many seemed to be  doubtful.
Which brings me to by fart the weakest quality of the book (and  the reason I only gave it 3 stars).  The book is absolutely terribly  written.  Liz Jones convolutes many paragraphs in such a way that the  reader has no idea who she's talking about by the time the paragraph has  ended.  Jones manages to use the words 'he' and 'she' over ten times in one  15 line paragraph without once mentioning exactly who she was speaking of.  Jones rarely introduces her interviewees, making it very difficult for  readers not familiar with O(+>'s associates to follow the book.  I find  it incredible that Jones is a regular magazine columnist in England and  currently editor of a major magazine; perhaps a creative writing course is  warranted!
All in all, a very easy and fascinating read.  I recommend it.  I do, however, look forward to Per Nilson's Dancemusicsexromance for  additional insight into Prince's music and less focus on 'dirt'.
4535544
Kristiane Backer began life working for MTV, with all the attendant social trimmings; but as time passed she understood the emptiness of her existence, and this helped her  in the process of converting to Islam.  The book examines how and why she converted: what the problems were as well as the outcomes. While understanding the sincerity of her purpose, I think that Backer does not deal in sufficient depth with the kind of binary oppositions (west/east, Christianity/Islam) that inhibit cross-cultural understanding; too often Backer quotes from the Koran without explaining how its significance might differ for Muslims living in different cultures. The book also overlooks recent events, which might have reshaped our understanding of different religions, especially in the Pakistan/ Afghanistan or the Middle Eastern regions.  Perhaps some more judicious editing might have helped: there is too much repetitious detail that could have been easily omitted.
4291370
The underlying premise is very interesting, documented and explained well, but then the author wanders off into theories with little documentation that seem to propose that his discovery explains just about all disease. The first part of the book, though, is well worth reading, particularly in light of some the recent medical research  regarding statin drugs and numbers needed to treat statistics.
1638972
this is an interesting and engaging book with one fundamental problem:  the author couldn't make up his mind as to what story he wanted to tell.  Is this a book about the dynastic struggles between Scotland and England?  Is it a book about similar conflicts between France and England?  Is it about climate change and the Great Famine, something the buyer might actually have anticipated considering that's the book's title.  If you buy this book expecting it was going to be the last one, you'd be sorely disappointed because there's precious little in here that meets the promise of the title.  In fact, if that's what you're interested in, skip pages 1-121 and 165-259 (the last page of text) and you'll have your story.  Pages 122 to 164 were the core on climate change and the famine and I wish that had been expanded to actually be the book because it was gracefully written, informative, and timely.  But it wasn't.  On the other hand, if you're more interested in Robert the Bruce, William Wallace, Edward II, Isabella of France, and all their bloody machinations, then this is a book you'll want to read.
897716
Although I like this book for what it is, it isn't exactly what I expected it to be when I bought it.  I expected the book to give much more insight into the actual creation of the Museum by Gertrude, but for the most part that aspect is just gleemed over.  Also, as another reviewer has pointed out, the contributions of Julianna Force are barely even mentioned in the book.  If you didn't know better, you'd think Julianna did next to nothing the whole time she worked there, which is more than a little untrue.
However, it must be noted that Ms. Biddle says first and foremost that her book is a "memoir," and as such certain factual omissions might be expected.  Consequently, the book is filled from nearly beginning to end with quite a bit of gossip that those interested in the Vanderbilt or Whitney families or in museum politics will find terribly interesting.
What I got most from the book though is the wonderful sense of supreme devotion that Flora Whitney Miller must have had to the Museum and to her mother Gertrude's memory.  This was illustrated time and time again when Flora donated more of her money and capital to keep the Museum functioning in a way that befitted her mother's name.  As other members of the Whitney family have shown in recent times, a single painting of the calibur that Flora Miller sold for the Museum's sake could have set her heirs up for life, had she chosen not to sell it and had passed it on.
The book also seems to give insight into the recent controversies at the Whitney involving the display of Hans Haacke's controversial art display, with different members of the Whitney family taking different sides.  After reading this book, it's obvious that certain ill feelings by some members of the family for others go back many, many years.
In summary, if you like gossip, then this book is for you.  If not, there are other books about the Whitneys that might be of more interest to you.