Epinions Recent Reviews for drose

A Future Without Children

Fri, 6 Jul 2001 21:17:47 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author drose - What would the world be like if all humans suddenly became infertile? What would it be like after 25 years with no children? How would society deal with a constantly shrinking population? That's the idea behind P.D. James's science fiction novel, "The...

Why History Isn't Boring

Fri, 6 Jul 2001 20:12:36 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author drose - Americans turn out by the millions to make historical shows like "Roots" and "The Civil War" among the highest rated on television, yet American high school students routinely say history is their least favorite subject. Why? According to author James...

Petra's Turn

Sat, 3 Mar 2001 22:28:57 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author drose - If you read "Ender's Game," you probably wondered what might have happened after the events of the story took place. (If you haven't read "Ender's Game," you should -- and the rest of this review won't make much sense until you do.)

The first...

Don't Go With the Flow

Sat, 3 Mar 2001 21:45:46 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author drose - Ever since I heard about the concept of "flow," I was interested in learning more about it. The term "flow," coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the mid-1970s, refers to "the state in which people are so involved in an activity that...

Little Causes, Big Effects

Mon, 1 Jan 2001 18:17:15 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author drose - If you visited New York City in the 1980s, you remember the squeegee guys. Your car would be stuck in traffic, waiting for the light to change, and a menacing character would approach your car, squeegee in one hand and sharpened screwdriver in the...

Bridget Jones for Men

Wed, 25 Oct 2000 03:11:57 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author drose - When I was a teenager, I used to pass the time during particularly boring high school classes by making lists, often about music -- top 5 guitarists, top 5 most influential rock albums, etc. A friend and I used to compare lists and argue about them. I...

A History Professor in Sir Oliver's Court

Sat, 14 Oct 2000 22:51:13 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author drose - "Timeline" is the best Michael Crichton novel in years, surpassed only by "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain." Like those earlier books, "Timeline" has just enough science to differentiate the story from a...

Another Century, Another Crash

Mon, 9 Oct 2000 03:18:26 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author drose - "The four most expensive words in the English language are 'this time it's different.'" That's one of many incisive quotations included in Edward Chancellor's "Devil Take the Hindmost." Chancellor's book details speculative bubbles...

Raging: Searching, Clean and Simple

Sun, 20 Aug 2000 02:50:44 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author drose - Raging search is a breath of fresh air, a true search service in a sea of overblown portal sites.

In the early days of the web, two kinds of services sprang up to help people find what they needed. The first was a web directory (like Yahoo),...

A Fantasy Classic Unfolds

Tue, 25 Jul 2000 03:04:42 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author drose - When I heard that J.K. Rowling's latest Harry Potter book was over 700 pages, my first thought was "uh oh." Why? Because when authors get famous and successful, their clout increases -- sometimes so much that their books get long and bloated,...

Global Economics 101

Mon, 17 Jul 2000 00:15:46 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author drose - It used to be that you could analyze almost action in world politics in terms of the framework of the Cold War. Today the universal framework for understanding world events is globalization. At least, that's the argument of Thomas Friedman's book,...

Runaway Success

Sun, 9 Jul 2000 21:01:14 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author drose - Here's a confession: When I was a kid, I never read this Newbery-award-winning book because I thought the title was stupid. Well, the title *is* stupid, but the book is great.

"From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler"...

Who Invented the Computer?

Sun, 18 Jun 2000 22:10:06 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author drose - Most people can tell you who invented the light bulb or the telephone. But who invented the computer? In part, that depends what you mean by computer. But two people with a pretty solid claim were John Mauchly and Presper Eckert, who conceived of and...

Behind the Race to the Moon

Sun, 14 May 2000 19:05:46 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author drose - If you were alive and aware in 1969, you probably remember Apollo 11 landing on the moon. But who actually designed and built the spacecraft that made that incredible journey? The answer may surprise you.

If you're like me, you probably...

Letter from Mouseville

Wed, 10 May 2000 02:46:00 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author drose - The Walt Disney company is famous for creating great imaginary places in its movies and theme parks. What if they tried to create a real place and populate it with real people? Well, they did. It's called Celebration, and it's a town in Florida...

"O" is for Okay

Tue, 18 Apr 2000 03:34:57 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author drose - Imagine sitting down to write your first novel, and then announcing to the world that it's going to be book one in a 26-part series. That's what author Sue Grafton did with "A is for Alibi" nearly fifteen years ago. Amazingly enough, the...

Attila for Kids

Sun, 16 Apr 2000 03:04:41 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author drose - Until now, I thought that every children's book that won the Newbery Award was a pretty safe bet, sure to appeal to any child of the right age. With "The White Stag," though, the streak was broken. It's not a bad book, it's just that its...

Intel CEO Tells All (Well, Some)

Sun, 9 Apr 2000 21:27:18 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author drose - There's a certain kind of management book that's been popular in the past few years, where the CEO of a company shares the secret of his or (less often) her success. Usually the books are ghostwritten, or (more honestly) authored "with" a...

Russian Thriller

Sat, 8 Apr 2000 21:37:03 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author drose - If Joseph Stalin's secret notebook were discovered today, what would it be worth? Would it be auctioned for millions, or would it be used as a rallying cry for Communists hoping to bring back their days of glory? Would it be worth killing for? Robert...

Joy Luck II

Sun, 26 Mar 2000 02:12:43 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author drose - When I read Amy Tan's first novel, "The Joy Luck Club," I was mesmerized. That book told such a rich tale that I had high hopes for "The Kitchen God's Wife."

While "Kitchen God" has many of the same elements --...

Geography Is Destiny

Sat, 25 Mar 2000 23:45:30 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author drose - In the early 1500s, about 200 Spaniards defeated an army of 80,000 Incas. How was this possible? And why was it the Spaniards who sailed to Peru, instead of the other way around? These are just a few of the many fascinating questions about human...

Electoral College Course

Mon, 24 Jan 2000 01:24:21 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author drose - What would happen if the winner of a presidential election died before being inaugurated? Think the VP-elect would automatically become president? Don't be too sure. Jeff Greenfield, a political commentator, sets up just this question -- and answers...

Dave Barry Turns Introspective

Sun, 16 Jan 2000 18:29:43 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author drose - Dave Barry is a very funny writer. His syndicated newspaper columns often make me laugh out loud, and his books, so far have been just as good. But in his new book, "Dave Barry Turns 50," Barry gets a little serious. He talks about things...

Animorphs: Great series for kids

Tue, 4 Jan 2000 03:29:48 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author drose - I try to read most of what my kids read, partly to make sure it's appropriate and partly to share in their interests. When my son started reading books in a science fiction series called "Animorphs," I was a little worried. The back of the...

True Medical Thriller

Sat, 1 Jan 2000 16:44:37 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author drose - A few years ago, some monkeys infected with one of the world's most deadly and infectious viruses were shipped to a lab in Virginia. If not for medical detective work and quick action on the part of some Army doctors, the result could have been a...