This should have been an interesting book. The unravelling stories of individual libraries such as the one at Alexandria, one in a german death camp, and the New York Public, and their relationships to one another were right up my alley. The problem was, although it’s obvious the author has a passion for libraries, he doesn’t write as though he does. This work reads like a text book. The language is flat, the sentences strewn with unecessary jargon. He falls into the trap of trying to sound super smart and it backfires on him. He manages to turn even the most charming of anecdotal stories into cluttered blocks of text the reader wants nothing more than to reach the end of.

This book gets an “A” for content, but a “D” for execution.

I picked up this book hoping to learn more about HPV, the conditions it causes, and how women live with it.

All the chapters discussing how HPV in contracted and how it can develop into cervical cancer were great. They were written for the lay man in very straight forward and easy to understand language. After reading them I felt I had a much keener awareness of what it means when “abnromal cell growth” is found on the cervix.

But much to my disappointment, the final chapters on holistic healing and prevention were actually the most confusing and difficult to read. The language became laced with jargon and I didn’t feel I had a firm grasp on any of the techniques one might use to fend off HPV infection. Moreover, the explanations became increasingly vague as the book progressed. I was hoping to find conrete information on how women and their romantic partners live and cope with HPV and there was nothing of the sort. Simply some generalized advice about patient follow up.

This is a great resource if all you are interested in is the physical aspect of HPV infection. If you are looking for information onhow to cope with it mentally, emotionally, or sexually, you’d best look elsewhere.

I am a big fan of Kate Bornstein’s work, so naturally I was thrilled to see ze had written a new book about suicide. Having been suicidal myself and having known people who have killed themselves, I was eager to see how Bornstein would tackle the subject.

“Hello, Cruel World” is aimed at teenagers and lists 101 alternatives to killing yourself. While it sounds like a good premise, I’m not sure how effective this book would be in the hands of a teenager, or even an adult, who was considering taking their own life.

Most of the suggestions are very cerebral, even academic, requiring a large amount of reflection and theorizing. I can say from experience, the last thing a suicidal teen wants to do is reflect on their situation or anyone else’s. Most of the alternatives to suicide require an amount of motivation that most suicidal people can’t muster. If they could, they wouldn’t be suicidal.

So, even though Kate’s suggestions are fun and could probably help someone who wasn’t feeling suicidal, I think ze was a bit misguided in thinking most suicidal teens could summon the motivation to undertake any of hir suggestions. Committing suicide is much easier than most of the excersises in this book.

A good read, but that’s about it.

This is a really common sense guide to relieving symptoms of IBS. The author’s offer tips on diet and stress reduction. The book is written for laymen so it is very easy to understand and the advice can easily be put to immediate use. I found it very informative and would recommend it to anyone suffering from IBS.

This book is a wonderful resource. Not only does it describe all of the many things that can go wrong in your nether regions, it also covers what they should do, feel, and look like when functioning normally.

When I experienced unusual vulvar pain, this book gave me insight into what I should ask my gynocologist about in terms of diagnosis and treatment. It also gave me enough information to realize that one of my doctors had no idea what she was talking about and that I needed another opinion.

Every woman should have a copy of this book on her shelf.

This book was such a waste of my time. Not only was the ending anti-climactic, but the journey that lead to it was long and boring. The pace of this novel is much too slow. Seigel spends far too much time describing events and details that are in no way relevent to the plot. She also introduces a couple of sub-plots that she never bothers to fully resolve.

Not only that, but the characters are all completely flat. And whereas the overall pacing of the novel is slow, the emotional revelations the three main characters experience throughout the story all occur much too fast to be considered realistic.

269 pages and never once did I feel as though I had a good sene of who the characters were or why the author felt this was a story worth relating to a reader. The subject matter was great but the execution was horrendous.

Don’t bother with this one.

I seem to have heard this story before. There are thousands of books in the local Barnes and Noble that tell the exact same story: young girl comes of age in the suburbs amid family turbulence, drugs, sex, pregnancy, and survives all of it while those around her sink beneath the pull of life. Yawn. There’s nothing new or refreshing in this book. If you’re in the market for teen angst read “Catcher in the Rye” instead.

Though low on plot and about 30 minutes too long, Dead Man’s Chest compensates the veiwer with some visually stunning fight sequences and the pure charm and likability of the characters. That and a cliffhanger ending will ensure that the masses return for the third installment.

This book is long, predictible, heavy handed, and full of flat characters. Don’t waste your time.

I know this book was some what groundbreaking when it first came out. It gave voice to a generation that was floundering and in need of recognition. This book helped give it shape and relevance. However, reading it now, fifteen years after the initial media blitz over the generation dubbed “X” it doesn’t feel like anything special. Now fifteen years worth of Xers have lived through the directionlessness, the student debt, the housing crunch, the economic highs and lows, and the problems the characters in the book face feel mundane. They’re so typical they’re uninteresting.

While I enjoyed the stories Dag, Andy, and Claire tell one another, the tone of the book is often a bit too esoteric, placing the problems these three face squarely in their own psyches rather than in real world dilemmas, thus making much of the action internal.

If asked, I don’t think I’d recommend this to another reader. If you’ve survived your twenties or are in the process of doing so, there’s nothing this book will tell you that you don’t already know.