While the book suffers from trying to cover too much and therefore being a jack of all trades and master of none, there is still plenty of material here for both the beginner and the experienced writer, much of it…
Tag: nonfiction
A Review of Successful Nonfiction by Dan Poynter
Successful Nonfiction is a much quicker, and simpler read than Poynter’s other writing books. Rather than the detailed and specific instructions that his other writing books contain, Successful Nonfiction is a series of 109 “soundbites,” or inspirational tips for writers, each a couple…
A Review of The Plot Thickens by Noah Lukeman
The book is so well written–so tight and polished–that it provides a perfect example of its own principles. Lukeman’s prose is so lucid that it manages to render even complex concepts like “transcendency” clear, and provides practical ways of incorporating…
A Review of Platypus by Ann Moyal
Moyal writes clearly and arranges difficult material with crisp authority. This is a perspicacious book. Moyal cares about her subject and has used it to express more than a simple chapter of zoology. She sees the platypus within a very…
A Review of Eat First –You Don’t Know What They’ll Give You
The memoir was written as a book of remembrance for the author’s parents and for her daughter. Its readers will react to it in many ways. First it is a family document. It depicts the immigrant experience, specifically a Jewish…
A Review of Alleviating Prepress Anxiety: How to Manage your Print Projects for Savings, Schedule and Quality by Ann Goodheart
The focus overall of Alleviating Prepress Anxiety is on saving money, meeting a schedule and producing professional print results. Regardless of whether you are an administrator or PR coordinator for a large company, the head of a small one, a…
A Review of A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain
Does the idea of eating a still beating cobra heart and following it up with a blood chaser appeal to you? How about a potentially deadly puffer fish? Lamb gonads? Tete de veau (sweetbread stuffed calves face)? An old rubbery iguana? Birds nest soup? What about a sublime 20 course meal at The French Laundry in Napa Valley Ca, or roasted bone marrow at St. John restaurant, London. A Cook’s Tour is partly a foodie’s book, covering both the delectable and the disgusting, and it is also a travel book, tracing Boudain’s course through Tokyo, Vietnam, Cambodia, Portugal, Spain, France, Morocco, Russia, Mexico, California, Scotland, and England.
A Review of The Superior Person’s Book of Words by Peter Bowler
There is certainly no reason to accept the dumbing down of our society and Bowler tears up the cobblestones to form a barricade in what is very likely a losing battle. This is a book worth treasuring by all who…
A review of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
If you aren’t obsessed by exquisite food, amused by toilet humour and punkish slapstick, and don’t find the lives of the overworked, overpaid, talented, corrupt, and derelict cooks who turn out delicate dishes in New York’s fancy restaurants to be of interest, stop here. If, on the other hand, you have nerves of steel (think Basil in the Fawlty kitchens), a strong stomach for blood, gore, and dripping, and high tolerance of cuss words and adolescent antics (think the BBC’s Bottom, or Men Behaving Badly), along with a love of haute cuisine sans frou frou, you will enjoy Anthony Bourdain’s tell all memoir, Kitchen Confidential.
A Review of Net Words by Nick Usborne
“Nobody is paying close enough attention to the words on ecommerce sites.” Do you do any kind of online writing? Manage a web site? Run an ecommerce site? Write articles, newsletters, even send action oriented e-mails? If so, you really…