Not with the current goings-on, anyway. Charlotte was surely ahead of her time! Her collection of short stories (the most recent of which was written in 1916) must have rattled the status quo a bit--imagine the thought of a woman having a mind--scandalous! Although the flagship story in this book is Herland, it was my least favorite. In contrast to most of the other stories, it was long and frankly, a bit boring. The others were fresh (even now) and optimistic. Fingers crossed that we get there someday.

I guess this should make sense. But it's quite shocking to see the numbers of how many families comprise our criminals. It's mind-boggling. This is scary information and acting on it could mean the end to most crime or the biggest mistake ever. You decide.

In this itty-bitty book, Ms. Roberts-Miller aspires to enlighten the common folk regarding avoiding the tendency to band-wagon (ah, so tempting). However, she does so with sparkling intelligence, wit, candor and compassion. And really hard words. (Not sure about you, but, for example, the phrase "tu quoque" isn't tossed about in my everyday lingo.) She thoughtfully gives us a little glossary at the end of the book, but I still felt stupid and realized that's why she wrote the book and I didn't. I could (and should) read it again, and just might do that.

I'm a sucker for a travel book. But this one folds in the expedition of 1899 which took John Muir to what is now our northernmost state. It's educational, poignant, and, of course, cautionary.

Maybe I'm alone in this, but I felt that the ending of this uber-hyped book was decidedly anticlimactic. Here we have yet another novel that spends oodles of time on character development that really has no bearing on the outcome of the story. I kept waiting for some (or one) of them to burst onto the scene at the end and save the day. Or assist in saving the day. Or at least witness the saving. Alas, it was not to be. Moreover, the ultimate solution to the mystery is completely implausible, and left me rolling my eyes.

There's some fun trivia in here! Dazzle (or infuriate) your friends and family with your knowledge of things you never needed to know. Each entry is short, so there's no real commitment. Ah, come on. You know you wanna.

The Practice House started out strong, but fizzled out badly, and the end was a long time coming. Ultimately, the time I'd spent getting to know the characters seemed like a waste, and the two protagonists were just plain annoying. Good editing could have slimmed this tome down by 30% without any detrimental effect on the story. I guess you could say I don't recommend it.

Much of what one would expect is here, heartbreaking and discouraging as it would seem. But there were some unexpected facets of life in the plantation-era south that I hadn't considered. Pretty much, it was a white guy's world and everybody else was just living in it. One can read this book and see how far-reaching these behaviors are, and the elements that are still pervasive in some elements of our society. The big question is: How much has really changed?

This book looked silly and fun and easy to read, and sometimes that's just what the doctor ordered. It is quite enjoyable and not as silly as one would think (unless, perhaps you're a robotics engineer, but then this book probably wouldn't be your pick anyway). I wholeheartedly recommend it for a great vacation read for the rest of us.

I was so excited to find this book by William Golding, author of one of the scariest books ever written. I think we can all agree on that. This book is a trilogy, and was apparently one episode per story. I wish this book had been similarly edited. Maybe watch the miniseries and skip the book. Let's just say Lord of the Flies was better . . .

An interesting and suspenseful novel about the dawning of forensic evidence in sleuthing. It takes place in London, post-Ripper, so there's that. There are times when you want to slap the detectives, but isn't that always the case? There were a few loose ends in there but they weren't essential to the story, which makes one wonder why the topic was there in the first place. The best book? No. But just drift along and you will be entertained.

Dr. Sedler apparently had the tenacity to get through lots of schooling, but I'm glad I didn't have to read his dissertation. I didn't find that the content lived up to the title. Don't bother.