Review: The Year of Living Philosophically

The Year of Living Philosophically by Robert Grossmith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Quick fun read that relies a little too heavily on the serendipity of the Dave Gardner, the main character, meeting up with a retired philosophy professor. Without that character entering the story, no one would have been able to offer comparisons or deeper meanings of some of the monthly philosophies to Dave. That weakness also leads to information dump, reading closer to lectures rather than conversations despite Grossmith's attempts to lighten up those passages. Dave's daily life, however, is fun and complicated in all the right ways to keep the reader rolling right along with him through his year. An added plus for this reader is that it all takes place in England and Dave has a really interesting job - dictionary editor.



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Review: Pickit

Pickit by Lee Richardson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Reading this, I couldn't help but suspect that the author had a lot of historical background and then created characters to populate it and then wrote a novella that he placed them inside. The story has one original twist that caught me by surprise, and that along with all that historical information that does fit quite well takes a very ho-hum story up to three stars.



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Review: Breaking the Chain: How I Banned Chain Restaurants From My Diet And Went From Full To Fulfilled

Breaking the Chain: How I Banned Chain Restaurants From My Diet And Went From Full To Fulfilled by Allyson Reedy

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Once the author has covered how difficult it is to avoid what she has defined as chain restaurants (definitely a YMMV definition), the book becomes stories of her experiences. The details about meals ate at local restaurants aren't that compelling to someone who hasn't or doesn't plan to eat at those restaurants. Reading over and over again about the inconvenience she caused her coworkers and friends seemed more about pointing out how special the author was for what she was doing rather than using the opportunity to educate why eating local might be a good idea. But, there's a reason for that. Reedy cause wasn't ideological, it was personal. She'd had repeatedly bad meals at the same chain restaurants. Also, I suspect she was looking for a blog topic and thought this was a good one. It probably would have made a better localized blog rather than a book with the word "Fulfilled" in the title.

Her writing style is light and conversational, and humorous if you find self admitted hunger tantrums funny.



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