Born to Run: Books That Changed Life (at least as I knew it)

May 3, 2011

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen is really more of a self-help book than a piece of non-fiction; in fact, it crosses more genres than almost any book I have ever read. Part autobiography, part narrative non-fiction, this book delves into everything from spirituality and [...]

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Tomorrow’s Table: Serving You Ideas That Fit No Agenda at All!

February 23, 2011

Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food was not what I expected it to be. So what did I expect? Well, I read a lot of science books, and many of them have a knack for approaching any subject in their field as if the science is finished. It is known. For [...]

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Recommended: The Man Who Loved China

January 17, 2011

I loved The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom. This is Simon Winchester at his best: depicting the strengths and weaknesses, genius and frailty – the humanity – of some of the greatest thinkers in modern history. Winchester gets inside a moment [...]

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Openly Recommended

December 28, 2010

I realize that Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi has loads of rave reviews in the press already, but I thought I would weigh in from the perspective of someone who isn’t all that into tennis. Or, um, sports in general. I like tennis as much as I like, say, baseball, which means I don’t [...]

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Enjoying the Atlantic

December 9, 2010

I’m in the reading zone these days, with a particular bent towards non-fiction. I’ve always enjoyed Simon Winchester’s books, and while this one annoyed me for its backhanded forays into the world of modern politics (if I wanted to read snide remarks about today’s political doings, I would pick up a book by one of [...]

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Printing Money

November 23, 2010

I know these cartoons are all the rage now and have saturated YouTube, but this one was too awesome to pass up. I generally don’t write too much about politics and the economy these days because a) YTP is designed to celebrate the great, small, overlooked things in life and neither American politics nor our [...]

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Always Take “that Left Toiwn at Albuquerque”

November 9, 2010

Image via Wikipedia We recently introduced the YTP Child to the Looney Tunes – Golden Collection cartoons, specifically some of the classic Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Roadrunner shorts. He loved them, and we loved watching them with him. Television for kids today is extremely educational, almost to the point of missing the fun entirely. [...]

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Oceans: A Review of the Awesomeness

October 23, 2010

I have a weakness for nature documentaries, even the sleep-inducing PBS ones with the British narrators. I start this blog post today with this disclaimer so you can automatically filter the enthusiasm you are about to read down a level should you, for whatever odd reason, not share such a weakness. The latest nature DVD [...]

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The Color is In

October 11, 2010

Image by oedipusphinx — — — — theJWDban via Flickr If you have a chance, get to New England, and fast!, before the leaves change. It is the best time of year to be here, and a great time to enjoy all the seacoast sites and mountain fun as well. A bit if trivia for [...]

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The Long Wind: Stories of China

September 25, 2010

Image via Wikipedia I have powered through a couple different books on China lately, and though these two were among the very best on the subject, and written by outstanding authors, I noticed that they still suffered from what I describe as The Long Wind of China books. Chinese history has its Long March and [...]

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