Margaret Powell didn’t finish her education until she was nearly 60 because she spent the end of her childhood and many years thereafter as a kitchen maid and cook. She scrubbed floors and vegetables, washed dishes and ironed bootlaces, and worked from before sunup until long after sundown. Originally published in 1968 and republished again…
Category: Non-Fiction November
Review – Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Feeling overworked is a common complaint amongst Americans. We spend more time at our desks than anyone else, yet most of us come home at the end of the day feeling like we didn’t really get much done. Greg McKeown’s Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less is not another “productivity hacks” book; instead, it’s a…
Review: Nisa: The Life & Words of a !Kung Woman
Anthropologist Marjorie Shostak met Nisa in 1971 at the tail-end of a 20-month field stay in Botswana’s Kalahari Desert. Shostak knew a little about the !Kung prior to her journey, but felt that a large portion of their culture remained unknown. How did they feel about themselves, their childhoods, their parents? Did spouses love one…
Review: This Book is Overdue!
The advent of the Internet has left the world awash in information. The answers to our questions are out there on the web, but how do we find them? And how do we know if the answers we find are correct? Enter the awesome but totally under-appreciated librarian. These tireless individuals have always been associated…
Review: Drop Dead Healthy
Recovering from a freak case of tropical pneumonia and ashamed of his ever-expanding waistline, writer A.J. Jacobs makes a decision to get healthy. And since he’s never been one to do things by halves, he bypasses the piddling goals of lowering his cholestoral or losing weight or exercising once a week and goes for the…