Review Date: 5/24/2009

Helpful Score: 1

Holly Menino approaches the sport of eventing from an amateur or outsider's perspective, taking a look at the sport from the trainer's side and showing us what goes into preparing these horses for competition, determining when they are fit to compete, and teaching students who may become the next eventing superstar. It's an excellent and well-written look into a sport that many people don't even realize exists, and Menino's treatment makes the subject both entertaining for the eventing aficionado and accessible for the uninitiated.

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Review Date: 1/15/2010

I was hoping this would be more of an in-depth look at food science, more along the lines of Michael Pollan's books, but the majority of the book is devoted to recipes, most of which are either too complicated (or too unappealing) for a novice like me, or just don't fit within the lines of my particular diet. I can't really speak to whether the recipes are any good; it may be worth it for those who are more into cooking, but it was pretty much a wash for me; there were interesting tidbits but not enough of them. This really should be listed as a cookbook, as that's truly what it is.

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Review Date: 1/19/2010

Neither terribly in-depth nor very useful, this book is mostly filled with tips that ought to be obvious. For those who have never before heard of the idea of reducing consumption and who have no idea about their own environmental impact, this might be a good introduction, but mostly it reads like a high school workbook. I imagine it's part of the publishing foundation's educational materials, for which it probably serves its purpose, but as reading matter it leaves much to be desired. This might be a good book to read with younger kids to introduce them to the ideas inside, but for adults looking for a real guide to reducing consumption, it's a bit on the fluffy side.

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Review Date: 8/24/2009

I've read a number of Bryson's books and really enjoyed them, but this is my least favorite so far. He covers too much ground with not enough thoroughness, and by the end I felt like all I'd read about was a middle-aged white guy traveling alone through countries where he did more or less the same thing over and over. I didn't feel like I got much sense of what the places or people were like in the places he visited, nor did I get any real idea of which of those places might be enjoyable to visit. This book doesn't lean much on interesting facts and history about the places he travels -- his Australia book, "In A Sunburned Country," is much better in that respect -- and lingers instead over Bryson's bad experiences, giving more detail to the poorness of the service in restaurants and difficulty in finding hotel rooms than he does about what the places are actually *like*. Bryson manages to come off as a whining, annoying American/British tourist and often when he was playing a recollection for humor I just wanted to cringe.

I'd recommend instead his books "In A Sunburned Country" (Australia), "A Walk in the Woods" (the Appalachian Trail), and "I'm A Stranger Here Myself" (notes on returning to America after 20 years away). Part of what disappointed me about this book was that, having read those others, I knew he was capable of much better. I'd give this one a miss just to avoid being disappointed.

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