My Review of "How to Think"

Alan Jacobs' How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds is the right book for the right time. Jacobs is a good thinker, as any with knowledge of his previous books, many essays, and invaluable blog posts will know. How to Think is vintage Jacobs -- an incisive, consistently thoughtful work that hits a post-truth, "alternative facts", right-side-of-history American culture right between the eyes. The worst thing that can be said of it is that it doesn't say quite enough.

Fortunately, How to Think is not directed at any one political polemic or a guidebook for navigating Facebook or Twitter. Jacobs writes that it's a mistake to assume that human beings are ultimately rational beings whose irrationality cannot be understood. On the contrary, human nature, and therefore human thinking, is inescapably moral. We often think and live poorly because we want to. How to Think says we fail to think correctly, fairly, and helpfully because doing so may interfere with what we want.

How to Think is a valuable work that combines an intelligent awareness of the crisis with literary and deeply humane suggestions for addressing it. My advice? Read this book in silence. Consume it in periods of quiet contemplation. Don't snack on it in between refreshes of the Twitter feed or during a break in your online debating. Steal away to a good library or a quiet field, pen in hand, and learn how to think.

I received a free copy of this game from the Blogging for Books review program in exchange for my honest review here.

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My Review of "Come as You Aren't"

Come as You Aren't: A Role-Playing Game for Adventurous Couples is a simple role-playing kit for couples who want to explore and experiment in ways to seduce one another that they simply wouldn't have imagined otherwise. The set is meant to offer one partner who draws a Who, a What, and a Where card at random and places them in an envelope for the other partner. From there, it's up to them to enact the scenarios as they see fit. The instructions are printed on the back cover of the box and the deck comes with a few blank cards for couples to customize. This is a fun little gift for couples -- and just in time for the holidays. I received a free copy of this game from the Blogging for Books review program in exchange for my honest review here.

tasting rome -- a book review

Parla and Gill's Tasting Rome: Fresh Flavors and Forgotten Recipes from an Ancient City contains more than 85 recipes that bring some of Rome's characteristic cuisines to the home cook in our own kitchens. These recipes reflect some of the "spirit of Roman flavors" that have been part of historical dishes and community-specific recipes that make this collection a real treat itself. I particularly love the section on traditional Roman pasta dishes -- which gives us cacio e pepe, amatriciana, and two methods for preparing pasta alla carbonara. There are multiple twists on bread and pizza, and the vegetable section champions local favorites such as artichokes, fava beans, and greens. This is a solid introduction to Roman cooking that every kitchen needs. I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Roadfood"

Jane & Michael Stern's Roadfood gives us another (this is the 10th edition!) gastro road trip across the US. Roadfood is like a road map through backroads and interstates for some of the best food in each state and region in the US. Roadfood celebrates venues most travelers would never venture near, let alone enter. Most of the state-by-state listed restaurants are, however, for dining on the cheap. Like Litton's in Knoville, TN -- which really does have amazing burgers. While one could hardly map a road trip by the Sterns' restaurant finds -- some cities, like Chicago, are overrepresented, while the rest of Illinois is all but ignored -- this fun and fanciful volume is pure pleasure. I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

The Mrs. & the Minister

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