Adam Paul

Although this started out as a bit of a slow read, “Valley of the Kings” picked up steam after the first couple of chapters, and wound up being quite an interesting book.  It’s written sort of as a dual history; on the one hand it’s about the ancients who made these famous tombs, and on [...]

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I picked this book up at a clearance sale at the Palace of the Legion of Honor and found it to be a rather enjoyable read, if not a fast one. Pinker, a cognitive scientist of no small renown, brings the heady subject of how language works, and how the brain produces it, to the [...]

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This 2003 James Beard Foundation award winner is a weighty examination of the role politics has played (and is playing) in the evolution of our food supply and its regulation (or lack thereof). Nestle (no relation to the same-named company), a nutritionist, exhaustively examines a number of aspects of food policy: dietary advice (the Food [...]

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I just finished this, the second of McCullough’s that I’ve read (the other being his also-excellent “John Adams”), and am now thinking that McCullough is one of the best history writers I’ve read. Like “Adams,” “1776″ is engagingly-written, and very approachable. The title should give you a good clue as to the time period covered, [...]

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