PositiveForeword Reviews\"Schlögel is a knowledgeable guide through the eras covered ... Schlögel’s work places each perfume in its cultural context ... The Scent of Empires views the twentieth century through the tantalizing lens of an iconic perfume and its Russian rival.
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Daisy Hernández
RaveForeword ReviewsIn The Kissing Bug, Daisy Hernández recounts watching her aunt die from a little known or understood disease. Years later, Hernández set out to learn more, and entered into a harrowing medical mystery ... Written with compassion, but also drawing on interviews and extensive research, the book strikes political and sociological notes, revealing ugly truths about how the medical system responds in different ways to well-off patients and high-profile disorders, electing to overlook less glamorous diseases that affect poorer, more vulnerable populations, where the afflicted are less likely to arouse compassion ... The Kissing Bug is the engrossing account of a family medical mystery that led to a compassionate investigation of an underattended disease.
Hernan Diaz
RaveForeword ReviewsFine writing, diverse and well-imagined exploits, and Håkan himself keep the pace flowing, and mounting tension over just how it will all end makes for long reading sessions ... As gritty, unromanticized tales of the American West go, In the Distance by Hernan Diaz ranks with classics like Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man and Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.
Jason Berry
RaveForeword ReviewsHypnotic ... puts the emphasis on culture, and it marshals fascinating and seemingly disparate details and characters into a coherent, compulsive whole ... Over three dozen black-and-white photos bring the city to life, while numerous quotes and citations are sourced in well-ordered endnotes. City of a Million Dreams is history writing at its best, in which high-caliber prose manages to be as interesting as its subject.
Catherine LeRoux
PositiveForeword ReviewsImaginative, haunting, and insightful ... Plausible realities deftly portray the interior lives and unspoken tragedies of ordinary women. Succinct, piercing insights are scattered along the trails of each story; they are a pleasure. A fine translation by Lazer Lederhendler preserves the distinct flavor of the book’s Canadian French ... Absorbing and often poignant, Madame Victoria is an achievement, both as a mystery about the missing identity of one woman and in its portrayal of women’s lives more broadly.
Octavio Solis
RaveForeword ReviewsThe stories that make up Octavio Solis’s Retablos are as taut, riveting, and immersive as the sunrise in a red rock desert. Be forewarned—they’re addictive.
Retablos are brightly painted scenes on flattened pieces of metal depicting personal crises whose positive outcomes were achieved through divine intervention. The fifty pieces of this collection are prose retablos—memories of growing up Mexican-American in the borderlands of El Paso, Texas. Although each scenario is complete within itself, they are arranged in roughly chronological order ... Writing is original and laser-sharp, alive with adjectives that startle and images that linger ... All this is delivered in a deftly crafted voice that’s distinctive yet utterly natural. As the narrator progresses from a boy to a young adult, the voice subtly matures, moving easily from one retablo to the next, pulling the reader along.
Paul Offit
PositiveForeword ReviewsBad Advice by Dr. Paul Offit offers smart, well-researched, and eye-opening answers, showing how \'expert\' advice can become misleading and how ideas unsupported by evidence can become widespread beliefs ... Although most issues are health related, issues like global warming are also noted, and the real-world examples make for a compelling read ... the book also delivers a good deal of useful information ... Writing is clear and brisk throughout, lightened by a friendly tone and occasional wry humor. Examples are well researched and rely on reported facts rather than opinions or assertions ... Dr. Paul Offit’s Bad Advice is a well-presented, knowledgeable, and surprisingly engaging look at the pitfalls of the information age.
