The voices, are neither frenzied nor shrill; the homework has been done with dispatch and the lessons fully recited. The result is the kind of icy, unrelenting, and generally convincing attack on the enemies of the people—here the nuclear power industry—one has come to expect from Nader and colleagues. The book covers much the same ground as the recent Friends-of-the-Earth-sponsored, The Silent Bomb (p. 463). Both books are eloquent on the subject of inadequate health and safety measures, problems of nuclear proliferation, waste disposal, sabotage; both present cogent economic arguments against nuclear power. The Nader book goes into greater detail about the economics of private power, the attractions of accounting systems that pass on higher operating costs to the consumer, and the history of centralized, monopolistic control. These made nuclear energy the obvious alternative source of energy as opposed to localized solar or wind-power. The history of the AEC and the Joint Commission on Atomic Energy, as well as the cozy relationships between private power interests, Congressional committees, and the newly formed Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy Research and Development Administration become a central focus in the latter half of the Nader book. The legislation governing insurance and subsidies to utilities is exquisitely spelled out. The final section details what a concerned citizen can do to educate the public, lobby for change, and ultimately put. a stop to nuclear power development. The appearance of two competent books on this emotional and complex subject is heartening. Indeed the proliferation of acronyms for citizens' groups in the Nader book suggest that there is a ground swell. If nothing else, this should lead to more light for all—and more heat on public officials.
Pub Date: June 27, 1977
ISBN: 0393009203
Page Count: 431
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1977
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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