I got a bunch of e-mails asking me not to kill the vapid book reviews, so here's two more.

"Atonement" by Ian McEwan has garnered praise from everyone on the planet. It was selected best book of the year by 43,000 newspapers and the Washington Post said McEwan writes better than anyone else currently breathing. I'm exaggerating, but only barely. The quotes take up a full three pages at the front of the book, and every one of them is stellar. A friend whose opinion about this stuff I trust pretty much more than anyone else I know told me I should read it and in fact lent it to me. If I can't like this, there's not a piece of literary fiction on the planet I'm going to like. I wish I was really able to get into it. I wish I could really lose myself in this. It's me, not the book. The book's great, I'm sure.

"Critical Condition" is a look at the US Health Care System that really hates the US Health Care System. I got about 75 pages in and then I gave up. We should insure everyone. We don't. Other countries do. That makes them better. They live longer too. So anyone who says our system is the best is wrong. That basically covers it.