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Outstanding
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Ken McGoogan
[A] daring, brilliant extravaganza, the work of a master at the height of his powers.
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Outstanding
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The Independent David Phelan
Geology is not, at first glance, the most inviting of subjects, but in this book Simon Winchester makes it engagingly, captivatingly readable.
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Favorable
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Houston Chronicle Lynwood Abram
A thoughtful and illuminating book by an author in impressive command of his subject.
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Favorable
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Sydney Morning Herald Bruce Elder
For anyone interested in the San Francisco earthquake, this is a fascinating and informative book
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Favorable
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Daily Telegraph Helen Brown
It is all fascinating stuff and indulgent readers will be happy to snaffle up the trivia along the way, as the bigger story unfolds.
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Favorable
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Daily Telegraph Lawrence Norfolk
In this wide-ranging book, Winchester peers through the fault-line of one century-old earthquake to investigate our planet's seismic upheavals and gauge their immediate and far-flung effects.
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Favorable
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USA Today Bob Minzesheimer
Expansive, global, at times philosophical and personal, an engaging blend of history, science and travelogue.
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Favorable
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Boston Globe David Nasaw
Without slighting the human suffering of the victims of earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters, and with full attention to the irreducible particularity of their pain, Winchester places their tragedies in an almost cosmic context.
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Favorable
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Chicago Sun-Times Greg Lindenberg
In a time when there are questions aplenty concerning New Orleans' disaster plan, city officials in San Francisco just might want to read A Crack in the Edge of the World.
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Favorable
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The Guardian Kelly Grovier
Anyone familiar with Winchester's bestsellers, including Krakatoa and The Surgeon of Crowthorne, will know how compellingly he can translate the most turgid jargon into purring prose. But in the wake of Katrina and Rita, what may interest readers most are the heartening tales of courage and sacrifice excavated here.
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Favorable
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The Guardian Josh Lacey
Hurricane Katrina has shown what not to do when disaster actually strikes. A hundred years ago, the earthquake in San Francisco was handled much better. Simon Winchester describes the intelligence, vigour and generosity shown not just by the city's inhabitants and administrators, but by the whole country.
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Mixed
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Wall Street Journal Debra J. Saunders
Much ado about fault lines.
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Mixed
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PopMatters Zachary Houle
Like Winchester examining an event already a century removed, this book and its warnings are well-intended but feel like they both arrived out of time, a bit like pokey disaster relief aid.
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Unfavorable
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Washington Post Kate Julian
Many readers of his best-selling "Krakatoa" and "The Professor and the Madman" clearly enjoyed this sort of ambling field trip. That much is a matter of taste. The extent to which Winchester's conclusions about 1906 deviate from recent historiography is not.
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Unfavorable
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Entertainment Weekly Gilbert Cruz
Arriving after Hurricane Katrina--which has arguably replaced the quake as America's worst natural disaster ever--"Crack" disappoints with its relative lack of human drama.
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Unfavorable
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Christian Science Monitor Erik Spanberg
Amid the rubble of this plodding account a gripping tale could have been assembled, but "A Crack in the Edge of the World" suffers far too many faults to come anywhere close.
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Terrible
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The New York Times Book Review Bryan Burrough
I hated it. I wanted to drop-kick this book across the backyard. If Doris Kearns Goodwin or David McCullough can lay claim to being the Miles Davis of popular history, Winchester is becoming the Kenny G.
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