Breathe the scent of spring with THEBOOKJEANIE Thank you for joining me once again to share the love of reading. This book review blog will now be published bi-monthly, the first and third Sundays of each month. Please feel free to comment or make suggestions! The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie. I must admit that I am drawn to the whimsical and offbeat in literature although this title is by no means without substance including a rather pointed examination of research and ethics in the biomedical/pharma industry. Veblen, a young woman named for the Norweigen American economist Thorstein Veblen who coined the term "conspicuous consumption," translates documents into Norweigen, is in love (perhaps) with a rising medical researcher at Stanford, and thinks that a squirrel living in her attic is trying to communicate with her. Of course all stories make their way back to family and Veblen's is no exception: trying to please her domineering hypoc...