Peter

Wuthering Heights

Revisado: 10-08-10

If your only familiarity with Wuthering Heights is from the 1939 movie, then be assured that you have only scratched the surface of this story. So rich in detail and character is this novel that it will leave you wondering why anyone ever attempted to make it into a movie. Oh, I agree that the film is entertaining unto itself, but it is merely the tip of the iceberg. Highly recommended.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A Superb...

Revisado: 08-26-10

... psychological thriller. A lonely island, a mental institution, a battering hurricane, people who are not what they seem, twists and turns, this tale has it all. Cozy up. Highly recommended.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A Disappointment

Revisado: 08-26-10

I have been a reader of Koontz since he came out with "Demon Seed" farther back than I care to remember. In that time, the quality of his writing has had more peaks and valleys than the electromagnetic spectrum. "The Eyes of Darkness," I'm sorry to say, is a descent into a deepest valley. If you're new to Koontz, try "The Taking," or, "Strange Highways," but don't use this as a starter book.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Blasphemy

Revisado: 08-26-10

Dated material can be educational and entertaining and Clarke’s stories fill the bill in this respect. But something other than an interesting comparison between then and now is required to make a story live beyond its time. What is missing in Clarke’s works is-- and forgive me if I sound stuffy-- poetry. Perhaps it is too much emphasis on the science of the times being inserted into these stories, almost guaranteeing obsolescence (exceptions are noted). I offer for comparison Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles.”
I commit blasphemy, I know, but these stories by Clarke failed to sweep me away into the void on a rush of exhaust that is not particularly concerned with how things work, but rather with what happens as a result of the fact that they do. IMHO.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Jaws

Revisado: 07-18-10

This is one of those rare occasions when a movie surpasses the book. Good narration, tho.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Top of His Form

Revisado: 06-18-10

If you have not read King and want to get a sense of what he's about, this book is up there at the top of the list. This book screams Stephen King. Well done by the narrator.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

An Education

Revisado: 05-04-10

It takes something like Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book to drive home the mind-boggling differences between "our" culture and "their's" If you think our country is too mired in religion for its own mental health (which I do), well, as the man said, You ain't seen nothin' yet! For the rational Western (which is not to say that all Western minds are rational) Ali's story is a descent into true theocracy and religious madness. Hear it from a woman who survived Islamic lunacy and came out on top. Heroic. Recommended.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

On "Predictably Irrational"

Revisado: 05-01-10

Informative, challenging, and entertaining. Ariely brings to the fore ideas that we might have been vaguely aware of on some subliminal level, but never articulated with such clarity, if at all.
Other ideas are challenging, maybe even counterintuitive, but they will always get you to think.

The book is delightfully read by Simon Jones, whose British accent brings a droll humor to Ariely's words.

Recommended.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Close to Home

Revisado: 01-03-09

This would be a difficult book to read simply as an entertaining story. As with George Orwell's _Nineteen eighty-four_, the subject matter is simply too grim, unavoidably causing the reader (or listener, as the case may be) to look for parallels in his own time. And parallels there are. In so many ways, little has changed in the seventy-some-odd years since this book's publication. The creep of totalitarianism has lost none of its fright. All those years also give the modern reader an insight into the worldview and attitude of many Americans from decades ago. In this way, the book can serve as a kind of history lesson. I recommend it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 15 personas

For Historians Only

Revisado: 12-25-08

Unless you're a historian, or descended from the line of Hemings or Jefferson, or both, you might find this book to be a tedious go. I did not even get through part one of four before giving up, so buried was I in incredible minutia in headache-procucing detail. I did find some information that was of interest, but nowhere near enough to make this an entertaining "read." Unlike another historical book that comes to mind, Sarah Vowell's "The Wordy Shipmate," about colonial America and written with wit and compassion, read by the author herself with those same qualities, "The Hemingses of Monticello" is both written and read in a dry and uninspired style (IMHO). I don't mean that this is a _bad_ book by any means, but if you're looking to be entertained while you learn, try something else.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 14 personas