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I was eager to read this book only to find it a terrible dissapointment. One would think that a 'scholar' such as he would have at least a basic understanding of the Hebraic roots of Judeo-Christianity.
It was obvious that he clearly was clueless to the known Messianic signs spoken of in the Gospels. He is also clueless to the Pharisidical Judaism of the time..not comprehending that all of Christ's teachings were completely in keeping with true Judaism. All of which can be found in contemporary Rabbinical teachings of His time. This book, which some unfortunate readers will swallow as truth will only continue to propagate a backward understanding of the gospels.
Like it or not..the New Testament writings are Hebraic and explain what fulfilled Judaism is. Those who need to divorce Judaism from Christianity are offering a church which is already confused, just more confusion. It is through studying the Hebraic roots that we even begin to understand the 'difficult' sayings of our Lord; 'fullfillment of the Law', binding and loosing (the Law)..etc as well as the parables. The delivering of the deaf mute..was a Messianic sign, because the Rabbi's knew that 'they' had to ask the said demon its name but He did not. Lazerus's resurrection was a Messianic sign because the Rabbi's believed that anyone could come back to life during the first 'three' days after death. Cleansing of a leper was Messainic sign because the Rabbi's understood that it was a 'divine' punishment, that only God could lift. How else can we link Isa 53 with the 'stripes' He was to received as part of fulfilling the punishment the Law required for transgression, and yet 'minus one'. Had our Lord transgressed the Law, then the Jews themselves could have legally killed Him. Remember Paul (Saul)? He also does not understand John and his huge part in the whole picture, in that the Kingdom 'began' with John. He was the 'breachmaker' as fortold in prophecy. This is Hebraic roots 101.
People, please study the Hebraic roots of Christianity and do not waste your time with this book. The fact that he keeps defending his position as 'not' anti-semetic, should give you a clue
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I love Judith Mcnaught's work. Her historicals are stellar one-of-kind novels that pull at your heart strings. In my opinion all of her historicals are winners. SOME of her contemporary works are fabulous as well - Perfect and Paradise to name a few. There are other contemporary flops though (Remember When, Triumphant Heart, etc). Every Breath You Take was such a disappointment. The plot, character development, and writing was not up to par. I found it very hard to believe that a couple could fall in love in 2 days, be separated for two years and then fall back in love instantly upon meeting again. It was really forced.
Someone mentioned it was "amatuerish" and I have to agree. I think anyone could have written this novel. I understand that the book was rushed, and to tell you the truth it reads like a novel that was written in a mad dash.
I love Judith but this book was just terrible
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I love "The number one detective agency" series, and hoped for the same writing quality in this collection of folk tales. Unfortunately there was no narrative flow, making the stories stilted and un-interesting. Maybe a narrative explaining the lessons would have helped.
I suggest this book only for those interested in collecting african fable
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I was trying my hardest to be creept out, but like someone said, it read like a pre-teen novel.
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As a lecturer of e-commerce, I was looking forward to reading this book on the social implications of the Internet. However, I am most disappointed with the boring and superficial way the subject is explored. The author takes a couple of anecdotical examples to show the concequences in the shift of power that the Internet has brought about. The result is a disjointed treatment of an otherwise most interesting topic. I have nothing good to say about this book - money wasted
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I was barely able to finish this book. Armstrong makes fun of vampires and witches, etc. by dragging in all the cheesy pop culture references she can think of. This made it very hard for me to take her characters seriously. I might have been able to swallow the idea of Cabals (giant glitzy corporations run by sorcerors; it's unclear why they don't just take over the world and have done), but Armstrong really lost me during the 20-page extended send-up of Anne Rice's vampires. This genre is rapidly sinking into self-referentialism, and Armstrong is the worst culprit. In Industrial Magic, she ruins what could have been a perfectly good story with these unfunny namechecks and rebuttals to writers who are actually better than she is. On top of that, the viewpoint character, Paige, is unfortunately named: she's as flat and boring as the pages she's written on. Her central relationship is with her boyfriend, Lucas, but their coupleship seems to revolve around the trading of sexual favors. Are we supposed to think this is cute and funny?
Take-home project for Armstrong: next time, try putting some genuine emotion into your work
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This book is similar to going to a poor movie sequel. There is nothing new and it bores you with percentages. The title and cover are the best aspects of the book - once you open it and begin reading, it quickly goes downhill. Save your money - I wish I had
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The book is fine, except I had to skip lengthy descriptions about the dog trainer. She's such a boring character. She's young, but not motivated to work. In fact, she quited one of her jobs when Macon covered her rent. The dog training job was just a pretext for her to try to hook up with some men, and get support. The point is that she doesn't enjoy the job, thus, a detailed description of her dog training job (which she doesn't seem to enjoy) was just a boring digression
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If you like unimaginative phony crap you'll love this book. The proposed animals within this book are utterly stupid and improbable. An antelope that feels through the snow with its incredibly dumb looking antlers? A DIURNAL and TERRESTRIAL mammal that for some God-forsaken reason lacks eyes of any kind? Primates that don't evolve to fit man's niche, but instead take on the roles of otters and flying squirrels? The thing has got nonsense written all over it. The "future animals" proposed for this book were not well thought out and somebody, please find Mr. Dixon a liguist, and FAST! Some of the names he gives these future animals are so stupidly childish that they actually detract from a creature's plausibility. A vortex? A posset? What jerk scientist of the future is naming these things? Can he please be institutionalized? I admit the pictures were well done and pre-teen children would probably enjoy this immensely. I know I would've when I was 10 or 11, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's just that Dougal Dixon begins the book in a very advanced scientific way discussing food pryramids, chains of evolution, and ecological niches, but then converts to unscientific baloney around page 30. All in all, I just don't think it's cut out for people over the age of 12 or so, unless you are just looking for fun and imaginative creatures. But in that case, why restrict your mind with the laws of evolution? Why not pick up a copy of the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual or something like that with lots of mythological and imaginary creatures? I find that books intended to showcase the fantastic, do much better outside the realm of (somewhat-boring) science
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This book is trying too hard to emphasize in being funny. It is filled with mediocre 'funny' patters that the readers are encouraged to use, but the quality of the actual magic effects demonstrated is poor. Balancing two forks on the edge of a glass should not be considered magic. Once you read a few samples, the reading becomes stifling, knowing that you are not going to learn anything new that other magic books cannot teach you. Some areas are brighter: the photos are clear, and it blends magician bios and history within. But one can do better with other books around
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I have not read the original version of this work, but the translation lacks originality and art. A beautiful story, but the writing style lacks grace and creativity. This is the only time I have liked a movie better than the book. Do yourself a favor and skip the book. The movie is quite beautiful and moving
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When I purchased this book I expected it would be life from a particular bacteria's perspective. By this I mean, "Well, today our host started a new antibacterial therapy. The last round of therapy was tough, but we managed to make it through unscathed. I'm confident we'll survive." Unfortunately, what I read was a scientific book written in non-scientific language. As a biology major in college and a medical student now, I've read many scientific books written in scientific language. So many that they are pretty much all I can relate to anymore. HA! Actually, that statement has more truth in it than I care to admit, but I thought this book would be a nice change of pace. Instead, it's a listing of information about a certain bacterial species that I could have extracted from Bergey's. The book is undramatic and uninteresting. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone
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Reviewer Alianore's opinion "Rather too indulgent of its subject" is a very accurate portrayal of Weir's work. I will try to add something to that near perfect review. (Note: I listened to the unabridged audiobook of "Queen Isabella", 22 hrs on 18 CDs).
The first half or so of this biography is mostly enjoyable, loaded with period details. The last third is the worst: Weir's fawning dedication to a glorious rehabilitation -- nay, elevation -- of Queen Isabella to the role of long-suffering, much-wronged, highly-deserving, and late-redeemed Just Queen of England.
This book is really "subjective, rhetorical biographal dramatization". I do not consider it to adhere to an academic standard for objective history and analysis. It is rhetoric because of the endless "weasel words" (and expressions) used copiously throughout: "Some say", "It has been said", "Many believe", "Therefore we may assume", "It can be inferred" ... this isn't just an attribute of her style ... it *is* her style comprehensively. These expressions occur many hundreds of times, commonly in conjunction with Wier's subjective analyses that present her beloved Isabella in the best possible light, always giving her every benefit of the doubt and shifting negative interpretations onto other persons.
Equally irksome is Weir's double-standard of historical psychological analysis. She is always 'declaring' for us the contents of Isabella's thoughts. Remarkable gift she has for this. Many times Weir reasonably states that modern psychological and socialogical interpretations of medieval history are inherently invalid or at least not meaningful. But then moments later she will portray Isabella's actions from a 21st century point of view ... always telling the reader how Isabella must have, might have, could have, would have been thinking and feeling about one situation after another ... often presented in a positive way that is only supported by a present-day psychosocial interpretation of 800 year old history. This isn't historical writing, it is historical op-ed, with an obvious agenda.
I don't loathe this work, it is enjoyable in many parts for its color characterizations and depth of detail. The narrator of the audio book has a wonderful voice and good pacing. But this is highly flawed in its editorial approach to historical biography. (Other egregious examples of such hagiography include Edmund Morris' "Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and "Theodore Rex". I could not complete either of those since Morris is so obviously enthralled by his subject, lovingly lionizing him in every sappy sentence. Yuck. Really.)
If prefer more history when reading (or listening to) history. And much, much less editorial subjectivity, retroactive psychology, biased interpretation and rhetorical postulation. The only way I could enjoy "Isabella" by Weir is to accept her bias up front and listen accordingly, taking it with "several pounds of salt" as the above referenced reviewer advises.
2.5/5
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I got to page 26 and gave up. Lockes writings lack focus and are void of humour. I read as much as I could with patience until it became clear this book was simply someone rambling on about nothing. Save your money for something worth reading
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I can attest to the author's views, because I too have precognition, telepathy, and remote viewing ability. For example, right now I see the author counting his income from the book and laughing at the gullibility of new age readers.
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This book would not be helpful for children of faiths other than Christianity
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Ripping off King, but with more sex, shallower characters, and a Hollywood ending. Leave it on the shelf
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I found this book at a thrift store for 25 cents. I flipped though it and it looked dated, but interesting, so I decided to get it.
As other reviewers mention, it is dated -- but you gotta know that up front when you get it. It's published in 1986, when there were no (well, almost no) home computers. So you have to accept up front that it's talking about organizing papers using more papers -- but that's something we still all got to do occasionally.
So it's a system of notepads, file folders, etc. It does help you try to understand why you want to keep papers, etc, and what you can do about it. However, it does get overly complex, and really doesn't seem applicable in today's world, where there are far fewer "homemakers" who spend time organizing sewing and recipe files, as this book seems to be focused on.
Finally, I have to mention that it was the continual religion-related references that put me off to the book in the end. Others who are comfortable with this may not even notice it, but for me, I felt I was being preached to a bit too much to find it tolerable. Just my personal taste; I'm sure some others will disagree with this judgement, but I have to admit after enough casual religion references tossed randomly throughout the text, I gave up on the book and put it in the recycle bin
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A favourite writer goes to prison, keeps a diary which proves to be an enjoyable read, then, upon his release, writes the worst book of his career. The concept of the book is good, as is the idea to blend the characters into the 9-11 tragedy. The first 20 pages flow with typical Archer style. Then the characters begin to make a series of continuously irrational decisions.
My personnal favourite is when 2 characters independantly consider driving either to Canada or Mexico in order to fly to Europe during the 9-11 grounding of air traffic. The idea that New Yorkers wouldn't know that Montreal is the nearest international airport seem laughable. While there is a direct highway to Montreal, Archer sends the main character to Toronto which reqires a least 6 different highway changes, is in the wrong direction and nearly twice the drive. Once at the border, the border patrol guard turns out to be a world class art historian who apparantly doesn't know that McGill University is in Montreal not Toronto as is claimed by our hero. The guard then remarks that he will "meet" a collegue of the hero when that peron travels up to the conference. The idea that only one border guard is working the dozens of eastern US/Canadian border crossings, with multi-lane checkpoints 24/7 is simply the work of a mind out of touch with reality.
Its fine to change details to enhance the plot and structure of a story, but there is simply no benefit to this sillyness.
Dan Cormie
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The author makes a couple of valuable points. First, any long-term investment strategy has to take into account the existence of recurrent "secular" (i.e., indefinitely long) bear markets. Most leading investment advisors recommend a "buy and hold" strategy, but this only works during predominately bull market periods. Most studies of successful investment strategies are biased towards the recent 1982-1999 bull market, which is anomalous in historical terms. The author uses a plethora of graphs and charts to prove that "buy and hold" doesn't always provide the best returns. Obviously, then, it's better to pull out during the bear markets, but that's easier said than done. The author provides a very complete analysis of the characteristics of bear markets, including P/E ratio, interest and inflation rates, and GDP. The problem is that those characteristics don't always correlate with market performance. For example, this book was written in 2004 and the author predicted a bear market. Well, if you heeded his advice, you would have missed the bull market of 2004, 2005 and early 2006, especially in small-mid caps and foreign stocks. Even with high P/E ratios, a bull market can continue for several years: witness the late 90s. It's virtually impossible to time the market even if you monitor the major stock indexes on a daily basis. There is so much volatility on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis that's it's impossible to know when the market has switched directions. By the time that it is apparent, it's too late to profit. Even in the midst of great bull markets, there might be week, month, or even year-long downturns. The author says nothing about individual stock picking, beyond a general value approach. The book is all about big picture, long term trends. Another problem is that the author's predictions are based on his analysis of market trends going back to 1900. But the market (and economy) is a different beast now that it was in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. As they say, past performance does not predict future returns.
The investment advice provided here is not useful. He suggests a "portfolio of hedge funds," ignoring the fact that most hedge funds require a minimum deposit of 500K. He also recommends a "bond ladder," an approach which can be easily replicated with a good bond mutual fund, and frequent rebalancing of your portfolio asset allocations. I don't need to spend $25 and five hours reading to learn that!
One thing I did learn from this book is the impact of volatility, which is often ignored in investment strategy recommendations. Volatility cuts into returns in ways that most studies do not account for. Most studies just average the returns across years, but that doesn't reflect real returns. Let's say you invest $100k into a stock that returns 35% the first year and -15% the second. Your average return should be 10% a year, right? Wrong. At the end of the first year you have 135k. Minus 15% the second year leaves you with 115k total, equal to 7% a year compounded. If you had received 10% a year compounded, your final total would be over 121k. That's 6k difference in just 2 years, and the volatility costs add up.
The book is very poorly written, plodding, sooooo boring, with tons of repetition. Just as an example, the graph showing the "Y curve" relationship between P/E ratio and inflation is repeated no less than 3 times.
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While I realize that the majority of people thought this to be a stellar book, it reminds me of the story, "The Emperor has no clothes". Yes, Choan can write a beautiful sentence and yes, the first several pages were intriguing but the switching of years was very annoying. The "flipping back and forth" was not accomplished in a smooth, flowing manner. In addition, the subject matter was incredibly depressing and the characters were so flawed that one did not even care about how their lives evolved. The kidnapping was predictable and the ending contrived. It would be impossible to recommend this book to anyone
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My mother bought this for me for Christmas. She used the "available new and used" section to get it a little cheaper. She ended up paying $160 or so. When I put this on my wish list I thought that this hardcover version would be the Arabic-English/English-Arabic, considering that it was $175 and the paperback of the Arabic-English only was available for $45. As it turns out, this is only the hardcover of the Arabic-English only. So for one, my mother paid an additional $115 for only the hardcover version of a book that I could have gotten in the paperback for $45. I still do not have the English-Arabic of the Hans Wehr edition
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what to write? the book is kinda story book, and gives passages after passages. if you are looking for a book that gives exercises to develop your psychic power, this one's not for you
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This booklet has a lot of Warner Brothers drawings, but it doesn't delve into the specifics of creating animation very well. I'd recommend getting The Animator's Survival Kit instead as it has tons of good and well explained info on the art of creating your own animation
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The title says it all. One can do better w/ Appleyard's book
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I am a big Catherine Coulter fan, but this book is awful. You can skip all the Soap scenes, a waste of space. Much of the dialouge made no sense and the characters were very flat.
Don't waste the $6, borrow from the library if you want to read
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I have progressively become more and more disappointed with Rita Mae Brown's books in the past decade. Her early books were utterly magnificent; now, she rarely if ever deviates from her favorite (and by now, utterly boring) themes -- Southern manners, horse bloodlines, and foxhunting. Blessedly, "Whisker of Evil" was foxhunting-free, but suffered from a heavy-handed overload of the previous two. Rita Mae Brown would be wise to remember that there is a big world outside of her corner of Virginia, and many of us have grace, manners, and respect for others -- and we don't take kindly to being told that only Virginians understand these things. That's just simply not true.
That said, there were some delightful aspects of "Whisker of Evil" -- the mystery itself was great, the animal characters were adorable as ever, and I loved learning more about Harry as a person and what makes her tick. Her quitting the post office was a great (and very unexpected) twist. I liked reading more about her home and her relationships. However, the stultifying minutiae of horse bloodlines was beyond me; was this directed at a heretofore-unknown segment of Rita Mae Brown's fan base? It was so out of context in this book; certain details contributed to the horses' relationships to one another, but she took it way too far and I found myself skipping pages. As well, I almost threw the book across the room when I came across a line that stated in so many words that only Virginians have manners. This is a common theme of Ms. Brown's and it is quite frankly offensive. There is a big, big world outside of Virginia -- Rita Mae Brown should know this, she has lived in it -- but her books and characters have become so parochial, insular and snobbish that it is an insult to those of us who do live elsewhere in that big world. I would have thought these kinds of statements were tongue-in-cheek if it wasn't such a recurring theme in so many of her books over the past decade. Enough already about Southern manners (a biased perception at best), ancestor worship, bloodlines (human and horse), and foxhunting.
Whatever happened to characters like Celeste Chalfonte
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At the young age of 25 Julie Barenson loses her husband. Shortly after he dies, a great dane puppy is delivered to her home with a note from her late husband. This part will give you the chills ... nice touch. She names him Singer, and despite her frustrations with his size and clumsy mannerisms they grow to love each other. After a few years of trying to get her life back together after her tragic loss, Julie begins dating 2 men--Richard, a handsome charmer who wines & dines her, brings her lavish gifts and professes his undying love very early in the relationship. The other, Mike, is a simple down to earth country type whose idea of a date is a burger, Doritos & a couple beers at the local watering hole. So who would you choose? Ouch! I'll stop there with the comment that this could have been such a compelling story. Instead, we are faced with trite, boring, repetitive dialogue throughout, scatterings of viewpoint shifts and a very predictible plot. I cannot believe this is the same author who wrote The Notebook, one of my all time favorite novels. I'll have to admit the ending brought on a gush of tears. In conclusion, Singer not only saved his owner but the book as well.
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I tend to like just about anything that Brubaker writes. While I'm not as excited about his Marvel work as most others are, I have enjoyed his runs on Captain America and Daredevil. His work outside of Marvel has been great; Sleeper is one of my favorite series over the last few years. In general, Brubaker had not written anything that I genuinely disliked. Then came 'Deadly Genesis'.
In short, this is a weak story with several plot holes which makes a mockery of a franchise that already has a history of reworking established continuity to poor results. To what end? Another Summers brother who is completely disinteresting, another story in which Professor X acts like a jerk, a dead X-Men (for absolutely no good reason), and some horrible reworking of existing long running history to cram it all in which now require secrets to have been kept by several key characters for the last 30 years.
I want to think that this story was driven by editorial mandate. Unfortunately, this is the second instance in which Brubaker has went back and altered Marvel history from long ago. In Captain America, he made it so that Bucky never really died in World War II. This initially rubbed me the wrong way, but the story itself was done well, and the surrounding plots were good, so I begrudgingly went along for the ride. I was still able to enjoy his entire run on the book.
His attempt to revise history doesn't work nearly as well here. The key difference is that Bucky had been considered dead for so long that there was very little continuity to adjust. He hadn't been written into any stories during all that time, so it was very easy to go and insert an alternate history for him. In 'Deadly Genesis', Brubaker inserts events into key storylines from 30 years ago. In order for them to work, the reader needs to believe that several key characters has kept these events a secret from that time forward. It just doesn't work.
To make matters worse, none of the characters' motivation for anything makes any sense at all. Characters are keeping secrets, and other characters are upset with that, and through the whole you never understand why. It's as if Brubaker had an end goal in mind, and simply crammed in any plot device necessary to get from point A to point B - even if it required characters to act contrary to their nature or the story didn't make complete sense.
That aside, another difference between the two is simply that this series is not written as well as Captain America. They overall plot doesn't make complete sense and the characters are presented fairly shallowly. Reading it was more of a chore than an act of enjoyment.
The interior art is nice, though not great. Unfortunately, the book falls so short on story alone that the art warrants almost no consideration
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I admit, I haven't finished this book. A friend recommended it to me as I have been having problems with insomnia. I was interested in reading a book about women's health issues and this one sounded intriguing UNTIL she started in with her tarot cards, interest in astrology and angels. Granted, I am not a firm believer in just "the hard facts" but its really hard to believe anything this woman writes after it is clear that common sense isn't alternative enough for her!
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What I learned in this book could have been placed on 1 page. Sure, business life is a challenge and your competitors are not your friends, but this book did not deliver on facts and details. I don't see much difference between this book and the guru-books
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McMurry's text is a very friendly, gentle intro to organic. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read, but it doesn't teach you what you need to know. Explanations for important mechanisms are usually very brief, and the problems included are usually very basic and general (the spectroscopy and synthesis problems, in particular). If you're looking to become a chemist, this is not the book to learn from. I'd recommend Vollhardt and Schore's textbook, or any number of sophomore-level texts that will give you the skills you need to approach complicated problems more successfully (i.e., on exams or out in the industry)
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This novel comes off like a high schooler wanting to write about the movie and music industries. In between the entertainment biz cliches, the author can only think to put various assination hits. some of the characters are interesting but not believable, and they certainly can't make up for the braindead plot. Read some of his other novels and skip this one
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While it may have been well written, this book is disturbing and disgusting to put it mildly. If you or anyone you know are pregnant, or contemplating or trying to have children, do not read this book! This is one book I can honestly say in retrospect, I would rather have failed the test on than ever have read
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I read this book for a book report, and because i could not choose another one i could not stop reading it. Because I was forced to read this book I now have the knoledge and misfortune of this pathetically boring story. The steriotypical characters hurried through the story full of excuses. 1 star for one very boring book
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I was extremely disappointed with "After Midnight". The author, his widow, has written the book from her own life's perspective, and there is sadly little about the true Brad Davis. His homosexuality, or perhaps bisexuality, is mentioned only in passing, and anyone in New York or Hollywood that knew him will tell you that this was a huge part of his life. I guess a book written by his wife can't be expected to delve too deeply into this area, but even other interesting details - his drug addiction, his acting technique, etc. are only minimally suggested here. I wanted to put the book down after two chapters, but kept waiting for it to get interesting. I suggest the publishers retitle the book "My Life with Brad Davis - The Saga Of A Wife Kept In The Dark", or something similar, to indicate to readers that this book is about Susan Bluestein, and tells very little about Brad
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Talk about taking the joy out of an experience. I read this book prior to a week-long trip to Venice. This book quite simply accomplished none of its objectives. It is a poor "guidebook" and is poorly written and uninteresting in terms of a travelogue. The history and art of Venice are covered better in books from those genres. The only upside is that it is short. Yuck, what a waste of time. My advice is: get a novel about Venice if you like novels, a guidebook if you want that, an art book, or a history book. At least you'll get something out of those--this one tries all of these and fails. Actually, in terms of a travelogue, "Vendela in Venice" far surpassess any other Venice book I have seen. Although I originally bought it because it is considered a children's book, it is not dumbed down at all and adults will enjoy it...
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Having read a few Bosch books already (The Closers and Lost Light), I realized that I should probably start at the beginning to get better insight on how Bosch became the Bosch I was reading in the later series. However, I was very disappointed with this book. One of the most irritating aspects of this book was the grammatical errors (mispellings and such). I found 3 or 4 in the first 50 pages (before I stopped reading)! I thought it was ironic that Connelly was thanking his editor at the beginning of the book, because it did not seem that anyone was editing this book. Also, I found the book to be too gritty. It lacked the emotion and soul that I found in the later books. It seemed that Connelly was trying too hard to make Bosch fit this certain mold, but then transformed the character to be more likeable in the later books that I read. So it was disappointing that this book could not hold my interest because I just finished reading The Narrows and loved it, and will probably pick up some other Bosch books and just read it out of order. Connelly's writing seems to be getting better and better, which should explain why I didn't enjoy this book and couldn't finish it. I gave it 2 stars because it might have gotten better and maybe I was too impatient. This is one of those series that seems like it is better to read out of order
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My blood was boiling as I read other customers' rave reviews of "The Prince of Tides." Whoever considers this thesaurus-scrubbing, self-indulgent mess of cliches a literary masterpiece has no sense of language and literature. Someone was even audacious enough to compare Pat Conroy to Virginia Woolf. What a joke! Woolf's writing is brilliant, original, and real. She cuts to the quick, whereas Conroy slathers his story in cloying metaphors and trite descriptions. One can almost see Conroy congratulating himself on each simile and metaphor as he writes, not caring how superfluous or artificial his language is -- nor how unrealistic it makes the story. I laughed out loud at some of the words he puts in the characters' mouths. In the real world, nobody is as self-concious and self-reflexive as the characters in this book. They do not speak in reams of figurative language. I cannot even get into how inconsistent and impossible the characters are, especially the children. Also, Conroy caricatures both places and exaggerates the cultural gulf between them. (I make that claim as a Southerner who lived in NYC for four years.) It's one of many, many flaws in this ridiculous book. Read it if you like sensational stories with mass appeal (John Irving, etc.), but avoid it if you have any respect for the English language and for real American literature (Cheever, Plath, Hemingway, Cather, etc.). Don't be fooled by all the fools out there.
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Well, the fact that I'm writing a review about this book, while it's sitting open on my desk next to my computer, open and not being read, might be some evidence of how I'm enjoying this book. This book just goes on and on in complex an unclear language about a subject which shouldn't be so difficult. This book is not clear or easy to understand at all. Every sentence is awkward and followed by a footnote, and the masses of footnotes together take up half of EACH page (!), making this work look like a research project for a PhD publication. I have the casebook in this series, and sometimes it seems reading the cases alone will bring more clarity. And it turns to be true! This book might be good if you're advanted-contracts and want to know every little detail, or as an advanced reference later on, to look something up like in an encyclopedia. Some concepts, which should be pretty clear just get too in-depth coverage in this book. It's too complex for a first-year student. Sometimes it starts describing the different views out there, and then there's a jumble in your head as to what the law really is. I wish the author used his own knowledge and fluid language more than footnoted ideas from other authors.
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Just wanted to quickly say I haven't finished it yet, I am only on page 20 but already this book seems very overrated. The author dives straight in talking about going beyond the five senses to achieve spiritual consciousness, but this is nothing new and we are not even given any background on how the author developed his views. Instead, he strides arrogantly forward as though he is the ultimate, conclusive authority on spirituality, and it's very aloof and, actually, not an enlightened approach at all! I've just started the chapter on Karma and it's really starting to smell like just another mish mash of other people's opinions clothed as quasi-originality. It looks like I'm going to continue reading with a very cautious, vetting attitude toward the text. The fact that this was a bestseller only serves to show how genuinely interested people are to develop their spiritual consciousness - and how easily authors such as Zukav can cash in on their hopes and fears. Hey, that's the material world for you!
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Very seldom do I give up on a book; I gave up on this one after several attempts to finish. I have read Barbara Delinsky in the past and have enjoyed her books. I remember the fascination with the Peyton Place/Grace Metalious hoopla in the 50's and 60's so I was expecting to enjoy this story. It is dull and tiresome.
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The information contained within this book was extremely out of date with a strong emphasis on steroids. It is a shame there are not more current and useful books for pet owner out there on this widespread problem.
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Though this book does present all the necessary information for learning about abnormal psychology, it's the dryest, most aesthetically difficult to read textbook... especially if you happen to be studying the material online/through independent study. The publisher needs to redesign the book and/or you need to have a better online course professor. It feels nearly impossible to be interested in this material (which is interesting in itself) if you have to read the textbook front to back on your own without any instruction.
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So this page-turning thriller was on the best-selling list for a gazillion months and put Catholic and fellow Christian faithful in a defensive uproar. I'm fairly well read and, yes, I've earned a few bucks with my prose. I'm also a sucker for historic tales, ancient folklore, mythology and Old Testament characters who lived for 800 years and begat like rabbits. OK, I decided, now that it's in paperback, I'll give it a read. What I concluded was this: Those who found The Da Vinci Code an affront to their faith could have could have ended the argument before it reached the level of theological debate by countering that Brown's work is a literary steaming pile. I read page after page, waiting for the moment when I would start to give a rat's ass about The Da Vinci Code's protagonists. What a bunch of twits. Langdon is a leading authority in the obscure field of symbology (I don't know if I spelled that right, but I'm not about to go back in that book and check it). Apparently, there are enough people in the world who crave more symbology that Langdon's books sell better than Brown's, entitling him to the academia equivalent of rock start status. Sophie is effectively portrayed as a cuddly French chick who's easy on the eyes -- someone a man might make a hit on before the first 300 pages if he wasn't a dipwad like Landgon. She's got some inner deamons that make her interesting enough, but she's been isolated from folks like you and me in a cradle of artsy culture so high-falluting most French probably couldn't tolerate it. And then they hook up with that insufferable aristocratic British snob Teabing. From cradle to some approptiately haught estate near (but, of course) Versaille, this memeber of the Royal Lucky Sperm Club has never had to lift a finger to earn buck or a pound or a Euro. So he's been free to pursue his fascination with Bigfoot rumors about how the Priory of Sion, Opus Dei and those cool Holy Grail Knights from the third Indiana Jones movie have contrived through the centuries to keep the lid on damning evidence that Jesus made a baby girl and God had originally intended women to be in charge of everything. Or something like that. Oh, I forgot, Teabing's crippled so I should feel bad about talking bad about him. Anyway, this trio of prententious intellectual clods sit around do what pretentious intellectual clods do -- make lofty, self-affirmed pronouncments about how the world's going to turn upside down when this cat gets out of the bag. The point is that these characters aren't very approachable and Brown does little to convince me that this secret will destroy Christian faith as we know it. Hell, it's been more than 100 years since Darwin presented pretty clear evidence for evolution, yet the Christian faithtul still pack churches around world. But back to how bad this book is. Trite doesn't begin to describe some of the wincing turns of phrase. I would give you some examples but, like I said, I'm not going back in there. One of the more laughable scenes of upper-crust idiocy occurs when Langdon and Sophie meet up with Teabing in his metrosexual parlor. By now, Sophie and Langdon have somehow eluded the grasp of professional killers several times, been on the run and are exhausted. With a straight face, Brown describes how Sophie's delirium is sated by a spot of tea and her hunger is satisfied by... crumpets. Yes, crumpets. Hell, Teabing, shut up about your conspiracy theories, roust your beligernet butler and have him fix these people something to eat. Offer Langdon a stiff drink. I sure needed one at this point. By now I'm pulling for the albino. Then they escape the jaws of death yet again and, naturally, high-tail it to England on Teabing's private jet. I hoped maybe Teabow would turn back upon discovering he'd left his Grey Poupon behind. I stopped reading it about 30 pages later when it became clear that the Albino wasn't going to get a chance to wack any of these intrepid protagonists. I don't know how it ends. I don't care. However, there were plenty enough nuggets of research on the subject to entice me into watching a few nice documentaries laying out this whole conspiracy on the History Channel and Discovery. Who knows? You might like it. This is just my opinion
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Suggest for all genuinely interested in this topic , to refer to Rabbi David Berger's book , The Rebbe , the Messiah & the Scandal of Orthodox indifference
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I'm a big Nora fan, but I couldn't even finish this one. By the fourth chapter I began to skim. WAY WAY WAY to much detail for me. Which made it boring and slow. Testing and corrosion, is it fake, is it real ...blah blah blah. ENOUGH! I did however enjoy the side story about the brother (I forget his name). But thats it folks. Unlike ALL the other reviewers, I hated it. I say PASS on this one. But as you can see, I'm in the minority
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We have to use this book for the college class that I'm taking and it is a horrible book. I often find myself looking for help on the internet rather than going to this book. It is poorly organized, I have to go to the index in order to find something I specifically need because the book isn't in any order. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. Find another there are many more
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I have been slogging through this book for weeks now, it was a terrible shock to the system after John Julius Norwich's excellent book on Byzantium. The book lacks any narrative thrust, often stopping and retreading events slightly out of chronological order and frequently bringing all forward motion to a halt by describing the intricacies of some bureaucratic office or another. The one consistent thing throughout this book is the author's obvious agenda to "set the record straight" and prove that the Ottoman empire was far superior to its "barbaric" European contemporaries
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Seven Times The Sun is not for everyone. It could be a springboard, offering times of the day and night where parents might want to incorporate some kind of rituals to provide their children with a stable and balanced life. But the songs, poems and traditions offered in Shea Darian's book are hokey and contrived at best, cumbersome and artificial at worst. None of the other reviews indicated the religious or spiritual aspect of the book. Darian is a minister, and all of the poems and songs have a subtle religious bent. True, parents should teach children to be thankful for all they have. But I'm just thankful Amazon has a customer-friendly return policy
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I read Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" and laughed hysterically at many parts of the book, and through the rest was either duly entertained or pleasantly educated (for the "educated" aspect, Bill interlaces the book with fascinating factual tangents).
I started into "In a Sunburned Country" with similar expectations, and especially since I have always longed and planned to visit Australia. To state that I was disappointed is a severe understatement. After reading this book I now have little to no desire to visit the "land down under;" my only hope is that I will completely forget what I read in Bryson's book so that I may one day look forward to and enjoy visiting Australia. (Senility be merciful and consume me hastily!)
My best estimate is that Bryson was commissioned to write a ~350 page book about Australia. During and / or after his trip, his creative sense must have taken a vacation of its own. I have rarely struggled so much to get through a book as I did with this one. Bryson even stooped so low as to use an urban legend as a "story" relayed second-hand from one of the Australians he "met." Such a stunt makes me question if any of his accounts are real in any of his books.
The only saving grace to this book was the educational tangents. These, at least, provided for some interesting reading.
After comparing notes with another person who ventured to read another of Bryson's books ("I'm A Stranger Here Myself") after she read "A Walk in the Woods," it would appear that "In a Sunburned Country" is not the only snore-fest that Bryson has churned out. Perhaps he isn't a "one hit wonder," but I for one am not going to waste my time or money finding out.
So, if you are looking for the same caliber of writing that Bryson provided in "A Walk in the Woods," look to another author or prepare to be greatly disappointed.
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There is one thing that every cookbook author can learn from How To Cook Without A Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know By Heart, by Pam Anderson (not the big-breasted one), and that is the art of the highly marketable title.
For starters, this artful moniker really plays on the single gal's fears about never being able to put together nutritious, attractive, varied, affordable, and delicious meals for her future family every single night of the week. You want your kids to be armed with more than some simple carbohydrates when you send them off into the big bad world.
So the plus side of this book is the title. That's where it ends. The big idea here is to help the reader become a non-cookbook-consulting cook by: a) teaching basic cooking techniques that are conducive to variation, and b) suggesting mnemonic devices for said cooking techniques. Sounds interesting so far, right?
Well, the problem is that almost all the recipes rely on "canned low-sodium chicken broth", which I think is a bit of a weird ingredient. It's even included in the salad dressings. Other big hitters include: heavy cream, butter, and sour cream. Do people really eat like this? Regularly?
Why not make the Easy Fruit Parfaits for a quick and sweet ending to your meal? Just take a tall glass, drop in a few spoonfuls of sour cream, then a few spoonfuls of brown sugar, and some berries. Repeat until the glass is filled.
Crikey. Sour cream, brown sugar, and berries?!? Wouldn't it be just as easy to put the berries in yoghurt sweetened with a little squirt of Greek honey? Am I totally off base thinking that this sounds much more appetizing? Or, if calories are no object anyway, why not pick up some Baskin Robbins' Rocky Road on the way home from work? That's easy AND it's worth the internal havoc it will cause.
Oh, and here's a sample mnemonic device that I can't not share, it's that good:
"Cook tender vegetables with garlic and oil,
Then toss in some pasta that's fresh from the boil."
Pure genius, right? Right.
In a way, the author was right - I CAN cook all these things without a book. But why would I want to
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I've seen much better photos/articles on Dylan and would not suggest this particular work. I will be selling my copy in the used section.
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If you've read anything already about these techniques - writing it down, visualizing it, tithing - this book offers no additional insights. And despite his "Official Religious Disclaimer" at the beginning of the book, it is packed to the rafters with the author's own religious dogma. If you share the author's religious outlook you may like this book, but otherwise it makes for very tedious reading
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Melrose Larry Green's book is full of quotes. Quotes and information used to back up points are good things. He appears to have researched by surfing the Internet, watching television and legally incorporating the opinions of others. This is all fine and acceptable.
The problem with "Why the Clintons Belong in Prison" is when the author (cut and paste expert) attempts his own narrative, which is sporadic, jumpy and poorly edited. His points are not linear, and show the author's attention deficit. With a proper literary team, this book could have been something of note but unfortunately it feels like a "hit and run" report and reads like a one-sided sensationalized talk radio program.
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This is the worst novel that I have ever read by a major author. I have read a couple other Alex Cross novels and I did not find them to be awful at all. They weren't very good but they kept me turning the page. While I was reading this dreck I began to get a sense of Patterson's work ethic. He sets a goal for himself and does not stray from it. One maybe two chapters per day I suppose, and when his muse is on vacation for a couple of months this is the result. Not a snowball's chance in hell that this would have been published if it weren't written by Patterson. I'm done. Don't waste your time. Really
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This is a good book for serious health nuts that have the time and energy to make simple easy recipes with a million strange ingredients that you've probably never heard of. If you plan on making lots of baby food with kelp and sea weed then this is the book for you
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While this book is a good attempt at placing statistical topics necessary to toxicology in one spot, the mistakes are inexcusable. Many formula are incorrect as well as text referring to the wrong tables or data. Therefore, one begins to lose trust in the information presented. Be careful if you use this book
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This book was a huge disappointment. Not only wasn't it funny to me, it has absolutely nothing funny for kids. Too bad its not worth the return shipping charges. I threw it out
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I love fairy tales! I was so excited to see the author of Beauty had another retelling. Spindles End has me very confused. I am plugging through it and hope when I am done with it a second time I can give it more stars. I would not recommend it for younger readers
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I have read 3 books of Ann in last 3-4 months and no doubt loved it, but not sure If I am reading same info in different books with different titles from her.
I guess I am not buying this title and anymore of her unless it has way different contents...
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I love Heinlein. I think that he has a unique voice and perspective in the world of science fiction. I find that his plots and ideas are inventive. Even this story was inventive in many ways, like some of the business ideas in regards to the new source of energy in the first chapters. However, I found this book as a whole to be very boring. Much of this is due to the lack of fully fleshed characters. The "main" characters of each section of the book aren't fully realized at all. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you picked it up for free and were really, really bored
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I thought this book was supposed to help you construct a very useful and pretty small house on a budget. I was wrong. Instead, it is about not too big houses where you spend tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, on all kinds of architectural extravagances. Perhaps this book could have a subtitle: How to spend a million dollars on a 1,500 square foot house. If you are looking to build a house efficiently and cheaply, this is the wrong book
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I enjoyed the parts regarding the S.S. Valiant, but the later part of the book simply didn't work for me. Except for Picard, who we of course know quite well from the series, the other characters were flat and uninteresting. We never find out what is motivating the alien attackers and they are the cardboard cutout enemy-of-the-week, boring. The whole "adversarial" situation with the 1st Officer also just struck me as odd and wrong, and was just not developed correctly or fleshed out beyond being another cardboard enemy for Picard
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I will not lash out against anyone, and I will not use specific names of individuals or organizations that replace the search for truth with a situationist relativism based on vainglorious, ostentatious egotism. That said, let me merely point out that the absence of necessary historiographical context makes Jesus of Nathareth's solutions extremely difficult to accept. First off, it doesn't do us much good to become angry and wave our arms and shout about the evils of Jesus's morals in general terms. If we want other people to agree with us and join forces with us, then we must provide a trenchant analysis of Jesus's codices. The key point here is that Jesus's older analects were deluded enough. His latest ones are undoubtedly beyond the pale. Jesus's peuplade appears to be growing in number. I indisputably pray that this is analogous to the flare-up of a candle just before extinction yet I keep reminding myself that Jesus has found a way to avoid compliance with government regulations, circumvent any further litigation, and violate his pledge not to condemn innocent people to death -- all by trumping up a phony emergency. His desire to control your bank account, your employment, your personal safety, and your mind is the chief sign that he's a slaphappy caitiff. (The second sign is that Jesus feels obliged to force me to undergo "treatment" to cure my "problem".)
Perhaps I'm reading too much into Jesus's ravings, but they don't seem to serve any purpose other than to destroy the natural beauty of our parks and forests. Jesus's pr?is are Pyrrhonism cloaked in the rhetoric of truculent, noxious feudalism. That's pretty transparent. What's not so transparent is the answer to the following question: Does Jesus's oversized ego demand that he condone illegal activities? A clue might be that every time he tries, Jesus gets increasingly successful in his attempts to have a serious destabilizing effect on our institutions. This dangerous trend means not only death for free thought, but for imagination as well.
Jesus's eccentricity is surpassed only by his vanity. And his vanity is surpassed only by his empty theorizing. (Remember his theory that the cure for evil is more evil?) Jesus of Nathareth has an agenda -- a political, social, and cultural agenda. And that's all I have to say.
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Let me see how many books can I write to preach to the choir about the same thing. She must of got dumped by a handful of Liberal boyfriends (what intellegent person would want her) and now she's trying to get back at 'em. Can't wait for the next "I hate liberals so much and here are my reasons why" book. She should join Fox she would fit right in
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This book contains reproducible mini-books, bingo cards, flash cards, some word search puzzles and fill-in activities. In my opinion, the fill-ins are a bit too challenging. I even had trouble with them. The only thing in this book really "worth it" that I couldn't make as well myself, are the mini-books. The mini-books each contain several different sight words, so they seem to me to be more effective for review of words the student has already learned than in the initial learning of them
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Need I say more than the above title suggests? Okay, so the upside of this book is that it has important life lessons and epiphanies from the voice of experience. There are some touching moments in this book, but even then there is still something the author is lacking. I saw the movie when it was in theatres and I have just finished reading the book. I liked the movie soooooooooo much better than the book. The movie was funny, entertaining, touching, personal, and sad at times. The book did not captivate me at all. I had trouble staying focused. Considering Beverly Donofrio's credentials--a bachelor's degree in English from Wesleyan University and a master of fine arts in creative writing--her quality of writing is very poor. Her quality of writing is more like someone who has only a highschool education, if even that. And not to go off topic, but since Donofrio has a master of fine arts in creative writing from a top notch school like Columbia U, then why doesn't she write about something else besides her getting pregnant in highschool and how that has changed her life? I mean, after all, the MFA is in creative writing, meaning she should be more creative rather than just write autobiographies all the time. She has only wrote 2 books--Riding in Cars With Boys, and Looking For Mary, both about her getting pregnant at a young age. If you liked the movie, just leave it at that. Don't bother reading the book unless you enjoy getting disappointed. And if you're interested in a novel or autobiography about teen pregnancy, then go to the local library. Don't get this one. There's other novels covering the same subject that are far superior to this one.
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I only needed this for school a little while back. Now I am marketing in Hawaii at a resort and realizing this book taught me little to nothing. Have fun with it if you please though
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I found this book vacuous and jejune. And frankly, I met the author (without knowing who he was) and he tried to pick me up, and I've never heard such a pile of cr.. in my life. And I'm not even close to beautiful. So good luck with his advise
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I so do not understand all the rave reviews on this book. I read it recently for a book club selection, and let me tell you, If I didn't have to read it, I would have put it down after the first twenty pages, and never picked it up again. I found it to be dark, depraved, disgusting, and depressing! An examination of love in all it forms? Hardly! These characters were just plain goofy. I finally figured it out towards the end of the book, these characters were so miserable because they were lost spiritually. They were looking to other humans to provide them with true love, and that is just barking up the wrong tree. I am giving it one star only for the rich use of language
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There are just too many errors ,of interpretation,omission and commission,in this book to justify purchasing it.In this review we will concentrate on Rima's(R)handling of the work of J M Keynes.On p.84,R's claim that the Physiocratic concept of hoarding is "surprisingly suggestive" of J M Keynes's idea has no supporting evidence to back it up.On p.133,R claims that Malthus had developed a principle of effective demand,a la Keynes.What Malthus expressed was an uneasy feeling and/or intuition that Ricardo's deductive,analytical system of market self adjustment to a global optimum was overlooking(or assuming away)the possibility of insufficient aggregate spending.Nowhere does Malthus ever systematically present a theoretical counter to Ricardo.What Malthus does is express some reservations in an exchange of postal letters with Ricardo.In chapter 20 of R's book, she attempts to deal with Keynes's theory of effective demand and Keynes's discussion of involuntary unemployment which follows directly from his theory.Keynes worked out the mathematical details in his chapter 20,titled "The Employment Function".R should have simply reprinted that chapter in her book,replacing her chapter 20 with Keynes's chapter 20.R's Figure 20.1,discussed on pages451-454,directly contradicts Keynes's analysis
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Horrible book. The racist continues his trend of substandard writing
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Many reviewers compared this novel to Jurassic Park, saying it was a better book than Crichton's. What absurdity. I am not saying that JP is an awesome book, but it was far better than Tyrannosaur Canyon.
Tyrannosaur Canyon is a fairly intriguing story, but poorly executed and VERY poorly ended. It's as though Preston suddenly realized that he was going to have to get his characters out of the predicament he had put them in, and didn't know how to do it. The ending is too fast, too unlikely and too unrealistic.
The book closes with a theistic comment by one of the characters, which I believe is Preston's way of attempting to belong to both camps, having his science AND being religious.
Overall, I had high hopes for this book and I am sorry to say that in the last 100 pages, I was greatly let down
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I have several dummies books, from how to build a PC to CCNA. I had to read this rediculous book when I worked for a very well known DSL provider on the East Coast. This book was trivial, assumes that you are completely mindless and plugs certain products and services shamelessly. Yes, I agree, Hot Bot is a pretty good search engine...but it is not the only one out there. This book has technical incosistansies throughout and is basically a really really long advertisement. Easily the worst dummies book in print, and Im not being a jerk, I love dummies books, Ron Gilster rocks, but this is absolute crap. You can honestly get more informed with a magazine
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I'm the sort of guy who has a bit of trouble adapting to normal life. I'm still bemused and puzzled the mechanics of toilet-flushing. My wife (may she rest in peace) bought me this book as an anniversary present last month before she was tragically torn apart by a rabid pack of alligators at a Wyoming nature preserve. Anyway, life moves on.
Much to my disappointment this book did not teach me everything I should know how to do. "But Fred," you might be saying (and I'll be saying "Fred isn't my name, idiot!"), "how do you know what you should know if you don't know what it is to begin with?"
Ah, well, let me explain. See, if Tchikavoslky taught me one thought, it was this: I know nothing.
So it is with this deep insight into my own mind that I came up with the following Things I Should Know, based on what I currently do NOT know:
1. How to start a hurricane. This is very important.
2. How to kill a man with a toothpick. What if you met a hitman at a fancy restaurant and found out your were his next victim? Scary.
3. How to run a nuclear powerplant with a one-man army. I don't want to be the next Homer Simpson!
4. How to raise children. I've raised ten and still haven't figured out what a diaper is.
5. What a diaper is. I don't know, my wife used to talk about them a lot.
6. How to drive. Sure, technically we're supposed to learn how BEFORE we get our driver's licenses, but like many people, I just got a fake one when I was 12 and have been driving since then. I've been in over three hundred vehicular accidents and been charged with five counts of manslaughter, so I figured it might be good to learn how to drive.
7. How to stalk a celebrity. You just never know.
8. How to put on underwear without leaving stain marks. You fellas know what I'm saying!
9. How to make coffee. People ask me to all the time, and because I don't know how, I just take some warm water and pour mud in. Thankfully no one's noticed my inadequacies yet, but I'm sure soon enough they will, after another person dies of food poisoning and internal infection.
10. How to kill yourself. I don't want the aliens to get anything out of me when I'm taken hostage. I saw it in that Tom Cruise movie, and it was sure scary!
So with these things in mind, I'm severely disappointed by this book, and feel it is mis-marketed and stupid.
Please, Barbet Schroeder (or whoever the author was), write a better book next time
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I generally like Elmore Leonard, this is the twelfth book of his I've read, ranging from his Detroit crime capers, to his L.A.-set Chili Palmer stuff, to some of his Westerns. Other than the terrible "Be Cool", this is probably my least favorite of his books so far. Set in the years between the end of World War I and 1934, the story follows Carlos "Carl" Webster from boyhood to manhood as the son of a wealthy pecan farmer rises to became a hotshot U.S. Marshall. The story takes place in the dusty Midwest, mainly around Tulsa and Oklahoma City, as Carl faces off with various wanna-be desperados seeking to make a name for themselves.
Carl is a somewhat vain, cocky lawman, with a keen sense of what kind of quote will get him in the papers. His main foe is the son of a wealthy oil man, a no account young man who has everything he needs, but whose selfish nature and appetite for stirring things up leads him into Carl's path. Mixed into this are kinds of period details, from prohibition to Will Rogers shows to Klansmen vigilantes to "True Detective" writers to striking miners to mentions of various real-life bank robbers Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, and Bonnie and Clyde Barrow.
Despite all this background detail, the story itself failed to engage me. There are none of the clever twists and turns that characterize Leonard's best work. There's a good guy, a bad guy, and an inextricable outcome whose resolution is surprisingly undramatic. In fact, about halfway through the book I realized that the "real story" wasn't going to kick in -- I was in it! And unlike many Leonard books, the supporting cast of characters isn't particularly memorable. Even Leonard's trademark strong dialogue is mostly missing, subsumed by his attempt to stick to period speech. Ultimately, one gets the feeling that Leonard was most interested in capturing the vibe of the period, and perhaps didn't spend nearly the same amount of effort on the actual story. That said, the Depression and its effects are surprisingly absent from the story, given the time and place. All in all, unless you're really really into the whole '30s gangster thing, not worth the time.
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As a fervent admirer of Peter Bart's previous books, The Gross and Who Killed Hollywood, I was extremely disappointed with this one. I feel he sold out by flacking for Peter Guber, whose exploits were richly detailed in the book "Hit and Run". There's really nothing new in here, and you'd be well advised to avoid it
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I wasn't aware the only swords that existed and were noteworthy enough to grace the pages of an Encyclopedia were European. Seems to me much is left out by ignoring the Eastern blades
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I have read a bunch of poker books and play regularly. There are a lot of good books out there, Dan Harrington's the very best, but this isnt one of them. Too much ego here and not enough helpful information
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After reading the delightful Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this sequel was an absolute let-down. The novel begins with the great Glass Elevator breaking through the ceiling of Charlie's (formerly Wonka's) chocolate factory and rocketing into orbit around the Earth. While beyond the reaches of Earth's atmosphere, our heroes---Charlie, Grandpa Joe, and Mr. Wonka---must deal with the malleable and voracious Vermicious Knids (pronounced "K'Nids"), aliens which resemble unfrighteningly hostile figs or turds with eyes. Far worse than these beasties, though, are the insufferable old folks whose twenty-year stint in their shared bed has made them less than useless. Charlie, Joe, and Wonka, with no help from Charlie's folks or other grandparents, save themselves and a US spacecraft from the clutches of the Knids and return to the Chocolate Factory, where the old timers stupidly overdose on youth pills, returning them to infancy or beyond. Charlie and Wonka race around trying to help these ancient parasites, who respond to this assistance with the thanklessness the reader comes to expect from these oldsters. At the end of the novel, the geriatric brigade finally leaves the bed when they have a chance to meet the President.
In short, these three are the most tedious, spiteful, unredeemable characters I've come across in children's literature and I hoped that they would be eaten by the Knids or the Gnoolies or even the Oompa-Loompas as I read this book. As it is, they (unlike the awful kids in the Chocolate Factory) learn no lessons and persist in their curmudgeonly parasitism from the first page to the last. Their presence throughout the novel rendered it a chore, rather than a joy, to read.
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From the cover and a quick glances at some of the colorful photo filled chapters, this book seem promising at first. But the cliched saying of never judge a book by its cover has taken its toll. This book provides marginal advice on how to -potentially- make a profit from the wonderful world of digital photography, however, it fails to give any real world working model on how this can be accomplished.
Most of the marginally useful advices and sales model, i.e. pricing structure on stock photos, are based on the author's own personal preference and experience, rather than taking into account the wide breadth of pricing methods that exist in the real world of photography.
This is a great book for amateurs that are trying to break into the business of selling their prints from an outline or a strict table-of-content perspective of the available methods and channels of distribution to target, e.g. card stock, stock photo, art fairs, etc.
Most of topics cover seem to be more 'theoretical' than actual real-world hands down information and the author seems to expend more time, energy and care in expressing his disdain (with a condescending overtone, might I add) toward enthusiastic amateurs that aim to make it big and quick. His favorite recurring adjectives for such amateurs includes, but certainly are not limited to: prima donnas, pretentious, and pretend aficionado. Heller may be a [self-aggrandizing] professional photographer, but anyone with such high caliber should be more helpful, than pompous or supercilious. Remember Heller, you were an amateur at one point too.
Further more, Heller likes to take a seemingly interesting idea, get your hopes up and then tell you why you shouldn't pursue it because the odds are just too high against you.
Bottomline: If you are serious about licensing your photographs for use, then this book does not really cover the core foundations that you need to get your feet wet. On the otherhand, if you want to take a look at what you can do to -potentially- make a profit from your hobby, then this book basically gives you an -general- idea.
I'd give this book a 1-star for the lack of usable information and the author's cockiness, but it does contain some interesting theories and sales model to warrant a 2-star rating
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The fatalistic view of Conservativism is expressed by Kirk even before the first chapter concludes as he states, "[Edmund] Burke, could he see our century, never would concede that a consumption-society, so near suicide, is the end for which Providence has prepared man". But wait. The Conservative Mind was first published in 1953, the mythical golden age of America with Ward and June Cleaver and Normal Rockwell. Meanwhile, Burke, a contemporary of the 18th century is pining for the 14th century. What a depressing ideology to think that we always live in the worst of times.
There are certain ideological threads that carry throughout the book including a belief in the stratification of society. Voting should be the privilege of a small minority rather than universal democracy which Kirk saw as contributing to a degradation of society. Kirk writes, "What men really are seeking, or ought to seek, is not the right to govern themselves, but the right to be governed well" but what he offers is a lack of true representation. The author pines for the days of the aristocrat and although he defines the elites by wealth, intellect and lineage he clearly includes race and gender. Is it so surprising that Kirk lauds some of the worst racists in American history like Nathanial Bedford Forrest whom he describes as `magnificent' before quoting his racist vitriol? In a particularly galling move he referrers to pro-slavery advocate John C. Calhoun as a `defender of minorities' and praises John Randolph for, among other things, opposing doctrines of racial equality. Kirk goes on about Calhoun's support for states rights but his support only extended to southern states as he supported the Fugitive Slave Act which forced federal officials and law officials in Northern states to return runaway slave under penalty of $1000 fine. He supported laws that would make it illegal for northerners to even protest slavery. For Calhoun states rights were nothing more than a self serving attempt to keep slavery safe. Kirk shows his own racist stripes when he refers to northern `anti-slavery agitation' and supports Calhoun for choosing racial preservation over liberty, although Calhoun has an extremely warped view of liberty. One wonders if Kirk could even fathom the supreme irony in stating the Calhoun mounted a `strong protest against domination by class or region'.
Another thread is his desire to see the reunification of church and state. The duty of the church is to keep the unclean masses in line. Quoting Samuel Coleridge, the author makes it clear that the truth or falsity of the church is irrelevant; it is an institution that must be preserved as the primary means of social control. Sounding like the inspiration for disgraced Chief Justice Roy Moore, Russell Kirk urges that, "state and church ought never to be separate entities, true religion is not merely an expression of national spirit; it rises far superior to earthly law, being, indeed, the source of all law". Kirk sees a difference between the faulty laws of man and the laws of God but never draws a distinction. I have to wonder if, like the modern Reconstructionist, Kirk wanted to see the laws of Leviticus imposed including executing homosexuals and blasphemers. He never explains how one might recognize a law of God besides using prejudice.
The third thread would be Kirk's anti-intellectual (or perhaps pro-stupid) stance. He refers to human reason as `puny' and `impotent' and claims that we find the mind of God in prejudice and tradition. `Prejudice', he writes, `is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, skeptical, puzzled, and unresolved'. Actually what he is advocating is for the general population to turn over rational thought to the church and those higher up the social chain. Citizens are encouraged to exhibit awe and veneration for God and those in higher stations and authority.
In order to grab the golden fleece of populism Conservatives have lately had to abandon overt stratification although veneration of wealth is certainly still evident. Like Calhoun the support for states rights remains a complete faade. I found Russell Kirk's salesmanship of Conservativism generally repellent but recommend the book because it remains a fairly enlightening view of an ideology that continues to thrive to this day.
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This book is undoubtedly very good value for a birding handbook (certainly by European standards). But the physical packaging is a total disaster. It has a ridiculously rigid spine and tiny page margins. It is difficult to read text near the spine, and virtually impossible to keep the book open on a particular page. The most unuseable book I've ever experienced
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The author is reusing a similar plot device than in "Twisted": a somewhat obscure reference material that shows up late in the book and clarifies everything. That is a poor strategy for a mystery novel, because the reader expects to be given clues so as to be involved in the logical process of solving the crimes.
The narrative in general is not Kellerman at his best, either. The characterizations are so shallow that one wonders all the time why the characters act like they do.
A small part of the book talks about Brazil, and Kellerman simply invents a couple of Portuguese words making them sound Spanish: ("favilla", "favillitos"). One wonders how much of the author's research is similarly fictional.
In sum, a book carelessly executed
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This entire book reads like an 8th-Grade Research paper. From an uncountable amount of grammatical and spelling errors to numerous repeated sentences (literally quotes retyped word for word, pages apart), it's difficult not to get irritated while reading this. The information on Weezer is great, but often times the author veers away from focusing on the band and gives too much information on things that even the most obsessed fan won't care about. Unfortunately, this appears to be the only book on Weezer out right now, so if you want to learn more about the band in book form this is all you've got. I suggest just browsing around their official website, because it's obvious that's where the author got quite a bit of his information. Don't waste your money
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I was rather disappointed in Mr. Peterson's work. He dwells much too long on trying to convince us of "the problem". Nearly the first half of the book is spent on statistic overload! Even after wading through the numbers and graphs, I am still skeptical of his conclusions and would caution readers to do further research. Certainly the Baby Boomers are an aging bulge in the population of the US and will create some challenges. However, the author fails to mention the "echo boom" (baby boomer's children which are equal in number) and he glosses over the impact of the huge young immigration population that comes into the country every year. Both of these facts will "soften" the impact of the "Gray Doom" that Mr. Peterson tries to create. I just don't anticipate the tremendous problem of which he tries to make us aware. But I did find interesting the apparently huge impact that abortions and birth control will have on our future. Another disappointment was very little discussion of aging trends and buying habits. Despite these shortcomings, I enjoyed parts of the book and it stimulated thinking about the future and the impact of aging populations
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If you don't know much more about Woodrow Wilson than an overview of the important events of his life, this book isn't going to help much. There's very little political analysis, almost no attempt to portray what diffiulties Wilson needed to overcome, and no passion at all in the writing. Actually this book feels a lot like a high school term paper that someone knew they had to write and just wanted to turn in for a passing grade. Auchincloss talks a bit about the two Wilsons (one good one bad) and hints at Wilson's dependance on women, but neither of these positions is fleshed out or used consistently. Maybe Woodrow Wilson's life is just too large for a book this small
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The text is OK and the way the story is cut up in frames and assembled is competent, but the drawings are the work of a hack, often tacky and always styleless and garishly colored. The costumes and settings are totally lacking in imagination and carry no semantic weight. The attempts to create a visual equivalent for the musical leitmotifs of the operas are too literal and very much in the spirit of a mechanical translation from opera to comic book. An affront to connoisseurs of either opera or comics or both. Only valuable as a kitschy curiosity
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I must say that this book does has a lot of pictures in it showing the aspects of Shakespear's world and plays. They are very good and intertaining but I must warn you that the book has a whole chapter with illustrations (in detail)of people having sex. The book is probably very good if you like reading text books, and don't mind these pictures, but I was just too grossed out. If you are teaching Lit in college and/or studying Shakespeare, this is probably the book that you should use, but you should flip through the book first (i.e: library, book store) to see if that is what you want on your book shelves.
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I'll put my opinion first, so there won't be any doubt in your mind. I don't believe that you can write useful books about national character. Is there really such a thing as "national character"? People are just too different, too unpredictable. How well can you predict the behavior of the people closest to you ? How well can you predict what people in your own country will do ? Would every Italian, if they could write well, have written the same book as Mr. Barzini ? I seriously doubt it. So what we have in THE ITALIANS is one man's views on the conglomerate nature of 50 million Italians. After reading it, I felt even more strongly that such books, though possibly entertaining, are a waste of time. An informative book about unicorns--but do they exist ? Anthropologists have been concerned, for many years, in getting the "inside view"--the view of a culture as seen by the person within it. While Barzini is indisputable Italian, he tries to visualize Italians as seen by foreign visitors, then explain to those of us not lucky enough to travel there, why they are as visitors see them, or why they are not as foreigners may think. This is not a successful gambit. Cultures are based on many general factors--like history, socio-economic patterns, religion, family, etc.---but the specific results are just that, specific. Barzini covers many topics--the importance of spectacle and giving an illusion of something rather than actually having that quality; the family vs. the state; Italian modes of achieving success; the north-south split; Sicily and the Mafia; and last, the tragedy of Italy's long domination by foreigners. But nothing really connects. There are only superficial, scattered impressions, nothing very concrete to grasp. The reader is left with a handful of stereotypes. Barzini is at his best when describing the lives and modus operandi of particular characters in Italian history. These sections were well-written and interesting. But his portrayal of Italian "character" is fuzzy, contradictory, and ultimately, unconvincing. Finally, if you are a lover of lists, you will thrill to this book, because there is a list on nearly every single page. Myself, I got pretty tired of those lists. If you want to know something useful about Italy, read another book. If you just want entertainment, which might support any stereotypes you have about Italians, then this book could be for you
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I bought this book and also Last Night based upon the gushing reviews you see above. Who are they kidding? The main character is a cad. It is far from "a tour de force" in erotic anything. His short stories in Last Night are only marginally better. Your time is better spent with other authors
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Waller should win an award for the most times reprocessing the same book and making money from it. Come on. Show some imagination
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Let's make this clear... I won't put any more effort into writing this review than the author spent on the book itself. So this is going to be short and sweet! This book is a glorified magazine. Worth $14.95 - tops. The pitfalls of bookbuying online, I guess. You never know what you are going to get. Anyways, most the book comprises photographs that actually discourage me from bothering with infrared. The text portion, however brief, is nothing more than a bland introduction to infrared. The uninitiated might even be led to believe that Kodak and Konica are the only game in town in infrared films. Throughout the book the author treats these two as the "Coke and Pepsi" of infrared films. I'm going to look elsewhere for a good source of info on this subject and suggest you do the same
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Although I am a psych student with a pretty good GPA, I find this book difficult to understand. The difficulty seems to come from the authors' desire to condense as much information as possible in just a few hundred pages. This leads to a cryptic language, where some terms are defined only once and some sentences become a string of such words, a thing which ,personally, frustrated me
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Mr. Shirley sneaks into Iran, hiding in the box of a truck, where he should have stayed. He spends 3 or 4 days in Iran, most of it trying not to be seen. He walks around for a few hours. He speaks to 3 or 4 truckdrivers, 2 or 3 shopkeepers, and a few assorted others, from which he assembles a complete picture and understanding of the Political and Social infrastructure of Iran. Along the way he explains, on just about every other page, how the CIA is a complete failure in every facet of it's existence, how all the career people in it's employ are arrogant idiots who are devoid of all compassion and intellect. He explains each of the Cia's mistakes, along with his explanation of what they ought to have done. He is, of course, ex CIA himself, having left it because no one there understood anything about anything
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Ok, you guys. As I have stated, this book let me down! It practically ends on page 195, and there's still 65 pages to go! My advice-Don't even start it. Also, I tried The Killer's Cousin. I wasn't pleased with that, either. So, my conclusion: If you're looking for a good read, don't expect Nanxy Werlin to fulfill your needs. If you need good, suspenseful stories, try Lois Duncan or Caroline B. Cooney! One great, outstanding, wonderful book: Swimmer-Graham Masterton
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I love Mr. Koontz and have long read his novels...Watchers, Intensity, Odd Thomas and so on but this was dissappointing, not to mention just plain depressing. And come on with the corny slap-stick banter between the characters! Okay okay, we know the 9 year- old Leilani has a high IQ but REALLY! She speaks like a 50 year-old rocket scientist and cracks jokes with every sentence? These characters were too unbeliveable for me to get into. Therefore, I put it down after 350 pages of this twattle. Koontz has done much better in the past.
Lastly, let's keep dogs out of your next few novels, please? It's getting a bit old. How about a smart cat or raven for your next novel, maybe mixed with some more down-to-earth folks that speak like real people do?
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I agree with the last reader. I didn't finish this book, it was SO boring. NOTHING happened. And the characters were annoying. I read a lot of books that aren't action-oriented and like them. But this one was awful
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This is a complex and detailed history chiefly of Cuban exiles in South Florida and the influence they have been able to wield regionally and internationally with and without the help of various U.S. administrations. In that sense, it is the story of two cities - Miami and Washington - and two peoples - Americans and Cubans.
I have an objection, though, with the stone-hard style in which this volume is so meticulously, even gorgeously at times, written. Didion strives to be so achingly academic that there is little real heart to this book and, worse, the result is a cold, humorless, colorless story that is at times an unappealing example of ideological abstractions and alphabet soup.
The author, in her conspicuously clean and parenthetical prose, apparently is so charged by the subject of her research that she has forgotten there are people on the other end - readers. It is, in that sense, a boring little disaster of a book.
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