adamreck1

• Rated 3 stars

“Slight. But perhaps slight on purpose? Ishiguro's minimalism here is enough to entertain but also to frustrate. ”

adamreck1 wrote this review Monday, August 30, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Seeing Nabokov's writing process is priceless. This volume, however inspirational to a writer like myself, is falsely advertised. There is barely a novella here, and the reader is left with a gap large enough to render the entire read (as fiction at least) nil. Arrive at The Original of Laura as a student and leave happy. Readers looking for the next great unpublished work should look elsewhere.”

adamreck1 wrote this review Monday, August 30, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Bourdain's voice is a resounding crash of vulgar street talk and eloquent private school education. His saucy tales of drug-addled line cookery, complete with armed immigrants, are as addictive as the cocaine on Bourdain's upper lip. For even the moderate foodie, Kitchen Confidential serves as a behind-the-scenes expose and a direct window into the pre-Food Network, celeb-chef wonderland of today.”

adamreck1 wrote this review Monday, August 30, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 3 stars

“Gross's exhaustive survey is in turns audacious and salacious. Part history of America's grandest art museum, part excuse to peruse the underbelly of American Society's dirty secrets, Gross plunders the plunderers with detailed research and genial storytelling. Gross has to be admired for pushing forward with this project after the museum's vehement disapproval (even into the actual publication), but it might be in the museum's interests to look deeper into the actual context of the book. While Gross is tearing through the two-faced trustees, he paints a riveting portrait of a living, breathing Met, an object that the Met itself looks to be struggling with remaining. Rogue's Gallery succeeds in uplifting the very museum it seeks to undermine.”

adamreck1 wrote this review Monday, August 30, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“I want Hornby to commit a little further to his themes here. The initial teases of fandom interfering with a perfectly boring relationship have great possibility, but the book turns into a rote rom-com, light on the com. ”

adamreck1 wrote this review Sunday, March 28, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“A real winner with Gores' solid mimicry of Hammett's prose and a damn good story to boot. Always going to think of Bogart as Spade, so it was fun to picture him sorting it all out.”

adamreck1 wrote this review Sunday, March 28, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Chabon starts strong, providing a well-toned companion to wife Ayelet Waldman's "Bad Mother", but while observations regarding the generational shifts in childhood and parenting prove interesting at first (Legos, Exploring), they devolve as essays overlap and become repetitious. Maybe this book is something other than I expected it to be, but I was distanced by the end enough to skim.”

adamreck1 wrote this review Sunday, March 28, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Buzbee's recollections of both his time as a bookseller and his investigations of the bookseller's (not to mention the book's) history are entertaining and fun. This is a book for booklovers. And if you have ever spent time huddled in the corner of a store, pouring through the obscure shelves, or ever sought out a store while you were on vacation. This one's for you.”

adamreck1 wrote this review Sunday, March 1, 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“A great little semantic piece of discussion. Replacing some of the pronouns makes things a lot easier. I also found it helpful to do tiny drawings in the margins... Not for everyone.”

adamreck1 wrote this review Sunday, March 1, 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Before the inevitable movie, I felt it was time to hunker down with Watchmen. Read it in one day and wished I didn't have the shadow of the flick in the back of my mind the entire time. Throughout, I'm thinking, "There's no way to make a good movie from this." Movie aside, Moore's in top form here. Fully realized characters battle their own psychological nightmares, superhumans have philosophical discussions and imperatives that could affect all of humanity. The characters feel like people, not just two dimensional stereotypes. No wonder it's referenced so much as an influence. ”

adamreck1 wrote this review Sunday, February 22, 2009. ( reply | permalink )