Teachertraveler

• Rated 5 stars

“Small, easy to read and just might blow your face off. With all the finger pointing in Washington and elsewhere, it's refreshing to be given tools that empower you rather than leave you the victim.

”

Teachertraveler wrote this review Friday, July 24 2009. ( reply | permalink )

0 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 5 stars

“Takes a totally different view of the English language than most books. By concentrating on the uniqueness of English grammar, McWhorter gives a much more enlightening and entertaining perspective on the English language.

Who knew 45 pages on "meaningless do" could be so fun?”

Teachertraveler wrote this review Friday, July 24 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 1 stars

“After the third sex scene in 20 pages, I gave up. I had hoped for a more, well, modern story rather than "Sexy Latina gets it on with socially awkward guys in Paris while cooking". ”

Teachertraveler wrote this review Friday, July 24 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Light, fun, but ultimately just one man's opinion.

Some of his opinions were hilarious and spot-on. Others were head-scratchers. Why even bother to "review" the Old and New Testament if you're going to recommend skipping 90% of it and demeaning the rest of it?

Murnighan also recommended skipping over some of the best parts of Dante's Inferno and Austen's Pride and Prejudice while glowing over other snooze-enducing novels. Also remember he is, well, male and so what he believes is "sexy" might be different than say, a woman.

But overall, breezy beach reading that will peak your interest in rereading some classics while justifying your decisions to skip others. ”

Teachertraveler wrote this review Friday, July 24 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“I tried, I really did. I got about 100 pages in before I realized there was no way I was going to finish this. When they marketed it as the COMPLETE history of Sesame Street, I didn't realize that encompassed just about every children's television show in the 50's and 60's. It sounds weird, but the introduction describing Jim Henson's funeral were the best, but slogging through backroom discussions and producers' personal lives just wasn't that interesting. I wished they had put Jim Henson's personality in earlier in the book instead of going on and on about negotiations for this and research for that. ”

Teachertraveler wrote this review Friday, March 27 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“The writing, the actual descriptions are absolutely gorgeous. I thought the repetition of words and phrases were effective in that they brought back to your mind former events that would be going through the mind of the characters. The switches in time didn't both me since the author gave clear signs as to where and when things were happening.

The reason I gave it two stars was due to my disappointment with the ending. I had expected more. It seemed anti-climatic after building up so much and then...oh, yeah, what I already knew. Thanks.

Especially the ending for the twins. Their personalities and inner lives had been so carefully crafted and then...

By the last 50 pages I was forcing myself to read, hoping things would return to the lyric beauty of the beginning. It never came. ”

Teachertraveler wrote this review Friday, March 27 2009. ( reply | permalink )