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Play Book Tag Shelf

Play Book Tag Shelf

has 216 followers and is following 138 people

This account is not held by a real person. It is a dummy account that has been set up to host the shelf for the group, Play Book Tag.

Our current tag for February is: Memoir.

*PBT 4th Anniversary Admin tags:
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  • member since February 16, 2008

Reviews

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Displaying 1-10 of 5654 reviews
  • Maphead
    • Rated 4 stars

    “Brad B said: Fun book about how maps are sources of endless fun and fascination in a number of different ways. Ken Jennings, Jeopardy! champ discusses everything from ancient maps to geocaching to the National Geographic Bee. Though my wife was not a huge fan of it since I tried to make her listen to the audio version on a 9-hour trip to see my family, I think that was more from the sound of the narrator's voice than from the content of the book. I suppose a love of geography would also help before you embark on this journey. Still, very enjoyable.

    4 stars”

    Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • The House of Silk
    • Rated 4 stars

    “JudithG said: 4 stars

    Comfortably, if tediously, confined to a nursing home, the elderly Dr. Watson is once more musing over his famous friend. Officially ‘sanctioned’ by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Anthony Horowitz brings one more adventure to the Sherlock Holmes canon. This story has all of the elements typical of a Holmes/Watson investigation and for the most part stays very true to the originals.

    The story begins very much like a typical Holmes adventure. A client comes to Baker’s Street with a story concerning an art theft and an Irish American gang called the Flat Cap Gang. As the first mystery becomes entwined with the darker events involving The House of Silk, Horowitz is able to touch upon subjects that Conan Doyle would never have placed in a story. Naturally, Dr. Watson stipulated that the story should not be published in his lifetime. Twenty-first century sensibilities creep into the narrative subtly, but do not prevent it from maintaining the essence of the originals. Horowitz allows Dr. Watson to provide more realistic and damning descriptions of the extreme poverty and degradation of London’s underside. Sherlock Holmes is forced acknowledge his responsibility for the safety of his Baker Street Irregulars. Much of the mystery seemed fairly obvious all along, but there were still a few twists at the end which, as usual, only Holmes had anticipated.

    Derek Jacobi gave Dr. Watson a very believable voice. I enjoyed his performance of this book.”

    Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • A Moveable Feast
    • Rated 4 stars

    “Book Concierge said: 4****

    Early in his career, Hemingway lived in Paris. This is his memoir of that time, when he was poor but he could still afford to spend an afternoon in a café sipping wine and writing. He and Hadley were in love and had time to enjoy themselves and each other. At the same time, he was immersed in a world that fueled his creative juices. He remembered encounters with Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and other luminaries of the day.

    Here’s how he describes Scott Fitzgerald: His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly anymore because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless.

    Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have shared even one afternoon with these young writers! I’ve been a Hemingway fan since I first read The Old Man and the Sea when I was in high school. There is immediacy to his writing that just draws me into the world of his work. Naughton does a wonderful job of narrating. His bass is perfect for the uber masculine Hemingway.”

    Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Driving Over Lemons
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Julie said: three stars

    Chris and his wife Ana leave England behind a life in Andalucia Spain. They raise (and sometime chase sheep). With the help of their neighbor Domingo they building bridges, buildings, and a life for themselves in rural Spain.

    Travel memoirs are about 1/4 of the books that I read in any given year. This wasn't the worst I've read but it definitely wasn't the best. It is more a collection of (mostly) funny stories than a cohesive book. There was no conclusion that tied it all together and I can't say I "got" anything out of the book but the stories were fun to read. It would be the perfect book to read before a trip to Spain.”

    Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Other Wes Moore
    • Rated 4 stars

    “Tenia F said: 4 stars

    Within a year of each other, blocks apart two Wes Moore's were born, both raised by single mothers. In the year 2000, the Baltimore Sun newspaper ran a small story about Wes Moore winning the Rhodes Scholorship. In the same paper, there was a bigger article about a murder and the hunt for two suspects, one named Wes Moore. The Wes Moore who had won the Rhodes Scholorship was haunted by the other Wes Moore because he knew it easily could have been him.”

    Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • On the Wild Edge: In Search of a Natural Life
    • Rated 3 stars

    “She said: ***3 Star***
    A memoir of Petersen's search for his ideal life living off the grid in Colorado's Rockies. He and his wife left a comfortable life in Southern California and headed north and east with nary a plan, and after a couple of attempts settled on the outskirts of a small town, built a cabin and began to live their dream. The writing is okay, but the portrayal of nature is gorgeous.”

    Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak: by Writers Famous and Obscure
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Kentucky Reader said: 3 stars

    Great idea! Basis? Hemingway's famous six.

    "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn." (Ernest Hemingway)

    My favorites, some funny, some poignant.

    Loved. Lost. Cried. Raged. Chocolate. Next. (Jackie Childress)

    Married by Elvis. Divorced by Friday. (G.M. Rouse)

    Bad idea being wife number four. (M.J. Miller)

    She wanted Gatsby. Got "Gets By." (Beth Connellan)

    Siren wooed. Sailor swooned. Man overboard! (Jim Ruland)

    Only 130 pages, 6 words per.

    Too short. Wanted more. 3 stars,

    I get more. I give more.”

    Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • 40 Years of Queen

    40 Years of Queen

    by Harry Doherty
    • Rated 5 stars

    “Auntie Nanuuq said: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

    For an oversized book the print is awfully small & difficult to see!

    *****************************************SPOLIER**************************************

    Did you know:

    Queen opened for Jimi Hendrix? Queen's logo is a combination of their astrological signs?

    Freddie Mercury was a Persian Muslim & born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, Africa, and sold clothing & art in a small Kensington barrow with Roger Taylor?

    John May built his first electric guitar , has a PhD in astrophysics, founded his own guitar company, co-wrote "A Village Lost & Found", founded the U.K. anti animal cruelty group "Save Me", and has two solo albums?

    John Deacon (aka Deacon John) built a tape recorder to record songs from the radio & later used it as an amplifier for his guitar, was originally a guitar player but changed over to bass?

    Roger Meddows-Taylor formed his first band at age eight playing ukulele, was awarded a choral scholarship to the "prestigious" private Truro Cathedral School, played w/ T-Rex, and studied dentistry at the London Hospital Medical School quitting his studies to play with Queen but returned to the university to finish a degree in Biology?

    Two of Queen's albums were named after Marx brothers' movies?

    Ben & Jerry named their Bohemian Raspberry ice cream after Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"?

    *************************************************************************************

    The book's chapters alternate between Queen's history, albums & band members' biographies. There are wonderful full color photos, pull-outs, fold-outs, and enclosures of programs, letters, photographs.... The only thing not included is an audio cd compilation of Queen's music, but as I already own one I'm not missing anything.”

    Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Wish You Were Here: Travels Through Loss and Hope
    • Rated 5 stars

    “Michelle G said: 5/5 stars

    From back cover:
    the story of Amy Welborn’s trip to the island of Sicily with three of her children five months after her husband’s sudden death from a heart attack. Her journey through city and countryside, small town and ancient ruins, opens unexpected doors of memory and reflection, a pilgrimage of the heart and an exploration of the soul. It is an observant and wry memoir and travelogue, intensely personal yet speaking to universal experiences of love and loss.
    Along the narrow roads and hairpin turns, the narrative reveals the beauty of the ordinary and the commonplace and asks stark questions about how we fill the empty places that a loved one leaves behind. It is a meditation on the possibility of faith, one that is unflinching, uncompromising, and altogether unsentimental when confronted by the ultimate test of belief. This book is not only a well-told memoir, but a testimony to the truth that love is stronger than death.

    From me;
    I thought this was such a beautiful book. The author's husband died suddenly at an early age (50) and she finds herself a widow in her 40s with small children. Welborn is so brutally honest and shares her struggles and fears. Yet it is such a hopeful book. She is called to draw on God's strength and finds that He is there. The writing is wonderful. The author is a Catholic, as am I, and I found it so uplifting and reassuring in this crazy world to hear how Welborn draws on the sacraments, lives of the saints, etc. as she is "confronted by the ultimate test of belief." The other thing I found so great is how a story that could be only depressing but ends up as hopeful and uplifting is also very funny in the telling. Really, really wonderful.”

    Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Ghosts of Manhattan
    • Rated 2 stars

    “anarresa said: 2 stars

    Presented as the first “steampunk superhero” this story is set in an alternate 1920s Prohibition New York. It focuses on a vigilante called The Ghost, the detective he crosses paths with, the mobster they are both chasing and a sexy Jazz singer, just to have a love interest. All the steampunk I’ve read (which is only about ten novels or short story collections) either reveled in the alternate technology or the Victorian era. This did neither. There are steampunk weapons and vehicles, but they felt nonessential and some were difficult to believe in. The alternate history is described just enough to get through a certain situation but is never fully fleshed out. The character is fun though, a vigilante cross between Batman and The Shadow. His history is also weak, but this is supposed to be the first in a series so that might be on purpose to leave something for future stories.

    I wasn’t sure how to score this. I enjoyed the story, though it wasn’t what I expected so I was thrown for a few chapters. I didn’t like the writing but it wasn’t horrible. The characters were a little weak, but not too bad. I think if this were a graphic novel (and it SO should have been a movie or a graphic novel) I would have given it 4 stars, just for the fun of it. But as a book I felt misled and disappointed it wasn’t better constructed.”

    Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
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Displaying 1-10 of 5654 reviews

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