seachase22

• Rated 0 stars

“This is not my favorite Hemingway and, like Upland, I've never been a fan of Steinbeck. If you're going to read only one Hemingway, let it be "For Whom the Bell Tolls". First, you have to strike the images of Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman from your mind, though, for Hollywood horribly miscast the movie. The writing is odd, as if it was a translation, but the tale doesn't get any better and steadily builds to its dramatic conclusion.”

seachase22 wrote this review Wednesday, July 2 2008. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“I read both series soon after they were published and must have liked them enough to wade through 3000 pages with such a frustrating antihero as Thomas Covenant. My only clear memory is of Donaldson's incredible vocabulary. I have a fair one myself, but kept a dictionary close when I read Chronicles I & II.”

seachase22 wrote this review Wednesday, January 30 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“The major complaint reviewers have with this book is that it doesn't concentrate as much on the San Francisco quake as the title would suggest. There may, in fact, be better books to read if that's your goal. The subtitle of this book, however, is AMERICA and the Great California Earthquake and Winchester skillfully navigates the reader across America's geological history, all the time moving closer and closer to San Francisco.

I'm a big fan of Winchester's books. He combines a poet's lyricism with a scientist's detail, he has an eye for irony and often uses a kind of circular logic in his storytelling which returns the reader again and again to a central point.

This is not my favorite Winchester book. For me that is "The Map That Changed The World", but I would recommend "Crack" to anyone inteested in learning more about the powerful geological forces at play beneath the North American continent.”

seachase22 wrote this review Monday, January 28 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“A very improbable plot be still fun diversionary pulp.”

seachase22 wrote this review Wednesday, January 16 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“I'm always fascinated by the "hinges" of history, those chance moments from which enormous events follow. Thomas Paine arrived in Boston harbor, unknown, and near death from disease. He would have been left to die except for the lucky discovery of a piece of paper in his pocket. That discovery transported Paine off the ship to medical attention and his critical role in promoting revolution among the colonists. ”

seachase22 wrote this review Saturday, January 12 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“Way back when I was in high school, I performed the part of the male game player. It was quite demanding and a whole lot of fun. My starring moment under the lights.”

seachase22 wrote this review Saturday, January 12 2008. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 3 stars

“A very disturbing book. It challenged all my perceptions of Lincoln. I would have found the author's arguments more compelling, however, if not for his frequent rhetorical statements about "Marxist revisionist historians" which more than suggested he had an overtly ideological bias.”

seachase22 wrote this review Thursday, December 6 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Enjoyed the book, loved the dust jacket illustration. Too bad it's not in the Shelfari image files.”

seachase22 wrote this review Friday, November 9 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“This was the first Hillerman I read and, although I love them all, it remains my favorite. ”

seachase22 wrote this review Friday, November 9 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“This book had a significant effect on my life, but sadly in a negative way. In the early 70s, it was recommended that I read this book in preparation for a college internship on a southwestern reservation. It was bad advice, for it left this young Eastcoast Anglo guilty and self-conscious. "Fitting in" would have been difficult enough without the added burden and, while the internship left an indelible mark on me, I've always felt it was a wasted opportunity.”

seachase22 wrote this review Friday, November 9 2007. ( reply | permalink )