Hipster Ariel's Literary Grotto

How can I write the ways this novel sucked? First, the characterization was wrong; the author specifically wrote that it was Romana II in the book, but wrote her so that she sounded more like Romana I.

Second, it didn't read like a Doctor Who story; the author jumped on the zombie craze bandwagon and used that as the villain. It led to some serious disappointment, as they really made no sense in the context of a Who novel.

Finally, it really needed a strong editor. The book jumped around to narrate what various characters were doing quite abruptly; most of the time there wasn't even a page break. It dragged badly in several places and so could have been shored up quite a bit.

Overall, this was not a strong addition at all, and I cannot recommend that anyone read it.

This would have been better as an episode as opposed to a novel. There were certain plot points which just did not work on the page; however, it did have the trappings of a good episode.

For the first time reading a Doctor Who novel, I felt like I was reading a script. This author really breathed life into the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble. It would have made an incredible episode.

The idea of using someone ill to save the world was a breath of fresh air. It's something we don't see often enough, and I love the idea, especially as someone who lives with an invisible illness.

There are so many cliches in these books that it's scary. You have the petite, white heroine, the standard love triangle, and the mainy monochromatic cast of characters. This series could have been so much better, and the author completely lost it during the third book by throwing in the contrived love triangle. It was completely unnecessary and seemed to have been jammed in there to appeal to fans of other young adult novels.

This book series also was in desperate need of an editor. The misspellings were utterly ridiculous. There were also several instances of incorrect vocabulary. It would have been a little better had some of the misspelled words not been so central to the plot. I can't count the number of times the word "parkour" during the first book, and it was incredibly distracting to the plot of the story.

First, let's start with the good. This was an excellent fractured fairy tale. I liked how the absurd idea that only one woman would be able to fit the shoe was played at least partly for laughs, and the relationship between the sisters was a nice touch.

Now for the bad. This book could really have used an editor. Holy misspellings, Batman were there mistakes! It really tore one from the otherwise good story. There was also one continuity error at the end which was also quite jarring and distracted me from the rest of the story.

The title pretty much says it all. The main character was completely unlikeable; she was selfish, judgmental, bitchy, and spoiled. As a matter of fact, not a single character had a redeeming quality. The plot went nowhere and did nothing.

This book was a lot of fun to read. Some of the stories were a bit slow, but overall, they were enjoyable. I was surprised at how down to earth Poehler really is. I look forward to the possibility of reading more books by her, as they should be quite interesting.

This book could not determine whether it was  a self help book or a biography. This made it confusing and absolutely unpalatable.

The first thing that excited me was the description of the main character, Ciardis. She is described as having darker skin with curly dark brown hair and golden eyes. To me, she sounds either non-white or of a mixed ethnicity, which is the first I have ever seen in young adult book.

I also appreciated that it took her much longer to learn how to do everything. As a person who struggles with coordination and knows how long it can take to learn a new dance or ride a horse, I can safely say that the timeline for this is pretty accurate.

In a similar vein, I appreciated the lack of the "remove something little and she's beautiful" trope. It was described repeatedly that Ciardis' mentor, Lady Serena, was disgusted by her lack of hygiene and how intensely her skin would have to be taken care of, to say the least.

The only thing I didn't like was that this could have used a read over for someone to check the spelling. It generally was good enough and the few spelling errors that did come up were mostly easily overlooked by the good story within.

I enjoyed reading this. It was pretty clear he did his research, especially when he was citing anthropological academic literature. I would have liked if he had continued using more academic papers because some of his statements seemed to require some major academic backing.

Reading about his culinary successes and blunders were quite enjoyable and made me realize my mistakes in cooking aren't so bad after all.

First off, this is the book that inspired the beloved Disney movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Despite this, the book and movie could not be any more different. Honestly, I was hoping for some nostalgia, but this book definitely appeals to the adult who likes a good mystery.

There are several differences that were done to make this book more palatable as a movie. First, we all know that in the movie, we see cartoons in the real world that cannot die and are impervious to injury. In the book, the cartoons in question are comic strip characters that even speak with thought bubbles and can die the same ways a person can, so the toons can make doppelgangers of themselves to do the stunt while the original is safe.

Other differences that were made by Disney to make a more family friendly story were more obvious. Valiant remains an alcoholic, the mob is involved, and pornographic strips are even mentioned as a major element of the book. I can see why these changes were made, but it was surprising to open the book and see the distinct lack of whimsy that Disney had imbued this story with in the first place.

Finally, Disney kind of changed the genre of this from a noir mystery set in the 1920s to a more modern comedy romp. Personally, I preferred the noir feel of the novel to the comedy of the movie, but again would have liked some of the more comedic elements to have been there.

I was interested in the level of technical detail that went into it and the attention to detail the author had with respect to looking at who played what and the edits done in the mixing.

I also found the social issues surrounding the tensions of the Beatles to be fascinating from an exclusively recording standpoint.

The only real problem as I had was the author's penchant for the use of exclamation points. It's really distracting and appears almost every other sentence in some places. Even worse, some of the information was not worthy in my opinion of having an exclamation point in place of a period.

The sex scenes were laughable. From what I have experienced and understand of sex, a man can't just plunge into a woman with only a kiss or two beforehand unless he wants the woman in question to scream and bash him in the head.

Additionally, the constant aspect involving the characters' asking each other if they believed in god was a little ridiculous. I don't think anyone really asks other people that question outside of proselytizing.

I was surprised at how much I learned. I initially thought I would just be reading about a bunch of uncivilized bands of people. It turns out that our stereotypes of non-Roman groups have largely been the result of Roman propaganda.

Jones clearly did a lot of research on this book, and I was amazed at the amount of detail given. For example, I had no idea that the Celts were better at metal working than the Romans and that the Huns were from Hungary.

In short, I was highly impressed at his work and hope to read more of his work. Clearly in addition to his well documented sense of humor Jones is also a scholar of reasonable caliber.

I knew this book was a classic, but not that it was a romance. I went in not knowing what to expect and came out liking the book in general; however, it was difficult for me at times.

First, I had no idea how snooty and shallow New York society was at the turn of the 20th century. I can understand why many of the characters acted as they did.

Second, I was rather surprised that Archer and Madame Olenska did not end up being able to be together. They seemed to have much more chemistry than Archer and the woman he married and had a child with. Also, Olensky seemed like a right bastard and I wanted to see his ass kicked by Archer or that Madame Olenska would just divorce him and sacrifice everything to be with Archer.

I guess that wouldn't make as good a story, however, and it seemed to me that the major theme of the story was to remember familial duty above all, a theme which unfortunately doesn't translate well with modern readers, as that generally isn't something we have to face.

I wasn't sure what I was in for when I started reading this memoir. What I did find was incredibly pleasant, for the most part.

One problem many memoirs have is focusing too much on their childhood. Unless the famous person was a child actor, it really doesn't make much sense to focus on your formative years too much. Boyd does not do that. She uses her descriptions of her childhood to lay the groundwork for why she is the way she was and why she reacted to the later experiences the way she did. She focuses at least 3/4 of the book on the reason we are reading this book; that is, her experiences with musicians.

Next, Boyd holds nothing back on her emotions regarding her relationships with George Harrison and Eric Clapton. It was really hard not to empathize with her; however, I was surprised that she was so candid about still being in love with Harrison and regretting not fighting for his affection. However, I liked how she used her negative experiences with Clapton to avoid a repeat relationship with another alcoholic.

Overall, this was well-written. It was quite obvious Boyd had some education by the fact that the English utilized was highly formal and grammatically correct in the extreme. At times it can be construed as cold by American standards, but I personally enjoyed it due to the authenticity of the writer and allowing for a voice to come through.