Epinions Recent Reviews for Bookdiva

Peaceful, picturesque Cotignac -- a Provencal village with plenty to offer.

Mon, 28 Jul 2003 19:20:23 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - If you are seeking the perfect small village to escape to in Provence, Cotignac is the place to go...

Seabiscuit Runs Away with Readers' Hearts

Sat, 14 Jun 2003 12:55:26 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - The people making the film "Seabiscuit," based on Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling nonfiction book, k...

Crichton Thriller is a Return to Form

Tue, 29 Aug 2000 23:00:23 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - When Steven Spielberg decided to invest in The Lost World, the cinematic sequel to Michael Crichton's blockbuster dinosaur epic Jurassic Park, he should have waited, and not his wasted his money and our time. That's because Crichton's latest bestseller,...

An Amazing True Story Everyone Should Read

Wed, 2 Aug 2000 20:14:03 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - The journalistic team of Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre has produced several excellent nonfiction retellings of significant moments in history — the establishment of the Israeli state with Jerusalem as its capital (O Jerusalem), the revolution in...

A Must for Soccer Lovers

Sun, 23 Jul 2000 16:12:24 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - A true soccer fan will love this little book of vignettes by the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, in an excellent translation by Mark Fried. As Galeano explains in his foreword, which he calls the author's confession, "Years have gone by and I've...

Worth the Wait

Wed, 12 Jul 2000 02:00:32 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - I'm happy to say the eagerly awaited and much hyped HP4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is worth the wait. While looking forward to the delivery of my English edition from Amazon.com UK, I dutifully stood in line at 8 a.m. Saturday morning (July 8)...

An Enjoyable But Ultimately Frustrating Book

Sun, 9 Jul 2000 12:19:02 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Joe McGinniss is one of those extremely rare creatures - an American soccer fan. By that I don't mean a fan of American soccer; I mean a person raised in America who is as big a fan of soccer (and specifically Italian soccer) as any European or South...

A must for foodies or anyone

Wed, 28 Jun 2000 01:56:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Anthony Bourdain, executive chef of Brasserie Les Halles in New York, has written a hilarious, revolting, fascinating, exhausting look at what goes on behind the scenes at a big restaurant, a must-read for foodies or anyone who has ever eaten out or will...

Sequels Hardly Ever Live Up to the Original

Fri, 19 May 2000 20:41:20 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Okay, so, am I the only one starting to get annoyed with Frances Mayes?

I loved "Under the Tuscan Sun," her first novel about Tuscany, as she and her then-boyfriend Ed bought and slowly renovated a house there. Like most others who...

Pressfield Rocks the Spartan World

Fri, 19 May 2000 18:36:14 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Yes, ladies, even you can get completely wrapped up in this gory tale of military glory and extreme heroism in the face of overwhelming odds. As one who does not enjoy our average war movie and who averts her eyes at the bloody bits of movies like...

An Immigrant Tale with a Twist

Sun, 14 May 2000 12:15:31 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Meeting Luciano is more than just another novel about a child of immigrants to America trying to find a way to reconcile her background and her everyday life. Although Emily Shimoda is the daughter of Japanese immigrants, and she and her mother, Hanako,...

Golf and Mysticism Collide

Sat, 13 May 2000 14:50:49 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Fair warning: this is not a novel about golf. Well, all right, it is about golf, but it's not just about golf. As the subtitle suggests, it's a novel about the intersection of golf and life, at least the hidden, mystical part of life which surrounds and...

Chocolat is Bittersweet

Sat, 13 May 2000 14:09:57 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - I made a mental note to watch for this novel in paperback when it was first published. The theme appealed to me -- a single mother and her young

daughter who disrupt the quiet of a small French town by opening a sinfully high-end chocolate shop. I...

Agnes Browne: Not Worth the Effort

Wed, 5 Apr 2000 23:56:55 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - The problem with fads in book publishing, just like in clothes, movies and everything else, is everybody jumps on the bandwagon and a lot of dross gets mixed in with the precious gold nuggets. A major fad in books these days - heralded by Roddy Doyle's...

A bizarre, dark little book

Mon, 21 Feb 2000 19:57:15 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Ian McEwan's latest novel, Amsterdam, is a bizarre little story. At just 193 pages, it's a quick read, and you may find yourself putting it down and feeling a little bit like you've just been ejected from the end of a water slide that you thought was...

Something Missing

Mon, 21 Feb 2000 19:51:59 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Desert Queen is a new biography about Gertrude Bell, "Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia," as the subtitle tells us. As a capsule of the Middle East in late 1800s and early 1900s, this is an interesting, if not...

Get on the Road

Mon, 21 Feb 2000 19:45:56 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Roadster: How (and Especially Why) a Mechanical Novice Built a Sports Car from a Kit

In his mid-30s, journalist Chris Goodrich decides there's something missing in his life and decides to build the most retro of sports cars, a Lotus...

Fascinating, Funny and Thought-Provoking

Sun, 2 Jan 2000 22:04:57 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - As a big fan of Barbara Kingsolver's early American trilogy, The Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven and Animal Dreams, I was at first reluctant to read her latest, highly praised novel, The Poisonwood Bible. I was skeptical that anyone with such a deep...

Grisham's Latest is A Page-Turner

Sun, 2 Jan 2000 21:02:44 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - The good news is that John Grisham's latest paperback release, The Testament, is a return to the entertaining page-turners he turned out at the start of his stellar career as the pre-eminent writer of legal thrillers. The bad news is that in this novel...

A Waste of Time

Thu, 30 Dec 1999 22:14:13 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Patricia Cornwell has become one of those superstar authors whose latest publication shoots to the top of the best-seller lists on the strength of her name and past successes. Her latest, Southern Cross, is no exception, but it isn't worth the time it...

Personal Injuries Sneaks Up On You

Sat, 18 Dec 1999 14:20:37 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Following the phenomenal success of his first novel, Presumed Innocent, author Scott Turow must have made a vow not to let himself be Grisham-ized. Continuing to practice law even as he has written several more best-sellers, he has managed to avoid...

Straight Man A Hilarious Tour de Force

Sun, 28 Nov 1999 19:42:55 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Richard Russo's novel Straight Man is one of those books that makes you look forward to coming home because it's waiting there for you to continue reading. It's one of those rare novels that in places literally made me laugh until I cried. The novel is...

High Fidelity: Close To Home

Tue, 16 Nov 1999 17:17:19 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - British writer Nick Hornby is really good at getting inside his own head, which seems to be a rare enough talent for men in general and British men in particular. They are not generally inclined to the kind of endless nit-picky self-analysis Hornby...

Le Desert: Pierre Loti: The Desert

Sun, 24 Oct 1999 04:38:03 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - Fans of travel narratives will greatly enjoy this little gem of a book, an English-language translation by Jay Paul Minn of Pierre Loti's diary of his trip from Suez to Jerusalem in 1894. The French adventurer and novelist was quite a character, a leader...

Frank McCourt: 'Tis

Tue, 28 Sep 1999 02:23:26 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Bookdiva - The final chapter of Frank McCourt's literary debut, the best-selling, prize-winning Angela's Ashes, consists of one word. The author, then 19, is standing on the deck of the ship bringing him back to America after years of hardship and suffering in...