Epinions Recent Reviews for iarlamac

Self help turning us into Slaves

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 14:21:30 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - The world’s bookshops are giving ever-increasing space to books which purport to tell us how to improve our lives, gain happiness, beauty, health and wealth if only we follow the advice of their authors. These authors often appear on television shows...

Magellan's Tragic Discoveries

Mon, 13 Dec 2004 06:48:52 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - Five Black Ships A Novel of Magellan Napoleon Baccino Ponce de Leon translated from Spanish by Nick Caistor 'Everything appeared to stand still for a moment. The river stopped in its flow, the sun in its climb up the heavens, the clouds as they...

Cloudy Winged Island - Memories of Skye

Wed, 24 Nov 2004 11:38:49 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - The Isle of Skye is one of those places that seem to belong to songs and romantic fiction, a faraway island lost in the mists and drizzle still peopled by the heroes and villains of the novels of Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a special place which I...

Orwellian hotels and doss-houses

Mon, 15 Nov 2004 14:25:34 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - George Orwell Down and Out in Paris and London Those who like to travel and stay in first-class hotels might not want to read this book, even though it was published over seventy years ago. Eric Blair, or George Orwell, as he is known from his...

Che's African Nightmare

Tue, 9 Nov 2004 09:31:06 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - Sowing the seeds of a Nightmare This book, 'African Dream: The Diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congo', is interesting and important because of the light it throws on a turbulent period in African and world politics in the immediate post-colonial...

Read this book before you buy the Camera

Thu, 28 Oct 2004 07:06:11 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - This manual of digital photography succeeds in carrying out the promise of its title. It is an introduction to photography in general as well as a comprehensive guide to how to get the best possible results by combining the capabilities of camera,...

Apple 12" Powerbook 1GHz Notebook (m9008ll/a) PC Notebook: More than Adequate

Thu, 21 Oct 2004 13:05:42 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - A laptop computer is one of the most useful devices one can have nowadays, especially for the writer or photographer who likes, or has to, to work in different locations. My reasons for choosing a Powerbook 12": It is a very small light computer...

Prosecutor's Rant

Thu, 21 Oct 2004 06:00:11 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - The decision of the US Supreme Court to halt the recount of votes in Florida in the last presidential election was briefly a major news story around the world, but when Al Gore failed to make an effective challenge the whole affair was forgotten and we...

A Writer's Tale

Wed, 20 Oct 2004 07:48:40 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - Call it Experience This book is one of three autobiographical works by one of America's bestselling authors. I came across the book by accident having never heard of the author or his works, but a writer's description of his life and work is always...

Extremadura, Forgotten Spain

Fri, 15 Oct 2004 09:14:15 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - This region of Spain is southwest of the capital city, Madrid, with Portugal to the West and the great tourist region of Andalucia to the South. Compared to other parts of the country it is sparsely populated and rarely sees foreign tourists. All the...

The Parting of Friends

Tue, 12 Oct 2004 05:40:14 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - This book looks at the changing relationship between the USA and Europe in the aftermath of the Cold War and the 11th September attacks. The edition I bought has over four pages of quotations from reviews, most of them stating that this is a very...

Adolescent Rubbish

Mon, 13 Sep 2004 12:55:39 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - I started reading as a pastime at the age of seven, forty years ago. At the time the stories of Enid Blyton were regarded as being ideal reading for children, especially her 'Famous Five Mysteries'. By the age of eight I was bored with this kind of...

Goodbye 35mm?

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 08:48:35 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - I was looking out for a replacement or backup camera for the old Nikon F801 and reading up on the latest digital cameras coming on the market. I have used a simple Nikon digital camera for a while and though it works well in normal daylight conditions it...

Early Kundera Tales

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 09:24:22 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - This book is a collection of the short stories written by Czech author Milan Kundera before he left his homeland for France in 1975. His lifelong obsession with memory and forgetting, with deception, both of self and others, and with the individual's...

Finisterre and the South Coast of Brittany

Fri, 11 Apr 2003 11:55:49 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - Situated as it is on the western extremity of Europe, Brittany is exposed to the full force of Atlantic storms and can be wet and windy, but like Ireland, this climate creates a rugged colourful landscape and fabulous skies. I have visited the country...

I'll be back!

Mon, 7 Apr 2003 13:03:39 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - I visited Québec city in September 2001, travelling by car from Montréal.

It is a beautiful old city, the oldest walled city in the Americas according to the locals.

The area within the walls is very attractive with old narrow...

China to America by bamboo boat

Wed, 2 Apr 2003 12:17:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - Tim Severin is one of the great modern day explorers who test ancient sea-going vessels to find out if legendary voyages were in fact possible or probable. many years ago he built a replica of an Irish leather currach and sailed across the Atlantic in...

The failed English settlement in Virginia

Mon, 31 Mar 2003 13:25:04 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - Many people on both sides of the Atlantic will have some vague knowledge of England's first attempts to colonise North America. This book gives us a very good feel for the mood of the time, as England embarked on a ferocious and daring campaign of piracy...

A Perfect Blend of Europe and America

Fri, 28 Mar 2003 12:42:54 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - I visited Montreal in September 2001, flying Air France from Dublin via Paris. This was my first visit to a North American city and in some ways it lived up to my image (skyscrapers, wide streets, bustle) and in other ways I was surprised.

...

Portrait of an Irish Statesman

Fri, 28 Mar 2003 11:28:35 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - Tim Pat Coogan is one of Ireland's leading commentators on current affairs. He spent years in journalism and was editor of the daily Irish Press for some years. In recent years he has retired from fulltime journalism and concentrates on writing books...

Did the Chinese discover America and Australia before the Europeans?

Fri, 28 Mar 2003 08:05:24 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - Gordon Menzies served in the British Royal Navy as a submarine commanding officer, and traveled the oceans of the world. He has a great interest in China and in exploration and in this book he sets out to convince us that a great Chinese fleet...

Beginning of the end for Napoleon

Thu, 27 Mar 2003 14:16:46 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - Charles Esdale is a Senior Lecturer in History in the University of Liverpool, England. In this book he has written a new account of one of the great wars of Napoleon's reign. This is an academic work of over five hundred pages and the amount of...

Questions of Faith

Thu, 27 Mar 2003 08:40:14 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - Paolo Coelho's best known book is The Alchemist, a fable which tells us that the treasures we seek abroad are often at our doorstep or in our own hearts.

"By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept' is a fairly simple story of a modern man and...

Reality Check

Thu, 27 Mar 2003 08:25:32 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - This book is a chronicle of American government foreign policy actions all over the world since the end o f the second world war. The author uses Senate reports, newspaper articles and many other sources to show that American activities are often far...

Occupation Fantasy

Wed, 26 Mar 2003 12:43:36 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author iarlamac - This film was made in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of France. It therefore avoids contemporary comment by being set in medieval times. Baron Hugue is preparing for the wedding of his daughter Anne when two strange musicians arrive at his castle. They...