Epinions Recent Reviews for martineden

The Return of Everyman

Sun, 29 Sep 2002 12:29:23 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - The Soldier’s Return, by Melvyn Bragg, is a beautifully written tale of restless disillusionment, the inability of a warrior to adjust to peacetime, and how the horrors of war live on in the hearts and minds of those who must carry on, manifesting...

Mostly Harmless Is Mostly Harmless

Wed, 22 Aug 2001 11:13:04 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - Mostly Harmless, the fifth book in Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” “trilogy,” has all the elements that made previous Adams’ books both hilarious and meaningful explorations of the human condition.

For one thing, there is...

Coming Up For Air...A Breath of Fresh (62-year-old) Air

Fri, 13 Jul 2001 17:50:48 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - I have definitely been reading too much popular fiction lately. So much so that when I stumbled across George Orwell’s lesser-known pre-war tale, “Coming Up for Air,” I was pleasantly shocked at the quality of the writing. “This,” I said to myself, “is...

Gone for Soldiers...Textbook Passing for Fiction

Wed, 11 Jul 2001 11:04:38 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - First off, I have to admit, I found Gone for Soldiers, the latest historical novel by Jeff Shaara, to be a quick, enjoyable read, in spite of its many fatal flaws.

For me, who at one point during my childhood could rightfully be described as...

St. Pauli Girl...Ditto Becks But Cheaper

Sun, 27 May 2001 12:41:21 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - Billed as “Germany’s Fun-Loving Beer” (whatever that means), St. Pauli Girl Lager is the recipient of the American Tasting Institute (whoever they are) 2000 and 2001 Gold medal for Best full-calorie beer (for whatever that‘s worth).

But this...

Time to Leave Town

Tue, 22 May 2001 14:23:02 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - The laws of Murphy being what they are, a similar fate would no doubt await me should I, like Gregory Tomasov, the erstwhile protagonist of Bently Little’s, The Town, win the lottery.

Tomasov, who feels life in California has grown empty now...

Beck's - The Incredible Lightness of Being

Sun, 25 Feb 2001 17:56:42 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author martineden -

Wow! This is great stuff. Light and bright, it goes down and goes down, and keeps going down.

I first bought this beer on a weekday evening. Though, as usual, I had to get up at five a.m., and was looking at a particularly...

Windham...Close, Without the Crowds

Tue, 26 Dec 2000 15:06:29 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - I first learned to ski at Windham. It was sometime shortly after the Pleistocene age when Windham was a private club. My friend’s parents belonged, and we would all pile into their state-of-the-art 64 Chevy, and make our way up the New York State...

Minnewaska - Wilderness Just North of the Big Apple

Mon, 25 Dec 2000 13:28:24 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - Minnewaska State Park and it’s next-door neighbor, the Mohonk Preserve, situated in Ulster County on the dramatic Shawangunk Mountain ridge, is one of my favorite places in the world.

The Shawangunk escarpment rises more than 2,000 feet above...

Dos Equis: Doubly Strong Flavor

Sun, 17 Dec 2000 18:01:58 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - In the spectrum of Mexican beers, if Corona was infrared, then Dos Equis XX would have to be ultraviolet. These two imports from south of the border are about as different as night and day.

Unlike the light, crisp taste of Corona, Dos Equis...

Harp: A Fickle Irish Lass

Mon, 11 Dec 2000 12:47:15 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - This will no doubt be a convoluted review.

As an Irishman - or at least half an Irishman endowed with the beer-drinking abilities of two Irishmen - I desperately wanted to say that Harp was at least the equal of Bass Ale. In fact, I wanted to...

Venus: Oedipus in Space

Sun, 10 Dec 2000 21:47:22 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author martineden -

Martin Humphries is an Oedipal lad who winds up in an edible spaceship, after seeking fortune and self respect on a suicide mission to Venus.

Humphries, who is referred to by his father as “Runt,” lives “la dolce vita” between...

Fosters....Canadian for Buzz

Sat, 2 Dec 2000 21:31:19 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - I don’t know if it’s the oil can or if this stuff is really stronger than other beers, but I’m on my third, and I think I’d best get this review writ, before the moving hand moves on, or however that mixture of metaphors goes.

Actually, if...

The 6th Time You've Seen This

Sat, 25 Nov 2000 15:25:43 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - Those of you who can’t get enough of Arnold Schwarzenegger will love this one. Not only are there two of him, but the second one isn’t even Danny Divito.

For the rest of us, this tale of future cloning gone whacko will look a lot like a clone...

The Perfect Storm: An Epic to Sit Through

Fri, 24 Nov 2000 18:38:19 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author martineden -

Aside from the special effects, which of course is the whole point of the movie, The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, is an epic failure.

The film is directed and...

Adventures in the Ale Trade

Wed, 15 Nov 2000 21:12:21 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - I too have never heard of Bass Beer. But if they make it, it is probably good. I couldn’t tell you.

Bass Ale, now that’s a different story. Several, in fact.

I can’t recall whether I first drank Bass Ale after reading Dylan Thomas’...

Coors...Mountain Mythology

Sun, 12 Nov 2000 15:47:42 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - Coors is another great everyday beer (See Busch...Go Ahead and Slosh it Down). But it was not always so.

Once upon a time (sometime around 1975 or thereabouts), two drunken cab drivers -one from Miami and one from New York - set out for the...

Busch..,Go Ahead. Slosh It Down.

Sat, 11 Nov 2000 18:24:08 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - Maybe it’s because I’m nostalgic. Twenty or thirty years ago when I first set out on the road all dewy-eyed with innocence...or was it from alcoholism...no matter, you couldn’t get Busch in New York. It was, however, both plentiful and cheap in Florida,...

Big Trouble in Little Miami

Sat, 11 Nov 2000 17:28:06 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - I did not fall out of my chair while reading Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dave Barry’s first novel, “Big Trouble.”

I mention this only because, according to the jacket blurbs, this rather odd mishap mishappened to Stephen King. But...

Luckysurf.com: Why Pay A Buck for Your Dream?

Fri, 10 Nov 2000 13:01:02 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - About the only vice I have never cultivated is gambling.

Very simply, there has to be some pay off in order for a vice to lure you in. You drink, you get drunk. You smoke, it relaxes you. So in order to become addicted to gambling, you have...

Great Idea...Flawed Book

Wed, 8 Nov 2000 20:54:43 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - “Darwin’s Radio” by Hugo-Award-winning SF writer Greg Bear, is all that SF should be - speculative and grounded nicely in cutting-edge science. Bear’s latest novel (he has written 24) explores what would happen if the punch in punctuated equilibrium...

Discover...The McDonald's of Science Mags

Sun, 5 Nov 2000 21:11:57 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - The nice thing about “Discover” magazine is that you can cover a wide swath of scientific ground quickly and easily, without needing a degree in each of the subjects to understand what you are reading. “Discover” articles are not only informative, but...

Fatigue, Dehydration, Frostbite

Sat, 28 Oct 2000 23:44:14 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - Fatigue, Dehydration, Frostbite. Such are the chapter - or more correctly, incident - titles in the American Alpine Club's "Accidents in North American Mountaineering 2000."

Ever since I first started climbing back in the late 70's...

Food for Thought

Mon, 16 Oct 2000 21:25:26 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author martineden -

“Hannibal” is the latest adventure of the world’s most popular cannibal, Hannibal Lector. Lector, as you will recall was first introduced by Harris in "Red Dragon"

and (with somewhat more than an assist from Anthony Hopkins in the...

My Antonia - Land, Land, and More Land

Sun, 24 Sep 2000 13:09:04 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author martineden - Willa Cather is one of those “name-brand” authors. If her name came up in conversation, I would nod wisely in recognition of a great writer, despite the fact that I’d never read a word by her. So, when I came across a new edition of "My...