Epinions Recent Reviews for pageclot

The 1986 Volkswagen Vanagon: How to add massive amounts of stress to your life.

Sat, 19 Apr 2003 19:32:04 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - In the summer of 2002, when the wind noise through the gaping rust holes in my 1988 Toyota Camry became annoying, I started looking around for a replacement. I basically needed a car for commuting a few days a week, but if I purchased something big...

Why we are where we are: Gwynne Dyer's Ignorant Armies: Sliding into war in Iraq

Sat, 5 Apr 2003 18:36:01 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - I find myself quite conflicted by the Iraqi conflict and invasion (the Gulf War, part 2). On the one hand, I believe that Saddam Hussein is a guy that the world would be better off without. On the other hand, I don't believe that the men and women of...

First World Flight: The perils of genius, and the rewards of perseverance

Tue, 11 Mar 2003 22:44:47 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Paul Moore: It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you're the smartest person in the room.

Jane Craig: No. It's awful.

- Broadcast News

While reading First World Flight,...

Douglas Coupland's Generation X: Not as smarmy as you might think

Wed, 12 Feb 2003 02:42:04 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - The curse of Generation X is that, as a group, they're aware of the futility of everything, but further, that they suspect that they're using this as an excuse to be lazy.

Did Douglas Coupland coin the term "Generation X?". If he didn't, he...

Annie Proulx's Shipping News: An uplifting book about food , misery and insurance

Wed, 30 Oct 2002 01:08:50 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Many years ago, a co-worker/friend of mine (Jeff) highly recommended The Shipping News to me, saying "You'll love it! It's about this depressed guy who winds up in Newfoundland writing about boats. The humour is just like yours, deadpan and dry...

Toshiba Portege 4010: Businesslike, professional, and cute

Sat, 26 Oct 2002 06:53:55 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Summary:

I use the Toshiba Portege as my primary computer at work and at home. Through my employer, I've used probably more than a dozen laptops over the last 10 years, ranging from the 25 pound IBM with a plasma display to this...

The Black and Decker 6.5A mower and the spiritual calm of a freshly mowed lawn

Fri, 21 Sep 2001 05:31:02 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Mowing the lawn can be very soothing. After a day filled with uncertainty, imperfect information, unanswered emails and phone calls, a lawn, at least, is something over which you can exert a measure of control. You can impose your will on grass in a...

Iain Pears' Death and Restoration: Art History can be vital and virile.

Sun, 2 Sep 2001 03:21:48 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Reading the sixth book of any series before you read books one through five can be a bit disconcerting. Like walking into a movie half finished, or watching Gretzky play his thirteenth season, you can't really get a complete view of what you're watching...

Robertson Davies' Leaven of Malice: Warmth and gentle humour

Sat, 25 Aug 2001 23:38:20 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Leaven of Malice, by Robertson Davies, was written in 1954, before he became famous with the publication of Fifth Business, the book he's best known for, in Canada at least. The Leacock Award for Literary Humour goes annually to the best...

Robertson Davies' What's Bred in the Bone: Living through Art.

Thu, 23 Aug 2001 00:31:26 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - What's Bred in the Bone is part three of the Cornish Trilogy, the saga of the Cornish family which includes The Rebel Angels and The Lyre of Orpheus. Robertson Davies is most famous in Canada for Fifth Business, book one of...

The Negotiator: Frederick Forsythe's The Negotiator: Prescient pre-Desert Storm thriller

Fri, 17 Aug 2001 15:39:10 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Before the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, the plot of The Negotiator might have sounded a bit farfetched. Renegade elements in American business and the Russian military team up to destabilize a small oil-rich Middle Eastern country. This prompts...

Cornelius Ryan's A Bridge Too Far: Operation Market-Garden dissected

Wed, 15 Aug 2001 23:14:36 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Summary

Operation Market-Garden, World War II's largest airborne offensive operation, was a 90% success. That 10% failure meant that the Allies had a 60 mile salient to nowhere, unused in the following year's offensives. Thousands of...

Trevanian's The Summer of Katya: A thriller of small proportions

Wed, 8 Aug 2001 10:15:29 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - After publishing Shibumi, Trevanian said that he was finished with the anti-hero spy genre. He'd already created two smart, lethal, somewhat misanthropic heros in Jonathon Hemlock and Nicholai Hel. He decided to write more personal, character...

Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost: English history gets a makeover (E ' W/O)

Wed, 1 Aug 2001 01:39:08 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Summary

An Instance of the Fingerpost refers to a way of discerning, from conflicting evidence, the truth (set out by Francis Bacon in a discussion on fallacies in thinking). An Instance of the Fingerpost shows the same set of...

Robertson Davies' The Cunning Man: Engrossing and satisfying, but difficult to love

Sat, 28 Jul 2001 09:17:04 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - When Robertson Davies was still alive, Anthony Burgess once suggested that Robertson Davies should win the Nobel Prize for Literature. He had a point. Davies laboured away, "churning" out literate, weighty novels filled with philosophy and meaning for...

Everything but the Girl's Amplified Heart: Your happily depressed self's music

Mon, 16 Jul 2001 23:04:22 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Epinions writer urbanist wrote a very funny review of San Francisco, looked at from the view of someone who suffered from depression. It was a "How To" guide offering helpful hints to those who wanted to be depressed in San Francisco.

I...

Jim Thompson's The Grifters: Hard boiled con artist noir tragedy

Tue, 10 Jul 2001 01:02:09 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Definitions

short con: a hit and run confidence scheme. Usually, the victim is relieved of a small amount of money. The grifter employing the short con survives by employing the short con repetitively.

long...

From the Teeth of Angels: Death goes on vacation, to Vienna:Jonathan Carroll's From the Teeth of Angels

Sat, 7 Jul 2001 00:53:58 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - From the Teeth of Angels was my introduction to the amusement park funhouse thrills and chills that characterize Jonathan Carroll's writing. Carroll delights in the sort of "Gotcha" moments that you usually see in movies. Like Sleeping in...

William Craig's Enemy at the Gates: A not-quite-gripping account of the Battle of Stalingrad

Tue, 3 Jul 2001 22:53:06 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - The battle for Stalingrad marked a dramatic turning point for Germany's fortunes during World War II. Not only did Russia inflict the first major defeat on the German army during this battle, trapping or killing upwards of 200,000 soldiers, but the...

Bang the Drum Slowly: Love and Death and Baseball in the American Heartland

Sun, 1 Jul 2001 15:32:31 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Baseball is America's game. Despite those two World Championships won by the Toronto Blue Jays in 92 and 93, with hired hands, the game is deeply rooted in the nostalgic fabric of the United States. Although professional football is more popular now,...

The Longest Day: Cornelius Ryan's gripping account of the D-Day invasion

Sun, 24 Jun 2001 23:58:48 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Summary

The Allied Expeditionary Force's invasion of the European mainland was the culmination of three years of planning, bickering and delays. That it succeeded is tribute not only to the planners and support troops critical to the...

Martin Donovan and Christina Ricci in The Opposite of Sex (LGBT W/O)

Sat, 23 Jun 2001 09:56:33 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Summary

Christina Ricci plays a bïtchy, bossy, scheming, and bigoted 16 year old, and the filmmakers try to figure out how to make us like her.

DeDee Truitt (Christina Ricci) is a tornado. A one-woman destructive force, she...

William Manchester's Goodbye Darkness: An historian remembers War in the Pacific

Tue, 12 Jun 2001 17:10:59 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Summary:

William Manchester has been an historian in the public eye since his association with John F. Kennedy, before and after his death (Portrait of a President, John F. Kennedy in Profile, before, and Death of a...

Jonathan Carroll's Sleeping in Flame: Springtime in Vienna

Mon, 11 Jun 2001 08:20:43 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Summary

For many years now, Jonathan Carroll has been walking his own path. He writes of our world, but a world which is always cracking open, revealing unpleasant stuff we'd rather not look at too long, or else madness will follow...

Trevanian's Hot Night in the City: Short fiction that revels in diversity

Mon, 4 Jun 2001 12:29:18 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author pageclot - Summary

A collection of short stories written by one author (Trevanian), Hot Night in the City reads as if it were written by five. Written at various times over the last 25 years and published under various pseudonyms, these...