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Lynn (TheLankyYankee) - - Reviews

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The Aeneid
The Aeneid
Author: Virgil, Robert Fitzgerald (Translator)
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 52
Review Date: 10/17/2005


Editorial Reviews

Review
"Fitzgerald's is so decisively the best modern Aeneid that it is unthinkable that anyone will want to use any other version for a long time to come."--New York Review of Books

"From the beginning to the end of this English poem...the reader will find the same sure control of English rhythms, the same deft phrasing, and an energy which urges the eye onward."--The New Republic

"A rendering that is both marvelously readable and scrupulously faithful.... Fitzgerald has managed, by a sensitive use of faintly archaic vocabulary and a keen ear for sound and rhythm, to suggest the solemnity and the movement of Virgil's poetry as no previous translator has done (including Dryden).... This is a sustained achievement of beauty and power."--Boston Globe

Review
"Fitzgerald's is so decisively the best modern Aeneid that it is unthinkable that anyone will want to use any other version for a long time to come."--New York Review of Books

"From the beginning to the end of this English poem...the reader will find the same sure control of English rhythms, the same deft phrasing, and an energy which urges the eye onward."--The New Republic

"A rendering that is both marvelously readable and scrupulously faithful.... Fitzgerald has managed, by a sensitive use of faintly archaic vocabulary and a keen ear for sound and rhythm, to suggest the solemnity and the movement of Virgil's poetry as no previous translator has done (including Dryden).... This is a sustained achievement of beauty and power."--Boston Globe


All Souls : A Family Story from Southie
All Souls : A Family Story from Southie
Author: Michael Patrick MacDonald
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 101
Review Date: 7/11/2006
Helpful Score: 5


Absolutely devastating account of growing up in one of the worst projects in America.


American government: Freedom and power
American government: Freedom and power
Author: Theodore J Lowi
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 11/17/2007


A college text (softcover) that explains the structure of the American government extremely well. It includes the text of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and amendments to the Constitution.

For some reason, the information above says the book only has 88 pages. The book has over 200 pages.


American Ground : Unbuilding the World Trade Center
American Ground : Unbuilding the World Trade Center
Author: William Langewiesche
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 6
Review Date: 1/19/2006
Helpful Score: 1


An excellent account on how the area, buildings, and wreckage of WTC were dismantled and shipped to Staten Island with care due to environmental worries and even including all NYC and NYS bureaucracies.

Never forget.


Another City, Not My Own : A Novel in the Form of a Memoir
Another City, Not My Own : A Novel in the Form of a Memoir
Author: Dominick Dunne
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 31
Review Date: 12/24/2005
Helpful Score: 3


An account of the OJ Simpson trial; written with a sharp eye and a quick tongue. Dominick Dunne puts it all together into a non-stop reading.


The Best American Travel Writing 2000
The Best American Travel Writing 2000
Author: Bill Bryson (Editor)
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 18
Review Date: 12/26/2005
Helpful Score: 1


A collection of exotic travel stories--no tales of London or the Eiffel Tower, but destinations such as Zanzibar, the northernmost point of Australia, and the island featured in the movie "The Beach." For the traveler, and not the--heaven forbid!--tourist.


The Best of Outside : The First 20 Years (Vintage Departures)
The Best of Outside : The First 20 Years (Vintage Departures)
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.8/5 Stars.
 4
Review Date: 2/4/2006
Helpful Score: 1


Excellent travel and adventure stories, including the original "Into Thin Air" written for the magazine. Also includes fascinating articles about the komodo dragon (fierce little suckers), African bees, Miss Rodeo America, and finding apes in Africa.

Highly enjoyable!


The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Saved 1,200 Jews, and Built a Village in the Forest
Review Date: 7/3/2006


What a story! I don't understand why this has never been told to the general public. Courage and bravery in the face of evil.


The Big Picture
The Big Picture
Author: Douglas Kennedy
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 33
Review Date: 10/26/2005
Helpful Score: 3


I really enjoyed this novel. I always love when characters are able to drop out of sight and live a new life. I am amazed and chilled at the same time at the ease in which new identification can be bought to begin again.

I especially like that the story is told in the first person. It makes it seem as though the tale truly happened to someone like your best friend.


Bury Me Standing : The Gypsies and Their Journey (Vintage Departures)
Review Date: 12/18/2005
Helpful Score: 1


An interesting sociological discussion of the Rom, also known as Gypsies.


But Enough About Me: How the Girl Next Door Got Behind the Velvet Rope Using Shameless Flattery, Fake Laughter, and a Few Other Tricks
Review Date: 12/9/2006
Helpful Score: 2


An enjoyable, fun memoir of a Jersey girl, her family, and writing at Rolling Stone magazine. Very cute.


The Campfire Collection: Spine-Tingling Tales to Tell in the Dark
Review Date: 7/5/2006
Helpful Score: 1


These stories are not what I expected. They are divided into sections like "Beasts" and "The Elements", which are perfect for when you are in the dark woods or alone late at night. Good fictional short stories and non-fictional accounts of the dangers of the outdoors.


Celebrating Diversity: Building Self-Esteem in Today's Multicultural Classrooms
Review Date: 7/11/2007


The book contains over 75 multicultural activities to enhance self-worth, self-respect, and self-confidence in K-8 students. Listed in the back are several lists of children's books that focus on ethnicity and diversity, such as African-American, Asian, Aging, Gender, Latino, Native American, and Family.


City of Quartz : Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
City of Quartz : Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
Author: Mike Davis
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 14
Review Date: 7/12/2006


A rich read that describes the new California lifestyle.


Civilization Past and Present
Civilization Past and Present
Author: Walter Wallbank
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 12/24/2005


An excellent college text about civilizations from the banks of the Nile to the 21st century.


Cliffs Notes: Buying and Selling on eBay
Cliffs Notes: Buying and Selling on eBay
Author: Greg Holden
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 4
Review Date: 12/28/2005
Helpful Score: 2


For the novice Ebay-er; my husband found it very helpful.


Crossings: A White Man's Journey into Black America
Crossings: A White Man's Journey into Black America
Author: Walt Harrington
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 3
Review Date: 10/17/2005


An interesting study of race in America, by a white journalist who interviews a cross section of blacks.

"A white man married to a black woman, spurred by a racist joke to feel "fear and anguish" for children, Washington Post Magazine writer Harrington decided to "go out and travel America's parallel black world" to explore the nation's racial conundrums. As he traverses the North, South and West, Harrington deftly paints vivid, brief scenes: a black businessman visits prison inmates, a worker in a road crew lights up at meeting Jesse Jackson, students at a small college in southern Illinois discuss interracial dating. He meets "hard cop" Charleston police chief Reuben Greenberg, filmmaker Spike Lee and novelist James Alan McPherson, who says, "I'm not a great man, but I'm not just a race person." Reflecting on his own relationships with blacks, Harrington revisits relatives and former college classmates. While the insight "racism still rages, but it is for too many blacks also an excuse" hardly merits its presentation as a revelation, Harrington rightly observes that America's racial conflicts also involve culture and class. "Blacks and whites in America are the same and different," he concludes, and his thoughtful mosaic should encourage fresh dialogue."


A Day in the Night of America
A Day in the Night of America
Author: Kevin Coyne
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 2
Review Date: 3/8/2006


From the Amazon editorial review...
"Ingeniously conceived, superbly executed, freelance journalist Coyne's first book examines how Americans live--and, in particular, work--at night. At least 10 million people in the U.S. are on the job between midnight and 6 a.m., he reveals, and this defiance of day's end did not begin with Edison: Americans worked the late shift as early as 1646. Some night workers are ubiquitous--convenience store clerks, radio call-in show hosts, bakers preparing food for the breakfast trade--but others are easily overlooked, including steelworkers who maintain the ultra-high temperatures of foundry furnaces and Wall Street traders in foreign currencies. Beginning with fishermen in Gloucester, Mass., Coyne visited after-hours laborers in 41 states, ending his tour with a look at tugboaters on Puget Sound and a trip to Alaska for the briefest night of the year. The book resonates with Coyne's great interest in the "nightsiders" as people and in the work they do."
Reed Business Information, Inc.

I enjoyed this sociological account of what it is like to be a worker on the nightshift. Coyne writes eloquently and magically, discussing the influence of the night on its workers and how they not only relate to the darkness, but also the sunshine of day.


Death: The Trip of a Lifetime
Death: The Trip of a Lifetime
Author: Greg Palmer
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 3/27/2006


Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly:
"In this surprising, occasionally sobering but often lighthearted travelogue designed to accompany a PBS series, Palmer, a broadcaster, playwright and filmmaker, examines death images across the world, interviewing people or just poking around and examining horror books, cartoons and other entertainments. He notes the tranquil names often given to cemeteries, like the ubiquitous Pleasant Hill or Taiwan's Happy Peace Garden. In lively anecdotes, Palmer reports on the attitudes towards death declared by a Ghanaian witch doctor, a Buddhist priest, an AIDS hospice patient, the head of a cryonics foundation and a failed suicide. The author concludes by describing concepts of afterlife as held by religions, most of which promise some form of immortality."

From Library Journal:
"Not really psychology or anthropology per se, Palmer's book is a tour of such death-related places as a death theme park in Taiwan (the title of the book is a ride at the park), a burial in Ghana (where funerals are so lavish that families usually have to store the body in a morgue for several years while saving up for the wake), a cryonics facility, a funeral parlor in Florida that features a drive-up window, and more. While this title will not add much to a serious social sciences collection, it is quite interesting and entertaining. It is a companion volume to a PBS series that debuted in October."

An interesting sociological look at how various societies handle death. Written with humor and respect, Greg Palmer looks at cryopreservation, hospices, Day of the Dead, and other cultures to discover what death means to the peoples of the world.


The Devil of Nanking
The Devil of Nanking
Author: Mo Hayder
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 21
Review Date: 7/24/2006
Helpful Score: 3


Intriguing, disturbing and different. I was swept up in the story of this lonely girl and her mission in Japan, which kept me going until the last page.


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