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Lynda C. (Readnmachine) - Reviews

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100 Ways America Is Screwing Up the World
100 Ways America Is Screwing Up the World
Author: John Tirman
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 2.4/5 Stars.
 8
Review Date: 8/7/2010


Less a diatribe against America than a sorrowful analysis of the ofen-imperialistic actions motivated by greed, political expediency, or willful ignorance, this book chronicles missteps from the genocide of the continent's original inhabitants to the export of toxic rap. The author winds up the book with "Ten Things America Has Done Right". Interesting, but would have been improved by a good copy editing.


The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 : The Book
The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 : The Book
Author: Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
 8
Review Date: 12/17/2015


Quick read with some very funny lines as Mel Brooks brings his 2000-year-old man character to the printed page. The bacover reviews over-hype it, but I guess that's what you get when you're Mel Brooks.


32AA
32AA
Author: Michelle Cunnah
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 163
Review Date: 12/19/2006


Fun chick-lit about a young woman who thinks she's lost everything when her snakey boyfriend hijacks her ideas and then dumps her, but finds she has a lot more going for her -- like good friends, loving family, and boobs that are just exactly the right size. (I'd have rated this one higher if either the author or her copy editor understood when to use "me" and when to use "I".)


334
334
Author: Thomas M. Disch
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 2.9/5 Stars.
 4
Review Date: 2/16/2008


Couldn't get through it. Kind of a New Wave, non-linear story (?) set in a dystopian 21st Century New York City, full of characters who seem to have no relationship to each other. Some nice turns of phrase, but the payoff didn't seem to be worth the effort.


The 5000 Year Leap: The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World
The 5000 Year Leap: The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World
Author: W. Cleon Skousen
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 33
Review Date: 2/24/2013


Rather than looking at the American Constitution as a remarkable step forward in the human notion of governance, Skousen's "Principles of Freedom 101" wanders deeply into Judeo-Christian theology. Just not what I was looking for.


700 Sundays
700 Sundays
Author: Billy Crystal
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 3
Review Date: 3/15/2013


Crystal writes with love and his infectious humor about his parents and family, particularly about his relationship with his father, who died when Crystal was 15.


The 9th Girl (Kovac & Liska, Bk 4)
The 9th Girl (Kovac & Liska, Bk 4)
Author: Tami Hoag
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 55
Review Date: 12/29/2016


On an ice-shrouded New Year's Eve, a minor car accident becomes a nightmare when the mutilated body of a young woman is ejected from the trunk of one of the cars. Unravelling who she was and what happened to her drives this thriller. Hoag continues to play her extremely skillful bait-and-switch game with readers, but this one feels a bit padded and drags somewhat in the latter half.


Absolute Power
Absolute Power
Author: David Baldacci
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 388
Review Date: 4/23/2013


Trapped in what was supposed to be an empty mansion, a long-time burglar witnesses a shocking crime and vows to bring justice to the victim, no matter how high he has to reach to do it.


The Abstinence Teacher
The Abstinence Teacher
Author: Tom Perrotta
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
 80
Review Date: 10/2/2009


This odd little book raises a lot more questions than it answers, and doesn't end so much as just dribble off the playing field. The set-up -- a high school sex ed teacher who gets in trouble with the growing fundamentalist Christian population of her school district -- poses some questions but never really answers them. And the plot complication of her attraction to one of those fundamentalists -- a man who is fighting demons of his own -- never really gets its due.


Acceptable Risk
Acceptable Risk
Author: Robin Cook
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 82
Review Date: 3/1/2015


Were many of the hysteria attacks of the Salem withcraft era brought on by ergotamine fungus on the rye flour used in some breads? And if so, could modern medical research develop useful psychotropic drugs from the same source? Cook uses this idea and sets it all against the background of a contemporary descendant of one of the executed women, who is searching for the mysterious hidden "evidence" used against her ancestress. Great ideas all, but just not well handled.


The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man (Hundred-Year-Old Man, Bk 2)
Review Date: 5/27/2023


Not as much fun as the previous book, though the main character is still bumbling through the world, a loose cannon of unbridled optimism as he discovers the internet, is disappointed by Donald Trump, disrupts North Korea's nuclear ambitions, and generally wreaks havoc with international affairs.


Across the Universe (Star Trek: The Original Series #88)
Review Date: 12/5/2018


Star Trek TOS novel. When the Enterprise discovers an early-exploration space ship drifting and powerless, Captain Kirk can't help but remember another sleeper ship and the peril it represented. But this one is a colonization ship stranded by an unforeseen malfunction, and its passengers are eager to continue their voyage.

The planet to which they are delivered, however, is facing a crisis of its own, and it's up to Kirk & Co to save not only their rescued space voyagers, but the quarter-million inhabitants of the planet they had anticipated making their new home.


Adam
Adam
Author: Ted Dekker
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 44
Review Date: 7/31/2015


What starts out as a pretty good thriller about the search for a serial killer morphs in the last quarter to a supernatural gorefest with an ending that makes no sense whatsoever.


The Adventures of Stout Mama
The Adventures of Stout Mama
Author: Sibyl James
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 7/20/2014


Lightweight collection of essays, observations, and sound-bites from the alter-ego of an over-40 free spirit, drifting from academic job to academic job, from love to lover, and from country to country. Amusing.


After All
After All
Author: Mary Tyler Moore
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
 14
Review Date: 8/31/2015


Guess what? Mary Tyler Moore is ... boring. At least her poor-little-me-my-daddy-didn't-love-me bio is. The lively "inside" stories (funny an otherwise) one generally expects from celebrity tell-alls (or tell-somes) are conspicuously absent here.


After the Fire
After the Fire
Author: Jane Rule
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 2.3/5 Stars.
 5
Review Date: 6/30/2015


Interesting study of several women living on a small island off the coast of Vancouver, B.C., each of whom is alone for different reasons and dealing with the problems of making human connections without sacrificing some essential part of herself.


The Age of Elegance (Phaidon Miniature Editions)
The Age of Elegance (Phaidon Miniature Editions)
Author: Editors of Phaidon Press
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 3/30/2023


This beautifully produced little volume provides an overview of the work of John Singer Sargent, supplemented by a brief biography of the painter.

Although tiny in format -- the booklet is only 4" x 5", it's packed with 65 high-quality color reproductions of the artist's best-known works, along with 8 pencil or charcoal sketches done as studies for more formal pieces.


Agnes and the Hitman
Agnes and the Hitman
Author: Jennifer Crusie, Bob Mayer
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 353
Review Date: 4/30/2011


Crusie and Mayer get it together this time, in a slow-starting story about a cranky food columnist with a penchant for bopping people with frying pans, a flamingo-studded wedding, and a psycho bitch grandmother-of-the-bride who may or may not be sitting on five million dollars in cash.


Airframe
Airframe
Author: Michael Crichton
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 217
Review Date: 4/12/2013


Compelling and fast-moving tale of the aftermath of a fictional in-flight incident that left passengers dead and injured. Crichton tackles corporate infighting and infotainment "news" for the zing and supports it with the nuts and bolts description of the internal investigation by the plane's manufacturer.


Alaska
Alaska
Author: James A. Michener
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 25
Review Date: 11/7/2009


Michener's trademark study of a particular region doesn't work well in this ponderous study of Alaska. Only the World War II sections spark the least bit of interest.


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