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Archive for the ‘Other Reviews’ Category
Monday, March 15th, 2010
Pros: Absolutely gorgeous, if heartbreaking, memoir of a woman with cancer; unflinchingly honest
Cons: Tough to read!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Review copy courtesy of Lisa Roe, Online Publicist.
Visit Carrie Host online.
Carrie Host’s Between Me and the River
is the memoir of a woman who discovered she had a particularly slow-growing, and difficult to treat, form of cancer. It took me until halfway through the book to fully realize that unlike a Hallmark movie, this book wasn’t necessarily going to have a happy ending, and I had to flip to the author bio at the end to at least reassure myself that Ms. Host was still alive at the time the book was published. There’s something very raw and tough about realizing that this person you’ve grown in some ways very close to over the course of such an intimate book is still facing something so difficult.
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Tags: cancer, carcinoid, Carrie Host, memoir
Posted in Other Nonfiction | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Pros: Interesting look at the private lives of some of the more famous (or infamous) European royals.
Cons: The genealogy can get confusing because many names were passed down through generations.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
Many of us are curious about the private lives of royalty, both in the past and the present. What could be more tantalizing than the relationships (or lack thereof) that occur between the royal sheets? Leslie Carroll has created a fascinating read about not only some of the more famous unsuccessful royal marriages, but of successful ones as well. It’s a journey into the past showing that while some things change throughout the years, others stay the same.
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Tags: Diana, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry VIII, history, King, Marie Antoinette, marriage, Napoleon, Queen, royal, Victoria
Posted in Other Nonfiction | Permalink | No Comments »
Friday, October 9th, 2009
Pros: Funny, hysterical, and lots of other synonyms for hilarious; plenty to make it valuable beyond the website
Cons: Obviously it would be cool if all the photos could be pro-quality, but by nature they can’t, and this has its own sort of charm
Rating: 5 out of 5
[This is one of those rare books that is not a review copy.]
Also posted on Epinions.com.
The Cake Wrecks Blog began when Jen Yates decided to post, for the amusement of herself and a few friends, photos of professional cakes gone “hilariously wrong.” Of course, as occasionally happens on the internet, she’d hit on something that had a far wider audience than she’d imagined. Soon she was getting thousands of hits a day and submissions of “cake wreck” photos from all over the globe—and eventually she even got a book deal. The result of that deal is Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong
, a wonderful organized collection of both best-of-the-blog photos (with snarky commentary) and additional material that never made it into the blog.
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Tags: cake decorating, cake wrecks, cakes, Humor, Jen Yates
Posted in Other Nonfiction | Permalink | No Comments »
Friday, January 30th, 2009
Pros: Deliciously vulgar and offensive; sarcasm paired with darling vintage illustrations
Cons: Deliciously vulgar and offensive
Rating: 5 out of 5
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Tags: booze, Chocolate, coffee, Darren Wotz, Ed Polish, food, Humor, vintage
Posted in Gourmet, Other Nonfiction | Permalink | 3 Comments »
Thursday, September 11th, 2008
Pros: A lot of very useful information
Cons: Some one-sided information; VERY dry at times
Rating: 4 out of 5
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Tags: Dr. Davis Liu, health care, medical insurance, medicine
Posted in Other Nonfiction | Permalink | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
Pros: Wonderful advice on realistically running a crafting business and pricing your work accordingly
Cons: Ignores online possibilities entirely
Rating: 4 out of 5
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Tags: Business, Crafts, James Dillehay, pricing
Posted in Business, Crafts | Permalink | 5 Comments »
Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Pros: Hysterical drawings and quotes; the perfect gift for cat lovers
Cons: Not everyone wants to pay full book price for a little gift book of art and sayings
Rating: 5 out of 5
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Tags: art, Cats, Humor, Jane Seabrook, Purry Logic
Posted in Cats | Permalink | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Pros: Fun projects; a few genuinely new ideas
Cons: Materials you can’t get; specific projects can be of limited usefulness
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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Tags: beading, BeadStyle, Crafts, How-To, jewelry
Posted in Crafts | Permalink | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
Pros: Comprehensive; insightful; stunning
Cons: None
Rating: 5 out of 5
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Tags: beading, color, Crafts, How-To, jewelry, Margie Deeb
Posted in Crafts | Permalink | 3 Comments »
Monday, August 11th, 2008
Pros: Clear, simple instructions; tons of photos; extremely comprehensive
Cons: Misses a few small details
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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Tags: beading, Chris Franchetti Michaels, Crafts, How-To, jewelry
Posted in Crafts | Permalink | 4 Comments »