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The Book Review Blog - book reviews written by bloggers - comics, journals, novels, handbooks, dictionaries, any genre, anything. Join us!
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Interested in swapping books? Meeting reviewers? Drink coffee? Details located here and here. If you need any help, email us!
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@ * + ash @ + bee b @ + daniel joshua @ + enia @ + eyeris @ + ferith @ + fooji @ * + graceshu @ * + hani @ + jenn @ + irene @ + ivan @ + julianne @ + kherying @ + firefirefly @ + meesh @ * + minishorts @ + raZZbeRRy @ + rach @ + steph t @ + strizzt @ + syarfina @ + sixthseal @ + t-boy @ + vlad @ * + wena |
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+Simon & Schuster +Palm Digital Media +Fictionwise +Mobipocket +Knowbetter Lending Library +Project Gutenberg
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+blogwise +blogger +haloscan +sitemeter +pps
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| Thursday, September 04, 2003 |
| Andrew M. Greeley ~ Contract with an Angel |
Title : Contract with an Angel
Author : Andrew M. Greeley Rating : 7/10 Genre : Fiction Still a bit lazy to take pictures of the book since Amazon.com does a great job of putting up sample pages online for viewing. Plus, having to handle more than 3 blogs now, one can understand the limited time one has at night to do picture editing. Anyway, back to the book. In the first chapter alone, one is intrigued by the opening lines : "The scenario says you don't have much longer to live, Raymond Anthony Neenan," the main the next seat said to him. "You'd better straighten out the mess you've made of your life." Imagine yourself as a high-profile businessman living in the fastrack and trying to get ahead of the pack everyday. Pushing people aside for his own interests. Stepping on lots and loads of people's toes. Neglecting his wife and grown-up children. All of it changes the day he meets the Archangel Michael and his partner Gabby, or rather Gabriel. Being a businessman, Michael offers him a contract i.e. get your life together and be a nicer and better man. Of course, Michael and Gabriel is always on hand to provide counselling, for free albeit a few conditions attached (kinda like the free stuff available online with conditions attached ;p ). It's a really simple read if one is looking for amusement after a tiring and winding day. Andrew Greeley manages to keep the entire story precise, concise and, of course, simple to understand. Did you know he was a Catholic Priest? :) I will end this review with his statement in the book : This story is an exercise in speculative religious imagination, not in formal theology. Its premise, like that of my other angel books, is that the works on earth we attribute to angels are in fact the result of the intervention of a much more highly evolved bodily creature from "elsewhere". Let's see if the freudianspit will start commenting on this. ;p |
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| John Gray - Mars and Venus on a Date |
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Here is one of John Gray's books from the Mars and Venus series, following the highly successful 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus The blurb on the acclaimed Gray's site reads like this: "An important guide for all single people looking for love. With this book, John suggests creative ideas for finding that special person to spend the rest of your life with. He offers advice on difficult issues such as deciding when to become intimate and when to end a relationship. John takes readers through the five stages of dating: 1. Attraction 2. Ambivalence 3. Commitment 4. Intimacy 5. Marriage He explains what to anticipate in each stage and how to handle the problems that arise on a couple's path to commitment and marriage. " Now add that up together and what do you get? A really hilarious book, fun to read with reasonably applicable rules and tips for pondering upon. In this book, John claims to be able to help readers 'find the right person' by walking through the five stages as mentioned above. By discussing Mars tendencies and Venus temperaments, Gray provides what he calls 'real life' examples, which I'm certain readers who are in a relationship or have been in a relationship will identify easily with. He also discusses entire chapters of 'case studies' and with chapter headings like 'When the Clock Keeps Ticking and He's Not Wearing a Watch' and 'Men Are Like Blowtorches, Women Are Like Ovens'... you can expect eyebrow raising instances as you smile and cackle over the hilarity of it all. There's even a chapter that provides a list of '101 Places to Meet Your Soul Mate', and if you are in great need of a dating partner or really crave to find out what its like being in a relationship, you just have to check out Gray's tips. I think for this site, we should probably go with tip #36: If you always buy books, try hanging out in the library, where people read but don't buy. As well as with tip #37: If you don't read a lot, try hanging out in a bookstore and ask people who their favorite authors are. Strike up a conversation and get to know someone by asking more questions about favorite books. My personal tip would be this: If you don't read a lot and want to find out what's the deal on reading, and you don't want to get bored silly by heavy stuff, try some really light self-help reading that will probably click with you. Its really funny, and its got me thinking about getting the more famous book. And hey, I'm sure some of the tips will be of great help, some day, some time! |
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| Nick Usborne - Net Words, Creating High Impact Online Copy |
| This is an excellent book by Nick Usborne on writing online that dissects the Internet culture and how consumers and users react towards writing on the web - the main and true source of imparting information. It teaches business sites how to add competitive advantages to their web activities by differentiating themselves with effective and ethical writing - where marketing, advertising, and where other e-commerce business activities are concerned.
I've been made aware of several elements of web usability and copyrighting that I've previously been somewhat complacent about, together with useful examples, take for example under Only Words Will Set You Apart - Great Copy Has Always Differentiated Companies: Avis - Because we're only number two in rent-a-cars, we try harder. It also emphasizes on how usability engineers should work closely with copyrighters to produce an awareness of considering copywriting as part of the web development process. In the same vein, he quotes Jakob Nielsen as saying - When writing for the web, you're not only affecting the content - you're affecting the core user experience because users look at the text and headlines first. Although its important to be grammatically correct, it is also important to present the content in a manner that draws in readers. These are just highlights that I find extremely helpful in writing my project report. Other concepts and discussions that deserve mention are - the impact and velocity of words, building customer relationships with words, the language of permission, personalization, the role of copywriting in e-commerce, thinking like a direct marketer, among others. Verdict - Heightens web developer's awareness of how powerful words are on the Internet. A simple and easy 250-paged read with fonts that are friendly to tired eyes - but then again, it is about copywriting. |
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| Book Review Bloggers In Da House! |
| We welcome Vladimir, Wena, racheal, chooki, and jenn :) And Vlad even blogged a review before I managed to come up with a decent housewarming. We've got more coming in and yeah its a good thing :) Thanks for your responses. I've also been managing the formatting of entries and am still in the process of improving how it looks. Any suggestions, please feel free to drop it here, or just drop it in the comments box.
I'll have to go bathe now. Icky. Hi Ivan too! I posted this entry and saw his! |
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| Talon Of The Silver Hawk |
Title: Talon Of The Silver Hawk Author: Raymond E.Feist. Rating: 8/10 Genre: Fantasy Following the end of the Serpentwar, Pug the Black Sorcerer formed the Conclave of Shadows, which is also the title of the new saga that Raymond E. Feist is now writing. 'Talon Of The Silver Hawk' is the first book of this saga and it seems set to be the beginning of another great fantasy epic. In this book, Feist shifted his attention to the Eastern Kingdoms of Midkemia and started off by introducing a new character called Kieli of the Orosini. The story follows the adventures of young Kieli - from how he became the last Orosini to how he came to be recruited into the Conclave of Shadows by Pug. Two new interesting characters introduced this epic are Pug's sons called Magnus and Caleb - the former a magician like his father and the latter a ranger trained by the elves. Feist is back to his best and in this book, he keeps the reader in anticipation, whether it's about the role Kieli seems destined to play in the scheme of good versus evil or about how old characters from previous sagas will come into play. Even if you have not read his previous works before, you can start off with this book without feeling lost because Feist didn't make references to those works, at least not in any great detail. Always accompanying his works (except for 'Faerie Tale') you can expect political manoeuvres, magic, sword fighting, tactical battles and a touch of humour. It was a great read and a must for fans of E. Feist. The next book for this saga is titled 'King of Foxes' and it is already out in the hardcover version. |
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| Lord of the Vampires : Vlad brought alive |
 The Lord of the Vampires by Jeanne Kalogridis tell the story in a diary form, just like the one in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Legends or true people from the earlier centuries were fictionized, in order, as how I think Jeanne Kalogridis' way of bringing the person alive. The few main characters consists of Elisabeth Bathory, a true figure in the 15th century, a countess from Romania, doomed in a small cell to death, after having murdered around 650 virgins in order to bath in their blood or for own consumption. In the book, which consist few of her segment of diary, she is ( coincidentally ay?) a countess vampiress who vow to find a magic parchment in order to kill Vlad and by being the Dark Lord, she attempt to bring Vampirism up to speed in the 19th century. It also consist of Zsuzsanna's diary, a young niece of the Dracul family, 18, young and nubile. Bathory uses her to get to Vlad, and immaculately tempt her innocence. Her silky white body, so tender, corrupted in many ways by the countess herself. How could we forget Vlad III himself, Prince of Wallachia Bucharest, Curtea Domneasca, 28 December 1476, who has made a deal with the Dark Lord, keeping a magic parchment that make him immortal. In order to do so, they will be riddles to be solved in order to get to the next clue. The book also consist of Abraham Van Hellsing's diary, a vampire-killer who vows to bring down Vlad, who is also his half brother. A story within a conflicting story, characters that rises, leaving moments of confusion. A kinky sex ride, so literally narrated, I almost lost control. The greed and power hungry like the world is facing now. Most importantly, legends brought alive. A quote from the book, "Outside, the promise of snow; the weather has turned bitter and the sky leaden, cloaking the overhead sun. Yet the air tingles, as if with unhurled lightning. It dances upon my skin." So there you go, the first attempt ever, I might have forgotten some details along the line. Enjoy. Dinner is served. This was originally posted by Vlad |
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| Book Selection |
| Sad to say that my first book review is not even a book but a link to suggest what book(s) to read, whichbook.net. Based on a selection of 4 criterias out of 12, book recommendations will pop up based on the plots and storyline. Books can also be selected based on character, plot and settings.
You might get what you want but then again, maybe what you don't want as well. It also features selection of audio books and large prints for those hard at seeing (;p). A great way to browse through many different type of books out there with different storylines, etc. etc. It's also interesting to note that the site is sponsored by the New Opportunites Fund that is funded by the British Lottery! How come Magnum 4D or Sports TOTO doesn't contribute something back to Malaysia's society? Tsk tsk. Taken from Yahoo!Picks. Post-It-Note : da owner click published before I finish editing! Hahaha! Trigger happy alrite. Also, if you scroll down among the selection, you can select explicit content. Haha! Going to do it or not? :p |
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| Wednesday, September 03, 2003 |
| A Nick Usborne Teaser |
| Hi, heres a quick update - Ash has joined the fold - welcome! It's been two days and I've had perhaps, four mails already - thanks for your responses. I've also mailed out a couple of invites, but I dont know if I left out any - if you're interested too - please do mail me for more information. I'll try to get back to you as soon as my schedule allows me to.
Meanwhile - I'll be posting up another book review - sometime tomorrow night. Its something on my (required) reading list for my degree project called net words by Nick Usborne so I thought I'd review it anyway. Actually I'm done with it but I'm tired and probably need to nap awhile before I numb my ass again sitting here writing yet another research paper. Heres a quote from the book - Bells and whistles may grab a customer's attention, but words make the sale. Cool, eh? Wait for the book review tomorrow! |
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| Book Review: The Secret Life Of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd |
| This story is about 14 year old Lily, who's on a journey to find out about her dead mother that she killed accidentally in a freak accident when she was three.
Raised by her big black Negro nanny Rosaleen and not much from her absent father, she yearns to be taught how to tweeze her eyebrows, cross her legs, and not go for classes with clothes made in home ed classes because her father, T Ray, simply doesn't care. One day Rosaleen manages to insult a group of racists in town, gets jailed, hospitalized, and Lily rescues her and runs away from her abusive unloving father. With some clues from her mother's belongings, they then find refuge with three black bee-keeping sisters, May, June, and August, who produces Tiburon's best honey, 'The Black Madonna'. Here in the Pink House, she learns more about beekeeping, about honey, about life, about being the only white in a house of four black women with a whacked up but comforting religion of the Black Madonna, forming strong bonds with them, and finds love with a young black man - Zach, and discovers more about her mother than she could ever imagine. A wonderful story about bees, honey, skin color, and a girl's yearning for her mother. |
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| Welcome To The Book Review Blog - Meesh & Sharizal |
| Right, I've just completed the layout and inserted comments, and welcome to meesh and sharizal, our first two contributors! Yayyy! Contribute then, my good friends :) My assignments are tearing themselves apart right now shouting for attention and I should get going now. A book review up soon perhaps.
Be patient my good friends. |
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| Tuesday, September 02, 2003 |
| First Entry Thats Worth Celebrating With My Lice |
| Hi kids, I'm graceshu and this is the first post of The Book Review Blog.
As we graduate from the paper form to the digital form, reading has always been a hobby of most bloggers, and many references and entries have been dedicated to books. This blog aims to compile book reviews of all sorts - novels, short stories, journals, magazines, of all genres, any kind of reading material at all, even pamphlets and DIY instruction booklets. I'll be putting up a review perhaps tomorrow, when I've got my fingernail cuttings all sorted out according to weight. If you are interested in contributing, please mail for more information. |
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