|
Movies •Books •Music •Food •Tv Shows •Technology •Politics •Video Games •Parenting •Fashion •Green Living •more >
Reviews and Ratings
Showing 1-40 of 1,244
Filter reviews by tag
Sort by:
reviewed Ten Thousand Saints: A Novel. July 04, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Ten Thousand Saints: A Novel
This novel's advance copy comes filled with breathless "in-house praise" and a back cover full of promotional strategies. This energetic campaign may reflect the mood of the setting, the …
reviewed The Provisional IRA: From Insurrectio.... July 04, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to
Books on the Provos, the dominant faction after the 1970s IRA split with their more Marxist comrades, tend to fall into two categories. Historians and academics tend towards heavily footnoted, analytical …
reviewed BIC Triumph 730RT Gel Pen (0.7mm), Bl.... June 22, 2011
BIC Triumph 730RT Gel Pen (0.7mm), Black, 12ct
I reviewed the Bic 537 RT last year; this 730 feels very similar. It has the same .07 width, the same rubber grip style if a slightly altered and tapered rather than even wraparound design, and the same …
reviewed H-p1. June 22, 2011
posted in Music Matters
H-p1
Combining stoner steadiness with spacious soaring, this compresses vocals to a growl. This enigmatic trio expands guitar effects and percussive clatter. Not much of a message can be discerned from the …
reviewed On the Road to Babadag: Travels in th.... June 12, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
on the road to babadag
Roaming the rarely touristed backroads of Central and Eastern Europe over perhaps seven years and accumulating 167 stamps in his Polish passport, this chronicler begins by noting how the third …
reviewed The Bluffer's Guide to the Cosmos. June 11, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
The Bluffer's Guide to the Cosmos
If you found the Smartest Guy in the Pub and he turned out not to be Stephen Hawking, he might sound like the author of this spirited 85-page whirlwind tour of where--and within which--we live.  In …
reviewed A Death in Summer: A Novel. June 05, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
A Death in Summer: A Novel
Detective Inspector Hackett early on finds to his disappointment not a murder but a seeming suicide, but then not one, "for the corpse was holding the gun in his own hands." The ensuing narrative …
reviewed Instant Immersion French Levels 1, 2 & 3. May 31, 2011
Instant Immersion French Levels 1, 2 & 3
What I liked? It's fun to play vocabulary building games and flashcard quizzes, and to see the attractive male and female "talking heads" demonstrate the pronunciation and intonation of …
reviewed Entering Zen. May 24, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Entering Zen
Fixing a sewer pipe, buying paint, wielding a chainsaw, riding a motorcycle, and changing a diaper: Zen moments can arrive anytime. Poet and critic Ben Howard shows us, in seventy-five essays about a …
reviewed Logitech Wireless Mouse M185 - Swift .... May 24, 2011
Logitech Wireless Mouse M185 - Swift Gray
I'm using this straight out of the box. It's easy to install, as long as you keep the little nano-USB port in your computer-- it has a space inside the battery door next to battery for storage, …
reviewed Stick Out Your Tongue: Stories. May 24, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Stick Out Your Tongue: Stories
After "Red Dust," immediately I read this. I found that the section "The Woman and the Blue Sky," shows up nearly verbatim, if with subtle shifts of emphasis or description, as the …
reviewed Red Dust: A Path Through China. May 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Red Dust: A Path Through China
In 1983, this dissident left a failing marriage, his daughter, and Beijing to wander China three years. This travelogue compresses and distorts time; it's matter-of-fact and mundane. Not a lot happens …
reviewed Behind the Wall : A Journey Through C.... May 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Behind the Wall : A Journey Through China
After reviewing his excellent "To a Mountain in Tibet" (2011) and "Shadow of the Silk Road" (2007), I enjoyed this 1987 account of his 1985 Chinese travels. Thubron's unsurpassed …
reviewed Writing the Irish West: Ecologies and.... May 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Writing the Irish West: Ecologies and Traditions
This Irish poet-critic teaches in St. Louis and frequently summers in Colorado. His continental crossings led him to connect writers from the West of Ireland with those of the American landscapes he visited. …
reviewed False Beats & True Hearts. May 20, 2011
posted in Music Matters
False Beats & True Hearts
After Galaxie 500, guitarist Dean Wareham led Luna towards increasingly lower volume, channeling the Velvet Underground's tension into lounge-tinged and club-inflected indie-rock. Similarly, drummer …
reviewed Wilderness. May 11, 2011
posted in Music Matters
Wilderness
If you want to revive the sounds of that city's new-wave clubbers of the late 70s and early 80s, follow these five Swedes. On their third release, they turn, despite their press release, not towards …
reviewed Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's V.... May 11, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary
Rob Young's quest spans the last century's search for pastoral evocations and folk recreations of a British quest to summon its lingering "ghost memories". Over 600 pages, narrated with …
reviewed Silence. May 08, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Silence
Many praise this incisive, painful novel's merits. It tells of the fate of the last Portuguese missionaries sent to Japan after it cracked down on Catholicism in the early 17c. It's a grueling, …
reviewed Soul Mountain. May 08, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Soul Mountain
This existential, postmodern, mystical quest is based on the writer's 1983 trek into southern China. After he learns his diagnosis of lung cancer is false, he seeks renewal as he searches for "Lingshan," …
reviewed Why China Will Never Rule the World: .... May 02, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Troy Parfitt's
Neither panda hugger nor dragon slayer, Sinophile or Sinophobe, after a decade teaching English in Taiwan, this author took his first mainland tour, three months the year before the 2008 Olympics. This …
reviewed Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against C.... April 28, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity,
God won't go away. But monotheism should erode: lest we increase ignorance and blood sacrifice. That's Onfray's thesis: "By aiming for paradise, we lose sight of earth. Hope of a beyond …
reviewed Totally Wired: Postpunk Interviews an.... April 27, 2011
posted in Music Matters
Totally Wired: Postpunk Interviews and Overviews
For American consumers of his "Rip It Up and Start Again" post-punk history, this raw material and added fiber's nourishing. A chapter was cut there that appeared in the British edition, …
reviewed A Radiant Life: The Selected Journali.... April 27, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
A Radiant Life: The Selected Journalism of Nuala
The consistency with which the late Nuala O'Faolain relates her thoughts echoes in this collection, largely of her columns for the Irish Times of Dublin. She combines erudition with no-nonsense observations, …
reviewed Watching the Door: Drinking Up, Getti.... April 26, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Watching the Door: Drinking Up, Getting Down, and
This reads as if a mad picaresque tale. Myers as first a reporter for RTÉ (Irish state radio and television) and then as a freelance journalist with no real experience, finds himself wandering …
reviewed Totally Wired: Postpunk Interviews an.... April 26, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Totally Wired: Postpunk Interviews and Overviews
For American consumers of his "Rip It Up and Start Again" post-punk history, this raw material and added fiber's nourishing. A chapter was cut there that appeared in the British edition, …
reviewed Lost Revolution. April 26, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Lost Revolution
How Fenians turned leftists, and then split into militants and paramilitaries, one faction campaigning, the other operatives bankrobbing, to bring about a 32-County Socialist Republic sounds familiar. …
reviewed Led Zeppelin Five. April 25, 2011
posted in Music Matters
Led Zeppelin Five
On many small labels, since 1987, John Andrew Fredrick and his band craft gritty power-pop. On their eleventh full-length album, The Black Watch features what Fredrick, a professor of English, creates …
reviewed Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in B.... April 22, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the
A solid combination of travelogue and memoir, this takes us into a land where until recently, few could enter. And, with the tourist tax and limited access now, few can afford to visit. It reminded me …
reviewed Bending the Boyne: A Novel of Ancient.... April 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Bending the Boyne: A Novel of Ancient Ireland
This retells and expands the coming of those who engendered their own myths about ancient Ireland, and those whom they met. The Invaders here turn antagonists, unlike their counterparts in Celtic origin …
reviewed Something Dirty. April 21, 2011
posted in Music Matters
Something Dirty
If Pete Frame drew a family tree of this experimental band, founded in 1971 in Germany, he'd face a challenge. The newest release comes with a respectable pedigree, from founders Jean-Hervé …
reviewed The Essential Chogyam Trungpa. April 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
The Essential Chogyam Trungpa
In bold fashion, this Tibetan lama challenges us to find secular, or Buddhist, enlightenment. Neither placid nor full of platitudes, this compiles 38 pieces from fifteen books in print. It may daunt most …
reviewed The Snow Leopard (Penguin Classics). April 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
The Snow Leopard (Penguin Classics)
This blends memoir with history, travel with insight. He presents Zen Buddhism filtered through a keen eye and a sympathetic voice as it meets Tibetan dharma. This occurs amidst magnificent landscapes …
reviewed Nine-Headed Dragon River: Zen Journal.... April 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Nine-Headed Dragon River: Zen Journals 1969-1982
He mixes autobiography with history, travel with insight. He presents Zen Buddhism filtered through a keen eye and a sympathetic voice.      The spiritual side contends with the physical …
reviewed The Empty Mirror. April 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
The Empty Mirror
This iconoclastic memoir provides one of the earliest "I went to Asia and tried to find enlightenment" narratives from what became the counterculture. After philosophy studies, affairs, working …
reviewed 3M Mouse Pad with Gel Wrist Rest, Bea.... April 21, 2011
3M Mouse Pad with Gel Wrist Rest, Beach
This takes up little room and can be carried easily in a laptop case. It grips much better than others I've used. The small size enhances portability, a plus for me as I move my laptop about often …
reviewed Escape from the Land of Snows: The Yo.... April 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Escape from the Land of Snows: The Young Dalai
This very accessible narrative carries wide appeal. With so many eager to learn more about the Dalai Lama, this popular, yet well-researched account aims at the curious reader who may want the dramatic …
reviewed The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evol.... April 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why
Wade seeks "to try to understand religious behavior from an evolutionary perspective." That our minds carry an instinct "to believe in gods neither proves nor disproves their existence." …
reviewed The Brothers' Lot. April 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
The Brothers' Lot
Promoted as a comic satire but often an ironic fable, Holohan's debut excoriates the Catholic-run schools in a vaguely postwar Dublin. As a graduate of the Irish Christian Brothers' schools there, …
reviewed A Journey in Ladakh: Encounters with .... April 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
A Journey in Ladakh: Encounters with Buddhism
Not a journey "to," but "in" this Buddhist enclave, before or as it succumbs to the rest of the world's ways, Harvey's quest takes in his own spiritual and existential condition …
reviewed Nixon Under the Bodhi Tree and Other .... April 21, 2011
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Nixon Under the Bodhi Tree and Other Works of
What's this first-ever anthology of "Buddhist fiction" offer? Editor Kate Wheeler comments how according to dharma, everything's already a fiction; stories represent "a redoubled …
1 2 3 4 5 ... 32 Next
© 2013 Lunch.com, LLC All Rights Reserved
Lunch.com - Relevant reviews by real people.
()
This is you!
Ranked #
Last login
Member since
reviews
comments
ratings
questions
compliments
lists