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PJ C. (pjc) - , - Reviews

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The Corrections
The Corrections
Author: Jonathan Franzen
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 323
Review Date: 10/8/2005


If you thought you were the only one with odd acting aging parents and dysfunctional siblings, this book makes you feel like you're not alone. A fun book to read!


Eiger Dreams : Ventures Among Men and Mountains
Eiger Dreams : Ventures Among Men and Mountains
Author: Jon Krakauer
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 11/12/2005


From Publishers Weekly
Armchair adventurers can't ask for better entertainment than this tour of the legendary locations of mountaineering and the eccentric climbers who gather there.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Feeding Frenzy
Feeding Frenzy
Author: Stuart Stevens
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
 7
Review Date: 10/5/2005


If you love to eat, you'll love this book.


Hero
Hero
Author: Frederick G. Dillen
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 10/8/2005


Story about a group of waiters working in a Manhattan steakhouse. Good restaurant story.


How to Ruin Your Life
How to Ruin Your Life
Author: Ben Stein
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 12
Review Date: 3/17/2006


Hilarious dry humor! Great book to read out loud at family gatherings, if you dare. Each chapter will probably describe some relatives behavior. Don't worry about hurting anyone's feelings as most people are too self absorbed to realize the jokes on them!


If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?
If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?
Author: Cynthia Heimel
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
 3
Review Date: 10/31/2005


From Amazon.com
If a mad scientist somehow crossed Hunter S. Thompson with Dorothy Parker, the resultant writer stomping across the American scene would be something like Cynthia Heimel. She's smart, she's observant, she's outspoken, and she writes essays that make you bust a gut. You want opinions? She's got 'em. On nearly every subject. She's not afraid to offend. And the weird thing is, she happens to make a lot of sense.


Lost on Everest : The Search for Mallory and Irvine
Lost on Everest : The Search for Mallory and Irvine
Author: Peter Firstbrook
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 2
Review Date: 11/12/2005


Inside Flap Copy
On 8 June 1924 George Mallory and Andrew Irvine left their tent high on the slopes of Mount Everest and climbed into history. They were seen at 12:50 p.m. just 240 metres from the summit and ?going strong for the top.? Within minutes, Mallory and Irvine had disappeared in a snowstorm and were never seen alive again.

What happened to these two pioneering climbers is the most famous mystery in the history of mountaineering. For 75 years, there has been fierce debate over whether they were the first to reach the summit, 29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. In March 1999, an expedition primarily sponsored by the BBC climbed to the North Face of Everest. Their discoveries became front-page news around the world. This gripping story by film producer Peter Firstbrook fully explores the events leading up to Mallory and Irvine?s historic attempt to reach the summit of the highest mountain in the world, giving a dramatic first-hand account of the 1999 search expedition. Firstbrook utilises his extensive historical research and the amazing evidence found in 1999 to piece together the final hours of the two brave heroes ? George Mallory and Andrew Irvine.


The Man Who Ate Everything
The Man Who Ate Everything
Author: Jeffrey Steingarten
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 44
Review Date: 10/9/2005


A great adventure in eating!


Managing Ignatius : The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in New Orleans
Review Date: 11/2/2005


Funny Book - This is the non-fiction version of Confederacy of Dunces


Off-Season : Discovering America on Winter's Shore
Off-Season : Discovering America on Winter's Shore
Author: Ken McAlpine
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 10
Review Date: 11/29/2005


Good winter read, a plus if you love the beach and its' eccentric residents.


The Open Road: An Uncommon Adventure
The Open Road: An Uncommon Adventure
Author: Douglas McKinley
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 5/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 2/19/2006


The Houston Tribune
"I'm in my thirties and so far my life has been nothing but a long, meaningless routine..."

So begins Roland Belmont's remarkable journey of escape from his dreary past as a lonely, bored accountant working in a dead-end job. Desperate for a change in his miserable situation, he abruptly resigns to go backpacking in the mountains of Colorado, without any plans beyond the summer. In the rugged environment of the outdoors, he becomes energized by his new-found freedom and adopts a free-spirited, open-minded attitude that soon transforms him into an impetuous adventurer, ready for anything the future may bring. But finding his better self is only a prologue to his search for the deeper meanings of life, a search that takes him through an odyssey of outdoor thrills, mystical friendships and heartfelt romances, from the ski resorts of the Canadian Rockies to the coastline of Southern California.

The Open Road entices the imagination and appeals to the most basic human instincts with its jaunty narrative of one man's escape to a simpler, more natural life in the outdoors. Initially a feast for the nonconformist, this compelling story ultimately becomes a celebration of the human spirit on a level uncommon among modern-day fiction.


Slaves of New York
Slaves of New York
Author: Tama Janowitz
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
 16
Review Date: 11/6/2005
Helpful Score: 1


Amazon.com
In Tama Janowitz's story collection of mid-1980s manners, it's all about real estate. Her coterie of New York artists and grad students, junkies and collectors dwells in walk-ups and covets lofts. The occasional socialite wafts through, characterized tersely by statements of fact; for example, "Millie owned her own co-op." But, for the most part, these are the also-rans of Manhattan life, literally looking for a toehold in the city. The main character who emerges is shabby Eleanor, an appealing heroine who appears in several linked stories. A jewelry maker, she lives with an artist named Stash and a treasure-trove of insecurities. Much is made of the squalor of their apartment. In Eleanor, Janowitz finds a channel for her vulnerability--a nice counterpoint to her affectless prose, which attempts and occasionally achieves a deadpan humor.


Spartina
Spartina
Author: John Casey
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 17
Review Date: 1/7/2006


Amazon.com
Dick Pierce, fisherman and boat-builder, lives on the Rhode Island shore in a backwater world of salt marshes, alcoholic fishermen, crab boats and old homesteads disappearing under new resorts for inland tourists. A stubborn man thoughtful enough to know that the world is becoming too small for men like himself, Pierce has a mortgage, a family, a "puny income from lobstering" and a dream: to finish the half-built boat in his backyard so he can fish for red crabs out in deep water, make some real money and raise himself and his family up. He is a classic American solitary hero, and Casey knows the sloughs of the Rhode Island shore as well as any fisherman.


Spin Sisters : How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness --- and Liberalism --- to the Women of America
Review Date: 3/17/2006
Helpful Score: 2


Be open to hear the other side of the story! Written by the former editor of Ladies Home Journal,who admits she was part of the problem, she gives the inside scoop why we have to watch bad TV (my husband had already banned me from watching the "Lifetime" channel)and why magazines have the same cover stories month after month.


Stomping Grounds: A Pilgrim's Progress Through Eight American Subcultures
Review Date: 10/5/2005


Great travelouge


Swimming to Antarctica : Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer
Swimming to Antarctica : Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer
Author: Lynne Cox
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 10
Review Date: 10/8/2005
Helpful Score: 2


An amazing story of a long distance swimmer who swims without a wetsuit. It chronicles the the swimming career of a young woman who is passionate about her swims. When she swims, it's not a challenge, it's as if she has been set free. An inspring read. I'll never agian whine about an unheated pool or the Southern California beaches in June!


Translating LA: A Tour of the Rainbow City
Translating LA: A Tour of the Rainbow City
Author: Peter Theroux
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 10/31/2005


From Publishers Weekly
The author of Sandstorms: Days and Nights in Arabia travels through the disparate communities and cultures that make up ultramodern Los Angeles.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc


Zelda
Zelda
Author: Zelda D'Aprano
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 3
Review Date: 10/31/2005


Synopsis - Amazon.com
The story of Zelda D'Aprano and her battle against poverty, ignorance and discrimination. Born in Melbourne of Jewish working-class parents she sought to understand oppression and injustice and to fight against it. This book tells of her experiences in the workforce, trade unions and left wing politics and how she began to analyse these structures and question the relevance of male politics to the lives and needs of women. An afterword outlines the history of the women's movement over the past 25 years.


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