Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell My rating: * Julie Powell, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, Little, Brown and Company, 2005. I read this book (adapted for film as Julie and Julia) to get some ideas of how to turn a …
Strong Spoilers. Please note that this discussion will probably only make sense if you are familiar with all the Harry Potter books and films. WARNING: DO NOT READ, if you don’t want to know what happens in the film before seeing it. My rating: **** Imdb link With this action packed and very watchable film, …
NB: Spoiler alert Stephenie Meyer, Twilight, New York: Little, Brown and Co. Books for Young Readers, 2005. My rating: * Twilight by Stephenie Meyer I read this book to see what all the fuss was about, which has been further amplified by the appearance of the films. Twilight and its sequels have spawned a whole …
Dan Brown (2003). The Da Vinci Code. New York: Anchor. My rating: ** The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown What irritated me about this book was not so much the much fêted hilariously bad writing style, nor the erratic pacing which meant nothing much happened until the middle of this lengthy tome, but the …
My rating: * Spoiler Alert The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman My review This book is well written and the story really hooks you in, but I really disliked the philosophy Pullman is pushing. This philosophy seems to be a kind of Nietzschean materialist version of gnosticism (phew!). His is a universe which allows only …
My rating: *** The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman My review I found this book a bit disappointing after the first one. It has taken me a while to analyse why. I think it is a combination of a number of things. First of all I’m not quite convinced by Pullman’s cosmology. Somehow it isn’t …
My rating: **** Northern Lights (His Dark Materials I) Tenth Anniversary 1995-2005 by Philip Pullman My review I enjoyed this book a great deal. Well-written and well-plotted with interesting characters. It also created a most convincing alternative world. Of particular interest is the idea that humans have souls which manifest themselves in physical animal form …
My rating: * I have put up a review of this rather dire book simply as an excuse to introduce the only social networking site I have found to be of any use – Goodreads. This site allows you to keep a record of the books you read and to share your ratings and reviews …
Refracted Input 