Jingwen

Archive for the 'Reviews' Category

Charlotte Chandler - Not The Girl Next Door (Joan Crawford, A Personal Biography): Complete opposite of “Mommie Dearest”, read both for full portrait.
David Mendell - Obama: From Promise To Power: Definitely a pro biography, with not much balance in cons.
Sean Smith - Jennifer, the Unauthorised Biography: Light and inconsequential, most details taken from tabloids and Wikipedia.
Xinran - What The Chinese Don’t Eat: Collection of Guardian articles exploring the modern Chinese female identity.

Cecelia Ahern - Thanks For The Memories: Like all subsequent novels, not quite “P.S. I Love You”.
Elizabeth Aston - The True Darcy Spirit: Barely related to canon, portrait of an independent Regency heroine.
Louise Candlish - Since I Don’t Have You: From ink on pages, loss and grief enters your soul.
Leslie Carroll - Choosing Sophie: Questions of genetic connections and environment, amongst burlesque and baseball.
Georgette Heyer - Pistols For Two: Short stories give quick soundbites of happily cliched Regency romance.
Nicola Kraus & Emma McLaughlin - Citizen Girl: Sacrifice your morals in the big city and corporate world.
Paul Magrs - Never The Bride: Bemusing combination of supernatural elements and lively senior citizen frolics.
Christine Matthews (editor) - Deadly Housewives: It’s true: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Fidelis Morgan - The Rival Queens: Excellently discreet tongue-in-cheek references for the modern reader.

12 Monkeys (1995): Mind-bending plot twists, straight from the dark imagination of Gilliam.
Baby Mama (2008): Suck shit Christopher Hitchens, who says female comedians aren’t funny?
Employee of the Month (2006): Mindless entertainment of the physical comedy variety. B-list Frat Pack.
John Tucker Must Die (2006): Coterie of B-list actresses star in a B-list teen comedy.
Just Like Heaven (2005): Much better than the short chick lit novel, believably sweet.

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Alex Boese - Hippo Eats Dwarf (A Field Guide To Hoaxes And Other B.S.): Details common modern scams, playing havoc with existing belief systems.
Editors & Dean Christopher - Discover’s 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Everything: Excellent one paragraph factoids suitable for instigating dinner party conversation.
Daniel Gottlieb - Letters To Sam: Tear-jerking letters from grandfather to grandson, both with ‘differences’.
Ian Kelly - Cooking For Kings (The Life of Antonin Careme, the first celebrity chef): Complete with easy-to-follow contemporary recipes, study of history of gastronomy.
Wendy Northcutt - The Darwin Awards II (Unnatural Selection: More bizarre true stories of how dumb humans met their maker): Hilarious tales of idiots sacrificing themselves to Social Darwinism theory.
Steven D. Price - 1001 Funniest Things Ever Said: Seemingly drawn entirely out of online databases of amusing quotes.
Gordon Ramsay - Humble Pie A true life manual. The man, his brashness, his determination.

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Michael Beaumier - I Know You’re Out There: A lost art, stories of desperate love from the personals.
May-lee Chai and Winberg Chai - The Girl From Purple Mountain: The changing narrative voices makes comprehension hard and chronology difficult.
Allan Hall & Michael Leidig - Girl In The Cellar (The Natascha Kampusch Story): Unsatisfying, full story can only be heard from two involved.
Robert Macklin - Kevin Rudd, A Biography: Approved biography, written with rose-tinted glasses. Glosses over any faults.
Rana Mitter - Modern China, A Very Short Introduction: Satisfactory for those without prior knowledge, terribly basic for knowledgable.
Joshua Piven - As Luck Would Have It: Real-life tales of luck and fortune, both good and bad.
Joan Sauers - Sex Lives of Australian Teenagers: Survey method fraught with difficulties, grain of salt much advised.
Jin Xing - Shanghai Tango: Touching recount of searching for true self, transsexual or otherwise.
Adeline Yen Mah - China, Land of Dragons and Emperors: Quick summary of Chinese history, suited to children/young adults.

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