Reviews Books

I found this book a welcome gift. It was very helpful when picking out films I could enjoy with the grand-children. Thank-you, Willie, for the often humorous reviews.

I sometimes see Willie on our local FOX-TV station, and he's very easy to relate to.

I just received this as a gift, and it's a great, humorous resource for movies you might not think about first when visiting the video store or scanning those on-demand listing on cable. A lot of the review had me laughing out loud. I always enjoy reading his current reviews online. A great resource for your film library.

Movie critic Willie Waffle has produced a delightful guide for people who want to get past the "new releases" shelf at the video store and find something that may have missed the multiplex. Waffle's astonishing range and engaging descriptions make this book an indispensible reference and as much fun as the movies he writes about.

Sorry, I haven't read the book, but I was wondering if there is any movie stills of Cillian Murphy (without the mask) in this book, or if I would be better off with "The Art of Batman Begins"? E-mail: kayjeckel@yahoo.com

First, ignore the review by the guy from Chile. He can't articulate the language, what makes me think he knows what he's talking about regarding Batman Begins? With any big budget blockbuster comes the inevitable parade of merchandise. Few films other than Star Wars can match the marketing juggernaut of the Batman films. Batman Begins is the long awaited beginning to a new series of Batman films, revived back to life after Joel Schumacher and George Clooney nearly killed the franchise. The official movie guide is a great scrapbook and companion to the film. It features dozens of photographs from the film, absolutely brilliant photography. There are snippets of the script as well as several short pieces detailing Batman's origins, as well as interviews. Not just a throwaway marketing item or a piece of fluff, this is definitely a collectible you'll want to have. It's informative and entertaining.

If some people spent half as much time proofreading their reviews as the did spewing bile maybe they wouldn't look like they were written by a disgruntled 8 year old. This is a very informitive look at a great movie. Very highly recommended.

I ENJOYED READING THIS BOOK VERY MUCH. IF YOU LIKE DOGS AND STORIES WITH WONDERFUL TALES THIS WOULD BE A GOOD BOOK FOR YOU. EVERY CHAPTER HAD ME WANTING TO READ MORE.

I recommend this book to people that like exciting books such as this one. I like this book because of the reason that it is funny,sad and exciting. My favorite character is winn dixie the dog. He acts like a real person. The author describes him that he smiles by showing his teeth. This is my favorite book.

I am a 7th grader at Vista Middle School aknd I read the book Because of Winn-Dixie for a school project and i just loved it. I loved this book because I love stories that have animals as the main characters and that are part of the plot. Also I rate this book five stars because I can relate to most of the characters and I just all around loved this book and I'm very glad that my school library carried such a wonderful book.
Ocean Grinde
Ferndale,WA Vista middle school

I truly like the behind-the-scenes and I wonder if this authorhas had special liaisons with the star. I was shocked to see how handsome and sexy the author is too in the back of the book and that he's in every book with Ken Ryker or Ty Fox or Ryan Idol. He truly knows them all. He is lucky to visit them and has appeared in some videos himself, but I think only two of them has his with his predigious prod showing. I like reading anything this guy writes ...seems like he really enjoys the world of porn.

This book is awesome! It has cool pictures and awesome behind the scenes gossip about who was doing who, when where and how! Totally awesome by itself, but it also helps to give information about the various films

This is one book you should have before you go out there and rent any gay adult video. It will save you a lot of wasted time watching dull, boring videos. It's a good book to have for reference before you buy or rent any gay adult video. Mickey Skee knows his videos, and probably should after going to 50 adult video shoots every year. What a job! I always await his new listings every year because it makes it so easy to find the best videos, especially when there is so many out there to choose from.

Each video is summarized, and Mickey tells us why he thinks it's one of the best, and gives us some behind the scenes information you won't find anywhere else. If you enjoy Gay Adult Videos this book is a must. I look forward each year to his new edition, and I'm never disappointed.

Compiled, written and edited by Barry Alfonso, The Billboard Guide To Contemporary Christian Music presents information on hits, trends, controversies, stars, and more in the world of contemporary Christian music. An A-Z encyclopedia format, The Billboard Guide To Contemporary Christian Music provides basic biographical information on the most well-known artists, a solid history of Contemporary Christian Music since its origin, and a great deal more. The Billboard Guide To Contemporary Christian Music is highly recommended as a resourceful introduction and guide to an increasingly popular music genre.

The three pieces at the beginning of this book (counting the introduction, and the two long essays) are very educational to anyone who has listened to CC music yet never fully understood the historical precedent for its various anomalies. I thought it was key that Mr. Alfonso mentioned the Council of Trent point regarding forbidden images and the spiritual arbiters who raised the alarm to "protect us" from unsuitable art. This attitude still seems to be circumscribing the current, carefully polished CCM image. I also enjoyed the little story about Abe Lincoln's parents at the tent revival-they might have been describing a Benny Hinn revival from last week. I guess there really is nothing new under the sun. The characters the author spotlights in his introduction are all fascinating, or at least he makes them seem so. It's interesting that he chose to trace the baton back to these odd-balls instead of dwelling on the rather banal stories of most of the current stars. His appreciation for the music is obvious, and the generous encyclopedia entries are done with careful sensitivity to the artist's intent. There are no harsh generalizations or condescending cheap shots about the music. Each artist's merit is weighed on singular terms, and each is given credit for his/her/their positive contributions to the genre. I also enjoyed Alfonso's interview with Bruce Cockburn, especially Bruce's funny line about not wanting to be labeled a Christian-artist (hyphenated), "I'm also a Christian who goes to the bathroom". Thanks for the enlightenment. This is a highly readable book, not just a quick reference tome. I hope it sells as well as it deserves to sell. I'll make sure my Christian friends know about it...

This book will almost certainly be compared to mine so I want to be among the first to come out with a strong endorsement of it. Alfonso covers a wide variety of artists in short compass, including all of Christian music's current stars and the most important acts from its thirty year history. A wide variety of styles are represented and Alfonso traverses the varied landscape like a seasoned pro, introducing us to critics' favorites, industry darlings, edgy cult artists, and mainstream Dove Award winners.

The heart of the book is it's A - Z listing of over 100 artists. These entries are well-researched and accurate, written in a lively style that never fails to capture the unique appeal of each performer. Christian music fans can review career summaries of their favorite artists and then browse around in the book to discover new performers they might have missed. Or, the book could easily be read from cover-to-cover to gain a good overview of all that the Christian music scene has to offer. It is organized in a reader-friendly format with photos and discographies that make it fun and accessible.

Note that the book also contains an introductory history of contemporary Christian music, interviews with several artists, and a helpful index. What more could you want? This is a wonderful book! I can't imagine any fan of Christian music not wanting a copy.

(The writer of this review is author of the book Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, published by Hendrickson in 2002).

This is a wonderful, amazing book. But STOP as this obsolete version has been superceded by "Joel Whitburn Presents the Billboard Albums" which updates the book through Dec 31, 2005.

I first got this book in 1976 and have gotten it every time it's updated, and I have only two complaints about it; 1) it only gets updated every 3 to 5 years and 2) it's so damned expensive! But once you open it (and it feels like an LA Phone book), you forget the price and just OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH at how fact-filled and interesting it it! It practically tells you the last time your favorite artist picked his nose! It has EVERYTHING! I only with they would update it something like every two years. Get it, along with the Albums and Singles books, and you really don't need anything else. This book is THE B E S T !

I've been on Record Research's list for many years, and this was my very first Pop Albums book I purchased. It's got several amazing features. The best feature is that you can see which albums made the Pop Catalog albums chart. Although all of the artists do not have their complete discographies listed (only the albums that were charted on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart are in this book), and not much facts and trivia under albums, I still think this book deserves to be on music lovers shelves. I hope in the next edition they will show what current albums that can be found on vinyl.

Quite unlike any other work I've read based on the happenings during early WW2. The detail was particuarly impressive and the reader will absorb an enormous amount of historical fact in an easily assimilated way without appearing to do so. The persona and life of the main character, the well brought up and slightly naive,unworldly young fighter pilot from a priveleged background, is particularly well drawn and totally beleivable. There are one or two sub plots and beautifully set up characters that add enormous interest. The contrast between the hastily snatched social breaks and the chronicles of the death and destruction whilst flying against the enemy reflects no doubt exactly how it was and again is particularly well drawn and sensitively written. The lifetime of the average frontline fighter pilot at the time being measured in months at best. A lot of meticulous research has been done for sure by Frank Barnard to produce a great read that is hard to put down once started. I look forward to his next one, as he must go will surely go from strength to strength.

"Blue Man Falling" by Frank Barnard , is a fascinating glimpse into the fragile, often bizarre days of the "Phony War", that "wishful thinking" period of WW II when few believed the Nazis would actually invade France. Accordingly, one day we find an RAF Hurricane pilot engaging in a dogfight with his German counterpart and the next we see him enjoying a drink in a Parisian cafe. This jarring juxtaposition of moods illustrates all too well the surrealistic nature of that period. Mr. Barnard has a great ability to capture a "sense of place" whether he's describing a French farmhouse, a British barrack, or the Hotel Crillon. He also portrays convincingly the comaraderie and the rivalry among the "blue men", as well as their romances. I found this to be a very readable and well written book about a period not widely understood.

Blue Man Falling deserves to be a great success. Frank Barnard has managed to combine a gripping adventure story of Hurricane fighter pilots with a moving and totally convincing account of the tragedy and drama of the phony war. The book gradually builds pace through the skillful use of flashbacks and scenes which contrast the relative calm of pre-occupation Paris with the turmoil of the German advance. The author clearly shares in the adrenalin rush of an aerial dogfight, but equally clearly recognizes the pain and horror experienced by combatants and civilians on either side of any conflict.

After reading Blue Man Falling, you will not only have enjoyed a hugely entertaining story; you will have learnt more about the early days of World War II (and probably the Spanish Civil War, too), and very likely wondered how you yourself would have acted in the heat of battle.

I'm a fan of formal verse and discovered Gylys through the villanelles she published with the Boston Review (I think). Her tone is great, her diction striking, yet approachable, and her subjects are wonderful. This is a book I keep coming back to.

Bodies That Hum is a strange mix of formal poetic style and frank sexual expression. It seems to herald a new wave of formal, even archaic style (and I mean that in the best possible sense) brought to bear on these wonderful matters. You can't know what's going on in poetry without knowing this book.

Beth Gylys knows we're driven by desire and her poems show us as sexual beings. She's witty, amused at folly and pretense. She often shows men as self-deluded fools for love, incapable of clearly stating what they feel. To this male reader, it's somewhat disconcerting to find a woman coming this close to the bone. And yet this poet seems to love men while she sees through them. "She watches men -- the way they move, their shirts./ There's something good in every one she's found." ("The Erratic Gardener")

Sex is a frequent topic, with frank language. There's a lusty edge that's closer to the way most people talk and joke about sex than we usually find in poetry, unless you go back to Chaucer and Bocaccio. In "Fervor," for instance, we get a fantasy moment, incited by a flasher in Central Park, in which suddenly inhibitions dissolve and people throughout the city succumb to their urges: "Clothes fall to the floor,/ and legs open spontaneously;/ fingers curl, clutching air or bits of clothing./ Like the bodies of newborn babies,/ bodies writhe and sing in monosyllables:/ "Please," and "Oh, God."

A striking aspect of Gylys's work is her formal virtuosity. Villanelles and sestinas are ancient, some would say antique, forms in which words and lines repeat according to strict rules. Remarkably, Gylys has 14 villanelles in this collection. One of the better known poems of this century is Dylan Thomas's villanelle about his dying father, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." Gylys's colloquial diction and sense of humor subvert the expectation of rhetorical grandeur that, since Thomas, is part of this form -- as in "Marriage Song," which in 19 chastening lines (a villanelle is five tercets and a concluding quatrain) takes us through an affair and broken marriage:

"He saw this woman at the skating rink,/ watching their sons play hockey from the stands./ He fought the urge to ask her for a drink./ She wore those stretchy pants, a long faux mink,/ slid next to him and said, "Hi, my name's Nance,"/ He wanted her right there. He couldn't think."

Along with fables recounted from a third-person perspective, there's a first-person narrative running through several sections of the book: the story of a woman whose marriage broke up, who had an affair with a married man, who's single again, beset with longing and loneliness. This voice struggles to express her experience in language and wants to provoke the rest of us to think about "the ways humans mess up loving."

I have read about 50 POW escape books, most from WW2. This guy was tough. Most of the escapers are amazing people. I think most the escape books have more humor than this one. Richard Pape wasn't about being funny he was determined to escape at all costs.

I just finish Richard Papes' novel about his exploits as a POW in Europe during WWII. He has a great ability to tell not only his story of survival and wartime intrigue but those of the Poles and other eastern Ethics group. If you ever needed a pick me in today's fast pace world this book is it.

True story first person page turner about a British RAF pilot shot down during WWII and his accounts of being captured, escaped, captured again and escaped for a third time. Brillantly written, taking you on an across occupied Europe underground suspence story of bravery and heroism

A classic book covering all aspects of business stats
-a real boon to students and business professionals.

I manage a group of people who are incredibly skilled in data modeling and business statistics. I purchased this book as a refresher and reference - and was very happy with it. It discusses key statistical issues in simple terms - giving you the tools to handle yourself in any discussion.

I read this book just before starting an MBA course called "Basic Statistics". I found the book to be clear, intuitive and it certainly covered all topics we discussed in class. In my opinion, this book presents an easy way to understand Statistics by applying them to real business situations. I still use it as reference at work. Highly recommendable for business people interested in Statistics and with no much background in Math (just make sure you know how to add)