Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Charles C. (easyid) - Reviews

1 to 15 of 15
Anything For Billy
Anything For Billy
Author: Larry McMurtry
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
 33
Review Date: 11/5/2023


Demented kabuki dance of historical b.s.
Why a good writer like McMurtry put out books like this is a mystery to me. If anything like historical accuracy is important to you in your fiction, avoid this book at all costs.


Bullard of the Space Patrol
Bullard of the Space Patrol
Author: Malcolm Jameson
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 11/1/2023


This book was obviously written for a youthful audience, but the adventures of John Bullard will find a home with adult readers, as well. It's not great literature by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it great science fiction. But it IS pretty good adventure, so if you're looking for escapism and fast pacing, this book fills the bill nicely.


A Calabash of Diamonds
A Calabash of Diamonds
Author: Margaret Lane
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 11/9/2023


How Margaret Lane and her husband got into and out of the jungles of Mozambique alive is a mystery to me. Her memoir is replete with disaster after disaster and -- finally--very real danger. She was at one time one of England's top writers (most noted for her books on Beatrix Potter), and she uses all her skills in this entertaining and eye-opening account of the diamond expedition.

I came to correspond with Lane's daughter a couple of years ago, and she told me she was amazed that this book even found its way into print -- that her mother and father's hubris in going to Africa to rob an ancient grave could have been construed as a crime in both Africa and England. How they got their story out, without going to jail, is a mystery.

Good reading. I recommend the book.


Dwellers in Arcady: The Story of An Abandoned Farm
Review Date: 11/1/2023


Warmly written, with great big doses of humor. It's easy to see why Paine was once one of America's most popular writers.


Essential Shakespeare Handbook
Essential Shakespeare Handbook
Author: Leslie Dunton-Downer, Alan Riding
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 3
Review Date: 11/9/2023


Very comprehensive and lucidly written. I used this book for years when I was a newspaper reviewer of the American Shakespeare Center's plays. It helped me gain an invaluable understanding of each play before I saw it.


Flight to Heaven: A Plane Crash...A Lone Survivor...A Journey to Heaven--and Back
Review Date: 11/1/2023


I found myself skipping parts of it, but the gist of it was quite inspirational.


Legends of Hollywood: The Life of Olivia de Havilland
Legends of Hollywood: The Life of Olivia de Havilland
Author: Charles River Editors
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 1/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 11/11/2023


A do-it-yourself Createspace "book" that is 26 pages shorter than the miniumum # required by PBS.


The Lonely Land
The Lonely Land
Author: Sigurd Olson
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 11/1/2023


No one wrote more movingly about the great unspoiled wilderness of the Canadian north country than Sigurd Olson. This book chronicles his journey with several other men as they undertook a thousand-mile canoe trip through some of this territory. Well written, of course, and written with feeling. Love this bok.


Masterpieces of Murder
Masterpieces of Murder
Author: Agatha Christie
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 5/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 11/1/2023


If you like Agatha Christie (or murder mysteries in general), you can't go wrong with this collection of some of her most popular novels.


Memoirs of Service With John Yates Beall, C.S.N.
Memoirs of Service With John Yates Beall, C.S.N.
Author: W . W . Baker
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 11/1/2023


Not a long book, but one that chronicles a forgotten piece of Civil War history. Baker's memoir about a sea-borne Confederate partisan fighter is well written and interesting from start to finish.


North of Fifty-Three
North of Fifty-Three
Author: Bertrand W. Sinclair
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 11/9/2023


One of America's late, great authors -- Bertrand Sinclair -- gives us an entertaining (if steadily paced) story of a big city girl who marries a wild man from the Canadian north, and how they make a life together out in the middle of nowhere.

Good, solid adventure with good, solid writing.


The Pulp Western Anthology, Vol 3
The Pulp Western Anthology, Vol 3
Author: Von Cort, R. S. Lerch, H. C. Early, J. Walker Blue (Editor)
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.8/5 Stars.
 2
Review Date: 11/1/2023


The entire Pulp Western Anthology series by Clarion Publishing is entertaining and amusing -- and this volume is no different. The stories and novelettes vary in quality, of course, since they were written by different authors, but they are all fun as heck to read. Makes you wish all those pulp publications were still around.


The Shenandoah Valley and Virginia 1861-1865: A War Study
The Shenandoah Valley and Virginia 1861-1865: A War Study
Author: Sanford C. Kellogg
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 11/1/2023


Kellogg wasn't an inspired writer, but he was certainly an erudite and thorough one. This book about the Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia is researched to the hilt (the author participated in the Union conquest of the Valley) and presented in a non-biased, straightforward manner. I think this is a useful and valuable historic resource.


Turner Classic Movies: Must-See Musicals: 50 Show-Stopping Movies We Can't Forget
Review Date: 11/9/2023


Beautifully appointed, well-written and thoroughly researched, this is a must for anyone who loves movie musicals. You may disagree with some of the author's choices for great musicals, but he certainly nails all the standards and more. It's a good read and a valuable reference.


The Years With Ross
The Years With Ross
Author: James Thurber
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 5/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 11/1/2023


As with all of Thurber's books, this one -- in which he gives us a detailed word-portrait of his boss and the founder of The New Yorker -- is written with a great deal of humor. And, since Thurber knew and liked Harold Ross, he wrote his reminiscences with warmth, as well. This is a well written book about a man who has essentially been forgotten by the American public; I highly recommend it.


1 to 15 of 15