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Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism Review

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(More customer reviews)Nowadays, when most authors writing on social and politcal events or trends are motivated primarily by their partisan agendas, it is a refreshing and enlightening experience to read from someone like Umberto Eco. The acclaimed author of FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM and THE NAME Of The ROSE, who also happens to be the world's only famous medievalist and semiotician, is an endangered species: an original thinker, whose ideas and opinions derive not from organizational or ideological loyalties, but rather originate out of independent observation and evaluation. I may disagree with Eco on more than a few things inside this book (as, for example, his uncharacterically unfair treatment of both Mel Gibson and the PASSION Of The CHRIST in the essay "Hands Off My Son!"), but at least these thoughts are his own.
TURNING BACK The CLOCK: HOT WARS And MEDIA POPULISM is a collection of essays based on a number of Umberto Eco's articles and lectures between 2000-2005. The majority of these pieces originally appeared in the Italian newspapers L'espresso and La Repubblica, they are short, informal, even humorous. They are also, however, very serious in their intent, and are models as to what opinion pieces in journalism should be.
Eco's writing here takes on everything from what he terms paleowar vs. neowar (in the essay "Some Reflections on War and Peace), media monopolism and movies to HARRY POTTER and THE DA VINCI CODE (from "Those Who Don't Believe in God Believe in Everything), from Nigerian beauty pageants (in "Beauty Queens, Fundamentalists and Lepers") to political correctness and multiculturalism to Islamist terrorism and Islamophobia as well.
Within this book's 41 collected essays, instead of bullying or haranguing his readers, Eco offers the commonsense and moderation that was once the hallmark of classic humanism and liberalism: That we need not to abandon all values and all standards in order to achieve a tolerant and pluralistic society.

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Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm not the most unbiased reviewer because I have to confess that I have read every book that Barry has ever written including his not so stellar novel. Still, I can't imagine anyone I'd ever want to have coffee with not thinking this book is hysterical. I'm always amazed at his turn of phrase and wit in every single article on any topic imaginable. Whether he's talking about flushing "acts of congress" (#2) down a low gallon toilet or his coffee addiction, he makes me laugh out loud every 2 minutes. I was so engrossed in the book that I didn't realize I was near the end and sat around not believing that it had ended. Then, I entered a deep depression.... Okay, I'm lying, but I was disappointed that I didn't have another one of his books right there to keep me going.
If you've never read Barry before, rush out and buy this. I guarantee that within minutes, you'll be dialing friends and relatives to read snippets out loud -- I try to, but I ususually collapse into gales of laughter while I'm trying.

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The flawed master: lessons Professor Snape taught me Review

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(More customer reviews)I have not read the entire book as this is not a book I can truly understand in a single night of reading. I am reading this as a way to return to a path in which Christ walks beside me, not behind me.
With gentleness, kindness, and love, I am reminded of those lessons I had been taught since I was a child. There was a minister who taught us lessons from the life of Christ when we were children. He did not lecture, but had us sit at his feet as he told the stories of Jesus, his disciples, and all that the Son had done for us. For the first time ever, I learned that Jesus was a child, too, and it was this that brought me closer to him.
In reading these essays, I feel child-like again, only this time I am seated at Logospilgrim's feet as she reminds me that what I was taught as a child, still holds true now that I am an adult.
The reader is taken through the life of Professor Severus Snape following in the wake of the Quiet Professor's robes as she illustrates with gentle words what truth one might learn from an ex-Death Eater, a spy, a man who loved and was redeemed.
This will be a book I shall never let go, as it is a treasure.

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Professor Severus Snape, a role model? Could the bitter, sarcastic and harsh man be a good teacher? Could he be worthy of imitation? In her mystical essays, Logospilgrim proposes that he is. Although Professor Snape frequently chose to behave in a manner that was harmful to him and those around him, the author believes that his virtue outweighed his weaknesses, and that both his virtue and weaknesses are a source of wisdom and consolation to those who are progressing along the path of devotion. He is, indeed, a symbol of true faith.

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Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Review

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(More customer reviews)After you've watched several episodes of the 7-year TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," you begin to suspect that, just as in Sunnydale, something is going on beneath the surface. Wilcox explores the depths, revealing the artistic devices with which the series' creators built their marvelous world. This hardened "Buffy" follower found new insights and observations throughout the book. (Try, for example, the chapters on Buffy/Spike, "The Body," and "Once More, With Feeling.") Wilcox convinced me, too, that there's still much more to think about here - a telling point in the argument that Buffy matters.

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Wizards: A Magical History Tour from Merlin to Harry Potter Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a neat and beautifully illustrated book about the thing we call magic and wizardry. It starts off talking about what magic is and what different types of people use magic. It later talks about wizards in fiction, legends, and history. Each page is fully illustrated. If you enjoy harry potter -- get this.

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Usually perceived as crotchety old men with flowing white beards and pointed hats, wizards in fact take a myriad of guises: there are women - Including Circe, Morgan and Hermione Grainger; children - the most famous being Harry Potter: and those that aren't human - including Star Wars' Yoda. Wizards takes a detailed and highly illustrated look at these fascinating and enigmatic individuals, investigating the most famous wizards of fiction, myth and reality. It also discusses the nature of wizards - how they are distinguished from witches, mystics, occultists and other magical beings, plus the items and habitats they surround themselves with. Quite simply, Wizards is the ultimate reference for all things associated with these strange and fascinating people. Full of inside information, it is a must-have for every Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings fan or for anyone else who is interested in the way of the wizard.

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Harry Potter's Muggles' Guide to Magic Review

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(More customer reviews)I have not been so disappointed with a book in a long time. The author comes across as obviously NOT a Harry Potter expert. On first reading, without consulting the actual books, I found more flat-out errors than I could count. The reading turned into a contest where I tried to spot mistakes. I don't want to list them because it might be fun for others to pick them out as well.
And that does not even include the editorial errors. The typeface is ugly and hard to read. Words are misspelled. The notes for "Chamber of Secrets" abruptly end partway down a page and are mixed with the last notes for "Prisoner of Azkaban." Then the misplaced notes are repeated again in the proper location. It is a very obvious mistake.
There are a lot of different guides to the Harry Potter books out there. Take your time and find one that is more accurate than this one. I am returning mine.

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Who Killed Albus Dumbledore?: What Really Happened in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Six Expert Harry Potter Detectives Examine the Evidence. Review

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(More customer reviews)The Harry Potter series might be the most intricate mystery/detective story of all time. "Who Killed Albus Dumbledore?" is an excellent compilation of several authors who have carefully read the Harry Potter series, and who offer well-informed analysis of what's really going on, along with thoughts about what we'll see in the final book. WKAD is an order of magnitude more sophisticated than John Granger's previous books on Harry Potter.
Here's just one example of the kind of high-end inquiry you'll find in WKAD: In the tower scene in book 6, Harry is petrified by Dumbledore. Harry sees Snape cast the AK spell at Dumbledore. Harry sees Dumbledore slowly fall off the tower. After Dumbledore hits the ground, Harry is now longer petrified. Harry figures that Dumbledore's death released the spell. But Harry must be wrong: AK kills instantly, so Harry should have been released _before_ Dumbledore started falling to the ground. Moreover, a third person can release the victim of a Petrificus spell; on the Hogwart's Express at the beginning of the school year, Draco petrified Harry, and Tonks released Harry from Draco's spell. On the tower, Harry was un-petrified just as Snape disappeared into the stairwell. And Snape, BTW, has previously shown that he can cast an area-wide spell that cancels all currently operative spells; he did this once in a class. All this suggests that what happened on the Tower may have been quite elaborately staged, and that the people who staged the event wanted to ensure that Harry saw everything.
Why? Well, that's still speculative, but now you'll be speculating much closer to the heart of the mystery.

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Asked And Answered: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Review

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(More customer reviews)The ultimate Harry Potter question and answer book with over 4000 questions on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This book is divided into two sections beginning with Dip Your Toe in that has 10 over all questions about each chapter. The second section Jump In is for the fans who really want to prove they are an expert on Harry Potter, this section goes page by page asking from 46 to 250 questions on each chapter. All the answers are in the back of the book including the page number of where you can find the answer in your copy of Deathly Hallows. You will be able to amaze your friends, host marathon quizzes, even use this with your favorite board game. There is no other trivia book like it for Harry Potter fans. Coming soon Movie vs. Book and also the other 6 Harry Potter titles. Asked And Answered is also working on the ultimate quiz book of the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. .

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All the answers are in the back of the book including the page number of where you can find The answer in your copy of Deathly Hallows. The ultimate Harry Potter question and answer book with over 4000 questions on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This book is divided into two sections beginning with Dip Your Toe in that has 10 over all questions about each chapter. The second section Jump In is for the fans who really want to prove they are an expert on Harry Potter, this section goes page by page asking from 46 to 250 questions on each chapter. You will be able to amaze your friends, host marathon quizzes, even use this with your favorite board game. There is no other trivia book like it for Harry Potter fans. Coming soon Movie vs. Book and also the other 6 Harry Potter titles. Asked And Answered is also working on the ultimate quiz book of the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

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Mapping the World of Harry Potter Review

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(More customer reviews)This is probably the most enjoyable of the several different books of essays on the Harry Potter books that I have read. Perhaps it's because the contributors are, themselves, fantasy and sci-fi authors, which may give them a unique insight. Another possibility is that this is also the first collection to cover all of the books through Half-Blood Prince.
As with any compilation of work by several different authors, the quality of the essays is uneven at best. The contributors stretch to come up with original ways to look at the series and, inevitably, they sometimes fail. The ones that fell the flattest, in my view, were "The Proper Wizard's Guide to Good Manners" (Roxanne Longstreet Conrad) and "Harry Potter and the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Counselor" (Mercedes Lackey).
At least, however, those two essays were near the end of the book. Throughout my reading, I never changed my view that the first essay, "Harry Potter and the Young Man's Mistake" (Daniel P. Moloney), was the one with the profoundest insight and most thoughtful probing of the pitfalls that Harry faces in his final struggle against Voldemort. Honorable mention also goes to "Harry Potter and the End of Religion" (Marguerite Krause) and "It's All About God" (Elisabeth DeVos), which should be mutually exclusive but, surprisingly, don't seem to be; "Hermione Granger and the Charge of Sexism" (Sarah Zettel), which should (but won't) dispose of that one once and for all; and "Why Killing Harry is the Worst Outcome for Voldemort" (Richard Garfinkle). All in all, a very enjoyable and satisfying read.

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