Reviews Written By: A31OS8VKY83JDVprovided by Amazon.com |
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 | Imaginative Writing : The Elements of Craft (Penguin Academics Series) | |
 | "Imagination Needed" | 2009-05-24 |
| Imaginative Writing, The Elements of Craft by Janet Burroway is a classroom textbook. The book is widely used in University level classes in Creative Writing. I don't understand why the textbook continues to be used for writing classes when it falls short of what it portends to be. The textbook has excessively many samples of short stories and poems. One gets to wonder whether the textbooks' objectives are in the study and analysis of the short story instead of focusing on what the title leads the student to understand the textbook will cover. The textbook does not have a chapter on the subject of composing dialog and falls short in describing the elements of Creative Writing. The chapters on "Image," "Voice," "Character," "Setting," "Story," and "Development and Revision," needs to be expanded for better comprehension of the Creative Writing elements. In addition, the author, needs to revise the textbook and add more learning concepts for each Creative Writing element. The textbook needs to include a chapter in the use of "Dialog," and "Scene," construction. The "Development and Revision" chapter falls short as well. Moreover, the textbook's readings occupy more than fifty percent of the textbook. The author should focus more on the elements of Creative Writing instead of in the study of the short story and poetry. I don't recommend this textbook to students wanting to learn the elements of Creative Writing. However, some Universities require the textbook for their Creative Writing classes. Nevertheless, students, as well as interested readers in Creative Writing, are better-off buying books, which contain extensive information on each Creative Writing element. The Kids on the Block | ||
 | Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club | |
 | ""The Sun Never sets on a Hell's Angel Patch."" | 2008-06-11 |
| The microcosm birth of the Hell's Angels motorcycle club evolved in the Fontana/ San Bernardino, California area on March 17, 1948 with Ralph Robert Barger, `Sonny' as its founder and leader. Sonny Barger's book, "Hell's Angel" is the only authorized, genuine story about the, sometimes, but not always, controversial motorcycle club founded by the author himself. In reading, "Hell's Angel," the reader might disagree, agree and perhaps even sympathize with the story and history of the Hell's Angels' motorcycle club. More often than not different law enforcement agencies classified the Hell's Angels as a `criminal organization' for usurping the American legal system. It is up to the reader to make his or her own assessment whether those law enforcement agencies were correct in their judgment of the Hell's Angels; or if they were prejudiced in their appraisal of the motorcycle club (MC). Many believe the original Angels were members of the U.S. Army's 11th Airborne Division; an elite group of paratroopers trained to rain death on the enemy from above, drifting in behind the lines of battle. "They called themselves the Hells Angels because they flew on silk wings into hell itself, bringing a brutal hope for peace with 20 pounds of TNT strapped to each leg. The nickname was a badge of honor, a mark of invincibility, a wartime emblem pointing out the toughest of the tough. It was a totem to ward off the worst." "A handful of those original Hells Angels, and many other returning soldiers who had awakened to the nightmare of war, found it difficult to settle into the half-sleep of the American Dream. After living on the edge so long, they found only a depressing fatalism and monotony in jobs, family, mortgages, and college, suburbia and cookie-cutter houses with white-picket fences." And so they joined the MC. According to Sonny Barger, "The Hell's Angels is an organization; a group of people, who get together to ride motorcycles and have fun, and go to parties." "... Just because certain people in the Hell's Angels have committed crimes in the past does not make the organization a criminal organization." Under Barger's guidance, the Hells Angels chapters came together, hammering out bylaws, codes of conduct, outlawing the practice of using drugs, choosing patches, colors, tattoos and clubhouses. The Hell's Angel's made sure that no one used their "Patch" who had not been accepted in the MC, or who were not worthy of their motorcycle club. The MC is a close-knit motorcycle club who not only fights to preserve the dignity of their "Patch," but take care, protect, and stand by one another to the fullest. There were other motorcycle clubs, throughout the United States, who not only rivaled the Hell's Angels but tried to outdo them as well. However, law enforcement organizations did not excoriated those motorcycle clubs as they hammered the anvil of law enforcement against the Hell's Angels. The Hell's Angel reputation crashed into the public consciousness in 1954 when Marlon Brando starred in "The Wild One," a Hollywood sensation inspired by the rumble at Hollister. All the while, the Hell's Angels boldness more than irritated all types of law enforcement. And in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government tried to pin an official organized crime label on the group, trying to prosecute the Hells Angels under laws originally designed to combat the Mafia. The alleged violations of racketeering, influence and corrupt organization (RICO) laws, however, were never proved, with two hung juries that were unable to decide on 38 of 44 separate charges. There were many high-profile accusations, arrests and acquittals - suggesting either the Angels are slippery or that police like to arrest them despite flimsy evidence. Many believe the truth lies between both theories. George Christie, longtime president of the Ventura, Calif., chapter, who is considered Barger's second-in-command and likely successor; admits the Hell's Angels are "not monks." Nevertheless, he insists that if they were as bad as police allege, they would've been jailed and disbanded years ago." George Christi adds, "...cops chase Angels because Angels are easy to chase. Finding real criminals is much tougher, and would require investigative initiative beyond pulling over every biker wearing the infamous winged death's-head." For their part, the Angels continue to deny all criminal charges, and in 1998 happily celebrated their 50th anniversary. The Angels have grown, in the past 50 years, to include many chapters in the United States, a presence in many countries and a worldwide membership estimated in the thousands. I recommend, to the interested reader, Sonny Barger's book, "Hell's Angel" before reading any other books, or magazine articles on the subject of the famous motorcycle club; The Hell's Angels. | ||
 | The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, And Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It | |
| "Sleeping Giants" | 2006-11-12 |
| The authors of "The Cell" provide the reader with a step-by-step on how the terrorist's cells evolved and developed. The terrorist cells had its beginnings not in Pakistan or Iran but in the United States of America in the heart of the city of New York!
The authors write in detail about the catastrophe of the World Trade Center on September 26, 1993. They provide inside information on the worst tragedy of September 11, 2001. The authors show how all could have been averted if it had not been for the sleeping giants, the FBI, NYPD, JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) and the CIA. Not only were those powerful agencies asleep, but they were, in every way, trying to be the number one and all-powerful individual agency. This was mistakenly done by not sharing important and critical information. Moreover, the different agencies failed to act on the clandestine information, each one had about the Muslim immigrants from Pakistan. The agencies knew ahead of time a large group of immigrant Muslims were busy gathering bomb-making materials and being trained in American soil to bring the twin towers down and kill as many American people as well. I compare the way the authors of "The Cell" present the reader the story much like paint-by-number's painting. Once the reader finishes painting all the numbered pieces the reader wind up with an extremely disturbing painting of how the terrorists managed to accomplish doing the inconceivable in the heart of America. As American's we continue to believe in the fallacy that we are a giant that cannot be touched. We see ourselves as a giant elephant and the terrorist as a gnat buzzing on our giant elephants' ear. We fail to give that gnat more attention and instead gently try to swat it off our ear. The reader might have seen the incidents of the World Trade Center tragedy on TV. The reader might have witnessed the pulverizing of the twin towers on 9/11 on TV is well, but the authors of "The Cell" provide the inside story never seen and or witnessed by the public at large, and they paint the catastrophically numbered slots in a factual, but disturbing way. "The Cell" is necessary read for everyone. | ||
 | Die for Me: The Terrifying True Story of the Charles Ng & Leonard Lake Torture Muders | |
 | "Blasphemy" | 2006-09-08 |
| "Die For Me" is a true story of gruesome torture, terror, sex, rape, cold murder and videotapes. To identify both Leonard Lake and Charles Ng (pronounced 'eeng') as ex-marines is blasphemy at its greatest. Similarly, and more critical, is the statement the author made contrasting both Lake and Ng with being God;
"...They had witnessed two young women enduring a nightmare, and two men (Lake and Ng) playing God with their lives." More correct would have been contrasting them with the devil. The references of being an ex-marines or acting like God is a complete and total blasphemy. Both Leonard Lake and Charles Ng are not worthy of being recognized as ex-marines and worst yet, acting like God. "Die For Me" is the horrifying story of the "Miranda project" by Leonard Lake and Charles Ng. Before Leonard Lake befriended Ng, Lake had a plan to prepare for Armageddon (day of reckoning) by building a military survival bunker. However, the plan by Lake went further than that since a secret holding cell was going to be built within the bunker. The cell would satisfy Lake's misogyny by enslaving, terrorizing, torturing, raping, and killing women he lured to his torturing den. Women were not the only victims in Lake's and Ng's Miranda project (based on the book "The Collector" by John Fowles), but men, children and babies as well. Both Leonard Lake and Charles Ng grossly took the lives of at least sixteen human beings. The author, Don Lasseter did well in not describing the gruesome, gross, and churning details of what the victims went through before being killed and disposed of as worthless trash. The toned down descriptions are bad enough to churn the readers' stomach and raises the readers' displeasure to infinity. Granite inscription at the sight: In Wilseyville We Found You Ou Lost Ones Though Taken In Darkness You Will Forever Live In Light Rest In Peace Victims Of The 1984-85 Wilseyville Mass Murder | ||
 | A Place in El Paso: A Mexican-American Childhood | |
| "A Flower Blooms in the Heart and Soul" | 2006-08-09 |
| The author titles her story "A Place in El Paso." Nevertheless, any of the following titles, "A Place in My Heart," "A Place in the Sun," "A Place in my Life," would had been appropriate as well. To the careful reader the story will bloom like a flower in his or her heart and soul. Even though the characters, the places, and the events are necessary to complete the gestalt of the story, the characters, and the events are not restricted to any particular place or to anyone in particular. It can happen anywhere to anyone. The careful reader will examine the story "A Place in El Paso" by looking below the surface, below the gestalt of the story in order to reach the nuances of Gloria's coming of age and survival. Moreover, the grammatical structure of the story is, symbolically speaking, a ticket for the reader to shadow, follow, and observe her life, and in doing so experience her innocence and get involved in the vicissitudes in Gloria's existence. The reader will witness and feel not only the tragic sad and heartbreaking moments in her existence, but the events that made her strong to endure the various disappointments and disillusionments while trying to find the right place in her life. I highly recommend this book whether you are Anglo, Black, Hispanic, and so forth; this story can very well be your story as well. | ||
 | Dirty Dealing | |
| "It Was All About Money" | 2006-06-30 |
| Like a Greek tragedy, the victims or players as some readers might want to call them, had no way out. All of them, good, bad, rich or poor, got entangled in a spiders' web of which they would never be able to get out. To some of us, money is the source of all evil. To others money is a commodity, a need, a necessity. The more we have, the more we want, and the more we want, the deeper we get into the quagmire of bad and possibly even evil. The author, Gary Cartwright, of "Dirty Dealings" does not aim a literary (literally speaking) shotgun at anyone in particular. He points the literary shotgun at everyone. Above all, he does not discriminate concerning the victims or players in the story. He tells it as it is; as it was; as it happened. The arrogance and dictatorship of many leaves the reader with fear, dread, and apprehension due to the fact that those who were supposed to uphold the honest, honorable pillars of good and justice were just as bad as those they considered the bad seeds of a society. For sure, two wrong's can never make a right, and likewise, two right's can never make a wrong. Mr. Gary Cartwright not only tells it like it was, but gives the reader an excellent background on the history and culture of city where the injustices by many---good, bad and evil-- took place. I highly recommend for everyone, regardless of his or her stature in life, to read this book. | ||
 | On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, ISBN 0684853523 | |
| "To Write is Human...." | 2006-05-28 |
| Do you want to know how to write a book? Read this one. You do not want to know how to write a book, still read this one. Either way you will enjoy "On Writing." Even though the book is not an instruction manual on how to write and even though the book is not an autobiography of Stephen King, it is somewhat both at the same time. The advice, the hints and the basic steps he presents to the reader are helpful to the want-to-be writer as well as to those who do not have the slightest inclination to write, but like reading. Both will learn that writing is not a "piece of cake." Even if you feel you have a gift on creativity and writing skills, there is more to it than the process of putting your creative thoughts and ideas on paper, and Stephen King shows you why. The book is not a "horror" story; the only horror the author presents in this narrative, is the many mistakes made by the want-to-be writers. In addition, Stephen King is crafty, witty and humorous. You will be more than pleased and you will laugh and will not want to put the book down. I highly recommended this book to everyone. | ||
 | Roxio Easy Media Creator 8.0 | |
 | "STAY AWAY FROM THIS USELESS PRODUCT!!!" | 2005-12-19 |
| I bought Roxio Easy Media Creator 8.0, and beleive me there is nothing easy about it. It crashed my computer and after I tried all the solutions to make it work, the program would not respond at all. I was lucky that I have Symantecs GO BACK program, I was able to get my drive and my old Roxio 5 back. I thought it was time for me to upgrade to Roxio 8 since it seemed I was getting behind. Little that I know that it was goin to take me all night long trying to UNINSTALL Roxio 8 and fix everything it messed up. Let me tell you, STAY AWAY FROM THIS WORTHLESS SOFTWARE. ROXIO SHOULD BE TARRED AND FEATHER FOR CREATING SUCH A PROBLEM TO CONSUMERS. If you have enemies and want to take care of them, tell them to buy Roxio 8.0, that will really fix them. | ||
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