“Everyone's a Critic: Book reviews from you - Florida Times-Union” plus 1 more

Everyone's a Critic: Book reviews from you - Florida Times-Union

Posted: 12 Dec 2009 11:36 PM PST

'I Love You Beth Cooper'

This reads like an '80s coming-of-age comedy ... except without the funny. Doyle relies almost entirely on physical comedy for laughs, and slapstick doesn't translate well to books. The plot is bits and pieces lifted from the funnier flicks of my youth. (Tell me that Kevin isn't Bill Paxton's Chet from "Weird Science.") It's a little bewildering why "ILYBC" is such a critical darling. Most of the fun comes from playing name-that-teen-movie to identify quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Also: Doyle "rewrote" his work for the movie tie-in edition to incorporate material collected during filming. Gag. — Jennifer Grey, Arlington

'Following the Water'

Like a modern Thoreau, naturalist, writer and artist David M. Carroll has been visiting and writing about a wetland in the wilds of New Hampshire for 25 years. "Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook" is the latest - and might be the last chapter - in a love story.

With lyrical prose and exquisitely detailed pen and ink drawings, Carroll takes us to this place he otherwise doesn't want us to visit.

He writes: "And now I see that this has become a marked place. It is all but universally believed that if development rights are bought ... if human presence is limited ..., a parcel of land is saved and its wildlife habitat protected. But in nearly every case, as will be true here, (this) lays the foundation not for true habitat protection but for a playground for people, a human theme park. ... We are too many and we tread too heavily." — C.F. Foster, Riverside

fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger

Children’s book reviews – Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult ... - Publishers Weekly

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 03:58 PM PST