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Book reviews for "Sidnell,_Michael_John" sorted by average review score:

Frontline Drama 4: Adapting Classics: Jane Austen's Emma, John Cleland's the Life and Times O F Fanny Hill, Charles Dicken's Great Expectations, George Eliot's the Mill
Published in Paperback by Methuen Publishing, Ltd (1996)
Author: Michael Fry
Amazon base price: $24.95
Average review score:

It was VERY GOOD!
I have read all Jane Austens books. They are funny and colourless. Most of all I liked the book: Pride and Prejudice.But Emma is funnier. I have seen the movie:Emma,and the movie: Pride and Prejudice.They were very funny!


Gb David Boreanaz
Published in Hardcover by Andrews McMeel Publishing (01 July, 1999)
Authors: Unknown and Michael-Anne Johns
Amazon base price: $4.95
Average review score:

David Boreanaz
All the information on the ANGEL himself. Now see his life from his point of view, exploring what makes him, him.Complete with pictures.


Green Bay Packers (NFL Today)
Published in Library Binding by Creative Education (2000)
Authors: John Nichols and Michael E. Goodman
Amazon base price: $24.25
Average review score:

History Of The Pack
If you are a young Packer fan or are the parent of a young Packer fan, I would sincerely recommend this book. As the author and a Packer fan myself, I think the mixture of great photography and easy to enjoy text will appeal to backers of the Pack in particular, and football fans in general.


Hamlet, Revenge !: A Story in Four Parts (Penguin Crime Fiction)
Published in Paperback by Viking Press (1976)
Author: Michael Innes
Amazon base price: $3.50
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What, has this thing appeared again to-night?
This classical suspense novel, first published in 1937 might be difficult to follow for readers who are not already familiar with Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince Denmark."

However, it is well worth reading, not only for the richly allusive mystery, but also for the characters who create and act out its tragedy. The author engraves his brittle, upper-class English in diamond-point prose. He etches their wit with acid. They are never dull. To misquote the Bard himself, "Age cannot wither Innes's characters, nor murder stale their witty dialogue."

For the length of the tragedy at least, the reader will inhabit the manor and precincts of Scamnum Court, principal seat of the Duke of Horton---"It is a big place: two counties away it has a sort of little brother in Blenheim Palace."

After the second murder of the evening, C.I.D. Inspector John Appleby gives the reader his impression of the place, while searching through its corridors for the Duchess of Horton:

"Moving about Scamnum at night, it seemed to Appleby, was like moving in a dream through some monstrously overgrown issue of 'Country Life.' Great cubes of space, disconcertingly indeterminate in function--- were they rooms or passages? ---flowed past in the half-darkness with the intermittent coherence of distant music, now composed into order and proportion, now a vague and raw material for the architectonics of the imagination...He recalled the great palaces --- now for the most part tenantless --- which the eighteenth century had seen rise, all weirdly of a piece, about Europe. Scamnum, he knew, was to be a different pattern; would reveal itself in the morning as being --- however augustly --- the home of an English gentleman and a familiar being. But now it was less a human dwelling than a dream-symbol of centuries of rule, a fantasy created from the tribute of ten thousand cottages long perished from the land."

Everything in "Hamlet, Revenge!" is done on a grand scale. The Duchess of Horton persuades her old friend, the Lord Chancellor of England to act the part of Polonius in her amateur production of "Hamlet." Her husband is cast as Claudius, King of Denmark and she herself plays his Queen. Their daughter, Elizabeth is Ophelia. The greatest Shakespearean actor of the day plays the Melancholy Dane.

All of the play's characters are put on edge by a series of mysterious messages, culminating in a quotation from "Macbeth", "...there shall be done a deed of dreadful note..." Then the Lord Chancellor is shot to death at the very instant in the play when his character is supposed to die by Hamlet's sword.

Appleby is called in to solve a murder that "was planned, deliberately and at obvious risk, to take place bang in the middle of a private performance of Hamlet."

The young C.I.D. Inspector is also charged with recovering vital State documents that the second-most important figure in British government had with him when he motored down to Scamnum Court to strut and fret upon the ducal stage. Until the very end of "Hamlet, Revenge!" the reader can never be sure if he or she is reading a murder mystery or a spy story.

"Hamlet, Revenge!" in my opinion is one of the top ten mysteries of the last century, reaching the same rarified heights as Sayers's "The Nine Tailors." It is much less known to American readers, possibly because of its author's richly allusive style. Innes was a Student of Christ Church, Oxford, from 1949 until his retirement in 1973. He was a Lecturer in English, and he did not talk down to readers of his detective fiction. Either they were familiar with the Bard, or they would miss out on half the enjoyment of "Hamlet, Revenge!"


Handbook of Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics
Published in Hardcover by CRC Press (28 September, 1999)
Authors: Kenneth H. Rosen, John G. Michaels, Jonathan L. Gross, Jerrold W. Grossman, Douglas R. Shier, and Ken Rosen
Amazon base price: $119.95
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Amazingly comprehensive
This book will occupy a prime spot on my bookshelf. I've had to use a bunch of different books to find this kind of information before. It's nice to see such a wide range of topics from discrete math covered so thoroughly.


Handbook of Veterinary Neurology
Published in Paperback by W B Saunders (15 January, 1997)
Authors: John E., Jr. Oliver, Michael D. Lorenz, and Joe N. Kornegay
Amazon base price: $61.95
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Handbook of Veterinary Neurology
This is the book I pull from my shelf if I need help with a neurological problem. It is well organized making it a great reference. It would be a great book for a veterinary student or practicing veterinarian.


The Hollywood Bowl: Tales of Summer Nights
Published in Hardcover by Balcony Pr (1999)
Authors: Michael Buckland and John Henken
Amazon base price: $49.95
Used price: $16.09
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Excellent History of The Bowl!!!!
A Beautiful Picture Book of the Hollywood Bowl. I highly recommend it to Bowl fans, movie buffs, and all those interested in the history of Hollywood.


In Chancery (The Forsyte Saga, No 2)
Published in Audio Cassette by Dh Audio (1986)
Authors: John Galsworthy and Michael Horden
Amazon base price: $16.99
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Galsworthy writes perfection.
The second volume of the Forsyte Saga; this time primarily the story of Jolyon (Young Jolyon), Soames (who might be called Young James), and Irene ~ Soames' wife who becomes Jolyon's lover. Galsworthy is really the forerunner of Joyce, with at least as much understanding of how men think, and close to (if not as much) the ability to portray it ~ in a more readable fashion. There is real affection in the portrayal of his characters, as much because Galsworthy was by birth a member of the rising upper middle class in England during the time of which he wrote as for any intrinsic value in those characters. As he shows them, though, they are close to loveable, certainly Jolyon is admirable, and Soames is, by his lights, decent ~ even if he does have an unrequitable passion for his wife. Though this is by no means an action-packed plot ~ i knew the essence of the action before i read it, from having read the Introduction ~ it nevertheless compelled me to read, read closely, read quickly. I shall be hard pressed to wait the few weeks i've promised myself before i borrow this volume from the library again and read "To Let," the third novel in the Saga.


Incendiary Designs
Published in Hardcover by Thomas Dunne Books (1998)
Author: Michael Allen Dymmoch
Amazon base price: $22.95
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Best tour of Chicago since Bueller

Psychiatrist Dr. Jack Caleb is jogging in Chicago's Lincoln Park when he hears some chanting. When he goes in the direction of the noise he observes a cultist mob about to burn a police car with the cop inside the vehicle. His presence puts a halt to the festivities and the wannabe arsonists flee the scene. Later on, the officer's partner Arlette Banks is found dead, a victim of a stoning. The Chicago police department assigns John Thinnes to investigate the case, which circumstantially point towards the cult.

However, the case becomes more complicated when members of the cult begin to die in what appears to be a series of arson fires. Soon, evidence surfaces that makes the prime suspect appear to be Dr. Morgan, a close friend of Jack. To prove his buddy, who he wants a closer relationship with, is innocent, Jack sets in motion a plan that, if it fails, will leave him and John burnt to a crisp

The third Thinnes-Caleb investigation, INCENDIARY DESIGNS, is a well-designed tale. The story line is obviously crisp and fast-paced. The secondary characters and the lead duo strengthen the plot. However, what makes Michael Allen Dymmoch's novel so good is the best tour of Chicago since Bueller needed a day off. This is a wonderful series that is worth reading.

Harriet Klausner


Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay
Published in Hardcover by Southern Illinois Univ Pr (Trd) (1997)
Authors: John Hay, Michael Burlingame, John R. Turner Ettlinger, and Michael Bulingame
Amazon base price: $45.00
Average review score:

Unique insights.
Hay, the young Assistant Presidential Secretary, was like a son to Lincoln. The President, in the diary often affectionately and irreverently referred to as "The Tycoon", relaxed around Hay as around few others, giving the diarist an insight into the character of Lincoln which is almost unique. This alone would make the book worthwhile, but Hay's views on other personalities and events of those dramatic days are also valuable, and engagingly written.
Hay's diary has been published before, but incomplete and poorly edited. This is the first complete edition, with all the entries restored and with extensive explanatory notes, which are necesary to follow Hay's refernces to obscure persons and events.
Essential for the Lincoln scholar and highly recommended for anyone's Civil War shelf.

(The numerical rating above is an ineradicable default setting within the page. This reviewer does nort employ numerical ratings.)


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