Helpful votes received on reviews:
93% (63 of 68)
Location: Roma, Lazio Italy
In My Own Words:
I'm a freelance writer originally from Florida and now living in Italy by way of Spain and Latin America. I've resided outside the U.S. now for all but about 18 months since 1992, though I usually manage to visit two or three times a year. I write and enjoy reading about a wide variety of topics, ranging from politics, history and the environment to food, wine and travel, but when it comes to boo… Read moreI'm a freelance writer originally from Florida and now living in Italy by way of Spain and Latin America. I've resided outside the U.S. now for all but about 18 months since 1992, though I usually manage to visit two or three times a year.
I write and enjoy reading about a wide variety of topics, ranging from politics, history and the environment to food, wine and travel, but when it comes to books I still have a soft spot for well done traditional novels and what I like to call "ambitious" fiction. I also enjoy jazz music, well-done films, and my interest in technology is growing.
Occasionally, I get an e-mail from a fellow Amazon user who wants to know if I'll review his or her latest book or CD, and the answer is that, yes, of course I will (I no longer list my e-mail address here for everyone to see, but you can get it by going to the "contact me" link on my web page: www.ericjlyman.com). That means you'll have to mail it to me in Italy, and if you do, that doesn't mean I'm necessarily going to be flattering in my review of it. But I do promise to follow through and actually file a review as soon as I can, and I promise to be fair and even handed.
Obviously, that begs the question: what does it mean to be fair and even handed? Someone wrote me a couple years and asked what standard I use for reviews (she agreed with the content of my review, but not with the number of stars I chose), and that got me thinking about the best way to describe my thought process.
First of all, I think I hold books to higher standards than I do the occasional CD, DVD, or piece of hardware I review, but the basic philosophy is the same. I write very few one- and five-star reviews: if you think in terms of a bell curve, they ought to be rare. In my case, the middle of the bell curve is probably higher than it might otherwise be, since if I know something's going to be bad I'll skip it unless there's some unusual reason to be curious.
A five-star volume should not only be extraordinarily well written, but also possess an almost universal appeal or importance; four-star books are very, very good but perhaps aimed at a small market niche or in need of some updating or revising (I think four-star reviews for me are what five-star reviews are for most folks); three star reviews are for books with some strong points but probably flawed in important some way; two-star reviews mean the book is seriously flawed, but not without some merit in terms of writing, subject matter, or research; and one-star reviews mean the book has almost no redeeming qualities.
Nobody ever asked me about this, but while I'm up on the soapbox I'll mention that when I read other reviews, I vote that they were helpful if they helped me understand the book or product (and ultimately decide whether I want to buy it) and not based on whether or not I share the same philosophical or political stripes as the reviewer. And if I don't think the review helped me understand the item better, I vote against it. Anyone who does anything different is undermining the effectiveness of this forum.
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Reviews
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Without a doubt, this is the best available general resource source on papal histories, well referenced and organized with a no-nonsense writing style that makes it both an invaluable source of information for scholars and a fun book to just open to a random page and read. The collection of papal mini-biographies here is the most complete I know of, including even the various anti-popes and the historically questionable Pope Joan. Where the available information is incomplete or contradictory, author, editor and researcher J.N.D. Kelly usually points that out. Other books give more information about specific aspects of the papacy, but none offers such a wide range of information between… Read more
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Skinny Dip could make a decent even if politically correct 250-page read for the beach this summer -- if only the book weren't almost 400 pages long. This is the first book I've read by Carl Hiaasen, who has made a name for himself with what I have read are bitingly hilarious narratives mostly set in my native Florida. I picked up Skinny Dip on a whim, looking for a well-told but light story to read in the summer heat, and I was only partially rewarded. The story does have its moments. The story's feckless antagonist, a biologist called Chaz, is initially cast as a villain by explaining that he doesn't separate his papers and plastics for recycling. On the payroll of a rule-bending… Read more
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Count me among the group of music fans who may have taken Ray Charles a little for granted when he was alive. I think I saw him as a timeless musical giant who seemed like he would always be around. Mr. Charles' death earlier this year convinced me to listen to the two CDs of his that I owned and to go through the handful of anthologies I have that include the great singer's music -- an exercise that left me looking for more. Enter this 50th Anniversary Collection, just about the most comprehensive compilation of Mr. Charles' work possible. The song list includes (almost) everything the singer ever recorded, from his awe-inspiring version of "Confession Blues" to the melodic… Read more
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