Steve Gross

Would have given it five stars but the writing, while conversational, sometimes feels like a drawn-out sermon. The material is fascinating, though and well-worth reading.

An LA hard-boiled detective story but not hard-boiled enough. The writing is overall rather flat.

standard kind of “searching for lost documents” narrative. Very surprised that the editor let a bunch of really questionable things through - like a long and unfunny joke, a reference to Teaneck, NJ that will have most readers scratching their heads and and expletive that begins with Butt....

One of the ten most important books I have ever read. Filled with wisdom.

The plot does not hang together fora legal thriller. Too much time is spent rehashing non-important details. Nothing interesting here.

One of ten reissued books that Michael Crichton under a pen name while in college. You can see flashes of what he would become but it's pretty standard.

A more complex book then I expected. It's really all about Scout's maturing.

Amateurish

Fun and interesting future-set sci-fi. Creative. You better know your 80's trivia!

Pretty solid understanding of how musicals work in an ever so slightly smarmy tone. Somewhat biased by the author's choices and preferences, but it would be surprising if it wasn't. But virtually NO mention of Cole Porter!

An improvement over the previous volume, but the writing is still a little elliptical, constantly coming back to the themes of Bradbury's creativity. Ends kind of abruptly.

It feels like this book was written by the numbers. Interview all remaining cast and crew, divide the production into areas - photography, sets, makeup, etc and then regurgitate. Moreover, the author becomes almost fulsome in some of his repetitive descriptions. There is nothing personal or reflective in the telling.

Preachy and repetitious. Basically, the author is making the case for morality (with which I agree 100%) without religion.

Like its predecessor, this book is often harsh and brutal. The plot does not seem well-planned but kind of stuck together. The best reason for reading this book is seeing the underside of how casinos and cheaters work.

Turgid. So much time is spent navel gazing. Ben's characters changes gave me whiplash. Also a fair amount of conspiracy theory that left me underwhelmed.

It's very hard to judge a book like this, where the author undergoes a life-changing transition. Inconsistencies pop up everywhere. So many examples - in the beginning, he is a reluctant icnoclast, but towards the end he reveals that he was expelled from Yeshiva at an early age. He complains about money but at times he buys all kinds of stuff. He worries about going to the library, but at other times he has loads of secular books in his home. None the less, a heartbreaking story.

It's hard to review a biography without reviewing the author's life. “My Life Watching Movies” is a pretty straightforward description of the book. A lot of personal information that I would rather not have known. Loses a lot of steam at the end with the author's meditations on the importance of Film Criticism, his Father and an order of magnitude increase in profanity. The greatest shock was learning about Robert Duvall's antisemitic hate letter.

Very uneven; the writer is still learning his trade. Dialogue is stilted, the main character changes emotions very quickly, action scenes are not clear. I wonder if he improved because there are a lot more books in this series, but I'm not going to find out.

Insights into the people and books that inspired Ray Bradbury's beginning years. Not very well written. The author constantly refers to Bradbury's stories but rarely takes the time to summarize. And a professor of English that uses the phrase “very unique”? Shame on him!

Good information but somewhat repetitive

Depressing book filled with characters that are unlikable. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author and his wife, and they are superb.

Oh was this tedious! The same ideas in every chapter:
- I must remain faithful to Poirot and his creator
- I'm so lucky to be a character actor
- I must support my family
- the critics were so kind to me
- everyone loves Poirot
- I am Poirot
Either the author is a supreme narcissist or an extremely innocent man.

This looked appealing as a hacker/thriller book, but in retrospect it doesn't hang together very well. Too many plot holes and improbabilities. The author has really done his homework and some of the characters are well developed, others less so. HUGE amount of profanity.

The ideas are good but the writing is poor - repetitive, repetitive and yes, repetitive. Plus most of the analogies are sports analogies, which don't work so well if you don't know the players. Disappointing.

A thorough, intelligent and obviously devoted look at the making of A Star is Born and the restoration.