Gifted!

Advantages: Just brilliant in every way
Disadvantages: None

...a joy to read from start to finish, and really had me sitting and thinking as I turned the final few pages. It is really a moral story, with a bit of magic thrown in to cheer it up, but come the ending everything comes together in a quite shocking ending which really made me sit up and reread what I had just read! Ahern seems to have the ability to create a magical world on paper which you can visualise yourself so deeply that you are thrown so deeply into the story, you want to keep reading right until the end all in one go! The shiny snowflake cover allows this book to be a great Christmas gift as well as a book that is going to be great to bring out for Christmas again and again. I borrowed by copy from the library but will getting myself a copy as soon as its out in paperback. Highly recommended, I absolutely loved it - this is one book...

mummy2harry 15.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Gift - Cecelia Ahern

Mr Birthday

Advantages: Fun reading
Disadvantages: Small writing

...Mr Birthday is another character who starts in the new collection of Mr Men books with added sparkle. He is a square shape and blue in colour. He wears red shoes and a red and yellow stripy party hat. The front cover of the book has a picture of Mr Birthday with balloons around him and the title in shiny blue letters above. The back cover of the book has smaller pictures showing a few of the other books available in the new 'added sparkle' collection. THE STORY The story begins by telling us that the best thing Mr Birthday enjoys about birthdays is the parties that is why he always wears his party hat. It tells us that he likes to organise parties for everyone that he knows. The story goes on to tell us about some of the parties he has organised and who they were for. Mr Birthday gets reminded about a very special birthday...

sewbizzie 16.03.2008 · Read review
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Review of Mr Birthday - Roger Hargreaves

A great gift of a book

Advantages: An adventure from start to finish.
Disadvantages: Lots of description and detail.

...THE GIFT *************** The Gift is the first book in Alison Croggon's Pellinor series, which begins with The Gift and ends with The Singing. This tetralogy (or quartet, as Croggon herself refers to the books), is aimed at young adults, and is a very descriptive account of the adventures of a young girl called Maerad. The story takes place in the world of Edil-Amarandh, and the books are based on ?The Riddle of the Treesong?, or ?Naraudh Lar-Chanë? in Annaren, the language spoken in Annar, which is a region in Edil-Amarandh. THE AUTHOR ************** Alison Croggon was born in the Transvaal in South Africa, and her parents moved to England before settling down in Australia when Alison was seven years old. Alison was a poet and playwright before she became a fantasy author, publishing The Gift in 2003. On her website (see below) you...

Nienke 26.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Gift - Alison Croggon

A LEGAL CONUNDRUM FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY, JOSE ANTONIO

Advantages: He is my dearest brother and I love him!
Disadvantages: I didn't get to see him much when he was younger.

...This is the conundrum I want you to consider: Is it Possible That My Brother Could Be a Cloned Twin of Soho Black? Read carefully, examine the photographic evidence below, and discuss in your comments on the linked page . . . This review is especially dedicated to my younger brother Jose on his birthday; it's my way to say " Happy Birthday " to him (I know he is going to kill me the moment he reads this review; maybe he won't be the only one! There is another ciao member involved as well, so I have got everything ready . . . including my will - lol). It's Your Birthday Today, Jose! While I wrote this review, I was thinking of you, brother; it's amazing how a little child can grow up to be a young man, and oh boy . . . you are a real MAN! I always thought I was quite tall, but it turns out that, compared to...

karimkha 16.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of A birthday greeting

Looking a Gift Horse...

Advantages: Good acting by Mr Reeves and Cate Blanchet
Disadvantages: Story line a bit flat

...I often wondered if I was missing something after seeing this film and having read all the reviews and heard all the exclamations of wonder that seemed to be directed at this 2002 film. It was okay, I suppose, but I felt it had been done many times before and that I was wise to everything that was going to happen. Directed by Sam Raimi, of Spiderman and Evil Dead fame, The Gift tell the story of a woman with ESP who is requested to search for a young lady who has gone missing. Annie (the lady in question), who is played well by the lovely Cate Blanchett, is one of these village fortune-tellers, loved by many and hated by others. One of these people who hate her is the wife-beating Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reaves). Mother of three, and a widow, Annie is menaced by Reaves. During her investigation and her consequent 'visions...

Borg 02.10.2001 (25.11.2007) · Read review
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Review of Gift, The

It's Molly Fox's Birthday apparently!

Advantages: some of the story telling is interesting and well told.
Disadvantages: see review!

...Book Summary... During the summer whilst the successful actor Molly Fox is on holiday in New York, she loans her Dublin home to her playwright friend (and narrator) so that she might start writing her new play. It is the longest day of the year as well as it being her friend Molly?s birthday, and the playwright is finding it increasingly difficult to find her inspiration and instead turns her attention to her own life, reflecting on her past and her relationship with Molly and their mutual friend Andrew. Several questions are addressed throughout the novel through the playwrights (who is never named) reflections; how have her relationships with her friends developed over the years? What is the distinction between a good actor and a great one? And why does Molly Fox never celebrate her birthday? My Thoughts...

burtybookworm 01.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Molly Fox's Birthday - Deirdre Madden

Happy Birthday, Jacob

Advantages: I got a son
Disadvantages: He's now four years old and Hellbound!

..., Ali went in to labour and a call to the hospital was made to tell them our second child was on its way. I remember it all very well, I remember clearly - once Jacob was born - sitting there on his auspicious birth date (the first day of the second month of the third year) watching on the small hospital bedside television as the Space Shuttle re-entered orbit? and disintegrated. I remember that taking more precedence in my mind than the birth of my second son. But now, on his fourth birthday, I remember more clearly the weather of that night. When we rang the hospital they told us not to rush in, but looking out of the window I could see the snow was already starting to fall thickly. "No," I told the woman at the other end of the phone, "I'll take my chances and head in early. I don't want to get cut off by the snow." A year...

markd_uk 01.02.2007 · Read review
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Review of A birthday greeting

Gifts from the Kitchen

Advantages: See Review
Disadvantages: See Review

...Gifts from the Kitchen ? Ann Kleinberg: I have a thing for cookbooks, I have loads of them and I love nothing more than snuggling up on the sofa and just looking through them. This particular book was a birthday present from my Mum last January and now that Christmas is here, (woohoo), it has been getting plenty of use. Gifts from the Kitchen is a very pretty and girly hardback book from marks and Spencers. It is styled in a very kitsch way with lots of pretty pictures, pink and gingham! It is the sort of cookbook that instantly makes me want to a don a pinny and morph into a 1950s house-wife! The theme of pink and pale green flows throughout the book and teamed with the beautiful photography it works perfectly to get you into the mood to make lovely edible gifts which is, of course, the theme of the book. There are forty recipes in...

donnabroom 23.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Gifts from the Kitchen - Parragon Book Service

The10 gifts i wanted on my birthday and never got

Advantages: Loads
Disadvantages: I'm about to Bore you to death again

...Well its the 20th April 2005. My birthday. I was born 24 years ago today, I've never really been one for birthdays and this year has been no exception. I woke this morning and thought bloody hell it's my birthday and i've got to get up with the kids at 7.30am. So much for breakie in bed and a nice lie in. Any way i went downstairs and the kids brought me my cards. No pressies. My hubby gave me his card. No pressie. My mum came with a bunch of flowers and a card. No money. O well i thought never mind i had already had a £3500 car and 2 tickets to go watch WWE Raw on Monday, so i cn't really grumble. But no matter what you say on your birthday (nah don't bother getting me anything) You always want something. So here are my top ten pressies i would have liked for my birthday. 1) Mum Ring ~~~~~~~~~~ I have wanted a mum ring ever...

luseantom 20.04.2005 · Read review
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Review of Top 10 Gifts I'd Like to Receive

A BIRTHDAY GREETING TO CIAO FROM RICHADA

Advantages: An unusually retrospective birthday greeting.
Disadvantages: Hardly a conventional birthday party.

......

RICHADA 21.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of A birthday greeting