Mates, Dates and Sleepover Secrets by Cathy Hopkins

Advantages: Great characters, good story, you can read it over and over and not get bored of it, easy to read
Disadvantages: -

...Mates, Dates and Sleepover Secrets Cathy Hopkins The book was published in 2002 by Piccadilly Press Ltd. A bit about the author Cathy Hopkins was born in Manchester but grew up in Kenya from the ages five to eleven. She started writing teenage fiction in the year 2000. (To find out more visit www.cathyhopkins.com) When/ Why did I buy the book? I bought the book a good few years ago, I'd say about five, when I was about ten years old. I actually bought the book from a car boot sale, I think it was about 10p!! Which is an absolute bargain as the book is fantastic and I still read it now. I'm not really sure why I bought it, it obviously must have just caught my eye through all the usual junk you find at a car boot sale. They say don't judge a book by its cover, well everyone does don't they. I think I judged...

Ruby.xo 28.06.2009 (23.07.2009) · Read review
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Review of Mates Dates and Sleepover Secrets - Cathy Hopkins

The miracle of life?

Advantages: An interesting read, beautifully written
Disadvantages: Pretentious at times, dislikeable main character

...Amanda McCamey is a handful. Born in the Mississippi River Delta on a plantation, her relatives fail to notice that she is taking rather too much interest in her cousin, Guy, and before long, she is pregnant at the age of fourteen. Sent away, she gives birth to a daughter who she is forced to give up for adoption. Amanda then conforms for a while, marrying a wealthy man in New Orleans, but once in her forties, she rebels again. Going back to school, she becomes a translator and poet and divorces her wealthy husband. Moving to Arkansas, she endeavours to concentrate on her translation work, but soon becomes involved with a much younger man. Will she ever find what she is looking for? And whatever happened to the child she bore in her teens? Ellen Gilchrist is an author who is new to me. She writes about the area in which she grew up...

sunmeilan 05.01.2010 · Read review
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Review of The Annunciation - Ellen Gilchrist

"Lesbian Demands Cheese; Causes Riot!"

Advantages: Very funny,and easy to watch
Disadvantages: Sometimes you have to think

...Ellen DeGeneres - The Beginning "There's nothing to fear but fear itself ?. Great, now I'm scared of fear!" Ellen DeGeneres, born January 26, 1958 in Louisiana, is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and Emmy Award-winning host of the talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Before landing a talk show, she also stared in (and produced) a stream of short-lived sit-coms. Ellen's stand-up career began very simply - being asked to entertain at her friends' parties. She was soon noticed and moved onto coffee houses, and was then asked to take up a regular spot at Clyde's Comedy Club, the only (then) comedy club in New Orleans. In 1981 she first recorded her performance and 1982 saw her voted Funniest Person In America. While at the comedy club, she was spotted by the producer of the Tonight show, and her name will stand in...

liz1102 15.11.2006 · Read review
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Review of Ellen DeGeneres - The Beginning (DVD)

The Bangs, The Bangs What about the Bangs?

Advantages: Hillarious, Poigniant, Interesting, Degeneres Sparkles
Disadvantages: A Few Low Points

...Very, very few stand up comedians make me laugh, I find people like Ricky Gervais and Billy Connelly quite offensive and don't really 'get' their humor. I have always had very strange tastes in comedy and rarely enjoy what the rest of the country seem to (Peter Kay just goes right over my head.) So when I do find someone who can make me truly laugh I generally stick with them throughout their careers, my favorite has to be Ellen Degeneres. Ever since 1996 when I first saw one of her stand ups on America television I have been enthralled by her thought provoking and deeply funny ideas on life and the world and have gone on to read or watch everything that she has produced. This is Ellen Degeneres - The Beginning and signals a drastic change in her career and life as a 'celebrity.' Three years before filming this special gig, she came out...

JayHall1991 24.09.2005 · Read review
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Review of Ellen DeGeneres - The Beginning (DVD)

Anything - (Nothing goes actually) - Goes

Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Lots

...I picked this book up in the motorway service station on the way up to Reading just before xmas, it looked like a easy book, and nothing to heavy to read on my weekend away. The other reason I picked up this book was because it was on special offer at £4.99 as it normally retails at £6.99 and it was a new release, being in the top 20, and Billy Hopkins had written other books which sounded ok, as ok books go. The story is set in the 60's which revolve around a family life. Mum and Dad, Billy and Laura have four children, John, Mark, Matthew and Lucy. They return to England from Kenya, on a cold wintry day in December 1963 and return to there home town of Manchester, financially more wealthy than when they left due to Billy's job that he took in Africa. The search goes on for a new home where they find the ideal family home in...

chattell 15.05.2006 · Read review
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Review of Anything Goes - Billy Hopkins

Bridging the Gap

Advantages: Brilliantly written, wonderful descriptions, great plot and characters
Disadvantages: flashbacks

...The Bridge is a very interesting and original sci-fi novel. I find that too often in science fiction, aliens and other forms of life are portrayed as extremely human-like. Janine Ellen Young's aliens are completely different. She shows great inspiration in the creation of another race and expert writing skill in the description of their effect on mankind. ~~~ The Plot ~~~ A race of space-dwelling aliens communicate partly by means of transmitting viruses to each other. They decide to try and contact other worlds by building a bridge. But they can only construct one end of the bridge and need the people they're contacting to build the other. So they send through ships that will spread out across the universe, and one of them reaches Earth. Unfortunately, the message is transmitted by a virus. 90% of the world's population catch...

87degrees 16.04.2006 · Read review
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Review of The Bridge - Janine Ellen Young

Nell

Advantages: Funny, factual, revealing
Disadvantages: Perhaps a little sentimental in places

...I can't imagine a more perfect biography for Nell Gwynne than this one, by Graham Hopkins. So many biographies are dry and monotonous, but Hopkins imbues it with plenty of humour and makes it a pleasure to read. He seems to capture Nell's personality; her wit, her generosity, her spirit. Nell's character is what made her so popular with the public - and what continues to make her popular even today - and this biography is full of character. The book is very well-researched and Hopkins backs up all of his claims with evidence, from the assumed date of Nell's birth (commonly cited as 1650, but more likely to be 1642) to Charles II's deathbed plea: "Let not poor Nelly starve" (I was delighted to find that there is clear evidence for this, with four separate accounts mentioning it). Whilst he speculates in places, he doesn't do it...

DoubleFantasy11 28.09.2007 · Read review
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Review of Nell Gwynne: A Passionate Life - Graham Hopkins

Ten things that could change their world

Advantages: Very easy to use, interesting, unusual to take child's view
Disadvantages: A little repetetive at points

...Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew is a text aimed at parents, teachers and other professionals who work with children on the autistic spectrum, unusually and appealingly it is written from the child's perspective. The author, Ellen Notbohm is a parent of a child with autism, and has worked in the area for a long time, as well as writing and co-writing articles and other books. She is very experienced and in this books she tries to impart her knowledge, but by taking the child's viewpoint she gives the book a different slant and manages to make it feel like not just another textbook. The book is split into: Preface It begins Ten things every child with autism wishes you knew Chapter 1 ? I am first and foremost a child Chapter 2 ? My sensory perceptions are distorted Chapter 3 ? Distinguish between won't and can...

M.Newcastle 15.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew - Ellen Notbohm

Taking it on and winning.

Advantages: An inspirational read.
Disadvantages: None that I can think of.

...' I began to realize that the beauty of the water can't be taken away or captured. It can only be properly appreciated at first hand. I was also struck by how many sides the sea has to its personality.An angry sea on one crossing can be as smooth as silk on another. I was fascinated by how all this was possible and was desperate to understand much more. ' February 11th 2001, I remember sitting in front of the television and watching the news show live pictures of Ellen MacArthur sailing her boat, Kingfisher into a French port after completing the Vandee Globe. I remember thinking that yeah, it was pretty cool that a woman had sailed alone around the world, but I knew very little about sailing as a sport and even though I hate the way people are stereotyped, somewhere in the back of my mind was that little voice that said that...

MandyMinx 08.01.2003 · Read review
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Review of Taking on the world - Ellen MacArthur

Everyone needs a mum like Betty.

Advantages: Enlightening opinion from a mothers point of view
Disadvantages: Couldn't help but wonder....Is she on the band wagon ?

...A brief synopsis. Love Ellen by Betty Degeneres is a true story of how a mother dealt with her famous daughter coming out as a lesbian. What made me want to read this book ? Personal experience. When I came out to my mum 13 years ago the response wasn't great and it still isn't after all this time. I thought maybe reading this book would help me understand why. The result was in fact the opposite. How it is written. The book is written from Betty's (the mum in the story) point of view. It is semi diarised and autobiographical. What it's about. It briefly looks at Betty's childhood and upbringing. Explaining some traditional family values and how she was brought up to understand how a 'normal' life should be. Very quickly the book moves on to how Ellen told her mum she was gay and the initial response that she...

JulieHaycraft 11.04.2005 (16.04.2007) · Read review
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Review of Book. Love, Ellen. - Betty Degeneres