Advantages: Some great songs and captivating vocals
Disadvantages: Vocals may become a little same-y

...Eva's captivating vocals have a warm, husky quality to them which can soothe anyone to sleep. The calming effect her voice has is similar to that of Tracy Chapman, another great artist. They both have a fantastic creativity that means that no chorus they sing ever sounds the same as the ones they've sung before. This versatility is great, even if it does make singing along a little difficult. However this album contains many songs that have a similar tonal quality and as such Eva's vocals can sound a little same-y if you listen to this album for hours on end. In comparison to Tracy Chapman's music, Eva's is a little more folksy, with traditional songs such as Wade in the water, and there's obviously a little bit of a blues element in there too. This album includes the songs: Fields of gold, Wade in the water, Autumn leaves, Wayfaring... Read review

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Advantages: Fantastic read, really makes you think!
Disadvantages: Disturbing, distressing, chilling

...From the back of the book…"Shortly before his sixteenth birthday, Kevin Khatchadourian kills seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher. He is visiting in prison by his mother, Eva, who narrates in a series of letters to her estranged husband, Franklin, her account of Kevin's upbringing" Clever, amazing, disturbing and distressing. I thought this was a really good book, and now that I've finished I already want to read it again! I tend to like books that make really me think, and this one certainly did that! This is a distressing tale of a dysfunctional family told through the eyes of Eva, the mother, who cannot love her son. Due to the writing method (letters from Eva to Franklin) and style it took me a while to get into the book - I only started really enjoying it from around page 75 (when Eva... Read review

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Advantages: The story, acting performances, making of
Disadvantages: Slow, limited release

...The Savages is a small budget, independent film from second time director Tamara Jenkins. It stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as two siblings who have lost touch with each other due to their own troubled circumstances. They are forced together however when their once abusive father descends into dementia forcing Hoffman and Linney to come to his aid. The film is both sad and funny in it's exploration of complex family dynamics. The subject matter is rarely dealt with in film and therefore one can't help but be moved by themes that are relevant to us all. Hoffman and Linney are exquisite and completely convincing as individuals struggling with the guilt and failure of their own relationships and careers. Jenkins' script won the Oscar in 2007 and rightly so! Sensitive, poignant and darkly humorous. The special features... Read review

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Advantages: Gets nearer to the truth than many other authors
Disadvantages: Lot of political discussion,sometimes hard to follow.

...Eva Peron is without doubt one of the most fascinating female icons of the twentieth century. However, much that has been written about her is shrouded in myth and romanticism. This book delves deeper into the legend and reveals the real woman behind the image. It investigates how her very humble beginnings, born the illegitimate daughter of an Argentinean peasant woman, shaped her character; her desperate need to be loved and admired, her struggles for “her people.”It looks also at the flaws in Eva’s character, her ability to turn a blind eye to things she found difficult. It also looks at her life with Juan Peron, which was not, according to this book, the lovey-dovey relationship portrayed in some books and on the screen. (The book alleges that during her final days Peron could not bear to be near Eva, because her decaying body... Read review

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Advantages: wonderfully strange
Disadvantages: a bit short

...Isabel Allende is a Chillean author. She is a member of the Allende family who were in power before Pinoche took over, and she has seen the horrors of Chillie first hand. Many of her books refelct this - some with dark realism, some with a desire for subversion. In many ways, Eva Luna is a deeply subversive text. As far as I know, Eva Luna is only available in translation, having originally been written in Sanish. Eva Luna herself, the narrator, is a strange girl to say the least. Her mother was a servant of Spanish extraction, her father was a Chillean native on what at the time appeared to be his deathbed. Her mother worked for a man who liked to preserve bodies, so Eva grew up in a world inhabitted by mummified people - perhaps leading to some of her strangeness. Eva's life is not an easy one - untimely death leaves her alone... Read review

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Advantages: Everything about her voice
Disadvantages: Not enough songs!

...Eva Cassidy's is, without doubt, one of the most magical voices that I have ever heard. If there is one album I would recommend for pure vocal quality it would be this one. Now comes the hard part of trying to explain my love of her music. I believe that most people came to hear of Eva Cassidy either through Terry Wogan on Radio 2 or by watching Top of The Pops 2, in which the only video footage of her was played. I was watching TOTP2 during the holiday period and they played Eva Cassidy singing "Over the Rainbow". A while later I saw her album in the shops and snapped it up immediately. And that I certainly don't regret! If anyone doesn't know by now, the tragedy of the Eva Cassidy story is that she died in 1996 from skin cancer at the age of 33. At this point she hadn't been heard of outside her hometown. The beauty of Eva's voice... Read review

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Advantages: music is sensational
Disadvantages: not entirely accurate to events, doesnt expand enough

...Evita was on television a couple of weeks ago. I hadnt seen it for ages so I decided to record it. As it was shown on BBC1, it would be without commercial breaks! The lead role of Maria Eva Duarte, to become, Eva Peron and Evita, was played by the singer Madonna. Quite a remarkable change from her usual deposits into the charts!! I was very shocked the first time i wtached the film, as to how good she actually was! The film also includes Antonio Banderas, as the narrator and political revolutionary, Che Guervera. He comments throughout the film following the rise and fall of Evita. His foreign twang makes his voice quite delicious. The role of Juan Domingo Peron is played by Johnathon Pryce. Jimmy Nail also stars as a 'going now-where' Argentine tango singer, Augustus Magaldi. The characters are sufficiently developed... Read review

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Advantages: Great music, great acting
Disadvantages: Too superficial, characters not well developed

...An adaptation of the stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice, this film features a host of stars, including Madonna as Eva Peron, Antonio Banderas, and Jimmy Nail. Many of the songs are well known including ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’ and ‘Another suitcase in another hall’. The film follows the life of Eva Peron, wife of the Argentinean President Juan Peron, from her working-class childhood in a small town, through her career as an actress and her political career, to her terminal illness and death. The film opens with the death of Eva Peron, and is told in retrospect by Che Guevara (Antonio Banderas), a political revolutionary, who acts as the narrator. The opening scenes are of her funeral, and the mourning of the population. We go back to Eva’s early life before her rise to stardom... Read review

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Advantages: Superb Story, Good Acting, Good Songs
Disadvantages: Difficult To Follow In Places

...My fascination with the story of Eva Duarte goes back many years. Long before 1996 in fact when this Film of her life story, starring Madonna was made. The Story of Evita is a fascinating one and it is a role that it is said that Madonna had set her eyes upon for a long time. Rumours that a full length Film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End Musical was to be made had been circulating for years and apparently Madonna contacted Andrew Lloyd Webber on several occasions, slowly convincing him that she was the perfect person for the lead role. The Film that was eventually to be made was obviously based on the West End Musical but it was to be a Film with a difference, since almost all of the dialogue was to be sung rather than spoken. I had my reservations of how this would work but since I was already fascinated with the Story... Read review

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Advantages: Intellectual, thought-provoking and absorbing
Disadvantages: Tortuous subject matter and complex vocabulary in places

...I'd been thinking of buying this book for a little while. I'd often wander into my local bbokshop, read the back cover, put it back down again then purchase something a little more 'cheery'. A couple of weeks ago, my friend at work said she's just read a fantastic book and would I like to borrow it - it turned out to be "We need to talk about Kevin". I took it home on Friady night after work and finished it by Sunday lunch-time. I just couldn't pt it down. The book is like no other I've read. It captured my imagination from the first page until the final sentence. The story centres around a mother's (Eva) letters, written to her husband about her son, Kevin, who we are told from the outset had murdered several of his peers and a canteen worker at his school. The story take splace in the USA. Eva describes how she had a happy... Read review

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