FREE DVDs

Advantages: Free trial, large choice, post included,new realeases
Disadvantages: see review

...I like movies and I like freebies, so when you get offered both in one swoop you?re bound to accept! I used my two week free trial with this company and remained with them for a couple of monthsbefore moving on to try many other companies free trials (and winning a new DVD player on Tesco DVD rental site on their free trial offer). I then had an email from DVDs 365 asking me to go back, and offering me a free DVD if I did so. I had just left Tesco (with my new DVD player) so I chose to go back with them. ∆◊◊ THE SERVICE THEY OFFER ∆◊◊ Basically it?s like going to a video shop and hiring films on DVD, except you don?t pay for each film you chose ? rather a monthly fee for which you can watch as many movies as you can fit in, for us this is usually around 8 a month (2 a week usually weekends...

dabmim 15.11.2004 · Read review
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Review of dvds365.com

McCarthy's Car

Advantages: Told with a twinkle in the eye and a smile on the face
Disadvantages: Why didn't I know about this sooner?

...Hands up if you ever wanted to be a racing driver when you were younger? Or even if you still harbour dreams of being one? I know I certainly did. It didn't matter to me whether I was racing in rallying, Touring Cars or in Formula 1; I just wanted to be paid for driving very fast. There was a spell in my younger years where I even had a vague ambition of being a motorway policeman, for much the same reason. Perry McCarthy had the same dream. His childhood certainly prepared him for the world of being a racing driver, as he had a daredevil streak and an eye for the ladies, even at the age of six. But this would be as close as he came to fulfilling his dream until he was 18 and had a session at Brands Hatch which proved him to be a natural driver. From here on, Perry's life becomes a bit of a rollercoaster ride. Motor racing is...

Soho_Black 07.05.2006 · Read review
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Review of Flat Out, Flat Broke - Perry McCarthy

5 star luxury on the river bank courtesy of Kevin Nash

Advantages: Strong, stable and versatile
Disadvantages: expensive and heavy

...surroundings, and not to frighten the fish, anglers like green. Most tents are bright (almost garish colours), which is fine for the campsite but not much good if you are trying to ?keep on the low?. Most bivvies are green. ii) Unless you have a huge tent (and most of these will not fit in a swim, i.e. the fishing spot you are in) most tents are very low and you have to crouch to get in to them. Bivvies are generally taller so you can rush out without having to crouch down when you get a bite. ****Types of bivvy**** There are loads of bivvies on the market and all manufacturers of fishing accessories (Fox, Kevin Nash, Badger, Armadillo, Shakespeare, Daiwa etc.) make many different models of bivvy and you will find one to suit all tastes and all budgets. The range of bivvies is huge and they are available in different materials (nylon...

yackers1 13.03.2007 (15.04.2009) · Read review
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Review of Kevin Nash Titan

Black Rabbit Summer by Kevin Brooks is a fantastic book

Advantages: Fantastic story, interesting characters, you can't put it down,
Disadvantages: Not suitable for younger children

...Black Rabbit Summer, by Kevin Brooks When/why/how I got the book I always seem to get given lots of books at Christmas, and this year this was one of the best I was given. I had asked my mum for it, because Kevin Brooks is a fantastic author and this was one of the few books of his I hadn't yet read. I'd read an extract from it at the back of another book, and already wanted to know more about the story. Plot If youre planning to read this, be warned that this might ruin it for you. I won't tell the endings. The book starts when Pete, the main character, is upstairs doing nothing, something he is used to doing quite a lot of, looking forward to the summer holidays, and he gets a phone call from an old friend, Nicole. This is unexpected, he hasn't properly spoken to her for years and he wonders what she wants. What...

Ruby.xo 28.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Black Rabbit Summer - Kevin Brooks

What Kevin Wants

Advantages: Original topic for a novel
Disadvantages: Hard going in some earlier parts, tendancy to ramble

...With this book, the American author won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005. Shriver changed her name from Margaret Ann to Lionel as a teenager, as she believed men had it easier. This was also selected to be part of Richard & Judy's Summer Reads for 2005, and was featured on the BBC's Page Turners programme. The book grabbed me from page one, I knew the synopsis from the back cover, and the book starts with a letter from mother, Eva, to estranged husband, Franklin, a year and eight months after the tragic events at their son Kevin's High School where he murdered seven fellow students, a teacher and a cafeteria worker. After Eva bumps into the mother of one of the murdered students in the supermarket she feels compelled to start writing to Franklin letters talking of her current situation as well as recalling the past, going...

Essexgirl2006 06.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

Surprising Picture Quality - Panasonic DVD-S54

Advantages: Incredible picture quality when compared to my old non-upscaling player with a scart lead
Disadvantages: Sometimes disc drive can be really noisy when DVD's initially load.

...At first I wasn't convinced by up-scaling DVD player technology but was persuaded after reading an article in "What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision" magazine. Unable to afford a Blu-Ray player my sister and I bought the Panasonic DVD-S54 to match our parents brand new Panasonic TX-32LZD80 LCD television as their Christmas 2008 present. Admittedly it was a slightly selfish purchase as we both live at home and wanted to watch DVDs on the big new TV ourselves! We bought the player from the electrical retailer Comet for about £100 just before Christmas so there were no discounts applied. On Christmas day when opened we found a relatively small box tightly packed with the player in polystyrene packaging. All the components such as cables, remote and manuals were well presented in their own protective plastic bags, to keep them protected. The player...

bobbacon985 12.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Panasonic DVD-S54

McCarthy's Bore

Advantages: It's about a country that is only an hour away
Disadvantages: The err 'humour'

...?The funniest book I?ve read this year? writes John Walsh of The Independent in his endorsement of Pete McCarthy?s first book ?McCarthy?s Bar?. ?I disagree? writes hoof in his Ciao opinion. I had been looking forward to reading this book since bringing it home from Ottakar?s, particularly after reading the two whole pages of endorsements inside the front cover all of which echo the sentiments of John Walsh?s endorsement which is prominently displayed on the front cover of the book. These endorsements come from many varied and respected sources such as the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday, and so heightened the anticipation for me. Firstly a little background. Pete McCarthy was born to an Irish mother and an English father and in this book he attempts to find where he ?belongs?. This is a book not only about Ireland but about...

Hoof 10.09.2003 · Read review
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Review of McCarthy's Bar - Pete McCarthy

Is it too late to talk about Kevin?

Advantages: Gripping writing of a subject that hits close to home
Disadvantages: Haunting

...Originally published in the US in 2003, Lionel Shriver's novel "We Need to Talk About Kevin" received huge critical acclaim and was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005. My copy of the book was published in 2006 here in the UK. Somehow I missed most of the fuss over the novel and picked it up largely at random from the 3 for 2 section at Waterstones a couple of years ago. As a member of the Columbine generation, having been in high school in Canada when the shootings there occurred, the subject matter of the novel touches a nerve, still raw a decade later. I have since read several books along the same lines but Shriver's stands out as the most striking, emotional and haunting of them all. The novel is structured as a series of letters from Eva to her husband Franklin beginning in November 2000. Separated from Franklin...

Mountainlilly 17.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

Kevin / Connor's first day at school..... sob!

Advantages: Gets the child used to the idea.
Disadvantages: Reminds you your babies no longer a baby.

...The book I am now going to review actually brought me to tears when reading it to my three year old son, the contents of the book made a lump appear in my throat and suddenly brought the depressing realisation to me that my baby is no longer actually a baby! The book I will now review is "Kevin goes to school"?.. sniff, sob! Now any parent that has been through this terrifying ordeal will sympathise with my feelings, I am not one of those soft hearted mothers that clings to their child sobbing uncontrollably at the school gates on their first day at school, when my daughter started I was very controlled, calm and collected, I wasn't even phased when a friend of mine whose twins were in my daughters class completely broke down and had to be helped from the classroom, I did however have a little cry on the way home! Soon it will be...

sarahbarrow 26.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of Kevin Goes to School - Liesbet Slegers

Could Kevin Be Saved Before It Happened?

Advantages: chilling, cleverly constructed and thoroughly engrossing
Disadvantages: some long-winded and unnecessary passages in the book

...We need to talk about Kevin is one of those books that sticks with you, and everytime I read something similar (such as 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult) I find it hard not to compare them - this is so well written and is now one of my favourite books of all time. Premise We Need To Talk About Kevin is narrated by Kevins mother in letter form to her husband telling of her difficulty of getting along with her son since his birth. The story begins before Kevins birth where we learn that his mother Eva wasnt overly keen on having children in the first place, and upon finding herself pregnant, is still a little wary. This is an important beginning, in fact, all of her confessions to her husband are equally important when we find out that Kevin, just before his sixteenth birthday, walked into his high school and killed some...

burtybookworm 03.09.2008 (17.10.2008) · Read review
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Review of We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver