When all else fails - there's always Plan B!

Advantages: absorbing read
Disadvantages: none

...I have read most of Emily Barr's novels and each one is fresh and enjoyable and you think they can't get any better. However, having just read Plan B, they do get better and I was totally absorbed in this story from the moment I picked the book up! Emily Barr is such a good storyteller and she hooks you from the very start so that you don't want to stop reading. I found myself snatching odd moments in the day to pick this book up, and now that I've finished it I'm almost disappointed as I didn't want to stop reading. The main character in the book is Emma and over half of the story is told from her point of view and is written in the first person. At the beginning when we first meet Emma she is reluctantly moving to France to start a new life with her partner Matt and their two year old daughter Alice. They have bought a ramshackle...

kingfisher111 01.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Plan B - Emily Barr

Plan B

Advantages: some excellant songs
Disadvantages: lots of swearing

...Plan B - Who Needs Action When You Got Words Firstly this album is very very rude and the parental advisory sticker should be taken notice of. Some of the words, lines and innuendos in this album make the contents of many other 'explicit' albums seem fit for kids. However with that besides this album is very good and best of all its British. Plan B's lyrical ability, in my opinion, stand him out against not only other English rappers but also most of what comes over from the states. The music is also different and, again in my opinion, superior to what has been released recently. Much of the album's lyrics are from the point of view of inner city kids and the 'tough' lives that they live and sound like they are very heart felt, which shows with the emotion throughout. Also of note is the Plan B plays much of the music on his guitar...

brianroper316 27.08.2007 · Read review
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Review of Who Needs Actions When You Got Words (Parental Advisory) [PA] - Plan B

Better get your Plan C ready

Advantages: Not bad I suppose and quite close to my hotel
Disadvantages: Not the best tapas in town

...INTRODUCTION Now that I am back for a while working in the Netherlands, I thought I would have a stab at reviewing some of the restaurants, if for no other reason that it keeps me entertained. And so here we go with my debut restaurant review. I hadn't expected much from this restaurant I hadn't visited before; I'd been told beforehand it wasn't anything special. To complicate this even more, I was accompanied by a friend from Barcelona who naturally knows his calamari from his patatas bravas. It will be interesting to see what we thought between us. One nugget of wisdom my friend imparted on me is that PlanB, the restaurant name, is a very Spanish name for such a place. This is because according to him, in Spain tapas is seen as not really seen as something you would specifically go out to eat - it would be just a casual...

larsbaby 07.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of Plan B Restaurant, Breda, Netherlands

Samsung PS50B451

Advantages: Brillaint TV
Disadvantages: Hard to get used to

...One of the TVs in my house has just been replaced, we was lucky enough to get a deal on the Samsung PS50b451 instead of it costing around the £700 asking price a friend of ours used her staff discount and along with some vouchers, the TV cost us around £350 which is brilliant for what it is. bit of a bargain actually. I thought I would review it to see if it is actually worth the £700 asking price to those who aren?t as lucky as us to have a friend who works in a shop that sells them. Why choose this one? The reason that we choose this particular TV is that we wanted one in the 50 inch size range to replace the old one, and when we had a look at the range available we found that this one was not only the cheapest for what it is, but also we found that this one was the better looking of the three we narrowed our choice down to...

amyloop 14.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of Samsung PS50B451

An A for the B plan

Advantages: good tracks
Disadvantages: only 14 of them

...The Masterplan is a collection of B-sides that have accompanied Oasis?s brilliant collection of hit singles. The album contains fourteen songs of a good standard, and is well worth at least a listen to. Acquiesce is the single that never was. This is arguably one of the best B-side singles ever made, and it still puzzles critics as to why it was not released on an album, or even as a single. Underneath the Sky and Talk Tonight are both great songs, as are Half the World Away and Stay Young. The album has good variety in it, from the hand clapping ‘drum? in Talk Tonight, to the more energetic rhythm of Stay Young. Oasis are one of, if not the best band of the nineties, although have slightly lost their path recently, that is why it is god to listen to some of their stuff which not everybody has heard. Not a classic album, and there...

danradders 30.12.2000 · Read review
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Review of Masterplan, The - Oasis

Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave?

Advantages: Interesting and unusual story, well written
Disadvantages: Bizarre / unrealistic / confused at parts

...In America, Plan B is the brand name for emergency contraception, and their tag line is "For when things don't go as planned". If ever there was a sentence to summarize this story, that would be it. I like Emily Barr's books, although after a few you can start to predict some of the details because they all stick to the same vague formula. Each thus far has included a British girl with an relatively interesting past spending at least some of the book in a non-British setting, and this one is no exception. Emma is a young stay at home mother with a 2 year old daughter, Alice. She lives in Brighton with her partner Matt, but he travels a lot with his job so often it's just the two girls together. For reasons of which she is not aware, he suggests a move to an idylic farm house in the south of France and promptly moves the three...

zoe_page 25.10.2005 · Read review
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Review of Plan B - Emily Barr

Plan on Sleeping Through It

Advantages: Some nice warmth from Dwayne Johnson.
Disadvantages: Pedestrian direction, under-developed characters and predictable narrative.

...the film. If it isn't brassy themes for the first American football game, it's blowsy nu-jazz for Joe's party, sad strings and woodwinds for his moments of loneliness, horror squeals when Peyton reveals her identity or Bond-style electric guitar for Joe's flash car. There are a couple of attempts at humour including one scene where B-movie thriller themes accompany an overflowing bubble bath. The other soundtrack choices sound like a grab bag of current soundtrack favourites such as "Rubbernecking", "Mr Blue Sky" and the perplexing end credits sing- and dance-along to "Hunka Hunka Burning Love". But the whole thing feels too scattershot. "The Game Plan" is an extremely formulaic family movie that may appeal to under-tens, but will have grown-ups snoring their heads off. The direction is pedestrian, the writing predictable and the performances...

afy9mab 13.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Game Plan (DVD)

plans are rarely simple

Advantages: cinematography, billy bob thornton
Disadvantages: slow, some unbelievable moments

...are both out of work see this as retirement and want to keep the money. "You work for the American Dream, you don't steal it." Exclaims Hank, although he is soon going back on that when he comes up with a plan. The plan is simple (hence the name of the film). He will keep the money till the Spring when they are sure that the plane will be found, if (when it is) there is no mention of the money, then they will distribute it three ways and leave town never to return. The three are sworn to secrecy not to reveal the money or the plan to anyone, Although hypocritical Hanks is soon telling his Pregnant wife Sarah (Bridget Fonda) and its not long before she is adding extras to the plan which Hank needs to carry out, The result is that this breeds further arguments and mistrust, which escalates and snowballs out of control, this ultimately...

sjp1966 02.10.2007 · Read review
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Review of A Simple Plan (DVD)

Plan on buying this!

Advantages: Great stories, great characters, good value
Disadvantages: None

...Although we have somewhat moved onto pastures new (Noddy and Peppa Pig) when it comes to Harry's television viewing, Bob the Builder still remains a good faithful to plonk on for him when I desperately need to get on with the dinner and Harry's trying to "help" me. We have a small collection of Bob DVD'S courtesy of Harry's Nanny, and this is one he does like to watch pretty regularly, and I must say it is a fun watch, even for me who has seen it god knows how many times! Bob the Builder is a hit children's television show currently being shown on Nick Jnr and Nick Jnr 2 throughout the day. The show is also widely available on DVD, from all of the televised series, as well as specials which were created specially for DVD such as this one, Bob's Big Plan. Bob lives and works in Sunflower Valley with fellow builder Wendy and their crew...

mummy2harry 27.10.2008 · Read review
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Review of Bob The Builder - Bob's Big Plan Special (DVD)

Rural bliss?

Advantages: Good escapist read with plenty of authentic travel details
Disadvantages: Some predictable plot twists, ending seemed a bit pat

...Travel journalist Emily Barr has more or less cornered the market, it seems, in travel-related chick-fic featuring realistically flawed characters in unfortunate situations. "Plan B" is her fifth novel, following the earlier "Backpack", "Baggage", "Cuban Heels" and "Atlantic Shift", which involved locations as diverse as Australia, Cuba and the USA. "Plan B" takes place in the South of France, and since this is where Barr herself now lives, we can probably assume her take on the young-family-moving-to-France theme to be a fairly realistic one, at least so far as location is concerned. Even the heroine's name - Emma - is similar to her own, although I do hope Emily has not had to contend with all the same problems. Having lost her mother at a young age and never known her father, thirty-year-old Emma is determined to build a stable...

sheri3004 08.05.2006 · Read review
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Review of Plan B - Emily Barr