Advantages: Superb story, informative, emotional and entertaining.
Disadvantages: Depressing - emotionally difficult to read.

...builds pace into a crescendo that's simply amazing. Steinbeck takes the most mundane of descriptions and turns them into works of art. These descriptions show us the reality of the situation, as opposed to the Joads' ignorant hopefulness. The language Steinbeck uses is simple, but powerful. Explicitly indicating accent and using colloquial terms gives the story a strong air of authenticity, making the reader painfully aware that many real families experienced what the Joads are experiencing. It can be uncomfortable reading at times, but Steinbeck injects a lot of humour - ever blurring the line between comedy and tragedy - making Grapes of Wrath hugely entertaining. The characters are all likeable - even mad old Grandpa and tomcattin' Al - but shockingly naive. You often feel like shaking them! The two that really stand out are Tom... Read review

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Advantages: wonderfully written, a masterpiece!
Disadvantages: sad?

...The Grapes of Wrath, written in 1939 by John Steinbeck (1902-1968), is considered by many literary critics to be the greatest of all American novels. This is a book about the Great Depression, and one poor sharecropper family's struggle to survive the worst deprivations that American society in the 1930's had to offer. Indeed, in my view, perhaps no American work of fiction fits the label of "The Great American Novel" better than Steinbeck's wonderfully written and still highly controversial masterpiece of fiction. The story is both gripping and well told. Set in the 1930's, in America's "Dust Bowl," it is the tale of the Joad family, a large clan of poor Oklahoma sharecroppers, and how they are forced into a decision to migrate to California to find the Promised Land. It's also the story of the many trials and sufferings... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Well written, engrossing, determination giving
Disadvantages: Not the cheeriest of books!

...A couple of years ago I decided that I wanted to read more “classics”, so I asked for a huge pile of books for Christmas… including “The Grapes Of Wrath”. At that time I was 4 months pregnant. My mum saw what I had, and told me to wait until my little Grape was born (we were calling B “the grape”) before I read it. She said I wouldn’t fully appreciate it until I was a mother. Two years on, and I have a lively 18 month old daughter. I decided it was time to dust off my book and give it a go. If you’re looking for warm and fuzzy, then go find something else to read – I suggest Winnie The Pooh; it’s a superb book for warm fuzzies. If however, you want to finish a book feeling full of fight and determination, then this is it. ~The Grapes of Wrath~ The Grapes of Wrath is set during the American Great Depression. The southern... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: works for me
Disadvantages: won't work for everybody

...Piles, haemorroids, call them what you will are an embarrassing painful and irritating problem. They itch and they throb and you are conscious of them being there all the time, if you ever have them you will find it difficult to sit down, lie down and sex is out of the question. I promise you, you will not be feeling sexy if these little beggars have got a grip on you. If perhaps you’re wondering about the title of this op it's because the previously mentioned piles resemble a bunch of grapes hanging from the back passage. The wrath is because they are sore and angry! They arrive quite commonly after childbirth but even more commonly after a bout of constipation. One other thing you may like to note is that once you have had them once you will be more likely to get them again. A very good reason to keep yourself regular don... Read review

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Advantages: beautifully written, informative
Disadvantages: lack of action, long

...'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck is quite a lengthy book and to be honest within all these words is not a lot of action. The story follows the Joad family from Oklahoma on their journey to California after the Depression of 1929. Depression seems to be one of the key words of this novel-if you need to be cheered up please don't read this! I'm not saying it's a bad book, just a bit liberal with melancholy. Steinbeck went on to win the nobel rize for literature in the 1940's and it is not difficuly to see why. Even though there may be a lack of action, it is a beautifully written novel. The longer chapters are split up by shorter, more general chapters of the Depression. So you can see that this is happening to the Joad family but then the perspective widens and you can see that the same things are happening to thousands more... Read review

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Advantages: Great visuals; good gameplay from it's predecessors; lots of replayability.
Disadvantages: Car handling is rubbish; sound is mediocre; short story; very hard; long load times.

...-(Game Information)- Name:Crash Bandicoot:The Wrath Of Cortex Publisher:Vivendi Universial Games Developer:Travellers Tales Genre:3D Platformer Release Date:Nov 23, 2001 Age Rating:3+ Number Of Players:1 Online:No Developer Site:www.vugames.com/vug Product Site:www.crashbandicoot.com/uk/ Memory Card Usage:66kb minimum Now avalible in Platinum edition -(History)- The developer with more than 700 PC and console titles to its credit, Vivendi Universal is the second-largest publisher of PC game software in North America. Studios that are with Vivendi include Sierra Entertainment, Radical Entertainment and Swordfish Studios. Crash Bandicoot was originally Sony's mascot, as the PSone versions were made with Sony and Sony's company, Naughty Dog, and they were one of the best platformers on the PSone. But when Naughty Dog gave up... Read review

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Advantages: The world would be a more sympathetic place if everyone read this book.
Disadvantages: It doesn't appear to have had much effect in America...

...It is hard to believe that this book was written by an American. To say he is not a fan of unfettered capitalism would be something of an understatement. Steinbeck deserves to be ranked alongside Dickens, not only as a wonderful novelist, but also as an incisive social commentator. Writers can prick the conscience of a nation, change attitudes and sometimes even the national psyche. This is a powerful, and, dare I say it... a socialist book. Wrath is in the title of the book for a very good reason. It is an ANGRY book. Angry about the inhuman treatment of people, real people - with families - who are considered less important than numbers on a balance sheet... and left to starve because employing them doesn't make 'economic sense'. Yes, it's long, and no it doesn't have a happy ending. So, if you are a shallow Panglossian... Read review

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Advantages: Tasty, filling, stays crunchy in milk
Disadvantages: Takes a bit longer to chew

...Tired of my usual Special K cereal, I was eager to try something different, which was still low in fat, high in fibre and easy on the taste buds. My boyfriend recommended Kraft Grape Nuts. I was quite sure that I would absolutely hate them, as I've never liked cereals with dried fruit in, but thought I'd give them a try anyway. Imagine my surprise, on reading the ingredients I found they didn't contain a single grape or come to that, a single nut. The cereal was so named by its maker Charles W Post in 1897, because it contained maltose (a type of sugar). Post's own name for maltose was "grape sugar" and the nut part was because the distinctive flavour reminded him of nuts. Grape nuts resemble sandy coloured gravel. They are made from wheat and malted barley and enriched with Yeast, Iron, Niacin, vitamins B6, A and D, Thiamin... Read review

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Advantages: It has humour and humanity
Disadvantages: None that I can think of

...---------------- INTRODUCTION ---------------- Rel eased in 1982, STAR TREK II - THE WRATH OF KHAN is a sequel to both STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE (released in 1979), and the episode 'Space Seed' from the first season of the original TV show STAR TREK. The first movie had not been well received by the critics, although it did quite well at the box office. Unfortunately its gross was not good enough for the studio in comparison for its budget so with the second movie they really were looking at the final outing for STAR TREK, unless they were able to come up with something both critically and financially more successful. ---------------- THE PLOT ---------------- Whilst on mission training cadets, Admiral James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise is attacked by superhuman criminal Khan Noonian Singh and his followers, who had... Read review

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Advantages: Leaves skin soft
Disadvantages: The smell

...Oh how I love beauty products that have silly names. I just can’t resist buying them – my bathroom is full of them and Fresh! The Grapes of Froth Shower Gel is one of the latest. It is packaged in a 250ml flip top (or should that be bottom!) white opaque plastic bottle. It has a circular girly pink label on the front which co-ordinates with the actual colour of the gel – a lovely girly pink. When you flip the lid open you get a wiff of a sickly sweet fruity smell which is hard to describe and a smell that I really didn't find that appealing, but again very girly (probably too girly!), which envelops you as you rub it into your body. However, it doesn't cling for ages after a shower. On the packaging it says "An exciting explosion of grape extract to moisturise the skin. Massage The Grapes of Froth body wash onto wet skin... Read review

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