Generally As Shallow As A Puddle Of Mud!
344564
Before I begin this review, I shamelessly admit to being a full-fledged Paris Hilton hater. After all, she epitomizes blonde stupidity, symbolizes Pop media superficiality, sleeps around with every money-loaded man in sight, lacks any sort of substantial acting skills, borrows cash from her seemingly irresponsible parents, kicks pet animals to the curb & perfectly fits in with the phrase "self-absorbed man-eater". However, I decided to take a chance & check Paris Hilton's half-self-titled debut out, simply because people like Lindsay Lohan & Jamie Foxx proved that some actors & actresses do have some level of music talent. Not that Paris Hilton was a good actress in the first place, but I was hoping for something that'd leave a lasting impression. Sadly, this god-awful money-snatching project doesn't.

From the raunchy, Scott Storch-produced album opener "Turn It Up" -a dirty-minded club banger made up of standard synthesizers, sexual lyrics, heavy bass, moody violins, fake sex orgasm noises & suggestive, cat-like vocal purrs- to the decent Rod Stewart cover "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?", Paris' shallow personality & extremely bitter ego run uncontrollably rampant. The Hip-Hop-inflect pop of "Fighting Over Me", however, epitomizes Paris Hilton's self-absorbed persona with egotistical lyrics over sub-par production. Fat Joe and Jadakiss also feature together on the aforementioned track, dropping some of the weakest verses of their careers. Honestly, two of Hip-Hop's big rappers are competing for one of the physically hottest blondes on the planet, and that's the best the both of you can do? I was especially disappointed in Jadakiss, you usually guarantees a dope 16 bars, but unfortunately, fails to do so this time around.

Perhaps the album's only saving grace comes in the stellar pop-rock gem "Jealousy", an obvious ode to former best pal Nicole Richie. Lyrically, "Jealousy" is spectacularly profound. Musically, "Jealousy" is great with those catchy guitar riffs. Vocally? PROBLEM, PROBLEM!! Rather than sounding like an emotionally charged, truly concerned friend wondering what went wrong, Paris Hilton sounds more like a conniving witch unquestionably content with watching her ex-best friend suffer. Judging by her portrayal in the media, Paris Hilton probably is. Nonetheless, "Jealousy" remains to be the album's best track, simply because there's actual substance that breaks out from the normal.

Ultimately, this is a huge disappointment! The only reason I give "Paris" 1 star is not because Amazon won't let me give it NO stars, but because this is great party music. After all, the only thing club music requires is a good beat, and whether it be the summery reggae-pop of lead single "Stars Are Blind", the mesmerising disco of "Heartbeat" or the catchy pop-rock of "Screwed" & "Jealousy", the production on this album is wonderful. You can mainly thank Scott Storch for most of the production honours, since he produced most of this album.

However, "Paris" fails to consistently deliver vocally or lyrically. Oh well, better luck next time (if there is a next time, which hopefully won't be the case).
1606491
This novel is like a parody of a suspense novel, bland and unsuspenseful.
After wading through 200 pages of so called character development I was still marveling at the lack of depth that the author manages. Especially Dan, the antagonist. There is absolutly no indication in his personality that he is capable of his crimes. There is vrtually no connection between the Dan of the first half and the second.
So maybe the author was trying to surprise us with this guy's character flaw, but half the fun of reading this type of story is the marvelous sense of forboding that can be developed and which can keep you looking back at the beginning for clues to the dissolution.
But we get none of that here. Nice guy one minute, terrorist the next. So Dan has some issues with his first wife, how exactly does that lead to his need to kidnap?
And are we to believe that the so called strong, independant Leigh really wants to marry a guy who calls her "my little trollop" and other sexist inanities?
The portrayal of New York City aristocrats is shallow. It seems mearly to give the characters the free time to play out the events of the novel.
The ending is totally ridiculous. After raping, beating, torturing and otherwise abusing Leigh she turns around and forgives the guy, doesn't tell the police, and starts hangin with his daughter? Come on.
I suspect that this is a basic bodice buster romance novel trying to make a leap into a serious subject, but fails.
2194222
I loved Ralph's Party so of course I had to read this sophmore effort. Talk about your sophmore slumps! Obvious from the beginning but worse yet not an enjoyable journey to the inevitable. Dig and Nadine weren't even likable characters, their machinations were predictable and the plot thin, if not implausible. I didn't enjoy the long flashbacks, I found them disruptive. Glimpses of their teenage years with more adult reflection would have been more effective. The major plot device that brought about the conclusion is just plain hackneyed.
Read Ralph's Party, skip this one and hopefully her next book will be as good as the first!
1243366
This is Dr. Benjamin's attempt to match a much better book by Prof. Roger Shinn which he had his students read called "Wars and Rumors of War".
It is shockingly shallow and unreflective for an emeritus college professor. He makes many points that might have been come from the mind of
Rush Limbaugh, then proceeds to contradict himself at further points in the text.
One example: He complains that during the 1930s, there was very little respect for the US military. In one port city with a naval base, (Seattle?)
residents put out signs warning dogs and sailors from walking on their front lawns. This for him was the supreme insult.
Well, later in the book, he relates how he enlisted in the Navy Air Corps training in the closing days of World War II, but ended up as a
miitary policeman when the war ended. He tells of having to deal with trainloads of drunken rowdy sailors being transferred from one point
to another. He seems to indicate that he broke a sailor's nose in one incident trying to keep order on a train.
Doesn't he realize that Seattle residents were fed up with drunken, rowdy sailors a decade earlier?
As he reflects on World War II, he gives the reader such bromides as "Our boys stopped Hitler" when any serious student of the conflict
knows that Russian "boys" deserve most of the credit for the defeat of Nazi Germany. Dr. Benjamin needs to do extensive reading about
the subject. I recommend books by Paul Fussel for anyone with romantic notions about our involvement in that war.
He describes several Vietnam War anecdotes told to him by ex-soldiers who attended his classes in the 1970's about how terrible the
Viet Cong were, and later in the book admits that the real villains were the American statesmen who got us involved in the war.
He is at his worst when reflecting on the atomic bombs we used to end the war. He says that the aggressive economic policies of
Japan after the war to promote their exports have done more damage than our use of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki !
494377
Well...  I am thoroughly disappointed. After hours of playing, this game essentially boils down to this: look for materials to stay alive and fly your ship.  There is no tangible story to hook on to, so, once the awe factor (in other words, the "honey moon stage") wears off, you'll soon discover how shallow this game actually is.  After playing for hours and still not encountering an overall, overarching purpose to this game, I can't even fathom bringing myself to start this game up again.  It's an incredibly big world (infinite to be exact), but in regards to content, it's as shallow as a kiddie pool.  Gathering resources in the form of food and water to stay alive is what I do on a day on a day basis...I don't need a space simulator to give me an opportunity to do this again in a virtual world (albeit, the resources aren't as basic as food and water).  The idea of a procedurally generated world is an amazing concept and a wonderful technical marvel, but it is not something that should make you purchase this game.  Save your money.  I'm returning my copy.
2062732
Boring!!! Unrelistic Characters! Foul Language!
The blurb sounded interesting and it was free so I downloaded it.  But it is not worth my time to read a book this worthless!
2522570
I had high hopes based on the synopsis, but unfortunately it turned out to be a shallow ridiculous story with pointless vulgarity (although to be honest I hardly ever find a point to adding vulgar descriptions to a story). If you like the dumb and dumber or similar slapstick movies, you'll probably enjoy this. Otherwise it was a waste of my time and $2.99.
3134328
First of all, I did read the whole novel. Second, I'm an old sci-fi reader in English and Spanish (Isaac Asimov, Cyril Kornbluth, Jorge Luis Borges, etc). And third, probably my standards are too high. That said, this book screams "Written for selling" and "Sequel coming". It's shallow overall. Characteres don't develop, the story has no defined path and descriptions are like in a documentary. I felt like it was conceived to read it intermittenly while sitting on the beach listening music and talking to your friends. Honestly, I was dessapointed by the good reviews. One positive thing, it is an effective way to kill time in case that you have nothing better to read.
4946302
Petty, shallow characters living lives that are not worth the 99 cents i paid for this book.  Why its a classic is beyond  me.  What an insult to womanhood.
1482133
Like many, I love Hollywood dirt, especially when the theme is gay, but this monstrosity is one of the most poorly written examples of the printed word I've ever seen. Was Mr. Porter unable to secure the support of an editor? This mess could be hacked down to half its size and still be too long. It's a shallow, dull, embarassment and several times during this grueling read, I honestly feared for Mr. Porter's sanity. With such richness of source material it's hard to conceive that such a narrow, unimaginative product would see publication, even by one's own vanity press. Ugh.
2422006
This book is such a quick read, it's apparent it was put together with cinema in mind.  The characters are so thinly developed, they have no substance or impact on the story.
As a reader of just about all his novels, this is the most disappointing of all.  However, as a reader of just about all his novels, he still got my $$$!
317451
This was just plain sappy! The 'alien' is just a hen-pecked excuse that exhibited no originality. The whole story is written so everybody is holding hands and skipping. Been there, done that!
3854909
This book is as useless as a squirt of duck poop!
1009141
It works hence the two stars but looks like they found it in a mud puddle....dirt everywhere. I should have returned it but ultimately it's my fault..... you get what you pay for, and nothing more.
2352645
Completely underwhelming. I can't believe George Miller gave his blessing on this comic. Adds absolutely nothing to the movie or whatever it adds is at the very shallow end. Such a good opportunity to give some deeper perspective on Miller's universe and it's wasted on a few pages of uninteresting tidbits here. I was expecting more on Furiosa, how did she lose her arm? How did she rose through the ranks? How did her mother die or the downfall of the Green Place with Many Mothers... If not, then give me a deeper cut on wives or their teacher, none of it. Shallow crap.
466276
Trite and shallow. Reads like a bad soap opera. Trite and shallow. Reads like a bad soap opera .  Pretty bad
4348800
If "The Castle of Otranto" were *only* a predictable-yet-ridiculous, overwrought mass of goo -- a narrative devoid of delight, pacing, or any discernible reason to care about it -- I would not be writing this review.  But it is also a frigid travesty of the English language, an abomination of unnatural phrases.

I shudder to think that anyone would deem this book more than a greasy stain upon the annals of English literature, supposing its faults to be just the pitfalls of its period, the charming traits of a world whose sentiment and taste have grown alien to modern readers.  No!  For God's sake, man, this was the same decade that saw "Tristram Shandy," the same year as Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare!  I made the mistake of coming to "Otranto" right after treating myself to an 18th century novel in French.  Walpole has managed to copy from his French contemporaries many words, prepositional expressions, etc., that have no place in the English tongue, but nothing of their grace, intelligence, or ability to fashion a story and a style.

Finally, what is going on with the Oxford World's Classics?  This edition thinks you want an asterisk and an endnote to inform you that "brazen" means "brass."  (It is interesting to see that Oxford imagines the readers of this text -- presumably English lit grad students -- as less literate than those who might pick up the World's Classics edition of, say, "Leaves of Grass," where you wouldn't find the help you might need.)

Two stars instead of one because it's just ludicrous enough a trainwreck to be very mildly diverting, and because its occasional lapses into competent fiction seem more pleasing after wading through the muck.

"This is more than fancy, said the marquis; her terror is too natural and too strongly impressed to be the work of imagination."  You wish, Horace.