[Entry 002] Two Book Reviews

These are from earlier this year. New reviews and other content should be posted as I write things.

Title: Simply Handwriting Analysis
Author: Eve Bingham
Genre: Body/Mind/Spirit, Graphology
Plot Summary: [from the back cover]

What can you learn from someone's handwriting? Want to know if a person pays attention to detail? Is afraid to get involved in a relationship? Just look at the marks someone makes on a page. Eve Bingham shows you how to interpret handwriting samples to learn more about anyone's personality or life. Look for meaning in the size of the script, the slant of the characters, and more. Sometimes words do speak louder than actions, and soon you'll be able to analyze them to find out how.

My Thoughts:

The book started off well enough, showing different areas handwriting (margins, spacing, etc.) and listing positive and negative aspects of a variety of different traits found with the areas, but it started tapering off after the first couple of chapters. At times the analysis was very skimpy and often consisted of a sentence or two giving a personality trait a person who did this or that might possibly have. It didn't go into why this was so, or even into an in depth analysis. At the end, it gives a bit of in depth analysis on two samples of handwriting, but there was no explanation as to why certain traits meant certain things, and I was left lacking the information I had hoped for.

There are also a few editing and formatting errors (using the incorrect font size/colour for some headers, obviously using the wrong picture/caption pairing in a few places) that gave the book an amateurish feel. The book is image heavy, so this subtracted from the overall quality a bit.

Overall, the book is a good introduction to handwriting analysis, but it could have gone a bit more in depth and stayed constant, because I really liked the beginning of it, but my interest waned near the end because of how the information given lowered from what it had previously been. The use of pictures is something that I really liked, as you kind of need them with a subject such as this.

Rating: 3/5

Title: The Gun seller
Author: Hugh Laurie
Genre: Humour
Plot Summary: [from Amazon.com]

British actor and comedian Hugh Laurie's first book is a spot-on spy spoof about hapless ex-soldier Thomas Lang, who is drawn unwittingly and unwillingly into the center of a dangerous James Bond-like plot of international terrorists, arms dealing, high-tech weapons, and CIA spooks. You may recall having seen Laurie in the English television series Jeeves and Wooster; Laurie played Bertie Wooster, the clutzy hero of the P.G. Wodehouse comic novels that originated those characters. The lineage from Wodehouse's Wooster to Laurie's Lang is clear, and, if you like Wodehouse, you'll probably love The Gun Seller.

My Thoughts:

I'm a huge Hugh Laurie fan, so I'm a bit partial to anything the man does, but I totally adored this book. It starts off right in the middle of a fight, right in the centre of the action, and it gains momentum from there. The plot twists are brilliant, and the overall plot is well thought out and developed in all the right ways. The novel is funny in places, grim in others, action-packed, and even got me a bit misty-eyed in others.

The main character, Thomas Lang, is an ass at times, and other times he's hilarious, and yet other times he is able to make you feel sorry for him. He obviously isn't your run-of-the-mill 'good guy', but you don't hate him, and he keeps you interested in the story. Solomon was one of my favourite characters, because of his strong contrast with Lang's personality and how the two interacted. The variety of people Lang encounters also helps move the story along, and the difference's in personality between amoung the cast is something I love.

Overall, I am in love with this novel and only ever put it down when I was forced to do so. It makes you think while making you laugh, and that is a quality I love to see in most anything. I honestly have nothing but praise for it. Hugh Laurie is a ridiculously talented man. If you're a fan, this is a must-read, but even if you're not, I'd definitely recommend it to anyone.

Rating: 5/5