Playin' Guts Ball :

Rating:
Summary: Attention Baby Boomers
Review: A book you'll pick up and relive the era! The memories of college years, demostrations, first experiences, first love, deception . Main character very discriptive of self, you really form a bond with the character in exciting love affairs, anti-war demostrations, on the run, entertaining escapades and humor. How does he survive all this! Ending great! Who would think that happened?! Main character a real trip, you'll enjoy him. A book that you Baby Boomers will enjoy and bring back the memories. Could visualize it on the screen! Have as much enjoyment reading this book as I have!

Rating:
Summary: Been High So Long
Review: Charles Reisen has rummaged back into the sixties and seventies to write a surprisingly intelligent and stylish novel about a thinly disguised himself version of himself. A must read for class of '67 Columbia High School people who want to pick out what's recognizable from what is made up (just as we do with the Sopranos, where the Lincoln Tunnel is real but not the route through Elizabeth to Verona). I particularly like the description of medical school in Dublin in the 70's, where the local girls would say they needed some coffee to go to sleep, but the insider's account of the '68 Chicago riots also has the ring of truth. There's a touch of Richard Farina in the Cornell portions and a bit of Philip Roth in the old neighborhoods of Essex Country. Much distress to this reader when the hero Carl is murdered by an envious writer. Reisen is surprisingly good on the politics of the era, from the wise guys at SDS to the hoodlums of the IRA. Check it out.

Rating:
Summary: Just Peachy! ; )
Review: Congratulations, Doctor, it's a book!

I enjoyed every page. It really brought me back to the good old days.

I can hardly wait for the next one!




Rating:
Summary: Fascinating chronicle of the sixties....
Review: I started the book and it took awhile to get into it. But its very detailed descriptions of the hero's life in the turbulent sixties grabbed me, as well as the underlying emotions of the women in love with him. The plot is a little bit difficult to grasp at first, but it still moves along. All in all, a fascinating read, particularly for people who came of age in that era.

Rating:
Summary: Attention Baby Boomers
Review: This book is an interesting combination of 60's memoir and murder mystery. There are some fine set pieces, both comic and dramatic, about the 60's protest movement, college and music scenes. It's a period I was just a few years too young to experience, and the author makes me sorry about that. The writing was good, and the comic-mystery aspect entertaining. I would have preferred a little more of the mystery plot and a few less digressions. Overall, very enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: 60's revisited
Review: This book is an interesting combination of 60's memoir and murder mystery. There are some fine set pieces, both comic and dramatic, about the 60's protest movement, college and music scenes. It's a period I was just a few years too young to experience, and the author makes me sorry about that. The writing was good, and the comic-mystery aspect entertaining. I would have preferred a little more of the mystery plot and a few less digressions. Overall, very enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating chronicle of the sixties....
Review: Unless you are a neonatologist from Dublin forget about this book. It is a stream of concsiousness rambling autobiography of EVERY detail of one person's perhaps exciting life. It requires megadoses of caffeine (or cocaine?) to keep up with the dialogue. Plot line? There is none. Some sentences and even paragraphs are interesting but so far buried in forgettable minutiae that it is barely worth the time. Many physicians feel so entitled that they want to think us mere mortals hang on their every word....we DO NOT!

Rating:
Summary: Physician-Writer :Heal Thyself
Review: Unless you are a neonatologist from Dublin forget about this book. It is a stream of concsiousness rambling autobiography of EVERY detail of one person's perhaps exciting life. It requires megadoses of caffeine (or cocaine?) to keep up with the dialogue. Plot line? There is none. Some sentences and even paragraphs are interesting but so far buried in forgettable minutiae that it is barely worth the time. Many physicians feel so entitled that they want to think us mere mortals hang on their every word....we DO NOT!