I picked this up to get a better understanding of U.S. history and politics, and I was also hoping for interesting anecdotes. While there were a lot of cold hard facts about dates and laws and firsts and wars, the anecdotes and little details that help you see our presidents as real people were few and far between.

I was also annoyed by what I see as a major omission. There is no mention of the one day gap between Presidents Polk and Taylor, which caused all sorts of confusion about whether or not David Rice Atchison was president for a day. I mean, c’mon- that at least deserved a sidebar.

I heard about this movie in- of all things- an American Girl book, and was surprised to find it had not been released on DVD. My local library had a VHS copy that I checked out, and as I watched it, I was still puzzled. Why no DVD? It’s Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, fer cryin’ out loud!

Then they went to South America. And met the tribe of voodoo-praticing possibly-cannibal natives who were persuaded to cancel a human sacrifice by a white man’s use of film technology “magic.” And I went: “Ohhhhh. That’s probably why it’s not out on DVD.”

[That, and perhaps the little Chinese girl whose biggest line was “Give me nickel, give me dime!” which was thankfully NOT followed by any form of “Me love you long time.” Seeing as she was something like seven-years-old.]

I think I saw this movie before when it was called Mallrats.

Of the several Chaplin biographies I’ve read, this was the most sensationalistic and superficial. It was entertaining, sure, but not very accurate.

While good at writing Brass, and, surprisingly, Greg, Mr. Collins is crap at writing Grissom. He also included way too much introductory information on the characters from the show that dragged down the pace of the first couple chapters and made it read like a Young Adult novelization with swear words. (We all know Grissom is a CSI Supervisor, that Nick’s hair is dark, and that Catherine used to be a stripper. Anyone who doesn’t know probably wouldn’t be picking up the book.) Add in a serial killer with several eye-roll-worthy similarities to BTK, plus even more instances than in the TV show of the team doing things that police officers and detectives really ought to be doing, and I was left wondering why I was wasting my time reading when I could be catching a few good reruns on SpikeTV.

I love fishes, ‘cause they’re sooooo delicious.

The topic is plenty interesting and well done, but the author annoyingly insists on writing the word “effects” as “FX.” Special FX, computer FX, sound FX, blood FX, personal FX…

Then there’s the gross overuse of the giggle-inducing word “titular.”

Still. Good guide book for the horror film beginner.

Ice cream + mocchi = love.

This just may be the best book ever written.

Fabulous reference source, but dull as tombs if you try to read it cover-to-cover. Not worth consuming, but definitely worth having on the shelf.