Patrick W. Crabtree

I much enjoy writing reviews of books and classical music. This hobby keeps me busy and since it's a labor of love I’ve tried my darndest to finely hone the technique.

MY REVIEW SPECIALTIES: classical music (all periods, but especially the Romantic and Modern eras); classic rock music; Russian literature (pre-WWI); significant Civil Rights books; celebrity and historical figure biographies; pre-1940 world literature, including the American Masters; pre-1960 mysteries; Ancient Middle Eastern and sub-Saharan African anthropology; pre-WWII European history; 1950s nostalgia; scholarly world religion books; nature/science books; Amazon Vine books (my primary contemporary reading source); general and specialty cookbooks; BBC films and programs; B&W horror films; 1960s TV and films, and; gourmet food items.

I’ve discovered over time that truthfulness, and the cultivated ability to ignore criticism of my criticism is of the highest possible value -- I call them as I see them, (oh, once in a blue moon I cannot resist being noxiously unrestrained *.*) But even when the material does not personally appeal to me I still endeavor to glean out the respective value of any extant art as I scribe my summaries.

The majority of my review work is very upbeat. I think the chief foundation for this is due to an inclination towards those items which have initially appealed to me on some level. It’s only in those singular, atypical instances where the book, music, etc., runs notably afoul of my expectation and which in the end draws a one- or two-star rating. When an intuition of literary or musical compost arises, I endeavor to restrain my fervent human inclination to blast away and conversely enumerate specific reasons as to why the item of scrutiny fails to meet reasonable standards of quality. Review readers care not one whit about my several pet peeves – consumers universally desire clear facts which will support their own decision as to whether they’ll purchase a product or not.

Summarizing review work, I felt pleased and privileged to be selected by Amazon as an ABNA reviewer in 2009 and I’m proud to report that there are still some worthy writers out there!

To conclude these mundane topics and to now explore other personal quirks which are equally grueling…

I'm retired these days and now have little to do beyond firing my old Army .45, listening to classical music 24/7, and ceaselessly reading and writing. I also cook from scratch nearly every day, frequently developing new or novel recipes. (See and print out any of these culinary ideas [for free] at Recipezaar.com under my "Bone Man" profile – I’ve posted hundreds of recipes over there.)

Over the years I've taught at University, hacked out a weekly newspaper column for a time, served as a State Park Ranger, State Game Protector, Park Manager and as a Deputy U. S. Deputy Game Warden (THAT was fun!), and several times I even did MANUAL LABOR -- Ugh!!! Anyway, I eventually managed to nail down a couple of college degrees (hard science and social science, '73 and '97, respectively) during my two “academic periods”. My immediate family consists of my much-revered and infinitely tolerant wife, a charming daughter, two cherished grandchildren, a cheerful big brother, and vast numbers of delightful nieces and nephews.

MY “HUGE FAVORITES" - Powers Boothe; Fay Wray; Michael Richards; Vincent Price; John Russell; Bela Bartok; Alan Hovhaness; Leo Tolstoy; Dorothy L. Sayers; Arthur Upfield; Julia Child; James Beard; "Steppenwolf" (both the Hesse book and the classic rock band), and; "The Gadfly” by E.L. Voynich. I’m also exceptionally partial to both boullibaise and good pizza… but never together.