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.Too Much Tuscan Sun: Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide (Insiders' Guides)

by: Dario Castagno, Robert Rodi

September 01, 2004
Such a great read. It makes me want to go back to Tuscany and take a tour with him.
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.A Day in Tuscany: More Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide

by: Dario Castagno, Robert Rodi

June 01, 2007
If you read Dario Castagno's first book, Too Much Tuscan Sun, this one may come as a surprise. It's a fanciful but thoughtful "day in the life" as compared to his previous tour guide stories, which were funny but occasionally very unflattering regarding some of his clients. This time we see another side of life in the Chianti countryside, with endearing tales both old and new, of the inhabitants. A lovely bit of writing and remembrances by this proud member of the Bruco contrada.

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.The Mirror of Love

by: Alan Moore, Jose Villarrubia, Robert Rodi, David Drake

June 09, 2004
While the focus of this work is on gay, lesbian, and bisexual history, ultimately it is an epic poem about Love itself. It is Love's journey from the beginnings of pre-history, to ancient Sumer in the Middle-East, ancient Greece and Rome, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, the Victorian Age, WWI, and WWII all the way to the present day.

It is complimented by Jose Villarrubia's colourful, often stark and always beautiful photography to hit home the vibrant, difficult and often brutal journey of Eros throughout the ages of humankind. It celebrates the sexual, and the sensual, and provides a journey across the surface of homosexual and bisexual history and culture -- in particular key events that have shaped these unique experiences.
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.Astonishing X-Men: Rogue, Vol. 1 - Going Rogue

by: Robert Rodi, Cliff Richards

March 09, 2005
Rogue is one of those X-Men characters that is well-loved by the fans, so it's not surprising that Marvel finally did a Rogue mini-series. What is surprising is how lackluster that resulting story is. Rather than focus on what makes Rogue unique in the mutant pantheon--her ability to absorb memories by at a dangerous cost--writer Robert Rodi instead decides to investigate her background. This involves her going back to her southern home, lured there by a local emergency, then met by mysterious man who is unaffected by her powers. Unfortunately, the reason he is unaffected, and the background story itself, becomes increasingly divorced from reality which destroys the inherent pathos that is integral to Rogue's character (i.e., her desire to be able to touch ... Read More:
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.Kept Boy

by: Robert Rodi

November 01, 1997
Overall, I have enjoyed Robert Rodi's novels tremendously. I've read them all except for the Birdcage novelization, and I will continue to read his works. My favorite is probably Closet Case, but they're all good. Of all of them, I enjoyed Kept Boy the least. If you've read any of Rodi's other novels, Kept Boy basically delivers the same type of thing. I think what killed Kept Boy for me is the main character. For the story to succeed, the protagonist needs to be likeable, and Rodi never manages to make this happen - at least in my opinion. As a result, I had to read about someone I didn't care for, and I even had to put up with this person receiving a very undeserved happy ending. Anyway, I don't mean to sound as if I flat-out disliked the book. Even the least ... Read More:
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.Sheena Queen Of The Jungle Volume 1 (Sheena)

by: Robert Rodi, Matt Merhoff

June 04, 2008
Overall, I have enjoyed Robert Rodi's novels tremendously. I've read them all except for the Birdcage novelization, and I will continue to read his works. My favorite is probably Closet Case, but they're all good. Of all of them, I enjoyed Kept Boy the least. If you've read any of Rodi's other novels, Kept Boy basically delivers the same type of thing. I think what killed Kept Boy for me is the main character. For the story to succeed, the protagonist needs to be likeable, and Rodi never manages to make this happen - at least in my opinion. As a result, I had to read about someone I didn't care for, and I even had to put up with this person receiving a very undeserved happy ending. Anyway, I don't mean to sound as if I flat-out disliked the book. Even the least ... Read More:
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.When You Were Me

by: Robert Rodi

June 01, 2007
Rodi is back with his new novel after quite a break but he brings back all the good and bad parts of his writing. He is witty and funny, he is able to make a head start but then... it doesn't all go on that well. His characters are not always convincing, the story line depends too much on coincidence and magic (Yes, I know you can't switch bodies without magic but it can be done better! At least in books.) to be credible. Social criticism is quite shallow here and I missed strong women (and not so strong women) from the earlier novels.
In short - not exactly a must-have and if you are still in love with Fag Hag and Kept Boy it may be something of a disappointment but you won't know until you've tried. If this is the first Rodi the purchase of which you are contemplating, ... Read More:
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.Fag Hag (Plume Fiction)

by: Robert Rodi

January 01, 1993
No one seems to mention how Natalie takes in a little Black girl to raise as part of conquering her suburban blues. That very act alone and the stereotypes are insulting. Or perhaps thsi is how White people think ALL people who are Black would be? I doubt it but thats the first major flaw.
The second is the lack of depth Peter shows to Natalie. i fthey were totally together and he was a shave dumber you could understand all of her manipulations working. But him having some smarts makes everything seem like a set-up for her insanity which is ultimately contrived and silly. She suddenly gets money when she needs to bug his place, her kidnapping and imprisonment of Peter and Lloyd's militia rescue...all a bit trite.
Lets not even touch the wilding Latino gang that she ... Read More:
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.What They Did to Princess Paragon: 2

by: Robert Rodi

May 01, 1994
What They Did to Princess Paragon is a fun read. It is primarily comedy with a wit somewhere between a Kevin Smith movie, an episode of Fawlty Towers, with perhaps a shade of Seinfeld.

Other reviewers have made the criticism that one of the protagonists, Jerome Kornacker, is a cliched stereotype of the hapless geeky comic fanboy, and granted, Rodi walks the fine line between stereotype and caracature here. However, given that nearly all of the remaining cast are caracatures (often, amalgamated characatures of actual people), I think it more likely to assume that caracature is the author's intent. Further, Rodi simply knows too much about the personalities and trends of the comics world that he is satarizing to believe that he has written the character of Jerome "from ... Read More:
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.Closet Case

by: Robert Rodi

May 01, 1994
This novel's great. It's easy to read and with the right combination of humor, stress, sex and romance.
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