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Alicia (13 KP) rated Morning Star in Books
May 24, 2017
Curtis Harmon (1 KP) rated Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) in Movies
Jun 4, 2020
Attention to detail (7 more)
Cast
Style
comedic timing
quotable
Edgar Wright
Anna Kendrick
pop culture references
Most of the characters are bad people, but that's the point of the movie (1 more)
polarizing to people who didn't grow up in the '80s or '90s
My personal favorite movie
Sam (228 KP) rated Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom in Books
Sep 24, 2019
Beautiful Imagery (1 more)
Outside Sources to Poetry
Repetitive (1 more)
Religious connotations
Good Advice, I guess
I was so close to loving this book when I first opened it. However, this ended after I got to page three, while this is advertised as a book of celtic wisdom I found instead the multiple turns back to christianity. Specifically the author's own views towards christianity. While I believed that I was finding a book about Celtic wisdom, history, and culture; I found instead a story of a christian missionary who had done some research and was putting together a past look at what wisdom could be drawn from the Celtic culture. The wisdom is beautifully written but if you're looking for a book specifically about Celtic culture, history, beliefs or anything of the sort this is not the book for you.
Books Editor (673 KP) created a video about Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women in Books
Oct 11, 2017
Milezee Movies (2 KP) rated Ready Player One (2018) in Movies
May 21, 2019
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Rebel of the Sands in Books
May 19, 2018 (Updated May 19, 2018)
Amani is a girl in a country that doesn't value women, and treats them as useless property only good for breeding sons. The country is basically occupied by another country that the Sultan is "allied" with, but lets run roughshod over his people. She has her sights set on escaping her backwoods, dead-end town, and running to the capital city, where the aunt she's never met lives. All of that is derailed when she meets Jin at an underground shooting competition, and then later hides him from the armed forces hunting him.
The country is definitely middle-east inspired, but there's a lot of religion-bashing, and complaining about the culture oppressing women. It's the same problem I have with a lot of knight-and-castle era fantasy - just because historically in OUR world those time periods weren't kind to women, doesn't mean they have to be the same in fantasy. It's FANTASY! It can be anything you want! Break the tropes! It's a fine line to walk, taking the good parts of a culture without just cherry-picking and appropriating the culture, and who's judging what the good and bad parts are, anyway? So I understand it's difficult, but bashing the culture in a book inspired by their mythology is not quite cool, either. I feel like City of Brass, another fantasy book set in the middle east, hit a better middle ground of embracing the culture of the inspiration without bashing parts of it.
That gripe aside, I really enjoyed the world-building. I'm not quite sold on the characters yet - Amani is far too quick to abandon things she should fight for - but I'm interested enough to see how they progress in the next two books.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
The country is definitely middle-east inspired, but there's a lot of religion-bashing, and complaining about the culture oppressing women. It's the same problem I have with a lot of knight-and-castle era fantasy - just because historically in OUR world those time periods weren't kind to women, doesn't mean they have to be the same in fantasy. It's FANTASY! It can be anything you want! Break the tropes! It's a fine line to walk, taking the good parts of a culture without just cherry-picking and appropriating the culture, and who's judging what the good and bad parts are, anyway? So I understand it's difficult, but bashing the culture in a book inspired by their mythology is not quite cool, either. I feel like City of Brass, another fantasy book set in the middle east, hit a better middle ground of embracing the culture of the inspiration without bashing parts of it.
That gripe aside, I really enjoyed the world-building. I'm not quite sold on the characters yet - Amani is far too quick to abandon things she should fight for - but I'm interested enough to see how they progress in the next two books.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
Griffin Dunne recommended Ace in the Hole (The Big Carnival) (1951) in Movies (curated)
meg (46 KP) rated Ready Player One in Books
Apr 19, 2019
Contains spoilers, click to show
This book was a really enjoyable read. There are a lot of references to 80s pop culture and need culture, which I'm not a big fan of, but I still really enjoyed reading. My major complaint is a major spoiler. The premise is that everyone is competing to inherit a virtual reality universe essentially. Like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but for a video game. There are a few main characters, and the main female is faster and smarter than the male who ends up winning, which I found frustrating. The book could have ended better if the female lead won, in my opinion. The ending was still good though.