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Hack-O-Lantern (1988)
Hack-O-Lantern (1988)
1988 | Horror
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Hack-O-Lantern is a ride. It boasts a simple plot about a Satanic cult grooming a young boy all the way through adult hood to join their ranks, whilst his siblings just try to enjoy teenage life, and a maniac in a devil mask runs about town killing folk with a pitchfork, all on Halloween night. Standard slasher stuff, but with randomly thrown in music videos, strip teases, and belly dancing. The film even stops dead for a few minutes to show us a stand up comedy routine. It's really really odd.

The whole experience is ball achingly 80s, complete with questionable acting, awkward dialogue, passable gore effects, and an absolutely raging music score. All of the music just sounds like Final Fantasy battle music. It's incredible.

Hack-O-Lantern was aired as part of Joe Bob Briggs 2020 Halloween Special, and is worth a watch to gain some insight into why this films is so weird and disjointed, such as director Jag Mundhra speaking very little English accounting for some of the bizarre dialogue, and his Indian background explaining the out of place Bollywood elements sprinkled throughout. It's a pretty fascinating and quirky horror all in all.

If you're looking for a cheap, ridiculous, and absurd 80s horror, then this ticks all the right boxes.
  
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Jessica Simpson recommended The Book of Longings in Books (curated)

 
The Book of Longings
The Book of Longings
Sue Monk Kidd | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Growing up in a Southern Baptist home, I was hesitant to read a fictional account of Jesus’ adult life, his own family relations, and the introduction of a romantic relationship. I know the ending to this story, so what could I possibly learn? However, my curiosity got the best of me, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved how the author humanized Jesus in a way I hadn’t seen him described before. I knew about his adoration for his mother, his intense sense of responsibility and his steadfast purpose, but I had never considered the down to earth humanity within those qualities: the love of laughter, warm interpersonal connections with siblings, and day-to-day decision-making. The other fascinating character was, of course, his love interest Ana. You see Jesus through this strong, feisty woman’s eyes and cannot help but weep with her when she loses her greatest love. As this historical moment that I had faithfully studied for all of my life unfolded, I was so involved in the story that I forgot everything aside from the passion, love and sacrifice these two figures shared. Sue Monk Kidd provides the ultimate gift that any writer has to offer their reader: the ability to climb inside the hearts and minds of her characters, feel their pain and celebrate their love. What an experience."

Source
  
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Aimee Bender | 2010 | Fiction & Poetry
6
7.0 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
I loved the concept of this books and as soon as I heard about it I was intrigued and wanted to read it. I read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake in a couple of days, which with 3 children rarely happens, so I continued to find it intriguing and compelling throughout.

However, I found the narrative elusive and shadowy which was often frustrating. Whilst I understand that Bender was creating a narrative largely written from the perspective of a child, from whom many things were hidden and secret, I still found that as a reader you were constantly trying to grasp what she was describing and failing. I found this made the book less plausible and destroyed the intrigue turning it into annoying gameplay.

I have read other novels with narratives from the perspective of a child such as The Earth Hums in B Flat, The Book Thief, Mister Pip, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Room etc and found these all to be written far more skillfully than Bender manages here. It is an art to realistically write through the eyes of a child but reveal things to an adult reader through the child's naive perspective of the world. If this is failed to be achieved it can leave the reader feeling frustrated and disillusioned through being led on a journey that is over-constructed and inauthentic.
  
My Arms Will Hold You Tight
My Arms Will Hold You Tight
Crystal Bowman, Teri McKinley | 2021 | Children
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Have you been looking for a book that you could give your child or grandchild or read to when they are born to toddler age? Though they could never need to outgrow it. Well, “My Arms Will Hold You Tight” by Crystal Bowman, and Teri McKinley is a book to have on your little one bookshelves.

This book is adorable. I love the rhyming of the book. I felt the meaning and what this is all about as I was reading it. It is an excellent book for baby showers and gifts; You will be able to read this book to your little one from the time they are born and through years of their growth. The book shows how your loving arms are there for them throughout their happy times and sad times.

This book is great for grandparents and moms, and dads to tell their little ones how much love they have for them. This book shows an adult animal with its little one. The words describe what the pictures are offering, and it is sweet. I love the pictures.

Parents will want to read and reread this book to their little ones so much that their children will love it. Children will love having their little ones read to them and see that their loved ones hold them tight.
  
Colossal Youth by Young Marble Giants
Colossal Youth by Young Marble Giants
1980 | Indie, Pop, Punk
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"An incredible record that sounds as modern today as it did when it first emerged. I was really struck just by this minimalist production and the atmosphere they captured on this record. It's just been one of these records that I go back to over and over again and it's been a real touchstone in my career. I just think it's so beautiful and so tastefully constructed. Again, it's also so unique. There's nobody else who has ever touched them. 

 They've made this insanely perfect record – and I rarely say that, that it is a perfect record – and I associate it with the emergence of myself as an adult where it just felt like a whole different universe than what I had experienced before. It sounded like a whole different planet. 

 I don't even know how to articulate why I love it so much, other than it is a perfect recording. I guess the aesthetic of Colossal Youth is that it is so disciplined. You don't really hear that very often, that real confidence just to let things be really simple and unembellished: it takes a lot of balls to do that [laughs]. I feel too that any new generation that was exposed to that record would find it as thrilling as I did back in the 1980s; you can't really say that about too many records."

Source
  
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Adam Silvera recommended My Sister Rosa in Books (curated)

 
My Sister Rosa
My Sister Rosa
Justine Larbalestier | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry, Young Adult (YA)
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"This is one of my favorite books of 2016 and I will continue talking it up at all my future events. The majority of thrillers I read are on the adult side, and I'll tell you now that although MY SISTER ROSA is so different content-wise from GONE GIRL/THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, it's equally addicting. When the premise of a book is a 17-year-old is trying to protect from the world from his 10-year-old psychopathic sister, you just know there's no happily ever after to expect. I knew it was going to be dark, but I didn't anticipate how haunting it is. It fits the book 100% and I loved it. And no spoilers, but the twist completely stunned me. I pride myself on figuring out the major twist of GONE GIRL before reading a single chapter, but the twist in MY SISTER ROSA completely GUTTED me. And it's an excellent twist because once all was revealed, EVERYTHING made sense. It didn't come out of left field, it didn't have me feeling cheated to the point where I would've felt obligated to reread it all to appreciate the twist. Everything is there. Maybe you'll figure it out beforehand. Maybe you won't. But the experience of reading about Rosa--the most terrifying 10-year-old in the universe--remains completely absorbing."

Source
  
The Karate Kid Part II (1986)
The Karate Kid Part II (1986)
1986 | Action, Comedy, Family
This isn't a tournament...
I've only recently just finished watching the actually quite good The Karate Kid spin off (featuring the same characters, 30 years later) on Netflix.

The reason I mention this?

Because the final episode of Season 2 teases Daniel returning to Okinawa, when he wistfully rediscovers/looks at a book about the history of that location.

It's the same book as in this film (he's reading it on the plane), which I'd never actually seen before.

The plot, basically, is that Daniel accompanies Mr Miyaga back to his ancestral homeland of Okinawa when the latter receives a letter saying his father is dying, 6 months after his (Daniels) victory at the All Valley Karate tournament - the film actually picks up directly here, with Kreese attacking Johnny Lawrence (one of the two main adult characters in Cobra Kai). It transpires that Mr Miyaga left to avoid a fight with his best friend, who had an arranged marriage to Mr Miyaga's love. Said friend still holds a grudge, with his nephew starting to pick on Daniel as a foreigner. As in the first, this ends with a Karate fight, but here the stakes are raised considerably with said fight more brutal than in the first film (but not as brutal as in the season 2 finale of Cobra Kai).
  
I Can Handle It! (Mindful Mantra #1)
I Can Handle It! (Mindful Mantra #1)
Laurie Wright | 2016 | Children, Health & Fitness
10
10.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I found another good book. This one is to help with your mental health. Though it is for children. The adult may enjoy it as well. It has a Mindful Mantra that may help you or your child or children how to handle tricky situations. It is called “I Can Handle It!”

This book is a good read and teaches you how to handle some situations that you may end up in your children. It deals with some different emotions that everyone goes through. It is easy to read. Parents will want this to read to their children to help with improving their confidence.

This will help your child or children with difficult emotions and with some of their problems. This book may have some ideas to help them to deal with some of the problems that they may have. The pictures are done well. It was written well.

Parents can read this to their child or children. They will learn to practice these Mantas or saying I Can Handle it as they read it. They will have this to fall back on after they read and reread this book. It is a wonderful teachable book. I enjoy the pictures. They show off some things that we can do to solve some of our emotions that are hard to express or deal with.