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Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life
Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life
Nina Stibbe | 2014 | Biography
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"This book is a series of letters that a young Nina wrote to her sister back home after she became the live-in babysitter for an astonishingly interesting London family in the 1980s. She’s hilarious about the goings on. And Alan Bennett was their friend and neighbor. ‘Nuff said."

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Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013)
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013)
2013 | Comedy
8
7.0 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
I have never really watched any of the Alan Partridge stuff although I do find Steve Coogan funny. This was on over Christmas and I recorded it, it sat for ages on the planner and then finally one evening I watched it, not expecting much. To my surprise I thought it was hilarious!
  
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Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Alan Wake in Video Games

Oct 31, 2019 (Updated Oct 31, 2019)  
Alan Wake
Alan Wake
Action/Adventure
Flash The Darkness Demons
Contains spoilers, click to show
Alan Wake- is one of those games that is highly underrated. It is a great game. It mixs horror with suspense with thrills with adventure and action.

The Plot: The story follows best-selling thriller novelist Alan Wake as he tries to uncover the mystery behind his wife's disappearance during a vacation in the small fictional town of Bright Falls, Washington, all while experiencing events from the plot in his latest novel, which he cannot remember writing, coming to life.

In its pacing and structure, Alan Wake is similar to a thriller television series, with episodes that contain plot twists and cliffhangers. The game itself consists of six episodes, and the storyline is continued by two special episodes, titled "The Signal" and "The Writer", that were made available as downloadable content (DLC) within the same year of the game's release. Together, they make the first season of a possibly longer story. Additionally, a six-episode live-action web series called Bright Falls acts as a prequel to the game, and a number of related books also expand upon the Alan Wake story.

Lets talk about the game: Alan Wake is described by Remedy as "the mind of a psychological thriller" and "the body of a cinematic action game" put together. In interviews, the game's creators hold that the game does not belong squarely in the survival horror video game genre.

The player controls the eponymous protagonist Alan Wake. In the game, a "darkness" is taking over humans, animals and objects. These enemies, dubbed the "Taken", are murderous shadows that attack Wake, wielding weapons of their own, ranging from.

The Taken are protected by a shield of darkness, initially rendering them impervious to attack; they can only be injured with a firearm after exposure to light, which burns the darkness away. This puts significant emphasis on flashlights in conjunction with conventional weapons, such as a revolver or shotgun. Flashlight beams act as a reticle.

The player is often encouraged to take advantage of environmental light sources and placing, and to use other light-based weapons and accessories, such as flare guns, hand-held flares and flashbangs.

So this game mixs survival with fantasy with reality with horror with suspense and so much more.

I would highly reecordmend playing this game.
  
The Desaturating Seven by Primus
The Desaturating Seven by Primus
2017 | Alternative, Rock
Fans have reason to be excited to have the original trio back in action. With a youthful creative spark tempered by years of experience, these sprawling, progressive compositions demonstrate songcraft beyond the great majority of their catalogue
Critic- Alan Ranta
Original Score: 7 out of 10

Read Review: http://exclaim.ca/music/article/primus-the_desaturating_seven
  
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Matthew Modine recommended Birdy in Books (curated)

 
Birdy
Birdy
William Wharton | 2012 | Fiction & Poetry, Romance
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Okay, yeah, I did play Birdy in the film directed by the always amazing Sir Alan Parker. If you saw the movie, you should read the book. The hypnotic magic of Wharton’s prose is pure poetry. After you read the book, watch, or re-watch the film and see how right we actually got it."

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Riding the Bullet (2004)
Riding the Bullet (2004)
2004 | Horror, Mystery
7
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Roller-Coaster
Riding The Bullet- is a underrated psychological horror thriller film based off of a stephen king novel.

The Plot: Ever since his father passed away, art student Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson) has been hypnotized by thoughts of death. After his girlfriend, Jessica (Erika Christensen), breaks up with him, Alan attempts suicide but is rescued by his friends. The next day, he learns that his mother (Barbara Hershey) has just had a serious stroke, and he sets out to hitchhike to her hospital. Along the way, he meets a series of strange people, including sinister George Staub (David Arquette), who may be Satan.

Its psychological, horrorfying, thrilling, chilling, spooky, terrorfying and super underrated.

I would highly reccordmend this movie.
  
Galaxy Quest (1999)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
1999 | Comedy, Sci-Fi
Alan Rickman (0 more)
This hilarious cast of an old sci-fi show, a knockoff Star Trek, end up in space, helping an alien race. I recently re-watched this, and I did still chuckle at it. Sam Rockwell's character's red shirt freakout was probably the best part of this. The whole cast was perfect as their characters.
  
The Spirit of Zen: A Way of Life, Work and Art in the Far East
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Oh, sparkling Alan Watts. What I remember most clearly from this book is that all words — the book itself — is only a guide, like a boat, to help you cross the river. Don’t mistake the book for the way across. All books are a boat. Zen is life itself sewn into the fabric of daily existence."

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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
2017 | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Contains spoilers, click to show
I was really dubious about this film, being a massive fan of the Robin Williams film, but it did impress me. I really liked this twist on how the game alters for the generation. I do wonder how they would continue it if they felt the need to do another though. I'm also curious how many younger people got the Alan Parish reference.
  
Blue Monday (Frieda Klein, #1)
Blue Monday (Frieda Klein, #1)
8
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I probably would have given this book 5 stars if I would have read it first. I would recommend that anyone who is interested in reading these books would start here with Blue Monday. I read [b:Tuesday's Gone|13613568|Tuesday's Gone (Frieda Klein, #2)|Nicci French|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1335652266s/13613568.jpg|19213552] first, so when I was reading this book, I just wanted to get to the end since I knew what was coming.
Freida Klein is a psychotherapist in London. Her main focus is to help her patients. She is also a very private person and letting people into her life is very difficult for her. She has a boyfriend who hasn't even been to her apartment.
When Freida agrees to take on Alan Dekker as a patient, he tells her about dreams and fantasies he has been having that are keeping him awake at night and affecting his relationship with his wife and work colleagues. The dream involves a small boy with bright red hair, that Alan is imagining as his son. He and his wife have been unable to have children, so this thought has consumed him. It gives him terrible anxiety as if the boy should be with them.
So, it becomes very strange a few days after Freida takes Alan on, that a boy matching the boy that Alan is describing goes missing. Freida feels inclined to take this information to the police. The discoveries that come from that inquiry will uncover a whole lot of things no one saw coming.
This book is really good. It will leave you on the edge of your seat. Can't wait for the next book in the series.