Search

Search only in certain items:

    PRIMA

    PRIMA

    Medical and Health & Fitness

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Aplikasi PRIMA, PRogram IDAI Menuju Anak Indonesia Sehat. Sebuah aplikasi yang dikembangkan oleh...

40x40

BookInspector (124 KP) rated Dear Child in Books

Sep 24, 2020 (Updated Oct 8, 2020)  
Dear Child
Dear Child
Romy Hausmann | 2020 | Crime, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences, Thriller
9
8.0 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
The plot, characters and setting (0 more)
One character didn't really bring much to the story (0 more)
It is worth reading.
This novel is told from multiple perspectives, and we have three people who are sharing their sides of the story. First of all, it is a woman, who ran away from the cabin. She is sharing her story during the time inside, as well as how she is coping now. She is a really disturbed woman, who went through a lot, and I found her story very engrossing and absorbing. The second character is Hannah, one of the children, that were kept in that cabin. She is on the spectrum of Autism, and she sees her life through a completely different perspective than the woman that was held captive. Hannah is a perfectionist, and the cabin with all the rules imposed by the captor are her norms, so she finds very hard to open up about her life, but when she does, I could not stop reading her parts. The last character would be Matthias, Lena’s father. For me he was the least interesting character of all, I could not understand his role in all this story, but he does have few tricks up his sleeve.

The narrative of this book is pure beauty. It has everything that my thriller loving heart could wish for, the twists and turns left me gobsmacked on many occasions, the suspense was very well placed and kept developing throughout the pages, and I was so absorbed in this novel, that the pages just flew by. The topics discussed in this novel were an obsession, controlling personalities, blind fatherly love, denial, post-traumatic disorder and other mental illnesses, and many more.

The book was set in Germany, and I was very intrigued by the way German police were working. I really liked the writing style of this book, we have the very intense parts with Hannah and the woman in the cabin, as well as calmer ones with Matthias, that created the perfect balance. The chapters are short, so the book was easy to read for me. The ending was amazing and I really enjoyed how this book ended, it did answer my questions and rounded this story very well. I would like to mention, that this book has plenty of violent and disturbing parts, so it might not be very suitable to sensitive readers.
  
40x40

Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Harmony in Books

Feb 13, 2018  
H
Harmony
6
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Alexandra Hammond and her family are living in Washington DC, and on the outside, they are a typical modern family. But Alexandra and her husband, Josh, are exhausted and frustrated as parents of two children: eleven-year-old Iris and thirteen-year-old Tilly. Tilly, you see, has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS, a form of autism, and it means that Alexandra's lovely, intelligent daughter, who could read by the age of three, is also prone to violent outbursts where she yells out curse words, has an inability to control many of her thoughts and actions, and truly, just doesn't seem to fit into the mold society wishes to place our children. When yet another school kicks Tilly out, Alexandra and Josh are at a loss. So Alexandra turns to Scott Bean, a self-professed expert with "difficult" children whose seminars and private sessions she's been attending for several years now. Scott is starting Camp Harmony in New Hampshire: an isolated society for families struggling with children like Tilly, free of outside influences, electronics, harmful foods and stimulants, and most of all, free from judgement. So Alexandra and Josh do the unthinkable: they sell everything and pack up the kids and head to New Hampshire, joining Scott and two other families in making Camp Harmony work. But will it work? Can it work?

If you haven't read anything by Carolyn Parkhurst, you're missing out. She's a wonderful author, whose books are simply beautiful. My particular favorite is [b:The Dogs of Babel|89691|The Dogs of Babel|Carolyn Parkhurst|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344269639s/89691.jpg|1585061], a lovely, haunting novel about a woman, her husband, and her dog that I read 10 years ago and still touches me to this day. While I wasn't as affected by this novel, it still has many flashes of the amazing brilliance of Parkhurst and her wonderful way with the written word. Her characters form before you eyes.

In [b:Harmony|29236564|Harmony|Carolyn Parkhurst|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1469411954s/29236564.jpg|49477924], Parkhurst does an excellent job conveying Alexandra's fear and anxiety over the frightening aspects of our society and its effects on our children, and how our society has changed, with things like autism and food allergies seemingly becoming more prevalent each year. She doesn't preach, she just paints a picture with her words and Alexandra's thoughts. The book is told between alternating points of view and time periods. We hear from Alexandra in the past, telling the story of Tilly (and Iris) growing up and how things have reached this point and then we hear from Iris, in the present, at Camp Harmony.

Alexandra captures a life and marriage in moments and snapshots, with Parkhurst easily depicting the desperation that parents of children that are different feel. You can sense her terror and why she would actually consider packing up entire family and moving them to an isolated camp in the middle of nowhere, led by a man they really know nothing about.

Iris' perspective, meanwhile, is just beautiful and touching. Parkhurst wonderfully conveys her voice. There were times when I felt Iris was a bit "old" for an eleven-year-old, but I chalked a lot of that up to having a sister such as Tilly and having to grow up rather quickly. And as the book progressed, there were many moments where Iris came across as a scared, naive kid, after all. Iris' depiction of the camp-through her innocent eyes-is perfect, and she has a wonderful way of portraying her sister, where you will grow to love Tilly, as well, and understand Alexandra's fierce desire to protect both her children.

All in all, despite its serious subject matter, the book is often humorous, and I loved its portrayal of real characters and situations, despite the fact that they all gathered in an isolated camp site in New Hampshire. My only real issue with the book was the camp's leader, Scott Bean. To me, he was the least developed character of the bunch, and while you sensed that perhaps we were hurtling toward trouble, the ending seemed a little quick and too pat for such a well-written and developed book.

Still, this book was quite well-done and certainly a must for any parent struggling with a child who feels different, or really, any parent struggling to raise a child in today's modern society. Parkhurst is a wonderful writer, and she will not disappoint with her latest. 3.5+ stars.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Edelweiss - thank you! It is available everywhere as of 08/02/2016.

<a href="http://justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com/">My Blog</a> ~ <a href="https://www.facebook.com/justacatandabook/">Facebook</a>; ~ <a href="https://twitter.com/mwcmoto">Twitter</a>;
  
The Accountant (2016)
The Accountant (2016)
2016 | Drama
8
7.5 (36 Ratings)
Movie Rating
In the world of high finance keeping an eye on the numbers is essential. But when large incomes are derived from illegal activities speed, accuracy, and discretion are vital and that is why Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), is in such high demand.

In the new film “The Accountant” we are introduced to Christian as he prepares taxes for a rural couple. The quiet, and social awkward man is a whizz with numbers but thanks to a form of Autism, Christian is socially awkward and has an extreme series of regiments he uses to cope with the modern world.

Much of his life is told through flashbacks but we learn that his military father insisted that he and his brother learn to defend themselves after their mother left them.

FBI agent Ray King (J.K. Simmons) is facing retirement and has past history with The Accountant as he is known, and wants to resolve the situation before he retires. As such he recruits and coerces a young agent to help him track down The Accountant with little more to go on other than reputation and some vague photos.

 

At the same time Christian is introduced to a company via his service who suspects that money is being stolen from them. The C.E.O. Lamar Black (John Lithgow), is eager to get to the bottom of an irregularity found by bookkeeper Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick).

Christian tears through 15 years of books in one night and locates an intricate scheme to steal millions yet make the company look like it has kept gaining money and this sets into action a chain of events with dire consequences.

At the same time, a mysterious man (John Bernthal), is eliminating those in the way and has set his sights on both Christian and Dana.

Christian however is far from a weak pacifist as thanks to his work and his father’s training, he is brutally efficient and deadly with his hands, feet, and all manner of weapons.

With danger all around them, Christian and Dana must survive and get to the bottom of the mystery while avoiding Agent King and the authorities.

What follows is an action filled thriller that was an exciting adventure filled with twists, turns, and solid performances.

The film does offer a big twist which I saw coming 40 minutes out, but despite this the solid cast and great work by Affleck, Simmons, and company make this a pleasant surprise and one you will not want to miss.

http://sknr.net/2016/10/14/the-accountant/
  
    Behaviour of concern

    Behaviour of concern

    Medical and Health & Fitness

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Behaviour of concern is an app designed to keep track of the levels of arousal at different times of...

    Beautiful Bubbles

    Beautiful Bubbles

    Entertainment and Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Pop beautiful bubbles with your fingers using multi-touch. Unlike other bubble popping apps, this...

The Accountant (2016)
The Accountant (2016)
2016 | Drama
9
7.5 (36 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Story: The Accountant starts as we see Christian Wolff at a young age struggling to deal with autism but with the correct tuition Christian (Affleck) has turned his math savant skills to help small town people manage their accounts. He is distant from people but always helps those who need it.

On the other side of the story we meet head of the treasury department Ray King (Simmons) who blackmails a young agent Marybeth Medina (Addai-Robinson) into investigating this mysterious accountant that has been working with the biggest names on the terrorists list, that accountant is Christian under an alter-ego.

Christian’s latest accountancy job is sorting 15 years of accounts for Lamar Black (Lithgow) Living Robotics company that have been working on defence contracts. While Christian gets on with his latest job we see how Brax (Bernthal) goes about cleaning up other questionable actions from the bankers. While Christian must deal with the junior accountant Dana Cummings (Kendrick) being too talkative for his own liking.

As the story continues to unfold we continue to learn just how dangerous Christian really is and what his bigger plan is. As Brax cleans up what Christian discovers his desperate need for completion explodes but what he discovers could expose the fraud going on.

The Accountant is one of the most complete action thrillers of recent years. The story does borrow elements from recent ideas with myself seeing a mix of John Wick and Dexter going on throughout. Where this story stand head and shoulders above most other films is the way the whole story gets completed. Another huge plus point for this film is that every character gets a full development and we see their story arc go full circle.

Ben Affleck gives a brilliant performance in this leading role where we get to see him have the full emotionless character that is intense to level most action character could only wish for. Jon Bernthal continues to shine through supporting roles in films after his time on television. J.K. Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson work excellently together again with a perfect story arc to their character. The only negative in this film I found was the character Dana just feels added to the story while this doesn’t mean Kendrick is bad it was the character didn’t quite fit the full story.

This is easily one of the films of the year that I can fully expect everyone to enjoy and even at over two hours long you barely notice the time being used in this film.

 

Overall: Brutal action, story with heart and perfect story telling throughout.

https://moviesreview101.com/2016/12/12/the-accountant-2016/