Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture
Christopher D. Bader, F. Carson Mencken and Joseph O. Baker
Book
The untold account of the countless Americans who believe in, or personally experience, paranormal...

Merissa (12934 KP) rated Riptide (Boys of Summer) in Books
Jun 18, 2019
And that's the thing with this book. As a reader, I got it. I could see where Bass was coming from, and why he behaved the way he did. Would I make the same decisions? No, but then I'm not a sixteen-year-old boy with the same experiences as him.
With no editing or grammatical errors that jolted me, I thoroughly enjoyed this novella, and can't wait to see what happens when he goes to Ryder Bay and meets up with SnapDragon.
As a standalone, this is a great read. As a prequel to the next Ryder Bay story, it's fantastic! Definitely recommended by me.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!

Building Brains: An Introduction to Neural Development
David J. Price, Andrew P. Jarman, John O. Mason and Peter C. Kind
Book
Building Brains describes the main elements of current understanding of the mechanisms that create...

Real World Windows 10 Development: 2015
Edward Moemeka and Elizabeth Moemeka
Book
Emphasizing XAML and C#, this book provides readers with all the tools, ideas, and inspiration to...
Ecologies of Engaged Scholarship: Stories from Activist Academics
Book
Story and auto-ethnography are study methods based on decolonizing and liberating research...

Hazel (2934 KP) rated Knife Edge in Books
Aug 29, 2020
The start was brilliant and had me hooked but it just went a bit "bleh" for me in the middle and although the ending was as good as the start, it just didn't make up for the middle because by that time I had lost a lot of interest and just carried on reading because I hate not finishing books. The characters were interesting but not particularly memorable enough to connect with me so I didn't really care what happened to them either way. The themes and plot of this book are up to date and you can certainly see them playing out in the real world unfortunately but it felt a little over complicated at times.
As usual, I am likely to be in the minority on this one as there have been many 4 and 5 star reviews given; maybe I was having a bad week! so I suggest you give a go for yourself. I have to say that this won't put me off reading Simon's books in the future purely based on the start and end of this particular book.
Thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers via NetGalley for my copy in return for an unbiased review.

Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated The Dark Tower (2017) in Movies
Dec 2, 2020
The Dark Tower bring three of the characters from the books; Roland, the gunslinger, Jake, a boy from our world and the Man in Black aka Walter. Unlike the books the film focus' mainly on Jake, a boy who is having dreams about Roland and Walter and who is being hunted by Walter's forces.
The story line is loosely based on the books as Roland hunts the Man in Black across not only his own world but ours as well and attempts to kill him in revenge for his father's death whilst Walter is attempting to destroy the Dark Tower and bring darkness to all the worlds.
Interestingly, although there are many nods and easter eggs to Kings other works, the film version of The Dark Tower is linked more to the Shining and Doctor Sleep than IT or the Stand as it gives Jake 'The Shine' and makes it an integral part of the plot.
As long as you're not expecting too much of the books 'The Dark Tower' is quite a good film, it has a slightly more Sci-Fi feel that the books and the final battle would feel at home in most first person shooter games but, when seen either as it's own thing or possibly as a tie in to the two shining films it's quite a good action film.

The Great Labour Unrest: Rank-and-File Movements and Political Change in the Durham Coalfield
Book
The Great Labour Unrest examines the struggle between liberals, socialists and revolutionary...

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
Podcast
Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Nietzsche A searing indictment of concepts like “truth” and...

Mechanical Design of Machine Components: SI Version
Book
Analyze and Solve Real-World Machine Design Problems Using SI Units Mechanical Design of Machine...