Search

Search only in certain items:

The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (1973)
The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (1973)
1973 |
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"It was called The Sandglass in English. It's based on a novel by Bruno Schulz. I feel the word "surreal" has been totally overused as a fancy word for weird, but this film is truly surreal for me, where you enter the dream, and the seamless connection between it and the emotional life … I have rarely seen this documented so well in a film. It is a state of mind. I recognise the sense of wonder."

Source
  
40x40

Alec Baldwin recommended High and Low (1963) in Movies (curated)

 
High and Low (1963)
High and Low (1963)
1963 | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

"Akira Kurosawa made films covered in rich tapestries of Japanese history and charged with terrible violence and drama. Yet here, the contemporary and confined world of a rich industrialist (Toshiro Mifune) who is faced with an overwhelming decision is spare, cold, and objective in the extreme. Hideo Oguni, who worked on seven Kurosawa films, including Seven Samurai, wrote the screenplay based on an Ed McBain novel. Mifune, once again, shows why he is the Japanese Marlon Brando, Edward G. Robinson, and Gregory Peck rolled into one."

Source
  
he topic for this months book club pick, was a book made into a movie. And since I bought this book years ago I thought I would read it.
What a disappointment.
I thought it was going to be loosely based on the classic novel by Jane Austen, when in actuality it's her novel word for word, but with a few zombies thrown in for good measure....oh and also ninjas, because that makes sense.
I thought this book had quite a good sense of premise about it, but come on get a bit of originality.
I wouldn't particularly reccomend this book.
  
Sharpe's Mission (1996)
Sharpe's Mission (1996)
1996 |
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Sharpe's Mission.

This, I believe, is the only Sean Bean led Sharpe made-for-TV movie NOT to be based on a Sharpe novel by Bernard Cornwell, even although it is written well enough that it very well could have been!

As with all of the Sharpe stories, you know pretty much what to expect: Sharpe is sent on a dangerous mission (here, to blow up a French ammunition supply during the closing stages of the Peninsular War), and ends up fighting just as much against those in authority on his own side as against the French ...
  
40x40

George Saunders recommended The Bluest Eye in Books (curated)

 
The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison | 1970 | Fiction & Poetry
7.6 (5 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"The first time I read this book it transported me back to my early Catholic days on the South Side of Chicago, when the nuns put forth a model of Christ as a kind of superhero, whose superpower was love, defined as his ability to look with affection at anyone and everyone, no exceptions. Morrison models that capability here in this great novel, and reminds us that the first move in any assessment of a person or notion should be sympathy, based on the reality of our grand mutual suffering."

Source
  
40x40

David McK (3188 KP) rated Map of Bones (Sigma Force, #2) in Books

Jan 28, 2019 (Updated Sep 12, 2021)  
Map of Bones (Sigma Force, #2)
Map of Bones (Sigma Force, #2)
James Rollins | 2006 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
<2021 update>

It's interesting going back to the beginning ('Sandstorm') as I did recently, and seeing how the series as a whole develops. This one is not quite as good as I remember it being, perhaps due my having read the the later novels ... ?



While this may not be the first SIGMA force novel, it is the first in which (what I would term) the core team of Commander Gray Pearce, Monk Kokkalis and Kat Bryant are first put together, and is also the first novel in the series which I read. Thankfully, while there may be the occasional reference to other events, it is not necessary to read the books in order.

SIGMA is best described as, basically, scientists with guns, and these novels invite (perhaps, even, demand) comparisons with Dan Brown as they are based on the same type of subject matter and follow the same plot outlines: secret orders, puzzles to be solved, races against time, and so on.

Based on this book, I would (and have) read more by this author (although I'll admit to being extremely annoyed with some of the characterisations in "Excavation").
  
Rise of the Hearts: Rebirth
Rise of the Hearts: Rebirth
Antoine Bonner | 2018 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

Rise of the Hearts: Rebirth is the second book in Antoine Bonner's Rise of the Hearts series. Using Goodreads' rating system, I gave this book 3 stars. I gave the first book only 1 star. It was a challenge to even finish the first novel.

I liked Rebirth and do not think it was because I was familiar with the characters since I could not relate to them in the first novel. The writing improved since the last novel. In the first one, the story did not flow but it flowed well in Rebirth.

The first novel is NOT intended for Young Adults. Based on the description, I had mistakenly thought it was appropriate for younger readers. There are several passages that are not appropriate for young adults. I cannot think of any passages that would not be appropriate in the second book but still feel the series in not a young adult series.

This novel is only 100 pages long and is a very quick read. The story felt as if it was an episode in the middle of a television series. It felt as if it was only part of a story. I would read the next episode.

Review published on Philomathinphila.com, Smashbomb, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble on 3/11/19.
  
40x40

Karley Sciortino recommended How to Sell in Books (curated)

 
How to Sell
How to Sell
Clancy Martin | 2009 | Business & Finance, Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Humor & Comedy
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"This is my favorite novel of the past decade. It’s so sexy, scandalous and hysterically depressing. It follows two conniving brothers as they pull of jewelry scams, take a ton of cocaine, sleep with hookers, and generally make questionable life decisions. It’s largely based on the writer’s own experiences, and after I read it I became sort of sexually obsessed with him, and would fantasize about him constantly. I eventually started sending him erotic messages on Facebook, but he never replied."

Source
  
Bottomland
Bottomland
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
When I learned that Michelle Hoover based this historical fiction novel on a true family story about two girls who suddenly disappeared from their rural family home, I knew I had to read it. Find out why I have this book a strong four out of five stars in my review here. https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2016/04/25/the-lost-and-what-they-find/
  
40x40

David McK (3188 KP) rated Sharpe's Honour in TV

Nov 14, 2021 (Updated Nov 14, 2021)  
Sharpe&#039;s Honour
Sharpe's Honour
1994 | Action, Adventure, Drama
6
7.0 (2 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
The fifth episode in the TV adaptations of the novels by Bernard Cornwell (which are well worth a read), based on the book of the same name.

I say 'based on' as, because while the main thrust of the storyline is the same, the TV movie of necessity abbreviates the novel somewhat: most noticeably (I felt) watering down quite substantially the role of El Matarife in the proceedings.

As this starts, Sharpe is still mourning the death of his wife Teresa, while Napoleon - in his first appearance in the series - is in retreat from Russia, and with Major Pierre Ducos hatching a plan to drive a wedge between the Spanish and British allies while also getting his revenge on Sharpe by provoking a duel between Sharpe and a Spanish nobleman who he (Ducos) later murders, with Sharpe then taking the rap for said murder (until he is later able to prove his innocence).