Fire Along the Sky (Wilderness #4)
Book
The year is 1812 and Hannah Bonner has returned to her family’s mountain cabin in Paradise. But...
Something, Maybe
Book
Everyone thinks their parents are embarrassing, but Hannah knows she's got them all beat. Her dad...
How to Get Away With Murder - Season 1
TV Season Watch
In the first season of this crime drama produced by Shonda Rhimes' Shondaland, cold-blooded...
Conversations with Architects: In the Age of Celebrity
Book
The ideas of architects are usually conveyed by their buildings. Vladimir Belogolovsky takes a...
The Book of Swords
Book
New epic fantasy in the grand tradition—including a never-before-published Song of Ice and Fire...
Fantasy
Christine A. (965 KP) rated Hark! the Herald Angels Scream: An Anthology in Books
Jan 22, 2019
I waited until closer to the holiday to read this book and, with all of the rushing involved with the season, forgot to post my review. The Christmas season may be over, but it is still winter, so grab a cup of hot chocolate and be prepared to be entertained.
Hark! The Herald Angels Scream by Edited by Christopher Golden is an "anthology of all-new short fiction from some of the most talented and original writers of horror today." Included are eighteen stories of Christmas or winter themed horror from authors: Kelley Armstrong, Christopher Golden, Elizabeth Hand, Michael Koryta, Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Sarah Lotz, Jonathan Maberry, Josh Malerman, Seanan McGuire, John M. McIlveen, James A. Moore, Sarah Pinborough, Angela Slatter, Scott Smith,Thomas E. Sniegoski, and Jeff Strand.
The cover quickly bring to mind "Tales from the Crypt", a campy, horror anthology television series with a memorable narrator, Crypt Keeper. The stories written could have been been portrayed in any of the episodes. As with "Tales from the Crypt", the stories in "Hark! The Herald Angels Scream" were creepy, funny, chilling, gruesome, dark, and definitely worth your time.
The stories are well written and stand alone.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Charlie's Angels (2019) in Movies
Dec 4, 2019
Elizabeth Banks puts together a generic sub-Mission Impossible action thriller reasonably well, but when the gunfire and revving engines dies away you are just left with the sound of comic banter failing to spark and the occasional unsubtle you-go-girl message. The plot feels very familiar, and the rest doesn't do enough to cover up for this. Mixed work from the cast: Banks herself is working hard, Kristen Stewart proves she genuinely does have star quality, Naomi Scott can probably look forward to a healthy career playing the kooky best friend, and while Ella Balinska can deliver neither a joke nor a line of exposition to save her life, she is about nine feet tall which helps with the fight choreography. Patrick Stewart turns up and twinkles a lot; one presumes CGI has been used to erase the dollar signs in his eyes. Admittedly, I am probably not the target audience for this movie, but even so: too often this feels leaden when it should be light, and treacly when it should froth.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Movie Watch
Blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) teams up with eccentric pirate "Captain" Jack Sparrow (Johnny...
Head Gardeners
Ambra Edwards and Charlie Hopkinson
Book
What is Britain's greatest contribution to world culture? Ambra Edwards suggests it is the garden....
Zones of Control: Perspectives on Wargaming
Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Pat Harrigan and James F. Dunnigan
Book
Games with military themes date back to antiquity, and yet they are curiously neglected in much of...