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ClareR (6256 KP) rated Lost Property in Books
Apr 1, 2021
Lost Property was not at all what I expected. I thought it was going to be a light, cheery read about people being reunited with their lost property. This book is so much more than that.
Dot is a person who has become lost. Her loneliness seeps out of every page, her feelings of guilt are relatable (if misguided) and the fact that she doesn’t feel good enough about herself to live the life that she wants to live, is heartbreaking.
The writing is beautiful.
There was more than one occasion where I found myself close to tears. Dot is a character who does her best to make other people feel better - whether that’s her co-workers, those looking for their lost items, her mother in a nursing home, or her seemingly interfering older sister. But she neglects herself.
This book is about Dots journey to finding herself again, and it is wonderful.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this, and to Helen Paris for reading along.
Dot is a person who has become lost. Her loneliness seeps out of every page, her feelings of guilt are relatable (if misguided) and the fact that she doesn’t feel good enough about herself to live the life that she wants to live, is heartbreaking.
The writing is beautiful.
There was more than one occasion where I found myself close to tears. Dot is a character who does her best to make other people feel better - whether that’s her co-workers, those looking for their lost items, her mother in a nursing home, or her seemingly interfering older sister. But she neglects herself.
This book is about Dots journey to finding herself again, and it is wonderful.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this, and to Helen Paris for reading along.
Kim Pook (101 KP) rated The Theory of Everything (2014) in Movies
Sep 4, 2020
Unless you have been living in a cave you will have heard of Stephen Hawking, this movie is the story of how he met and came to rely on his wife Jane.
It starts in the 1960s, Stephen is an awkward and nerdy college student attending classes, wondering about the universe and meeting the love of his life. Straight away it is evident from little things that his disease is taking a hold on him even before his diagnosis. Eddie Redmayne does such a good job of portraying him that his decline is hard to watch and you feel the frustration he must have felt too. It not only shows Stephens struggles with his motor neurons disease, but also Jane's struggles with helping him, which understandably pushes her into the arms of another man.
The film has its ups and downs, you feel for Stephen and the people around him, but you also laugh as despite his disease his personality remained intact. It is a long movie (just over 2 hours) and very intense, but worth every minute.
It starts in the 1960s, Stephen is an awkward and nerdy college student attending classes, wondering about the universe and meeting the love of his life. Straight away it is evident from little things that his disease is taking a hold on him even before his diagnosis. Eddie Redmayne does such a good job of portraying him that his decline is hard to watch and you feel the frustration he must have felt too. It not only shows Stephens struggles with his motor neurons disease, but also Jane's struggles with helping him, which understandably pushes her into the arms of another man.
The film has its ups and downs, you feel for Stephen and the people around him, but you also laugh as despite his disease his personality remained intact. It is a long movie (just over 2 hours) and very intense, but worth every minute.
Merissa (14142 KP) rated Her Dark Angel (Her Angel: Bound Warriors #1) in Books
Apr 10, 2023 (Updated Apr 10, 2023)
The start of a new series by Felicity Heaton and what a start. Apollyon is still faithfully doing his duty and yet wants to be free from 'the fires of hell' and feel the sun on his wings again. Serenity has had a bad break-up from her cheating boyfriend and wants revenge, she wants him to feel as bad as she does. Both her heart and her words call out and Apollyon answers. I've got to say that if I was looking for revenge on an ex in this way then I would certainly hope for someone like Apollyon to drop into my life!
This is only a novella so the storyline is fast-paced so that everything is in place before it finishes. I can see this series being another hit for Felicity Heaton and am looking forward to reading more.
* 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!
July 29, 2016
This is only a novella so the storyline is fast-paced so that everything is in place before it finishes. I can see this series being another hit for Felicity Heaton and am looking forward to reading more.
* 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!
July 29, 2016
Fred (860 KP) rated The Grinch (2018) in Movies
Dec 26, 2019
Dr. Seuss lite
Everyone knows & loves Chuck Jones' animated version from the 60s & I'm sure most people know the live-action Jim Carrey version as well. Whether you like that one or not is up to you. I did like it. Anyway, here we get a new animated version, full-length movie. How is it? Well, it's hit & miss.
Let's start with the Grinch himself. He's kind of toned down in this version & not really as mean as he should be. Yeah, sure he tries to stop Christmas, but his reasoning for it is different than the original. But we deal with it because he still wants to stop Christmas from coming. He almost seems like he's a nice guy pretending to be mean.
One of the greatest things in the original animated version is the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" sung by Thurl Ravenscroft. Even the Jim Carrey version, was good. But the version in this film is absolutely horrendous. It borders on annoying. Actually, it may have crossed the border. The only thing saving it was they only used about 4 lines from the song.
My main problem with the movie is it's Dr. Seuss lite. What I mean by that is that they hardly use any of Seuss' crazy language. I remember words like floo-floobers, kazay, zoozits, tar-tinkers & things like that. There was nothing like that in this film. Even lines from the book were hardly used. It doesn't feel like Dr. Seuss at all. It's almost like they never read the book. They changed the story, the ending & add useless characters like Fred the reindeer.
As for the good. Well, the voice acting is good & the animation is very good. The story works well enough, even with the changes. All in all, it is enjoyable. It's not as good as the Jim Carrey version & nowhere near as good as the Chuck Jones version. Would I watch it again. Maybe. But I'd watch the others before this one.
Let's start with the Grinch himself. He's kind of toned down in this version & not really as mean as he should be. Yeah, sure he tries to stop Christmas, but his reasoning for it is different than the original. But we deal with it because he still wants to stop Christmas from coming. He almost seems like he's a nice guy pretending to be mean.
One of the greatest things in the original animated version is the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" sung by Thurl Ravenscroft. Even the Jim Carrey version, was good. But the version in this film is absolutely horrendous. It borders on annoying. Actually, it may have crossed the border. The only thing saving it was they only used about 4 lines from the song.
My main problem with the movie is it's Dr. Seuss lite. What I mean by that is that they hardly use any of Seuss' crazy language. I remember words like floo-floobers, kazay, zoozits, tar-tinkers & things like that. There was nothing like that in this film. Even lines from the book were hardly used. It doesn't feel like Dr. Seuss at all. It's almost like they never read the book. They changed the story, the ending & add useless characters like Fred the reindeer.
As for the good. Well, the voice acting is good & the animation is very good. The story works well enough, even with the changes. All in all, it is enjoyable. It's not as good as the Jim Carrey version & nowhere near as good as the Chuck Jones version. Would I watch it again. Maybe. But I'd watch the others before this one.
Unstuck: A Story About Gaining Perspective, Creating Traction, and Pursuing Your Passion
Jon Gordon, Dan Webster and Randy Gravitt
Book
Untwist the question mark from your life to start living authentically UNSTUCK offers a path forward...
SummerLGrant (185 KP) rated Marvel's Luke Cage - Season 1 in TV
Aug 11, 2017
Luke Cage - obviously (2 more)
Claire Temple gets some more screen time
More back story
Slower with less tension (1 more)
I feel Luke deserved a better story
Another decent Marvel show
Contains spoilers, click to show
I was all hyped up for this one but was left feeling a little disappointed and I'm not sure why. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great show with some brilliant action scenes and puts forward Luke's backstory. After being a side character in Jessica Jones it's good to see a bit more about his life and how he settles into Harlem.
It's possible that his story, while nice to see, wasn't as good as it could have been - the backstory is but what he went through in the present day was far too slow and could've picked up a bit. The ending unravelled a bit but I like the idea that his past caught up with him and for someone who seems to have such a good heart it's nice to see that he's happy to accept that and serve the time he owes.
I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops in The Defenders, especially since he'll be reunited with Jessica Jones after the development of his relationship with Claire.
It's possible that his story, while nice to see, wasn't as good as it could have been - the backstory is but what he went through in the present day was far too slow and could've picked up a bit. The ending unravelled a bit but I like the idea that his past caught up with him and for someone who seems to have such a good heart it's nice to see that he's happy to accept that and serve the time he owes.
I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops in The Defenders, especially since he'll be reunited with Jessica Jones after the development of his relationship with Claire.
Sarah (7800 KP) rated Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) in Movies
May 3, 2019
Well done and gripping
I can't lie, whilst I know of Ted Bundy I dont know the details about everything he did, so I found this film to be really gripping and informative. Ted Bundy is truly a fascinating individual, its almost unbelievable that after so many years on death row he wa still proclaiming his innocence. Zac Efron isn't someone you'd usually associate with being a good actor but he plays Ted very well. He has the right amount of charm and looks but beneath that you can still see the simmering sinister murderous side. Just goes to show Efron can act in something serious after all.
The rest of the supporting cast too are very good, and the entire film moves along a fairly decent pace. This is one film that definitely can't be accused of dragging, but for me its maybe a little too short. I feel like they could have elaborated or gone into more details, especially those that didnt occur during the timeline of the film. However I suppose that wouldn't make sense as this is the story of Liz and her time with Bundy. But still, for me I would've liked a little bit more although its still a very intriguing and enthralling film with some very good acting.
The rest of the supporting cast too are very good, and the entire film moves along a fairly decent pace. This is one film that definitely can't be accused of dragging, but for me its maybe a little too short. I feel like they could have elaborated or gone into more details, especially those that didnt occur during the timeline of the film. However I suppose that wouldn't make sense as this is the story of Liz and her time with Bundy. But still, for me I would've liked a little bit more although its still a very intriguing and enthralling film with some very good acting.
Andy K (10826 KP) rated Split (2016) in Movies
Feb 4, 2018
2/3 of a good movie
Contains spoilers, click to show
Normally I don't do spoilers, but I don't think it avoidable with this film.
The career of M. Night Shyamalan has produced one classic, a few pretty good, a few just all right and a few pieces of garbage. I guess I feel this film is in the pretty good category.
As with a lot of thrillers, the set up and character introduction is the easy part and this film does that well setting the stage of the kidnappings, the unknown, interesting world in which the girls now live and the unusual kidnapper the ladies are presented with. His relationship with them is mostly curiosity as with the psychiatrist.
Where the film kind of loses it for me was in the third act. Two of the women are completely tossed aside with no remorse after you are given to care about them. The "beast" is borderline unbelievable and sticks out as somewhat contrite.
I had read or been told the film had ties to "Unbreakable", but that vision didn't slap you in the face and i liked that. The appearance of Bruce Willis at the end was a bunch of fun.
Still enjoyed the film enough to recommend
.
The career of M. Night Shyamalan has produced one classic, a few pretty good, a few just all right and a few pieces of garbage. I guess I feel this film is in the pretty good category.
As with a lot of thrillers, the set up and character introduction is the easy part and this film does that well setting the stage of the kidnappings, the unknown, interesting world in which the girls now live and the unusual kidnapper the ladies are presented with. His relationship with them is mostly curiosity as with the psychiatrist.
Where the film kind of loses it for me was in the third act. Two of the women are completely tossed aside with no remorse after you are given to care about them. The "beast" is borderline unbelievable and sticks out as somewhat contrite.
I had read or been told the film had ties to "Unbreakable", but that vision didn't slap you in the face and i liked that. The appearance of Bruce Willis at the end was a bunch of fun.
Still enjoyed the film enough to recommend
.
Deborah (162 KP) rated Richard III in Books
Dec 21, 2018
Baldwin has written extensively about this period, so I had high expectations of his latest offering. The illustrations in this volume are great and the portrait of Richard is one which I don't believe I've seen before. The author also makes some sensible comments. So far so good, but I do feel that it doesn't go quite far enough. It's not a long book and a very easy read, but Baldwin seems a bit too keen to been seen as objective to commit himself as having too much of an opinion either way. Most of what is presented is done in a factual way and without a lot of analysis, I felt. Most of the evidence I felt was on the positive side, or at least not damning.
Beyond saying he thinks it unlikely that Richard has his nephews murdered (even his detractors agree that he was not stupid), he doesn't really go into this a lot, or examine Elizabeth Woodville's reasons for letting her daughters out of sanctuary or her later reaction to the Simnel rebellion. I know he has written separate volumes on both Elizabeth Woodville and Richard of York, the younger of her sons, but the issue is almost completely sidestepped here which is interesting, as this is really the question lying at the heart of The Great Debate.
So, my overall opinion was this this was very readable, fantastically illustrated and good, as far as it went. It would make a good introduction to the subject. Personally, I would have liked it to have gone a bit further. I couldn't help but compare it to Paul Murray Kendall's book. It's some time since I read it, but I was left with an enormous feel for the period and a sense of colour and life and I didn't quite get that from Baldwin.
Beyond saying he thinks it unlikely that Richard has his nephews murdered (even his detractors agree that he was not stupid), he doesn't really go into this a lot, or examine Elizabeth Woodville's reasons for letting her daughters out of sanctuary or her later reaction to the Simnel rebellion. I know he has written separate volumes on both Elizabeth Woodville and Richard of York, the younger of her sons, but the issue is almost completely sidestepped here which is interesting, as this is really the question lying at the heart of The Great Debate.
So, my overall opinion was this this was very readable, fantastically illustrated and good, as far as it went. It would make a good introduction to the subject. Personally, I would have liked it to have gone a bit further. I couldn't help but compare it to Paul Murray Kendall's book. It's some time since I read it, but I was left with an enormous feel for the period and a sense of colour and life and I didn't quite get that from Baldwin.