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Alison Pink (7 KP) rated Safe Haven in Books
Jan 15, 2018
Wow! This book was a powerhouse. About halfway through, it got so good I couldn't put it down for anything. The ending built up suspense in such a wonderfully tantalizing way. I was so sucked in to the story that I really did find myself transported to another place. It is truly a rare book that can do that.
I found myself wanting to kill Kevin myself. I was rooting like crazy for Katie. She was so likable...strong & vulnerable all at once. I could really feel her pain & ached to see her finally happy. But I also found myself, much like her, waiting for the other shoe to drop as it seemed inevitable. Alex was a great character too. If I were to describe him you'd likely think of him as that dream guy that doesn't exist in the real world. And you'd be right, he does sound too good to be true. Yet at the same time, he did seem real & so genuine.
The plot was well written. I was kept guessing for some time as the pieces gradually fell into place. Once they did it started to make sense, but it wasn't too predictable either. All in all it was a fantastic read!
I found myself wanting to kill Kevin myself. I was rooting like crazy for Katie. She was so likable...strong & vulnerable all at once. I could really feel her pain & ached to see her finally happy. But I also found myself, much like her, waiting for the other shoe to drop as it seemed inevitable. Alex was a great character too. If I were to describe him you'd likely think of him as that dream guy that doesn't exist in the real world. And you'd be right, he does sound too good to be true. Yet at the same time, he did seem real & so genuine.
The plot was well written. I was kept guessing for some time as the pieces gradually fell into place. Once they did it started to make sense, but it wasn't too predictable either. All in all it was a fantastic read!
b.Young (97 KP) rated The Wordsmith in Books
May 15, 2018
Horrifying in a good way
Have you ever wondered how famous authors pump out great book after great book? Well, it's probably not quite how Walt Erickson does it...or is it???
I read this book because I found it offered for free in the Amazon Kindle store. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much. Y'all! I was wrong to set my expectations so low!
This was a truly horrifying glimpse into what one famous author does to keep writing those best-selling books of his. And (spoiler): He's. Not. Writing. Them.
So who is? How does he keep from being found out?
My first thought was that his typewriter is bewitched and doing the writing for him.
My second thought was that he had a ghost writer that he pays very handsomely to keep quiet.
I had some other thoughts about it, but they were just too PG.
Let me just tell you, that NONE of my thoughts were what was actually going on and I was beyond freaked out when I discovered the truth!
This story reminded me a little of Secret Garden and a little of some episode of The Twilight Zone I saw when I was like 10.
If you read this and you will think you entered The Twilight Zone.
I read this book because I found it offered for free in the Amazon Kindle store. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much. Y'all! I was wrong to set my expectations so low!
This was a truly horrifying glimpse into what one famous author does to keep writing those best-selling books of his. And (spoiler): He's. Not. Writing. Them.
So who is? How does he keep from being found out?
My first thought was that his typewriter is bewitched and doing the writing for him.
My second thought was that he had a ghost writer that he pays very handsomely to keep quiet.
I had some other thoughts about it, but they were just too PG.
Let me just tell you, that NONE of my thoughts were what was actually going on and I was beyond freaked out when I discovered the truth!
This story reminded me a little of Secret Garden and a little of some episode of The Twilight Zone I saw when I was like 10.
If you read this and you will think you entered The Twilight Zone.
Bubblesreview (110 KP) rated A Note Of Madness in Books
Feb 9, 2019
Mental health awareness (1 more)
Likeable chapters
This novel was the authors debut, for a debut novel it's well written and flows fairly well. The portrayal of bipolar disorder / manic depression is realistically unsettling. It really shows how damaging a misdiagnosis could be and the serious effect of being dismissed. To avoid spoilers I'm not going to say if this story ends with a happy or an unfortunate end. I will advise you NOT to read this if you suffer from a mental illness and are triggered easily, this could be a serious trigger.
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Following on, although I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and really appreciate the mental health awareness in it which is a rare find in a book, I found this a hard one to score higher than 7/10. This is solely due to the fact that the chapters are long, ranging on average at about 25+ pages. This made it difficult to stay focused and I found myself having to read back a couple of pages to recap. This is completely my own problem as I enjoy shorter chapters and I really dislike stopping half way through a chapter.
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Overall I 100% recommend this book. It's very underrated and deserves more awareness
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Following on, although I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and really appreciate the mental health awareness in it which is a rare find in a book, I found this a hard one to score higher than 7/10. This is solely due to the fact that the chapters are long, ranging on average at about 25+ pages. This made it difficult to stay focused and I found myself having to read back a couple of pages to recap. This is completely my own problem as I enjoy shorter chapters and I really dislike stopping half way through a chapter.
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Overall I 100% recommend this book. It's very underrated and deserves more awareness
Bubblesreview (110 KP) rated Good Omens in Books
Mar 3, 2019
Pros:
â–ª Laugh out loud dark humour
â–ª Footnotes
â–ª Set in England
Cons:
â–ª I didn't find it sooner?!
Why have I not known about this book until now? Please someone tell me! I picked this up in my local bookstore last week for £1 (mainly due to the intriguing cover) and I quickly found out it's actually very popular.
One thing I loved about this book was that it was set in England, reading such a classic with local town names and even roads and motorways that I know very well really made it for me.
The dark humour in it is absolutely laugh out loudable... some people have compared it to hitch hikers guide humour which is odd because I'm not actually a fan of the hitch hikers... but good omens just had me from page 1.
There are quite alot of characters which can make it a little tricky to keep track but I didn't have too much trouble with this as I took my time reading it.
The added footnotes I found really helpful, some funny and others were genuinely helpful with extra information.
I'm quite excited to hear that Amazon are currently making this into a show!
I 100% recommend GoOD OMeNs!
â–ª Laugh out loud dark humour
â–ª Footnotes
â–ª Set in England
Cons:
â–ª I didn't find it sooner?!
Why have I not known about this book until now? Please someone tell me! I picked this up in my local bookstore last week for £1 (mainly due to the intriguing cover) and I quickly found out it's actually very popular.
One thing I loved about this book was that it was set in England, reading such a classic with local town names and even roads and motorways that I know very well really made it for me.
The dark humour in it is absolutely laugh out loudable... some people have compared it to hitch hikers guide humour which is odd because I'm not actually a fan of the hitch hikers... but good omens just had me from page 1.
There are quite alot of characters which can make it a little tricky to keep track but I didn't have too much trouble with this as I took my time reading it.
The added footnotes I found really helpful, some funny and others were genuinely helpful with extra information.
I'm quite excited to hear that Amazon are currently making this into a show!
I 100% recommend GoOD OMeNs!
Mariafrancesca (30 KP) rated Gemina: The Illuminae Files: Book 2 in Books
Mar 30, 2019
I really don't know what it is about this series. If I think about it, it just a collection of all the biggest and most common themes in sci-fi, but somehow it works. I couldn't put this book down!
The story starts 5 seconds after the end of the first book, and it focuses on the events happening on the station where the Kady and the Hypatia are headed. There is no need to say that things goes as wrong as they can.
I have to say that I found this book a bit slower than the first one, and if readers thought that characters in the first book were fake, they will probably found the ones in this second book even more so (even though I think that the problem is the narration more than anything else, we always see these characters through a filter, we never know how the feel directly from them). However the more you get into the story the more gripping and eventful it gets, there are a lot of plot twists (again they may be cliches but the do work inside the story) and the book ends with a huge cliffhanger. I can't wait for part 3!
The story starts 5 seconds after the end of the first book, and it focuses on the events happening on the station where the Kady and the Hypatia are headed. There is no need to say that things goes as wrong as they can.
I have to say that I found this book a bit slower than the first one, and if readers thought that characters in the first book were fake, they will probably found the ones in this second book even more so (even though I think that the problem is the narration more than anything else, we always see these characters through a filter, we never know how the feel directly from them). However the more you get into the story the more gripping and eventful it gets, there are a lot of plot twists (again they may be cliches but the do work inside the story) and the book ends with a huge cliffhanger. I can't wait for part 3!
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated The First Purge (2018) in Movies
Jun 11, 2019 (Updated Jun 11, 2019)
Definitely killed a few brain cells
The concept behind The Purge films is kind of good I guess? (If you don't think about it too hard), but none of them have really delivered much to the horror genre, and this prequel somehow delivers less to the point where it actually takes away from the horror genre!
I found myself disinterested in any of the characters after just a few minutes. So much so, that when the first 'Purge' actually begins, I just found myself thinking 'why?' Why are these characters even taking part, why are so many people taking part (surely they can't all have weird murder boners), why did this film even get passed a storyboard phase, why am I still watching!?
It's just dumb, and not even in a slightly so-dumb-its-good way.
Any scares or horror are completely absent, to the point where the film devolves into a low quality action B-movie rip off of The Raid.
The whole sorry affair just seemed like an excuse for some people to whack some contact lenses in and roam about with 'sinister' grins on their faces, like a pack of 14 year olds who have had one too many cans of Monster Energy.
Won't be watching this one again! ?
I found myself disinterested in any of the characters after just a few minutes. So much so, that when the first 'Purge' actually begins, I just found myself thinking 'why?' Why are these characters even taking part, why are so many people taking part (surely they can't all have weird murder boners), why did this film even get passed a storyboard phase, why am I still watching!?
It's just dumb, and not even in a slightly so-dumb-its-good way.
Any scares or horror are completely absent, to the point where the film devolves into a low quality action B-movie rip off of The Raid.
The whole sorry affair just seemed like an excuse for some people to whack some contact lenses in and roam about with 'sinister' grins on their faces, like a pack of 14 year olds who have had one too many cans of Monster Energy.
Won't be watching this one again! ?
Lumos (380 KP) rated The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Books
Jun 8, 2018
Ok.. .I'm going to admit I was a bit bummed my book club chose this as our next read. Sci-fi books have never been my forte.. I just can't seem to understand what is going on. So many scienc-y words and characters with hard to pronounce names.. but, I was very surprised by this book. I listened to the audio book version since I had a few long drives to take. I found myself getting to my destination and sitting in the parking lot waiting for the chapter/ scene to be over. Each character is so unique. Becky Chambers designed each persona in such a beautiful way, you can't help but find yourself getting attached to them. Normally, intergalactic characters are too far out of the world for me to relate to, but I found myself very invested in these characters' backgrounds and relating to them in unexpected ways. I am very eager for our next meeting to see what everyone else got out of the book. If you are like me, and space isn't your thing, I would still recommend you push past the first few chapters. Once you get the background of the first character, I guarantee you will be hooked!
Fairly simple to use (2 more)
Free to download
Good communication app for businesses
Poor security (2 more)
You can't have group conversations
Can be awkward to follow threads
Just good
So I work for a rather large logisitics company and we used slack as a way of each department staying connected. We stopped using it after about 6 months because the company found that security was poor and not to the standards to what our company wanted it to be. I liked using the app because it meant I could ask for advice and speak to colleagues from all over the country but sometimes it was difficult to follow the conversation topic because other people would be having another conversation in between. It was simple to use as in setting up and 1 on 1 conversations but I never found out how to do a small group chat and also how to reply to one comment even though someone mastered that straight away. So in short some things were a lot easier than other things. All in all I think it's a good app but should be aimed at maybe school/college/uni groups not company's that may share sensitive or important information.
BookwormMama14 (18 KP) rated Illustrated Stories From Shakespeare in Books
Jan 2, 2019
I recently purchased this book from Usborne and am SO in love with it! I have always had a deep appreciation and fascination with Shakespeare's work. (So much so that one year for Christmas all I wanted was Barnes & Noble's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.) But I admit that at reading Shakespeare was a challenge when I was younger. Struggling to understand the language, I missed much of what was happening in the storyline. I am thrilled to have found this book for my kids. I thought, if they grow up knowing the stories, then maybe when it comes time to read the original plays, they will have an easier time. So far, my three year old LOVES this book! He has sat through Hamlet and was in high dudgeon that I had to borrow it to write this review. The illustrations are beautiful! And even though all of the plays are written so that young readers can understand them, some of the more famous lines from Shakespeare's works can still be found. I am thoroughly impressed and am so excited to introduce my kids to Shakespeare at a young age. Hoping to nurture and grow their love of literature.
David McK (3801 KP) rated Snuff (Discworld, #39; City Watch #8) in Books
Jan 28, 2019
OK, this is a Pratchett, so the fact that it is good is pretty much a given.
I have to say, however, that I've found his latest Discworld books to be 'less good' - perhaps a sympton of his sad mental decline? - than what I would term a late-middle period Pratchett (round about 'Lords and Ladies', 'Jingo' and so on). In this one, he returns to Commander Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch - last featured in 'Thud!', who is on holiday in the country-side. Of course, as the blurb makes clear, it is inevitable that this turns into a Busmans holiday ...
The novel did have a few laugh-out-loud moments, but not as many as from one of his best. I also found it to be rather verbose at times, with only really one extended action scene. While some characters - Willikens, in particular - are more fleshed out than before, I also got the distinct feeling that other members of the City Watch were only (temporarily) present as it wouldn't be a City Watch book without them; not to add anything to the story.
While that might make it sound like I didn't enjoy the book, that's simply not true - I did, but just felt that it could have been so much more ...
I have to say, however, that I've found his latest Discworld books to be 'less good' - perhaps a sympton of his sad mental decline? - than what I would term a late-middle period Pratchett (round about 'Lords and Ladies', 'Jingo' and so on). In this one, he returns to Commander Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch - last featured in 'Thud!', who is on holiday in the country-side. Of course, as the blurb makes clear, it is inevitable that this turns into a Busmans holiday ...
The novel did have a few laugh-out-loud moments, but not as many as from one of his best. I also found it to be rather verbose at times, with only really one extended action scene. While some characters - Willikens, in particular - are more fleshed out than before, I also got the distinct feeling that other members of the City Watch were only (temporarily) present as it wouldn't be a City Watch book without them; not to add anything to the story.
While that might make it sound like I didn't enjoy the book, that's simply not true - I did, but just felt that it could have been so much more ...