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Maybe I should have read the first book in this series before asking for this via NetGalley. Unfortunately, I don't think I can finish reading this.

For example, I was terribly confused by the scene which has DeLuca saving Van Buren from almost drowning. The whole episode just wasn't described so that I could visualize what was going on, who was where, how she got into the water, and how he was able to find her to save her. I'm hoping that this is fixed in the final version.

By the way, I don't think that this author knows Chicago that well. She describes a warehouse there near the lake, but by her description, it sounds like it is only yards from the lakefront. However, as far as I know there were never any shipping warehouses on the lakefront, only on the river. That means the characters in that scene couldn't have been looking out on Lake Michigan, but only onto the Chicago River.

Another thing that confused me was why the author gave DeLuca - who is so Italian that he translates from that language into English - a very Scottish first name like Hamish. If that's explained in the first novel, I really wish the author had added a line about it in this one.

Finally, the "romance" bit here - or should I call it angst - was too overpowering for me. DeLuca goes on and on about every aspect of this woman and why he adores her and how he feels when he's around her. When she started in on her feelings towards him, well... that's when I gave up on this book. (I only read about 15%.)

This is really a shame because I've been trying to find a good cozy mystery series where I can fall in love with the protagonist/s and enjoy some harmless sleuthing on a historical backdrop. I'm afraid this one didn't deliver for me.

Now I have to figure out what I'm going to tell NetGalley when I tell them I'll not be reviewing this book.
  
Tau (2018)
Tau (2018)
2018 | Sci-Fi, Thriller
I had heard little whispers about this movie before it came out, comparing it to Upgrade (2018), only less gory. First of all, it was nothing like that, but it was very good. The premise is interesting--a young woman is kidnapped and held for experimentation by a sociopathic computer genius, who has created an AI named Tau to run his house. Only he's kept Tau in the dark about a lot of stuff. Like that there's more than just the house and other humans exist. I think lately, movies have skewed more towards negative depictions of AI, but Tau is actually rather positive. Without revealing anything, both Julia (the kidnapee) and Tau learn things about themselves and each other. The whole film brings up the question of what it is to be a person, how much empathy we can grant to non-human sentience, and what it means to be a prisoner.

Very good, and visually appealing as well. I loved the way Tau "looked," but there were times when the CG got a little shaky. Nothing unexpected for a movie with this kind of budget. If you enjoyed Dean Koontz's "Demon Seed" or the film adaptation, I think you'll like this.
  
Grounantion by Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"That one was quite deep for me because again, growing up in church and being a believer; my family being from the West Indies - my mum’s side from Jamaica, my dad’s side from Dominica - I remember going to church and it was authentic West Indians there in their 40s, 50s that now live in the UK but have kept these traditions, they were singing these songs just without the drums. So when I first heard this, something just went - ‘Hang on?’ I remember being four and hearing this person sing that song but swap Selassie for this or that. It had that same spiritual element I was so used to, just in a very different form. It was like a weird full circle thing for me. It was almost like going back home. These drums are taking me somewhere, but also I'm being carried by these songs I know. It was beautiful to check out more of what Count Ossie was doing and people that were part of his band like Cedric Brooks. He was infusing a lot of the jazz elements that he's hearing from Coltrane or Ornette Coleman. That's deep, you’re deep in the heels of Kingston, aware of Ornette and them man. Like Duke Ellington had to come and visit him, you know, there’s a photo of him and Duke Ellington in the bush. You know he's got something that's important, not only important for culture but it's spiritually important for the Nyabinghi tradition. For me when I heard that record, particularly Grounation, where they’re going through loops for 20 minutes, it’s that thing again with soundsystems where you ‘wheel up a riddim’ or at church when the tune would just keep going. It was something I’d never heard but I also felt like it wasn’t foreign, those experiences are so wicked and that influenced the whole fascination with drum culture and drum languages, spirituality connected to drums, music orientated around the drums. I got into Batá and music for the Orishas and things that are all over the Diaspora in West Africa, the Caribbean, South America. And when you listen to it, the recording’s so rags but it just couldn't work if you put it in Abbey Road. It gave me a bit more confidence when I was doing my record that if I go to someone’s house and I show up with a handheld recorder, as long as it feels right it doesn't matter. Big studio, small studio, my phone as long as it’s got that feeling that I was going for."

Source
  
40x40

Lee Richmond (19 KP) rated Eaten Alive (1977) in Movies

Mar 2, 2019 (Updated Mar 2, 2019)  
Eaten Alive (1977)
Eaten Alive (1977)
1977 | Horror, Mystery
7
6.7 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Robert Englund and Tobe Hooper. God's among men. (0 more)
He's out there and he's got murder on his mind!
When a films opening line, said with a southern drawl, is "My name is Buck and I'm rarin to fuck", you know you're in for a treat. The actor responsible for it's delivery is a pre Freddy Krueger, Robert Englund who's main aim is to screw women in a very uncomfortable place, and I don't mean in the back of a VW. This opening line obviously made an impression on Quentin Tarantino as he later stole it for the equally unpleasant coma rapist, Buck in Kill Bill Vol 1. Either that or he had overheard Harvey Weinstien whisper it to a pot plant.

Director Tobe Hooper once again sticks it to the southern redneck after having painted them as cannibal, inbred, power tool enthusiasts in his previous film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
The basic premise of this movie is a guy who runs a B&B and isn't too fond of the local brothel and consequently likes to feed it's clients to his pet Crocodile. Yep you heard me. Crocodile, not alligator... Crocodile. And that really is it in a nutshell.

Unlike Texas Chain Saw which, while not especially gory but very gritty and full of moments of tension, (see the drawn out dinner table, hammer scene), this is more straight up gore flick and lacks almost everything that made Hoopers earlier film top of most people's 10 best horror movie list.
I'm not saying that this film isn't worth your time. It does have a silly charm all of its own and while pretty whacky I do tend to enjoy it. Robert Englund appears to be having fun building on that nasty streak that he will later put to such good use in A Nightmare on Elm Street. The film also stars Texas Chain Saw final girl Marilyn Burns.

Don't watch this expecting great things because this isn't Texas Chain Saw. It isn't even Texas Chain Saw 2, (that film had Leatherface and Dennis Hopper square off in a Chainsaw sword fight so I won't hear a bad word against it).

Not brilliant but certainly not bad so give it a watch.
  
Shoot The Gap (Big Play, #4)
Shoot The Gap (Big Play, #4)
Jordan Ford | 2016 | Contemporary, Religion, Young Adult (YA)
10
10.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
In the final book of the series, we have Tyler and Sam's story. They have been best friends forever, but Tyler thinks that he needs something 'special' to make him stand out from his team mates. That something comes in the shape of Roxy Carmichael. Will Tyler open his eyes and see what is right in front of him, or will he stumble around in the dark and lose what he's already got?

This story wraps up all the previous story lines into one amazing climax. We see more of Tyler and Sam's home life, and the differences are there to see. Whereas one family is full of life and love, the other is clinical and detached. Professions of love are made, but to be honest, even after reading it all, I have my doubts!

With the full crew here helping to complete the story, the pages near enough turn themselves. Everything comes out to the harsh light of day and only time will tell how they all survive the fallout.

Absolutely recommended, both this book and the series.

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
Shoot The Gap (Big Play, #4)
Shoot The Gap (Big Play, #4)
Jordan Ford | 2016 | Contemporary, Religion, Young Adult (YA)
10
10.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Shoot The Gap (Big Play #4) by Jordan Ford
In the final book of the series, we have Tyler and Sam's story. They have been best friends forever, but Tyler thinks that he needs something 'special' to make him stand out from his team mates. That something comes in the shape of Roxy Carmichael. Will Tyler open his eyes and see what is right in front of him, or will he stumble around in the dark and lose what he's already got?

This story wraps up all the previous story lines into one amazing climax. We see more of Tyler and Sam's home life, and the differences are there to see. Whereas one family is full of life and love, the other is clinical and detached. Professions of love are made, but to be honest, even after reading it all, I have my doubts!

With the full crew here helping to complete the story, the pages near enough turn themselves. Everything comes out to the harsh light of day and only time will tell how they all survive the fallout.

Absolutely recommended, both this book and the series.

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!