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A Walk In The Woods (2015)
A Walk In The Woods (2015)
2015 | Action, Comedy, Drama
6
7.4 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Director: Ken Kwapis
Writer: Michael Arndt, Bill Holderman (Screenplay) Bill Bryson (Book)
Starring: Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Emma Thompson, Mary Steenburgen, Nick Offerman, Kristen Schaal, R. Keith Harris
 
Plot: After spending two decades in England, Bill Bryson returns to the U.S., where he decides the best way to connect with his homeland is to hike the Appalachian Trail with one of his oldest friends.

Tagline – When you push yourself to the edge, the real fun begins.
Runtime: 1 Hour 44 Minutes
 
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
 
Verdict: Never Captures the Sense of Adventure
 
Story: A Walk in the Woods starts when author Bill Bryson (Redford) returns to America after years of travel books, where he has never written about his homeland. Bill wants to walk the Appalachian Trail, over 2000miles, his wife Catherine (Thompson) isn’t happy with this decision forcing him to go with somebody, which sees him reconnect with an old friend Stephen Katz (Nolte).
Even though Stephen isn’t in the best shape for this hike, he is the only person that accepts the offer and the two set out on the 6-month long hike, hoping to create his next best seller, while reconnecting with an old friend.
 
Thoughts on A Walk in the Woods
 
Characters – Bill Bryson is a travel author that has been writing about hiking trails all over the world, only he has never written about America, he wants to change this, hoping to give himself a chance to experience the American walking trail of the Appalachian Trail, one of the most challenging hikes in the country. Stephen Katz is the only person that is willing to join Bill on his adventure, the two have had their differences in the past, he isn’t in the best shape for this adventure and sees it as a chance to reconnect with an old friend. Catherine is the wife of Bill that doesn’t want Bill to go on this hike, she is worried about everything that could happen, forcing him to go with somebody on the trip. Jeannie is one of the ladies that they guys meet on the journey, she is one of the many people they meet along the way.
Performances – Robert Redford and Nick Nolte are wonderful together in the leading role, you get to believe their friendship has been through the ups and downs life has to offer, only to let them get their solo moments when needed for the film. when we get to the supporting cast Emma Thompson does get her chance to shine without getting too much screen time.
Story – The story here follows an author who sets out on a new adventure travelling the Appalachian Trail, first for himself and secondly for his latest book, he reconnects with an old friend to join him on this adventure. This story does have a big difference from the book which sees a big age change, which does change the story, which is more focused on the older generation that are seeing their friends die and wanting to do another adventure before it is too late. The trip itself never gets shown in distance scale either, we know how far it is, but we don’t seem to learn where it starts and finishes or what locations we go through.
Adventure/Biopic/Comedy – The adventure side of the film does take the men on with a location that will be one of the highlights of the film, the biopic side of the film does use the real names, but not the real ages which does change the dynamic of the story completely. The comedy will give you a couple of laughs along the way, without it being a full-blown comedy.
Settings – The settings in the film do give us a couple of beautiful shots, though we don’t get to feel the distance being travelled.

Scene of the Movie – Mary Ellen.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – We never feel the distance they are traveling through the film.
Final Thoughts – This is an adventure film that doesn’t give us the sense of adventure that it could have, we do get great performances, but the story never draws us in the way it could.
 
Overall: Disappointing adventure.
Rating
  
Samurai Spirit
Samurai Spirit
2014 | Animals, Fantasy, Fighting
One of the best parts of the board gaming experience is finding a fun group of people with whom to play! Sometimes, though, coordinating a game night is easier said than done. We all must occasionally forego the group experience and face the world as the Lonely Only. But fear not! The world of solo-play is a vast and exciting realm! What follows is a chronicle of my journey into the solo-playing world – notes on gameplay, mechanics, rules, difficulty, and overall experience with solo variations of commonly multiplayer games! I hope this will provide some insight as you continue to grow your collection, or explore your already owned games!

As a Samurai, you spend your life traveling across the land to help those in need. Most recently, you and a handful of other Samurai have been contracted by a small village to defend them against a clan of invading raiders. Only by working together, and by using your extensive training, will you succeed in keeping this village safe!

Samurai Spirit is a cooperative game of press-your-luck. Players take on the role of a Samurai, each with a unique power, and take turns drawing cards and fighting off the invaders or offering support to your fellow Samurai. Invaders can have recurring negative effects, so strategize wisely on how best to combat them and see how far you can push your luck each round. If you are able to survive through 3 rounds (waves) of invaders with at least one surviving farmstead and family, the Samurai are victorious and the village is saved! If any of the Samurai are killed, or the village has been completely destroyed by invaders, then the game is lost. As a solo game, Samurai Spirit plays essentially the same as in group play, with only 2 main differences – the solo player controls 2 Samurai instead of 1, and the support tokens from the unused Samurai are each available for use once during the game.

For such a neat theme, this game falls short for me. It seems simple enough, but there are areas of ambiguity in the rules that lead to some confusion. For starters, the text size is so small that I am not able to find any information at a quick glance! The text itself is not always clear either – like when, at the end of a round, the rules say to collect all cards used this round, does that include cards that have been discarded due to Samurai abilities? How about the cards of the Intruder stack that are presumably discarded after being revealed? The rulebook offers no clarification, and I honestly still don’t know the right answer.

The order/layout of the rules feels mismatched too – relevant information is not always grouped together, and I find myself flipping between several pages at a time trying to figure out one single thing. For example, in the ‘Fight’ action description, it says that if you reach your Kiai value exactly, you can activate your Kiai ability. You have to turn the page to a different section to see exactly what activating that ability means, and then you have to flip an additional 2 more pages to see what each individual Kiai ability is! Why not just put them all in one place? It would certainly be easier to understand if all relevant information was grouped together.

The prominent mechanic of Samurai Spirit is press-your-luck, and I would definitely say that this game is very luck-based. When setting up the game, the initial deck of cards is randomly selected and that can impact whether or not you are able to complete certain requirements each round – if there aren’t enough hat/farm/doll cards for each Samurai, you are guaranteed to incur a penalty at the end of every round. Actual gameplay is very luck-based too, and for me it feels like there are no good ways to strategize – your choices are all dependent on the luck of the draw. You can push your luck to draw more cards and use special abilities, but since you are suffering from recurring penalties each turn, it feels futile to keep going at a certain point.

For me, Samurai Spirit is repetitive and kind of boring – suffer penalty, draw card, and repeat until you eventually pass or the deck runs out. It’s like a too-complicated version of blackjack in which the deck is stacked against you. It’s such a bummer because the theme and artwork are neat, and the gameplay (in theory, at least) should be effective. But the actual execution is too reliant on luck to be successful.

I do quite a bit of solo gaming, but this game is never one that I willingly decide to play. I honestly only broke it out recently as a refresher for this review. Perhaps it is better at higher player counts, but since that is not where most of my gaming occurs, Samurai Spirit is a dud for me.

https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/solo-chronicles-samurai-spirit/
  
The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea
The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea
Maggie Tokuda Hall | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry, LGBTQ+, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
8
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Thank you to Netgalley and Walker books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I chose this book simply based on the synopsis and the gorgeous cover art. I expected it to be a standard YA read, perhaps edging on middle grade but wow was I wrong! This novel contains all the gritty bits of a Pirate’s life and is as far from Neverland pirates and mermaids as you can get.

The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea centres around the relationship between a high-born, queer, Japanese-inspired noblewoman, Evelyn and a pirate named Florian who is secretly a girl named Flora, disguising themself in order to gain the respect of their crew mates.

Evelyn and Florian instantly capture the heart of the reader. They are such an unlikely match and from completely different worlds but the way that Maggie Tokuda-Hall throws these two characters together and alternates chapters between their perspectives is so compelling. The secret attraction and the pining between Evelyn and Florian can literally be felt through the pages. These two are guaranteed to stay with you long after the book is finished.

In fact, the majority of Tokuda-Hall’s cast of characters are so well developed: we have Rake, the first mate who is a very closed character and keeps his own intentions close to his chest for most of the novel. We have a gender-fluid Pirate Supreme, an imperialist noblewoman who can kick ass and Flora’s brother Alfie, a tortured soul whose traumatic past is alluded to often.

The portrayal of mermaids in the novel is nothing short of inspired: hunted and captured for the properties their blood possesses, mermaids are quite ugly when imprisoned by pirates. These mythical creatures that are renowned for their beauty are only conventionally beautiful in the presence of their loving mother: The Sea. The Sea in turn will do whatever she can to protect her children, and will always reward those who help.

The other pirates are, as you would expect, a group of shady characters but they do not fade into the background at all. Tokuda-Hall reveals right from the beginning the true intentions of this crew and it creates an underlying tension throughout the whole voyage upon The Dove. The twists, secrets and revelations onboard that ship are captivating and create a page-turning first half of the book.

I will say that during the middle of the book, mainly during “The Witch” section, the pace slowed dramatically and it just didn’t flow as much.
I almost wanted more treachery and more suspense from the witch, more struggle by Evelyn and, dare I say, more pining from Evelyn and Florian. Their relationship up to this point had been so intense and slow burning that it almost seemed to cool a little.
I also feel that not quite enough was made of Evelyn’s discovery about the real reason behind her voyage. It was almost a convenient way for that side of her story to be resolved. Similarly, with Florian/Flora; their evolution from Pirate to Witch seemed quite acceptable and tame.

These factors, in my opinion, affected the ending of the novel where everything seemed quite rushed in its efforts to tie up all loose ends. Please don’t misunderstand, I LOVED the ending and how Evelyn and Flora/Florian finished their journey. I even shed a few tears. However, it was the lead up to this that just seemed too convenient and too quick.


Overall this is a wonderfully dark pirate novel that instantly creates a world full of magic and wonder whilst tackling the issues of identity, colonialism, homophobia, poverty and rape. A world where gender-fluid and queer characters fight against injustice alongside endangered mermaids and the Sea is to be respected almost as a deity.

I cannot believe that this is merely Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s debut novel! I cannot wait to see where she takes us next!
  
Christmas at Tiffany's
Christmas at Tiffany's
Karen Swan | 2011 | Romance, Travel
8
6.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Light hearted (1 more)
Easy Read
Slightly Predictable (0 more)
Power to the women!
Contains spoilers, click to show
This book was recommended to me by a friend and I wasn’t sure what to expect. The whole time I was reading it, anyone that saw the book in my hands would ask ‘is that similar to ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s?’ The short answer to that is no, not even close.

I must admit that I was quite confused by the start of the book and the prologue could have been explained a bit better. The story is focalised through Cassie who is celebrating 10 years of marriage with her husband. 3 of her friends have come to visit her in order to celebrate this ‘achievement’. However, things quickly turn sour and it’s revealed that her husband has been having an affair with her best friend and they even have a child together. Her 3 visitors whisk her away and it is agreed that she will spend 4 months with each of them in order to find herself again. She will have to find her feet in New York, Paris and then London (it can’t be all bad!).

This novel shows you a journey of a woman who has always depended on her relationship and who gains her independence and finds what she truly wants. Granted, there are parts that are incredibly cheesy but I think that is part of the beauty of it. It’s a predictable feel-good book but there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

As a woman, it has inspired and reminded me that relationships aren’t everything and a happily ever after can come at any moment. The novel excites you as the prospect of a new and better relationship unfolds for Cassie. Swan takes you into this world where anything is possible even for a woman with a broken heart.

This book doesn’t just appeal to women that have had their heart broken but also those that love to travel. It highlights different things to do in the three locations and makes you feel inspired to go and see these for yourself. It is a bitter sweet romance novel and I’m just waiting to find my own version of Henry.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read and something that I could happily pick up again. I must admit, I’m surprised that they have made an adaptation of this novel. It would be an ultimate chick flick!
  
Sweep: Volume 1 (Sweep, #1-3)
Sweep: Volume 1 (Sweep, #1-3)
Cate Tiernan | 2010 | Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult (YA)
10
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Enthralling (5 more)
Great Character development
Easy to relate to (more so for young adults).
Very consistent, you don't see crazy out of character, makes no sense, kind of actions.
Very Emotional, you will be all over the place and love every minute.
Clean, though it has a passionate romance, this is not a steamy book, perfect for YA and people simply not interested in those kinds of things.
There is a side to 'very emotional' that can be a little unsettling for some. I loved it though! (1 more)
Not Steamy - For those who would want it.
Whats not to love?!
*No Spoilers*

I loved this book, though I read the series when I was young, having the 15 novels constrained to a few bigger books instead of a bunch of tiny ones is a huge plus for me!

Years and years after my first read, this book still pulled me in and kept me there. Cate Tiernan really grabbed the bull by the horns by offering us a MC Heroine who is not perfect or a knock out. At 16 she is down to earth, she has her flaws and insecurities which really is what makes her such and intresting character to come and relate to. And the best friend who she can't help but relate herself to. Cate brings the world of teenage angst and adds in magick and danger for a thrilling mix that will pull you right in.

This book takes over the span of roughly a year. With plenty of twists and turns, ups and downs and all arounds. Morgan and Cal have a very interesting journey, along with a group of...we will call them friends. Its such a diverse group of personalities.

Its definitley a book I would recommend to any YA. My little sister has just read it and is also in love! But if you are not YA don't turn it away so quickly, it's a book to be read! I never got to finish the series before and am so excited to follow more of Morgan's story!