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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer | 2006 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.8 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
I have never been a big fan of history. There have been events in history which have captured my attention...the Holocaust, JFK's assassination, the Civil Rights movement, the Beatles. I think my issue with history is just that, its history. I had no connection to it. All of that changed on September 11, 2001, my generation's version of the day that will live in infamy. Like most everyone who was old enough to remember, I remember that day like it were yesterday...where I was when I heard, what it was like to watch those massive building collapse, the fear, the uncertainty, the need to have those I loved close to me, how I knew it was real but just not being able to comprehend that I was watching the news & not some movie. I didn't have a personal connection with losing someone that day thank God.
Jonathan Safran Foer's book gave me that personal connection. While I know it is fiction, it felt SO incredibly real. His writing was very heartfelt...funny, depressing, hopeful, and heartbreaking all at once. It tells the story of Oskar Schell who lost his father on that horrible day. It tells the tale of the aftermath for those left behind, those who still today stuggle to get a handle on wrapping their minds around their loved one being gone, even though there is nothing to put closure to their loss.
Oskar spends months a searching for an explanation to a key he found at the bottom of a vase in his father's closet after he died. He embarks on the search hoping to feel close to his dad, if only for a little while longer. That search leads him all through New York and into the homes of a very eclectic group of people who are all dealing with some kind of tragedy. In the end, what he finds surprises Oskar, but also manages to pull him back to his mother and deal with his anger at the same time.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this book was a pleasant surprise. I laughed & cried, often times all from just one page of text. The story is accompanied by photos that just add to the personal nature of the story. I don't do this often if ever really, but I think this is a book I will read more than once.
  
Poison Study (Study, #1)
Poison Study (Study, #1)
Maria V. Snyder | 2005 | Fiction & Poetry
10
9.0 (13 Ratings)
Book Rating
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was wel-written, fast-paced, and complex. I thought Snyder did an excellent job creating well-rounded characters. I absolutely adored Yelena and Valek and their relationship throughout the book! The plot was extremely well-done. There was just the right amount of complexity to leave you satisfied with the political intrigue and not be overwhelmed with detail.

My only complaint was the ending/resolution. I thought the Commander was unnecessarily uncompromising and ungrateful. Surely since Yelena had just saved his life and his country? Empire? he would bend a little. Especially since they had just formed that bond. What use is Yelena to him in the south? I think his excuse about the rules is bullshit too. Who of the generals would even know that he had saved her life and such?

Also I was a little I satisfied with how relaxed Yelena and Valek are about parting. Maybe it's their confidence that they will see each other again and find a way to make it work, but I just didn't really feel the depth of their emotions like I had in the rest of the book. It was a little fast.
  
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Ian McCulloch recommended Gold: Greatest Hits by ABBA in Music (curated)

 
Gold: Greatest Hits by ABBA
Gold: Greatest Hits by ABBA
1993 | Rock

"The first interview we did was with The Face, and we were all sitting in a room and it wasn’t going too well. When it came out they must have thought we were the most awkward bastards. Will wasn’t helping much – he was in bed with a torch under the sheets, presumably so he could see his knob. I was asked my influences and I said Lou and Bowie, and I said I loved Abba. The others afterwards said they wished I hadn’t have mentioned Abba, but I didn’t say it for effect, they were this side thing that helped. Every time a song came out it was like, ""fucking hell""! Just utterly brilliant, great melodies, and Agnetha, the best female voice of all time – and the other one wasn’t bad either. It was just so cute – I hate that word – some of the awkward lyrics, but over time was it charm, or just genius lyrics. The relationship songs are just brilliant – I wish I’d have written them. ‘When I Kissed The Teacher’ – you can’t get away with that now, what with the Catholic Church and Jimmy Savile having destroyed all the foundations of decency."

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The Witch of Duva (Grisha Verse, #0.5)
8
9.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
There will 100% be spoilers in this review, so read at your own caution.

Um. I did not see that ending coming. Not by a long shot.

Okay, Leigh Bardugo is a master wordsmith. This story was so creepy and foreboding, I just can't keep up with her. The writing style was kind of mystical and whimsical, but it a really dark way. I have no idea how she does it, but holy crap, she does it so freaking well!

I love how the ending was such a twist. I thought, in trying to "out-trick" Ms. Bardugo, that it was going to be Nadya who was the monster because that would be something weird, right? WRONG!! Wrong on every thought I had about that.

I did not see that her freaking father would be that weird!! Ugh. That was pretty gruesome to read, to be completely honest. There were only two points in this story that my stomach actually turned: when she got her freaking fingers chopped off and baked into a ginger-child and when her father ate the ginger-child and basically exploded all over the floor. Just thinking about it makes me shudder.

Bardugo loves drawing the attention one way then ripping the carped out from under everyone. Kinda like something Kaz would do. She's a trickster like that.

Again, with this story, Leigh Bardugo is creating a more immersive world that not only draws me in to the story more, but also creates a deeper world for the characters to live in. I could see a little Nina or Alina sitting by the fireplace being told these stories as little girls to keep them from being reckless. I just freaking love this so much.

If you haven't read the rest of her folk-tales, stop reading this review (it's almost over anyway) and go read them right now!!!

Lastly, I just want to say a big thank you to Leigh for writing these folk-tales. I have always loved any kind of folk-tale but coming from a world that I already love and know a lot about, this made me really happy!!
  
Wedding Crashers (2005)
Wedding Crashers (2005)
2005 | Comedy, Romance

"Vince Vaughn made me laugh like all the way through this film. There’s plenty of dialogue, but the part where he’s sitting at the dinner table and he’s getting the rub-and-tug under table is just… He’s doing everything with his face, like, he’s not really saying anything. What’s coming out of him is awesome, pardon the pun. Will Ferrell is great too, but just watch Vince Vaughn in that entire movie where he gets strapped down to the bed and they want to play tummy sticks and stuff. “No, no tummy sticks.” The scene where he goes into the kitchen and he’s angry, and he’s like “We’re not talking,” but he’s loading up on carbs and stuff and announces he’s going to “sit over here,” dumping syrup on top of everything. It’s slapsticky and over the top, but there’s room on everyone’s queue for something big that has celebrities in it but a great score, and it looked great, they’re taking the boat out, there’s big weddings. It’s a big movie, but it didn’t feel big and overpowering; it felt intimate. There was a direction, there was a sense, and they went. And they didn’t deviate, and it also has such a sweetness and lessons learned and all that kind of stuff."

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Rian Johnson recommended The Sting (1973) in Movies (curated)

 
The Sting (1973)
The Sting (1973)
1973 | Classics, Comedy, Drama

"And then, I guess, The Sting is the next one I gotta say. This was for me, and probably for a lot of people, at least of our generation, our first exposure to con men movies was from The Sting. It really holds up. Like a lot of the movies on this list, it holds up because of the central relationship, because of the Newman-Redford thing. Watching those two guys together, even though at this point, plotwise, I would be fairly… Well, I don’t know. I wonder, if someone saw The Sting clean for the first time today, now with all the movies that have imitated it in the years since, whether anyone would actually kind of say “Oh my God” at the end of it. I don’t know, but I don’t know that it would matter, because I think the fun of the film is in the game playing, and specifically in the way that these two guys play off of each other. It seems like something that’s particularly vulnerable, just because of the twist, the nature of the end. But like I said, that’s not really what makes the movie tick, oddly enough. It holds up just as a really fun ride."

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Natasha Khan recommended Disintegration by The Cure in Music (curated)

 
Disintegration by The Cure
Disintegration by The Cure
2005 | Rock

"I was probably about 17 [when I first heard it] and this one for me is very much about falling in love. I didn't realise for ages how much it must have influenced me because of the phasey synths, the layers of phasey guitar, the romance and the gloominess and depression, but within that depression there's always those bursts of euphoria and that sad/happy line. In music I tend to really enjoy the sad/happy dichotomy; they've been put together and it breaks your heart but you love it at the same time. You want to cry but you want to smile, and I think really hearing phasey guitars, massive intros, really lush, long droning synths, and Robert Smith for me, on 'Lullaby', it's just such great storytelling: "Quietly he laughs and shaking his head / Creeps closer now, closer to the foot of the bed". It's just like weird, dark, gothic literature or weird Roald Dahl stories or kids' stories about adult anxiety but told through Charlotte's Web-like fables and storytelling. 'Untitled' has harmonium and stuff and then it kicks into massively reverby drums, quite shoegazy, and 'Disintegration' is such a great song, I absolutely love it, and there's loads of really long intros where he just sings at the end and when you hear him yelping, "yeeeeah!". I felt like him and Björk at the time were both really exploring feral, expressive vocal sounds - and I think Robert Smith is a really underrated vocalist, not even underrated but I think he's like [mimics Robert Smith] and it's really free and endearing, just very unique I think."

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DMcQ (4 KP) rated The Martian in Books

Nov 7, 2017  
The Martian
The Martian
Andy Weir | 2014 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
8.9 (50 Ratings)
Book Rating
Storyline's good, the science is feasible, the characters are people you feel like you could probably be friends with. (0 more)
The profanity is bad. Not that it's every other word or sentence, just not to my taste. (0 more)
This was a hilariously fantastic read! The only part I don't care for is the profanity. The science is believable, and he explains it so that those who may not be familiar with the concepts can understand it. It kept me enthralled to the end. This book became one of my favorites!
  
Killing Them Softly (2012)
Killing Them Softly (2012)
2012 | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
6
5.5 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A very stylish crime tale that carries a political message along with it. It's very brutal and graphic at times with a very gritty feel to the whole film. Quite a slow burner at times, it finally gets going at a quicker pace about two thirds of the way in. A bit more action and less drawn out dialogue scenes, for the sake of it rather than needed at that, would have made it better in my opinion. However with a cast like this you can just sit back and enjoy the story.
  
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Auburn (57 KP) rated Red Queen in Books

Apr 10, 2019  
Red Queen
Red Queen
Victoria Aveyard | 2015 | Young Adult (YA)
10
8.0 (64 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is one of those books that I have purchased a bunch of times. Each time I start to read, remember I already bought it and am Excited to reread it again. I adore the magic, the story, and yes even the love interests. While I do think one should win out that is to be seen in future books in the series.
Those who love hunger game may want to take a peek at this one. You'll probably fall in love with it over and over just like me.