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Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel
Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel
Tom Wainwright | 2017 | Business & Finance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A Dummies guide to understanding and quashing the worldwide drugs trade
What a fantastic book. Tom Wainwright manages to describe the global drug cartels as a business economic model which makes total sense. It is not just the violence and torture, it’s the revelations about the level of managerial stress. Running a drugs cartel, it seems, is not only a moral and legal minefield but a human resources, marketing and supply chain nightmare. The gang-centric tattoos that cartel foot-soldiers sport, were instigated to prevent staff jumping to another outfit or, worse, going straight.

Wainwright makes clear that those seeking to stop the drugs trade fail due to their insistence on treating it like a war, when they should treat it like a market manipulation. Such a clever book.
  
Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1)
Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1)
Kami Garcia | 2009 | Fiction & Poetry, Paranormal, Romance
8
7.4 (34 Ratings)
Book Rating
The book is good, although it is somewhat frustrating that almost every chapter has flashbacks. Once you become familiar with the routine though it is easier to read and understand. The story is interesting, as the idea is unique and not like any other dystopian novel I have read. There is no real conclusion and it leaves everything hanging until the next book, which was rather annoying. I would like to see some sort of short term conclusions at the end of a novel, to feel that there is some sort of resolution. This is definitely not one of my favorites but I will most likely read the next book in the series when it comes out just because I need to know what happens with the characters.
  
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Crystal (9 KP) rated The 100 in Books

Jul 4, 2018  
The 100
The 100
Kass Morgan | 2018 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
6
7.5 (16 Ratings)
Book Rating
The book is good, although it is somewhat frustrating that almost every chapter has flashbacks. Once you become familiar with the routine though it is easier to read and understand. The story is interesting, as the idea is unique and not like any other dystopian novel I have read. There is no real conclusion and it leaves everything hanging until the next book, which was rather annoying. I would like to see some sort of short term conclusions at the end of a novel, to feel that there is some sort of resolution. This is definitely not one of my favorites but I will most likely read the next book in the series when it comes out just because I need to know what happens with the characters.
  
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Nickg24 (492 KP) rated Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) in Movies

Dec 3, 2019 (Updated Dec 4, 2019)  
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
2019 | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The attack on Rick's home (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
I was looking to forward to this film with such a great cast and a legendary director behind it but was left quite disappointed once it was all over.

This was Tarantino showing us how great hollywood was in the old days and how they dont make them nowadays like they did then.Dicaprios character seemed like he was heading towards a nervous breakdown for most of the film and Pitt's character was just there,hanging around and being cool.

The best part of the film was the ending,that was tarantino at his brutal,bloody and violent best,loved the way that brandy the dog helped kill the manson family members.

An enjoyable film but for me the weakest of all of tarantino's movies so far.
  
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Andy K (10823 KP) Dec 3, 2019

Spoilers!

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Nickg24 (492 KP) Dec 4, 2019

Arghh sorry.Thought I had pressed the spoilers option.

The Christmas Promise
The Christmas Promise
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is my first time reading a book by Janice Carter and boy will I be reading more!

From the first page Janice Carter created a connection with her characters (and me) that I really enjoyed. It had a hint of mystery at the beginning, probably partially because I have not read the previous books in the series, but it intrigued me just the same. I liked the chemistry between Ben and Ella, the little flashbacks to days gone by was a special touch that let me feel like I had known the characters personal, and they had such good interactions with each other. Add in the good storyline and you have a recipe for a good relaxing evening (and if you are like me, wanting some hot chocolate to go with the book!
  
The Breakfast Club (1985)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
1985 | Comedy, Drama

"I saw it on TV again recently and was just bowled over by it. In it's own way it's very intense: you've only basically got seven characters and they're all in same set up. There's very little break out from the library where they're all stuck. And so you really get the character development and the inter-relationships, and you really get to the heart of the kind of teenage cruelties and the way it all dissolves with their common plight. It's a very clever film. It's one of those films that creates a whole genre, not all of which I like – St Elmo's Fire, for example, was so sentimental it made me want to puke, but The Breakfast Club isn't like that. It's taut and it's very much about the teenage condition."

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The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
1992 | Drama, Romance, War

"Last of the Mohicans was like my childhood favorite. I love that movie. The soundtrack to that is probably one of my favorite in the world. My favorite movie is probably the life of Daniel Day-Lewis. If you watched Gangs of New York, it sucked, but then you see him as Bill the Butcher, it’s unbelievable. You really want to say Gangs of New York because he’s so amazing, but then you want to say There Will Be Blood. I mean, really, he’s so amazing. My Left Foot, Last of the Mohicans; the guy is just a freak of nature. He’s like a national treasure. That’s what he should be considered. Mindblowing, absolutely mindblowing. I can’t wait to see him play Lincoln. Anything Daniel Day-Lewis is in, that’s pretty much my favorite movie."

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Mark Arm recommended Duty Now for the Future by Devo in Music (curated)

 
Duty Now for the Future by Devo
Duty Now for the Future by Devo
1979 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I could have chosen the first record Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! or, to a lesser extent, Freedom Of Choice, but I like the rawness of Duty Now For The Future. I think the Eno production on the first one was great but this is just a little bit different. To me, they were very cynical but also really funny. They obviously created this whole myth for themselves. Devo had this whole package before bands really came up with that. They had this whole mythology built around them. Other people had that - I guess Magma had this whole mythology built around them so they're maybe not the first - but at the time it felt really futuristic and it felt like a whole new thing was happening."

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Gruff Rhys recommended Flammende Hferzen by Michael Rother in Music (curated)

 
Flammende Hferzen by Michael Rother
Flammende Hferzen by Michael Rother
1999 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It's a beautiful record. It's the Neu/Can supergroup in a way with Jaki from Can on drums and Michael on guitar. It's the pop end of Krautrock and sounds like Utopian sports montage music or something! It evokes the future, even still, for me or my idea of what the future would be at that time. It's a record I listened to a lot in recent years and just a record that I really recommend. I wouldn't have heard any of this stuff until the early-1990s but it was something we listened to a lot of as the Super Furry Animals. I quite like listening to instrumental music as it means I can still think over it without lyrics interfering; there's a time and a place for lyrics!
"

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Days of Heaven (1978)
Days of Heaven (1978)
1978 | Drama

"Every man I’ve ever gotten close to has loved this movie to the point where I am less interested in a guy’s astrological sign than the degree of his obsession with Days of Heaven. So I was a little resistant to the whole Malick canon. Which is nonsense because this is the greatest film of a great director. It’s so stunning and genuinely suspenseful, which is a rare combination. It’s a classic but not in the way that some classics can feel like taking your medicine. Like Do the Right Thing, no one needs me to be the one to introduce them to Days of Heaven. So maybe I’ll just describe the order of images that pop into our collective heads when we think of this film: Wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, Sam Shepard, wheat, wheat . . ."

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