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Yesterday's Over (Philly Heat Series, #3)
Yesterday's Over (Philly Heat Series, #3)
Becky Flade | 2022 | Romance, Thriller
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
i like the twist the bones in the rubble took.
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.


This is book 3 in the Philly Heat series, but it's not necessary to have read the other books first. I have read book 2, Fall To Pieces. I really enjoyed that book.


This one? Not so much. It was still a good read, but just didn't push my buttons very much!


I liked that was the romance in these books takes a back seat. The steam levels are fairly low. There is love and passion, but the smexy times are very much faded to black.


I liked the twist the bodies in the rubble took, but I would have liked a little more closure on those. We get full closure for only one, and the rest are in the wind. You get enough to put together what happened to them and who did it, but not who they are. But Ben summed it up, I think. They may never find out who they are, and they have to let it go. I'm just greedy!


It was a good read, just not one that really worked for me.


3 good solid stars.


*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
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Nicky Wire recommended Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon in Music (curated)

 
Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon
Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"The drum sound! The greatest bass sound ever! The rawness of it. ‘Isolation’ I absolutely love, and obviously we covered ‘Working Class Hero’. It’s really tight but there’s something about it that feels like they haven’t rehearsed much either - you see the film and they’re all coming in on the hoof. There’s some kind of bluesy nastiness - and I’m not a fan of the blues either - but there’s something about it, John Lennon’s guitar is really good on it, I think his guitaring was underrated actually. There’s so much savage bitterness there, ‘Mother’, just to start with the fucking bell chiming. I love that savageness. He’s having a go at McCartney, but he does it with so much wit, he can always glide over the top of it. I wish I had that ability, not to always drag it down with pure pettiness. “I don't believe in Elvis. I don't believe in Zimmerman/ I don't believe in Beatles” - I don’t think he could get “The Beatles” in, so it’s just “don’t believe in Beatles”. I love that album. There was a lot of that on [Wire’s solo album] I Killed The Zeitgeist actually, and there’s a lot on this album. I tried to learn that critical self-examination. I think John was a lot more psychoanalytical, he could use what he considered help, where as I was fucking on my own."

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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
2009 | Action, Sci-Fi
One of the most proudly and spectacularly nerdy things I've ever seen - filled to the brim with seemingly endless gadgetry, weapons, flashbacks, melodrama, underground/hidden lairs, explosions, costumes, and "oh my God I can't believe they're actually doing this" action scenes. And just like that two hours flies right by. I'm usually pointedly averse to this sort of routine guy-saves-the-day-then-gets-the-girl blockbuster crap from this era - but there's such an overload of visual tech-fetish creativity thrown at the screen that you'd really have to watch it twice to even absorb it all, and beyond that something just clicks here. The clear disdain from Tatum - who has never been worse - because he really doesn't want to be here is hysterical, and the rest of this absolutely loaded cast turn in similarly appetizing corniness from Quaid's trademark commandeering to Wayans' canned comedic relief. The tropes feel lovingly recreated rather than haphazardly slapped together, there's a refreshing feeling of sincerity that makes its fun factor way more authentic than other films of the breed. Still a bit on the clean side (more specifically of-its-time) to properly rise to the heights it deserves, but oh baby this is a blast and a half. Really good Michael Bay ripoff junk food that does a helluva lot with that PG-13 rating.
  
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Julia Holter recommended Turiya Sings by Alice Coltrane in Music (curated)

 
Turiya Sings by Alice Coltrane
Turiya Sings by Alice Coltrane
1982 | Vocal
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I'm still learning about Alice Coltrane; I can't really claim to know a lot about her. I've heard a lot of music from her - she did a lot of different things - but this is the first of hers that I really listened to. The first time I heard her, I was performing on this all-night radio show in LA and it took place in a church. After I'd performed, I lay down on this pew to sleep and the DJ played this record and I woke up and it just really hit me. It was the track 'Yamuna Tira Vihari' and I was like, ""Oh my god"". It was so immersive and a flood of light, and so ecstatic. I can hardly explain. I was delirious, almost. There were all these strings and an organ, I think, and then her voice chanting and it's so insane. I listen to it a lot. It's spiritual, I think - and I don't know anything about that aspect of it - but I listen to a lot of music in that way. I listen to a lot of early music and Renaissance music, a lot of choral stuff. You know that this is a spiritual record and you almost don't need to know about that aspect of it. It just gets you. But I think that's okay, I think you can do that."

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Amélie (2001)
Amélie (2001)
2001 | Comedy, Drama, International
Rich cinematic comfort food, not only am I wholly befuddled by this - but shocked at how many people don't hate it. By most means this shouldn't work let alone as remarkably as it does: it exudes any and all of the qualities that defined late 90s/early 00s Miramax-style cinema which sort of began with 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 and plateaued with 𝘉𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 where everyone was randomly obsessed with people doing 'adorkable' quirky things for little to no reason (i.e. painting the same Renoir piece once a year for 20 years, looking under photo booths for torn up pictures that you then put together into an extensive photo album collection [??]) and ubiquitous, fast-talking overnarration that just explains a lot of excess details that only exist to be eccentric. I myself will most certainly cop to having a huge warm spot for that sort of film - for the most part - as now we've sort of crescendoed back into the 'monotonous, stock Wikipedia article' type of film. At any rate, this was just so wonderful. An ode to the good in life with pretty much spotless dialogue, scenes that snap together like puzzle pieces, and a deservedly iconic aesthetic - the way better version of 𝘗𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥. Audrey Tatou deserved *so* much better than slumming it in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢 𝘝𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦 after this.
  
The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd
The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd
1973 | Rock
9.6 (22 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I still hadn’t really bought a record, so I was still listening to things mainly on the radio, but also watching the chart rundown on “Top of the Pops.” That’s when I became aware of more grown-up music. I liked glam-rock; we’re not allowed to mention his name now, but Gary Glitter’s music was quite good. “Blockbuster!” by Sweet really takes me back to that time because that song starts with a siren. Whenever I hear that record, it immediately transports me back to being on the bumper cars at fun fair. It’s perfect music for that. I was into music like that, but my mum would still get babysitters, because my sister was 8 at the time. So we would have teenage girls come around the house, and one of them had a copy of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. The record was broken—apparently, she had left it on the radiogram and somebody had sat on the lid—so you couldn’t play the first track on side one or side two. But she still brought it around. I had to go to bed for school the next day, but I listened to that record through the floorboards. I was actually quite frightened by the bits and bites of deranged laughing, and I wished that I had not listened to it. But I started to realize that music wasn’t just things that you listen to at fun fairs, that there was a more adult side to music. I think Pink Floyd’s music still stands up, actually. Still don’t like The Wall, though. Animals is as far as I got."

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Go Back for Love
Go Back for Love
Anne-Marie Sassoli | 2019 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
2
2.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Like many of the books that I do not care for, I do like the concept, it just wasn’t presented very well. (0 more)
The book is extremely vague. It is almost as if it is an unfinished draft of what could be a much larger story. (0 more)
Honest Review for Free Copy of Book
Go Back for Love by Anne-Marie Sassoli is an extremely brief romance. This book can easily be read in a day, in not just a couple of hours. It also relies heavily on time travel in very short bursts.

 Laura is a bit of a nobody and always has been, at least in her own opinion. Then one seemingly random day she gets a letter from a solicitor. This letter sets her off on a whole new life as it is her inheritance from an aunt she barely knew. Along with a large sum of money Laura is given a mysterious coin collection that is connected to her aunt in a most unusual way. Through these coins, Laura learns about her aunt's past. She is introduced to her aunt’s fall from riches to being a servant. Her aunt’s journey doesn't end there but in an unexpected interaction with a man who sees her potential as a person despite the differences in their social classes.

 During Laura’s discovery of her aunt's past, she also starts forming a cautious relationship with her neighbor, Blaire, who also happens to own the building she lives in. What is most startling is how Blaire is already interwoven into Laura’s life by a surprising connection to her Aunt. Was their meeting predetermined by fate (or the Aunt) or is it just something that happened by chance?

 Like many of the books that I do not care for, I do like the concept, it just wasn’t presented very well. So much could be done with how the Aunt's coins allowed Laura to travel back in time. What Laura saw when she traveled was also interesting but lacked relevance, it contained no lesson and did nothing to directly encourage Blaire and Laura to get together. The book is extremely vague. It is almost as if it is an unfinished draft of what could be a much larger story. Unfortunately, everything felt glossed over, like the author had a good idea but didn’t want to take the time to write a larger novel.

 If I were to recommend this book to anyone it would be adults who like romance (there is one semi-vivid sex scene). It is good for those that want a basic and quick read, but those wanting something with more depth will be disappointed. I rate this book 1 out of 4. I was rather disappointed in it. While so short stories have the amazing ability to quickly draw readers in, provoke emotion, or make them think, this one missed the mark. In fact upon thinking about the story, time travel wasn’t even needed as the money that Laura also got put the couple in contact and not the coins.

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The First Purge (2018)
The First Purge (2018)
2018 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Entirely unnecessary
It really frustrates me when they make films like this that are so obviously motivated by the money only. Did we really need a prequel to the Purge films to know exactly how it all began? Of course we didn't as everything we needed to know was in the other Purge films anyway. How many people have really wanted a Purge prequel? And sadly this film is as unnecessary as you'd expect.

Most of it plays out in a similar way to the others, and is entirely predictable and lacking in originality. It doesn't even have any creepy costumes or decent deaths like the others, so it really is lacking entirely. It gets slightly more interesting towards the end with the Raid-like tower block scenes but even this seems to just be trying to replicate the Raid and all of the other films like it. The characters too are all immediately forgettable.

Unless you absolutely love the other Purge films, this really isn't worth a watch.
  
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Sarah (7800 KP) rated Mandy (2018) in Movies

Mar 16, 2019  
Mandy (2018)
Mandy (2018)
2018 | Action, Thriller
What did I just watch?
Part of me was expecting or hoping this film to be like a cheesy old horror film, a proper B movie type with silly but impressive physical effects. Or something like Hobo with a Shotgun. Sadly apart from some fairly sparse decent physical effects, this film is nothing like what I expected.

This is obviously trying to be a very stylish 80s style trippy film, but for me the problem was it was too trippy. The almost constant red toned scenes had me feeling like I’d gone colourblind by the end, and I spent most of this film wondering what the hell was going on. It was far too trippy, to the point where I wish I had actually taken something to get me through the very long and dragging two hours! The only compliment I could really give this film is to say that it at least fitted in with Nicholas Cage and his terribly acting.

Sorry @Andy K !
  
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Andy K (10823 KP) Mar 17, 2019

The first 1/2 hour is definitely a little slow, but the rest I thought was cool as hell. To each their own! ?

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Sarah (7800 KP) Mar 17, 2019

Indeed, it would all be very boring if we all agreed on everything!