Search

Search only in certain items:

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty, #1)
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty, #1)
A.N. Roquelaure | 1999 | Erotica, Fiction & Poetry
6
7.5 (11 Ratings)
Book Rating
One day I was just looking online through random books that I could read and I came across this trilogy and it sparked my interest. I thought I would give this book a go. All I knew about it was that it was an erotic twist on a fairytale, I thought it might even be quite sweet...wow! One word comes to mind after reading this book...HARSH! To sum it up I would say 'torture-porn', and how tortured these characters indeed were. Although the story was well written it went beyond enjoyment and straight to 'I don't think I can even finish this book, it's pretty horrendous!'. But I stuck it out and finished it with a gob-smacked expression on my face. This isn't a sweet, fluffy and easy-to-read novel, its hard-core and sadistic. This review sounds like I didn't like the book yet I gave it 3 stars...this is because I really liked the challenge of getting through this book and it left me in shock, so many books i finish with a shrug then move on but this book is definitely something to remember. I am now reading a comedy inbetween carrying on with the series as even I feel like the characters need a break.
  
Ambient 1: Music for Airports by Brian Eno
Ambient 1: Music for Airports by Brian Eno
1978 | Rock
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I love Brian Eno, but I picked this album specifically because it's one of those albums that if you're up at six in the morning, stressed out wondering why you were up all night, I can just put this on and everything feels OK. It's almost superficial because it's so sweet and ambient, but I respect it a lot because it always piques my interest. I know he wrote some of the songs with Robert Wyatt from Soft Machine, and Robert Wyatt has this delicate, fragile sort of energy, I feel like that's there. An old friend of mine, Yuka Honda from Cibo Matto, the first band I was in, first played this to me on vinyl in the mid-90s. I was smoking a lot of pot in those days. I've read that Eno made it with the intention of actually playing it in airports. For fun I have put it on [in an airport] and there is something quite airporty about it… something machine-like about the melody. It reminds me of the architecture of an airport, it's not bustling or busy, it's like an airport when no one's there. I think it's the number one album I'd recommend for taking a bath to."

Source
  
Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy by The Who
Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy by The Who
1971 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I love the sound of ‘I Can’t Explain’. It’s my favourite and I love all those earlier ones. I used do them onstage with a group called The Nightriders and The Idle Race as well. ‘Pictures Of Lily’ and that kind of stuff. I used to love playing all those Who songs. They had something about them, The Who. It was like magic, the sound. And just watching Pete Townshend, he was always amazing. Did I ever catch them back in the day? Yeah! Not half! The loudest bloody thing I’ve ever heard in my life! I went to this place called Midnight City in Birmingham and it was quite a big room and everyone was waiting for them: ""wow! We’re gonna see The Who!"" and they struck up and went BLAAANG! and your earholes would go WOOOOM! and you couldn’t hear a fucking thing! Your hearing was gone! You know when your ears go inside out? And it’s like silence and you can’t hear fuck all for the next 10 minutes until your hearing starts coming back! And gradually you could start hearing them again. It was like a compressor, almost. It was really exciting to hear that when you’re a kid. And the tunes they played were so great. It was beautiful. Fantastic!"

Source
  
Cindi's Chocolate Valentine
Cindi's Chocolate Valentine
Beverley Reichman | 2022 | Children
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
You are looking for a lovable animal book for your child or children. Cindi's Chocolate Valentine does a beautiful job of showing your child that changing your mind about liking a holiday or not. It does it through a dog getting dressed up and learning what Valentine's day is.

Though Cindi is unsure what Valentine's day is or what is going on. She has paraded around with her buddy, Pitty Pat, and is outfitted together. She does not seem to like it one bit. But will Cindi change her mind?

The pictures are done well. You can find a way to enjoy a holiday or find out what you're unsure about and decide to change your mind. Maybe meeting someone new is hard, and that someone does something to help transform your mind about it. The pictures are colorful. Ever feel like something you did but did not like at first. Maybe something made you change your mind. That's okay to change your mind.

Cindi's Chocolate Valentine is a fun and enjoyable book; It just likes some suitable lessons to teach children or a child. Parents will enjoy this book as well. It is a quick and easy read. This book will show you, love, though animals, what Valentine's day is about.
  
Gregory and the Grimbockle
Gregory and the Grimbockle
Melanie Schubert | 2017 | Children, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Such a fun, imaginative read!
Gregory and the Grimbockle was one of the funniest and cute books that I’ve read with my child in a long time. It was so imaginative and fantastical. We loved the adorable illustrations, but were very glad that the Grimbockle was never illustrated going into or out of his temporary home. The sheer grossness of how that happened was so at odds with the cuteness of everything else, but it worked really well together strangely.

Melanie Schubert has enormous talent that Abigail Kraft complemented perfectly. This story of a boy who doesn’t quite fit in, who is teased and sometimes bullied, and is from a home that is neither loving nor abusive will resonate with a lot of younger readers, I believe. His situation isn’t one of extremes and as a result he’s more easy to relate to. The adventures that he goes on with the Grimbockle are pure fiction, but the truth he learns along the way about the large impact that small gestures can have means is not. As a parent, that truth – that our actions have much more an impact that we might think – is one that I enjoyed having a chance to talk about with my child through the lens of Gregory and the Grimbockle.

The only thing we didn’t like about Gregory and the Grimbockle was the way it ended. It just felt like it ended too abruptly. The transition from childhood to “okay, he’s growing up now” happened so quickly that we had to re-read to make sure we hadn’t accidentally missed a few pages. While I can see why the author did it the way she did, by the time closed the book, we were both already mourning the exiting of the Bockles from our world.

Gregory and the Grimbockle is a book that any parent should delight in picking up to read with their children. It’s an easy read, a short one, and it helps reinforce an important lesson. You’ll be missing out if you don’t give it a try.

This review appeared first at Sci-Fi & Scary.
  
The Sun is Also a Star
The Sun is Also a Star
Nicola Yoon | 2016 | Children
6
8.5 (16 Ratings)
Book Rating
I will start off by saying I am not a big reader of contemporary books. Personally, I can't get super attached to the characters because they are too much like me. I know, that's weird, but it's me.

I think my main problem with the book was the pacing and that it did not lend itself to the space it had enough. I wanted more space to get into the characters just a bit more. I wanted to get to know them better, but there wasn't enough space on the page to get that connection. The pacing, at times, felt either rushed or too slow. The majority of it was fine, but I tended to focus on those off beat moments a little too much.

That being said, I did really like this book. The characters were super cute and very well written! I am glad that we are getting to have more diverse characters and authors in our reading landscape and I am very happy for Nicola and all she has accomplished!

I am grateful for this book and glad it came out when it did. This country has very strict (and, in my opinion, too harsh) laws on immigration. A book that focuses on deportation in this political climate is very compelling and necessary for people to read. Also the fact that it is focusing on an interratial couple is amazing and I could not ask for better!

I hope to get to read more of Nicola Yoon's writings soon.
  
40x40

Cate Le Bon recommended Jardin Au Fou by Roedelius in Music (curated)

 
Jardin Au Fou by Roedelius
Jardin Au Fou by Roedelius
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It was probably one of the first times I picked up some listening headphones in Spillers Records in Cardiff, and I was looking for a gift for my best friend. I knew [Hans-Joachim Roedelius' band] Cluster existed but I was never really a fan – I hadn't found the time to get into them. So, I didn't know anything about who Roedelius was, but I was really intrigued by this record. I listened to it and it was absolutely incredible. I bought it for my friend and then realised that I had to have it for myself, so I went back the next day to get myself a copy. It's been an important record for me because it was the first time I heard a record that included synth and pianos and percussion and that was mechanical in parts but also very beautiful in others. It was the first time I started to visualise arrangements on different instruments and started to exit the view that everything had its place. The album has beautiful recurring themes that sweep in and out of the record. So for me, I could hear things mathematically but it also made me think about how you can piece music together as well. It's beautiful and some of the songs are playful - one of them sounds like the theme to an awful TV cop drama - but it then evolves into these beautiful soundscapes. A song like 'Le Jardin' just transports you to this different place. I always want a song that can remove you from your current situation."

Source
  
40x40

Nick Rhodes recommended Off the Wall by Michael Jackson in Music (curated)

 
Off the Wall by Michael Jackson
Off the Wall by Michael Jackson
1979 | Rhythm And Blues
8.0 (4 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This was a difficult choice. I did want something that was a disco album and could have gone for The Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever - you don’t get much better than the songs on that particular album. But then I thought about Michael Jackson and what he did and how he changed things. Off The Wall is Quincy [Jones] at the height of his powers producing Michael Jackson as he is coming of age. Michael had the most amazing voice and a sense of rhythm that no-one had ever heard before. It’s really something. I listened to it about two or three months ago for the first time in quite a while and it is flawless. Off The Wall was the sound of [New York super-club] Studio 54. I was too young to go to Studio 54 when it first opened but I did go later when they reopened it briefly at the beginning of the eighties. I stood in the same room just imagining what it would have been like - it would have been a lot more fun in 1977. So, that album, which to me is a more interesting album than Thriller (although again another really great album), captured the spirit of a generation and moved dance music somewhere. This discussion could go on for hours if we had time, about what happened with disco and funk, bands like Chic and Sister Sledge who I’m obviously a huge fan of, but, for me, Off The Wall was the album that defined that period."

Source
  
A Perilous Pal
A Perilous Pal
Laura Bradford | 2022 | Mystery
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Bucket List of Suspicion
Emma Westlake is thrilled to have a new client for her new A Friend for Hire business. Kim Felder’s kids have moved out, and her husband has left her, leaving Kim as loose ends. Together, Emma and Kim start a list of things that Kim would like to explore, but Kim adds a few suggestions of how to get back at her ex. They are intended as a joke, but when he is murdered that night, the police consider them evidence that Kim killed him. Emma may have just met Kim, but she is certainly that Kim is innocent. Can she prove it?

Since the first book set up the premise of the series, this book was able to jump right into the story. We move forward at a steady pace, and my interest never lagged until we reached the logical climax. Most of the characters from the first book are back. I did find the same irritants from the first here again as a result, but they were minor since I love all the characters overall. I even laughed a few times at their interactions, and I loved seeing their storylines advance. I’m curious where they will go next. I also appreciate the realistic way that Emma’s new romantic relationship progressed here. Fans of Laura’s other books will enjoy the Easter Eggs she’s worked into the book. This book really is like a warm hug. It’s fun, mysterious and refreshing. If that is what you are looking for, you’ll enjoy it.