Best Music Writing 2007
Daphne Carr and Robert Christgau
Book
Rappers, rockers, emo-boys, jazz snobs, and poptimists alike eagerly anticipate each edition of Best...
Peaky Blinders - Season 5
9.0
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TV Season
After getting rid of both Luca Changretta and Alfie Solomons, Tommy is encouraged to take a break...
The French Dispatch (2021)
7.0
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Movie Watch
"A love letter to journalists set at an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century...
Loverboy (1989)
6.0
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Movie Watch
Delivering pizzas doesn't pay much -- especially when Randy Bodek (Patrick Dempsey) needs to earn...
Sassy Brit (97 KP) rated Shockwave in Books
Jun 5, 2019
Warning: This does end as a cliffhanger and it’s such an exciting one, you will need to get the following two books of the Dead Air Series, Backlash, and then Fallout. I wish I could tell you how this book ends, since it is not the end, but rather the beginning of a new drama. But we don’t want to giveaway spoilers, do we? No! That will spoil the shock for you! I’ve not read books two and three yet, but you can bet I will now. I need to know what happens next. Who will make it out alive? Who will die? Not only do I need closure from this book, but I’m eager to find out what’s in store for this couple. What will life throw at them before they get together? If indeed that’s the author’s plan. Who knows? Amy had a habit of shocking me with her stories and I feel the next two books will be no exception.
Romine takes readers on an exciting ride, and as the story unfolds you’ll laugh, cry and be totally shocked at how Kate and Jack’s relationship takes a turn for the worse. Looks to me that Jack and Kate have a fight on their hands if they want a happy ever after! To sum up: Suspenseful smexyness with a whole lot of drama. The murkiness of Kate’s memory of her past kidnap and her realisation of her love for Jack — which comes at a cost — combine to great effect.
A Curious History of Sex
10.0
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‘Buckle your trousers, fasten your seatbelts, here comes Kate Lister. Her curious history of sex...
Sex Sexuality History of sex and sexuality Sex Workers History of gynaecology
Blackbird (2019)
Movie
A terminally ill mother (Susan Sarandon) invites her family to their country house for one final...
Bookapotamus (289 KP) rated How Hard Can It Be? in Books
May 29, 2018
Kate Reddy is back. And her daughters backSIDE is causing some trouble. We jump right into our favorite bad-a$$, anxiety-ridden, take-charge heroine Kate's life as she is approaching 50 and it seems the hilarity and struggles of parenting, working, wife-ing, friendship and everything else in Kate's life is just as amusing as ever.
Kate's daughter Emily has taken a pic of her butt and the crazy life of Kate's we all know and love, just cannot seem to get any more complicated - until it does. She's been out of the workforce, and looking to get back in, She's not having much of any sort of pleasant relations with husband Richard (yes, surprisingly, still married). She's having a mini mid-life crisis trying to accept she's almost 50, her parents are aging, and her kids are now teenagers and the struggles to communicate with these digital-age micro-adults is almost as difficult as communicating with Russian Investors.
As Kate tries to make her way back into the world of investing she once was so good at, she has some pretty cringeworthy experiences, and struggles to find a way in that world as an "aging" woman. We find several comparisons to the past, when just being a mother was the wall between her and success. She finds herself lying to herself and others, trying her best to tiptoe through a marriage in crisis and lack of communication with her children, and praying the looming milestone birthday isn't going to be the demise of any semblance of the woman that she knows she is, and desperately wants to find again. Oh, and did I mention Jack is BACK?!
The book is classic Allison Pearson: witty, entertaining and full of laughs. I didn't realize how much I missed Kate (I totally still picture SJP in every situation...) and I settled into a familiar routine of rooting for her to find her stride and finally be happy with who she is, who she's becoming, and where she might be headed next.
The story is nostalgic of I Don't Know How She Does It, but reads well as a standalone with snippets of backstory that are well-placed and don't interfere. Avoiding any spoilers, I'll just say that I'm pretty sure readers and fans of Kate Reddy will be pleased at how it all turns out. How Hard Can It Be? was refreshing but familiar and it felt like an old friend was back in my life.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the Advanced Copy and opportunity to review this book.
Acanthea Grimscythe (300 KP) rated Creature in Books
Jan 18, 2019
Kate Woodson suffers from several auto-immune diseases that leave her crippled and unable to take care of herself. Fortunately, she has a supportive and loving husband, Andrew, that takes care of her, and a loving pup named Buttons. In a desperate attempt to make her feel better, Andrew takes her on a trip to a secluded cottage in Maine, but that is where things quickly turn horrifying for something lurks in the shadows.
Creature is not action-packed. At least, not early on. The first chunk of the novel focuses on Kate and Andrew’s relationship, and while that might sound dull and boring, in this instance it’s anything but that. In fact, I found it heartwarming and entirely necessary. It allows readers to truly get a grasp on the disastrous effects of auto-immune diseases–not only on the afflicted, but on their loved ones as well. The time Shea spends on these two also allows for an astronomical amount of character development: I became attached to Kate and Andrew, to their love for one another, to their hardships.
I also found myself relating to Kate more than I expected, which is where Shea really hooked me in as a reader–those that have followed The Ghastly Grimoire for any amount of time know that I suffer from two auto-immune diseases myself. This is actually the first book where I read the afterword, and there I learned that his accurate portrayal has a source: his wife.
When the book does pick up, it’s fast-paced and edge-of your seat action. As in, I read the final 110 pages in one sitting because I couldn’t put the book down. I’d love to go into detail about the symbolism threaded throughout the latter half of the book, but that, unfortunately, would also be a major spoiler. I can say this, however: Shea managed to make me gag in revulsion and cry.
That said, Creature is a wonderful, enlightening read. It’s rare that a book draws deep emotions from me, and even more so that a horror book truly gets under my skin. Shea did both of these things, and I definitely look forward to reading more of his work.
This book was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Dinner Party: A Tragedy
Book
A MAJOR 2021 DEBUT FICTION LAUNCH, THIS REMARKABLE IRISH NOVEL ABOUT THE MESSINESS OF MODERN FAMILY...