Emerging German-Language Novelists of the Twenty-First Century
Lyn Marven and Stuart Taberner
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After the international success in the 1990s of authors such as Bernhard Schlink, Marcel Beyer, and...
New Earth Politics: Essays from the Anthropocene
Simon Nicholson and Sikina Jinnah
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Humanity's collective impact on the Earth is vast. The rate and scale of human-driven environmental...
The Awakening: And Other Stories
Kate Chopin and Pamela Knights
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'She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.' Kate Chopin was one of the most...
The Lake House
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The Lake House by Kate Morton is the mysterious and enchanting fifth novel from the number one...
The Mountain Between Us
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Soon to be a major motion picture starring Idris Elba and Kate Winslet On a stormy winter night, two...
TravelersWife4Life (31 KP) rated Nothing Short of Wondrous (American Wonders #2) in Books
Feb 24, 2021
Nothing Short of Wondrous by Regina Scott really is nothing short of wondrous! I do not believe I have read anything by Regina Scott before, and now I am wondering how I missed her books! From the very first line:
<b>“What is it about men and danger? Do they all want to die?"</b>
Regina Scott weaves in a humorous sense of warmth and sarcasm that fully engaged my interest. She is one of the very few authors I have found that has a gift with the way they describe the world around them to make you feel like you are right there in the story. There were such vivid descriptions of Yellowstone National Park, from the colors, the landscape, the smells of the different pools… It was breathtaking, and I am sure the actual park is more so!
The characters. Kate is your classic frontier woman: strong and courageous. She is well balanced though, always willing to let others help when she truly needed it. The banter between her and Will, the main male character is a “I don’t want to like you, but I do anyway” type of spark between them. Which is one of my favorites. Also, have you ever heard the saying “women love a man in uniform”? Well, this apply applies to Will in his Cavalry uniform. Talk about tall dark and handsome
Richard Curtis recommended Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) in Movies (curated)
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) in Movies
Jan 25, 2021
Where Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade are more straight shooting adventures, the comedic elements in them are placed fantastically, sparingly, and add to the overall experience. Temple of Doom is more of a gauntlet of jokes and over the top silliness, and most of it unfortunately doesn't land.
A lot of this comes from Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw), who acts as (constant) comic relief and Indiana Jones' love interest. The character is written in a way that she ends up at worst not being remotely likable, and at best being hugely grating.
Thankfully, the final third of Temple of Doom redeems matters a fair bit. The whole last sequence is unrelenting in its series of events. The action is masterfully executed, and feels like Spielberg was just constantly trying to one up himself in what he was doing, and his efforts result in an extremely fun and thrilling final act.
Once again, a lot of practical effects on display that lends this blockbuster series a sense of magic in a pre CGI age, and an as-per-usual incredible score from John Williams can be considered huge positives.
Overall then, Temple of Doom is a mixed bag for me, and easily my least favourite of the initial trilogy, even if I do have some find childhood memories attached to it!
ClareR (5726 KP) rated Purple People in Books
Jul 26, 2020 (Updated Jul 26, 2020)
Eve Baxter is a reporter on an online news channel that reports all things weird and wonderful. She lives in New York, and is happy with her life and the distance it puts between her and her family. After a call from home to say that her father has been attacked and is unconscious in hospital, Eve decides to go home. At the same time, news comes out of the UK about a strange phenomenon: purple people. It transpires that in a bid to take the strain off an inadequate prison system and a rise in antisocial behaviour and violence, perpetrators are turned purple. No one quite knows how this is achieved, so Eve decides that she is going to find out.
This was a very entertaining read: I loved the humour especially, and there’s a big moral question in this. Is this really any way to treat people, whether they’re criminals or not? And is it really ‘right’ to lump all criminals in the same purple category, no matter the type of antisocial behaviour? Personally, I’m just glad that it’s not something that we could get away with (at least I hope so!).
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this book, and for Kate Bulpitt for commenting along with the other readers in the margins.