Sign up
Search
Advanced search settings

Search only in certain items:

Search results
All (4272)
Content
People
Apps
Books
Orbs
Movies
Music
Podcasts
Shows
Tabletop Games
Tech
TV
Video Games
YouTube Channels
Videos
40x40

Janeeny (200 KP) rated The Black Death in Books

Sep 13, 2019  
The Black Death
The Black Death
John Hatcher | 2019
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was actually my reading roulette for July, but I was a bit behind on Julys books so it got bumped to Augusts reads.

I bought this book when it was first released as it interested me, gradually my interest waned and it’s now been sitting on my shelf for seven years.

The Black Death is a non-fiction account of a little village in Suffolk during the plague years. Each chapter starts with a factual account of what was going on in the rest of the world regarding the spread of the disease then it launches into the story of this little village.

Hatcher has taken factual records and accounts and added a little poetic licence to create an engaging story that really involves you in the day to day life. He does take great pains to reiterate how poor the records were for that time and how much of a liberty he was taking, but I feel it’s unnecessary.
  
40x40

Mel (490 KP) rated Lincoln in the Bardo in Books

Oct 2, 2019  
Lincoln in the Bardo
Lincoln in the Bardo
George Saunders | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
6
8.3 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
The parts of the story surrounding the graveyard characters (0 more)
Style over substance (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
When this book first came out it seemed to be publicised everywhere so when I saw it on a daily deal I picked up a copy.
I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't quite what I got. While the main thread of the story focusing on the death of Lincoln's son and the ghosts in the graveyard was interesting it felt like this was essentially a short story bulked out into a novel (given the author is far more famous for his short stories this probably isn't surprising). The use of historical quotations to tell the parts of the story taken from real life seemed more of a clever affectation than actually a useful plot device. While I finished the book and felt like I knew a little more about Lincoln the man afterwards overall I didn't think it lived up to the hype surrounding it
  
40x40

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Curse of the Cat People (1944) in Movies

Jun 4, 2020  
The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
1944 | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
7
6.3 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Odd, dreamy follow-up to Cat People; not really a sequel in the conventional sense at all, barely qualifies as a horror movie, either. Picks up the story a few years later; the couple from the original film are now married with a child, who has a problematically rich fantasy life. Given a 'wishing ring' by a lonely old woman, she wishes for a friend - and what appears to be the ghost of her father's first wife (Irena the Cat Woman) materialises...

Much, much gentler than it might sound; there's virtually no reference to Irena's supposedly cursed blood (she turns into a cat in moments of passion), the 'curse' mentioned in the title is the shadow her death still casts over the family. But here Irena seems entirely benign and the story is about the relationship between parents and a child struggling to fit in. Nicely made and performed, but very hard to categorise.