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    iBouquiniste

    iBouquiniste

    Book and Education

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    iBouquiniste is an ebook reader like none you've seen before. This app supports FB2, EPUB, MOBI,...

<i>Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review</i>

What a lovely read. I like strong female characters, but I love strong female leads with visible flaws. Mariel is clever, resourceful, a great archeress…and absolutely terrified of her father which she is very open about to Robert. It was refreshing to read and made Mariel all that more endearing despite her also trying to prove repeatedly that she can “take care of herself.” Yes, that age old trope.

That being said, there are few men worthy of her, but Robert is definitely one of them. Faced with obstacles on all sides, Robert handles them all with ease and dignity all while trying to protect Mariel and not fall for her.

Historical romance can be hit or miss. With so many of them out there, it can be overwhelming to weed out the good ones. AEftA is great read worth your time. While not an original plotline, Watson’s breathes life into it fueled by dynamic characters and a powerful love story you can’t help but root for.
  
The Glass Hotel
The Glass Hotel
Emily St. John Mandel | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Gripping
I decided to give this book a go as it's one of the top reads on Goodreads and sounded intriguing, and i really do love it when you pick up something completely unknown that turns out to be highly enjoyable.

The plot for this is rather wide ranging. It covers a variety of characters that are all connected through both an isolated hotel and a financial scheme, and follows them at various points in their lives (mostly before, after and during the downfall of this scheme). I love stories like this that don't try to be overcomplicated with ridiculous twists and turns. This is extremely well written and intriguing and gripping throughout to read about how these people's lives turn out. It potentially does get a little weird when it verges onto the supernatural later on which is why I've marked it down a little. However aside from this, I found this to be such an enjoyable and thrilling read and it was made even more enjoyable by the fact that I had no expectations of this whatsoever.
  
Tempests and Slaughter: the Numair Chronicles Book 1
Tempests and Slaughter: the Numair Chronicles Book 1
Tamora Pierce | 2018 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Tamora's excellent writing (2 more)
Awesome worldbuilding
ENZI
Didn't wrap up storylines (0 more)
A new Tamora Pierce book! About the origins of Numair! YES! I waited SO ANXIOUSLY for this book to make its way through the line of holds at my library and get in my grabby hands, and I was rewarded. Tempests is classic Tamora Pierce. It's set in Carthak, not Tortall, but the themes and feel are exactly what I was expecting. I love diving back into my favorite fantasy worlds, and Tortall ranks right near the top. (It might be the top, I haven't sat down and attempted to rank them - that would probably be a futile effort!)

My only issue with the book, really, is that it feels like an introduction. I know it's the first part of a trilogy, but the rest isn't OUT YET! So I feel like I've read the first third of a story and now I have to wait. Tempests introduces a LOT of story threads, and resolves exactly none of them. It managed to do so without leaving us on a cliffhanger, though, so there's that, at least. I'm probably going to go re-read the books around Numair's adult life to tide me over until the rest of this trilogy comes out!

I think my favorite character overall was Enzi - he was hilarious and obstinate and I'm looking forward to the rest of his storyline.

I was surprised but pleased to see a gay couple as side characters - and that it wasn't mentioned the character was gay until his husband arrived on the scene. It wasn't a defining point of his character, his spouse just happened to be male. I've said it before, but I love seeing the change in fantasy - it's gone from "that's strange or scandalous" to "absolutely no big deal, people have differently-gendered partners." It will be even lovelier once real society reaches that point!

Final verdict: Tempests and Slaughter was an excellent addition to Tortall, but if you like books that resolve their storylines, you might want to wait until the rest of the trilogy is published. If you can't wait, just expect that you won't get many answers from this first book!

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
  
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
2017 | Role-Playing
Great gameplay with everything fans expect from South Park. (0 more)
The game doesn't give you much reason for replay. (0 more)
The Fractured but Whole delivers fans a great experience!
With so many licensed properties out there being made into games with low budgets and by people who clearly have no idea what the property is about, including South Park games in the past, it comes as no surprise that most people were cautious to say the least when we heard that a new South Park game was being made. But hearing that Matt Stone and Trey Parker we're going to be involved every step of the way gave us hope for the Stick of Truth.

When the Stick of Truth came out, fans of the show were blown away by the attention to detail, the references that the casual fan would recognize, and the references that probably only the most die-hard fan would catch. It showed us what a licensed property could be properly made into a game. So when Ubisoft announced a sequel we were all expecting an amazing game. And quite frankly, the Fractured but Whole delivers on that promise.

I found myself laughing at the story as I would any episode of the show, as well as the references to past episodes, and even the off-handed and sometimes visual references to the previous game. And rather than just sitting on their laurels, Matt and Trey and the rest of the team at Ubisoft made a stellar game with updates and improvements from the previous entry.

Basically if you would like South Park and/or if you enjoyed the Stick of Truth you will definitely enjoy this game!

Not that the game is without it's flaws. Since I've completed the story I find that the only reason that I want to play the game a second time is because I messed up the difficulty achievement the first time, whereas the first game, I wanted to play it multiple times. I believe that a large part of this is the difference between the two games: how the game handles skills/abilities. In The Stick of Truth you choose a class and play that class, with it's abilities, through the whole game; the clothing/armor and weapon options edit your stats allowing you to customize your character to your play style. If you want to play a different class and try it's abilities, you have to start a new playthrough. This isn't the case in The Fractured But Whole; As you progress through the game, you gain the ability to be "multi class" adding the ability options of another class. This happens multiple times and near the end of the game you are given access to all classes and their abilities. The stat adjustments made by the clothing/armor and weapons have been replaced by "Artifacts" and "DNA", which works well as a super hero character, but this leaves the costume options as purely cosmetic; their only in game use is to work on one of the "Titles" in the Character Sheet for XP; once you've maxed that, it's just collecting them for the people who wish to try and get everything in the game. Of course, I've not found any way to keep track of what I'm missing, if anything, which makes doing that harder.

With that said, I still love the game. Just like it's predecessor, it feels like you're involved with an episode of the show. I just wish that I felt it had as much replay value as The Stick of Truth did for me.
  
Once Upon a Time in the West Soundtrack by Ennio Morricone
Once Upon a Time in the West Soundtrack by Ennio Morricone
1972 | Rock, Soundtrack
8.3 (10 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Like I mentioned I love the desert. I have a video somewhere of my wife and I listening to this record driving in Joshua Tree. It really does sound like how it looks. To be honest, I knew of the soundtrack long before I saw the film. And that's how it is for me with a lot of Morricone scores. I went through a deep Morricone phase in my twenties, and just any soundtrack he ever did I bought. The movie's already there – you can see it. And I bet he would agree too – a lot of his music is far more cinematic than the films he's actually scored. He has this intense visual element to his music which is always exciting to hear. So that record in particular, I remember I first heard it in my twenties and it really blew my mind. The production – the fact that it is so produced – sure it's a recording from the 60s or something. But it is a studio album. So you hear him getting really great sounding recordings in some old-school microphone (old-school now). Really getting such a rich, beautiful sound. And then you get that fuzz effect, which is just quintessential Morricone sound, probably because of this record."

Source
  
Tender Buttons by Broadcast
Tender Buttons by Broadcast
2005 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Even just thinking about this song, I can feel the beginning of tears in the backs of my eyes. It's such an astonishing piece of lyric writing. It's like that Linton Kwesi Johnson track - the narrator of the song, and their emotions, are so believable. Both songs are about letters, funnily enough. “The imagery is so gentle but it's still significant and it's recognisable of a different world; just the idea of a typing pool now is absurd - it's something that belongs to a different decade. And then the imagery of the paper and the ink drying and there's a confession, but we don't know what the truth is. She's talking about telling the truth in this letter she's written, but we don't know whether she's confessing to something she's done or to the way she truly feels. “Either way, it's definitely a story about the end. 99.999% of people who've loved in their lives will know how that feels, what it's like when love ends and this is one of those songs that just gently captures the hugeness of that kind of situation. It's sung and worded very softly, but what it's describing is incomprehensibly massive. It's communicated with that image of the page being wiped clean, while the landscape remains unchanged. Absolutely astonishing. “Trish Keenan’s death is a story of tragedy in itself, because she was so unique. I know you shouldn't try to relate the personal story of the performer to the piece of music, or the writing, or the play, but you can't help but do it in this case because so many Broadcast songs are in that vein. When you communicate emotion in a song the reason it works is because, as a listener, you recognise something you've experienced before, and so Trish's writing doesn't just remind you of loss - it reminds you of the loss of her.”"

Source
  
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Laura lou (304 KP) rated Insatiable in TV

Dec 18, 2018  
Insatiable
Insatiable
2018 | Comedy, Drama
8
6.9 (16 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Funny (2 more)
Entertaining
Relatable
Far fetched (0 more)
This show has had a lot of mixed reviews. Some people love it and some people don’t like the way that it represents body issues.

Personally I thought this was a great show. If you don’t think too much about how far fetched some of the story lines are and just take the show for what it is, a show, then it’s very entertaining, funny and a joy to watch.

I found it quite addicting and ended up watching the entire series over a few days. I enjoyed the witty dialogue, quirky characters and personally thought that they approached some touchy subjects in a way that people can relate to but also in a way that made the show fun.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed watching insatiable and am looking forward to the next series.
  
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Veronica Pena (690 KP) rated Skinny in Books

Feb 13, 2020  
Skinny
Skinny
Donna Cooner | 2012 | Fiction & Poetry, Young Adult (YA)
7
5.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I think the first time I read this book was in early middle school. I think I bought it from the Scholastic Book Fair in our library, though I am unsure. All I know is that for the last almost 10 years, this book has followed me from house to house, from Colorado to North Carolina and finally, at almost 21 years old, I've opened it again and read it.

It's definitely a book written for younger readers, that's for sure. Probably about 6th graders, which is fitting for the time that I think I read it the first time. Ever's story is a coming of age one - a story about learning to be confident in yourself, that everyone is going through different things, that what you think everyone thinks of you isn't always the truth. Ever's story is about learning to accept yourself and love yourself for who you are, not what you look like, and allowing people to be close to you. It's about a million things - some I'm sure more relatable when at Ever's age and in her similar situation, but also some that are just themes of life and love.

I think, as far as the story goes, it's a good one. I know there's always a risk when writing about body image in any facet, but I think this is one that does it well. I think the characters are interesting and for the most part, robust. Some of the themes and dialogue are a bit on the nose but I think that's to be expected for a book meant for younger readers. Overall, I think this is a good book. One I'm sure I'll come back to eventually, but probably not for another 10 years.
  
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
2017 | Horror, Sci-Fi
Had a genuinely creepy vibe (3 more)
Likeable characters for the most part
Michael Fassbender is great
That cameo!
Doesn't feel like an Alien movie to me (2 more)
Acting can be very flat
Characters make stupid decisions that it doesn't feel like their character should make
Felt like an alien movie, but didn't feel like an Alien movie
I love the Alien franchise. I have all 4 of the original movies and I've seen all of them multiple times, even 3 and Resurrection. I'm not a huge fan of Prometheus, but I was really looking forward to this movie despite knowing it would probably be more of a sequel to that instead of a true prequel to the Alien franchise.
 I...am not entirely sure how I feel about this film. It's not a bad movie, but I don't feel like it's a true Alien film. There are great things about this movie. Michael Fassbender is pretty amazing in dual roles. Danny McBride shows that he can actually act outside of comedies. I cared about most of the characters. The gore was practical and not overbearing. Some of the characters actually made smart decisions. The "main character" is actually a decent action girl.
But, to go with the good there's the...not so good. For every good decision the "main character" makes, the "captain" makes 3 dumb ones. There's a couple scenes that make no sense. The "plot twist" is predictable. When you finally see the alien, it looks super human and not at all like xenomorphs we know.
It's a good sci-fi horror/thriller movie, but if you're expecting something in the vein of the originals, you're going to be disappointed.