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Sassy Brit (97 KP) rated Beyond the Map: Unruly Enclaves, Ghostly Places, Emerging Lands and Our Search for New Utopias in Books

Jun 5, 2019

I know I shouldn’t really say this sort of thin out loud, but this was actually a lot more interesting than I thought it might be. It consists of 39 short stories about the author’s travels around different parts of the world to places that are often uncharted, forgotten, or lost. Actually, there are quite bizarre and spooky stories, too. It’s made me want to visit these places to see if I can feel myself surrounded by ghosts (The Phantom Tunnel of Shinjuku Station, British Graveyard- Shimla, and Magical ‘ley-lines’ of London for starters!)

As you can tell I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s interesting to not only discover these new tales of old, but to realise how some micro-nations are struggling to survive, as new islands emerge, and borders and boundaries come and go changing our world faster than ever before.

A fascinating book that’s also quite alarming!

Kudos

Carma (21 KP) rated Second Chances (Second Chances, #1) in Books

Jun 17, 2019

Carter wishes he could go back in time, 10 years, and make a whole lot of changes. At the top of the list is never letting Kenzie go. He was stupid for choosing work over her. If only there was a way to get a do over. McKenzie is in town for a book signing and Carter decides its time to try again.

After getting help from a holiday spirit, Carter finds himself back in time with a perfect do over. Unfortunately his new (old) life is less than perfect. He has made most of the same mistakes only this time he is married to Kenzie with 2 small children. Will he finally be able to right the wrongs and win back the love of his life.

Solid 4 star read for a magical story full of hope and promise, I really enjoyed this first read by the author.

Kudos

Lee KM Pallatina (951 KP) rated Hansel and Gretel (1988) in Movies

Aug 9, 2019

Hansel and Gretel (1988)

1988 | Family, Sci-Fi

6.5

(2 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Pretty much everything (0 more)

A little too direct (0 more)

A great telling of an old tale

Contains spoilers, click to show

Saw this on Netflix and decided to give it a try, honestly wasn't a bad movie.
Cheesy Old school graphics help tell this tale very well and I praise the effort.
A few enjoyable musical numbers that are actually a little fun to hear.
Brother and sister Hansel (Hugh Pollard) and Gretel (Nicola Stapleton) are careless and leave food out for a donkey to eat. This enrages their mother (Emily Richard) because the family is poor and cannot afford to waste food. She orders the children to go out and pick some berries. Lost in the woods, they eventually find a magical cottage made of gingerbread and meet a nice old woman named Griselda (Cloris Leachman). But Griselda is a witch who imprisons the children and plans to eat them.
Initial release: 1987

Kudos

David McK (3663 KP) rated The Wizard of Oz in Books

Apr 28, 2020

"If only we had a song to sing that would help us on our way", said the Scarecrow ...

Or something similar, anyway, in the Audible Audiobook version of this story that I listened to: a bit of a sly dig, maybe, at the famous "We're off the see the wizard …" song from the Judy garland movie?

Talking about differences, in this it's magical silver shows that Dorothy wears (not ruby red), with the story making great play and numerous mentions of her having committed murder and being celebrated for the same (which is surprisingly messed up for a kids story) …

like, I'm sure, most of the rest of the population, I'm more familiar with that movie version than the original, so it's entertaining and informative to see just how close the two versions are, with the movie version (perhaps necessarily) taking in less events than this story does.