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In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
1998 | Folk, Indie, Rock
9.0 (6 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I think that this is one of the best albums of all time. It's hard to talk about. I feel like that album is the Sgt Pepper's of my generation. It's a record that knits together a whole generation of music-lovers. The fact that it's separate and isolated is sort of poetic. My generation wasn't connected by a band; we didn't have a Beatles. We had our own bizarre little pockets of music, our own separate ways of listening and connecting. That record functions in the world unlike any other record. I've never seen anything like it. It is a religious record. People feel so fondly about it, in such a profound way. Beyond time and space, on different continents, at different parties, the name of that band will come up and you and stranger will grab each other's hands. There's not a whole lot of music that can do that. Something about that album and those songs created a deep thread of human connection through a lot of people. I think it's incredibly rare. I think all musicians inherently want to connect, because that's what music is. Music connects you, through this magical medium, to another human being. Listening to Neutral Milk Hotel and looking at the artwork for that record and listening to how it was made, and thinking about the mythology of the Elephant 6 collective, it's like Sgt Pepper's โ€“ you imagine that there's this magical world somewhere, with all these crazy musicians, living down the road from each other, banging on pots and pans and playing brass instruments, and you want to be there. You get to soak that magic up just by listening to the record. Brian [Viglione], the drummer in the Dresden Dolls, got to see Neutral Milk Hotel when they were touring that record. He was the one that turned me onto it. In the middle of the night, after our very first band rehearsal, he took me over to his house and said 'I can't believe you've never heard this record. We're not doing anything until we sit in the dark and listen to it from beginning to end.' That record was always really important to us."

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    Olympia by Gorgon City

    Olympia by Gorgon City

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Album

    Gorgon City are renowned British production duo Kye Gibbon and Matt Robson-Scott. They are set to...

Hope's Deceit (The Fated #2)
Hope's Deceit (The Fated #2)
Angela McPherson | 2015 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The dude is back! Morpheus reigns supreme with his sarcasm and cocky attitude, although you do also see a softer side to him occasionally. As for the rest of the characters, they continue to change and grow with each situation, divulging their secrets and showing strength where none was expected.

Trinity still has her hands full as she tries to learn about her powers and prepares for her eighteenth birthday which is rapidly approaching. Things are not all sunshine and roses with her and Blain - some of which is caused by miscommunication, some by age (she is only 17 after all) and some by circumstances. Every time they were together, my heart was in my mouth! I really want them to be together, but can also understand how the others say that Blain makes her weak. I really hope that she will start to show her true strength now, she has reason enough - and that is all I will say so that I don't give out any spoilers.

The one character I didn't get on with as much in this book is Trinity's dad. He seemed to have whiplash with his emotions and I just couldn't keep up. Still, this is a small thing and also understandable as a father realises he has to let his daughter grow up, even if these circumstances are slightly unusual! ๐Ÿ˜‰
 
Well-written, fast-paced and chock full of emotion, you will be held prisoner by this book, turning the pages as you immerse yourself within the storyline. With no spelling or grammatical errors that I found, this was an amazing second book and I am now on tenterhooks whilst I wait for the third. If you like Urban Fantasy with a bit of Greek Mythology thrown in, then I can highly recommend this book and the first one in the series. Absolutely fantastic.
 
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *
 
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Nov 13, 2015
  
SE
Summer's End
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
(This review can be found on my blog <a href="http://themisadventuresofatwentysomething.blogspot.com/">The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl</a> in October).


As a fan of horror, I thought I'd end up loving this book. However, that wasn't the case. It was an okay read, and I use that term loosely.

Lisa Morton is a horror author who knows a vast amount about Halloween, as in she knows where the tradition started and all the variations. When she gets an email from a university professor saying they found a 1,500 year old Celtic manuscript, she's a bit skeptical. However, she decides to visit the professor and see what he has to say. After translating the manuscript, the professor is found dead. Could this be the work of the manuscript that spoke of the Sidh? It's up to Lisa and Conor รณ Cuinn, an Irish archaeologist who found the manuscript, to save the world. But will they be in time?

I'm not a fan of the cover at all. I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a Sidh or not. I have no idea. All I know is that the cover never really pulled me in.

As for the title, it makes me think more of a love story than a horror story. Saying that, one of the translations of Samhain is summer's end according to the book, so the title does fit in with the book.

I thought the world building was alright. I really didn't find any flaws with it. The setting is a university office and an apartment, so nothing too exciting. I though the author did a fantastic job of making the Sidh feel real and like this could actually happen. However, the ending lets the world building down. (This next sentence may be slightly spoilerish). We're led to believe that the world will be destroyed if Bal-sab (the god of death) isn't destroyed. Well, I don't want to give it away too much, but yeah, it's very anti-climatic.

The pacing is extremely slow at the beginning. I was considering adding this title to my DNF (did not finish) pile. For whatever reason, I decided to carry on. Luckily, the story did improve and picked up quickly which meant I was able to finish this book.

The plot was interesting enough. It's told from the author's point of view (although this book is a work of fiction), and she even throws in titles of her other books along the way. I did like the whole Celtic/Pagan mythology throughout the book. I also really enjoyed the little footnotes throughout the book. Anyway, the protagonist of the story needs to translate a Celtic manuscript and save the world. While, it was an interesting premise, I felt that it was poorly executed due to too much info dumping, and what I felt was too much self-promotion for the author's other works.

I felt that the characters were just too run of the mill. They weren't written poorly, but they weren't written well either. I felt that maybe some back story for the characters, especially the main character, would've helped me relate to each character, but I just found myself not really caring what happened to them. I just couldn't relate at all, and believe me, I did try, but all the characters felt too monotonous for my liking. I would've liked it if at least one character had some sort of personality instead of feeling like a cardboard cutout.

The dialogue never seemed forced, but it did feel a bit stale. As I've said before, there was way too much info dumping for my liking especially towards the beginning of the book. The info dumping isn't quite so bad once the story progresses though. As for swear words, there are a few, but it's not too bad.

Overall, Summer's End by Lisa Morton is an okay (again, I use this word loosely) story. It was a fantastic idea but poorly executed, I think.

I'm on the fence with whether or not I'd recommend this book. I'd just say to read it yourself and come to a decision especially if you're into Celtic/Pagan mythology. I'd say the age group it would best fit would be those aged 16+.

I'd give Summer's End by Lisa Morton a 2.5 out of 5.

(I received a free ARC print copy through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers for a fair and honest review).