Smashbomb

AMA: SANDHYA MENON (AUTHOR)
We are excited to announce that our first AMA 'ask me anything' session will be with author @Sandhya Menon who has agreed to answer a number of 'Ask me anything (AMA)' questions for Smashbombers.

Sandhya is a New York Times bestselling author and has written 4 novels, and has 3 on the way! Her books have been featured in several cool places, including on The Today Show, Teen Vogue, NPR Book Review, Buzzfeed, and Seventeen.

Sandhya is probably best-known for her bestseller @When Dimple Met Rishi - which is currently rated a 7.8 on Smashbomb :)

Joanne's other works include:

      @From Twinkle, with Love

      @There's Something About Sweetie
      @Dear Heartbreak: YA Authors and Teens on the Dark Side of Love

Please leave your questions in the comments below, all of which will be sent over to Sandhya for her responses. Please remember to be inventive and original in your questions ?

(Image credit: sandhyamenon.com)

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Catwoman (2004) in Movies

Feb 15, 2018 (Updated Feb 15, 2018)

Catwoman (2004)

2004 | Action, Drama

4.0

(11 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Kitty Litter

Wretched misfire of a superhero film proving that DC were quite capable of making bad movies before Zack Snyder was even on the premises. Attempt at a story of feminist empowerment ends up coupled to repeated spectacle of Halle Berry bending over in a leather bra while wearing jeans with holes in the bum cheeks. Dowdy wallflower discovers corruption, is flushed into harbour, given mouth-to-mouth by passing magic cat, wakes up with feline powers (including ability to stick to walls, unlike any cat I've ever seen).

It's not just that the story is poorly told, it's poorly conceived: around the same time Catwoman came out, Spider-Man was saving New York from a nuclear disaster while the X-Men were stopping psionic genocide. What case is Catwoman dealing with? Someone is trying to sell some dodgy make-up. Not just a really shoddy film, but an offensively patronising one, too.

Kudos

LoSchussler (3 KP) rated Sweet Thing in Books

Jun 22, 2018

Sweet Thing

Renee Carlino | 2013 | Romance

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Mia Kelly thinks she has it all figured out. She's an Ivy League graduate, a classically trained pianist, and the beloved daughter of a sensible mother and offbeat father. Yet Mia has been stalling since graduation, torn between putting her business degree to use and exploring music, her true love.

When her father unexpectedly dies, she decides to pick up the threads of his life while she figures out her own. Uprooting herself from Ann Arbor to New York City, Mia takes over her father's cafe, a treasured neighborhood institution that plays host to undiscovered musicians and artists. She's denied herself the thrilling and unpredictable life of a musician, but a chance encounter with Will, a sweet, gorgeous, and charming guitarist, offers her a glimpse of what could be. When Will becomes her friend and then her roommate, she does everything in her power to suppress her passions—for him, for music—but her father's legacy slowly opens her heart to the possibility of something more.

Kudos

ClareR (5996 KP) rated Fables: Volume 1: Legends in Exile in Books

Jan 5, 2019

An interesting take on fairy tales!

I kept seeing this series being recommended, and I eventually managed to convince my husband to buy it for me for Christmas. I'm glad he did - I loved it!
The Adversary has forced the Fairy Tales out of their homelands and those who have survived now live in New York. They have their own government, and they are hiding from the general population in plain sight.
We join the Big Bad Wolf (who looks human - of course) as he investigates the murder of Rose Red. Other fairytale characters are featured during the course of Wolf's investigation: Snow White, Prince Charming (who is a sleaze ball!), Jack and loads of other characters. I can see the basis of the other comics emerging in this first one, and I really liked the bits at the end: short cartoons and stories about the battles with the Adversary and the Fairytales' escapes. Really good stuff!!

Kudos

Lenard (726 KP) rated Shaft (2019) in Movies

Jun 23, 2019

Shaft (2019)

2019 | Action, Crime

5.7

(24 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Samuel L Jackson in the role he is most suited for. Jackson plays John Shaft, an unfiltered New York City detective turned private investigator. Shaft works the mean streets of Harlem although not the gentrified nouveau riche version that exists today. In this sequel to the 2000 remake/continuation of the 70s classics, the booksmart JJ, John Shaft Jr, hires Shaft to help him investigate the "suicide" of his best friend, an Afghan War vet and former heroin junkie. Using his special set of streetwise skills, Shaft shows his son that he may not know as much as he thinks he does especially when it comes to women. Together, the Shafts uncover the conspiracy that the Supertroopers found 18 years ago but in Harlem with a major Latinx drug dealer who tried to destroy Shaft's life 20 years ago. While not great, this film at least is entertaining in ways most of the films this summer is not.

Kudos

James Koppert (2698 KP) rated Hudson's Kill in Books

Oct 25, 2019

Hudson's Kill

Paddy Hirsch | 2019 | Crime, History & Politics, Mystery, Thriller

7.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Hudson's Kill

If you have seen Gangs of New York then you know the period this novel is set. This book is completely immersive, Hirsch has done an incredible amount of research, to the language used, the the style of buildings. I often felt myself drawn into the period, even dreaming about the city in my sleep, his descriptions become so vivid. Hudson's Kill has pretty much got a bit of everything for everyone. It's a thriller, it's a murder mystery, it's a political and corruption rollercoaster, it's full of action, it has heroes , villains and enough in every page to keep you turning. All this and written in a way that is very easy and absorbing. Hirsch is a master and it is very hard to believe this is only his second novel. Hudson's Kill deserves to be celebrated and loved, a rare book that will delight so many and deserves to be read. 4/5