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Midge (525 KP) rated Birds of a Feather in Books
Feb 25, 2019
Hilarious And Beautifully Illustrated
This is a wonderful way to teach children about idioms. Every page has an idiom not only listed but also beautifully illustrated and giving its literal meaning. The illustrations are hilarious and sweet, especially as they all feature birds or animals. My favourites were ‘Bring home the bacon,’ ‘No spring chicken’ and ‘Let the cat out of the bag.’
The meaning of the idiom, along with an example of its usage in a sentence, is written at the bottom of each page, inverted, and in minute lettering, so that it can be referred to only when you really try to read it. Unfortunately, the writing was so small that I had problems reading it at all.
“Birds Of A Feather” concludes with an explanation of how a particular idiom originated, and encourages readers to find the origins of other idioms, as the words that are used in an idiom are generally not meant literally, however, neither are they a random group of words thrown together.
{Thank you to NetGalley, VanitaBooks LLC and the author, for a free copy and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.}
The meaning of the idiom, along with an example of its usage in a sentence, is written at the bottom of each page, inverted, and in minute lettering, so that it can be referred to only when you really try to read it. Unfortunately, the writing was so small that I had problems reading it at all.
“Birds Of A Feather” concludes with an explanation of how a particular idiom originated, and encourages readers to find the origins of other idioms, as the words that are used in an idiom are generally not meant literally, however, neither are they a random group of words thrown together.
{Thank you to NetGalley, VanitaBooks LLC and the author, for a free copy and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.}
Mayhawke (97 KP) rated The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey in Books
Feb 9, 2018
A good Christmas story without the mawkishness
I have nine children. I bought this book for the oldest two - over twenty years ago It is a beautiful book, wonderfully illustrated, with a great Christmas story: Jonathon Toomey - a cold and unfriendly man, since the loss of his wife and child takes in a homeless woman and her son in the middle of winter, with - for grown ups - a predictable outcome.
This story is not especially original, but it is the way in which it is told rather than the story itself that makes it stand out. I dislike sugary sentimentalism and one of the problems I have buying childrens books (particularly Xmas ones) is that the market is so over-loaded with 'sugar' that it's verging on a serious case of diabetes. This book is not sugary, nor even particularly sentimental. It tells a fine story, calmly and with dignity.
It has been a popular story with all the varied personalities in the family, which has to say something about breadth of appeal, and as it was re-issued in 2015 It seems to be weathering social change as well.
This story is not especially original, but it is the way in which it is told rather than the story itself that makes it stand out. I dislike sugary sentimentalism and one of the problems I have buying childrens books (particularly Xmas ones) is that the market is so over-loaded with 'sugar' that it's verging on a serious case of diabetes. This book is not sugary, nor even particularly sentimental. It tells a fine story, calmly and with dignity.
It has been a popular story with all the varied personalities in the family, which has to say something about breadth of appeal, and as it was re-issued in 2015 It seems to be weathering social change as well.
Lindsay (1760 KP) rated Kentucky Weddings in Books
Feb 15, 2018
This book about the 3 oldest children. It starts out about Val Truelove. She and her siblings are to help pay for the younger siblings education. Val put her heart in the a prayer to god. She is reward with lottery ticket from her boss. She does not know that she wins or anything right away. She prays about it and ask her dad what to do. Doe's Val get her wish to make a wedding venture which is her dream. Doe's see get her wish and something un-expecting as well.
Heath wants to do something with is education but what does he do when his first love come to work at the farm. Heath not sure if he should do what he loves doing or get a real job. Does Heath and Jane get together? To find out you will need to read it.
Opies has a mind to work in her chosen career. But her sister buy her a date with a Batchlor of the month at an auctions and things get a little more strange and hard for her. Things start to get a better but their now story though out the three stories together.
Heath wants to do something with is education but what does he do when his first love come to work at the farm. Heath not sure if he should do what he loves doing or get a real job. Does Heath and Jane get together? To find out you will need to read it.
Opies has a mind to work in her chosen career. But her sister buy her a date with a Batchlor of the month at an auctions and things get a little more strange and hard for her. Things start to get a better but their now story though out the three stories together.
Eleanor (1463 KP) rated Cold Granite (Logan McRae #1) in Books
Dec 19, 2019
Gritty Police procedural.
If you are not going to manage with descriptions of horrendous crimes committed against young children though I would step away from this one.
Listening to the audio of this book narrated by Steve Worsley felt a lot like curling up in front of the TV to watch a post-watershed BBC police procedural series set in Scotland. If you like a good dark down to earth police procedural then this may well be up your alley.
Logan McRae is just returning to work following sustaining horrific injuries in the line of duty and is thrown straight back into the thick of it when the mutilated body of a young boy is discovered. Numerous threads, involving various cases and a smattering of personal life then intertwine to give a very solid down to earth police procedural. OK, I could of done with Logan being a bit less obsessed with every bit of leg he saw but for the time and place set probably fairly accurate…
First in a long-running series and as there's not much on the TV at the minute I'm on board for more of these
Listening to the audio of this book narrated by Steve Worsley felt a lot like curling up in front of the TV to watch a post-watershed BBC police procedural series set in Scotland. If you like a good dark down to earth police procedural then this may well be up your alley.
Logan McRae is just returning to work following sustaining horrific injuries in the line of duty and is thrown straight back into the thick of it when the mutilated body of a young boy is discovered. Numerous threads, involving various cases and a smattering of personal life then intertwine to give a very solid down to earth police procedural. OK, I could of done with Logan being a bit less obsessed with every bit of leg he saw but for the time and place set probably fairly accurate…
First in a long-running series and as there's not much on the TV at the minute I'm on board for more of these
Ten Seconds from the Sun
Book
Ray Greenland is an exemplary family man and Thames River pilot who can navigate people safely in...
Zen in the Art of Permaculture Design
Book
Do you wish to creatively engage with the wickedly complex problems of today, while not adding to...
Lee (2222 KP) rated The Curse of La Llorona (2019) in Movies
Apr 21, 2019
I've said it before, The Conjuring is my all time favourite scary movie. However, since the success of that first movie, there have been a number of spin off movies, in an bid to build what's now known as the 'Conjuring Universe'. These movies have all varied in quality, ranging from the not too bad (Annabelle Creation) to the downright awful (The Nun). With a third Annabelle movie due out this year, not to mention another Conjuring sequel and other planned universe movies such as The Crooked Man, there's no sign of them stopping anytime soon.
Which brings us to The Curse of La Llorona, the latest entry to the universe and one which is based on Mexican folklore. La Llorona, also known as "The Weeping Woman", is the ghost of a woman who drowned her children and now cries while looking for them in the river. Nowadays, children are told to be well behaved and respectful of their elders, otherwise La Llorona will come and take them away.
This movie wasn't originally billed as being part of the Conjuring universe, and featured a pretty dull first trailer. However, a subsequent trailer featured a familiar face from the Annabelle movies in the form of Father Perez (Tony Amendola), and a link to the Conjuring universe was later confirmed, despite his presence in this movie being somewhat brief.
We're in Los Angeles, 1976. Anna (Linda Cardellini) is a widow with two young kids and working in social services. She still mourns the death of her police officer husband while trying to keep her family together and maintain her demanding job. That job involves dealing with some difficult cases involving children and one such case takes her to the Alvarez home. The mother appears to have lost her mind, while her children are locked in a cupboard that has strange markings on the door. As the title of the movie suggests, there is a curse at play and it's not long before that curse, and the horror that brings with it, is passed onto Anna and her children.
Like The Nun, La Llorona is essentially just a woman with scary face makeup who shrieks at people every so often and tries to make you jump. But thankfully, there's a little more to La Llorona than just that. Some slow, effective reveals provide some pretty decent chills and scares, making this a much more solid and enjoyable movie as she begins to terrorise the children before eventually invading their home and going full on evil.
After Father Perez brings us all up to speed on the backstory of La Llorona, and a flashback to 1763 gives us a visual and graphic representation, the family are referred to an ex priest who is better suited in helping them shake off the curse. He comes to their home in order to prepare for the arrival, and hopefully the removal of, La Llorona. It all feels very formulaic, similar to countless movies we've seen before, such as Poltergeist.
The Curse of La Llorona is pretty corny at times, attempting to inject humour which doesn't always seem to work. However, I did like it. It's certainly a huge step up from last year's disappointing Nun movie and featured enough intensity and scares in its short 93 minute runtime to make it enjoyable enough.
Which brings us to The Curse of La Llorona, the latest entry to the universe and one which is based on Mexican folklore. La Llorona, also known as "The Weeping Woman", is the ghost of a woman who drowned her children and now cries while looking for them in the river. Nowadays, children are told to be well behaved and respectful of their elders, otherwise La Llorona will come and take them away.
This movie wasn't originally billed as being part of the Conjuring universe, and featured a pretty dull first trailer. However, a subsequent trailer featured a familiar face from the Annabelle movies in the form of Father Perez (Tony Amendola), and a link to the Conjuring universe was later confirmed, despite his presence in this movie being somewhat brief.
We're in Los Angeles, 1976. Anna (Linda Cardellini) is a widow with two young kids and working in social services. She still mourns the death of her police officer husband while trying to keep her family together and maintain her demanding job. That job involves dealing with some difficult cases involving children and one such case takes her to the Alvarez home. The mother appears to have lost her mind, while her children are locked in a cupboard that has strange markings on the door. As the title of the movie suggests, there is a curse at play and it's not long before that curse, and the horror that brings with it, is passed onto Anna and her children.
Like The Nun, La Llorona is essentially just a woman with scary face makeup who shrieks at people every so often and tries to make you jump. But thankfully, there's a little more to La Llorona than just that. Some slow, effective reveals provide some pretty decent chills and scares, making this a much more solid and enjoyable movie as she begins to terrorise the children before eventually invading their home and going full on evil.
After Father Perez brings us all up to speed on the backstory of La Llorona, and a flashback to 1763 gives us a visual and graphic representation, the family are referred to an ex priest who is better suited in helping them shake off the curse. He comes to their home in order to prepare for the arrival, and hopefully the removal of, La Llorona. It all feels very formulaic, similar to countless movies we've seen before, such as Poltergeist.
The Curse of La Llorona is pretty corny at times, attempting to inject humour which doesn't always seem to work. However, I did like it. It's certainly a huge step up from last year's disappointing Nun movie and featured enough intensity and scares in its short 93 minute runtime to make it enjoyable enough.
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Separate Lives in Books
Feb 13, 2018
It all begins when Susie sees the text on Alex's phone: "Start living a different kind of life ...P :-) xxx." Convinced he's having an affair, Susie sets off on her own trajectory that threatens their partnership of ten years and their life with their two children. And Alex? Is he completely innocent in all of this? And what about the mysterious P?
This novel is told from the alternating point of view of Susie, Alex, and Pippa. Susie's pieces come via standard narrative, Alex's mainly through email exchanges with his brothers and sister, and Pippa via emails to her sister. While this starts off as sort of enjoyable and different, it can grow old quickly (though the email format moved quickly at least). For instance, Pippa and Susie have a way of veering off into tangents about their past, which drove me absolutely insane. These summaries seemed not at all relevant to the book (what they wore and read at seventeen!) and dragged the narrative down and the story on forever.
Meanwhile, the novel sounds interesting in its premise: a group of characters brought together by a potential technological misunderstanding. It's certainly why I selected it as an ARC. The problem is that none of the characters are remotely redeemable or likeable. While a book that revolves around infidelity may not always have the most personable of characters, you can usually find some humanity them. This group: I just could not find any reason to root for them. I would find an occasional glimpse in Susie or Pippa, but overall, they all annoyed me with their whining and life choices, and I felt sorry for their children! Add to that a plot filled with a variety of twists and turns that would be better off in a soap opera or Lifetime movie (surprise pregnancies! love affairs with a spouse's siblings!), and my frustration level reached its peak. Again, there were moments I liked, but overall I just didn't find a lot of humor or enjoyment in this novel. 2.5 stars.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley (thank you!) in return for an unbiased review; it is available everywhere as of 12/06/2016
This novel is told from the alternating point of view of Susie, Alex, and Pippa. Susie's pieces come via standard narrative, Alex's mainly through email exchanges with his brothers and sister, and Pippa via emails to her sister. While this starts off as sort of enjoyable and different, it can grow old quickly (though the email format moved quickly at least). For instance, Pippa and Susie have a way of veering off into tangents about their past, which drove me absolutely insane. These summaries seemed not at all relevant to the book (what they wore and read at seventeen!) and dragged the narrative down and the story on forever.
Meanwhile, the novel sounds interesting in its premise: a group of characters brought together by a potential technological misunderstanding. It's certainly why I selected it as an ARC. The problem is that none of the characters are remotely redeemable or likeable. While a book that revolves around infidelity may not always have the most personable of characters, you can usually find some humanity them. This group: I just could not find any reason to root for them. I would find an occasional glimpse in Susie or Pippa, but overall, they all annoyed me with their whining and life choices, and I felt sorry for their children! Add to that a plot filled with a variety of twists and turns that would be better off in a soap opera or Lifetime movie (surprise pregnancies! love affairs with a spouse's siblings!), and my frustration level reached its peak. Again, there were moments I liked, but overall I just didn't find a lot of humor or enjoyment in this novel. 2.5 stars.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley (thank you!) in return for an unbiased review; it is available everywhere as of 12/06/2016
F-Secure SAFE
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F-Secure SAFE – Internet security for smartphones, computers and tablets. F-Secure SAFE Internet...
Kendall and Kylie
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JOIN KENDALL & KYLIE JENNER as the up-and-coming star of a big new adventure... choose your own path...