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ECG EKG Mastery
Medical and Education
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Finally learn to read that EKG! The most convenient and complete resource for interpreting EKGs --...
PubMed On Tap 2
Medical and Reference
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The Patient Centered Value System: Transforming Healthcare Through Co-Design
Anthony M. DiGioia and Eve Shapiro
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Imagine: You are a hospital Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, medical or nursing...
Travels in West Africa: the Classic Account of One Woman's Epic and Eccentric Journey in the 1890s
Mary H. Kingsley and Lynnette Turner
Book
A remarkable account by a pioneering woman explorer who was described by Rudyard Kipling as 'the...
Darren (1599 KP) rated Mr. Holmes (2015) in Movies
Sep 13, 2019
Characters – Sherlock Holmes is one of the iconic characters in any mystery tale, this time we following him in his latter years, as we follow the three moments, the last case he didn’t solve, the trip to Japan and how he is writing the story about his last case. This character is interesting to find because we see a great mind struggling to remember everything that he should. Mrs Munro is the housekeeper looking after Sherlock while he focuses on his projects and bees, she does want to move away with her son because she finds Sherlock more in need of a nurse than a housekeeper. Roger is her young son that Sherlock takes under his wing, he is eager to learn more about his stories and the bees which can leave him in trouble at times. Tamiki has invited Sherlock to Japan, claiming to be a big fan, but he has different motives for this, we don’t really see enough of this character though.
Performances – Ian McKellen is fantastic in the leading role, but could we expect anything less from one of the greatest of all times? Laura Linney has always been able to mould herself into any supporting character and here is no different. Milo Parker is good for a child star, nailing the important scenes and keeping his innocence about him. Hiroyuki Sanada is a man we would have liked to have seen more in this film, I feel there is a lot more that we could have had from his character.
Story – Sherlock Holmes, the icon, the legend, the detective that solves every case, is now old and trying to put together parts of his memory o finish a final book, as he tries to remember the chapters of his life. Following the three different stages of his elderly life, can in places become confusing, but everything is tied up by the end and plays into the idea of what is real or part of a story well. The pace of the story is slow in places which doesn’t help keep on top of everything though.
Mystery – The mystery side of the film, comes off slow, we have a couple of mysteries Holmes wants to solve, but we never get left in a position to want to see them unfold.
Settings – The settings play into the late 40s well, Japan is haunting for this, the beach/cliff top location looks beautiful too.
Scene of the Movie – Japan and the aftermath.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It is very slow.
Final Thoughts – This is a slow mystery movie that does focus on certain parts of the later life of a Holmes figure which is different as it is him battle against his own mind while trying to remember or solve the cases.
Overall: Slow, but interesting.
Performances – Ian McKellen is fantastic in the leading role, but could we expect anything less from one of the greatest of all times? Laura Linney has always been able to mould herself into any supporting character and here is no different. Milo Parker is good for a child star, nailing the important scenes and keeping his innocence about him. Hiroyuki Sanada is a man we would have liked to have seen more in this film, I feel there is a lot more that we could have had from his character.
Story – Sherlock Holmes, the icon, the legend, the detective that solves every case, is now old and trying to put together parts of his memory o finish a final book, as he tries to remember the chapters of his life. Following the three different stages of his elderly life, can in places become confusing, but everything is tied up by the end and plays into the idea of what is real or part of a story well. The pace of the story is slow in places which doesn’t help keep on top of everything though.
Mystery – The mystery side of the film, comes off slow, we have a couple of mysteries Holmes wants to solve, but we never get left in a position to want to see them unfold.
Settings – The settings play into the late 40s well, Japan is haunting for this, the beach/cliff top location looks beautiful too.
Scene of the Movie – Japan and the aftermath.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It is very slow.
Final Thoughts – This is a slow mystery movie that does focus on certain parts of the later life of a Holmes figure which is different as it is him battle against his own mind while trying to remember or solve the cases.
Overall: Slow, but interesting.
Enchanted Ink
8.0
Rate It
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From beloved romance author, Robin Lynn, comes a hotly-anticipated, fantastical adventure in art,...
Fantasy Romance Futuristic LGBTQIA+
Weak characters (1 more)
Mediocre ending
A haunted house thriller that could've been more
At Spring House, it’s not just a lone ghost that haunts the property—something has awoken. Almost as if the house were alive. That’s the impression I got going into The Vines, and I thought it was a unique twist to the classic haunted house story.
The book has several narrators starting with Caitlin, an heiress whom everyone loves to hate and who is taken advantage of and cheated on by her husband. Second is Nova, an educated young black woman employed at Spring that has a real chip on her shoulder. Lastly there is Blake, a homosexual male nurse that suffers from depression after witnessing the death of his lover. All of these character’s stories come together to form the mystery around Spring House.
I had a hard time really deciding how I wanted to rate this book overall. At certain points it was thrilling, I wanted to know more about the mystery surrounding Spring House and the action scenes are written in wonderful detail. On the other hand I also found myself pretty disappointed with how one dimensional many of the characters were, particularly Caitlin and Nova. I just couldn’t find myself caring much about either one of them, which made it a little bit hard to remain interested in their respective roles in the plot.
With Caitlin she didn’t seem to be such a bad person, but the hatred and scorn from the people around her have reduced her to being a shadow of a person, not much ever comes from her character. The development of her character is seemingly dropped, she’s just there, all blind anger and rage and while it’s understandable, she has little impact on, well, anything. Which was unexpected considering the book’s synopsis was about her. What is worse is that Nova isn’t too far off from Caitlin. While there is a part of me that likes how strong willed Nova is, it is kind of annoying how she is just as blinded by her own rage and prejudice. Even she is barely relevant to the plot, if I’m to be perfectly frank. It becomes obvious that the real story is about Blake and how he faces up to the past that has been haunting him for years. This is well and good and I enjoyed his story, but then all of the other characters just become filler and this was kind of a downer.
The book just took way too long to get to that point. The focus keeps shifting before the story really starts to pick up speed and it feels like it drags a bit. I also found the ending to be a little bit cheesy, it just didn’t do it for me. Overall the book was decent, Rice has a gift for description and it was entertaining for a while. I just didn’t find this one to be particularly memorable.
The book has several narrators starting with Caitlin, an heiress whom everyone loves to hate and who is taken advantage of and cheated on by her husband. Second is Nova, an educated young black woman employed at Spring that has a real chip on her shoulder. Lastly there is Blake, a homosexual male nurse that suffers from depression after witnessing the death of his lover. All of these character’s stories come together to form the mystery around Spring House.
I had a hard time really deciding how I wanted to rate this book overall. At certain points it was thrilling, I wanted to know more about the mystery surrounding Spring House and the action scenes are written in wonderful detail. On the other hand I also found myself pretty disappointed with how one dimensional many of the characters were, particularly Caitlin and Nova. I just couldn’t find myself caring much about either one of them, which made it a little bit hard to remain interested in their respective roles in the plot.
With Caitlin she didn’t seem to be such a bad person, but the hatred and scorn from the people around her have reduced her to being a shadow of a person, not much ever comes from her character. The development of her character is seemingly dropped, she’s just there, all blind anger and rage and while it’s understandable, she has little impact on, well, anything. Which was unexpected considering the book’s synopsis was about her. What is worse is that Nova isn’t too far off from Caitlin. While there is a part of me that likes how strong willed Nova is, it is kind of annoying how she is just as blinded by her own rage and prejudice. Even she is barely relevant to the plot, if I’m to be perfectly frank. It becomes obvious that the real story is about Blake and how he faces up to the past that has been haunting him for years. This is well and good and I enjoyed his story, but then all of the other characters just become filler and this was kind of a downer.
The book just took way too long to get to that point. The focus keeps shifting before the story really starts to pick up speed and it feels like it drags a bit. I also found the ending to be a little bit cheesy, it just didn’t do it for me. Overall the book was decent, Rice has a gift for description and it was entertaining for a while. I just didn’t find this one to be particularly memorable.
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Marvel's Daredevil - Season 2 in TV
Jul 21, 2017
Brilliant writing (1 more)
Fantastic performances
Down and Dirty Crimefighting
These shows are fantastic. The Netflix/Marvel TV universe that has been built off of the back of these shows is awesome. If you are a fan of the Marvel Max comic books, then these shows have been made for you. Marvel reintroduces Daredevil (and Punisher in Daredevil Season 2,) in epic fashion. This is a world where the events of the Avengers movies have taken place, but these are gritty, street level stories that tell tales of a more personal, visceral kind of battle. If you like your Marvel superheroes, but find the Avengers too tame, then wade right in. These heroes are foul mouthed, real people who happen to have some amazing abilities. Charlie Cox is a fantastic Matt Murdock and Krysten Ritter is a brilliant Jessica Jones, the supporting characters are also well implemented, such as Elektra, Stick, Foggy Nelson, Karen Paige, Night Nurse, Nuke, Luke Cage and Trish. The villains in each show are also some of the best the Marvel have had so far, Vincent D’Onofrio plays a tragic, but still scheming and suitably evil version of Kingpin, which gives the character a depth that hasn’t yet been explored. I really hope that they use the character in the solo Spiderman movie. David Tennant plays Killgrave or The Purple Man in Jessica Jones and he also kills it, you can tell he really had fun with the role too, which makes him even more entertaining whenever he is onscreen. Season 2 of Daredevil just recently finished up and during it we were introduced to the new Punisher, played by Jon Bernthal, who again gives us the chance to explore the character and his psyche to a level that we haven’t seen before. He is still the hardcore badass that you would expect, but his mentality in this universe goes deeper than that and that is something that is very cool to see. Overall I have loved every episode of these shows to date and as long as they carry on the tone and the overall production standard that they have set themselves so far, I can’t wait to see what else this universe has to offer. There is also exciting rumours stating that they could appear in the Avengers Infinity War films. I can’t wait to see all of this and I really feel that all of these characters show great potential. Keep doing what you are doing Marvel, because it is truly awesome. Doing these character’s origin stories in an R rated TV show setting was a great idea and the writing and performances on Netflix stand up to any show on HBO or AMC. If you haven’t seen the entirety of these shows yet, stop what you are doing and go marathon them right now, you will not regret it.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Welcome to Marwen (2018) in Movies
Jul 2, 2019
Cap’t Hogie (Steve Carell) is saved from of Nazi’s, after his plane crashed in a swamp in Belgium, by a squad women. They are able to take the beaten and battered Hogie back to their town of Marwen. Or at least that the story Mark Hogancamp (also Steve Carell) has conjured in his art installation outside his trailer home. Mark himself was found by a bartender, Wendy (Stefanie von Pfetten), after he was beaten with an inch of his life by a group of white supremacist. Hogancamp was a successful sketch artist and now can hardly write his own name. He also has little to no memory of the life before the beating. But he is still and artist and now his art lives in the dolls he uses to create a fantasy story that mirrors his real life.
The group of women dolls that seem to always save his Hogie character are all based on the women his life. There is G.I. Julie, aka Julie (Janelle Monae), his rehab partner after his accident and Roberta (Merritt Wever), the friendly neighborhood hobby story clerk. Plus there is Anna (Gwendoline Christie) nurse who brings Hogie his mail and supplies in real life and Carlala (Eiza Gonzalez) his coworker in real life. These make up the majority of his bad ass Nazi killing crew in Marwen. The newest addition is his neighbor Nicole (Leslie Mann) who he think might help him defeat the Nazi’s in Marwen for good and be a special new friend in real life. He will need both his Marwen crew and his real life friends as the sentencing for his real life attackers gets closer and his fragile mental health is pushed to a stressful breaking point.
This unique story is based on the real life of world famous photographic artist Mark Hogancamp. Mark was brutally beaten because he made a smart comment about liking to wear women’s shoes. It’s also a story of overcoming addiction and mental health issues. He turned the disaster into a passion for creating art and using fantasy to cope with tragedy.
This was a really interesting way of telling a one of a kind true story. I thought that director, Robert Zemeckis (Forest Gump, Flight) used both real life and the fantasy world of Marwen to create one story. There were times when the story really didn’t flow great between the two worlds but overall was really original filmmaking. The pace and flow were a little off with the transitions. I thought the animation was exceptionally done. The story also had a bunch of topics it tackled, from mental health and memory loss to addiction but also had a good mix of humor. Carell dual performances were really well done and the supporting cast was also good. Films that are original and try new and interesting things are always worth a view in my opinion. I could see the content not really being for everyone but I thought the overall story left me feeling good.
The group of women dolls that seem to always save his Hogie character are all based on the women his life. There is G.I. Julie, aka Julie (Janelle Monae), his rehab partner after his accident and Roberta (Merritt Wever), the friendly neighborhood hobby story clerk. Plus there is Anna (Gwendoline Christie) nurse who brings Hogie his mail and supplies in real life and Carlala (Eiza Gonzalez) his coworker in real life. These make up the majority of his bad ass Nazi killing crew in Marwen. The newest addition is his neighbor Nicole (Leslie Mann) who he think might help him defeat the Nazi’s in Marwen for good and be a special new friend in real life. He will need both his Marwen crew and his real life friends as the sentencing for his real life attackers gets closer and his fragile mental health is pushed to a stressful breaking point.
This unique story is based on the real life of world famous photographic artist Mark Hogancamp. Mark was brutally beaten because he made a smart comment about liking to wear women’s shoes. It’s also a story of overcoming addiction and mental health issues. He turned the disaster into a passion for creating art and using fantasy to cope with tragedy.
This was a really interesting way of telling a one of a kind true story. I thought that director, Robert Zemeckis (Forest Gump, Flight) used both real life and the fantasy world of Marwen to create one story. There were times when the story really didn’t flow great between the two worlds but overall was really original filmmaking. The pace and flow were a little off with the transitions. I thought the animation was exceptionally done. The story also had a bunch of topics it tackled, from mental health and memory loss to addiction but also had a good mix of humor. Carell dual performances were really well done and the supporting cast was also good. Films that are original and try new and interesting things are always worth a view in my opinion. I could see the content not really being for everyone but I thought the overall story left me feeling good.
Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Night of the Dragon (Shadow of the Fox #3) in Books
Apr 10, 2020 (Updated Apr 10, 2020)
ARC copy provided by Inkyard Press.
This review and other musings can be found at Bookwyrming Thoughts.
I think I’ve been completely ruined once again by Julie Kagawa, so I had to nurse my soul for about a week before I could muster up the courage to write a review.* With Night of the Dragon, the third and final book of her Shadow of the Fox trilogy, Kagawa has taken my heart and chucked it straight into another galaxy. I don’t know the rest of my current reads; what are they?
I’m… not sure when my heart will return this time.
Night of the Dragon is a continuation of Soul of the Sword.
We continue to follow Yumeko and her friends as they race against time to stop Genno from summoning the Kami Dragon and destroying Iwagoto. Safe to assume eventually it will be the world. And not just the short time they have: they have a challenging journey ahead because Genno will stop at nothing to prevent them from ruining his plans. Like the first two books, Kagawa introduces us to new yokai from Japanese mythology: each of them just as cruel, vicious and caring for nothing but spilling the blood of anything that stands in their way.
Tatsumi has a bit of an identity crisis here.
He’s not sure if he’s Haikaimono now that they’ve merged their souls or if he’s still Tatsumi. But over the course of his journey from Shadow of the Fox when he first meets Yumeko through the third book, he’s changed drastically. He’s not the only one who’s changed either; his literal resident demon inside of him has changed too, but he’s still the same badass Kage from the first book. He’s just more bloodthirsty.
I’m here for all the slow burns!
My heart is all mushy with the ships being sailed. Finally! Inside my heart cried because, at this point in the series, I’m cheering the group on to success. All the odds are against them, but I want my favorite cinnamons to conquer.
My heart still cries from wherever it landed.
I’m not surprised by the ending, but it doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less than it did. Either way, it was beautiful and perfect, and I couldn’t ask for anything less. (But I mean, it’s Julie Kagawa! I should know at reading 90% of her works that endings to a series are going to be *chef’s kiss*.)
Soul of the Sword was a struggle for me to get through, but it is so worth going through for Night of the Dragon. All the questions I had from the very beginning of the series get answered as everything comes together for an ending that made me want to cry and question my life choices.
*How do I bring justice to such perfection?! All the words have flown out the window. What even is a review?
This review and other musings can be found at Bookwyrming Thoughts.
I think I’ve been completely ruined once again by Julie Kagawa, so I had to nurse my soul for about a week before I could muster up the courage to write a review.* With Night of the Dragon, the third and final book of her Shadow of the Fox trilogy, Kagawa has taken my heart and chucked it straight into another galaxy. I don’t know the rest of my current reads; what are they?
I’m… not sure when my heart will return this time.
Night of the Dragon is a continuation of Soul of the Sword.
We continue to follow Yumeko and her friends as they race against time to stop Genno from summoning the Kami Dragon and destroying Iwagoto. Safe to assume eventually it will be the world. And not just the short time they have: they have a challenging journey ahead because Genno will stop at nothing to prevent them from ruining his plans. Like the first two books, Kagawa introduces us to new yokai from Japanese mythology: each of them just as cruel, vicious and caring for nothing but spilling the blood of anything that stands in their way.
Tatsumi has a bit of an identity crisis here.
He’s not sure if he’s Haikaimono now that they’ve merged their souls or if he’s still Tatsumi. But over the course of his journey from Shadow of the Fox when he first meets Yumeko through the third book, he’s changed drastically. He’s not the only one who’s changed either; his literal resident demon inside of him has changed too, but he’s still the same badass Kage from the first book. He’s just more bloodthirsty.
I’m here for all the slow burns!
My heart is all mushy with the ships being sailed. Finally! Inside my heart cried because, at this point in the series, I’m cheering the group on to success. All the odds are against them, but I want my favorite cinnamons to conquer.
My heart still cries from wherever it landed.
I’m not surprised by the ending, but it doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less than it did. Either way, it was beautiful and perfect, and I couldn’t ask for anything less. (But I mean, it’s Julie Kagawa! I should know at reading 90% of her works that endings to a series are going to be *chef’s kiss*.)
Soul of the Sword was a struggle for me to get through, but it is so worth going through for Night of the Dragon. All the questions I had from the very beginning of the series get answered as everything comes together for an ending that made me want to cry and question my life choices.
*How do I bring justice to such perfection?! All the words have flown out the window. What even is a review?