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Gone but Knot Forgotten
Gone but Knot Forgotten
Mary Marks | 2015 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
What Happen to Martha’s Childhood Friend?
Martha Rose is saddened to learn of the death of her childhood friend, Harriet Oliver, and even more surprised to find that she has been named executor of her estate since she and Harriet haven’t spoken in years. Harriet’s death has been ruled natural causes, but Martha has lots of questions about the circumstances of her death. That only grows when she realizes that several items are missing from Harriet’s collection. Is there more to her death than it appears?

The mystery certainly intrigued me, and it moved forward at a steady pace. I did feel the ending was a bit abrupt, but it was suspenseful and answered all of our questions. The characters are wonderful. Martha’s quilting friends are fun, and her love life gets some interesting developments here. Quilting does factor into the mystery in a unique way, and I really enjoyed that. While the book is set during December, it isn’t a Christmas book. There’s a very good reason for it – Martha is Jewish, and I enjoyed learning a bit more about Jewish culture as I read. It’s easy to see why so many people enjoy this series; I’m glad I finally started it.
  
The Assassination Bureau (1969)
The Assassination Bureau (1969)
1969 | Action, Comedy
6
7.3 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Knockabout black comedy thriller. A feisty journalist (Rigg) challenges the leader of a group of elite assassins (Reed) to have himself killed: feeling his associates have become sloppy and corrupt, he accepts the challenge as it will allow him to purge his organisation. Exploits across Edwardian Europe follow, together with a touch of romance.

Oliver Reed never had the career as a leading man he deserved; Diana Rigg didn't get the film career you would have expected, either, so the film has a certain rarity value. However it's just not very funny, or thrilling, and the duo don't seem to have much chemistry - that said, a script which doesn't seem to know whether to be darkly witty or zany means he seems to be operating at about half-power. With Rigg and Savalas co-starring in a 1969 film about a suave assassin taking on a criminal conspiracy, the temptation is to speculate that this film gives a hint of what On Her Majesty's Secret Service might have looked like had Eon made better casting decisions - one hopes not, for this film isn't great in any department, on top of which the special effects in the climax are rotten and the closing song is pretty grim too. A waste of several great talents.
  
    Silk 2 – Generative Art

    Silk 2 – Generative Art

    Art & Design, Entertainment and Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

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    Draw beautiful flowing art with Silk. With Silk's award-winning magic brush, anyone can be an...

Delirium
Delirium
Lauren Oliver | 2011 | Children, Dystopia, Romance
4
7.8 (19 Ratings)
Book Rating
Review from my blog <a href="http://themisadventuresofatwentysomething.blogspot.co.uk">The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl</a>.

I really, really, really wanted to like this book. In fact, I wanted to love it, but it just didn't happen. I just couldn't get into it at all no matter how hard I tried. It's gotten some rave reviews so maybe there's just something wrong with me.

Lena is a seventeen year old girl who doesn't challenge anything about her government. She's too scared of the consequences. In a few months, on her 18th birthday, she'll be cured of the disease, the disease of love. She's looking forward to the day she can be cured of love. In fact, she's counting down the days. However, everything changes when she meets the gorgeous Alex, an invalid (another name for someone who is uncured after their 18th birthday). Now she doesn't want to be cured as Alex has opened her eyes to this disease called love. Lena is wondering if love was ever really a disease at all. Lena is putting herself at risk to be with Alex. Will she have her happy ever after or will she be cured?

The world building isn't bad. The story takes place in Portland. The author does a great job of trying to make the reader believe in a world where love is banned. It is quite believable.

I don't think the cover suits the book at all. Lauren Oliver has a habit of just putting faces on the covers of her books. However, I think this is the easy way out. Putting a photo of a face on a book doesn't really tell us anything about the book. I wish Ms. Oliver would consider changing her covers to make them relevant to the actual story.

The title, however, definitely suits the book. Love is seen as a type of delirium. It's banned, and the government wants everyone to believe how love will make you delirious. It's a great title for the book.

I found the pacing to be too slow for my liking. Don't get me wrong, it's written quite nicely, but it's just too slow. I had to force myself to read the book most of the time. I just couldn't get into it, and I found myself not really caring about the characters. There is one good bit, and it's only about two or three chapters towards the middle of the book.

The dialogue is easy to understand and is written beautifully. There are a few swear words however. (Lena drops the f-bomb a couple of times and the s word is used a couple of times as well). The good thing is this book isn't littered with swear words which is nice.

I just couldn't relate to any of the characters. Lena drove me crazy!! She was too much of a goody goody and too scared throughout the book. It especially annoyed me when she couldn't tell the difference if she was crying or sweating. I've never had a problem telling the difference!! And Alex, nothing really annoyed me about him, but I just couldn't feel him if you know what I mean. I basically found that I couldn't give a toss about what happened to Lena and Alex. I did like Hana as she was more of a free spirit and willing to take risks. I liked how full of life she was. She was the only character I kind of cared about, but she wasn't a main character, nor was she mentioned as much as I would've liked her to be.

Throughout most of the book I just felt really bored with the book which made me kind of sad because I really wanted to enjoy this book after reading some reviews about how great this book was. It was a challenge for me to get through the book, save for two or three chapters. This book just didn't really do anything for me, and I won't be reading the rest of the series as I don't really care what happens.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It's just too boring and is lacking something.

Overall, I'd rate Delirium by Lauren Oliver a 2.5 out of a 5.