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Janeeny (200 KP) rated Ever Alice in Books
May 9, 2019 (Updated Jun 10, 2019)
Unfortunately I was quite disappointed with this book. Mostly because it had potential, but just fell really short of the mark.
Alice is now 15 years old and after years of telling people about her adventures in Wonderland her parents are starting to question her sanity and take her to see a specialised doctor at an Asylum in Switzerland. Sadly things are not quite what they seem at the asylum, but just when things appear to be at their worst for Alice a familiar white rabbit helps her escape the asylum and she finds herself back in Wonderland. What follows is actually quite an intricate tale of suspicion and treachery, reality and fantasy. I’m just not sure it works as an ‘Alice in wonderland’ tale.
I was impressed at first as the author really did seem to capture the essence of the silliness of wonderland, with some scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in a Monty Python sketch or a Mel Brooks movie, but after a while it began to feel like the author was trying a bit too hard and it started to become a slightly repetitive and tedious.
The Character development didn’t really work for me either, especially The Queen of Hearts. For me she was a bit two-dimensional, and although the author tries to give her a bit of a back story it just doesn’t adhere to the character.
Some aspects of the language also grated on me. For instance, when parents are being referred to as Mum and Papa, it doesn’t sit well with me. It’s either going to be mum and dad or mama and papa. I know that is probably just a personal peeve of mine, but every time I came across that phrasing it just halted the story for me. Oh and don’t get me started on the Pop culture references! An actress named Marilyn Montague, who sounds very similar to another well know Marilyn, and a boyband called ‘Mice to men’. They may have been put in for humour, but they just didn’t seem to flow with the story.
As I said, in essence it was a good story, if a little predictable at the end, I just feel that using it as a ‘re-imagining’ of Alice left it with some expectations that it just couldn’t live up to.
Alice is now 15 years old and after years of telling people about her adventures in Wonderland her parents are starting to question her sanity and take her to see a specialised doctor at an Asylum in Switzerland. Sadly things are not quite what they seem at the asylum, but just when things appear to be at their worst for Alice a familiar white rabbit helps her escape the asylum and she finds herself back in Wonderland. What follows is actually quite an intricate tale of suspicion and treachery, reality and fantasy. I’m just not sure it works as an ‘Alice in wonderland’ tale.
I was impressed at first as the author really did seem to capture the essence of the silliness of wonderland, with some scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in a Monty Python sketch or a Mel Brooks movie, but after a while it began to feel like the author was trying a bit too hard and it started to become a slightly repetitive and tedious.
The Character development didn’t really work for me either, especially The Queen of Hearts. For me she was a bit two-dimensional, and although the author tries to give her a bit of a back story it just doesn’t adhere to the character.
Some aspects of the language also grated on me. For instance, when parents are being referred to as Mum and Papa, it doesn’t sit well with me. It’s either going to be mum and dad or mama and papa. I know that is probably just a personal peeve of mine, but every time I came across that phrasing it just halted the story for me. Oh and don’t get me started on the Pop culture references! An actress named Marilyn Montague, who sounds very similar to another well know Marilyn, and a boyband called ‘Mice to men’. They may have been put in for humour, but they just didn’t seem to flow with the story.
As I said, in essence it was a good story, if a little predictable at the end, I just feel that using it as a ‘re-imagining’ of Alice left it with some expectations that it just couldn’t live up to.
Another book in my permaculture research, this in-depth guide is definitely going on my To-Buy list. (I always check these out from the library before spending money on personal copies.)
There is SO MUCH information in this book. Unlike some of the other books, there's no big spreads of full-color, glossy photos (which can be useful, I'm not digging on those); The Food Forest Handbook is mostly text with a few black-and-white photos tucked in. There are spreadsheets and diagrams and lists, sidebars of useful information, how-to walkthroughs and case studies of specific plants. I'm not sure how they packed so much into a little over 200 pages, but this book is a treasure trove of permaculture strategies.
The book starts with a chapter on why permaculture is important; they explore past examples of permaculture, some present food forests, and why it could be useful to us going forward. The second chapter gets into designing a food forest to fit your needs - scoping out your site, determining what resources you have, all of the planning aspects. Then we have a short chapter on putting all that knowledge together and going "from concept sketch to detailed designs" - how to refine your research and plans into something you can work off of. Chapter 4 is about selecting the specific plants; going from "okay here I want a fruit tree and a nitrogen fixer" to "a peach and comfrey." Plant varietals are discussed here, as well as the different needs of tree guilds.
The rest of the book gets into maintenance, harvesting, and propagating the food forest, and the last chapter is on a tour of established food forests in various climates, to see what's possible.
This is definitely a book I want on my resource shelf; it can get a little dry at points, but there is so much knowledge here. One thing I really liked was the diagram of tree shapes - if one tree says it has a conical shape when full grown, and one has a pyramid shape, there's a diagram that shows what exactly the difference is.
Overall an excellent, information-packed book, if a little difficult to read straight through.You can read all my book reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
There is SO MUCH information in this book. Unlike some of the other books, there's no big spreads of full-color, glossy photos (which can be useful, I'm not digging on those); The Food Forest Handbook is mostly text with a few black-and-white photos tucked in. There are spreadsheets and diagrams and lists, sidebars of useful information, how-to walkthroughs and case studies of specific plants. I'm not sure how they packed so much into a little over 200 pages, but this book is a treasure trove of permaculture strategies.
The book starts with a chapter on why permaculture is important; they explore past examples of permaculture, some present food forests, and why it could be useful to us going forward. The second chapter gets into designing a food forest to fit your needs - scoping out your site, determining what resources you have, all of the planning aspects. Then we have a short chapter on putting all that knowledge together and going "from concept sketch to detailed designs" - how to refine your research and plans into something you can work off of. Chapter 4 is about selecting the specific plants; going from "okay here I want a fruit tree and a nitrogen fixer" to "a peach and comfrey." Plant varietals are discussed here, as well as the different needs of tree guilds.
The rest of the book gets into maintenance, harvesting, and propagating the food forest, and the last chapter is on a tour of established food forests in various climates, to see what's possible.
This is definitely a book I want on my resource shelf; it can get a little dry at points, but there is so much knowledge here. One thing I really liked was the diagram of tree shapes - if one tree says it has a conical shape when full grown, and one has a pyramid shape, there's a diagram that shows what exactly the difference is.
Overall an excellent, information-packed book, if a little difficult to read straight through.You can read all my book reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Bunny Finds a Friend in Books
Feb 13, 2018
Cara Jong is working as a process server when she delivers a summons to a Santa. Except this Santa is a gorgeous woman, who immediately strikes a chord with Cara. The two share a "moment," which stays with Cara for some time. She eventually tracks down said Santa, who turns out to be Jude Donovan, a well-known children's book author. The two "meet cute," so to speak, at a reading of Jude's and sparks fly. They begin dating, but it seems like things just aren't meant to be. Will Cara's flighty nature and lack of commitment (all well-documented by her older sisters) doom the relationship? What about Jude's ex and her young daughter Zoe, who doesn't seem happy to have her Mom dating again? Can Cara and Jude overcome these obstacles and find happiness?
This was a cute book, with fairly realistic characters leading a fairly realistic life--something that's harder to find than one would think in lesbian literature. Cara's a regular gal, with a typical lack of commitment found in a myriad characters in literature, gay and straight. Perhaps the biggest issue with this book is that it sort of seems like a sketch of what could have been an even more fully-developed and even more enjoyable novel. We don't get to see a lot of Cara and Jude's actual relationship development, for instance. Their courtship and issues are quickly glossed over. I would have liked to have seen more of what led them to fall for each other--and fall apart. After all, those sorts of things (falling in love, struggling to maintain a relationship while juggling exes and children and jobs) are what we all have in common.
Cara's sisters are also supposed to add a bit of comic relief, perhaps, to the novel, but they sometimes come across as harpy and annoying. While several of them are dealing with complex issues, they don't get the full attention they truly deserve.
Still, this was a fun, quick read. It's always refreshing to read lesbian fiction with normal characters navigating life. I liked Cara, sympathized with her on a multitude of levels, and did enjoy reading about her journey. Overall, 3.5 stars.
I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley - thank you!
This was a cute book, with fairly realistic characters leading a fairly realistic life--something that's harder to find than one would think in lesbian literature. Cara's a regular gal, with a typical lack of commitment found in a myriad characters in literature, gay and straight. Perhaps the biggest issue with this book is that it sort of seems like a sketch of what could have been an even more fully-developed and even more enjoyable novel. We don't get to see a lot of Cara and Jude's actual relationship development, for instance. Their courtship and issues are quickly glossed over. I would have liked to have seen more of what led them to fall for each other--and fall apart. After all, those sorts of things (falling in love, struggling to maintain a relationship while juggling exes and children and jobs) are what we all have in common.
Cara's sisters are also supposed to add a bit of comic relief, perhaps, to the novel, but they sometimes come across as harpy and annoying. While several of them are dealing with complex issues, they don't get the full attention they truly deserve.
Still, this was a fun, quick read. It's always refreshing to read lesbian fiction with normal characters navigating life. I liked Cara, sympathized with her on a multitude of levels, and did enjoy reading about her journey. Overall, 3.5 stars.
I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley - thank you!
Gareth von Kallenbach (977 KP) rated Sisters (2015) in Movies
Jun 19, 2019
Life for sisters Maura (Amy Poehler), and Kate (Tina Fey) has not worked out the way they had planned. Maura is a nurse who lives in Atlanta and two years after her divorce is busy doing do-good projects and learning to make cheese in her spare time.,
Kate is a single mom who cannot hold a job and has recently been kicked out of the place she was living in. When their parents inform Maura that they are selling their childhood home, Maura helps Kate travel to Orlando in an effort to convince their parents to change their minds.
Seeing that the deal is pretty much done and that their parents are now in a condo, Maura and Kate opt to spend their time in their old home, and do whatever they can to discourage the prospective new buyers from following through on the purchase.
Kate has always been the wilder of the bunch and decides that Maura needs to let loose for once. As such they opt to recreate a party from their teens with as many of their former classmates as they can gather.
Naturally as anyone who has ever seen a house comedy knows, this is a disaster in the making as everything from drunken party games to a drug mishap and sex accidents follow.
It is different to hear Poehler and Fey use R-rated language as they have kept much of their career to the wink and a nod style of adult humor that their pioneered on Saturday Night Live but once you get used to it, it does not seem overly forced.
The two have a real chemistry and there are many funny scenes in the film, the biggest issue is the transition and setups can be a bit slow and at times awkward. This is to be expected from people who started in sketch comedy and neither of the two had a hand in writing the film as well.
Ike Barinholtz does great supporting work as a love interest and his “accident” is one of the funniest and most cringe worthy moments in film comedy.
If you can handle the slow parts and need some good laughs, then you will want to check out “Sisters’ as it is mindless and raunchy fun.
http://sknr.net/2015/12/18/sisters/
Kate is a single mom who cannot hold a job and has recently been kicked out of the place she was living in. When their parents inform Maura that they are selling their childhood home, Maura helps Kate travel to Orlando in an effort to convince their parents to change their minds.
Seeing that the deal is pretty much done and that their parents are now in a condo, Maura and Kate opt to spend their time in their old home, and do whatever they can to discourage the prospective new buyers from following through on the purchase.
Kate has always been the wilder of the bunch and decides that Maura needs to let loose for once. As such they opt to recreate a party from their teens with as many of their former classmates as they can gather.
Naturally as anyone who has ever seen a house comedy knows, this is a disaster in the making as everything from drunken party games to a drug mishap and sex accidents follow.
It is different to hear Poehler and Fey use R-rated language as they have kept much of their career to the wink and a nod style of adult humor that their pioneered on Saturday Night Live but once you get used to it, it does not seem overly forced.
The two have a real chemistry and there are many funny scenes in the film, the biggest issue is the transition and setups can be a bit slow and at times awkward. This is to be expected from people who started in sketch comedy and neither of the two had a hand in writing the film as well.
Ike Barinholtz does great supporting work as a love interest and his “accident” is one of the funniest and most cringe worthy moments in film comedy.
If you can handle the slow parts and need some good laughs, then you will want to check out “Sisters’ as it is mindless and raunchy fun.
http://sknr.net/2015/12/18/sisters/
Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) in Movies
Jan 29, 2020
Hard Cake
The personal history of david copperfield really disappointed me especially after such a cracking trailer and while no means a bad film it just really wasnt a film I enjoyed. What I was expecting was a sharply written, quirky yet dry and playful adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel something similar to a yorgos lanthimos film like the favorite for instance but sadly I found this movie to be extreamly dull, uninteresting and severely lacking overall. I wouldnt say its necessarily bad however it all just felt very flat to me. Characters didnt feel believable, humour seemed forced and while david patel burts at the seemes constantly with energy the film around him didnt seem to follow along the same. Very interesting ideas are present here and the emphases is on life almost being like a stage play with people we meet being the characters in it. See everyone in life is unique and has their own distinctive traits/interesting stories and no matter what happenes in our lives neither one is no less meaningless or important than the other. This does come across brilliantly and shows the bad traits of human nature, see everyone is on the path to happiness its just what they do and who they exploit or how much they choose to lie to get there and achieve sucess is diffrent from person to person. Then on a positive side it also shows how we should all realise where we have come from, to be greatful for what we have, to let our creativity flow and to appreciate these characters that enter our lives and inspire/care for us. So heres where I feel conflicted as much as I like these great ideas I feel they they just aren't integrated well enough with the dull story or the forced comedy and sure the film is well made but to watch its just not exciting or that engaging and the characters all became forgettable once off screen just like when watching a sketch show. Failing to keep my intrest constantly made the runtime feel a drag too and by the time I left I struggled to remember much of what had just happened infront of me wishing I'd of just stayed home and watched Perfume or The Favorite instead in the warm. No doubt some will enjoy this but will they be talking about it in a month? I highly doubt it.
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