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Embrace (The Violet Eden Chapters, #1)
Embrace (The Violet Eden Chapters, #1)
Jessica Shirvington | 2010 | Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was hooked from early on with this, the authors way of writing was different to other young adult authors. Maybe it was the fact that Violet was turning seventeen right at the start and therefore we had none of the sometimes annoying sixteen year old stuff that is in others.

That being said, Violet did manage to annoy me in regard to Lincoln on various occasions throughout but now I've finished the book I know it wasn't all her own doing, not at the end anyway.

I was Team Lincoln from the start (I seem to have this thing about picking the first guy mentioned in books, unless he's an arse of course) and fascinated by Violet's reaction to him. Then we met him and I think I sighed a little, because he seemed rather dreamy.

Phoenix on the other hand was a little iffy from the start. He seemed too good to be true and always a little dark, to me.

After the ending I'm interested to see where things go and will be starting Entice soon.
  
Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy #1)
Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy #1)
Kiersten White | 2010 | Paranormal, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
7
7.6 (9 Ratings)
Book Rating
3.5 stars.

It started off quite good, we were thrown straight into the action and I was excited to see where it would all lead.

Evie was kinda fun, she was rather innocent though having lived in the agency building since she was eight and in a way it fun seeing her in a school setting though her fashion sense and love of pink was a bit OTT.

I love Lend--dodgy name but I totally get it. He had my attention from early on and I loved reading the slow progression of his relationship with Evie.

Reth, I'm not too sure about; sometimes he seemed alright and others I wanted to punch him in the face.

I'm not normally a fan of books involving the fae but I liked this. It was different since it involved all different types of paranormal creature/being and wasn't too engrossed in the courts and the ways of the fae.

I am definitely intrigued as to what else will happen in this series and will be continuing it at some point in the near future.
  
Cards Against Humanity
Cards Against Humanity
2009 | Adult, Card Game, Humor, Party Game, Print & Play
Entertaining (0 more)
Not for the faint of heart (0 more)
Fun the first couple of times
It gets old pretty quickly but it is quite an icebreaker. I first played it at a local munch and it was a lot of fun but the novelty wears off after a while. This is not a game to play with your aunt or anyone who clutches their pearls on the regular unless those pearls are anal beads, and then all bets are off. It's dirty, graphic, full of sexual situations, and lots of things that will offend the average citizen. This game is only for the immature or dirty-minded (in a good way.) I mentioned it to my psychiatrist and she immediately bought a deck and played it with her friends and family then bought all the extensions. The cool kids (my psychiatrist and those like her) play it at the psychiatry practice meetings sometimes.

But how many times can you really answer a question with, "A 3-ft long black double-sided dildo" before it gets old?
  
Days That I'll Remeber: Spending Time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Days That I'll Remeber: Spending Time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Jonathan Cott | 2013 | Biography, Music & Dance
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Jonathan Cott is somebody we all know in our circle to be a quiet genius. Rolling Stone asked him to interview us a few times. This book is a collection of those interviews. Nothing more. Reading it, I thought “Wow, we weren’t bad at all.” Because most writers wanted to sensationalize us, thinking that if they didn’t do that, it might be boring – and nobody would buy the book! So their ‘interviews’ usually came out nothing like what we were like. I have never recommended any books about John and Yoko. But this book made me choke up. I heard John in my ears and felt him in my heart. This is a good book for Lennon fans. And I.. Well, I come out as the second banana (okay, okay!) You will get an inkling of two people in love, sometimes making daring remarks, yet not forgetting to protect each other in the interviews. In fact, this is really the way we were, folks! Have a good read."

Source
  
Calling Out Of Context by Arthur Russell
Calling Out Of Context by Arthur Russell
2004 | Compilation
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This song was a sonic influence on the record. The vocal sitting on top of things that aren't a conventional band, with some electronic instruments, some keyboards and some beats. The voice is still the main focus, but there's stuff happening around it that isn’t conventional. It was definitely an inspiration to some of the songs on this record; it was like a sonic headspace. “I’ve been a fan of Arthur Russell for a long time. I don't remember who showed me him but maybe it was on a highschool mixtape. Sometimes you just hear somebody; you can tell that it's unique, it's interesting and you want to know more about it. “With 'Nothing Sacred / All Things Wild' for example, which is the third song on Oh My God, I first tried it with an acoustic guitar and it wasn't really working, but then when we used just an organ and my vocal and that seemed to really work. Something like that would be really influenced by something like Arthur Russell."

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Death of a Ladies' Man by Leonard Cohen
Death of a Ladies' Man by Leonard Cohen
1977 | Pop
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I think this song is fun and sort of ridiculous, it's bombastic and big. There's so much reverb on ‘True Love Leaves No Traces’, it's crazy. He’s on the record cover with the women and he called it Death of a Ladies' Man! It's so beautiful and it's very well written, but it's kind of through this filter that you can't help but just kind of laugh loud. “There’s that song called ‘Memories’ where he sings “Your naked body...” and it’s just ridiculous; it's playful and fun in a way that only Leonard Cohen really knew how to be. If you listen to some of his interviews he's such a poetic man and he knows exactly how to say whatever he wants to say. Sometimes he chooses to say funny things and that record is kind of like that to me. “When you discover albums like this, you're like, 'There's actually really great songs in here, the production is insane, but what he's saying is really cool.' He was in his fifties at that point; he was drinking tea"

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Hazel (2934 KP) rated Hostage in Books

Jun 27, 2021  
Hostage
Hostage
Clare Mackintosh | 2021 | Crime, Thriller
9
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
You know sometimes when there is so much hype around a book and then you read it and it's a bit of a disappointment ... well, let me tell you that this is not one of them!

Oh my word. What an absolutely corker of a read this is. I know it's a cliché, but this really is page-turning and difficult to put down. It starts quite serenely but the sense of dread creeps up on you just as it does to Mina.

There aren't enough superlatives to describe this book, just know that it's everything you would want in a thriller. Excellent characters, relentless pacing, claustrophobic, nail-biting, gripping, tense, thrilling and that's just what's happening on the flight; I won't even start to go into what's going on at home!

As you have probably guessed, I thoroughly enjoyed this and would recommend to anyone who .... well anyone really!

Thanks must be given to Little, Brown Book Group and NetGalley for my copy in return for an unbiased and unedited review.
  
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Kate Nash recommended track Violet by Hole in Live Through This by Hole in Music (curated)

 
Live Through This by Hole
Live Through This by Hole
1994 | Rock
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Violet by Hole

(0 Ratings)

Track

"This whole album Live Through This is probably my favourite record of all time, I feel so empowered by it. I love Courtney Love, she’s a very unique, kind of controversial character who’s very outspoken, who does wild, weird things and has that guttural voice. And it’s still pop, the melodies are very singable. “It got me through a horrible break up. I listened to the album on repeat and I was ‘I can get through this, because Courtney Love has gotten through some crazy shit.’ I was angry for a lot of reasons, relationship stuff, music industry stuff, and it became my armour or something. ‘Violet’ was the song on that record that first made me go ‘Whoa.’ “Sometimes I think ‘Miss World’ is my favourite but ‘Violet’ broke down the door of how to be a screaming woman, I learnt to scream and sing differently from that. She opened up that world of ‘fuck off everyone and fuck what anyone thinks of you, I don’t care.’"

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Death to the French
Death to the French
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A name that is probably more familiar - perhaps even all but synonymous - with his most famous literary creation, Horatio Hornblower.

Hornblower, however, is not the only of his creations that has their adventures set during the Napoleonic Wars: Rifleman Dodd is another.

He's also one that I was totally unfamiliar with, or with the fact that this creation (and story) inspired Bernard Cornwell's still-ongoing 'Sharpe' series - it's very easy, reading this, to see the similarities between the two creations!

This is set in Spain, round about the times of the Lines of Torres Vedras (1810 or thereabouts, I think), with Rifleman Dodd cut off from his company during a retreat and forced to spend several months behind enemy (French) lines as he tries to make his was back to his own company, sometimes with the (dubious) aid of Spanish (or was it Portuguese? ) Guerilla's and other times entirely on his own.

This also doesn't shy away from the full horrors of the war, with several of the passages and chapters told from the French point of view.