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    Tokyo Subway Map OFFLINE

    Tokyo Subway Map OFFLINE

    Navigation and Travel

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    Tokyo Subway Offline Map Ever got caught on the subway with no Internet service and not sure where...

    TSwipe-Pro Keyboard

    TSwipe-Pro Keyboard

    Utilities and Productivity

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    TSwipe-Pro is a smart keyboard for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The main features include swiping,...

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David McK (3562 KP) rated Hornblower during the crisis in Books

Jun 20, 2024 (Updated Jun 20, 2024)  
Hornblower during the crisis
Hornblower during the crisis
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The final - and incomplete - Hornblower story, set back just before Trafalgar.

And I say incomplete deliberately, as C.S. Forester died before he could complete this work, although he left notes over where it was heading

What we have is, thus, more or less the opening act to the story: Hornblower, heading back to England for a new posting after handing over command of the Hotspur, finds himself engaged in a boarding action against a French vessel and, subsequently, in possession of some very important piece of information that may answer the age-old question of just why Trafalgar was fought when the French and Spanish fleet had no need to at all ...

it's just a pity that Forester never got the chance to finish the story.
  
PI
Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Original Review Posted at <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2013/04/review-parrot-in-the-oven-mi-vida-by-victor-martinez.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>

Note: Formatting is lost due to copy and paste.

     Oh. Another required reading. Yay. After Dreamland's disaster, I was going to call it quits here and go hide in a cubicle for awhile. Not that it's bad idea... but I'm pretty sure I would've failed high school already with that many absences (so not happening).

      Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida is about a fourteen-year-old boy named Manny who lives with his abusive father and just wants to fit in with the others around his neighborhood.

      I had hoped that Parrot in the Oven was going to be majorly better than our last reading in English. I guess it went out okay in the end, but I ended up flipping back and forth to find a certain something.

 A glossary, which I didn't find to my misfortune. With the Spanish terms and translations that were used in the book at the least. It would've have helped me so much since I haven't taken Spanish. Okay, there were a few translations in English after the Spanish throughout the book, but not all of them. I still say that a glossary would have been majorly helpful (and not just to me... I hope). In fact, I have no clue what the title says. Besides the Parrot in the Oven part. I
guess it's time to stroll on over to Google Translator.

      Parrot in the Oven, is a bit different, but similar when compared to other realistic fiction. It might just be me and realistic fiction (because I'm definitely not it's biggest fan, considering the fact I rarely give realistic fiction a high rating...), but there tends to be not so much going on, besides a typical Mexican American teenager with family problems typically contained in realistic fiction and wanting/trying to fit in with others (also typically found in realistic fiction). I might be wrong with that view.
 
*holds up warning sign* ATTENTION: MINI-SPOILER ALERT!
 
You have been warned of the next paragraph containing tiny mini-spoilers that may give away a tad bit too much information about the book. Continue at your own risk.
  
     The end tends to be rushed into 2-3 chapters. Manny was going on with his typical life, until a disaster at a party, and then boop. He decides to join a gang. Shortly after, boop. Someone gets in trouble, he realizes something within just hours/a day and boop. Goes home and "happily ever after," the end.
  
    iTranslate Converse

    iTranslate Converse

    Travel and Productivity

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    Turn your iPhone into a translation device! Introducing iTranslate Converse, a revolutionary new...

Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson, #5)
Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson, #5)
Patricia Briggs | 2010 | Fiction & Poetry, Paranormal, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.6 (13 Ratings)
Book Rating
This plotline delved more deeply into the interplay between wolf and man in the werewolf, which is interesting since Mercy does not have that issue with becoming a coyote. It also explored the way that being connected to a pack could either help you or hurt you. The complexities and interplays were fascinating, especially since Mercy had to learn to fight only "in the mind." It kind of validates being intelligent as a viable form of defense. What I did find annoying was when Sylvia and her brood would use Spanish to communicate, and their words were not translated. I studied French in high school, folks, not Spanish. It's poor form to put a foreign language in your book and not at least roughly translate it. Moving on.
I thought the way that the fairy queen operated was, put simply, stupid. She got so many basic things wrong that it did not even make sense that she was even living in the modern world. For instance, she really should have thought of the capabilities of cell phones. As "bad guys" go, she was rather pathetic, and even Bran, the Marrok agreed with me, calling her "stupid fairy queen." I loved that the fight against the fairy queen brought a past love of Samuel's to the forefront, thus giving him a reason to want to live, as well as giving me a different female character to root for. I'm also hoping that Ariana will stick around in future books.
This was not my favorite book in the series, despite centering around an actual book in the plot, as well as showing a bit more "bonding" between Adam and Mercy. The climax seemed less "climactic" than normal, thanks to a less believeable villian, but there was lots for me to like about this book despite what it lacked.