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The Promised Neverland
The Promised Neverland
2019 | Animation, Fantasy, Horror
8
6.7 (3 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
A Stand Out From This Spring Season Anime
The Promised Neverland is a 2019 dark fantasy/sci-fi/thriller anime directed by Mamoru Kanbe and written by Toshiya Ono, and music by Takahiro Obata. It was animated by CloverWorks Studio and originally aired in Japan from January to March. The series was streamed on Crunchyroll, Hulu, FunimationNow and Hidive by Animplex of America and aired on Toonami in April. A second season was announced and planned for 2020.


For Emma, an 11-year old orphan living in Grace Field House, life has never been better. Her and 37 other orphans enjoy gourmet food, plush beds, clean clothes, games, and the love of their "Mother", Isabella, the caretaker. The orphans are allowed complete freedom, except to venture beyond the grounds or the gate, which connects the house to the outside world. One night Emma and Norman (another orphan) find the dead body of an orphan who was sent away to be adopted at the gate. This is where they realize the truth of their existence in the orphanage and become determined to break out of Grace Field House and escape along with their other siblings.


This show was a welcomed change for me from the normal anime I watch and very different. I enjoy anime like this that make you think and have a bit of mystery to them. For those looking for something that doesn't involve fighting, powering up, blasts or transformations then this is something that you might want to check out. This anime intrigued me right away from the first episode by it's premise and what it alluded to. I really liked the characters and their personalities and they way they used their intelligence especially since they are all portrayed as children. I kept trying to figure out where the plot was going with it and happily surprised that I couldn't always guess where it was going. This is definitely one of the stand outs from the spring anime season. I give it a 8/10 and it gets my "Must See Seal Of Approval".
  
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Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in Books

Oct 10, 2017 (Updated Oct 11, 2017)  
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis | 2009 | Children
8
8.2 (60 Ratings)
Book Rating
I discovered Turkish delight through this book...
This is a must read for children, as the mystical elements are fascinating, but are lost when reading it as an adult.

First published in 1950, this is one of the most classic portal fantasies ever written. Four children are sent from London to an old house in the country during the evacuations of World War II. Through a magic wardrobe, they enter the fantasy land of Narnia, which is a jumbled mixture of Greek mythology, Bible stories, and Arthurian romances, with a bit of Medieval Bestiaries thrown in.

The White Witch has made herself Queen of Narnia, and put it under the spell of an ever-constant winter. With the arrival of the children and the lion Aslan, an old prophecy is met, spring comes to Narnia, and there is a major clash between the good and evil Narnians on who gets to dominate Narnia.

I like the book better than the film just because of the amount of detail used by the master of fantasy C. S. Lewis.
  
When a pirate radio station goes off the air suddenly, a Navy sub disappears, and a small island is overrun with killer plants, Lethbridge-Stewart and the 5th spring into action.

A breathless, well-paced action yarn that's also a hard hitting sci-fi. Great characters, great characterizations of existing friends and enemies, much military co-operation and maneuvering, it felt like a 70s era Bond flick. And like all good Bond flicks, everything blows up at the end.

If I have a complaint, it's the end. We rush headlong toward that climax and once it arrives, it feels like we barely have time to register what has happened before plummeting down the other side and the story is over. But perhaps that's the greatest compliment. The fact that the book felt and read so much like a movie, that my brain was filling the cinematic strokes for me, and I was brought back to earth by no credits at the end, well, that's an adventure tale done right!

For a full spoiler filled review, visit www.travelingthevortex.com
  
New England Knits is full of 25 beautiful patterns—I love every single one—that are ideal for Fall, Winter, and Spring in the cooler areas of the world. There's a good variety: some sweaters, some cowls, some hats, a bag, a pair of mittens etc. They're all original and unique, and very inspiring. I can look at them and think of my own version or variation, either by changing the colors, adding a pocket, sewing on beads, etc. and creating my own look as well.

Again, I loved every single one. I've started one of them (Whale Watch Hat! It's really cute) and I can't wait to make some of the others.

Recommendation: The patterns are easy enough to read and understand for the intermediate/advanced knitter, which is the skill group it's written for. I'd say make sure you can read a pattern and use double pointed needles before trying any of these patterns. Summer is nearly half way over! Pick up your knitting needles and start on your Fall and Winter sweaters now!
  
The Art of Vanishing
The Art of Vanishing
Cynthia Kuhn | 2017 | Mystery
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Someone is Out to Destroy Arts Week
Every spring semester, Stonedale University puts on an arts festival, and Lila has been roped into serving on the committee. The big name for the week is author Damon Von Tussel, who has just released his second book decades after his critically acclaimed debut. Lila is sent to interview him before the big event to gain some publicity, but before she can talk to him, he disappears. Then everyone on the committee starts to get threatening e-mails. What is going on?

I don’t read too many mysteries set in the academic world, so I enjoyed changing that with this book. The internal politics of the college and Lila’s worries since this is her first-year teaching there overshadowed the mystery at times. The mystery itself is a little different than many of the books I read, and I found it a refreshing break. The characters are fun, especially Lila’s mother, and I am curious how some of these relationships will develop in the future.
  
Infinity: Volume 1
Infinity: Volume 1
Jonathan Hickman, Jim Cheung | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry
2
4.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Spring 2018.

Perhaps the best Marvel movie to date was released, a culmination of circa a decade of Marvel movies consisiting of numerous single-character led films and even a couple of previous 'team-ups'. That movie was, of course, 'Infinity War, part 1'.

At around the same time, Comixology ran one of their frequent sales. With a picture of Thanos on the cover, a title called 'Infinity' and being on sale at around the saem time as the movie, I made the mistake of thinking this would share similarities with the plot of the movie.

(No) spoilers: it doesn't.

As others on this site have mentioned, however, it is perhaps well named in that the story seems to go on ... and on ... and on ...

Honestly? I struggled to get through this, finding it hard to 'tie together' the various disparate story-lines; to even really care about all that much about what was happening or who it was happening to.

In short, and for me, this was a massive disappointment.
  
Sabordage
Sabordage
2018 | Nautical, Pirates
Not knowing whether your plan is going to pay off... Or if a spring is going to result in your cannon ball hitting your own ship. (2 more)
Many variables that make predicting opponents decision making extremely difficult. Definitely a game of tactics.
Good range of tile types resulting in a variety of strategies.
The character stands and the helms knock each other. Either higher placed helms or shorter stands would remedy this. Appreciate it may make them top heavy... But I feel it's a fair point. (1 more)
Some holes in the rules... But most are clear.
Fun on the 7 seas... Well... Just the one table...
A highly enjoyable quick game. Tactics required and forward thinking.. But not too much that it detracts from the fun. Who doesn't love the idea of firing a cannon ball that breaks through an opponents hull... Or getting one over on a neighboring captain as their cannon ball flows harmlessly through your pipe to then hit them on the back side of their boat... I mean ship.
  
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Guy Garvey recommended The Colour Of Spring by Talk Talk in Music (curated)

 
The Colour Of Spring by Talk Talk
The Colour Of Spring by Talk Talk
1986 | Pop
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I was just being honest. The most listened-to records in my collection, I'm just astounded at the extraordinary thing that they did. I'm from a generation of people who listen to music, or who listened, past tense, to music. I really wanted to belong to it, you know, you'd paint an album sleeve on the back of your coat to say this is who I am and what I listen to. And I was very happy throughout my teen years to be defined by what I was listening to. And I wanted the world to know about that, claiming a band as my own. I was a total fan when they did what I still consider to be the bravest thing that any band in rock music has done, which was after creating this amazing, successful commercial record that nevertheless is so incredibly creative and artistic, to then go further into the arts and completely disregard the fiscal side of what they had done with the success of The Colour Of Spring."

Source
  
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David Schwartz recommended Late Spring (1949) in Movies (curated)

 
Late Spring (1949)
Late Spring (1949)
1949 |
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Is Setsuko Hara the most beautiful actress in movie history? That’s just a rhetorical question . . . the answer, of course, is yes. In Late Spring, she plays the young daughter of a widowed father who reluctantly wants to see her married. I am the man she should have married, but that’s a different story. Like many cinephiles, I was first drawn to Ozu by his serene compositions, the meditative “pillow shots” of train stations and empty rooms that served as scene transitions, and the exquisite way that his films explore the architecture of domestic and urban life. Repeated viewings reveal that underneath the director’s formal, often eccentric playfulness, there lies a fascinating undercurrent of sexual neurosis and pathology that is thinly masked by the demure self-sacrifice of the characters. In their own quiet way, Ozu’s families are deeply fascinating. And this two-disc set has an amazing bonus: Tokyo-ga, Wim Wenders’s loving and thoughtful feature-length tribute to Ozu, the actor Chishu Ryu, and Tokyo. It’s a first-person documentary and urban portrait par excellence, photographed by Ed Lachman."

Source
  
Spy School Goes North
Spy School Goes North
Stuart Gibbs | 2023 | Children
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Kidnapping in Alaska
Ben and the rest of the gang are in Alaska, training in secret after the events of the previous book. But they aren’t as secret as they thought they were when someone kidnaps Cyrus. Naturally, they spring into action to save him, but even if they do, what plot might they uncover?

I’ve been a fan of the series since the beginning, but it is beginning to feel a little too familiar. It would be nice if we could defeat some recurring characters and move on to some new stories. Additionally, there are a couple of lectures that threw me out of the book, even when I agreed with the characters. There’s also a relationship that bothered me on multiple levels. From a story standpoint, this relationship felt completely forced and the plot relied on it too much. It just wasn’t earned. On the other hand, I did enjoy spending time with the characters as always, and the action and laughs kept me turning pages. Here’s hoping that the next will take things in a fresh direction.