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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2322 KP) rated A Room With a Brew (Brewing Trouble, #3) in Books

Mar 9, 2018

Max O’Hara is getting ready for an Oktoberfest celebration in her brewpub, and part of that is going to listen to the band she’s hired. The evening ends on a weird note when a member of the band claims to recognize one of Max’s friends, something the friend denies. Then a member of the band wants to meet with Max, and a dead body turns up. Can Max figure out what is happening?

This book starts strong and never lets up. I couldn’t put it down, and raced through it, enjoying the twists and turns along the way. I love the characters we’ve met in this series, and they are in top form here. That includes Max’s large family and her relationship with her boyfriend. The new characters are just as fun. This book does spoil quite a bit of the first in the series, so start there. You won’t be sorry since all three books in this series are great.

NOTE: I received a copy of this book.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2017/10/book-review-room-with-brew-by-joyce.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.

Kudos

ClareR (5854 KP) rated Running in Circles in Books

Jan 5, 2019

Running in Circles

Claire Gray | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

A good start to a new series!

Lucy works on a very small newspaper on a Thai island. She arrives after a traumatic experience back home in England, hoping to escape the memories of whatever has happened to her.
However, she becomes involved in some traumatic events on the island: a bomb goes off across from the hostel that she lives in, killing many people in the bars nearby, and a body washes sup on the beach - an investor in her newspaper. Lucy and her boss, Steve, decide to investigate these two occurrences and consequently become involved in some very disturbing events.
I really liked this. There is a feeling of 'disconnect' with Lucy. Her former trauma has left its mark on her, she is finding life difficult, and the author writes this feeling really well. I thought the whole atmosphere was well written - I could feel the humidity, the claustrophobia and the sadness and fear post bombing.
I'll be interested to read the next book in this series when it comes out - I rather like Lucy and Steve.
Many thanks to Sapere Books for my copy of this book to read and honestly review.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Parasite (2019) in Movies

Feb 14, 2020

Parasite (2019)

2019 | Drama

8.6

(40 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Dazzling Korean jet-black comedy-thriller lives up to the hype. A clan of Seoul low-lives insert themselves with ruthless ingenuity into the comfortable lives of a wealthy family. Soon they are living much larger than they could ever have dreamt - what could possibly go wrong? (Well, plenty, of course.)

Obviously this is a film about issues of wealth and class and all the tensions and resentments that come with them, and as such it has a universal resonance regardless of whether or not it has those little words at the bottom of the screen. However, it is also an exhilarating piece of pure cinema, written and directed with great skill and creativity and well-played by the ensemble cast. At first you are drawn into rooting for the hangers-on despite their dubious enterprises, but slowly the story becomes more and more ambiguous and fraught. (Possibly the only Oscar and Palme D'Or winning film where body odour is a key plot point.) Gripping, symbolically powerful (the invisibility of the poor to their wealthier compatriots is another central theme), tremendously entertaining: pretty much everything you want from a movie.