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Bex Heber (5 KP) rated Good Omens in TV

Jul 12, 2019 (Updated Jul 13, 2019)  
Good Omens
Good Omens
2019 | Comedy, Sci-Fi
I'm a long time Terry Pratchett fan and whilst I haven't read the book, David Tennant and Micheal Sheen were enough of a selling point. They did not dissapoint; the dynamic they have throughout is both entertaining and endearing. However I think this is in large part a credit to the actors rather than the show.

The writing often missed the mark for me, sometimes only by hair but many of the characters never really managed to find their stride. What surprised me most, is that where this was most felt was in dialogue taken directly from the book. Even watching as someone who hadnt read the book I found it noticable and then later confirmed it by reading The Guardian's review. It appears Neil Gaiman was reluctant to take too many artistic liberties, perhaps in tribute to Prattchett but it seemed to hurt the show as a result.

It worked in places, the opening narration felt distinctly and enjoyably Pratchett-esque but even in this case the narration began to become over bearing as it continued to feature heavily in later episodes.

Saying this, I can't pretend I didn't enjoy the show, watching David and Micheal caper around with ridiculous CGI and yellow contacts to boot was always going to be entertaining and there are moments of brilliance, but given the potential of such a ridiculous plot and ensemble, I found the whole thing mostly forgettable.
  
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Merissa (11600 KP) rated Tor (The Hawks #4) in Books

Nov 30, 2021 (Updated Jul 10, 2023)  
Tor (The Hawks #4)
Tor (The Hawks #4)
Jennie Lynn Roberts | 2021 | Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
10.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
TOR is the fourth book in The Hawks series, and you really do need to read the other books first. Not only is there an overall story arc but the stories are just so d*mn good!!!

Tor and Keeley have both been hurt by the people in their lives. And in a sort of similar way, although they have reacted differently. Keeley always wants to run, and Tor never thinks that anyone will stay. Be prepared, because these two broke my heart!

Tor's pain about killed me, I'll be honest here. I felt his pain, his lockdown on his feelings, that all-encompassing numbness. And I really hoped Keeley would break through it. But then Keeley has her own pain, her own numbness, which means these two have trouble communicating, which leads to misunderstandings. What I loved though, is that even though they both get things wrong, they realise that (sometimes with a bit of help!) and work to try and put things right.

Each book in this series wins my heart, every time! And it leaves me wanting the next one immediately! Next one being Reece. I'm going to stock up on tissues because, after this one, I think I'm going to need them. Do you know what? I'll cope. Bring it on!

Sheer brilliance and absolutely and utterly recommended by me. 😍

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Nov 30, 2021
  
Never Let You Go
Never Let You Go
Chevy Stevens | 2017 | Mystery, Thriller
10
8.3 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
Lindsey and Sophie are mother and daughter. They live together in Dogswood Bay. Sophie is in here senior year in high school and Lindsey owns her own cleaning company. When Lindsey finds out that her ex-husband, Andrew is about to be released from prison after 10 years, she goes on the alert. He was very abusive and manipulative towards Lindsey, but Sophie wants her dad to be a part of her life. When things start to happen that can only be explained by Andrews controlling behavior, the pair try to hide from him in any way they can. Will they be able to stay away from him, or will he try to hurt Lindsey again?

First of all thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the ability to read this book before it is released. Another book that had me on the edge of my seat and at the end, my heart was beating out of my chest, I was so excited to figure out what was going to happen next. Lindsey is a character that you can see as the lady next door or one of your friends. Trying to rebuild her life after being in an abusive relationship and trying to build a life for her young daughter to look up to. When she finds out that her ex is not only being released from prison after 10 years, but that he will also be moving to the same town, she is instantly on high alert. How can she keep herself and her daughter safe? Not sure of who to turn to and who to trust, she may see things in a clouded light.

I really felt for Lindsey and I could feel her fear. You are really drawn into this story and you want to help Lindsey and Sophie get out of their tough circumstances. I have read nearly all of Chevy Stevens books and I have not been disappointed by one yet. This book had a twist that you could see coming, but the culprit was hard to figure out. A few times, I thought I knew what was going to happen and I was shocked by the final outcome. This is a book you will not want to put down and will not want to read if you have a bad heart. Loved it!!!
  
Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power
Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power
Leah Redmond Chang | 2023 | History & Politics
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
It’s not often that I read a non-fiction history book - I’m more of a historical fiction reader - and I’m really glad that I picked this up.

This book is about the lives of Catherine de’ Medici (married to the French Henry II), Elisabeth of Spain and Mary, Queen of Scots and how their lives wove together.

There are some really interesting facts here (Mary was nearly 6 feet tall - now THIS is the kind of fact I live for!). But it was the personal side that really interested me. Catherine loved her children fiercely even though she had little time with them. She wanted to know every detail of their lives. Her letters to Elisabeth when she went to Spain were filled with family gossip and instructions. Just the kind of stuff that any mother would send their daughter, and Elisabeth appeared to want to always make her mother proud.

Mary and Elisabeth were like sisters, so when Mary needed Elizabeth’s and Spain’s support when the Scottish Lords turned against her, it must have hurt her greatly when they refused to help.

What I liked most was having the opportunity to dip my toes in to the history of France and Spain. It sounded as tumultuous as our own.

I do think that I’m going to have to follow up on Cathrine de’ Medici, though. Now she sounds fascinating!

I’m so glad that I read this - thanks to The Pigeonhole!
  
Obessed #2: Meik & Sebastian
Obessed #2: Meik & Sebastian
Quin Perin | 2018 | Erotica, LGBTQ+, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
awesome follow up!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book direct from the authors.

This is part two of Meik and Sebastian's story, and you MUST read part one first. MUST!! And I strongly recommend you wait til you have all four parts in your possession, cos you will hate having to wait for the next one! I am!!

Again, this is so bloody short! 99 pages, poof, gone, just like that!

Meik is still obsessed with Sebastian, so much so, that he pulls Sebastian off the streets and into his home, to be HIS. But having Sebastian in his home is bringing up memories, long buried memories and Meik doesn't know how to deal with those memories, so he does what he does best, lashes out.

Something is wrong with Meik, he reckons he is sick. It's the only way he can explain his total and utter obsession with Sebastian! Personally, I think the poor man is simply deluded about what's up with him. But Meik, being Meik, he'll get there under his own steam, he's just gonna hurt a few people first.

As soon as Sebastian decides he is staying at Meik's, Meik goes all out to make him HIS, to mark him, inside and out. And oooeeee! Do these boys get up to some serious marking!

Meik's memories are surfacing though, and we don't get all of the whole story and they come at you out of order and out of left field. But you know, you just KNOW when it all comes out, and it does HAVE to come out, and we get the whole sorry story, its gonna be painful, it really is. He is unraveling, quickly, and I don't know where this is going, but its going really fast and you gotta keep up!

It is again only told from Meik's point of view. I knew that going in, but I STILL wanted to hear from Sebastian! It doesn't affect my star rating, this time, because I knew. But I'm just greedy with my books, and I ALWAYS want more.

How long do I have to wait for part three?? I dunno, I'm gonna be waiting, waiting, waiting, WAITING!

Oh just gimme already, okay?? I can't wait!

So, even though its so bloody short, and even though only Meik has his say, and because I can see some of his memories playing out and I don;t want them to play out the way I see it, but I really do (and if THAT makes any sense to you, you is good!) and BECAUSE it's such a cliff hanger...

5 full stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story
The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story
Christie Watson | 2018 | Biography
7
7.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Pros:
• Daily insights into a nurses life
• Beautiful and emotional
• Insight into the NHS
• Promotes kindness
Cons:
• Bit to self-indulgent
• it's missing something, a flow
• Ended a bit abruptly for me
Christie Watson was a nurse for twenty years. Taking us from birth to death and from A&E to the mortuary, The Language of Kindness is an astounding account of a profession defined by acts of care, compassion and kindness.
@mooksterbooks bought me this book after I thoroughly enjoyed This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay.
I absolutely LOVE reading memoirs of nurses and doctors and seeing inside the NHS system.
Watson wrote her memoir in more of an attempted flowed novel unlike Kays diary entries take. I won't compare the two books too much but I must say I did enjoy the presentation of Kay's diary entries.
Looking at other reviews on this book I found that there is mixed views and some not very nice comments on it. I don't agree with the ones who say this was hyped up too much as I feel it wasn't hyped up at all, but I do slightly agree on the ones who feel it was a little too self-indulged and didn't flow too great.
Aside from this, I can't say I didn't enjoy this book, I really did enjoy reading it and I was a little saddened when it ended. I loved all the beautiful stories and the emotional ones, it bought me joy, sadness and a passion to promote caring and kindness.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading memoirs, to those who like to see the truth behind the masks of nurses and doctors but I wouldn't recommend this to people who have anxiety about hospitals as some parts were a bit too honest and gory.
  
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Jeff Nichols recommended Hud (1963) in Movies (curated)

 
Hud (1963)
Hud (1963)
1963 | Drama, Western
9.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"This one — they’re just kissing cousins, really — but the last Paul Newman film I’ll talk about is Hud — just the greatest introduction to a character maybe ever on screen. You’ve got this goofy kid walking around town and he walks past the bar, and there’s glass on the sidewalk and the bar owner’s sweeping it up. And the kid goes, “Did you have trouble in here last night?” “I had Hud in here last night.” Such an awesome way to introduce the main character of this film. When you first meet him, he’s walking out of this married woman’s house putting his boots on and the husband pulls up, and he immediately blames his nephew. It’s this really incredible thing. I was lucky enough to work on a college professor’s documentary called The Rough South of Larry Brown. Which is about the writer Larry Brown out of Oxford, Mississippi. In that documentary Larry Brown talks about his writing, he says, “Yeah, you read my stuff and you read a little bit and you might think it’s pretty funny. And then you read a little bit more and you realize, it’s not funny worth a damn.” And that’s Hud. You start it off and you’re like, “Gosh, look at this rapscallion, this character,” and then you realize, “Wow, that’s not funny; there is some deep stuff inside that man that is hurt and angry, but is manifesting itself in very evil ways.” The complexity of that — it’s different than Newman’s character in The Hustler. In The Hustler, he’s doing pride, but there’s something deep going on in Hud that’s darker. It’s more about family and legacy and things that I think, because it’s attached to the family, I relate to very much. I had to deal with familial relationships that are complex."

Source
  
American Dirt
American Dirt
Jeanine Cummins | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Thriller
8
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
So I put this book on hold at the library before it exploded into controversy and then it was the last book I was allowed to check out before our library closed down due to the pandemic. I can't tell if it was a great book to read in a pandemic (people with lives even worse on a daily basis) or if it just made my anxiety even worse! At this point, I'm just going to give a short review and try not to dip into the whole uproar over the book, but I do encourage you to read up on it and to read some #ownvoices authors, as well.

Lydia Perez lives in Acapulco with her husband, a journalist, and their eight-year-old son, Luca. She runs a bookstore, and one day someone comes in and buys several books that Lydia stocks solely because they are her favorites, not because she expects them to sell. They strike up a friendship and Javier returns frequently to her bookstore. It's only later that Lydia realizes that he is the leader of the newest, powerful drug cartel in town--the one that is ruining Acapulco. And the same jefe about whom her husband is writing an explosive journalistic profile. Once it's published, Lydia and Luca must flee Acapulco, becoming migrants overnight. They are heading to the United States, the one place Javier can't hurt them. But can they survive the dangerous journey?

This is an eye-opening and sad book. It's certainly heart-rendering and gives you such empathy for what Lydia and Luca must go through. For me, it was Luca who made this book. He is an endearing and indomitable character, and I loved him dearly. Cummins is a strong writer, and her characters certainly do come to life. I did find the story a little slow; it took it a while to really get going. It was also incredibly stressful--no surprise there--so I was on edge the entire time I was reading. However, I found myself rooting for Lydia and Luca as if they were true, actual people and for that, I applaud Cummins, no matter her motivations for writing this book. There's also so much about this story that broke my heart and it made me even further aware of so many deplorable things. The world is a terrible and scary place.
  
This Island Earth (1955)
This Island Earth (1955)
1955 | Sci-Fi
8
7.1 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
A scientist working on a new form of atomic energy is recruited by the mysterious Exeter to work with other scientists on secret project, but all is not what it seems.
This Island Earth is a classic 1950’s Sci-Fi flick, it starts as a bit of a mystery, a plane fails and is then remotely controlled, strange components arrive from an unknown company and Exeter is strange. Considering the age of the film, the effects aren’t too bad, there is the almost obligatory use of coloured light when things are being controlled, there are no visible string on the flying saucer and the costumes aren’t too terrible. Without going over the top with make up or prosthetics the film mangers to show that there is something ‘otherworldly’ about Exeter and his companions and even the alien planet of Metaluna is quite good.
This Island Earth also has, what has to be one of my all-time favourite aliens, the Metaluna Mutant. These are the total opposite of Exeter and costumed to look totally alien. They are almost pointless to the plot of the film. The normal Metaluna’s are not really an enemy so, to add a bit of threat to the end the film the mutants are introduced as a servant type race that have been mind-controlled but the hero’s run into a couple that are hurt which gives the opportunity to have the female lead chased around for a few minutes. The point is the mutants are unnecessary, the Metaluna leader has already created a threat which could have been used.
This Island Earth easily fits into the ‘Atomic fear’ movies of the 1950’s but also shows the hope the world had for nuclear power which makes the film a refreshing change from the normal alien invasion flic.
  
CO
Conspiracy of Ravens (The Shadow, #2)
Lila Bowen | 2016
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This whole series has me feeling all mixed up.


On one hand, the plot and story has a lot of potential, the writing is pretty good and keeps me reading, and the characters are well developed and complex.

But on the other hand, there's a lot that I don't like. Most prominent, the main character in this story is a young girl abused to the point of a sexual identity crisis. (S)he has no identity, is very confused, and has very little guidance on the matter.

The plot also seemed to drag a little in this one near the end. The beginning and middle was fairly well paced, but it wasn't nearly as well thought out and complex as Wake of Vultures. And it didn't really end the way I wanted it to.

This series is not one I'm going to continue. Part of it is because of the slowness and disappointingness of the plot in this novel, but the other part is the subject of Nettie/Rhett's identity crisis.

I feel like because she was abused by a man she hated, and neglected by a woman who was supposed to keep her safe, she lost all respect for women. She didn't want to be a part of that "woman" stuff. So instead she decided to become what she had respect for: the men in the horse training camp.

But rather than become a strong heroine, she became a broken confused scared young girl who tries to change who and what she is because of past experiences.

And I know the author was trying to make a statement about something, but I feel like it's done more hurt than it's helped. I wish Nettie/Rhett would learn that she is indeed perfect just as she is, she wasn't born in the wrong body, and that being a man or a woman has nothing to do with who you are or how you act.

Somehow I doubt that'll happen. So I'm retiring this series and moving on to greener pastures.

Good luck, Nettie Lonesome.