Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (5000)

Content

Nicole Hadley (380 KP) rated Growing in God's Love: A Story Bible in Books

Jun 18, 2018

Growing in God's Love: A Story Bible by Elizabeth F. Caldwell; Carol A. Wehrheim is an illustrated book that pays attention to quality and detail. While it says it is a book that children can read, I believe it should be read to children. I am impressed with this book, the wording, and I like how it is designed to be interactive between adult and child with three simple questions at the end of each story.

Most of the stories are between one and two pages counting the illustrations and three questions and start at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis and through the old testament and then into the new testament. The verse location in the Bible is given under the story title.

The author did a great job of covering Bible topics in a way that children can understand but in a way that adults can gain a blessing as well.

I received an ARC from Westminster John Knox Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kudos

The Marinated Meeple (1853 KP) rated Kingsburg in Tabletop Games

Aug 24, 2018

Kingsburg

2007 | City Building, Dice Game, Fantasy, Medieval

8.2

(5 Ratings)

Tabletop Game Rating

Simple and easy to understand game (1 more)

Mitigating your dice and figuring out how to use them is the fun part

Dice allocation for the good of the kingdom.... and yourself.

The game is about defending the kingdom from invading armies that get progressively stronger every winter. so the other three seasons are about building up your kingdom by building buildings that are defensive or make you stronger in other ways. Some defenses are better against goblins, or maybe Zombies, build a church and get a bonus against demons... The game lasts about an hour and a half depending on how quickly people take their turns. There's not much analysis paralysis, there is a clever mechanism of choosing how to use your three dice.... lets say you roll a 1, 3, 6: You can place it on the total number, a combo of the two of them or a single die value, and each number on the board gives you different returns. Not nearly as difficult as Castles of Burgundy, this is a good entry point into dice allocation games. I like it.

Kudos

The Marinated Meeple (1853 KP) Aug 24, 2018

Kudos

ClareR (6118 KP) rated My Sister, the Serial Killer in Books

Dec 21, 2018

The problems of a serial killer's older sister....

Short, snappy chapters, satire oozing out of every page (and murder!). This story is about Korede covering up her sister, Ayoola's, penchant for 'offing' her boyfriends: "Femi makes three, you know. Three and they label you a serial killer".
Korede feels a responsibility for her younger sister - something which seems odd to do given the circumstances, but is explained later in the book.
Korede is quite a sad character, really. Ayoola is the beautiful sister, she is not. Yet she still protects her and keeps her safe, stops her from posting on Instagram after her boyfriend goes 'missing'. Ayoola certainly has issues - she has no problem with the murders she commits, no guilt. She gets on with her life, on to the next man, and Korede is left to clean up and worry. The eternal problem of the older sister (usually minus the murders, mind you!).
I really enjoyed this, and it seemed to end very quickly. It's well worth reading.

Kudos

Nick Beaty (70 KP) rated The Vanishing (2018) in Movies

Jan 8, 2020 (Updated Jan 8, 2020)

The Vanishing (2018)

2018 | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

5.7

(3 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Peter Mullan is brilliant again...

Based on the true story of three lighthouse keepers who mysteriously disappeared in 1900. This is the writers interpretation of the events that occurred, as nobody knows the truth to what actually happened to the three men on the Flannan Isles.

The movie is really slow paced and quiet, so some people may find it a bit boring. For me though the acting is top notch, which is enough to keep you interested in the story.

The ever reliable Peter Mullan is brilliant again and Gerard Butler is actually really good in this one and proves he does have range as an actor.

One negative for me was that some of the more violent scenes in the movie didn't really match the tempo of the film and felt a little bit out of place. I understand that these things had to happen but I just felt they could have been done a little better.

To sum up The Vanishing is a decent enough movie but I can't help but feel it could have been much much more.