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Human Rights After Hitler: The Lost History of Prosecuting Axis War Crimes
Dan Plesch and Benjamin B. Ferencz
Book
Human Rights after Hitler reveals thousands of forgotten US and Allied war crimes prosecutions...
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Into the Deep in Books
Jul 11, 2021
106 of 250
Kindle
Into the Deep
By Aspen Winters
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
The Ocean hides many secrets, and my family has uncovered one of them.
My name is Coralee Eldimire and I was dragged into the secrets my family has been keeping from me. The Eldimire Aquarium and Animal Sanctuary, was more than that. It was a testing site.
A testing site for shifters. The place I thought was made by hard work and passion was actually made by torture and the deaths of creatures I never knew existed.
I found this out the hard way that these shifters are more than they seem. They aren’t mindless or monsters...they were something more. The shark shifters that I had gotten to know only want one thing: freedom and I was their way out. Though it seemed they wanted me for more than an escape route.
These shifters wanted to keep me, and I was starting to have a hard time saying no. With my family trying to keep the shifters or kill them, I have my work cut out for me...and I may learn to be a stronger person on the way.
Ok shark shifters? Thank god finally for shifter fans this is a bonus to have one of the animals species finally covered! I really enjoyed the book and really hoping we get more as I can find much info on her coming books! Fingers crossed she will write more following this lead! I’d be quite disappointed if she didn’t!
Kindle
Into the Deep
By Aspen Winters
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
The Ocean hides many secrets, and my family has uncovered one of them.
My name is Coralee Eldimire and I was dragged into the secrets my family has been keeping from me. The Eldimire Aquarium and Animal Sanctuary, was more than that. It was a testing site.
A testing site for shifters. The place I thought was made by hard work and passion was actually made by torture and the deaths of creatures I never knew existed.
I found this out the hard way that these shifters are more than they seem. They aren’t mindless or monsters...they were something more. The shark shifters that I had gotten to know only want one thing: freedom and I was their way out. Though it seemed they wanted me for more than an escape route.
These shifters wanted to keep me, and I was starting to have a hard time saying no. With my family trying to keep the shifters or kill them, I have my work cut out for me...and I may learn to be a stronger person on the way.
Ok shark shifters? Thank god finally for shifter fans this is a bonus to have one of the animals species finally covered! I really enjoyed the book and really hoping we get more as I can find much info on her coming books! Fingers crossed she will write more following this lead! I’d be quite disappointed if she didn’t!
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Jarhead (2005) in Movies
Sep 20, 2020
𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥. At least 90% surface-level and even more largely reductive - of course it is - but it's also totally incompetent. A 2+ hour torture session slog through a barren wasteland visually (Deakins of course shoots the living hell out of it, so there's some damn fine imagery every now and again but Jesus Christ could we do more than two fucking [mawkish and over-obviously symbolized] colors for this whole thing?) but moreso narratively, where this has absolutely nothing to say. You'd think this intentionally dances right around any sort of gift-wrapped commentary about the Gulf War, toxic masculinity, the late 1980s, the American military for young men, or literally anything at all with how dead and non-thematic this awkward crawl is. It can't even be bothered in exploring its own characters lives, I kept forgetting who these people even were - the movie clearly didn't care about them so why should I? Also has the same problem most of these one-dimensional, pandering, tedious war flicks have where it rushes right through the supposed pivotal moment all of this arduous buildup was clearly meant for when they all return home and it's only like 5 minutes of soap opera-level crap and a cheesy 'mic drop' finisher. At its best when it gets weird and Sam Mendes-y, and I can't say it's without solid moments of haunt - plus Gyllenhaal, Sarsgaard, and Foxx keep it marginally more tolerable - but even if it *could* handle its tone (spoiler alert, it can't) this still plays like it was made by complete idiots who only cared about this being would-be Oscar bait.
Jordan Binkerd (567 KP) rated Sabotage (2014) in Movies
Sep 17, 2019
The cast, across the board (1 more)
The action
A more thoughtful, if forgettable, Arnold
Schwarzenegger and company are a DEA strike team who take ten million dollars from the cartel in a raid, except that it's not there when they go back to get it. After an investigation fails to find enough evidence to prove they're guilty they're returned to active duty, but someone starts taking them down one by one....
This film was.... okay is probably the best word. It's kinda forgettable despite a stellar cast, several of whom I typically try to see regardless of what they're doing, all turning in excellent performances. Arnold in particular gets to actually act instead of just blowing everyone away, which is a nice change. Which isn't to say there isn't action - there is, and a lot of it, gritty and gory not in the exaggerated Tarentino style but more brutally realistic. There's torture too, which is legitimately uncomfortable to watch even with the extra remove of watching a character watch the video of it. It's just that the story is a bit predictable (though the darker take on Breacher and the ending seen in the deleted scenes would have been more interesting and less predictable, I wouldn't have liked it), and despite excellent performances from stellar actors the characters are all completely unlikeable, which is a bit of a problem when they're dropping like flies and you don't really care. Bottom line: I'm not sorry I borrowed it from the library, but I don't think I'll be watching it again.
This film was.... okay is probably the best word. It's kinda forgettable despite a stellar cast, several of whom I typically try to see regardless of what they're doing, all turning in excellent performances. Arnold in particular gets to actually act instead of just blowing everyone away, which is a nice change. Which isn't to say there isn't action - there is, and a lot of it, gritty and gory not in the exaggerated Tarentino style but more brutally realistic. There's torture too, which is legitimately uncomfortable to watch even with the extra remove of watching a character watch the video of it. It's just that the story is a bit predictable (though the darker take on Breacher and the ending seen in the deleted scenes would have been more interesting and less predictable, I wouldn't have liked it), and despite excellent performances from stellar actors the characters are all completely unlikeable, which is a bit of a problem when they're dropping like flies and you don't really care. Bottom line: I'm not sorry I borrowed it from the library, but I don't think I'll be watching it again.
The Krinar Experiment
8.0
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A Krinar Kindle World Story When Drako’s space pod malfunctions over Johannesburg, his secret...
Science_Fiction Romance
Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass #7)
9.4
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Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas’s #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to...
A Code of Knights and Deception (Swords of Time #1)
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She thought it was real. She was wrong. When Sophia wakes up in 15th-century England, she expects...
Historical Time Travel Romance
Trusting Fletcher (Unexpected Love #4)
10.0
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Book
How can I dream of tomorrow when I can barely get through today? I learned long ago not to let...
Rachel King (13 KP) rated Moon Called in Books
Feb 11, 2019
I recently recieved the fifth book in the Mercy Thompson series, Silver Borne, for reviewing purposes, and decided to start the series at the beginning like a good bookworm. I was not sure if I would like the series, but imagine my surprise when mechanically-inclined, shapeshifter Mercy Thompson has a penchant for the Christian religion! She likes to attend church, and she chooses to wear a lamb on a necklace instead of a cross because she finds it sick to display the instrument of Christ's torture, and one of Christ's names is the Lamb of God. I gotta say, how cool is that?
Anyways, I find it interesting how non-chalant Mercy is about what she is and can do. She does not seem to know much about being a "walker", but it doesn't bother her. It's the other preternatural beings who give her bits of information about her kind in well-timed accidents. She reminds me a bit of Rachel Morgan from the Kim Harrison series. (Oooh, cross-over potential...)
I also liked the complexities of the different cultures that the various preternatual beings originate from, and most expecially the impossible-to-pronounce names to match, such as Elizaveta Arkadyevna Vyshnevetskaya and Siebold Adelbertsmiter. The book was heavy on politics and violence, while light on romance, which I can appreciate in light of the storyline, but I look forward to things heating up between Mercy Thompson and her two wanna-be boyfriends, Adam and Samuel. I got a bit confused when trying to remember who's who in the cast of characters, especially since many of the lesser werewolves all tended to behave the same, and I really hope that future books will explain who or what the Gray Lords are.
Anyways, I find it interesting how non-chalant Mercy is about what she is and can do. She does not seem to know much about being a "walker", but it doesn't bother her. It's the other preternatural beings who give her bits of information about her kind in well-timed accidents. She reminds me a bit of Rachel Morgan from the Kim Harrison series. (Oooh, cross-over potential...)
I also liked the complexities of the different cultures that the various preternatual beings originate from, and most expecially the impossible-to-pronounce names to match, such as Elizaveta Arkadyevna Vyshnevetskaya and Siebold Adelbertsmiter. The book was heavy on politics and violence, while light on romance, which I can appreciate in light of the storyline, but I look forward to things heating up between Mercy Thompson and her two wanna-be boyfriends, Adam and Samuel. I got a bit confused when trying to remember who's who in the cast of characters, especially since many of the lesser werewolves all tended to behave the same, and I really hope that future books will explain who or what the Gray Lords are.
Isabel Smith (34 KP) rated The Butterfly Garden in Books
Jun 24, 2018
The Butterfly Garden is no place to be...
When you think of a butterfly garden, you typically picture a peaceful place filled with nature’s beauty and warmth. Some may even go as far using the description: a little slice of heaven. This particular Butterfly Garden, however, is no such place. No one in their right mind would ever want to visit. Beauty is horribly distorted into grotesqueness, peace gives way to torture, and there is little warmth to be found within this garden. This garden is his personal, man-made house of horrors. Him. The man they call the Gardener. He kidnaps teenage girls and collects them in his garden, all the while subjecting them to an awful number of unspeakable atrocities. The girls, whom he calls his butterflies, form a family of sorts and team up in order to cope with the perverse Gardener and his twisted ways. Will they ever see the Outside again? What will it take to destroy the garden and break the Gardener’s evil cycle once and for all?
The Butterfly Garden is undeniably dark and disturbing, but it pulls you in right from the start and almost holds you against your will as you flip the pages faster and faster so you, too, can escape. It is definitely not an easy journey; it is bound to leave you speechless and incredibly disgusted. That being said, there is plenty of good in this novel that makes it worth the trip. The compelling story is as much about survivors as it is one of captives. The main character, Maya acts shady at times, but you will cheer for her as she struggles to keep the girls together and find ways to endure. Nevertheless, brace yourself and snuggle up with your fluffiest blanket and jammies when you read The Butterfly Garden.
The Butterfly Garden is undeniably dark and disturbing, but it pulls you in right from the start and almost holds you against your will as you flip the pages faster and faster so you, too, can escape. It is definitely not an easy journey; it is bound to leave you speechless and incredibly disgusted. That being said, there is plenty of good in this novel that makes it worth the trip. The compelling story is as much about survivors as it is one of captives. The main character, Maya acts shady at times, but you will cheer for her as she struggles to keep the girls together and find ways to endure. Nevertheless, brace yourself and snuggle up with your fluffiest blanket and jammies when you read The Butterfly Garden.