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E! – La Chaîne en Live et en Replay
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E! – La Chaîne de la Culture Pop Avec l’appli E!, emportez votre chaîne préférée partout...
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The Sky Sports Score Centre app is your go to app for live football scores and watching Premier...
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With an NFL Game Pass Europe subscription you can watch all NFL games live* on all your iOS devices...
ClareR (5874 KP) rated Future Imperfect in Books
Dec 4, 2023
Future Imperfect is a terrifyingly plausible version of the future. Climate Change has caused displacement of people across the globe, and everyone is either trying to get home to their own countries, or trying to get to a relatively safe country. The UK is taking a hard line, and those who immigrated to Britain up to two or even three generations before, are being sent back to their ‘country of origin’ - a country that for many is an unknown.
In this atmosphere, Helen and Isha are attempting to return to the UK when their home in Arles is flooded, but as Isha is deemed to be Ugandan (her grandparents came from Uganda as refugees) only Helen can enter. Which for them is unacceptable. So Helen decides she must stay with Isha, and the two of them decide to make for Switzerland and an old friends mountain chalet.
But this is a world where everyone is constantly monitored, and as the weather and climate worsen, so do the actions of the French and Swiss governments. To be caught is to potentially be killed.
Jana, Helen and Isha’s adopted daughter, decides to follow her parents. Unlike them, she is permitted to be in France, so her journey, whilst difficult with her small daughter, is much easier.
AI is needed for every aspect of life in this world, and it’s the ideal way to track those who really don’t want to be tracked. Everything needs to be paid for using this method as well. Fortunately, Helen and Isha meet a terrorist organisation who agree to help them. They’re not the only ones to help the women. It just goes to prove that there are good people everywhere in times of need, they just need to be brave enough to step forward.
There’s a lot to think about in this story and a lot of what happens is already happening to a lesser degree (so far!): floods, fires, famine. The future this novel paints is not a good one.
Oddly, I really enjoyed this, as I do with all of these imperfect future novels. There were parts in the story where I didn’t really want to read on, because I didn’t want bad things to happen to these good people, but I’m so glad I did.
Read with The Pigeonhole.
In this atmosphere, Helen and Isha are attempting to return to the UK when their home in Arles is flooded, but as Isha is deemed to be Ugandan (her grandparents came from Uganda as refugees) only Helen can enter. Which for them is unacceptable. So Helen decides she must stay with Isha, and the two of them decide to make for Switzerland and an old friends mountain chalet.
But this is a world where everyone is constantly monitored, and as the weather and climate worsen, so do the actions of the French and Swiss governments. To be caught is to potentially be killed.
Jana, Helen and Isha’s adopted daughter, decides to follow her parents. Unlike them, she is permitted to be in France, so her journey, whilst difficult with her small daughter, is much easier.
AI is needed for every aspect of life in this world, and it’s the ideal way to track those who really don’t want to be tracked. Everything needs to be paid for using this method as well. Fortunately, Helen and Isha meet a terrorist organisation who agree to help them. They’re not the only ones to help the women. It just goes to prove that there are good people everywhere in times of need, they just need to be brave enough to step forward.
There’s a lot to think about in this story and a lot of what happens is already happening to a lesser degree (so far!): floods, fires, famine. The future this novel paints is not a good one.
Oddly, I really enjoyed this, as I do with all of these imperfect future novels. There were parts in the story where I didn’t really want to read on, because I didn’t want bad things to happen to these good people, but I’m so glad I did.
Read with The Pigeonhole.
Clair (5 KP) rated My Sister's Bones in Books
Sep 29, 2017
Thank you to Penguin UK as part of an Instagram promotion of this book.
Kate Rafter is a journalist who works in some of worst places in the world, seeing some of the world's worst atrocities. She returns home on the death of her mother. Her sister Sally has never left Herne Bay and is an alcoholic, who hates Kate. The book is split between the main events of the story and scenes in a police station where Kate is being assessed on her mental health. We know that Kate keeps hearing and seeing a young boy in the family garden - but her experiences in Syria which have left her traumatised means that no one believes her.
Marketed as a rival to The Girl on the Train (I wish they wouldn't do that), I enjoyed this book and would ideally have given it 3.5 stars.
Negatives first...I didn't think it was that well written, there were plot holes that annoyed me and I found the characters one dimensional.
BUT the story was fast moving and intriguing and then there is a major twist which I didn't see coming which made me gasp.
Kate Rafter is a journalist who works in some of worst places in the world, seeing some of the world's worst atrocities. She returns home on the death of her mother. Her sister Sally has never left Herne Bay and is an alcoholic, who hates Kate. The book is split between the main events of the story and scenes in a police station where Kate is being assessed on her mental health. We know that Kate keeps hearing and seeing a young boy in the family garden - but her experiences in Syria which have left her traumatised means that no one believes her.
Marketed as a rival to The Girl on the Train (I wish they wouldn't do that), I enjoyed this book and would ideally have given it 3.5 stars.
Negatives first...I didn't think it was that well written, there were plot holes that annoyed me and I found the characters one dimensional.
BUT the story was fast moving and intriguing and then there is a major twist which I didn't see coming which made me gasp.
Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder in Podcasts
Jan 5, 2018 (Updated Jan 5, 2018)
A hideous look into the British justice system
Very rarely do we such corruption on a grand scale in the UK, and yet the murder case of Daniel Morgan seems to be symbolic of this. Even after more than 30 years, the case remains 'unsolved', mainly due to underhand deals and lack of fervour to prosecute those responsible.
From corrupt police officers, phone hacking, and eventually murder, Morgan was a private investigator looking into bribery of police officers, some by journalists in the 1980's. For those aware of the phone hacking scandal, it seemed to only get traction and recognition in the last ten years, yet was apparent two decades prior to this. Morgan was found bludgeoned to death in his car, and since then his family have found ample evidence to show widespread cover-ups, and a botched investigation in order to keep the crime underwraps.
Journalist Peter Jukes alongside family members created this podcast to expose the truly horrifying scale of this issue. It is another well-made, engrossing, albeit cautionary tale about how much we can trust our institutions and how much they prop each other up for support. Worth the listen.
From corrupt police officers, phone hacking, and eventually murder, Morgan was a private investigator looking into bribery of police officers, some by journalists in the 1980's. For those aware of the phone hacking scandal, it seemed to only get traction and recognition in the last ten years, yet was apparent two decades prior to this. Morgan was found bludgeoned to death in his car, and since then his family have found ample evidence to show widespread cover-ups, and a botched investigation in order to keep the crime underwraps.
Journalist Peter Jukes alongside family members created this podcast to expose the truly horrifying scale of this issue. It is another well-made, engrossing, albeit cautionary tale about how much we can trust our institutions and how much they prop each other up for support. Worth the listen.
Madbatdan82 (341 KP) rated Child's Play (1988) in Movies
Mar 21, 2019
He'll be your friend till the end
Coming from the UK the childs play films are best remembered for the real life James Bulger murders where 2 evil shits kidnapped a young boy and killed him using scenes from the films as inspiration - particularly childs play 2. It was a horrible crime and I remember when i first watched the Childs Play films i expected gore galore but in all honesty there was never really that much gore in them until Bride of Chucky. It's been years since I've watched them and with the 'remake/reboot' out soon I thought I'd revisit the original. So being the film that started it all, the original childs play is far more a suspenseful horror than a gore flick. Tension is built up as chucky stalks his prey and then dispatches them using some good old fashioned jump scares. Some of the support acting is quite wooden but Andy and his mum are really good and the always impressive Chris Sarandon is excellent. A 'classic' that holds up ok still.
Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Taken Girls in Books
Mar 24, 2019
A good debut
The Taken Girls is a unique take on the usual abduction stories in that girls are being taken but returned seemingly unharmed a short while later. It is down to DI Edina Ogborne (Ed) to find out just what the heck is going on.
Ed is a complex character and I have to admit that I found her frustrating and quite difficult to like particularly because of some of the decisions she makes in her personal life but she did end up growing on me by the end however, I'm not going to lie ... it was hard going. Having said that, this makes her all the more believable and if this is a start of a series, I am really interested to see how she develops and grows.
Written at a pretty good pace, although a little slow at times, with a few twists along the way, this book is a decent debut and G D Sanders is yet another author to put on my radar.
My thanks go to the publisher, Avon Books UK, and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review of which this is.
Ed is a complex character and I have to admit that I found her frustrating and quite difficult to like particularly because of some of the decisions she makes in her personal life but she did end up growing on me by the end however, I'm not going to lie ... it was hard going. Having said that, this makes her all the more believable and if this is a start of a series, I am really interested to see how she develops and grows.
Written at a pretty good pace, although a little slow at times, with a few twists along the way, this book is a decent debut and G D Sanders is yet another author to put on my radar.
My thanks go to the publisher, Avon Books UK, and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review of which this is.
Recommended gritty read
What a roller-coaster of a ride that was! I'm sure I experienced all the emotions known to man whilst reading this book - joy, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation and fear to name but a few.
The characters are believable and brilliant although not all of them are particularly likeable. The story is gripping and had me hooked from start to finish and although I anticipated the end, it didn't disappoint or spoil it for me. The only complaint I have is the epilogue ... what the heck?!?! I found it cheesy and, in my humble opinion, totally unnecessary apart from tying up a couple of loose ends which could have been put elsewhere in the book however, this didn't ruin it for me it just made me "tut" and roll my eyes.
Kimberley Chambers isn't known as the "Queen of Gangland Crime Fiction" for nothing and I would definitely recommend to readers who enjoy a gritty story that's not all about violence and hate.
Thank you to the publisher, HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.
The characters are believable and brilliant although not all of them are particularly likeable. The story is gripping and had me hooked from start to finish and although I anticipated the end, it didn't disappoint or spoil it for me. The only complaint I have is the epilogue ... what the heck?!?! I found it cheesy and, in my humble opinion, totally unnecessary apart from tying up a couple of loose ends which could have been put elsewhere in the book however, this didn't ruin it for me it just made me "tut" and roll my eyes.
Kimberley Chambers isn't known as the "Queen of Gangland Crime Fiction" for nothing and I would definitely recommend to readers who enjoy a gritty story that's not all about violence and hate.
Thank you to the publisher, HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.