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We Were the Lucky Ones
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Inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II,...
Jewish Fiction historical WWII WW2 World War II
ClareR (5991 KP) rated The Book of Guilt in Books
Jul 17, 2025
I absolutely loved The Book of Guilt. I wasn’t quite sure what I was in for when I started: identical triplets in a children’s home with a distinctly 1950s feel to it, even though it’s set in the 1970s. I think that’s to do with the fact that there is an alternative history - WW2 does not go quite the same way.
Everything about the atmosphere in the home, from the three shift-working “Mothers” (Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night), to their lessons from the Book of Knowledge, to their dreams being recorded in the Book of Dreams and their misdemeanours in the Book of Guilt.
Life begins to change in the Sycamore Home, and as it does, it raises so many questions about the things that the boys have been told.
I couldn’t put this down, and read it in two days. It gave me Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go vibes (not too much of a spoiler!). The boys are regarded with suspicion and fear, which made me feel for them even more. The addition of the Minister for Loneliness (a great idea, by the way) added an outsiders view to the concept of the Sycamore Homes.
The writing is mesmerising, the characters are rounded and very human (regardless of other characters opinions), and both the setting, the plot, and the ending were just perfect.
This is only my second Catherine Chidgey novel (the first was Remote Sympathy, and that was also a top read for me), and I really need to read more!
Everything about the atmosphere in the home, from the three shift-working “Mothers” (Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night), to their lessons from the Book of Knowledge, to their dreams being recorded in the Book of Dreams and their misdemeanours in the Book of Guilt.
Life begins to change in the Sycamore Home, and as it does, it raises so many questions about the things that the boys have been told.
I couldn’t put this down, and read it in two days. It gave me Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go vibes (not too much of a spoiler!). The boys are regarded with suspicion and fear, which made me feel for them even more. The addition of the Minister for Loneliness (a great idea, by the way) added an outsiders view to the concept of the Sycamore Homes.
The writing is mesmerising, the characters are rounded and very human (regardless of other characters opinions), and both the setting, the plot, and the ending were just perfect.
This is only my second Catherine Chidgey novel (the first was Remote Sympathy, and that was also a top read for me), and I really need to read more!
Appointment in Paris
9.0
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Book
Following an acclaimed debut outing, Harry Fox, an MI5 Watcher, now suspended, and his associate...
Spies WW2
Tim McGuire (301 KP) rated 1922 (2017) in Movies
Nov 2, 2019
Old Movie Revisited: 1922. Another sweet Netflix made Stephen King movie, within less than a month of Gerald's Game, another awesome sauce flick. This one brings back Thomas Jane into the King fold for at least the third time, a trend I hope he continues, seems to fit in well... a roll in the Dark Tower perhaps, well, isn't he already... In this one, taking place sometime before WW2 ;) we have farmer Wilfred James and his wife, Arlette, and son Henry. Now Arlette wants out of the midwest farm crap fest and move to the big city, sell the farm, get a divorce... Wilfred, well doesnt really seem to care about the divorce part, but losing the farm and Henry, cause of course the boy will go off with mommy, isnt going to happen. So what is a dad to do, duh, convince your 14 year old son to help murder your wife, invent a tale she ran off and expect everything to go well. You may have guessed, it doesn't... Hell, even little Henry becomes a outlaw. Good flick, bringing in some old Stephen King landmarks to tie in his universe a little tighter, takes place near Hemingford Home, where a few well known King characters hail from, big one being Abagail Freemantle, of The Stand... But more recently in theatres... IT, one little fat boy named Ben Hanscom also once roved it roads! Thomas Jane was awesome, if a Shining remake was ever in the works to be more true to the book, I'd love to see Mr. Jane as Jack, i think he'd be insane :) Filmbufftim on FB
FD
Fiori Di Zucca: Recipes and Memories from My Family's Kitchen Table
Book
Valentina has a wonderful story to tell. Her grandfather, Count Carlo Sforza, who became the Italian...
The Heroes of Three Kingdoms
Games
App
★☆ LIMITED TIME OFFER : SPECIAL PRICE!!! ☆★ Appreciate customers event for only limited...
World of Tanks Blitz
Games and Entertainment
8.0
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World of Tanks Blitz is a free-to-play mobile MMO action game developed by Wargaming, the...
ClareR (5991 KP) rated The Safekeep in Books
Jan 26, 2025
The house in The Safekeep is at the centre of this story. Isabel lives alone in the large family home in the countryside, whilst her brothers, Louis and Hendrik, live in the city. Isabel and Hendrik are invited to meet yet another of Louis’ girlfriends, and they don’t seem to take either one of them seriously. Shortly afterwards, Louis has to leave for France on business, and his girlfriend doesn’t want to stay in their city flat alone. So she asks to stay with Isabel.
Isabel lives a very rigid life. Not religious as such, but close to the Calvinist religion that their mother brought them up in. She’s paranoid about things going missing from inside the house, she constantly counts everything and tries to keep the house as her mother would have done. It becomes clear towards the end why she does this.
Isabel clearly doesn’t want Eva to stay. She wants to be alone in the house. Isabel also doesn’t want the attention of a rather over-enthusiastic male “friend”. She goes on dates with him, barely tolerating his company.
As Isabel and Eva’s relationship develops, we see another side of Isabel, and in the latter half of the book there are diary entries that explain a lot about her (I love a book with diary entries). This is a love story, but also a story about what happened to the property of returning Jews after WW2. It’s a psychological novel with a lot of secrets at its heart. It must have been a tough call for this book NOT to win the Booker in 2024.
Isabel lives a very rigid life. Not religious as such, but close to the Calvinist religion that their mother brought them up in. She’s paranoid about things going missing from inside the house, she constantly counts everything and tries to keep the house as her mother would have done. It becomes clear towards the end why she does this.
Isabel clearly doesn’t want Eva to stay. She wants to be alone in the house. Isabel also doesn’t want the attention of a rather over-enthusiastic male “friend”. She goes on dates with him, barely tolerating his company.
As Isabel and Eva’s relationship develops, we see another side of Isabel, and in the latter half of the book there are diary entries that explain a lot about her (I love a book with diary entries). This is a love story, but also a story about what happened to the property of returning Jews after WW2. It’s a psychological novel with a lot of secrets at its heart. It must have been a tough call for this book NOT to win the Booker in 2024.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated the PC version of Call of Duty WWII in Video Games
Jun 19, 2019
The long running and very popular Call of Duty series has gone back to where it all began for the latest entry into the series. Call of Duty: WW2 returns the series to where the early games in the series were set and looks to restore its legacy as the best-selling series on the planet in doing so.
Last year’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare did not sell as well as other in the series had in recent years, and many fans were upset or divided over a futuristic setting that involved spaceships, energy weapons, and futuristic locations and technology.
It should be noted that the series has three developers working on games so developer Sledgehammer likely started work on the game before Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare shipped so the return to WW2 was something long in the planning.
The game opens with D-Day and players play as a young Private who is thrown headfirst into the conflict and learns the horrors of war as well as duty, honor, and sacrifice through his missions and interactions with members of his platoon.
Over the course of the missions, players will battle in highly-detailed maps and locales ranging from forests, bunkers, beaches, and bombed out cities as the Allies advance deeper and deeper into enemy held locales. The various locales for the game are so highly-detailed that they seem right out of a movie and would be a dream come true for location scouts looking for filming locations.
As anyone who has played a call of Duty game knows, they will be faced with waves of enemies to fight off as well as the usual stealth and vehicle missions. This time out there are a couple of driving missions as well as a clever one in a tank and one airborne fighter escort.
The attention to detail is very good as enemy Panzer tanks can take any fire from your tank head on, but have weaker armor in the bank which leads players to have to flank the enemy to survive.
Another new wrinkle is the health system which does not regenerate in the story mode and instead requires players to take cover and use a first aid kit in order to heal. The multiplayer portion does use a regenerative system so players can avoid any major disruptions in battle.
I really liked Josh Duhamel as the rough Sargent with a backstory. He was a very interesting character that kept me guessing as to his motivations and next moves as the story advanced.
Players could also call in ammo, mortar strikes, and health by requesting them from select members of their platoon. This could be tricky as when pinned down, having to move to another character to get needed items added to the challenge.
The weaponry was appropriate for the time and I had to adjust to slower load times, accuracy issues, and such with older tech, but it did give me a much greater level of immersion.
While I did enjoy the solo campaign, it did at times seem very familiar and as if I had seen and played some of it all before. I guess that is the trick with a series that has run as long as Call of Duty has as certain aspects of the gameplay are expected and while locations, weapons, locations, and characters may change, some things are going to be constant throughout the series.
The multiplayer aspects of the game really shine as not only are there numerous multiplayer modes, players can now pick a class such as Airborne, Recon, etc. which each have their own weapons and abilities and allow players to pick a division that best matches their abilities and gameplay style.
This comes in very handy in the new War mode where teams much battle one another to accomplish various objectives. Such as escorting tanks, protecting or stealing gas, and taking or defending key locales. My only issue is that this mode and many maps are camp fests where people with scoped rifles can easily hide in the back part of a map and pick off players as they spawn or enter the map. It seems far more pronounced in this game and leads to some frustrations. There is also the matter of iffy hit detection where players take half a clip from a machine gun point blank and yet can absorb them and one shit kill a player all while you unload on them.
There is also a very good Zombie mode where players take on wave after wave of undead soldiers as they attempt to get power restored and activate technology. The speed of the game is intense, the enemies numerous, and the ability to arm, armor up, and accessories your character is key as is having a good team around you.
As one person said that is Call of Duty and you know what you are in for if you have played any of the prior games. As such Call of Duty: World War 2 is not a radical new direction for the series, but rather a return to what made the series and is like slipping into a comfy pair of slippers after a long day., Familiar and comfortable and is in my opinion what the series needed.
http://sknr.net/2017/11/06/call-duty-ww2/
Last year’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare did not sell as well as other in the series had in recent years, and many fans were upset or divided over a futuristic setting that involved spaceships, energy weapons, and futuristic locations and technology.
It should be noted that the series has three developers working on games so developer Sledgehammer likely started work on the game before Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare shipped so the return to WW2 was something long in the planning.
The game opens with D-Day and players play as a young Private who is thrown headfirst into the conflict and learns the horrors of war as well as duty, honor, and sacrifice through his missions and interactions with members of his platoon.
Over the course of the missions, players will battle in highly-detailed maps and locales ranging from forests, bunkers, beaches, and bombed out cities as the Allies advance deeper and deeper into enemy held locales. The various locales for the game are so highly-detailed that they seem right out of a movie and would be a dream come true for location scouts looking for filming locations.
As anyone who has played a call of Duty game knows, they will be faced with waves of enemies to fight off as well as the usual stealth and vehicle missions. This time out there are a couple of driving missions as well as a clever one in a tank and one airborne fighter escort.
The attention to detail is very good as enemy Panzer tanks can take any fire from your tank head on, but have weaker armor in the bank which leads players to have to flank the enemy to survive.
Another new wrinkle is the health system which does not regenerate in the story mode and instead requires players to take cover and use a first aid kit in order to heal. The multiplayer portion does use a regenerative system so players can avoid any major disruptions in battle.
I really liked Josh Duhamel as the rough Sargent with a backstory. He was a very interesting character that kept me guessing as to his motivations and next moves as the story advanced.
Players could also call in ammo, mortar strikes, and health by requesting them from select members of their platoon. This could be tricky as when pinned down, having to move to another character to get needed items added to the challenge.
The weaponry was appropriate for the time and I had to adjust to slower load times, accuracy issues, and such with older tech, but it did give me a much greater level of immersion.
While I did enjoy the solo campaign, it did at times seem very familiar and as if I had seen and played some of it all before. I guess that is the trick with a series that has run as long as Call of Duty has as certain aspects of the gameplay are expected and while locations, weapons, locations, and characters may change, some things are going to be constant throughout the series.
The multiplayer aspects of the game really shine as not only are there numerous multiplayer modes, players can now pick a class such as Airborne, Recon, etc. which each have their own weapons and abilities and allow players to pick a division that best matches their abilities and gameplay style.
This comes in very handy in the new War mode where teams much battle one another to accomplish various objectives. Such as escorting tanks, protecting or stealing gas, and taking or defending key locales. My only issue is that this mode and many maps are camp fests where people with scoped rifles can easily hide in the back part of a map and pick off players as they spawn or enter the map. It seems far more pronounced in this game and leads to some frustrations. There is also the matter of iffy hit detection where players take half a clip from a machine gun point blank and yet can absorb them and one shit kill a player all while you unload on them.
There is also a very good Zombie mode where players take on wave after wave of undead soldiers as they attempt to get power restored and activate technology. The speed of the game is intense, the enemies numerous, and the ability to arm, armor up, and accessories your character is key as is having a good team around you.
As one person said that is Call of Duty and you know what you are in for if you have played any of the prior games. As such Call of Duty: World War 2 is not a radical new direction for the series, but rather a return to what made the series and is like slipping into a comfy pair of slippers after a long day., Familiar and comfortable and is in my opinion what the series needed.
http://sknr.net/2017/11/06/call-duty-ww2/
Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated Overlord (2018) in Movies
May 13, 2019
Overbored
#overlord is overlong, #boring, repetitive dross with no #soul of its own.
I was looking forward to this #film walking in, it looked like a throw back to 2002 #action horror films like #DogSoldiers, #Deathwatch & #28dayslater but it couldnt be any further from any of them if it tried. When Overlord is a #war film its passable enough (mainly because it outright steals all the best bits from #savingprivateryan & #bandofbrothers) but its when it tries its hand at horror it becomes down right #embarrassing. We know whats lurking in the basement going into the film but for some reason it keeps it a mystery for far to long instead feeding us this dull recycled generic plot we've seen a million times before we get to 'what we came to see'. Once the horror hits its done extremely poorly, lacking in suspense, quality & grittiness. I get they were going for a kid of #grindhouse sort of style but it takes itself far to seriously losing the fun of such a film. Acting is as painful as the dialog which is delivered by most of the cast as if you gave a script to someone on the street & asked them to read it. Not one character is likable & they all seem to be un phased by wounds or the horrors they witness. #Creature design is unimaginative, cgi is #poor & set pieces are dull however there are some great tracking shots at times & a bit of nice imagery but its to few & far between. Its nice to see an 18 certificate film like this for a change but I found Overlord to be a huge let down & a big wasted opportunity. Pitty. #odeon #odeonlimitless #horror #gore #scary #natzi #war #worldwar #thursdaythoughts #filmbuff #filmcritic #ww2 #nasty #zombies #halloween #callofduty
I was looking forward to this #film walking in, it looked like a throw back to 2002 #action horror films like #DogSoldiers, #Deathwatch & #28dayslater but it couldnt be any further from any of them if it tried. When Overlord is a #war film its passable enough (mainly because it outright steals all the best bits from #savingprivateryan & #bandofbrothers) but its when it tries its hand at horror it becomes down right #embarrassing. We know whats lurking in the basement going into the film but for some reason it keeps it a mystery for far to long instead feeding us this dull recycled generic plot we've seen a million times before we get to 'what we came to see'. Once the horror hits its done extremely poorly, lacking in suspense, quality & grittiness. I get they were going for a kid of #grindhouse sort of style but it takes itself far to seriously losing the fun of such a film. Acting is as painful as the dialog which is delivered by most of the cast as if you gave a script to someone on the street & asked them to read it. Not one character is likable & they all seem to be un phased by wounds or the horrors they witness. #Creature design is unimaginative, cgi is #poor & set pieces are dull however there are some great tracking shots at times & a bit of nice imagery but its to few & far between. Its nice to see an 18 certificate film like this for a change but I found Overlord to be a huge let down & a big wasted opportunity. Pitty. #odeon #odeonlimitless #horror #gore #scary #natzi #war #worldwar #thursdaythoughts #filmbuff #filmcritic #ww2 #nasty #zombies #halloween #callofduty