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Writing China: Essays on the Amherst Embassy (1816) and Sino-British Cultural Relations
Peter J. Kitson and Robert Markley
Book
On 29 August 1816, Lord Amherst, exhausted after travelling overnight during an embassy to China,...
Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated The Red King (Wilde Justice #1) in Books
Jan 7, 2021
I picked this up free at the beginning of the year after reading this authors entire Immortal Vegas series pretty much back to back. It contains the same set of characters but now Sara Wilde is part of the Arcana Council herself and is solving mysteries, instead of hunting for artefacts.
This one starts with Sara chasing someone up a mountain who's been selling technoceuticals to minors and has been marked for Justice. It's after he's been sent to be judged that whispers of the Red King begin to surface. A tale of a butcher in Venice who used to be renown for his stews until something was found in them that caused him to be hunted down and killed. Now it appears he's back from the dead and using the Venice Carnivale as a hunting ground and Sara is sent in to investigate.
I don't know about this one. I liked being back in the world of Sara and the Arcana Council. I enjoyed seeing more of the Devil and the Magician but there wasn't enough action to keep my entertained. I've been reading this nearly a week and there isn't even 250 pages in this.
I loved the descriptions of Carnivale and I'd love to visit Venice during that time but the mystery of who the Red King was and what his plan was just wasn't grabbing my attention. I think I preferred Sara hunting down the artefacts in the previous series. I think it was just more action packed and the tension between Sara and the Magician and the whole will they/won't they get together
I will probably continue this series at a later date just because I still really like Sara and the Magician's relationship and the Devil who always pops up at just the right time/gives enough information away to help her.
This one starts with Sara chasing someone up a mountain who's been selling technoceuticals to minors and has been marked for Justice. It's after he's been sent to be judged that whispers of the Red King begin to surface. A tale of a butcher in Venice who used to be renown for his stews until something was found in them that caused him to be hunted down and killed. Now it appears he's back from the dead and using the Venice Carnivale as a hunting ground and Sara is sent in to investigate.
I don't know about this one. I liked being back in the world of Sara and the Arcana Council. I enjoyed seeing more of the Devil and the Magician but there wasn't enough action to keep my entertained. I've been reading this nearly a week and there isn't even 250 pages in this.
I loved the descriptions of Carnivale and I'd love to visit Venice during that time but the mystery of who the Red King was and what his plan was just wasn't grabbing my attention. I think I preferred Sara hunting down the artefacts in the previous series. I think it was just more action packed and the tension between Sara and the Magician and the whole will they/won't they get together
I will probably continue this series at a later date just because I still really like Sara and the Magician's relationship and the Devil who always pops up at just the right time/gives enough information away to help her.
Merissa (12061 KP) rated Forever Wilde in Aster Valley (Forever Wilde #9) in Books
Nov 19, 2021 (Updated Jul 10, 2023)
FOREVER WILDE IN ASTER VALLEY is a crossover from the Marions and the Wildes, giving you a seasonal romance about an introverted only child thrown into a crazy chaotic family situation.
Now, let me say one thing first - I wanted more of Darius and Miller. They seemed to get lost at times amongst all of the others. Saying that!!! Lucy Lennox has managed to perfectly convey all of the differing personalities that come with these two clans.
What I did get of Miller and Darius was superb. I related so much with Miller in so many ways. Maybe that's why I want more, nothing to do with the story itself, just him as a character. Either way, this book gave me laughs and tears, warm fuzzy feelings, and cold hard ones.
Will this put me in the minority if I say I was cheering when Miller let rip with Tilly? Maybe, maybe not. I love her character, but he had valid points, and it made her seem more life-life and not so infallible.
I was convinced this would be a 4-star read even as I got toward the end, but honestly? I can't. Yes, I wanted more, but isn't that a sign of a good book? This is one I read in one sitting, that I thoroughly enjoyed and have no hesitation in recommending. If for no other reason than that, this is a 5-star book for me. I just hope to see Miller and Darius in the future!
** 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 19, 2021
Now, let me say one thing first - I wanted more of Darius and Miller. They seemed to get lost at times amongst all of the others. Saying that!!! Lucy Lennox has managed to perfectly convey all of the differing personalities that come with these two clans.
What I did get of Miller and Darius was superb. I related so much with Miller in so many ways. Maybe that's why I want more, nothing to do with the story itself, just him as a character. Either way, this book gave me laughs and tears, warm fuzzy feelings, and cold hard ones.
Will this put me in the minority if I say I was cheering when Miller let rip with Tilly? Maybe, maybe not. I love her character, but he had valid points, and it made her seem more life-life and not so infallible.
I was convinced this would be a 4-star read even as I got toward the end, but honestly? I can't. Yes, I wanted more, but isn't that a sign of a good book? This is one I read in one sitting, that I thoroughly enjoyed and have no hesitation in recommending. If for no other reason than that, this is a 5-star book for me. I just hope to see Miller and Darius in the future!
** 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 19, 2021
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Life Itself (2018) in Movies
Sep 28, 2021
Love Actually with all the saccharine squeezed out.
Not the documentary of the same name from 2014 about the critic Rogert Ebert. This is an Amazon Studios/Sky Cinema Original Film (trying to follow where Netflix is boldly going), and as such it only had a very limited release in UK cinemas which I managed to miss.
The plot.
This is an anthology film in the style of “Crash” or – actually, “Love Actually” – featuring a series of inter-linked stories. We start with a depressed Will (Oscar Isaac) flashing back to his apparently idyllic life with pregnant wife Abby (Olivia Wilde). Apparantly? Well, perhaps the narrator is unreliable. So what actually happened? Where is Abby now? Where is his child?
Mid-film we switch into a Spanish-language section, set in Spain, featuring an ambitious olive-picker Javier González (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), his sweetheart Isabel (Laia Costa) and his employer Mr. Saccione (Antonio Banderas).
(“What the F!”, you are saying to yourself at this point, “How is this all related?”).
To say any more would provide spoilers: but, confused as you may be, it’s a journey worth sticking with.
Messing with time and your mind.
The film plays fast and loose with chronology and we zap backwards and forwards through the story which can be unsettling. It’s a film that keeps you on your toes, and you need to listen to director/writer Dan Fogelman‘s dialogue as there are clues as to where you are going next. It’s certainly not the ‘sit-back-and-relax’ “rom-com” that I mistakenly sold it to my wife as for our evening viewing!
A star of the film is the editor Julie Monroe (“Midnight Special“). There are some significant twists in the film, some of which are well signposted; others very much not so!
The turns
Has Oscar Isaac done a bad film? (I’m sure some haters of the latest Star Wars episodes might have an answer!). Here he has to execute an enormous range and he just about pulls it off. Olivia Wilde is also convincing as Abby.
In the Spanish section, Antonio Banderas is as impressive as you expect, and Laia Costa – an actress not previously known to me – is initially good as the young love interest, but I thought she was rather over-extended in the later scenes in her story.
Elsewhere, the rising star Olivia Cooke again impresses as a troubled teen; Annette Bening is a psychologist; “Homeland”‘s Mandy Patinkin plays Will’s father; and an f-ing and blinding Samuel L Jackson even appears at the start of the film (a blink and you’d miss it line of dialogue explains the context).
Good?
I wasn’t expecting to, but I really enjoyed this one. I’ve read some completely eviscerating reviews of the movie, but I’ve not sure where those were coming from. I found it a non-standard journey requiring a level of intelligence to appreciate the nuances of the script. My guess would be that many of the naysayers on IMDB never made it past the Spanish interlude. Others will not have liked the coincidence in the final reel (no spoilers). I do appreciate that it needs a suspension of belief. But this is a movie about the random coincidences of life. I remember running into a work colleague on the backstreets of Lone Pine in California, 5,271 miles away from where we both worked. Coincidences DO happen.
I’m not a fan of this whole new “almost straight to streaming” approach: I wish I could have seen this one on the big screen. But my view would be that it’s well worth catching if you have access to Amazon or Sky services (Sky or Now TV in the UK).
The plot.
This is an anthology film in the style of “Crash” or – actually, “Love Actually” – featuring a series of inter-linked stories. We start with a depressed Will (Oscar Isaac) flashing back to his apparently idyllic life with pregnant wife Abby (Olivia Wilde). Apparantly? Well, perhaps the narrator is unreliable. So what actually happened? Where is Abby now? Where is his child?
Mid-film we switch into a Spanish-language section, set in Spain, featuring an ambitious olive-picker Javier González (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), his sweetheart Isabel (Laia Costa) and his employer Mr. Saccione (Antonio Banderas).
(“What the F!”, you are saying to yourself at this point, “How is this all related?”).
To say any more would provide spoilers: but, confused as you may be, it’s a journey worth sticking with.
Messing with time and your mind.
The film plays fast and loose with chronology and we zap backwards and forwards through the story which can be unsettling. It’s a film that keeps you on your toes, and you need to listen to director/writer Dan Fogelman‘s dialogue as there are clues as to where you are going next. It’s certainly not the ‘sit-back-and-relax’ “rom-com” that I mistakenly sold it to my wife as for our evening viewing!
A star of the film is the editor Julie Monroe (“Midnight Special“). There are some significant twists in the film, some of which are well signposted; others very much not so!
The turns
Has Oscar Isaac done a bad film? (I’m sure some haters of the latest Star Wars episodes might have an answer!). Here he has to execute an enormous range and he just about pulls it off. Olivia Wilde is also convincing as Abby.
In the Spanish section, Antonio Banderas is as impressive as you expect, and Laia Costa – an actress not previously known to me – is initially good as the young love interest, but I thought she was rather over-extended in the later scenes in her story.
Elsewhere, the rising star Olivia Cooke again impresses as a troubled teen; Annette Bening is a psychologist; “Homeland”‘s Mandy Patinkin plays Will’s father; and an f-ing and blinding Samuel L Jackson even appears at the start of the film (a blink and you’d miss it line of dialogue explains the context).
Good?
I wasn’t expecting to, but I really enjoyed this one. I’ve read some completely eviscerating reviews of the movie, but I’ve not sure where those were coming from. I found it a non-standard journey requiring a level of intelligence to appreciate the nuances of the script. My guess would be that many of the naysayers on IMDB never made it past the Spanish interlude. Others will not have liked the coincidence in the final reel (no spoilers). I do appreciate that it needs a suspension of belief. But this is a movie about the random coincidences of life. I remember running into a work colleague on the backstreets of Lone Pine in California, 5,271 miles away from where we both worked. Coincidences DO happen.
I’m not a fan of this whole new “almost straight to streaming” approach: I wish I could have seen this one on the big screen. But my view would be that it’s well worth catching if you have access to Amazon or Sky services (Sky or Now TV in the UK).
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