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Molly J (Cover To Cover Cafe) (106 KP) rated Isaiah's Daughter (Prophets and Kings, #1) in Books
Feb 27, 2019
Hold on just one moment, please. *Reflects* Ahem. Okay. Now, I can review this book. This book. What can say about this poignant, stunning novel of epic proportions? I can tell you that this book will pull you in and twist you up inside, as you get to know Hephzibah, or Ishma as she's first known. The pages within this book come to life, the characters moving before you like you are really there, learning of Isaiah, Hephzibah,Yaira,Hezekiah and all the happenings of Jerusalem.
Seeing all that young Ishma went through, really tugged at my heart. Watching her grow with Hezekiah was an experience I won't soon forget. I felt all of Zibah's feelings, all her pain and love for the Father. I cried when Isaiah and his wife adopted Zibah, I cried when Hezekiah and Zibah fell in love, I cried when I reached the end of this amazing novel.
This book is a book of true love. Of sacrificial love. Of a love that will never end, both within family, even if it's not blood family, and the never ending love of our amazing Father above. This story is utterly heartbreaking, yet it's heart-reviving. It is rich in detail, it is throroughly researched, and it's stitched perfectly together like that of a beautiful handmade quilt.
Ms. Andrews has gone beyond 5 stars with this book. This book is so much more than just that. If you want a book that will carry you away to a land, and a time, that we've only read about in the Bible and imagined with our minds and hearts, then this is a book for you. If you want a book that steals your mind, and soul long after you've shut the book, then this is for you. If you want a book that will leave you contemplating all you've learned in Bible study, then please, look no further than the first book in a Biblical series that is sure to be a best seller.
*I received a complimentary copy of this book from publisher and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*
Seeing all that young Ishma went through, really tugged at my heart. Watching her grow with Hezekiah was an experience I won't soon forget. I felt all of Zibah's feelings, all her pain and love for the Father. I cried when Isaiah and his wife adopted Zibah, I cried when Hezekiah and Zibah fell in love, I cried when I reached the end of this amazing novel.
This book is a book of true love. Of sacrificial love. Of a love that will never end, both within family, even if it's not blood family, and the never ending love of our amazing Father above. This story is utterly heartbreaking, yet it's heart-reviving. It is rich in detail, it is throroughly researched, and it's stitched perfectly together like that of a beautiful handmade quilt.
Ms. Andrews has gone beyond 5 stars with this book. This book is so much more than just that. If you want a book that will carry you away to a land, and a time, that we've only read about in the Bible and imagined with our minds and hearts, then this is a book for you. If you want a book that steals your mind, and soul long after you've shut the book, then this is for you. If you want a book that will leave you contemplating all you've learned in Bible study, then please, look no further than the first book in a Biblical series that is sure to be a best seller.
*I received a complimentary copy of this book from publisher and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*
Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019) in Movies
May 13, 2019
Catch it or run away?
#detectivepikachu is more Pokemeh than #Pokemon, sure the ideas are there but the execution isn't leaving us with a movie that's simply just ok. I was really #hyped for this movie, I loved the neon flair, underground, mature & almost seedy look it pitched us in the trailer & very much to its credit all that is still there VISUALLY but in almost every other aspect it sadly fails. Ok so this film is #gorgeous, pokemon feel like living breathing #creatures with tremendous cgi texture detail almost making some of the feel like practical effect rather than computer imagery. Pokemon also interact with not just the world/scenery but with the actors too flawlessly keeping the immersion grounded/realistic just like #bumblebee did. World wise it nails it the city #feels so alive & lived in by both humans & pokemon with the grimy smokey alleyways, radiant forest areas & the neon glows of street signs adding character & dimension as they glisten beautifully off the characters fur & concrete. Its all very #bladerunner/#ghostintheshell #inspired & overflows with human technological progression. Accompanying the visuals is a simply awesome soundtrack that invokes a sense of wonder & #fantasy esc dream states only adding to its world building. Here then lies my problem we have the perfect world & these incredible creatures that inhabit it so why dont we spend more time with them exploring not only the world but the #relationship/bond between us & pokemon & how we cope with sharing the world together. Instead we are forced to follow such a dull, bland, paint by numbers plot with a twist thats so frustratingly obvious within the first 15 minutes that I was annoyed it took so long to reveal it. Adding to its tedium & dullness are the human actors who (aside from #Kenwatanabe & #ryanreynolds who carry the film) are unlikable, soulless, emotionless drones that seem to only be there to explain/advance the mundane plot. Detective #pikachu is one extremely well marketed/over #hyped missed opportunity & I cant help but feel if they'd focused more on the things we were all there to see (the pokemon) it might of had a bit more #heart. #nintendo #pokeball #pokemongo #cute #anime #manga
The second book in [a:Veronica Roth|4039811|Veronica Roth|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1363910238p2/4039811.jpg]'s 'Divergent' series, this picks up almost exactly - like, exactly exactly - after the climax of [b:Divergent|13335037|Divergent (Divergent, #1)|Veronica Roth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328559506s/13335037.jpg|13155899], with Beatrice ('Tris') on a train about to leave the desolate future city of Chicago following the 'Simulation' attack by the Erudite faction.
I can't stress this enough: when I say exactly, I really do mean exactly: almost as if the first sentence of this book is the second half of the last sentence of the previous.
Anyway, it's not too much longer until Tris is heading back to Chicago, in company with some old friends and enemies-who-later-prove-not-to-be, in order to find a way to deal with the consequences of that attack, and to prevent further mistakes being made by members of both her own and other factions.
For a large portion of this, she is still struggling with guilt over some of her actions in the previous novel - in particular, over one that she (was forced to) carry out during the Erudite attack. This one also ends with a(n attempted) cliffhanger ending, in which we may yet find out how and why the faction system came about if we read the next in the series ([b:Allegiant|18710190|Allegiant (Divergent, #3)|Veronica Roth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1395582745s/18710190.jpg|15524549])
While I did feel that this had its own identity maybe a bit more than [b:Divergent|13335037|Divergent (Divergent, #1)|Veronica Roth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328559506s/13335037.jpg|13155899] (which, at times, felt to me almost like it was trying too hard to be another 'Hunger Games'), there is still a strong resemblance between the two series', in particular in their choice of leading characters, and in the theme of sacrifices.
I've come this far, so I probably will read the next (and, like The Hunger Games, maybe the whole will prove to be more than the sum of its parts).
I can't stress this enough: when I say exactly, I really do mean exactly: almost as if the first sentence of this book is the second half of the last sentence of the previous.
Anyway, it's not too much longer until Tris is heading back to Chicago, in company with some old friends and enemies-who-later-prove-not-to-be, in order to find a way to deal with the consequences of that attack, and to prevent further mistakes being made by members of both her own and other factions.
For a large portion of this, she is still struggling with guilt over some of her actions in the previous novel - in particular, over one that she (was forced to) carry out during the Erudite attack. This one also ends with a(n attempted) cliffhanger ending, in which we may yet find out how and why the faction system came about if we read the next in the series ([b:Allegiant|18710190|Allegiant (Divergent, #3)|Veronica Roth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1395582745s/18710190.jpg|15524549])
While I did feel that this had its own identity maybe a bit more than [b:Divergent|13335037|Divergent (Divergent, #1)|Veronica Roth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328559506s/13335037.jpg|13155899] (which, at times, felt to me almost like it was trying too hard to be another 'Hunger Games'), there is still a strong resemblance between the two series', in particular in their choice of leading characters, and in the theme of sacrifices.
I've come this far, so I probably will read the next (and, like The Hunger Games, maybe the whole will prove to be more than the sum of its parts).
Marylegs (44 KP) rated Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1) in Books
Aug 14, 2019
So I felt the story started fairly slowly wasn’t sure what to make of it. I went along with it because it feel like I book/story I should like. And it wasn’t that I disliked it I just, I don’t know, I could commit to it. Additionally I found it quite annoying how often author says “in a town like Gaitlin…” I get it. It’s a small town nothing unusual happens. There must be ways that that meaning could be but across without literally saying it every other paragraph. It was one of those things once I noticed it I couldn’t, not notice it.
I felt the story took a long time to get going, I enjoyed a good portion of the book towards the end, but I just felt like the story could have been ironed out better. I can almost see where it was meant to go and what I was meant to feel about characters but I never whole-heartedly did. There just wasn’t enough ‘real’ conversation between characters and it just felt a bit…. Forced, I can’t really think of a better way of describing it. Sometimes whilst I was reading I was thinking there is no way, in reality you’d be in that situation and react that way. If someone is threatening the person you love, you wouldn’t then wonder off and just carry on with what you were doing like the bady wasn’t even there. Even some of arguments between characters seemed lacking in purpose or just seemed to end. I also thought it just sort of ended, I know it is part of a series but normally I feel like I have to know what happens straightaway. I just didn’t get that with this book.
I will read the next book at some point but I’m not in a rush to get to it, but hopefully the story becomes more ironed out and purposeful as even though I may have seemed negative about the book. I could see where it could go and there were times in the book when I was compelled and fully invested. I guess I shall wait and see.
I felt the story took a long time to get going, I enjoyed a good portion of the book towards the end, but I just felt like the story could have been ironed out better. I can almost see where it was meant to go and what I was meant to feel about characters but I never whole-heartedly did. There just wasn’t enough ‘real’ conversation between characters and it just felt a bit…. Forced, I can’t really think of a better way of describing it. Sometimes whilst I was reading I was thinking there is no way, in reality you’d be in that situation and react that way. If someone is threatening the person you love, you wouldn’t then wonder off and just carry on with what you were doing like the bady wasn’t even there. Even some of arguments between characters seemed lacking in purpose or just seemed to end. I also thought it just sort of ended, I know it is part of a series but normally I feel like I have to know what happens straightaway. I just didn’t get that with this book.
I will read the next book at some point but I’m not in a rush to get to it, but hopefully the story becomes more ironed out and purposeful as even though I may have seemed negative about the book. I could see where it could go and there were times in the book when I was compelled and fully invested. I guess I shall wait and see.
ClareR (5906 KP) rated The End of the Ocean in Books
Nov 6, 2019
The End of the Ocean by Maja Lunde is Climate Fiction (Cli-Fi) at its best and most stark. At its best, because everything that happens feels as though they are the reasonable consequences of what we are predicted now; most stark, because this is truly a terrible version of the future.
In the present day(2019), 69 year old environmental activist Signe discovers that her home town, and in particular her ex-boyfriend, is responsible for cutting up and shipping off ice from their glacier to sell to the rich, so that they can have glacial ice in their expensive cocktails. She decides to sabotage the shipment, and steals some of it - or what she can carry in her boat. She sails her ship through a terrible storm with the intention of taking it to the person responsible.
In 2041, David and his daughter Lou, arrive at a refugee camp after escaping from war and fire in their French home. There is little water and food, but David is hopeful that his wife and infant son (who they’ve been separated from) will be there or arrive soon.
The two stories are linked when David and Lou find Signe’s boat in the garden of one of the abandoned houses.
This is such a powerful book. It takes current scientific research and arrives at the extreme end of its prediction: drought, famine and war. I had to read it in short chunks, because I found the story so moving and intensely depressing, to be honest. It doesn’t feel exaggerated: I didn’t read it thinking “Well that would NEVER happen”. It’s all too plausible, in fact. I really liked how the two stories ran parallel to one another and joined up in the latter half of the book, with the boat as some sort of symbol of hope.
It’s not all depressing though. There is an element of hope, and we see the enduring strength of the human spirit. I have The History of Bees on my bookshelf, which I will read now - and I’ll definitely look out for the third in this quartet of books.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for my copy of this book.
In the present day(2019), 69 year old environmental activist Signe discovers that her home town, and in particular her ex-boyfriend, is responsible for cutting up and shipping off ice from their glacier to sell to the rich, so that they can have glacial ice in their expensive cocktails. She decides to sabotage the shipment, and steals some of it - or what she can carry in her boat. She sails her ship through a terrible storm with the intention of taking it to the person responsible.
In 2041, David and his daughter Lou, arrive at a refugee camp after escaping from war and fire in their French home. There is little water and food, but David is hopeful that his wife and infant son (who they’ve been separated from) will be there or arrive soon.
The two stories are linked when David and Lou find Signe’s boat in the garden of one of the abandoned houses.
This is such a powerful book. It takes current scientific research and arrives at the extreme end of its prediction: drought, famine and war. I had to read it in short chunks, because I found the story so moving and intensely depressing, to be honest. It doesn’t feel exaggerated: I didn’t read it thinking “Well that would NEVER happen”. It’s all too plausible, in fact. I really liked how the two stories ran parallel to one another and joined up in the latter half of the book, with the boat as some sort of symbol of hope.
It’s not all depressing though. There is an element of hope, and we see the enduring strength of the human spirit. I have The History of Bees on my bookshelf, which I will read now - and I’ll definitely look out for the third in this quartet of books.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for my copy of this book.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Hell or High Water (2016) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
There are numerous films about bank robbers, loveable villains who we find
ourselves cheering for throughout their escapades. Something was always
missing, though. The actions always seemed simple, shallow, and, at times,
comical in their approach. Hell or High Water breaks from many of the
tropes that we are accustomed to with reality-based crime movies. The film
follows two brothers as they rob a chain of banks in the attempt to save
their home and land from foreclosure.
Hell or High Water demonstrates to the audience the complexity with the
story in which this film is based. Marcus (Ben Foster), who is a career
criminal, returns to a life of crime in order to help his brother Toby
(Chris Pine) create a stable future for his children. He has been pushed
to his limits by the banks who have taken advantage of his dying mother
and sees robbing them as the only possible path. They must be quick,
proficient, and calculated in their actions as they are being pursued by a
Texas Ranger (Jeff Bridges) who sees this case as his chance to achieve
some peace as it keeps him further from retirement.
The film is phenomenal in being able to carry several different
storylines, issues, and directions. The film is about Americans with bank
robbing as the backdrop. It demonstrates how working people feel taken
advantage of by the banks and have no sympathy for them as they argue that
the banks are the real criminals in shady deals that result in people
losing their homes. It is an ideal modern western with “the law” hot on
the tail of the bandits. There is no clear bad guy with the brothers, just
a flawed antiheroes that several in the community will not turn against
because they understand that the boys are “one of them” and applaud them
for taking action against the banks.
Audiences will find themselves engrossed in the storyline, expansive views
of Texas, relating to the anger towards financial institutions, and
rooting for these brothers as they try to save their land and legacy.
ourselves cheering for throughout their escapades. Something was always
missing, though. The actions always seemed simple, shallow, and, at times,
comical in their approach. Hell or High Water breaks from many of the
tropes that we are accustomed to with reality-based crime movies. The film
follows two brothers as they rob a chain of banks in the attempt to save
their home and land from foreclosure.
Hell or High Water demonstrates to the audience the complexity with the
story in which this film is based. Marcus (Ben Foster), who is a career
criminal, returns to a life of crime in order to help his brother Toby
(Chris Pine) create a stable future for his children. He has been pushed
to his limits by the banks who have taken advantage of his dying mother
and sees robbing them as the only possible path. They must be quick,
proficient, and calculated in their actions as they are being pursued by a
Texas Ranger (Jeff Bridges) who sees this case as his chance to achieve
some peace as it keeps him further from retirement.
The film is phenomenal in being able to carry several different
storylines, issues, and directions. The film is about Americans with bank
robbing as the backdrop. It demonstrates how working people feel taken
advantage of by the banks and have no sympathy for them as they argue that
the banks are the real criminals in shady deals that result in people
losing their homes. It is an ideal modern western with “the law” hot on
the tail of the bandits. There is no clear bad guy with the brothers, just
a flawed antiheroes that several in the community will not turn against
because they understand that the boys are “one of them” and applaud them
for taking action against the banks.
Audiences will find themselves engrossed in the storyline, expansive views
of Texas, relating to the anger towards financial institutions, and
rooting for these brothers as they try to save their land and legacy.
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