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The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam
The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam
Bao Ninh | 2012 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"As a war correspondent, I have read many of the classic eyewitness accounts. I bought this book when I visited Vietnam in 1997. It’s one of the rare novels about that terrible war written from their perspective by a North Vietnamese student. It’s brutal, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking and desperately human. It’s also vital to remember that as much as the U.S. suffered on all fronts, Vietnam came off far, far worse. This book was first translated and sold in the west, ten years before it could be published in Vietnam."

Source
  
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Ezra Koenig recommended Assassination Classroom in TV (curated)

 
Assassination Classroom
Assassination Classroom
2013 | Action, Animation, Comedy
(0 Ratings)
TV Show Favorite

"I’m kind of old-school but I wanted to pick at least one newer anime I’ve enjoyed. Assassination Classroom has a super-weird premise. An alien with the power to destroy earth takes over a classroom of misfits at a high school and encourages them to assassinate him. It’s strange and has lots of wacky action sequences but it also hits on some of the classic motifs of classroom dramas. It’s like Dead Poet’s Society with a mysterious, capricious, gluttonous, horny alien teacher with tentacles instead of Robin Williams."

Source
  
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Gaz Coombes recommended Remain in Light by Talking Heads in Music (curated)

 
Remain in Light by Talking Heads
Remain in Light by Talking Heads
1980 | Rock
9.3 (4 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This is another classic record that shaped a lot of what we did, I guess. You get those songs sometimes where you hear the sound of it and think something has happened here. Whether it's the glue or whatever that's given it this sound - and I get that with 'Crosseyed And Painless'. Whether it's loops or samples I don't know but it comes across like a soundscape with everything working off everything else. That one track does so much in terms of hearing how records can be made."

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Appetite for Destruction by Guns N' Roses
Appetite for Destruction by Guns N' Roses
1987 | Rock
7.8 (5 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Paradise City by Guns N' Roses

(0 Ratings)

Track

"The climax. The euphoria that comes from that intro. You know everything's going to be OK. You can feel they've gone through this hell, and they've arrived at this place that didn't really do them any good. They broke up, but it's a massively positive song, and it's absolutely fantastic. People say they didn't fulfil their potential - Keith Richards says bands don't stay together long enough - but really? They didn't have to. That one album is up there with Never Mind The Bollocks, with with any classic debut album. It's up there. Totally.""

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The Pandemic Plot (Ben Hope #23)
The Pandemic Plot (Ben Hope #23)
Scott Mariani | 2021 | Romance
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Quite timely but notuch action
Contains spoilers, click to show
I feel that the book was written specifically to hit publisher targets as it feels quite short and light on the action of normal Ben Hope books along with all the twists. It seemed a very quick book to get to the ending where they discuss how a pandemic could happen today and not just in the past, it's quite timely having a book about a pandemic with what's going on but not a classic Ben Hope book for sure. Hopefully the next one will be better!
  
A Thousand Acres
A Thousand Acres
Jane Smiley | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry
5.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"I just love this book. When I was halfway through it—right around when one of the three daughters tries to talk to her father and he goes out into a storm—I was like, “Oh my God, this is King Lear.” I was so impressed with how Smiley was able to take such a classic tale and put it in rural 20th-century Iowa. It’s beautiful, it’s crushing, it’s everything King Lear is—and it’s effortless. I was blown away by the imagination, intellect and talent it must have taken to do that."

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Cinderella (2015)
Cinderella (2015)
2015 | Family, Romance, Sci-Fi
8
7.9 (37 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Cast (2 more)
Acting
Special effects
Occasional weak acting (0 more)
You shall go to the reviewed list.
Wasn't sure I'd actually seen it but was roped into watching it and turns out I had...

A live action adaptation of another disney classic that seemingly went unnoticed probably due to lack of advertising.

Unlike more recently released L.I.A's, 2015's Cinderella was kept closer to the original story and was both fun & rather well grounded with with it's emotional input.

Although there have been many other versions of the Disney tale, this is personally the best to date.
  
The Great British Bake Off
The Great British Bake Off
2010 | Documentary, Drama, Family, Reality-TV
All the things (0 more)
Nothing (0 more)
Your dead inside of you don't love GBBO
How do you not live this show!? It's everything you need in a baking show. The fun of a competition without the nastiness of your typical American based shows. They're pleasant and kind while still acknowledging shortcomings in the baked goods. The outtakes happen in real-time and hilarity is classic British style perfection. And the food... beautifully delicious creations that I dream of trying. If only I was a stronger baker. Watch this show... you won't regret it.
  
In Bruges (2008)
In Bruges (2008)
2008 | Comedy, Drama
Absurdly hilarious comedy of errors taking place in the wonderful city of Bruges.
Pairing up Gleeson and Farrell was a winning formula that provides hilarity in the most unexpected of places and the timing between the two is quite a thing of beauty.
Farrell manages to play his character with touch of innocent boyhood naivety mixed with violent tendencies, do not be mistaken these characters are totally nasty and psychotic and are fleshed out and believable.
It's a cult classic with outstanding performances with special mention to Fiennes for his overly psychotic turn.
  
War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
2017 | Action, Sci-Fi
The last of the current trilogy and arguably the best.
It riffs upon established POTA tropes such as a believable reason for the loss of speech in humans and also the subtle introduction of Nova.
Effects are beautiful and animation of the apes with Andy Serkis continues to amaze with his performance.
it's a thought provoking story based upon a great escape/Prisoner of war type plot with a prison guard played by a very on form Woody Harrelson.
A fitting end to a better interpretation of Pierre Boulle's classic