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ClareR (5879 KP) rated Lightseekers in Books

Feb 23, 2021  
Lightseekers
Lightseekers
Femi Kayode | 2021 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Lightseekers is a fantastic thriller set in Nigeria. I love books set in other countries (i.e. set outside the UK), in the hope that I’ll learn something about the people and the culture - and I think that was exactly the case for both me and the main character, Philip Taiwo in this book. He has lived in the US for long enough to forget how things are done in his home country of Nigeria, and for long enough to be considered an outsider. Luckily for Philip, he has a competent helper in Chika - a man employed as his driver who is clearly much more than just that. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding Chika’s capabilities, and he certainly has a way with people that Philip needs to talk to. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes not so much.
This isn’t a straightforward, easy investigation. There’s corruption at every turn, and the mob mentality and fear of being caught on the wrong side of that, radiates off the page. It was pretty difficult at times to work out who was on the side of ‘good’ and who wasn’t - the lines were so blurred. It was pretty obvious that social media in this case contributed negatively to what had happened, and how easily its users were manipulated - I’ve been seeing this a lot in books recently, and as a user of Social Media, I can see where these authors are coming from!
I really enjoyed reading this on The Pigeonhole, and I think Femi Kayode is going to be an author to look out for if this book is anything to go by. Thanks Pigeonhole for serialising this, and Femi for joining in the chat in the margins!
  
The Hacienda Classics by  Various Artists
The Hacienda Classics by Various Artists
2006 | Compilation, House
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"When Oasis first started, very early on we used to cover ‘Feel The Groove’ by Cartouche. There’s a tape of that live gig knocking about somewhere. I was the dance music head in the group. I was into indie music like everyone else, New Order, The Smiths and then one night in 1987 someone took me to the Hacienda because I’d been reading about this music and I just stood there, drinking Colt 45, thinking 'Well, this is shit…' But then someone else took me the week after and said, 'Have one of these.' And put a little pill in my hand. And within an hour I thought that this music was the greatest thing that I’d ever heard in my entire fucking life. It was a life changing experience. The thing about the Hacienda was it was a superclub before superclubs existed. Acid house only lasted two years and that was it at its best. If you go to a club now you might as well be listening to the same song all night. Back then they played everything, hip hop, electro, acid house, techno and it was all mashed up. It was on your doorstep and full of people who were skint. It was only two quid to get in, they sold Rizla behind the bar so you could skin up and acid and Es were just entering the cultural stream. They were the best years of my life and probably every other day since I’ve thought, 'I wonder what those tunes were called?' Then I heard this album was coming out, I put it on at home and I was instantly transported back into that nightclub. And I thank the people who put this album out. It reminds me of great days when I was young and enjoying life to the full."

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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2346 KP) rated A Time to Swill in Books

Jul 28, 2021 (Updated Jul 28, 2021)  
A Time to Swill
A Time to Swill
Sherry Harris | 2021 | Mystery
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Chloe Gets Swept into a New Mystery
Chloe Jackson has just returned from packing up her life in Chicago and saying her goodbyes to move full time to her new home in Florida. Her first morning back, she is running on the beach near her new home when she sees a ship that has beached itself. Hearing a cry on board, she climbs on board only to get swept out to sea. Before she is rescued, she’s found a skeleton that reopens a disappearance from twelve years ago. With some of her new friends under investigation, she is determined to find out what happened all those years ago and why it is coming to light now. What will she uncover?

The plot teaser just covers a few of the questions the book quickly gives us, and I had a very hard time putting the book down. In fact, I used a lazy Saturday to finish it faster than I originally planned. Meanwhile, there’s a strong sub-plot, not that we need any more reason to be addicted. Everything is resolved satisfactorily by the time we reach the end. Since Chloe doesn’t know her new friends super well yet, this book gives her, and us, a chance to learn more about them, and I love the character development. I might not normally pick up a book set in a bar, but I definitely enjoyed this one, especially the location – right on the beach. That setting may make this the ultimate beach read. Whether you pick up this book while on the beach or not, allow plenty of time to get lost in a great mystery when you pick up this book.
  
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Kazu Kibuishi recommended Ikiru (1952) in Movies (curated)

 
Ikiru (1952)
Ikiru (1952)
1952 | Drama
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I’m going to end this list with a request that you also seek out Kurosawa’s Dreams after you see this movie. Dreams is my absolute favorite film of all time, and when you bookend it with Ikiru, the experience is quite amazing. Ikiru is the story of a long-tenured public servant who discovers he only has a year to live. He makes a last-ditch effort to bring meaning to his existence by working tirelessly to build a children’s playground. It is the work of an artist feeling he has not done enough substantive work in his life—a romanticized notion that our daily routine is often meaningless save for a few charitable acts. It is our fears as a young mind. Over the years, Kurosawa would endure a tumultuous career that nearly ended in an act of attempted suicide. Now consider Dreams, a film coproduced by Steven Spielberg and featuring Martin Scorsese in a cameo as Vincent Van Gogh. These filmmakers, along with George Lucas, would rally behind Kurosawa in the ’80s and help him make a comeback with Kagemusha and Ran (both on Criterion), winning him a Palme d’Or and an Academy Award nomination while also bringing back to light his incomparable portfolio of works (Lucas would very often recount how The Hidden Fortress was the narrative inspiration for Star Wars). Dreams, to me, feels a bit like a representation of the playground that Kurosawa built through his works, and the children he inspired coming out to thank him for it. I can watch this movie again and again forever. Criterion has an amazing collection of twenty-five films by Kurosawa. I cannot recommend watching his entire body of work highly enough, as it is perhaps the best documentation of a commercial artist in the modern age."

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A Whisker of a Doubt
A Whisker of a Doubt
Cate Conte | 2020 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Fights over Feral Cats Lead to Murder at Christmas
Maddie James and her friend Katrina have learned about a colony of feral cats near one of the richest neighborhoods on Daybreak Island, so they are working to take care of it. However, the neighbors are resistant to their efforts, going out of their way to be a pain. Just a couple of days before Christmas, Maddie finds the body of one of them, Virgil Proust, outside his house. Virgil and his wife were some of the loudest people fighting against the cats and Maddie’s efforts to feed them. When the police focus on Katrina as their prime suspect, Maddie knows it is up to her to find the truth. Can she do it?

I’ve been waiting impatiently for this book due to the cliffhanger the previous book left us with. I was thrilled to get back to Maddie and find out what happened there. Even if you haven’t read the books that came before this one, you’ll still be able to jump in here and follow along. I will say that Maddie’s attitude in this sub-plot bothered me a bit at times, although I always understood where she was coming from. The main mystery is good with a few nice surprises on our way to the solution. The suspects could have been stronger, and I struggled at times to remember all of their relationships, but I was still invested in the story. The regular characters are strong and charming, as are the cats at the cat café where Maddie works. The Christmas setting adds an extra level of cozy. Fans new and old will enjoy this festive entry in the series.