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Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
10.0
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From award-winning New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe, a stunning, intricate narrative...
My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots
7.0
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A long-overdue and dramatic reinterpretation of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots by one of the...
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated Twitter in Apps
Nov 3, 2017 (Updated Nov 3, 2017)
Vital for current affairs
Slightly biased as I sort of work with Twitter now, hence I use it minute-to-minute. The content is absolutely essential in modern-day media, from finding out initial pieces of information about an event and reading news, to even looking at statements from politicians - we can only guess who.
When I worked in a newsroom, it was my next port of call to speak to eyewitnesses, or find out something from a far off country, so I can't stress enough how important it is for work. We were able to speak to Ukrainian activists on the ground when the conflict began in 2014 thanks to Twitter.
App-wise, it works relatively fine - the new updates can be problematic as I can't copy the writing and some of the alerts do not get pushed through. I now use Twitter Lite as it takes up less memory space on my phone - it's pretty much the same, but it uses Chrome instead.
When I worked in a newsroom, it was my next port of call to speak to eyewitnesses, or find out something from a far off country, so I can't stress enough how important it is for work. We were able to speak to Ukrainian activists on the ground when the conflict began in 2014 thanks to Twitter.
App-wise, it works relatively fine - the new updates can be problematic as I can't copy the writing and some of the alerts do not get pushed through. I now use Twitter Lite as it takes up less memory space on my phone - it's pretty much the same, but it uses Chrome instead.
Carol (3 KP) rated Christmas Bliss in Books
Jan 10, 2018
Christmas Bliss was the last of my Christmas reads for the year. I have read two others in the series and really like Weezie and BeBe. This time around, Weezie’s getting ready to marry her chef boyfriend, Daniel, but he’s off in New York on a temporary gig at a very swanky restaurant. BeBe’s pregnant and refuses to marry her live-in boyfriend Harry, but she also might still be married to one of her exes. It’s complicated.
It’s a sweet story. There’s not much conflict and the couple of “issues” that crop up are quickly resolved. Weezie and BeBe are great characters, fun, quirky, but I don’t know that this would work as well as a stand-alone. It was nice to already know them and appreciate that they were getting their “happily ever afters.”
It’s a sweet story. There’s not much conflict and the couple of “issues” that crop up are quickly resolved. Weezie and BeBe are great characters, fun, quirky, but I don’t know that this would work as well as a stand-alone. It was nice to already know them and appreciate that they were getting their “happily ever afters.”
ArecRain (8 KP) rated Lust is the Thorn in Books
Jan 18, 2018
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
This is the second novel I have read from this author and I am not sure if I like her or not yet. Both stories feature tormented men with troubled past and the women who love them. I love a good romance about a man falling in love with his best friends sister, but there seemed to be a lot lacking from this novel. I felt that the only conflict was the characters own hang ups.
I did, however, enjoy the bad girl, good boy dynamic. I am so used to the man being the bad one that it was refreshing. Not to mention he was genuinely a good guy. I felt like they deserved each other and helped each other heal.
However, I didnt particularly care for the story line. There was nothing wrong with it or the authors writing. I just didnt care about the characters or their story.
This is the second novel I have read from this author and I am not sure if I like her or not yet. Both stories feature tormented men with troubled past and the women who love them. I love a good romance about a man falling in love with his best friends sister, but there seemed to be a lot lacking from this novel. I felt that the only conflict was the characters own hang ups.
I did, however, enjoy the bad girl, good boy dynamic. I am so used to the man being the bad one that it was refreshing. Not to mention he was genuinely a good guy. I felt like they deserved each other and helped each other heal.
However, I didnt particularly care for the story line. There was nothing wrong with it or the authors writing. I just didnt care about the characters or their story.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Prisoner in TV
Mar 5, 2018
Famously cryptic cult TV show still has things to offer anyone willing to enter its peculiar world. Title character (McGoohan) is whisked off to a very strange prison; subsequent episodes revolve around either his attempts to escape, or the Village masters' schemes to force him to reveal his secrets (things get progressively more outlandishly weird as the series progresses).
Visually striking; the plots represent a weird mashing together of typical ITC action-adventure tropes and something altogether more avant-garde and cerebral: typical episode contains both existential pondering of the nature of society and/or the individual self and at least one punch-up. No-one seems entirely sure what it's all supposed to mean - is it about the conflict between the individual and the collective? The divided self? Patrick McGoohan's frustration at the state of his career? Nevertheless, the show's reputation is deserved - the weaker episodes are simply peculiar, the best ones absolutely mesmerising.
Visually striking; the plots represent a weird mashing together of typical ITC action-adventure tropes and something altogether more avant-garde and cerebral: typical episode contains both existential pondering of the nature of society and/or the individual self and at least one punch-up. No-one seems entirely sure what it's all supposed to mean - is it about the conflict between the individual and the collective? The divided self? Patrick McGoohan's frustration at the state of his career? Nevertheless, the show's reputation is deserved - the weaker episodes are simply peculiar, the best ones absolutely mesmerising.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2204 KP) rated Twelve Angry Librarians (Cat in the Stacks, #8) in Books
Mar 9, 2018
Athena College is playing host to the Southern Academic Libraries Association convention and Charlie Harris’s old grad school classmate Gavin Fong is giving the keynote address. Charlie doesn’t have fond memories of Gavin, and an encounter opening night proves that Gavin is still as arrogant as ever. But when Gavin collapses and dies in the middle of his speech, Charlie is surprised. Yes, Gavin was a jerk, but who hated him enough to kill him?
As always, this is a strong mystery, with conflict and tension set up from the very first chapter. We have several strong motives and suspects before Gavin dies, and we get some nice twists before the logical solution. The suspects are all believable, and the returning characters continue to be strong. Charlie’s cat Diesel charms like always as well.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2017/02/book-review-twelve-angry-librarians-by.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
As always, this is a strong mystery, with conflict and tension set up from the very first chapter. We have several strong motives and suspects before Gavin dies, and we get some nice twists before the logical solution. The suspects are all believable, and the returning characters continue to be strong. Charlie’s cat Diesel charms like always as well.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2017/02/book-review-twelve-angry-librarians-by.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) in Movies
Mar 14, 2018 (Updated Mar 15, 2018)
Lavish juggernaut follow-up to 1984 original is essentially the James Cameron school of sequel-making incarnate: all the stuff from the first film, only busier, bigger, and louder. Two more time-travelling killers appear in the present day intent on eliminating future-saviour John Connor; lots of stuff blows up.
An extremely accomplished film, in technical terms at least, but once you get past all the pyrotechnic highs and gosh-wow CGI (which was admittedly game-changing 27 years ago), it's basically the same story told rather less effectively from a narrative point of view - man vs machine is a more effective conflict than machine vs slightly more advanced machine, which is what we have here, and the whole subplot forming the basis of the second half only undermines the atmosphere of inevitable doom that was so important to the success of the original film. Bigger than Terminator, but by no means better - builds off the first movie, but adds nothing to it.
An extremely accomplished film, in technical terms at least, but once you get past all the pyrotechnic highs and gosh-wow CGI (which was admittedly game-changing 27 years ago), it's basically the same story told rather less effectively from a narrative point of view - man vs machine is a more effective conflict than machine vs slightly more advanced machine, which is what we have here, and the whole subplot forming the basis of the second half only undermines the atmosphere of inevitable doom that was so important to the success of the original film. Bigger than Terminator, but by no means better - builds off the first movie, but adds nothing to it.
Loz Hughes (80 KP) rated Transcendence (2014) in Movies
Jul 20, 2018
Johnny Depp as a scientist pushing the boundaries of Ai. (1 more)
The concept of uploading a digital version of your brain
Interesting concept.
Contains spoilers, click to show
The plot is an interesting concept. Basically a scientist successfully manages to upload the brain of a Monkey in digital format and presents these findings to the scientific community, he comes into conflict with a group of Anti technology, animal activists and gets shot and slowly poisoned as the bullet is laced with a radioactive material. The film then follows Will (the scientist), and his partner, who struggling with his premature imminent death decides to upload his brain as the first human trail. Afterwards comes the questions of how much meddling is too much meddling in human evolution.
I think they could have done much more with the film than they did but overall it was a decent watch.
I think they could have done much more with the film than they did but overall it was a decent watch.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Mary Queen of Scots (2018) in Movies
Jan 23, 2019 (Updated Jan 23, 2019)
There's Something About Mary
Yet another crack at the famous life-story of Mary Stuart. It's all a bit complicated and has to do with religious conflict and dynastic succession; if I understood it better I could probably get higher scores on Crusader Kings 2. This is a period of history that everyone sort-of knows a bit about without really understanding the details, and it would have been great if the film had really got to the heart of the politics and personalities involved, but instead the director seems more interested in giving the story more of a modern resonance than it really requires.
Still, good frocks, and many incidental pleasures to be found, especially amongst the supporting performances. Saoirse Ronan doesn't quite dominate the film as you might imagine; Margot Robbie is at least as impressive in a rather smaller part. In the end it's kind of okay if you just like costume dramas, but it doesn't really bring the story to life.
Still, good frocks, and many incidental pleasures to be found, especially amongst the supporting performances. Saoirse Ronan doesn't quite dominate the film as you might imagine; Margot Robbie is at least as impressive in a rather smaller part. In the end it's kind of okay if you just like costume dramas, but it doesn't really bring the story to life.