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ClareR (6256 KP) rated Send For Me in Books
Sep 7, 2021
Send For Me is an emotionally charged look at the lives of three generations of women: Klara, Annalise and Clare. Annalise is German, a Jew living in Feldenheim at a time when it was dangerous to be Jewish - whether you were a practicing Jew or not. After years of persecution, Annalise, her husband and her toddler daughter, manage to get permission to leave for the USA. But she has to leave her parents behind.
This was a different take on other books set at this time, and I liked that about it very much. I haven’t read many books about those who managed to escape the Nazi regime and immigrate to safe countries before the Holocaust really began. But it’s no less saddening for that. Annalise desperately misses her parents, and life is so utterly different in the US.
The story swaps between Annalise and her granddaughter, Clare, whose life couldn’t have been any more different. Clare has the much more liberated life of an American woman - whether that’s what she really wants, remains to be seen.
I really enjoyed seeing the juxtaposition between a 1930s immigrant and a modern young woman. Annalise’s fear of being in a big city with no English is palpable - I panicked along with her. It must be so scary to move somewhere that’s completely different to your own life experience, and not even have a common language - something that people have always had to endure for their own safety throughout the ages.
This is a really moving novel, made more so when I learnt that the letters between Annalise and her mother Klara were real - just that the names were changed.
This was a different take on other books set at this time, and I liked that about it very much. I haven’t read many books about those who managed to escape the Nazi regime and immigrate to safe countries before the Holocaust really began. But it’s no less saddening for that. Annalise desperately misses her parents, and life is so utterly different in the US.
The story swaps between Annalise and her granddaughter, Clare, whose life couldn’t have been any more different. Clare has the much more liberated life of an American woman - whether that’s what she really wants, remains to be seen.
I really enjoyed seeing the juxtaposition between a 1930s immigrant and a modern young woman. Annalise’s fear of being in a big city with no English is palpable - I panicked along with her. It must be so scary to move somewhere that’s completely different to your own life experience, and not even have a common language - something that people have always had to endure for their own safety throughout the ages.
This is a really moving novel, made more so when I learnt that the letters between Annalise and her mother Klara were real - just that the names were changed.
Femlandia was an enjoyable, if rather frustrating read. The end of civilisation doesn’t come from a killer virus, zombies or climate disaster, but instead is caused by a total economic collapse. The world (particularly the USA) goes broke. Food becomes prohibitively expensive, services are shut off, people are made homeless: it’s every man/ woman for themselves. Except, as is often the case in these circumstances, it’s the women and children who suffer the most.
Miranda Reynolds is left to fend for herself and her teenage daughter when her husband literally drives himself off a cliff. She realises her only safe space is with the mother she hasn’t spoken to in a very long time, and the community that she has set up: Femlandia. It’s her last resort.
Now, if I were Miranda, I wouldn’t have prevaricated for so long - I would have turned up on Femlandia’s doorstep pretty fast. This is regardless of the fact that it’s nothing like the safe haven it has always sold itself as.
As I’ve said, this frustrated and gripped me in equal measure. There are plenty of things in this, that as a feminist, made my toes curl. But let’s face it: who wants to read a dystopian novel where everything is lovely, there are no problems, and everyone lives happily ever after? That’s like NO dystopia I’ve ever read about!
This looks at human nature in all it’s glory and ignominy. It looks at some uncomfortable subjects: abuse, control and prejudice (especially misandry and anti-trans). But do you know what? I raced through this, it gave me a lot to think about, and I think it’s well worth a read.
Miranda Reynolds is left to fend for herself and her teenage daughter when her husband literally drives himself off a cliff. She realises her only safe space is with the mother she hasn’t spoken to in a very long time, and the community that she has set up: Femlandia. It’s her last resort.
Now, if I were Miranda, I wouldn’t have prevaricated for so long - I would have turned up on Femlandia’s doorstep pretty fast. This is regardless of the fact that it’s nothing like the safe haven it has always sold itself as.
As I’ve said, this frustrated and gripped me in equal measure. There are plenty of things in this, that as a feminist, made my toes curl. But let’s face it: who wants to read a dystopian novel where everything is lovely, there are no problems, and everyone lives happily ever after? That’s like NO dystopia I’ve ever read about!
This looks at human nature in all it’s glory and ignominy. It looks at some uncomfortable subjects: abuse, control and prejudice (especially misandry and anti-trans). But do you know what? I raced through this, it gave me a lot to think about, and I think it’s well worth a read.
David McK (3932 KP) rated Indiana jones and the dial of destiny (2023) in Movies
Jul 9, 2023 (Updated Aug 2, 2024)
Eels look like snakes? No they don't ...
Harrison Ford is over 80 now.
So fair play to him for returning to one of his most iconic roles, as Doctor Henry Jones Jr aka Indiana Jones, in what must surely by his swansong for that role.
And even more fair play for the film not making light of his age, but working it 'properly' into the plot (which has an absolute bonkers ending), with Jones - at one point - wondering aloud what he is even doing scaling a rock face at his age (and with mention made of the events of Temple of Doom in particular, at this point).
The whole prologue of the film - here, helmed by James Mangold instead of Spielberg - is set during the closing stages of World War II, and sees a CGI de-aged Ford battling Nazis in pursuit of a stolen relic, that leads him to the real McGuffin of the movie, the Dial of the title.
Jump forward to the late 60s, and Jones is retiring from academia when he is visited by the daughter of an old friend who wants his help in recovering said relic.
Initially hesitant - and following the breakup of his marriage to Marion, and, as we later discover, the fate of Mutt - Jones soon finds himself drawn back into the way of his old life.
For my money, this is better than Crystal Skull, with the the Dial as a McGuffin, 'suiting' Indiana Jones better than the sci-fi trappings of that earlier film, and with Phoebe Waller-Bridge a better foil than Shia LaBeouf.
Still not up there with the original trilogy, though.
So fair play to him for returning to one of his most iconic roles, as Doctor Henry Jones Jr aka Indiana Jones, in what must surely by his swansong for that role.
And even more fair play for the film not making light of his age, but working it 'properly' into the plot (which has an absolute bonkers ending), with Jones - at one point - wondering aloud what he is even doing scaling a rock face at his age (and with mention made of the events of Temple of Doom in particular, at this point).
The whole prologue of the film - here, helmed by James Mangold instead of Spielberg - is set during the closing stages of World War II, and sees a CGI de-aged Ford battling Nazis in pursuit of a stolen relic, that leads him to the real McGuffin of the movie, the Dial of the title.
Jump forward to the late 60s, and Jones is retiring from academia when he is visited by the daughter of an old friend who wants his help in recovering said relic.
Initially hesitant - and following the breakup of his marriage to Marion, and, as we later discover, the fate of Mutt - Jones soon finds himself drawn back into the way of his old life.
For my money, this is better than Crystal Skull, with the the Dial as a McGuffin, 'suiting' Indiana Jones better than the sci-fi trappings of that earlier film, and with Phoebe Waller-Bridge a better foil than Shia LaBeouf.
Still not up there with the original trilogy, though.
A Woman Scorned (Hartford Manor #5)
Book
1886 North Devon, England Lady Lilliana Grantley has been seriously ill with typhoid, a disease...
Historical Fiction Family Saga Victorian Historical Romance
Debbiereadsbook (1856 KP) rated Once Upon A Goth Dog Solstice in Books
Dec 13, 2024
It's cute and sweet and warm and fuzzies!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.
This is book 8 in the Once Upon A Holiday series, a multi author series joined ony by the Hook's Book Nook Travelling Library, which pops up in all the books. I have not read any of those, and they can all be read as stand alone books.
Luther is suffering after being medically discharged from the Marines, fostering his daughter and trying to make ends meet. Meeting Doug at the local craft market, and the pair embark on a tentative relationship, that sees Doug away from long periods. Can they make it work?
I liked this, a good deal.
It's sweet and cute, its warm and fuzzies and low angst. Not ever so explicit, but I didn't miss that. It's more about the budding relationship between these two, than the smex. I liked that it was low steam, to be honest.
I kinda didn't feel their connection at the beginning though. I felt they met, met again and then jumped into bed together. It just felt a little off, to ME, that's all. The connection DOES build, just that intial bit didn't quite work for me.
LOVED the way Luther introduces Mila and Doug, and how they all get along with Violet, Luther's sister. She has a story to tell, I'm sure! Oh and Oscar! Children and dogs for the win!
A good read, one that passed a very dull shift at work. One that made me smile.
4 stars
*same worded review will appear elsewhere
This is book 8 in the Once Upon A Holiday series, a multi author series joined ony by the Hook's Book Nook Travelling Library, which pops up in all the books. I have not read any of those, and they can all be read as stand alone books.
Luther is suffering after being medically discharged from the Marines, fostering his daughter and trying to make ends meet. Meeting Doug at the local craft market, and the pair embark on a tentative relationship, that sees Doug away from long periods. Can they make it work?
I liked this, a good deal.
It's sweet and cute, its warm and fuzzies and low angst. Not ever so explicit, but I didn't miss that. It's more about the budding relationship between these two, than the smex. I liked that it was low steam, to be honest.
I kinda didn't feel their connection at the beginning though. I felt they met, met again and then jumped into bed together. It just felt a little off, to ME, that's all. The connection DOES build, just that intial bit didn't quite work for me.
LOVED the way Luther introduces Mila and Doug, and how they all get along with Violet, Luther's sister. She has a story to tell, I'm sure! Oh and Oscar! Children and dogs for the win!
A good read, one that passed a very dull shift at work. One that made me smile.
4 stars
*same worded review will appear elsewhere
Merissa (14214 KP) rated Treasure and Tarot (Echoes of Secret Springs #1) in Books
Jun 24, 2025
TREASURE AND TAROT is the first book in the Echoes of Secret Springs series, and we begin with Sebastian and Colton. Sebastian is the omega who was left holding the baby, seemingly abandoned; Colton is the alpha who walked away, intending to return, but never did - and you find out why on both sides of the story!
This is a spin-off from Minerva Howe's Secret Springs series, which I haven't read. I get the feeling I might have enjoyed this book more if I had, but I was still able to read their story without too much trouble. My biggest problem was figuring out which town they were speaking about.
Colton and Sebastian's second-chance romance was a wonderful story, with plenty of ghostly action, romance, and cuteness to spare. Their daughter, Abby, wins everyone's hearts, and I loved the big group of supporting characters. I am stuck between a rock and a hard place over which one I want a story for first.
Just as an aside, for some reason, I thought Tarot might play a bigger part than it did. I'm not saying it's bad the way it is, just that I thought there'd be more. 😆
Anyway, I read this in one sitting and hope to return to this ghostly town, whatever it's called. Definitely recommended by me.
** 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; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Jun 23, 2025
This is a spin-off from Minerva Howe's Secret Springs series, which I haven't read. I get the feeling I might have enjoyed this book more if I had, but I was still able to read their story without too much trouble. My biggest problem was figuring out which town they were speaking about.
Colton and Sebastian's second-chance romance was a wonderful story, with plenty of ghostly action, romance, and cuteness to spare. Their daughter, Abby, wins everyone's hearts, and I loved the big group of supporting characters. I am stuck between a rock and a hard place over which one I want a story for first.
Just as an aside, for some reason, I thought Tarot might play a bigger part than it did. I'm not saying it's bad the way it is, just that I thought there'd be more. 😆
Anyway, I read this in one sitting and hope to return to this ghostly town, whatever it's called. Definitely recommended by me.
** 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; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Jun 23, 2025
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