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Kid presidents: True Tales of Childhood from America's Presidents by David Stabler is a book of just that American presidents when they were kids. The book is an excellent source of information about the childhood lives of many American presidents. The book is presents in a way that gets children today interested in history.

The information is presented in a humorous and engaging way. By presenting information this way children will realize that they do not have to be perfect or great at everything they do; they just need to have motivation, interest, and the will to succeed in order to be successful. By reading this book children will learn that they to can have a positive impact on the world they live in.

This story shows that the American Presidents were normal children. Some were outdoorsy. Some were bratty. Some were brainy. Some were a complete mix. I loved the illustrations of the presidents. The illustrations really enhanced the book. The childhood biographies and fun facts helped to make the book interesting for children and adults.

This book could easily be used by parents and teachers to help children become interested in history and to learn about the popular and not so popular American Presidents.

I highly recommend this book. I give this book a 5/5 stars.

I received this book from Quirk Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
  
A Soldier's Sketchbook: The Illustrated First World War Diary of R.H. Rabjohn by John Wilson is a fascinating glimpse into the actual sketchbook/diary of a soldier who served in World War I. It follows Russell Rabjohn from 1916 to 1919 during his time in World War I. Russell was a trained artist, so his superiors directed him to make technical drawings and maps. Constantly having pen and paper available enabled Russell to freely sketch his experiences on the frontlines. The drawings are a unique peek into the past.

The selected diary entries are interspersed with clearly marked context. The black-and-white pencil drawings are impressive and the sketches that show the horrors of war are respectfully rendered. What impacted me most in the beginning was the innocence of the young man from Toronto going out into the world for the first time.

I appreciated this chance to get to know a little more about World War I from the life of a Canadian soldier. It was a pleasure to get to know Private Rabjohn. I am grateful to him for his commitment to documentation. Historian and author John Wilson did a great job providing context and compiling the information into an engaging and beautifully formatted book. This book can be appreciated by older children and adults.

I received an advanced readers copy from Penguin Random House Canada and Tundra Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) in Movies

Jun 6, 2018 (Updated Jun 7, 2018)  
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
1979 | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Star Trek: the Motion Picture - more gruelling to make, or to watch? We may never know the answer. Actually, viewed these days, it's not quite that bad - Enterprise crew reconvene after big cloud is sighted on a course for Earth. Many conversations ensue, intercut with stately special effects sequences which feel like they go on forever. Mainly because they do.

To be honest, if you stop thinking about TMP as a movie and view it instead as the most lavish TV pilot in history, many of its problems are a bit more understandable. It explains why the crew take ages getting back together, and why they don't really seem like their old selves until near the end. It explains why much time is devoted to introducing new characters (even if they don't, in the end, make it out of the movie alive - although Will and Ilia were sort of reincarnated as Will and Deanna some years later). It doesn't really explain why the plot is so derivative of TV Trek, but you can't have everything I suppose.

It is true you can get a very good sense of the history of Star Trek without ever watching this movie, and also that the first three minutes may actually be the most engaging bit of it. But if you're watching it at all, you'll most likely have enough affection for the original characters to overlook the numerous flaws in the film.
  
As Dust Dances
As Dust Dances
Samantha Young | 2018 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Characters (2 more)
Plot
Steamy
Absolutely Magical
If I could rate this book with infinite stars I would. Samantha Young is definitely my favorite romance author. Her books capture you in a way that too many authors fail to do. As Dust Dances was simply breathtaking. The plot captured me from the moment I picked it up. I never wanted it to end.

Samantha Young captured the magic from her On Dublin Street books and made something so beautiful I'm going to experience a book hangover from. The characters were well written, and realistic. I loved the chemistry between each character & I loved them for their heartaches, imperfections, and their story.

The Plot, like the characters, was engaging. It has been way too long since I picked up a book that grabbed me so forcefully I couldn't focus on anything else. The plot was a unique twist to a rockstar romance and I loved every second I spent reading it. Honestly, I'm so upset that this book is over. I'm actually tempted to reread it right now to experience it again.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. With that said, I bought this book because it is just so beautiful I knew I had to own it. It's seriously one of my favorite books that I have read. It's beautiful, heart wrenching, and touching. This has the magical feeling that Samantha Young has created with all of her books.
  
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Lexi (8 KP) rated Red Queen in Books

Aug 14, 2018  
Red Queen
Red Queen
Victoria Aveyard | 2015 | Young Adult (YA)
7
8.0 (64 Ratings)
Book Rating
Strong female character (2 more)
Engaging story
Plot twists a plenty
Characters aren't fully developed (1 more)
World isn't fully explored/explained
The story follows the main character of Mare. A girl brought up in poverty where, in her society, she is considered lesser because of her red blood. The elite members of society have silver blood and a range of special abilities which are introduced throughout the book.
Through a series of events Mare ends up living in the Palace with the silver bloods working as an accomplice and spy with the newly formed Scarlet Guard (or the resistance to you and me).
The book sucked me in after a clichéd start to the novel (a fact which is openly mentioned on the front cover of the novel). Once it gets past the sections of the story you swear you've heard before, the plot twists and unexpected elements of the novel come out to play.
There's special powers, secret plots, war, love triangles. Everything you need to make a really exciting read.
My bug bear with this series was the lack of depth. I wanted to know more about the characters and their motivations, I wanted to know more about the world. I felt like too many big (and interesting) concepts were only mentioned in passing rather than given the attention they deserved.
Overall, I did really enjoy this story and I feel compelled to read the other novels in the series but it isn't a favourite.
  
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HLD (99 KP) rated The Alienist - Season 1 in TV

Aug 22, 2018 (Updated Aug 22, 2018)  
The Alienist  - Season 1
The Alienist - Season 1
2018 | Drama
Superb scenery (2 more)
I imagine a close representation of the time period
Character development is slight in some of the main cast, but it is there
Dakota Fanning never smiles. Not once (1 more)
For all the terrible things that happen, I don't feel, as a viewer, the terrible people got what they deserved
Engaging and thrilling
Much like 'Hannibal', or 'Mindhunter', this show attempts to put our protagonist in the mind of the monster he is hunting. Although it takes him a while to realise that is indeed what he is doing.

This is in interesting idea for a show. Before Psychology was a respected field of medicine, you have alienists. Essentially doing the same job, but categorised differently.

Every character appears to have demons of their own. By the end of the season, they confront those demons simply by talking about them aloud to another person.

Also, was paedophilia as accepted 118 years ago as this show portrays? Is it merely an exaggeration of some historical accounts? Who knows, but it definitely created an unhealthy dynamic within society.
Everyone cares so much about the murders of these young men, but nobody cares about the children living on the streets. Or the people having sex with them.

The filming of the show does out-perform some of the acting, but the scenery added to the storylines that occur are sure to keep you entertained until episode ten.
  
Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1)
Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1)
Leigh Bardugo | 2012 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
So I've taken the past week to read the whole trilogy, which I now see as a mistake since the books seem to blend together for me now. I can happily say, however, that Leigh Bardugo's writing lives up to the praise people give her - and this series is certainly going to stay with me for a long time, not including when it'll be refreshed as I re-read it.
As cliched as it sounds, I couldn't put the book down, and the moment I finished one I had to move on to the next. Bardugo has a way with her writing that keeps you hooked, and I would be lying if I didn't admit that I had to put the book down on multiple occasions to sit in what I just read. The action is well-written, characters are relatable and engaging, and tension is built well with the occasional piece of humour to lift us from our stump.
I like to keep my reviews spoiler-free, so I'm struggling to find a way to explain how much I appreciate this book and entire trilogy without going in depth on the plot and character development. If you're reading this to see if you want to read the series, I would say you should jump on it. I went in almost entirely blind, simply hearing good things about Bardugo, and it was an amazing experience from start to finish.
  
Deadpool 2 (2018)
Deadpool 2 (2018)
2018 | Action, Comedy
Deadpool 2 sits firmly and comfortably somewhere between 'good' and 'average'.
The main problem is that it's not as funny as it thinks it is. The first 30 minutes or so just seem like a constant barrage of recycled jokes from the superior first film, and a lot of the jokes don't land that well.
That being said, there are some genuinely laugh out loud moments when the film eventually finds it feet, but it does feel like the writers just threw everything toward the audience to see what would stick.

Humour is only one element of Deadpool though.
The action exceeds the first film in every way, and the movie really shines in this aspect when Cable is introduced. Josh Brolins portrayal of the badass mutant from the future is pretty engaging. His serious nature gels fantastically with Ryan Reynolds quippy Deadpool.
It's nice to see Domino turn up for the ride as well. Everyone else is (quite literally) pretty disposable, but the inclusion of X-Force gives us a fantastic blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo.

The narrative leans towards a message of accepting people for who they are, which is a nice spin in a superhero blockbuster, and of course keeps the R rating good and present with some stupidly violent moments.

Overall, Deadpool 2 is a perfect example of more not always meaning better, but is still an enjoyable ride.
  
Throne of Fools (The Omaran Saga #2)
Throne of Fools (The Omaran Saga #2)
Adrian Cole | 1987 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The second book of the Omaran Saga, Throne of Fools, changes the tone a little from the first. Where that was fairly standard in structure of an obvious evil to overcome, this is more concerned with the political machinations of the island state of Goldenisle. Ottemar Remoon intends to take the throne but the corruption of the court is deep. The mysterious Orhung, who claims to have been created and carries a rod of enormous power, reveals that the darkness at the heart of Goldenisle may be a power beyond any reckoning.

To some extent this book does suffer from being a bridge between the rather self-contained first book and the rest of the Saga and so rates with me as the weakest of the series. But its still better than the strongest books of other series, helped by Cole's take on worlds and creatures, neatly sidestepping creations that might be construed as 'Tolkienesque'. And indeed the whole saga has a very much darker and more brooding tone than anything set in Middle Earth.

As a bridge between the first and subsequent books this works well, setting up the nature of the threat that must be tackled as well as cementing the characters, Wargallow, Ottermar and Sisipher in particular. The actual narrative is perhaps less engaging but perhaps should be viewed as the framework which holds together the necessary threads being woven for the end of the saga
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Two Popes (2019) in Movies

Dec 6, 2019 (Updated Dec 6, 2019)  
The Two Popes (2019)
The Two Popes (2019)
2019 | Biography, Comedy, Drama
'And it's in nomine patris from me...' '...et in spiritus sancti from him.' Slightly oddball true-life drama doesn't go quite as far as that, but is still much funnier and lighter than it sounds from the capsule synopsis - any film which sees the college of cardinals going into conclave while Dancing Queen plays on the soundtrack, and droll enough to show the two pontiffs watching the World Cup final together (Germany-Argentina, of course) obviously has something to say for itself.

The question is what that is. No doubt the decision to make the film a comedy-drama was partly inspired by concerns it could be offputtingly talky, but the talk works when it's delivered by two actors like Pryce and Hopkins, working with a very good script. The film is arguably biased in favour of Jorge Bergoglio, who is presented as warm, human, and compassionate; his life story is explored in much more detail than that of Joseph Ratzinger - but then again you could say the film does Ratzinger a big favour by largely ignoring the elephant in the room and his role in covering it up. Most of the film is very plausible, and it's only near the end that you begin to suspect how much of it is complete fiction. Still, it's engaging and plausible fiction, and - some distracting hand-held camerawork aside - mostly very well played and filmed.