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The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimaeus, #1)
The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimaeus, #1)
Jonathan Stroud | 2003 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.6 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well.

Have you ever read any Terry Pratchett? (incidentally, one of my favourite)

The author of this surely has; in particular putting me in mind somewhat of Eric.

This, however, is set in a (fictional) London, still on planet Earth, but where magic is real and practiced by the ruling (and not very pleasant) class of Magicians, who summon magical creatures to do their dirty work.

Which is where Bartimaeus comes in: a djinni summoned by the boy would-be Magician Nathaniel (aka John) and initially bound to do his will until he discovers his masters birth name.

The story is told roughly every 2 or 3 chapters about from the perspective of both Bartimaeus (in the first person, and with tons of footnotes) himself and from that of Nathaniel (third person, no footnotes), leading up to the final chapter which flits between the both of them in the one chapter alone.

The result, I found, was an enjoyable enough read (although you do want to smack one main character in particular around the head) - I may pick up parts 2 and 3 in the series, but would not be in any great rush to do so.
  
Just One Bite
Just One Bite
Jack Heath | 2019
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Timothy Blake is waiting on the side of the road for someone to drop of a package to him. While he is waiting he decides to take a short walk through the woods and he stumbles upon a body. Being the man that he is, he takes the body and goes home since the person never arrives. He puts the body in his freezer for another time. Then he gets a call from his friend Thistle who is also an FBI agent. She needs his helps to solve the case of a missing person. Blake knows where the missing person is, but if he tells her this, he will be charged for the murder, which he didn't do. So he helps the FBI for just as much reason to keep himself clean as to find out what happened to this guy. Will they find the real killer before the body is found in his freezer?

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is the first book I've read by Jack Heath. I'm very interested to find out what happened to Blake in the first book. I don't know if there will be more books in this series, but the way this one ended, there could be. I now have to go back and read book 1 which is called Hangman.

Just so you're not surprised if you decide to read this book, Timothy Blake is a cannibal. I didn't see that coming and I think I said out loud, "What the hell!" while I was reading and my family looked at me strange. So that is why he kept the body in the freezer, to have for dinner or a snack later.

One very interesting thing about this book is that there is a riddle at the beginning of each chapter. Some I was able to figure out, others not so much.

Here's one I couldn't figure out: What food has no beginning, end or middle?
  
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
1957 | Classics, Drama, War

"The Bridge on the River Kwai was one of those movies that my father and I watched for the first time, and he prefaced it by saying, “You’re probably not going to like this movie now, but you’re going to understand it later.” [laughs] And I remember watching it with that I mind — because I was young — and now I’m at the end of… You know, my dad is no longer with me, and I look at Alec Guinness’s character in it, and I now understand him. Where, at a point earlier in my life, I didn’t understand him — I was like, “Why is this guy building a bridge for the enemy? Why would a person get so obsessed with this just to try to keep order?” — I now understand it. It’s one of those movies that means a lot to me, because it was the first time that I think my father showed me that movies can actually speak to an ageless part of your soul. I remember the first time I saw Unforgiven, and I thought it was going to be like this big Western shoot-em-up, and I was like, “Man, I didn’t like that movie at all.” Then, I was at work the next day, and I thought, “I can’t stop thinking about that movie. Maybe I saw it wrong.” And now it’s one of the best movies ever. Bridge on the River Kwai was the first time I ever realized that."

Source
  
To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020)
To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020)
2020 | Comedy, Romance
8
7.4 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
For the most part, I really loved this film. I already loved the first one, I love the novels, so I had high hopes for this movie and almost all of them were made. Anyone who knows me knows how frustrated I get when I read a book and the corresponding show or movie just doesn't do it justice. I didn't feel like that with the first one and truthfully, I don't feel like that with this one. I am actually really happy with the way it turned out. I loved Jordan Fisher as John Ambrose McClaren and I have a special place in my heart for Noah Centineo. Of course, Lana Condor is amazing.

The ONLY thing I didn't like was the small changes in plot and character development. There are parts that, if you read the book, really push the characters and show who they are and what type of person they are the small changes I feel like take away from that. Maybe I'm too picky? I don't know.

Overall, I seriously loved this film. It's super cute and a great sequel to the first. I'm eager for the third installment and I HOPE it comes it before the end of the year!!