Robot Programming: A Guide to Controlling Autonomous Robots
Cameron Hughes and Tracey Hughes
Book
Start programming robots NOW! Learn hands-on, through easy examples, visuals, and code This is a...
Abarat 2: Days of Magic, Nights of War
Book
A dazzling fantasy adventure for all ages, the second part of a quartet appearing at two yearly...
The Lonely Londoners
Samuel Selvon and Nasta Susheila
8.0
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Book
Both devastating and funny, The Lonely Londoners is an unforgettable account of immigrant experience...
Everyone is Watching
Book
'Beautiful, kaleidoscopic ...everyone should be watching Megan Bradbury from now on' Eimear McBride,...
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2464 KP) rated The Mountains Wild in Books
Jun 24, 2020
It’s been years since Sarah Stewart Taylor released a book, but I was thrilled to pick up something from her again. I’d forgotten just how atmospheric her writing is, but I was soon back under her spell. The pacing was off near the beginning since Maggie doesn’t have any jurisdiction in Ireland, but eventually she found a way into the case and we started getting the twists that lead us to the climax. The book takes place in 1993, the present, and even further in the past as Maggie and Erin are growing up. All of these time periods are easy to follow. They also allow us to see how characters have matured over the years, which I enjoyed. This is Maggie’s story, and I couldn’t help but feel for her as the book progressed and the story unfolded. The story also switches from past to present tense depending on which time period we are reading about. It took my brain a bit of time to adjust to this, but I did rather quickly. This is more serious than the cozies I often read, but if you keep that in mind, you’ll enjoy this book as well.
Goldeneye: Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica
Book
The top 10 Sunday Times Bestseller. "Completely fascinating, authoritative and intriguing." (William...
Manuka: The Biography of an Extraordinary Honey
Book
Not so long ago, in a small island nation in the South Pacific, beekeepers produced a most peculiar...
Permaculture for the Rest of Us: Abundant Living on Less Than an Acre
Book
Many of us want to increase our self-sufficiency, but few have access to the ideal five sunny,...
Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated The Unhoneymooners in Books
Jan 6, 2021
In this, Olive is chief bridesmaid at her sisters wedding. Ami has been a bit of a bridezilla but because of her love of competitions, everything has been free - more or less - at the wedding. Olive has been given a list of 50 things she has to check on the day of the wedding and one of them includes ordering a separate meal for herself (allergic to seafood) and the best man and her sworn enemy, Ethan, who has an aversion to buffet food. Turns out it's a good job she did as everyone falls ill after eating the seafood and she and Ethan end up going on the free honeymoon together. Once there, as they spend more time together, they realise that the other isn't as bad as they seem and they actually grow to like each other.
Hmm... I did like this but I wasn't fully into this. I didn't get butterflies reading of them falling in love. I wasn't sucked in to their love/hate relationship - it was a bit too tame for me in that regard. I think I snorted a handful of times at the things they said to each other or the situations they found themselves in while on the island of Maui but there's something I can't put my finger on. I was a little underwhelmed by the story.
One thing I was very gung ho about once the first little fibres started unravelling: Dane. There was just something about him. I'll let you figure out what when you read this.
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated A Creepshow Animated Special (2020) in Movies
Nov 15, 2020
It consists of two 20-ish minute shorts based on Survivor Type by Stephen King, and Twittering from the Circus of the Dead, by King's son Joe Hill.
The animation used is not much more than a motion comic, but it still manages to be quite striking, and gets the job done. I certainly managed to stay engaged in it.
The stories are exactly the type of material that one would come to expect from Creepshow. Short, sharp, to the point, usually with some sort of underlying message. Like Aesop's Fables but with more entrails.
Survivor Type was my favourite of the two, and focuses on one man's descent into madness when he's washed up on a desert island. Kiefer Sutherland lends his voice talents to this tale, and makes it sound like a proper campfire horror story. It's pretty grim in all honesty, but it's just the right kind of grim for a Halloween Special.
Twittering is the sillier of the two, focusing on a young girl Tweeting her experience of a family getaway. They end up at a circus which proves to be more deadly than originally thought. This one was a little more difficult to get on board with at the beginning. It starts off with a typical "social media is bad" kind of vibe, but when the horror starts, it flips nicely, and ends on an entertaining, and quite horrific note. It's all good stuff!
I've really taken to the Creepshow series, and although this special isn't quite up there with the same level of quality, it's still a fun 45 minute horror trip that's worth a visit.