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Julia (0 KP) is asking for a recommendation

May 2, 2018  
Recommend Me
Looking for some new leisure books - fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, horror/thriller, comedies, romance, anything really! Only thing I'm not interested in is... historical nonfiction.
     
TB
The Brittas Empire
1990 |
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
"I have a dream..."
1990s sitcom (so some of the humour is very much of its time) starring Chris Barrie as Gordon Brittas, the painfully enthusiastic manager of a leisure centre with a knack for running people up the wrong way!
  
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Kate (355 KP) rated The Wedding Date in Books

Feb 27, 2019  
TW
The Wedding Date
7
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Do do not get confused with the film with the same name although the storyline is basically the same. May have copied the idea after seeing the film. Going away on holiday or having a few lazy days then this is probably the book to fill the time, as the storyline is easy going, you can read at your leisure. Step above Mills and Boon - a romantic story with the typical happy ending.
  
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Comedy, News & Politics, Society & Culture
9
8.8 (4 Ratings)
Podcast Rating
Get informed and play games
This is one of the Talk Radio Shows that I dearly loved when I stopped listening to talk radio as much. Then, all of a sudden, there is this wonderful invention called a podcast. The Wait Wait podcast allows me to listen to the latest episode at my leisure and take it in with my wife normally while we eat supper.

The topics are a round up of the week's events. The celebrities are entertaining and the guests are always engaged and wonderful.

I will eventually get to see Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me Live - it is part of the bucket list.
  
The American Plate: a Culinary History in 100 Bites
The American Plate: a Culinary History in 100 Bites
Libby H. O'Connell | 2014 | Food & Drink
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book has its pros and cons. Pros include the ability to pick it up and down at leisure, as the information (or bites, if you will) is separated very easily for that purpose. It was a good book to take on vacation. One big con, for me, was some of the author's source material. She cited Wikipedia quite a few times; now, I'll admit, I will use Wikipedia sometimes for a starter, but any well-sourced article is going to have primary sources you can use to your advantage. That was a bit disappointing, that she chose low-hanging research fruit. The first half of the book is much stronger than the second half, as we approach the modern era. Sometimes it seemed that the author was reaching a little bit in later "bites." Still worth a look, overall.
  
The Last Mrs. Parrish
The Last Mrs. Parrish
Liv Constantine | 2017 | Thriller
9
9.6 (9 Ratings)
Book Rating
216 of 250
Kindle
The Last Mrs Parish ( Last Mrs Parish book 1)
By Liv Constantine

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

How far would you go to make all your dreams come true?

Amber Patterson is tired of being a nobody: an invisible woman who melts into the background. She deserves more. She deserves a life of wealth, luxury and leisure.

Daphne Parrish is the golden girl of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut. With her model looks, her picture-perfect mansion and her millionaire husband, Jackson, she has everything Amber wants.

Amber’s envy could eat her alive—if she didn’t have a plan. Before long, she has become Daphne’s closest friend, and is catching the eye of Jackson. But a skeleton from her past could destroy everything, and if discovered, Amber’s well-laid plan may end in disaster…

Bloody brilliant! Had me gripped from start to finish so many little twists and such a brilliant outcome. I’ve never read liv Constantine but will be reading a lot more of her!
Highly recommend!
  
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds
2019 | Drama, Sci-Fi
Contains spoilers, click to show
I was really excited for this series. I have read the book a number of times and it is one of my favourites. I thought at first they were keeping very true to the book, although I have no idea why the writers decided to add an unnecessary love triangle into the mix which has no bearing on the story whatsoever. The filming and effects we good, I was really impressed with the tripods. However, when we finally saw the martians I was disappointed with the way they were portrayed, I was expecting tentacles and these beings (that I might add were meant to be of higher intelligence and based on the tripods have good dexterity) seemed a bit weak and useless. The acting on the whole was good, although at times it seemed people were unaware that the martians were terrifying and just seemed to be taking a leisure walk away rather than the chaos and fear driven manic you would expect. This is better than most adaptation of H.G.Wells's classic. The final episode was weak and didn't follow the storyline which was highly disappointing.
  
The Leisure Seeker (2017)
The Leisure Seeker (2017)
2017 | Drama
2
5.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A runaway couple go on an unforgettable journey in the faithful old RV they call The Leisure Seeker.



Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland in a movie together... I wanted to love this one. I'm sad to say that I really didn't.

Having not seen a trailer I was completely blindsided by the actual subject matter. From the things I've seen, and the IMDb description above along with "Adventure, Comedy, Drama" under it's entry I was expecting something entirely different. Something funny, and more like a teen road movie, but with older people. But the tale of last chance before ill health wins, is bleak to say the least.

It's a strong and important message about life with, and after, illness. The two are essentially on the run from their ill health, Ella is terminal and John is nearly completely lost to his memories. You get the fleeting highs and lows that the couple do throughout, but they don't make up for the slow and "every day" nature of the movie.

This one was another on the "I'd have left but then I wouldn't have been able to bitch about it" list.
  
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2061 KP) rated Murder in the Piazza in Books

Sep 10, 2022 (Updated Sep 10, 2022)  
Murder in the Piazza
Murder in the Piazza
Jen Collins Moore | 2020 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Murder in Rome
Maggie White’s husband has been sent to Rome for two years for his job, and she’s gone along with him. After a few months of living the life of leisure, she has found a job working for Masterpiece Tours, a specialty tour company that offers painting lessons and tours of some of the museums and famous locations in the city. She’s barely started and she’s already fantasizing about ways to kill her boss, Lord Phillip, an English expat. However, she is shocked to find him shot in his office one evening. The police don’t seem that interested in figuring out what happened, so Maggie starts investigating. Can she figure out what is going on?

This was a good travel themed mystery. It brought Rome to life in such a way that I felt I was there with Maggie. Unfortunately, the pacing of the mystery was off early on, but I did appreciate how everything came together at the end. We met many of the characters in a group setting, but they became distinct people as the story progressed, so it wasn’t really an issue. If you are looking for a virtual visit to Rome with a side of murder, this is the book for you.
  
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Gruff Rhys recommended Now by Kim Jung-Mi in Music (curated)

 
Now by Kim Jung-Mi
Now by Kim Jung-Mi
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"When we were talking earlier about a record accidentally affecting a whole community of musicians in a particular town, this is a record which came out on the same South Korean label that reissued the Erkin Koray album. I don't understand the lyrics so I just enjoy the emotion. I think she's a really popular singer in Korea but I've no idea if the lyrics are mediocre or profound! But anyway, I was playing some records in the market in Cardiff with DJ Esther and Don Leisure - whose album Shaboo came out in 2018 and is really great, instrumental sampled hip-hop - and they were both playing this Kim Jun Mi album! I was like 'I know this one' and we had a chat about the album. Later that week, I was having a cup of tea outside a café and a fellow musician, Carwyn from Colorama, stopped to tell me he was walking through the market the other day - he was probably buying veg or something - and heard this track and started describing it to me and it was clearly Kim Jung-Mi. I like the idea of four people in a loose musical community just turned on randomly through geographical reasons by a record that might influence them. It's a community generating a unique cultural identity through chance happenings."

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