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The Victory with No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army
Book
In 1791, General Arthur St. Clair led the United States army in a campaign to destroy a complex of...
A Guide to National Security: Threats, Responses and Strategies
Book
A Guide to National Security offers an analysis of the threats and policy responses facing the UK,...
TravelersWife4Life (31 KP) rated Embracing the Outcast (Crowns Legacy #2) in Books
Feb 23, 2021
This is the second time I have had the pleasure of reading a book by Nadine C. Keels. It is book two in her Crowns Legacy series titled Embracing the Outcast; it can be read as a standalone, although I still recommend reading the first book. After reading the first book in the series I was not quite sure what to expect of the second book (as just how many follow up books are as good as the first?). I had high hopes for this second book when I started reading and it ended up being so much more than I imagined it would be.
In this story, Nadine C. Keels has such a way with putting words to emotions and feelings that I’ve rarely seen, and she does it subtlety as you get sucked into the character’s lives. I Loved learning about something I was totally unfamiliar with, it was a good learning experience for me. Nadine covers it in a very no-nonsense way and tries to help her characters understand why God does this sometimes. Which I truly found interesting. My favorite quote I think gives a glimpse as to the depth of Nadine’s characters:
“Perhaps it is not given or preferable for everyone to see. They may not all notice or rightly recognize what’s in front of them, but beauty is experienced by those with the capacity to perceive and behold it. Those without the capacity or the will to behold beauty are the ones who miss out, and they’re the poorer for it.” -Pg. 115
Nadine C. Keels created characters that had such vivid emotions, and she covered some very difficult topics. Which in the end gave a beautifully written story about how everyone is special and is used by God for His glory. I give this story 5 out of 5 stars for the creativity and research put into making this such a well-crafted story, for the characters I could relate to, and for helping me see things from a different perspective. I highly recommend this book/series and I am so excited to see where Nadine C. Keels goes next with this series.
*I volunteered to read this book in return for my honest feedback. The thoughts and opinions expressed within are my own.
In this story, Nadine C. Keels has such a way with putting words to emotions and feelings that I’ve rarely seen, and she does it subtlety as you get sucked into the character’s lives. I Loved learning about something I was totally unfamiliar with, it was a good learning experience for me. Nadine covers it in a very no-nonsense way and tries to help her characters understand why God does this sometimes. Which I truly found interesting. My favorite quote I think gives a glimpse as to the depth of Nadine’s characters:
“Perhaps it is not given or preferable for everyone to see. They may not all notice or rightly recognize what’s in front of them, but beauty is experienced by those with the capacity to perceive and behold it. Those without the capacity or the will to behold beauty are the ones who miss out, and they’re the poorer for it.” -Pg. 115
Nadine C. Keels created characters that had such vivid emotions, and she covered some very difficult topics. Which in the end gave a beautifully written story about how everyone is special and is used by God for His glory. I give this story 5 out of 5 stars for the creativity and research put into making this such a well-crafted story, for the characters I could relate to, and for helping me see things from a different perspective. I highly recommend this book/series and I am so excited to see where Nadine C. Keels goes next with this series.
*I volunteered to read this book in return for my honest feedback. The thoughts and opinions expressed within are my own.
Becs (244 KP) rated Twilight (Twilight, #1) in Books
Oct 2, 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal, Fiction, Supernatural.
Type: Book one (1) of the Twilight Saga
Audience/ Reading Level: 14+
Interests: Vampires, Supernatural, Fantasy, Romance, Action.
Point of View: Third Person
Promise: A love story between a pair of star-crossed lovers whose forbidden relationship ripens against the backdrop of small-town suspicion and a mysterious coven of vampires.
Insights: I did a buddy read for a reread through of Twilight with a good friend of mine and boy, am I glad I reread it! I’ve always loved The Twilight Saga. But rereading it as an adult, really made me appreciate it a bit more. Yes, there were some grammatical errors that took away from the surrounding text and there were some parts that I found a bit of a bore. All in all, I fell in love with the love story between Edward and Bella again and really grew to appreciate the Cullen’s as a family.
I was surprised that I had quite a few different favorite parts that weren’t my favorite parts before. And I’m tremendously surprised that some of the parts that I loved when I first read Twilight, were actually still my favorite parts. It goes to show that a novel can be appreciated many years later, even though your opinions and tastes change.
Favorite Quotes: “I’d never given much thought to how I would die – though I’d had reason enough in the last few months – but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.”
“You don’t care if I’m a monster? If I’m not human?”
“About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him and I didn’t know how potent that part might be – that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.”
“He looks at you like… like you’re something to eat.”
“No coffins, no piled skulls in the corners; I don’t even think we have cobwebs… what a disappointment this must be for you.”
“Could you believe that, despite everything I’ve put you through, I love you, too?”
What will you gain?: A love story with a bite!
Aesthetics: I’ve always loved the simple and minimalistic cover on Twilight. The story was also a very easy read to get into and I enjoyed the love story (and action!) that took place throughout the novel.
“You are only human after all.”
Type: Book one (1) of the Twilight Saga
Audience/ Reading Level: 14+
Interests: Vampires, Supernatural, Fantasy, Romance, Action.
Point of View: Third Person
Promise: A love story between a pair of star-crossed lovers whose forbidden relationship ripens against the backdrop of small-town suspicion and a mysterious coven of vampires.
Insights: I did a buddy read for a reread through of Twilight with a good friend of mine and boy, am I glad I reread it! I’ve always loved The Twilight Saga. But rereading it as an adult, really made me appreciate it a bit more. Yes, there were some grammatical errors that took away from the surrounding text and there were some parts that I found a bit of a bore. All in all, I fell in love with the love story between Edward and Bella again and really grew to appreciate the Cullen’s as a family.
I was surprised that I had quite a few different favorite parts that weren’t my favorite parts before. And I’m tremendously surprised that some of the parts that I loved when I first read Twilight, were actually still my favorite parts. It goes to show that a novel can be appreciated many years later, even though your opinions and tastes change.
Favorite Quotes: “I’d never given much thought to how I would die – though I’d had reason enough in the last few months – but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.”
“You don’t care if I’m a monster? If I’m not human?”
“About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him and I didn’t know how potent that part might be – that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.”
“He looks at you like… like you’re something to eat.”
“No coffins, no piled skulls in the corners; I don’t even think we have cobwebs… what a disappointment this must be for you.”
“Could you believe that, despite everything I’ve put you through, I love you, too?”
What will you gain?: A love story with a bite!
Aesthetics: I’ve always loved the simple and minimalistic cover on Twilight. The story was also a very easy read to get into and I enjoyed the love story (and action!) that took place throughout the novel.
“You are only human after all.”
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Movie Metropolis (309 KP) rated The Iron Lady (2012) in Movies
Jun 10, 2019
Meryl Streep certainly has an impressive roster of films under her belt. She’s reduced Anne Hathaway to tears in The Devil Wears Prada, she’s played the role of struggling hotelier in the all singing, all dancing Mamma Mia and has racked up an astonishing 16 Oscar nominations for films like Kramer vs. Kramer and Sophie’s Choice. However, here, she perhaps takes on her biggest role to date portraying arguably the most controversial figure in British politics; Baroness Thatcher. Can she pull it off? Did you really need to ask?
Streep teams up with Mammia Mia director Phyllida Lloyd in the Iron Lady, a biopic surrounding the life of ex-Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and between the two of them and a wonderful supporting cast, deliver a stunning but disappointingly safe take on the 86 year olds life.
The film opens with a frail looking woman wandering the streets and buying a bottle of milk, we soon learn that this woman is of course, Baroness Thatcher. After a thought provoking moment of silence, the scene is switched to her current home where she is kept under lock and key, struggling with ever worsening dementia. Her constant conversations with dead husband Dennis, played fabulously by Jim Broadbent are emotional and form the basis of the entire film.
It is in these scenes that we begin to ‘study’ Thatcher’s life from her youth right up until the present day. We see her refusing to give up after failing to gain a seat in the 1950 and 1951 general elections as well as her first steps into Number 10 as the first ever female Prime Minister. Lloyd displays these moments with great finesse and integrates Streep’s portrayal with real footage of Thatcher walking into 10 Downing Street amongst other key moments.
Most of the major events in Margaret’s career are carried over into the film, bar a few notable exceptions. The Grand Hotel bombing, the Falklands war, the death of Thatcher’s personal assistant at the hands of the IRA and of course the controversial Poll Tax all make the grade but are explained in a way that isn’t damaging to the reputation of the Baroness and this is perhaps where the film loses its way a little.
There’ll be no prizes in telling you that Margaret Thatcher was either a fantastic woman who turned around the fates of a country struggling with recession or a woman who nearly destroyed everything we hold dear; depending obviously on your thoughts of her. No matter what thoughts we all have, opinions are opinions. Here, however, the film tries to make up the minds of those watching, rather than allowing an opinion to form on its own and this is perhaps the biggest problem with a political biopic, there is always a sense of bias.
Fortunately, Lloyd stays on the right side of mass appeal and doesn’t give in to mindless brown-nosing.
It is in the films present day moments that really shine. Seeing a woman who wanted to change the world struggle to cope with the loss of her husband and fall into dementia is, no matter what your opinion on the ex-Prime Minister, heart-breaking. It is here, that sympathy is found.
Streep’s performance is stunning to say the least and she is a joy to watch. Her transgression from young, enthusiastic Thatcher to the old and frail woman we see today is yes, in part down to the astonishing make-up given to her throughout but mainly because of her ability as an actress. She, like the lady herself takes charge of every scene she is a part of, something which many actresses struggle to do. Streep may have had her critics in being cast for this film, but she has proved them wrong. It will be a crime if she isn’t nominated for an Oscar this year.
Of the films other cast, Olivia Colman does well as Margaret’s daughter Carole and as mentioned previously, Jim Broadbent is brilliant as the deceased Dennis Thatcher; he fits the role perfectly and again should be nominated for an Oscar later this year. The supporting cast includes the likes of Anthony Head as Geoffrey Howe and Nicholas Farrell as Thatcher’s murdered assistant Airey Neave, but the scenes with these characters are often overshadowed by Streep’s presence.
The Iron Lady is a joy to behold. It makes you proud to be British, to know that we as a country can produce films of this calibre and it shows the world just what a woman Margaret Thatcher was. In the scenes showing Thatcher’s spiral into dementia is where it becomes most touching, but throughout, we get a full, if slightly biased view of her 11 and a half years in office and Meryl Streep does the old girl proud.
Think what you will of the former Conservative leader, but The Iron Lady is worth a watch for Streep’s performance alone.
https://moviemetropolis.net/2012/01/12/review-the-iron-lady-2011/
Streep teams up with Mammia Mia director Phyllida Lloyd in the Iron Lady, a biopic surrounding the life of ex-Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and between the two of them and a wonderful supporting cast, deliver a stunning but disappointingly safe take on the 86 year olds life.
The film opens with a frail looking woman wandering the streets and buying a bottle of milk, we soon learn that this woman is of course, Baroness Thatcher. After a thought provoking moment of silence, the scene is switched to her current home where she is kept under lock and key, struggling with ever worsening dementia. Her constant conversations with dead husband Dennis, played fabulously by Jim Broadbent are emotional and form the basis of the entire film.
It is in these scenes that we begin to ‘study’ Thatcher’s life from her youth right up until the present day. We see her refusing to give up after failing to gain a seat in the 1950 and 1951 general elections as well as her first steps into Number 10 as the first ever female Prime Minister. Lloyd displays these moments with great finesse and integrates Streep’s portrayal with real footage of Thatcher walking into 10 Downing Street amongst other key moments.
Most of the major events in Margaret’s career are carried over into the film, bar a few notable exceptions. The Grand Hotel bombing, the Falklands war, the death of Thatcher’s personal assistant at the hands of the IRA and of course the controversial Poll Tax all make the grade but are explained in a way that isn’t damaging to the reputation of the Baroness and this is perhaps where the film loses its way a little.
There’ll be no prizes in telling you that Margaret Thatcher was either a fantastic woman who turned around the fates of a country struggling with recession or a woman who nearly destroyed everything we hold dear; depending obviously on your thoughts of her. No matter what thoughts we all have, opinions are opinions. Here, however, the film tries to make up the minds of those watching, rather than allowing an opinion to form on its own and this is perhaps the biggest problem with a political biopic, there is always a sense of bias.
Fortunately, Lloyd stays on the right side of mass appeal and doesn’t give in to mindless brown-nosing.
It is in the films present day moments that really shine. Seeing a woman who wanted to change the world struggle to cope with the loss of her husband and fall into dementia is, no matter what your opinion on the ex-Prime Minister, heart-breaking. It is here, that sympathy is found.
Streep’s performance is stunning to say the least and she is a joy to watch. Her transgression from young, enthusiastic Thatcher to the old and frail woman we see today is yes, in part down to the astonishing make-up given to her throughout but mainly because of her ability as an actress. She, like the lady herself takes charge of every scene she is a part of, something which many actresses struggle to do. Streep may have had her critics in being cast for this film, but she has proved them wrong. It will be a crime if she isn’t nominated for an Oscar this year.
Of the films other cast, Olivia Colman does well as Margaret’s daughter Carole and as mentioned previously, Jim Broadbent is brilliant as the deceased Dennis Thatcher; he fits the role perfectly and again should be nominated for an Oscar later this year. The supporting cast includes the likes of Anthony Head as Geoffrey Howe and Nicholas Farrell as Thatcher’s murdered assistant Airey Neave, but the scenes with these characters are often overshadowed by Streep’s presence.
The Iron Lady is a joy to behold. It makes you proud to be British, to know that we as a country can produce films of this calibre and it shows the world just what a woman Margaret Thatcher was. In the scenes showing Thatcher’s spiral into dementia is where it becomes most touching, but throughout, we get a full, if slightly biased view of her 11 and a half years in office and Meryl Streep does the old girl proud.
Think what you will of the former Conservative leader, but The Iron Lady is worth a watch for Streep’s performance alone.
https://moviemetropolis.net/2012/01/12/review-the-iron-lady-2011/
Connor Sheffield (293 KP) rated Assassin's Creed: Forsaken in Books
May 15, 2017
The story of a Templar rather than the Assassin (3 more)
Set out like a journal, makes it intriguing
Good descriptive action
An insight to the history of the character
Some chapters are slow (1 more)
The journal format limits the experience to the view of only one character
Insight to a character we barely see
- MINOR SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED ASSASSINS CREED 3 -
The 5th book in the Oliver Bowden collection of Assassin's Creed novels, follows the life of Haytham Kenway, son of Pirate / Assassin, Edward Kenway and father of the Native American Assassin Connor Kenway, who you play as in the video game Assassin's Creed 3.
Haytham is a British Templar who is sent to America during the French and Indian and American Revolutionary Wars, to learn more about, and find an ancient cave that would help the Templar Order discover more about the first civilization, also known as 'Those who came before'. After centuries of the two factions, Assassins and Templar, fighting a never ending war in secret, over advanced technology known as the Pieces of Eden, created by the first civilization.
Though it is interesting to learn more about Haytham, since we only get to play a small part of his story in the video game, my only issue, though minor it may be, with the book is that the journal format limits our experience of the story to the view point of one man, and there are so many interesting characters within the plot that are sure to have their own interesting stories to be told, but sadly we are limited to one man's thoughts and opinions, and learn very little about other characters, besides their outspoken interactions with Haytham.
However this book is exciting and really does open up a whole new story within the franchise that we do not get to see. The descriptive writing ensures that the world that is described to us, is enough to clearly imagine, as the writer imagines it, in our minds, but enough for us to also have our own image of the areas, the surroundings and the sights, sounds and smells of such a place that our protagonist visits.
If you're a fan of the franchise then I highly recommend any of these novels to you, because they open up so much more to the characters and the stories that we do not get within the games. This is what makes the books such an exciting read, because we get to delve deep inside the minds of the characters, from start to finish.
The 5th book in the Oliver Bowden collection of Assassin's Creed novels, follows the life of Haytham Kenway, son of Pirate / Assassin, Edward Kenway and father of the Native American Assassin Connor Kenway, who you play as in the video game Assassin's Creed 3.
Haytham is a British Templar who is sent to America during the French and Indian and American Revolutionary Wars, to learn more about, and find an ancient cave that would help the Templar Order discover more about the first civilization, also known as 'Those who came before'. After centuries of the two factions, Assassins and Templar, fighting a never ending war in secret, over advanced technology known as the Pieces of Eden, created by the first civilization.
Though it is interesting to learn more about Haytham, since we only get to play a small part of his story in the video game, my only issue, though minor it may be, with the book is that the journal format limits our experience of the story to the view point of one man, and there are so many interesting characters within the plot that are sure to have their own interesting stories to be told, but sadly we are limited to one man's thoughts and opinions, and learn very little about other characters, besides their outspoken interactions with Haytham.
However this book is exciting and really does open up a whole new story within the franchise that we do not get to see. The descriptive writing ensures that the world that is described to us, is enough to clearly imagine, as the writer imagines it, in our minds, but enough for us to also have our own image of the areas, the surroundings and the sights, sounds and smells of such a place that our protagonist visits.
If you're a fan of the franchise then I highly recommend any of these novels to you, because they open up so much more to the characters and the stories that we do not get within the games. This is what makes the books such an exciting read, because we get to delve deep inside the minds of the characters, from start to finish.