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Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated Invitation to a Bonfire in Books
Apr 9, 2019
Zoya is an orphan from Moscow who is now living in the United States. She is a student at the Donne School, but she has no family. So when school is over, what will her life become? When her favorite author becomes a teacher at the school, Zoya's life changes dramatically. They start an affair even though Zoya knows his wife from childhood. Strange twists happen toward the end, that I didn't suspect. The story is told from Zoya's journal entries during her life.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This book started off really slowly for me. I really didn't get much out of it at the beginning. The last 30% of the book, though really had me on the edge of my seat and ready to find out what this girl is all about. Zoya is really kind of a boring character. She goes to class and makes very few friends. When she graduates, she has no family to return home to, so she stays on at the Donne School and works in the greenhouse. There she encounters many students and few faculty members. The students constantly harass her and the faculty basically ignores her. All of that changes when she find out that, Lev Orlo is now a professor. She has been pining for this man through his books for years. Now that he is here, she can't tear herself away from him.
None of the characters were very likable in this book. Zoya is very boring, Lev is full of himself for no good reason, and his wife well she's a character we really don't get to know too well, but she is a strange bird.
3 stars for this one and the best part is at the end.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This book started off really slowly for me. I really didn't get much out of it at the beginning. The last 30% of the book, though really had me on the edge of my seat and ready to find out what this girl is all about. Zoya is really kind of a boring character. She goes to class and makes very few friends. When she graduates, she has no family to return home to, so she stays on at the Donne School and works in the greenhouse. There she encounters many students and few faculty members. The students constantly harass her and the faculty basically ignores her. All of that changes when she find out that, Lev Orlo is now a professor. She has been pining for this man through his books for years. Now that he is here, she can't tear herself away from him.
None of the characters were very likable in this book. Zoya is very boring, Lev is full of himself for no good reason, and his wife well she's a character we really don't get to know too well, but she is a strange bird.
3 stars for this one and the best part is at the end.
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Dirty Wings (Metamorphoses, #2) in Books
Feb 13, 2018
The second book in Sarah McCarry's Metamorphoses' trilogy, this novel actually goes back in time to introduce us to Cass and Maia - the mothers of the heroines from McCarry's first book, "All Our Pretty Songs." Maia is a lovely, but sheltered, teen - a piano prodigy living with her rigid, overprotective adoptive parents. Cass, meanwhile, is a tough kid living on the streets - she's used to taking care of herself and no one else. But when she meets Maia, everything changes.
I'll confess that I am somewhat continuing to read this trilogy as it checks off a requirement in a book challenge that I'm doing. But, McCarry's books are always very well-written and interesting, if not a bit strange. I actually enjoyed this one a bit more than the first. The story was a little more clear. Much like book one, I still maintain that I would enjoy these books more without the odd mystical influence hovering in the corners of the pages. In this novel, Maia and Cass eventually meet Jason, with whom Maia falls in love with, and with whom it seems that Minos (the shadowy man from the other world) is trying to lure away... or, as Cass fears, does he just want Maia?
It's all a bit confusing and such a strange side plot to a story of troubled teenagers falling in love and rebelling against the world - which would work just fine on its own. Oh well. I'm still hooked and will read the last book. McCarry has a beautiful voice and this book is very poetical, much like the first. The story flips between present and past in this one, which can be a bit confusing, but also makes the book fly by. It's a compelling read, if not one that will leave you a bit frustrated and wanting more.
I'll confess that I am somewhat continuing to read this trilogy as it checks off a requirement in a book challenge that I'm doing. But, McCarry's books are always very well-written and interesting, if not a bit strange. I actually enjoyed this one a bit more than the first. The story was a little more clear. Much like book one, I still maintain that I would enjoy these books more without the odd mystical influence hovering in the corners of the pages. In this novel, Maia and Cass eventually meet Jason, with whom Maia falls in love with, and with whom it seems that Minos (the shadowy man from the other world) is trying to lure away... or, as Cass fears, does he just want Maia?
It's all a bit confusing and such a strange side plot to a story of troubled teenagers falling in love and rebelling against the world - which would work just fine on its own. Oh well. I'm still hooked and will read the last book. McCarry has a beautiful voice and this book is very poetical, much like the first. The story flips between present and past in this one, which can be a bit confusing, but also makes the book fly by. It's a compelling read, if not one that will leave you a bit frustrated and wanting more.
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Seriously... I'm Kidding in Books
Jun 21, 2018
As part of Pride Month, I'm spotlighting books by or about GLBTQIA+ people. Ellen is one of the most prominent lesbians here in the US, between coming out on a sitcom, having her own daytime talk show, and her judging stint on American Idol. This is her third book, but the first one I've read. If the other two are like this one, I need to read them!
Seriously...I'm Kidding is a really funny book. It reads a little bit like an ADHD squirrel, but that's part of its charm. I read the print version, but this is one book I might have to get the audio version of, mostly because of the one chapter she wrote specifically for the audio version:
"Anyway, since you have the benefit of being able to hear this, I thought I would include some bonus material of me making strange noises. For those of you who are reading this the old-fashioned way and can't hear me, I've printed the noises below and I encourage you to use your imagination to think of what they might sound like coming out of my mouth.
Meeeeee
Faaaaaa
Cooooo
Gooooood Morning
Bowwwww
Babowwwww
Yelowwwww
(more strange noises listed)"
The book covers a lot of ground, from producing her show to judging on American Idol to coming out as lesbian to hosting dinner parties. It also varies wildly chapter to chapter, from brief short stories (less than a page) to haiku, to coloring book pages of odd things like toasters, to prose, wandering chapters that are an interesting look at Ellen's thought process.
I really enjoyed this book, and it's definitely worth reading because it's just FUN.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
Seriously...I'm Kidding is a really funny book. It reads a little bit like an ADHD squirrel, but that's part of its charm. I read the print version, but this is one book I might have to get the audio version of, mostly because of the one chapter she wrote specifically for the audio version:
"Anyway, since you have the benefit of being able to hear this, I thought I would include some bonus material of me making strange noises. For those of you who are reading this the old-fashioned way and can't hear me, I've printed the noises below and I encourage you to use your imagination to think of what they might sound like coming out of my mouth.
Meeeeee
Faaaaaa
Cooooo
Gooooood Morning
Bowwwww
Babowwwww
Yelowwwww
(more strange noises listed)"
The book covers a lot of ground, from producing her show to judging on American Idol to coming out as lesbian to hosting dinner parties. It also varies wildly chapter to chapter, from brief short stories (less than a page) to haiku, to coloring book pages of odd things like toasters, to prose, wandering chapters that are an interesting look at Ellen's thought process.
I really enjoyed this book, and it's definitely worth reading because it's just FUN.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
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Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The Merchant's House (Wesley Peterson #1) in Books
Jul 19, 2021
111 of 250
Book
The Merchants House ( Wesley Peterson book 1)
By Kate Ellis
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
Detective Sergeant (and amateur archaeologist) Wesley Peterson hoped that a transfer from the lively but frantic pace of London to the bucolic river port of Tradmouth would have a positive effect on both his personal and professional lives. But Wes's first day on the job has hardly begun before he finds himself heading up an investigation into the murder of an unidentified young woman whose face has been brutally disfigured. And it's not long before Wes discovers that the Tradmouth force is as hopelessly overstretched as London's Met; in addition to the unidentified murder victim, the local police have been embroiled in a frantic search for a missing child. As Wes and his fellow detectives try to determine the identity of the young woman in hopes of catching her murderer, a strange parallel emerges between this case and a nearby archeological dig being conducted by Wes's college friend. Two skeletons have been unearthed in the ruins of a seventeenth-century merchant's house, one of them the apparent victim of a four-hundred-year-old murder. At first Wes is interested on a purely personal level, but strange connections between the murdered girl, the missing child, and the murder that occurred four hundred years ago soon begin to surface. Wes must act quickly to prove his suspicions, before another body joins those already residing in the dust of the merchant's house.
I struggled and struggled it had so many issues and the book was quite boring!
I will never encourage anyone to not read a book I think it’s important that people try as many books as possible. This is just my opinion.
Book
The Merchants House ( Wesley Peterson book 1)
By Kate Ellis
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
Detective Sergeant (and amateur archaeologist) Wesley Peterson hoped that a transfer from the lively but frantic pace of London to the bucolic river port of Tradmouth would have a positive effect on both his personal and professional lives. But Wes's first day on the job has hardly begun before he finds himself heading up an investigation into the murder of an unidentified young woman whose face has been brutally disfigured. And it's not long before Wes discovers that the Tradmouth force is as hopelessly overstretched as London's Met; in addition to the unidentified murder victim, the local police have been embroiled in a frantic search for a missing child. As Wes and his fellow detectives try to determine the identity of the young woman in hopes of catching her murderer, a strange parallel emerges between this case and a nearby archeological dig being conducted by Wes's college friend. Two skeletons have been unearthed in the ruins of a seventeenth-century merchant's house, one of them the apparent victim of a four-hundred-year-old murder. At first Wes is interested on a purely personal level, but strange connections between the murdered girl, the missing child, and the murder that occurred four hundred years ago soon begin to surface. Wes must act quickly to prove his suspicions, before another body joins those already residing in the dust of the merchant's house.
I struggled and struggled it had so many issues and the book was quite boring!
I will never encourage anyone to not read a book I think it’s important that people try as many books as possible. This is just my opinion.
Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated This Island Earth (1955) in Movies
Sep 28, 2019
Contains spoilers, click to show
A scientist working on a new form of atomic energy is recruited by the mysterious Exeter to work with other scientists on secret project, but all is not what it seems.
This Island Earth is a classic 1950’s Sci-Fi flick, it starts as a bit of a mystery, a plane fails and is then remotely controlled, strange components arrive from an unknown company and Exeter is strange. Considering the age of the film, the effects aren’t too bad, there is the almost obligatory use of coloured light when things are being controlled, there are no visible string on the flying saucer and the costumes aren’t too terrible. Without going over the top with make up or prosthetics the film mangers to show that there is something ‘otherworldly’ about Exeter and his companions and even the alien planet of Metaluna is quite good.
This Island Earth also has, what has to be one of my all-time favourite aliens, the Metaluna Mutant. These are the total opposite of Exeter and costumed to look totally alien. They are almost pointless to the plot of the film. The normal Metaluna’s are not really an enemy so, to add a bit of threat to the end the film the mutants are introduced as a servant type race that have been mind-controlled but the hero’s run into a couple that are hurt which gives the opportunity to have the female lead chased around for a few minutes. The point is the mutants are unnecessary, the Metaluna leader has already created a threat which could have been used.
This Island Earth easily fits into the ‘Atomic fear’ movies of the 1950’s but also shows the hope the world had for nuclear power which makes the film a refreshing change from the normal alien invasion flic.
This Island Earth is a classic 1950’s Sci-Fi flick, it starts as a bit of a mystery, a plane fails and is then remotely controlled, strange components arrive from an unknown company and Exeter is strange. Considering the age of the film, the effects aren’t too bad, there is the almost obligatory use of coloured light when things are being controlled, there are no visible string on the flying saucer and the costumes aren’t too terrible. Without going over the top with make up or prosthetics the film mangers to show that there is something ‘otherworldly’ about Exeter and his companions and even the alien planet of Metaluna is quite good.
This Island Earth also has, what has to be one of my all-time favourite aliens, the Metaluna Mutant. These are the total opposite of Exeter and costumed to look totally alien. They are almost pointless to the plot of the film. The normal Metaluna’s are not really an enemy so, to add a bit of threat to the end the film the mutants are introduced as a servant type race that have been mind-controlled but the hero’s run into a couple that are hurt which gives the opportunity to have the female lead chased around for a few minutes. The point is the mutants are unnecessary, the Metaluna leader has already created a threat which could have been used.
This Island Earth easily fits into the ‘Atomic fear’ movies of the 1950’s but also shows the hope the world had for nuclear power which makes the film a refreshing change from the normal alien invasion flic.