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ClareR (5674 KP) rated The Road Trip in Books

Aug 4, 2021  
The Road Trip
The Road Trip
Beth O'Leary | 2021 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I loved this book. The Road Trip has a different feel to it compared to Beth O’Leary’s previous two novels, and whatever direction she’ll take next, I’m going along for the ride (see what I did there!🤭)

I just love the way that O’Leary writes characters: in this book they’re funny, flawed and feel like genuine, real people. There are those with mental health problems, dysfunctional families and strong sibling relationships.

We see the contrast of the carefree student on holiday, and the way that real life has a habit of sticking its oar in - and not always in a good way.

The road trip element was hilarious though. Deliciously awkward, thanks to Addie, Dylan and Dylan’s friend Marcus, with the devil-may-care attitude of Addie’s sister, Debs. And than there’s Rodney (I’l leave him right here - I don’t want to spoil THIS character for you!).

This book is a little darker in places in comparison to her other books, but I absolutely loved every page. I can’t wait to see what’s next from Beth O’Leary. Oh, and you should definitely read this book!!

Many thanks to Quercus for my copy via NetGalley.
  
Messe De Notre-Dame by Guillame de Machaut
Messe De Notre-Dame by Guillame de Machaut
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I went to music school and this piece is probably given to every music student as a main example of what medieval music is, so it's not obscure in that world. It's almost funny that I'm putting it in here but I do love Machaut. To me, he's probably more notable for having written these secular love songs, which was pretty cool for that period. But I chose this piece because it's so powerful in an obvious way, just sonically, and what's cool about this performance is that they have these inflections in the voices which they think, I guess, is authentic. But I think that's debatable. It might be true, I'm not really sure. The singers bend the notes: they sing in kind of straight tones and then they bend the notes in a way that you don't really hear in other performances of this piece. It just sounds incredible, authentic or not. There are revolutionary things about this piece and why it's important but I don't remember what they are. When I was writing my song 'Marienbad', I was into madrigals and that straight-tone singing with lots of different voices"

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Kristina (502 KP) rated Be the Girl in Books

Dec 7, 2020  
Be the Girl
Be the Girl
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
The meaning behind this story is an important one, it's just unfortunate that it didn't hit very hard until the last 100 pages or less. I continued to read because I knew something big was coming, something shocking and interesting, and I was right: the whole time, I assumed Aria had attempted suicide and was trying to forget her past, so it was definitely a surprise to discover she was escaping from a mistake she made that actually led to a former student committing suicide. The first 85% of the story I wasn't bored, necessarily, just waiting expectantly for "more". But, boy, that last percentage really packed a punch. It goes to show how bullying can go wrong, how there are literally life and death consequences to such actions. It also highlights some of the differences in those with autism, which is nice, because I feel like that topic is shied away from by many. I love K. A. Tucker and I hate to say that, while the moral of the story was an important one, 'Be the Girl' wasn't one of my favorites.
  
    Future Savers

    Future Savers

    Finance and Education

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

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    CommBank’s Future Savers app is an augmented reality adventure that makes learning about money...

The First Fall (When Winter Comes #1)
The First Fall (When Winter Comes #1)
Daniel Willcocks | 2020 | Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
138 of 200
Kindle
The First Fall ( when winter calls book 1)
By Daniel Willcocks

The sky is bleeding. The storm has come.
A crimson rift washes over the isolated Alaskan town of Denridge Hills, staining the Aurora Borealis the color of blood. To some, an unlikely occurrence. To those in the know, a sign of dark magic at play. When the storm has completed its devastation, who will be left standing?

A social media mogul holds the fate of her ex-lover in her hands. A high school student finds himself miles from home, his constitution and willpower put to the test. A researcher searches for his nephew, his knowledge of the town’s local history the only lead toward ending the madness.

When the world shrinks around you, the monsters come, and all that’s left is an unbending will to survive, who will emerge as the true heroes, and who will be marked as the villains?


This had me hooked from the beginning. Well written and a intriguing story! Left you wanting the next episode now!
I’ve been following Daniel Willcocks a while on instagram glad I finally got round to reading something He’s done!
  
Educating Rita (1983)
Educating Rita (1983)
1983 | Comedy, Drama
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Julie Walters makes a memorable movie debut in this surprisingly moving comedy-drama. Caine plays Frank, a boozy lecturer and (he thinks) awful teacher who is slightly baffled by Rita, a bright but uncultured new student who wanders into his office one day. She wants more out of life, and thinks studying literature will help her get it. But is she right? And what can they learn from one another?

Very well written and extremely well-played, the heart of the film is the relationship between the two of them and how it slowly changes over time: not really a romance or a friendship, but something still powerful and very affecting. As well as the shifting dynamic between them, the film is also about many other things: snobbery, both standard and reversed; class; the purpose of education; what it means to be a teacher, and much more. The origins of the piece as a two-handed stage play are fairly obvious, and funding issues mean it is set (distractingly) somewhere in the little-known Liverpool-Oxbridge-Dublin region, but the story and performances are strong enough for these not to be serious issues. A very fine film.