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Laura Doe (1350 KP) rated Kill Joy in Books

Mar 25, 2021 (Updated Mar 25, 2021)  
Kill Joy
Kill Joy
Holly Jackson | 2021 | Crime, Law, Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult (YA)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Lovely little short book that left me wanting more! I haven’t read A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, but I got the feeling from this prequel that it was the murder mystery dinner that ignited the passion in Pip to try and solve the murder that happened in her little town 5 years previously.
The murder mystery dinner was written so well that I felt like I was there and solving the “murder” with the characters. There was also the suspense of the environment around the dinner party with the weird noises and lights going out, which really made me wonder whether there was something sinister going on around them or if everything had a genuine explanation. I think it added to the suspense of the murder mystery part and made you more aware of little things, which I guess is why people like murder mystery parties!
I loved the writing style and how the notes were included as though you were reading them off the slip of paper that had been found, which doesn’t very often happen in books. I thought it was a nice addition and really gave you the feel of being a part of the dinner party. <br/>This has definitely made me want to read on and read the next instalment from Holly Jackson.
  
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Kristy H (1252 KP) Mar 29, 2021

I didn't know this existed--must check it out! Definitely recommend A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Pip is a wonderful character.

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Laura Doe (1350 KP) Mar 29, 2021

Ah thank you Kristy! I’m glad that it follows the same character 😊

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Tom Turner (388 KP) rated Skallagrigg in Books

Jun 15, 2021  
Skallagrigg
Skallagrigg
William Horwood | 1988 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I very rarely post about books while I'm still reading them, but for this book I had to, because I felt, and still feel it is criminal that this is book is not that well known. It should be in the pantheon of novels that get read my millions each year. However, I doubt given its obscurity that this is the case.

This story is so much more than its basics of being an exploration of disability. Though as someone with a disability it did bring home to me how much my life could have been different if I had been born in a different era - but also, how far society has yet to travel. It's as much a story about the human spirit and the importance of wholeness. To be honest, there are many levels one could read this book. If one has the tearducts strong enough, I am sure it's the kind of book that a reread would give even greater insight than the first read through. I first picked this up in the early 2000's, and for various reasons never finished a complete read through until now. But it was definitely one of those books that kept calling me back, and I'm so glad it did!

If you can get hold of a copy, it really is a must read!
  
Platinum Collection by David Bowie
Platinum Collection by David Bowie
2006 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"That one was going to be the last track on the album, so we had to leave an emotional impact there. It wasn't hard to think like that, given the subject of the song. With a lot of Bowie's songs, you found you were not only being a musician, but a bit of an actor as well. You had to get in there and use your imagination at the same time as your drumming skills to communicate those lyrics with any sort of conviction. You didn't want to say: 'Go out and commit suicide', of course, so you had to find a way of playing it so it didn't communicate that but rather identified with how someone like that might feel at the end of the world – that whole concept. It's one of my favorite tracks. It doesn't need a lot from the drums, bass and guitar. There are times when it breaks down to just the bass drum, and that bass drum needs to be played with despair. So, it was interesting as an emotional song to play. Everything seemed to leave it hanging on that bass drum, so you couldn't play it flippantly. It was how you emotionally felt and getting that across with just your foot on the drum pedal. You look back on that track and think it was pretty risky – especially on his part!"

Source
  
High-Rise Invasion
High-Rise Invasion
2021 | Action, Animation, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
9
8.0 (2 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
High-Risk Invasion is an anime that starts with with a very dark premises (and I guess should have a trigger warning here). A school girl (Yuri) finds herself in a world that exists entirely on the top floors and roofs of sky scrapers. She soon meets a figure in a strange mask who seems intent on driving her off the roof and to her death. Yuri soon find out that there are a number of these 'Masks' who's sole purpose is to try to drive the none masks to suicide.
After a few episodes, 'High-Rise Invasion' takes a strange turn, surviving the masks is part of a test to find some one who is worthy of becoming the new god.
High-Rise Invasion starts very dark and it's easy to see why it changed tones, it either had to change to something unexpected or become something like 'Alice in Borderland ' and a lot of the story is spent on world building and setting up the main premises.
Viewers need to be aware that 'High-Rise Invasion' contains suicide, violence, threat of rape as well as the anime standards of panty-shots and other clothes being ripped. If you are ok with these themes and a high level of violence then 'High-Rise Invasion' offers an interesting story and plenty of action.
  
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Frank Black recommended Combat Rock by The Clash in Music (curated)

 
Combat Rock by The Clash
Combat Rock by The Clash
1982 | Rock
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I think Combat Rock has suffered a lot of bitching and whining because it’s when The Clash broke America. I was 17-years old when I heard 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go'. I wasn’t some hipster, punk dude. I didn’t know who The Clash were. I heard it on the radio. I heard 'Rock The Casbah' on the radio. Compared to a lot of other stuff being played it was like: “This is good!” For all the people who say it’s not London Calling, it’s not 'White Riot', well, I get that they were in the trenches and whatever. I’m not trying to disparage the early Clash but they matured into a proper rock band and they did something with it. Listen to 'Straight To Hell'. Fucking A! Listen to 'Know Your Rights'! I’ll be happy as a pig in shit if I can write a song as good as that. If they were ‘selling out’, you write 'Know Your Rights'! It’s why I picked Combat Rock. I don’t get where people are coming from who don’t like that record [sings the riff from 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go']. It doesn’t get any better than that. It’s a wonderful statement. I wish there was something out there right now as good as 'Straight To Hell'."

Source
  
Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones
Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones
1971 | Blues, Country, Rock

"I'd been into music for as long as I can remember, from being four years old. My dad bought me a record player when I was 11, and I went out and bought three albums: I had those Beatles double albums, the red and the blue, '62-'66 and '66-'70, I bought those, and I also bought Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones. That was the first Stones album that I bought. I actually wore it out, and parts of it became unplayable, even with halfpenny pieces on top of the stylus. For me, the Stones, when they pulled away from the Beatles' influence and became their own thing, it started with Beggars Banquet. It's those four albums - Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Exile and Sticky Fingers, I think are the greatest years of the Rolling Stones as an individual, this is what we do, we're not following the Beatles any more. And they did it with such glory that I could easily have chosen [another] one of those four albums for the same reason. Once again we seem to be talking about unsung heroes, one of the great things about those Stones albums is the brilliant engineering by Glyn Johns; I think Andy Johns was involved as well, but the engineering on those records is just awesome, awesome, awesome."

Source
  
Bridget Jones&#039;s Baby: The Diaries
Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries
Helen Fielding | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
8
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Bridget Jones is back! With new story to tell us. It is impossible not to love this witty, silly, clumsy, unbelievable woman. I think the reason why she is a Global phenomenon is that she is very relatable. Confusion of which one to choose, fear of being single and wish of a family, there are many women and men who feel exactly the same. This book is continuation of previous Bridget Jones’s adventures, continuing war between Mark and Daniel and a nice ending filled with lots of pain and happiness. So if u expect something very new and exciting, I will have to disappoint you there.
This book is very easy to read and it is kind of one sitting read. I had a chance to see the movie based on this book as well and I was pleased to see that book and movie are quite different. That allows living same story twice, with different twists and turns. Let me tell you one thing, there is never enough of Ms Jones and her adventures (at least for me) . In conclusion all I want to say is if would like to have a great laugh with a bit of romance, grab this book and after that definitely see the film, and enjoy this great woman and her adventures twice.
  
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Sarah (7800 KP) rated Machines Like Me in Books

Sep 12, 2020  
Machines Like Me
Machines Like Me
Ian McEwan | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy
6
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Great idea, just not well executed
The idea behind this book and the base plot is a really great idea. An alternate 80s Britain thats more technologically advanced than we are currently in 2020 is a fascinating idea and I really enjoyed the parts of the book that detailed all the differences - some of which (like Apan Turing still being alive) were actually rather emotive and almost made you wish real life had been like this.

Adam too is a fascinating character and any part of the book that featured him was a winner. The problem with this book is the two main characters Charlie and Miranda. They are completely unlikeable and self absorbed, and the way they treat Adam (and Mark in some respects) is absolutely awful. There's something Alan Turing says towards the end of the book that really sums up how much of a horrible person Charlie is. Whilst having unlikeable characters isn't necessarily a bad thing for some books, in this I just found them rather irritating and annoying. And Charlie's constant internal rambling monologuing got rather boring and really dragged on.

I really wanted to love this because the general idea is fantastic, and there are parts of this where I did love it. It's just a same it was let down by the characters.
  
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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) in Movies

Sep 19, 2020 (Updated Oct 12, 2020)  
Before the Devil Knows You&#039;re Dead (2007)
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
2007 | Drama, Mystery
Completely fucked, 'from worse to even worse' filmmaking in vein of something like 𝘜𝘯𝘤𝘶𝘵 𝘎𝘦𝘮𝘴. I think this is a terrific - even in many instances traumatizing - thriller with even more gobsmackingly terrific performances (particularly from Philip Seymour Hoffman in a straight up *brutal* role). It's very nasty and gritty but also very sophisticated, and looks wonderful while doing so, too. That all being said, sacrilege as this may be, is it too much to ask for one Sidney Lumet film to actually have some momentum? Good God, at least from the ones I've seen - still good as they are - they're absolutely killed from prestige greatness because of the dire sag in pacing. Scenes here drone on well past the point of no return for really no reason, granted at least in this one it's mostly salvaged by the clever asynchronous way the stories are all edited together - but still, it'd be nice for this to be a little snappier at times. That aside, it's a testament to all these mammoth performances and emotionally gripping writing that it was able to come out as solid as it was - and it is something that Lumet, into his 80s here, was able to end his career with such a stimulating, grimy drama. Legitimately jaw-dropping ending, nearly gave me whiplash.
  
Antiemetic for Homesickness
Antiemetic for Homesickness
Romalyn Ante | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I don’t often review poetry, because I just don’t have the experience to do so effectively, I think. But I do like to read poetry, and listen to it being read. This book of poems centres around the poets lived experience - leaving the Philippines as an older teenager and coming to live in the UK with her mother, a nurse in the NHS, and the rest of her family. As it says in the title of the book, there is a real feeling of homesickness and guilt of having left family behind. The wish to hold on to her heritage comes across strongly as well. At the same time, Ante’s life and work as a nurse in the NHS is in many of these poems - the hard work, the racism she encounters and the care she takes of her patients.

I really enjoyed the glimpses into life in the Philippines, and I made good use of the ‘Boodle Fight of Words and Terminologies’, the notes and Google translate (it’s the linguist in me 🤷🏼‍♀️) It sounds like hard work, doesn’t it - but it wasn’t. This will be a book that goes on my poetry shelf (yes, I have one!) that I will revisit often, I think.

Thank you to Vintage Books for sending me this book - it’s always worth entering the competition because sometimes I do win!!