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Posts posted by pontalba
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I flew right through Ann Cleeves, The Glass Room. 4/5 at least. It's part of her DI Vera Stanhope series, and we've watched several seasons of Vera through Acorn.
A murder takes place at a writers workshop in a fairly deserted area of North England. How are all these people connected? Then another murder takes place, and the scene is obviously staged. Vera is her usual superficially ditsy self, but underneath her detectives brain is working overtime.
A well done whodunit that is somewhat complicated, but not impossible to figure out near the end. I think Cleeves hits the right note allowing the reader some room to figure out who the killer is, if they've paid attention to all the clues dropped. Very enjoyable fast read.
The personal relationships make this series special, much is alluded to and I'm sure breadcrumbs are dropped throughout the series.
Recommended.
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Yeah, she's funny, I think the vulgarities are her attempt to be "hip", to draw in a younger audience.
It's funny, years ago an actor couldn't even say "damn", on air, now it's "fashionable" to use the worst language only to show how modern one is. Yuck.
Thanks, Gaia.
. Luckily, as sometimes revisiting an old friend like that can backfire!
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Wonderful pics, Gaia! I see an Ann Cleeves book in there.....I'm just reading one of hers. But it's another series, her Vera Stanhope one. We've been watching Vera, the tv series through Acorn. Quite good. Cleeves is an excellent writer. Hope you enjoy it!
How terrific to have gotten into a series that has soooooo many entries!
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Also reread The Time Traders by Andre Norton. I love this book! Written in 1958, it still holds up, for the most part. This was a time of the "Cold War" and this novel takes full use of it.
Suddenly, the "other side" has advances that ordinarily would take decades to develop.....how is it happening? "Our side" uses what is evidently a common method of time travel to track down the source of the advances. But the average citizen is too civilized, too laid back, to be successful at infiltration. So the powers that be sign up men that are proven adventurers, a certain type of criminal, that are up to the job.
I read it on kindle, in an anthology called The Science Fiction Novel Super Pack No 1. It contains 10 full novels, by authors that have, between them, won 13 Hugo awards and 4 Nebula awards, 6 of them have been named Grand Masters by the Science Fiction Writers of America.
It includes:
Empire by Clifford D. Simak
Falcons of Narabedla by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose Farmer
The Stars, My Brothers by Edmond Hamilton
The Time Traders by Andre Norton
Deathworld by Harry Harrison
Star Surgeon by Alan E. Nourse
A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
Preferred Risk by Frederik Pohl & Lester del Rey
Space Tug by Murray Leinster
But I also own the 1958 Ace paperback of The Time Traders.
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I've again picked up The Joy of Leaving Your Sh*t All Over the Place (the art of being messy) by Jennifer McCartney. It's a teeny book, but really funny if you can ignore the language. Hah.
It has sections on cats, dogs, purses, shoes and books! Gotta give an excerpt on books! As I mentioned, she uses strong language, and in the quote below there are, er a few examples properly asterisked out.
pages 85-87:
BOOKS: Buy them, pile them.......
If you're a book person, you already inherently know this: Books are important, and it's okay to own thousands of them and never get rid of them. This requires bookshelves, possibly. But the great thing about books is they're imminently stackable. Your bedside table is the obvious place to start. When that's full, try the floor next to it. Windowsills. Chairs. Obviously a few books go in the bathroom for when your phone battery is dead. Work-related books by your desk. Cookbooks in the Kitchen. Coffee table books on the coffee table. Old, weird books in the attic or garage. Acquiring more books is important, too. Any trip to a place that sells books of any kind requires you to purchase one. You could be eight months behind on your rent, and if you don't buy a book at a used bookstore, you're basically a bad person who doesn't love to read.
Acceptable reasons to downsize your collection are: you're hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and you need to rip and discard the pages you've already read to lighten your backpack.
Books are not clutter, no matter what some book about getting organized may tell you. Literally no one has ever walked into a library and been like, 'What a fu**ing mess'. Also, it's difficult to judge people properly if they don't own any books. Oh, your favorite author is David Foster Wallace? Congrats on reading one book in university. You recommend The Alchemist? Can you also share with me some inspirational sayings from your Instagram stream? You loved The Millionaire Next Door? Nice work on your business degree and hope the real estate thing works out for you. You prefer The Story of O to Fifty Shades of Grey? Your friends think you're pretentious. Subscribe to People? You love Fireball shots and are actually pretty fun at parties. Your favorite book is Moby Dick? Go f**k yourself. See how it works? Plus, if you go to a new friend's house for the first time and they have no books, you can basically turn the f**k around and never talk to them again. So keep those books where we can see them.
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Oh dear, I bought this on Kindle not that long ago. I loved Special Topics in Calamity Physics and was hoping this would be more of the same.
Mind you, we have differing views on a lot of books, so maybe I will really enjoy it.
It's funny, sometimes we are polar opposites, and sometimes the same.
I hope you do like it, especially since you have it!
Ugh, agreed. Do these people not get someone honest to proofread? All fiction is fantasy to some degree of course, but people's actions and motivations should make sense both to their characters and the world they live in.
Otherwise it's pointless investing in it.
Goodness knows people are not always imbued with much common sense and do things that utterly amaze and dismay me. But this went overboard, bigtime. Oy.
Just catching up on your blog. I'm intrigued by this review and have added it to my wishlist, thanks!
I hope all is going well with you.
Thanks Kylie, appreciated.
All is going fine here, I just don't get to the computer as much as I used to. God help us, we have Netflix!
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Horrible,
. I saw that on NOLA.com. But the vid I saw didn't actually show the shooting, the camera shifted off to the right when the shots were fired. I didn't see a link in your article, Virginia. I hope the store cameras caught it.
Baton Rouge is only 90 miles to our West.
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Thanks, guys. It was disappointing, but the good news is that another book, The Sudden Appearance of Hope has picked up.
. I'd bogged down in that one, but it's doing better.
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We watched Marcella, a BBC production through Netflix. Detective returns to her old Murder Squad 12 years after leaving. Her marriage is falling apart and there is a serial killer on the loose with definite similarities to a guy she put away years ago. Only 8 episodes long, and I'm hoping they continue next year, as it's only been broadcast in the UK last April. Great characterizations!
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Love the cat vids! Oy, how do you find these things?!
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Oh wow
Oddly enough, that ^ has made me somewhat more curious and interested in reading the book...
ROTFALOLTIC! Not odd, human nature.
I thought that til I read the synopsis, and nah.
Yeah, it has that effect.......
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Night Film by Marisha Pessl
3/52.5/5An investigative reporter obsessed with a certain film director whose reputation is beyond strange. A daughter that commits suicide. The reporters obsession leads him down a dubious path that could certainly lead to his own destruction, not to mention the impressionable young people that latch onto him during his quest.
Does the director dabble in Black Magic? What is causing the reporters obsession with him? Who can the reporter trust?
Pessl seems not to be able to make up her mind which tack she wishes to take with the story. Black magic? Obsessive behavior? Or, can all the strange occurrences be explained by ordinary means? The ending left me dissatisfied, to say the least. I 'm rating it the three out of five stars because the story did pull me along, in spite of stalling out about a third of the way through.
There were way too many utterly, unbelievably stupid actions taken by the reporter, taking chances with both his life and the lives of those that worked with him. Chances that a man with his supposed life experience would never take.
Make that a 2.5/5 rating after all.
Meh.
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Excellent reviews, Noll. I've got A Little Life on the stack already.
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Nursenblack; yes it is the first, but hopefully not the last because I enjoyed it!
She Knew She Was Right by Ivy Litvinov
Goes right on my Wish List, to be purchased next week.
Thanks!
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Oh dear
I hope you will pull through and will feel rewarded at the end!
I've not read any of Pynchon's books. The Crying of Lot 49 was featured in one of our English lit classes, but it was more like the professor had printed out an excerpt and the whole book was not on the syllabus. Which I think I'm happy about...
I do own a copy of the book and intend to tackle it some day!
I've tried reading it a couple of times, and finally decided it was idiotic mush, not fit for the cows. I've tried a couple others of his, with much the same reaction.
I suspect that Pynchon is laughing all the way to the bank at all the silly nits that think his books are so bloody marvelous and deep. Oy. Bathroom humor, and not interesting bathroom humor, at that.
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Oooh, interesting. I've put it on my wishlist!
I'll be interested in your reaction to it.
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Thanks, Kate
! I hope you enjoy it if you find it
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EDIT: I may have just ordered some books
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Seems that is going around.......
I have Ready Player One in the stacks somewhere.....I was anxious to read it, but somehow it slipped away from me. I must locate it.
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I may have bought 23 books for £82.41.
A girl after my own heart!
Well done!
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Yes, I echo Gaia, great reviews, BB. I've only read one of Lebbon's, The Silence and enjoyed it. Boy, his listings on Amazon is pretty amazing!
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Have finished three:
The Defence by Steve Cavanaugh 4/5
High octane thriller. All the action within a 24 hour period concentrating on a lawyer being blackmailed by a gangster. In order to save his young daughter's life, he must free a Russian Mafia leader.
New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey 3/5
This should have been amazing, it has the bones for amazing but falls down in delivery. It has time travel, a murder mystery and all the paraphernalia of a great story, including a new (to me) idea of possibility. Just didn't deliver.
The Life I Left Behind by Colette McBeth 3/5
Well done murder mystery with a twist. One of the three narrators is the murder victim. I just felt the outcome was a little predictable. I would have preferred another twist there.
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Still reading several, not a lot is grabbing me atm.
Couldn't resist buying this one though.....take that Marie whassit!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059043/ The Joy of Leaving Your Sh*t All Over the Place by Jennifer McCartney.
Same as above.
I have to say though.............the McCartney book, while funny, is extremely vulgar. Every third sentence contains the F-Bomb. I'm a third of the way through (and its a short book) and can only take it in small increments. But I do love the premise.......Messy lives!
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Watching several more or less at the same time. Alternating.
Back to Vera, just starting the 4th season. Really love the convoluted storylines.
We watched Veep, the first two seasons. And....while it is funny as all get out, the F-Bomb seems to be their favorite word. It really gets irritating, and goodness knows I'm no shrinking violet when it comes to cussing. The first two seasons were free with Amazon Prime, and I can't justify paying to see the rest.
Also watching the last, I think 4th, season of Torchwood. It's good, but a bit hard to take, at least in bingeing form.
Watched several episodes of Suspect. Interesting, and almost documentary style crime series. I like it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspects_(TV_series) In looking it up just now, I find it is unscripted.....impressive!
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Some great reviews, BB.
. Glad to hear the Rowling is good, sorry about Pettigrew! I have both in the stack, so will get to them....sometime. /sigh/
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My dad asked me to read Barry W. Fitzgerald - Secrets of Superhero Science. He knows the author, and he asked me to write a review about the book (which my dad will post on his blog). So, here's my (preliminary) review, I might edit the review later today as I get feedback from my dad about ie. the length of it.This book explores how it would be possible to have some superpowers as humans, using science. It looks at several superhero powers and postulates how we could use science, to achieve these superpowers. Examples are Wolverine's super healing, Sue Storm's invisibility and Iron Man's suit. The book consists of 11 chapters, and at the end of all but the first one, the author lists his sources, such as scientific articles and books (in case you want to read more about certain subjects).The book contains quite a bit of science, but it is explained in such terms that you don't necessarily need to have studied at university, to follow it. I did study at university, and a big part of the knowledge in the book I was taught at university and in high school; it was therefore not completely new to me. Other knowledge (mostly the newer research and the applications of it) was new to me. You don't need to have studied science at university level to understand this book, because the book explains the science to you, in what I think is a nice way.I quite like the writing style of the book and there is some humour in the book, I liked that a lot. I really like all the references to superheroes, superhero comics and superhero movies. I've seen quite a few of superhero movies and it was very nice to read about things I recognised. Even if you haven't seen a particular film though, the author explains what the superheroes' powers do and often mentions the story of the film. I also liked the illustrations the author uses to clarify scientific ideas and theories. I think you'll like this book if you like superheroes and are interested in science.
Very interesting subject and review, Gaia.
I'll look for it!
pontalba's 2016 reading list
in Past Book Logs
Posted
LOL Well, I finished it last night. It's really lots of tongue-in-cheek(yness) really. But there is a kernel of truth in what she writes. I love the LitHub article you posted on your thread!
Thanks, it may not be the same series, but it's bound to have more or less the same style of writing. Very clear and direct.