Dec
18
2008
Author: Robin McKinley
ISBN: 9780441016433 DDC: 823.54
LibraryThing ; Delicious Links
I keep having these conversations with Dad.
I’m at my computer. He says, “What are you doing?” I mutter something, because the screen has a lot of squiggles on it so he already knows what I’m doing.
Jake has grown up at the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies. It is one of the last refuges of the only real Dragon, the Draco australiensis and a host of other creatures. But conserving the dragons isn’t everyone’s idea of the right thing to do. Plenty of people think that the day dragons go extinct just can’t come soon enough. But one day Jake comes across a dying female dragon, and the poacher she has just killed, and her one remaining baby dragon.
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Tags:
8 Stars,
813.54,
coming of age,
Dragonhaven,
dragons,
fantasy,
first person narrator,
good read,
Robin McKinley,
sci-fi,
sff,
ya
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Dec
12
2008
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Look drinking to excess every night is not a good idea. And yes there are people with problems. But come on, the whole "giving up power" schtik. Going too far methinks.
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"A good book blog (or – must we? - "blook") becomes a supplementary text, a place to explain, elucidate, apologise, dig deeper."
No tag for this post.
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Dec
07
2008
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"Proving that quantity does not equal quality, director Seth Gordon (The King of Kong) presents Four Christmases, a weak, soulless holiday film in spite of its inclusion of five previous Oscar winners."
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"So this is what five Oscar winners gets you? This is the result of the combined Academy caliber efforts of Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line), Sissy Spacek (Coal Miner’s Daughter), Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard), Jon Voight (Coming Home), and Robert Duvall (Tender Mercies)? Certainly this quintet, along with some solid satiric support from Wedding Crashers cad Vince Vaughn, and a dash of supplemental slapstick from Swingers pal Jon Favreau, could create a clever, comic Yuletide gem, right? They’ve even got Seth ”The King of Kong” Gordon on their side, steering the material toward some edgier environs. And yet, with all this potential talent on tap, Four Christmases ends up a wasted, worthless excuse for holiday humor."
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No tag for this post.
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Dec
07
2008
Author: Louis de Bernieres
ISBN: 9781846551420 DDC: 823.914
I am not the sort of man who goes to prostitutes.
Well, I suppose that every man would say that. People would disbelieve it just because you felt you have to say it.
I’m quite a fan of de Bernieres’ works. I haven’t read them all but I have enjoyed the ones I’ve read. The two narrators of this book take turns in telling their shared story. One chapter will be Chris, the next is Roza’s. Chris is in his forties, a respectable, married man, a travelling salesman who seems quite distant from life in general. Roza is younger, in her twenties, an illegal immigrant from Yugoslavia.
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Tags:
1970s,
7 Stars,
823.914,
A Partisan's Daughter,
Britain - 1970s,
first person narrator,
historical fiction,
Louis De Bernières,
love,
memory,
personal history,
romance,
stories,
storytelling
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Dec
07
2008
Dir: Seth Gordon
Writ: Matt Allen, Caleb Wilson , Jon Lucas, & Scott Moore
- Vince Vaughn … Brad
- Reese Witherspoon … Kate
- Robert Duvall … Howard
- Sissy Spacek … Paula
- Jon Voight … Creighton
- Jon Favreau … Denver
I didn’t like this film. Not at all. Well, maybe that is a slight lie, cause bits of it were funny, and I did laugh. And some scenes worked well. But overall I really did not like this film. The main reason is that it just tries to hard to sell us this message that I just took exception to.
The two heroes, Brad and Kate, have been together for 3 year and seem to have a pretty good relationship. But if that what it is like at the opening then the audience should know that things aren’t going to continue that way. But they are even all that likeable as characters. They are smug and self-satisfied and selfish. But that is part of this film’s message. It seemed to me to say that if you are a couple who are happy being together without wanting to get married and have children, well then you just don’t know what real happiness is all about. That is family, by the way, in case you haven’t seen other “holiday” films before now.
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Tags:
4 Stars,
annoying,
Caleb Wilson,
comedy,
Four Christmases,
funny,
Jon Favreau,
Jon Lucas,
Jon Voight,
Matt Allen,
movies with a message *bleurgh*,
not funny,
R12A,
Reese Witherspoon,
Robert Duvall,
Scott Moore,
Seth Gordon,
shoulda been better,
Sissy Spacek,
unlikeable smug characters,
Vince Vaughn,
xmas
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Dec
04
2008
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"Watching that very real history play out — the whole, "there now, be a good girl, keep your mouth shut and just do as you're told" mentality, rankles me to my very core, as I expect it will to most modern women watching it."
No tag for this post.
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Dec
04
2008
Dir: Clint Eastwood
Writ: J. Michael Straczynski - based on a true story
- Angelina Jolie … Christine Collins
- John Malkovich … Rev. Gustav Briegleb
- Colm Feore … Chief James E. Davis
- Jeffrey Donovan … Capt. J.J. Jones
- Wendy Worthington … Reception Nurse
- Riki Lindhome … Examination Nurse
It is 1920’s Los Angeles and single mother Christine Collins is trying to raise her boy[1] One Sat she is called in to work and when she returns home little Walter Collins is nowhere to be found. The police set about looking[2] and eventually, after 5 months they bring him back. Only the boy they return to Christine is different; she is, however, informed that those changes are the result of her shock and the boys trauma. Why it is quite the done thing for a boy to shrink 4 inches as a result of such a horrifying encounter. And circumcised now you say? Well it is healthy, and who knows what that drifter may have been thinking. Ms. Collins is not about to rest however. She wants her boy back[3] Continue Reading »
Linknotes:
- you will hear this phrase *my boy* and *my son* over and over. This is just to introduce the phrase to yall ↩
- after the procedural 24 hours have passed of course ↩
- - Waaaaaallllttt! ↩
Tags:
1920s,
7 Stars,
abduction,
America - 1920s,
America - LA,
Angelina Jolie,
based on true story,
Changeling,
Clint Eastwood,
Colm Feore,
corrupt police,
crime,
drama,
feminism,
Gordon Stewart Northcott,
J. Michael Straczynski,
Jeffrey Donovan,
John Malkovich,
kidnapping,
murder,
R16,
Riki Lindhome,
role of women,
Wendy Worthington,
Wineville Chicken Coop Murders,
women in society
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