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- On page 76 of 704 of An Instance of the Finger..., by Iain Pears http://bit.ly/btI2FA 2010/09/06
- I'm #reading Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers http://bit.ly/94gDaD 2010/09/06
- UK libraries fighting back: http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/wordpress/ #library 2010/09/06
Tag Archives: 8 Stars
The sword-edged blonde
Author: Alex Bledsoe
An Eddie LaCrosse novel #1
Eddie LaCrosse is a sword jockey, or private detectives in this fantasy world. He is also a man with a past. And that past is coming back to haunt him. I really loved parts of this book Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged 8 Stars, Eddie LaCrosse, feminism, first person narrator, fun read, The Sword-edged blonde
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The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ
by Philip Pullman
The back of the edition of this that I read has only the words: This is a story. Interesting. Is that because the publisher’s don’t want to offend the ultra religious in the Christian world. Or is it a message from the author that the life of Jesus is a story. That the bible is a story.
Pullman, of course, is known for his ever so slightly controversial views on religion, he has used them in his fiction before. In that case it involved a worn-out god, and power-hungry angels. Here he revisits the myth:”(is a myth a religion we dont believe in?)”: of Jesus Christ and weaves a new story out of it.
Centurion
Writ & Dir: Neil Marshall
I love and adore Dog Soldiers. And The Decent was pretty damn good too Of course Doomsday was utterly preposterous but you win some, you lose some. And I was still prepared to take a chance on Neil Marshall, especially when the story is about Roman soldiers on the run in the second century. I mean it had to be better than King Arthur, right?
Posted in Moving Pictures
Tagged 8 Stars, An Orc's Tale, bloody action, Centurian, chase, seasons, soldiers, war
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The secret ministry of Frost
Author: Nick Lake
As you may have guessed from that picture over on the right hand of the page, one of the main reasons I picked this book up was because of that cover image. It did a brilliant job of attracting my attention as I processed yet another box of books at work. Plus it has crows and ravens, sharks and folklore. And isn’t that enough to get anyone’s attention?
Light, a half-Inuit albino is mourning her father, but she is also uncertain, as his body was never recovered. He went missing from his research station in the Arctic and hasn’t been seen. And then at his funeral some strange things begin to happen. Together with family friend/retainer she leaves her home in Northern Ireland and heads off to the Arctic in an attempt to discover just what happened. Along the way she comes to realise that the folklore she read about is more than just tales as mysterious sideways-blinking men appear and ravens and crows attempt to protect her from them. And is Butler more than he seems to be?
Whip it!
Dir: Drew Barrymore
Writ: Shauna Cross, based on her novel
Bliss Cavender works at a typical American diner, under her mother’s guidance she does pageants, and she goes to school. It isn’t an ideal life. She wants out. One day, while out shopping she sees some local roller derby girls and wants to investigate. Herself and best friend Pash pretend to be going to see the local football team but instead head for the roller derby, and before you know it Bliss is trying out for a team.
Can I just say that I loved this film. It was teh awesome!
Kick-ass
Dir:Matthew Vaughn
Writ: Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn based on the graphic novel by Mark Millar & John Romita Jr.
With all the people out there who love comic books, with all those millions of people who love superheroes, why hasn’t anyone ever tried it. That’s what Dave Lizewski wonders. It isn’t that he thinks it is sensible, but surely it stands to reason that someone, somewhere will try it? Or has tried it? Well, why not him. So he goes online and buys a scuba diving suit, and low and behold, Kick-ass is born. Things do not go well for him. He’s a weedy teenager out on his own trying to fit the bad guys. He gets his ass kicked, on more than one occasion, but he also gets famous. And comes to the attention of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl, two real superheroes who know enough about their job to keep themselves totally secret. Did I mention that Hit-Girl is like eleven or something? Continue reading
Posted in Moving Pictures
Tagged 8 Stars, bloody action, entertaining, Kick-Ass, mindless fun, R-16s, superheroes, violence
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Whose body?
The body of a stout man is found in a bathroom, naked but for a gold pince-nez. At the same time, a prominent banker goes missing. Is the dead man the missing Mr. Levy? And if so, how did he manage to end up in Mr. Thipps’ bathroom? And was he murdered?
This is the first book Sayers wrote to feature Lord Peter Wimsey. He is the second son of an ancient English house, his elder brother is the Duke of Denver. And his hobby is criminology. Already he has solved the case of some missing emeralds, now he is on two cases at once; to find the missing Levy & to figure out the who, why and where concerning the mystery body.
The game
Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes have returned home to Sussex in order to enjoy the new year, but soon enough they travel to London to visit Holmes’ brother, Mycroft, whose health is not the best. While there he suggests that perhaps they might look into a case for him. A possibly-missing person. In India.
Of course they head off, and the person they are looking for, none other than Kimball O’Hara, known to many from Rudyard Kipling’s Kim.
Posted in Books
Tagged 8 Stars, 813.54, Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes mystery, Sherlock Holmes, The game
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A good dog
We’ve been on a bit of an “animal-human relationship” kick at work lately. I chose this one at random one afternoon. It is the second book that the author Jon Katz wrote about his life after meeting Devon/Orson, the border collie. he has many others detailing his life with other dogs. But Orson was his “once in a lifetime” dog. The one that changes your life. Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged 636.73, 8 Stars, A good dog, animal welfare, animals, collies, dogs, honest, Sligo W.B. Yeats
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Wedlock
Mary Eleanor Bowes was born in 1749. Her father was extremely wealthy and, unusually for the time, had her well educated. A most eligible young woman, not least because she was the richest heiress in C18th Britain. Her first wedding was nothing unusual for the time. Pretty loveless and to an older man it wasn’t a romantic love match. Her second, to a dashing young soldier, was. Mary Eleanor probably hadn’t intended to marry Andrew Robinson Stoney, but upon hearing that he had fought a duel for her honour and was laying on his deathbed wishing for nothing but her hand in marriage… well, who could resist that romance! Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged 8 Stars, 941.07092, fascinating, feminism, Mary Eleanor Bowes, personality disorder, The Gunslinger, Wedlock
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