Hi guys, just a quick message to let you know I'm taking a day or two off. I haven't been well over the weekend due to a change in routine medication-nothing to worry about but let's say the toilet is seeing a lot of use! Ugh! Too much information eh! I'll be feeling rough until the new dosage kicks in so I'll just be chilling out a bit.
Today I was at the dentist for an extraction which was totally pain free to my relief but the stupid thing keeps bleeding so I'm chewing on gauze which is making me gag a bit! Only a crown to do and my treatment should be done so that is good news. That'll be over two appointments-prep then fitting. Such a relief!
Twitter seems to be playing up again which is where I was tring to post a few messages about a blog break. It refuses to send tweets and the help and setting all seem to be blank. I'm getting really sick of the whole thing and I might be pulling the plug on it very soon.
Anyway, I'll be posting a couple of things like TTT and Books From the Backlog as usual and will reply to all comments and visit you all this weekend!
Chuckles
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish
in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of
2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to
bring bookish friends together. http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/
NB: I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by
Google Plus, or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave
comments, and I won't allow them to follow new people, update my
profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I won't comment on any blog that makes me sign in using another account.
Don't you hate it when you are collecting a book series with gorgeous covers and halfway through, they change the cover design to something really meh? Here are ten changes I really hated!
1) Benedict Jacka-Alex Verus series
I loved the first six books with the worn parchment look with the map, and the London skyline intertwined with the book title. The main colour of each one changed and it was so nice! Then it changed to this dull lacklustre version! Ugh!
2) Kelly Armstrong-Otherworld
Nine beautiful books in the series, paranormal with vivid colours and great design-it was GORGEOUS to look at and then we move to this for book ten!!! This was the only cover I could get and I HATED it!
3) Carrie Vaughn-Kitty Norville
I liked the bigger paperback size showing Kitty with a scenic background behind her but then it went to this grim mass market paperback for the last books in the series and I'm unhappy with size and design!
4) Nicholas Sansbury Smith-Extinction Cycle
Six large size paperbacks with matching covers, then just before the final book, a publisher bought over the series and released the final one as mass market paperback with different cover. Another example of the series changing book size and design late in a series! Grrr!
The rest of my selections are books that have poor alternative versions that thankfully I did not get stuck with!
5) Charlaine Harris-Southern Vampire
This series seemed to switch covers every five minutes. Before the TV series there were the white face covers (below), then the poor TV series covers with the actors (below) and then we got the blood splatter horrors! (also below) Thankfully, I now have the cute cartoon covers!
6) Patricia Briggs-Mercy Thompson
The first is the covers I have now-they could be improved on but they do have colour and are better than the silver horrors I used to have in cover number two!
7) Suzanne Collins-The Hunger Games
I currently have the first cover design which I prefer to the first one I had. I like the simple design and good use of colour. The other one is a bit cluttered.
8) Joelle Charbonneau-The Testing
My copy is the first one and I certainly prefer it to the Maze look which has nothing to do with the plot. It's not horrible, I just like my shiny cover better!
9) Matthew Reilly-The Great Zoo Of China
I love my beautiful scenic cover! It has that sinister theme park feel to it plus the dragon tail and helicopters!
10) Stephen King-It
I love my creepy 'they all float' inspired cover than this rather washed out looking version!
I've been thinking about putting together a
book list for my upcoming summer reading to try and keep me motivated
from June until the end of August. The plan is to pick books for
challenges I'm doing so I can get ahead in those before we get into
autumn and winter, and to pick books from different genres so I don't
get fed up with reading and can switch between them as and when I feel
like it.
This list is not a set list of everything
I'm going to read. I prefer to think of it as a possibility list to give
me options in a lot of genres so I can pick by my mood. It doesn't
matter how many I get done as long as I keep reading through the summer!
The Alphabet Challenge
Two to go!
H-Hope's End (read)
X-X Variant
Y-Yuma
Series Catchup
I read the first three books earlier this year and recently finished the series.
1) Jaye Wells-Red Headed Stepchild (read)
2) Jaye Wells-The Mage in Black (read)
3) Jaye Wells-Violet Tendencies (read)
4) Jaye Wells-Green Eyed Demon (read)
5) Jaye Wells-Silver Tongued Devil (read)
6) Jaye Wells-Blue Blooded Vamp (read)
7) Jaye Wells-Rusted Veins (read)
I read the first book in the trilogy earlier this year and finished it this summer.
1) JR Tate-Tornado Warning (read)
2) JR Tate-Drought Warning (read)
3) JR Tate-Blizzard Warning (read)
I read The First Days and Untold Tales vol
1 in 2015 but this is me just getting round to a series catchup which is now complete.
1) Rhiannon Frater-The First Days (read)
2) Rhiannon Frater-Deadly Night (read)
3) Rhiannon Frater-Untold Tales vol 1 (read)
4) Rhiannon Frater-Fighting To Survive (read)
5) Rhiannon Frater-A Very Fort Christmas (read)
6) Rhiannon Frater-Untold Tales vol 2 (read)
7) Rhiannon Frater-Siege (read)
8) Rhiannon Frater-Untold Tales vol 3 (read)
Royal Challenge
These books take longer to read so I'll be pleased to get any of them done!
1) Kate Emerson-The Pleasure Palace
2) Diane Haeger-The Queen's Mistake
3) Laurien Gardner-Plain Jane (read)
4) Margaret Campbell Barnes-My Lady of Cleves
Horror Thrills!
I want all these read if possible this summer, time allowing.
1) Ania Ahlborn-The Shuddering
2) Hunter Shea-The Montauk Monster
3) Jack Kilborn-Origin (read)
4) Seth C Adams-If You Go Down To The Woods Today
5) Paul Mannering-Eat (read)
6) Clayton Dean Edwards-The Hollow Places (DNF)
SF/Dystopian
One good, one bad, one ok and one to go!
1) Rebecca Rode-Flicker
2) Jeff VanderMeer-Annihilation (read)
3) Alan David-Starfall Muta (read)
4) PK Hawkins-Recon Marines (read)
Fantasy Fling!
I would like to have these read but are less of a priority.
1) Conn Iggulden-Darien
2) Seth Skorkowski-Damoren
3) Justin Somper-Allies & Assassins (read)
4) Donna Galanti-Joshua & The Lightning Road
Apocalypse Angst!
The apocalypse choices haven't been outstanding but a couple were decent.
1) Norman Christof-Destination Lost (read)
2) Diana E Anderson-Premonitions 2 (read)
3) David Berardelli-And Darkness Fell (DNF)
4) Andy Bennett-The Line (DNF)
5) Jack Hunt-Days of Panic (read)
6) Robert Boren-The Plan (read)
7) Craig McDonough-Toward The Brink (read)
Non Fiction
Completed!
1) Philipp von Boeselager-Valkyrie (read)
2) James Comey-A Higher Loyalty (read)
3) Nick Robinson-Election Notebook (read)
4) Norman Tebbit-Upwardly Mobile (read)
Short Stories/Novellas
This gets a lot swept off the ereaders!
1) Logan Keys/Mike Kraus-The Long Fall (DNF)
2) EL Montclair-The Sky Grew Dark (read)
3) Brian McClellan-The Girl of Hrusch Avenue (read)
4) Nazri Noor-Penumbra (read)
5) Patrick Kealan Burke-Sour Candy (read)
6) Ambrose Ibsen-The Lonesome Dead (read)
7) Brian McClellan-Hope's End (read)
8) Catherine Glenn Holsclaw-Bigfoot
9) Jeff Strand-Facial (DNF)
10) Jon Athan-Butcher Road (read)
11) Brian McClellan-Green Eyed Vipers (read)
12) Brian McClellan-Murder at Kinnen Hotel (read)
13) Brian McClellan-The Face in the Window (read)
14) Brian McClellan-Ghosts of the Tristan Base (read)
Zombies!
I'm hoping the rest are either decent or quick DNFs...
1) M Van-Ash (read)
2) RL Blalock-Devour (DNF)
3) Lee Dunter-Crowded But Desolate (read)
4) Jeff Favreau-Break Away (DNF)
5) Linda Zimmermann-HVZA
6) Damon Hunter-Rot (DNF)
Dinosaurs!
A bit mixed so far but I want these read this summer.
1) Hugo Navikov-The Found World (read)
2) Michael Bray-The Island (read)
3) Jonah Buck-Carrion Shadows
4) Rick Chesler-DMZ
5) Russ Watts-Jurassic Hell (read)
6) Jason Rubis-Terror Birds (DNF)
Sharks!
It's not summer without sharks...
1) Chris Jameson-Shark Beach (read)
2) SJ Larsson-Megalodon Apex Predator (read)
3) John Lee Schneider-White Pointer (read)
4) Alan Spencer-Space Sharks (read)
5) Tim Waggoner-Blood Island (read)
6) Charles Pero-Waxing Deadly
This will be, I hope, a recurring feature that will be on the blog
each time I watch a film. I used to love films so much and could watch a
pile of them in my spare time. However with my focus on reading, I find
little time to enjoy films that are new to me but now I need to start
clearing the unwatched pile and get some space back! Here are the latest films I watched.
1) Sully
Starring Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Anna Gunn and Mike O'Malley.
While the world hails Sully as a hero for safely landing his flight in the Hudson river and saving 155 passengers and crew, the NTSB are viewing evidence that suggests he endangered the passengers by not returning to the airport. This is a look at the investigation, with flashbacks to the crash, and how the pilots fought to clear their names.
I'm a fan of Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart as actors and of Clint Eastwood as a director. I have always had an interest in air disasters, having previously worked in the industry, so I was always going to be watching this film. I remember being gobsmacked by HOW the pilots managed to land safely on the river without death or serious injury and I remember all the news headlines about it. Finally, I sat down to watch it.
I had not been aware that the film is focused on the investigation into the crash, or that the NTSB were looking at pilot error as the cause of the crash. I only heard all the stories about Sully being the hero, not that he was pretty much being accused of endangering the passengers by not returning to the airport after the bird strike. There was an accusation that one of the engines was still in working order and computer simulations that showed the flight could have landed safely in New York or New Jersey. The pilots did not agree with this assessment and had to start fighting to clear their names as their careers were at risk if they were found to have been at fault.
The flashback scenes to the crash are tense and dramatic and you get a sense of just how quickly decisions had to be made and exactly what kind of disaster was facing the crew. We see how the flight attendants were trying to keep everyone calm as panic was not surprisingly starting to affect the terrified passengers. We see the rescue boats and helicopters coming to their rescue and are with Sully as he nervously waits to see if everyone got off the plane safely. I think the scariest bit for me was watching nervously as the pilots face the final enquiry and have their own theories tested in a bid to clear their names. It was actually quite emotional, something that Clint Eastwood always does well as a director, tapping in to the very human side of the story and making you care about these people.
The NTSB come across as pretty mean and hostile in the film. I get that they have a job to do but I really didn't like them at all as characters. When it came to the final part of the investigation, they are showing 'evidence' that other pilots in simulators could have landed the plane at an airport and then you are told how many practices they had at doing it before they got it right! This smacked of wanting the pilots to be scapegoats and I really didn't like that. I found myself sticking two fingers up at them as their evidence fell apart!
I enjoyed this film very much. The acting was excellent and it showed all aspects of the situation-the crash, the escape from the plane and rescue, the media interest, the effect on Sully and his wife, the investigation, reaction from ordinary people, trying to clear their names...it covered everything I wanted to know about the incident. I would certainly watch it again.
2) Silver Linings Playbook
Starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, John Ortiz and Anupam Kher.
When Pat is released from a psychiatric unit, he is obsessed with getting his wife back, despite the restraining order she has against him. He becomes friends with trauma survivor Tiffany, who agrees to help him get a message to his wife if he'll dance with her in an upcoming competition.
I'm not a fan of the contemporary or romance genres so I read this book on a complete whim and found myself enjoying it more than I expected to. I like a lot of the actors in the film and I was interested to see how they would bring the characters to life when I finally got round to watching it.
Bradley Cooper gets better as an actor every time I see him. Pat was the kind of character that you root for and want to strangle at the same time! The mental health issues that he suffered from are brought to the fore when he catches his wife with another man and beats him senseless. The plea bargain leads him into a psychiatric hospital, which he is now releases from. He may have been released but he is still obsessed by his wife, ready to break the law to contact her, and unable to get it through his head that the relationship is over. I wanted to scream at him at times but he is also a nice guy so I was rooting for him to move on with his life. Tiffany went off the rails after her husband died, losing her job for sleeping with every guy where she worked. She is battling to find some self worth and a chance meeting with Pat, despite awkward moments, starts a new friendship based on understanding what it is like to have issues. I thought Jennifer Lawrence was excellent in the part, and the pair worked well on screen as a partnership.
Pat's family are just as eccentric with his OCD father, played so well by Robert DeNiro, his worried mother, and his brother who is having his own family issues. I felt for his brother as his social climbing wife was a bit of a challenge at times! I was also amused by the scenes involving Chris Tucker as Pat's friend from the psychiatric unit who makes a few escape attempts. He is pretty funny. One of my favourite bits in the book was the 'asian invasion' at the football game, led by Pat's doctor. I loved those guys! My one complaint with the film is that I wanted to see more of them than we did. I did like the mixture of emotional drama and humour, the conversations between Tiffany and Pat as they both just say what they think all the time.
I can't actually remember if the story plays out in the book exactly as it did in the film as it has been a few years since I read the book, but I did enjoy watching this. I'm not sure if I could watch it over and over but it was entertaining.
Welcome to my Friday Reading Roundup! This feature will show exactly what I've been reading and DNFing through the week.
This week's post covers what I read between Sunday and Friday, as I switched this post to be a regular Friday feature.
