Stacking the Shelves #93

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! Click on the link under the book to find its page on Goodreads or Smashwords. 

Please note that I always leave a message on your STS/SP if you visit me, but if you use DISQUS or a similar third party I will not be able to leave a comment on your page. And sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress so you might get a double message sometimes! Blame them, not me!

              

So another week has passed and it's time for STS again. I've had another decent week with reading so I'm pretty happy. My book buying has been limited as well so that is also good news! I'm trying to keep it under control through the summer but I'm worried about all the upcoming Amazon sales! Still, at least I'm addicted to books and not things that damage my health! 

 

I am feeling pretty grumpy this morning though-last night we had high winds across my part of Scotland which I find very unsettling plus there was a monster sized bloody spider in the bathroom which had me running screaming to fetch my dad! WHY do the damn things need so many horrible hairy legs??? To run over your unsuspecting face in the middle of the night, I don't doubt. *shudder*  Did you know there are spiders the size of dinner plates? Try looking up huntsman spiders on YouTube and see the size of the monster one in that toilet, stretched right across the toilet seat!!! I've been having nervous trauma since I saw that...

 

BOUGHT PAPERBACKS:

 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17563580-haunted-house 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17328116-the-greek-myths 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10060707-the-penguin-book-of-norse-myths 

 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2682739-coronation-street 

 

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Book Review: Percy Jackson & The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan (Olympians #3)

IT'S NOT EVERYDAY YOU FIND YOURSELF IN COMBAT WITH A HALF-LION, HALF-HUMAN.

But when you're the son of a Greek god, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half-blood heroes can join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster.

Oh, and guess what? The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive...

My Review:

Percy, Annabeth and Thalia go on a mission to help Grover retrieve two halfbloods from a military school. The intervention of Artemis and her hunters leads to Annabeth being captured, and Mr D does not want anybody out searching for them. Then Artemis goes missing and a quest is about to begin.

This book again had good ideas, nice interaction between Gods and demigods and a good weave of Greek mythology. The actual story was fine and could have been really great but the spoiled brats that are our main characters bugged me way too much.

Firstly Zoe and the hunters. Their 'we hate boys they smell' attitude reminds me of five year old girls in the school playground and I got bored with that after a few chapters. Zoe bitches constantly at Percy and Grover. Zoe bitches at Thalia. Thalia bitches at Zoe. Clarisse bitches at everyone. It was a bitchfest from Hell School and frankly if I want to see that all day, I'll watch the local kids out playing. It was not entertaining for me and it was just dull.

Then we had Bianca and Niko, the rescued half blood kids. Bianca decides to abandon Niko to join the hunters which he is naturally upset about. However, Niko is a whiny and annoying brat so you can't really blame Bianca for taking a chance to ditch him. But seriously, how in the hell can Bianca be selected for a mission when she has had no training? This is just utter madness. You might as well put a sign round her neck saying 'monster bait'. And for the son of a God to be as dumb as Percy continues to be...well it was frustrating.

It's not a bad book. In fact had there been less of the petty fights, this book had the potential to be the best in the series, and I'll be interested if they do a film of it. I really liked the Atlas story and the rest of the monsters were entertaining as they always are. I just couldn't fully enjoy it because of the niggles I've already mentioned.

Overall the storytelling and plot were worthy of three stars but shouting insults at the characters every page for being dumb or getting into pointless arguments wore me down. Having a friend tell me that the next book has whiny Niko blaming Percy for everything bad in his life and Percy and Annabeth are constantly fighting about Luke brought me to the decision that I'm fed up with dumb kids and their bitching and whining. So it is sadly farewell to Percy Jackson for me, which is a shame when the Greek mythology plots are so interesting!

Book Review: Sue Barton Superintendent Nurse by Helen Dore Boylston (Sue Barton #5)

Sue marries Bill and becomes head of a small new nursing school; problems with Marianna and the other students, dissatisfaction with her job, and a rift in her marriage complicate Sue's life.

My Review:
I noticed with a groan that the plot on the back of the book featured yet another relationship crisis for Sue and Bill, AND she was doing a job that she doesn't like. I had a few reservations about this book and it turned out to be the poorest in the series.

Lets start with Bill and Sue. Bill is in a mood because Sue doesn't want to go fishing with him. Bill is in a mood because when he returns from fishing, Sue is more concerned about his bleeding hand than the big fish he has caught. Your wife is a trained nurse you idiot! Of course she is going to deal first with the bleeding hand of her doctor husband and not be caring much about the fish until that has been dealt with. Bill is in a mood because Sue keeps talking about her problem with Marianna. Bill doesn't like Sue being flippant sometimes. Bill is in a mood because Sue was out with Kit instead of him, and like a spoiled brat, he won't let Sue explain what happened. He is back to the sulky boy we saw in book two. I wanted to shoot him in this book. He does not treat Sue well and then he gets sulky again when Sue won't confide in him about Marianna! You told her you didn't want to hear any more about Marianna and now you think Sue doesn't love you because she won't talk to you about Marianna? Jeez Bill, why don't you grow up???

Is Kit ever planning to be anything other than Sue's sidekick? In the last book, Bill got Kit the job in charge at a hospital nearby, yet here she takes a demotion to play assistant to Sue? Frankly, Kit is the one who should be Superintendent and Sue on the wards, instead of having both women in jobs unsuited to their skills. It seems as if Sue can't function without Kit being there. I do like Kit and I'm pleased she features heavily in the book but please let her get the job she deserves! And I miss Connie who has vanished from the universe it seems.

The student nurses are a mixed bunch and Jean is seriously in need of a slap. Ooh I'm going to hate Sue just because you all love her. How childish is that? I was more mature at ten than some of these dumb girls are at 18 and over! Every time Jean appeared I got even more fed up with the book. Then we get Marianna behaving like a rude little brat as usual-but the good news is that she decides to leave nursing and runs away! Hurrah! It was fun not to have to listen to her moan and complain for a while.

This was not a great book. There was too much pointless angst and very little about the actual nursing. The lack of plot and focus on silly fights between Sue and Bill made this a bit disappointing.

Book Review: Percy Jackson & Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan (Olympians #2)

The heroic son of Poseidon makes an action-packed comeback in the second must-read installment of Rick Riordan's amazing young readers series. Starring Percy Jackson, a "half blood" whose mother is human and whose father is the God of the Sea, Riordan's series combines cliffhanger adventure and Greek mythology lessons that results in true page-turners that get better with each installment. In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book's drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come.

My Review:
Percy gets through a whole year without being expelled until the last day of school when he is blamed for a fire caused by a monster attack. He is saved by his strange new friend Tyson and the arrival of Annabeth, who has had her own difficult summer. Camp Half Blood is under attack, Grover is in trouble on his quest and Luke is back.

This book wasn't as good as the first book but I'd give it 2.5 instead of just 2 stars. The reasons for this are firstly, the fact that Grover is absent for a fair portion of the book except in dream sequences. He is my favourite camp character so I missed his humour. Chiron is sacked and accused of poisoning Thalia's tree which reduces the protection around the Camp and puts everyone in danger. This is what leads to the idea of locating the Golden Fleece to restore the tree and save Camp Half Blood. The new man in Chiron's place is the very annoying Tantalus, sent from the Underworld. He seems set on destroying the Camp and Mr D doesn't seem to care, so these scenes I found to be very irritating. Our new main character is Tyson. I liked the idea of a Cyclops kid being claimed by Poseidon but giving him the personality of a toddler was not something I found entertaining and I wasn't greatly keen on him to start with.

Percy and Annabeth aren't much better as they both become whiny and keep fighting. Clarisse again fights constantly with Percy and for someone who is a great warrior, she is just too dumb and smart mouthed to live. She was driving me nuts. Luke does not suit the role of uber bad guy either-I find him very unconvincing, and I get annoyed with Annabeth continually seeming to defend him despite trying to kill Percy and start a war. Get a grip you stupid girl!

The book does improve in the second half when we get into the quest and get into the mythology. I liked Hermes as a character, Tyson stops acting like a big baby and finds some courage and personality. We get a few good scenes with the Sirens trying to catch Annabeth, Percy finding his inner animal, cannibal sheep, Grover's big fat Cyclops wedding...and my favourite bit of the book: The Party Ponies hit Miami! Chiron's centaur relatives are like mad frat boys with hooves and root beer, and they are very funny! I wish these guys were at Camp Half Blood to add some fun to the summer! I can't believe these mad ponies are related to Chiron.

The mythology introduced in this book was really interesting so it was a shame that too much of this book was taken up with petty fights and immature behaviour. Camp Half Blood was no fun and the whole first half of the book dragged for me and was actually quite boring in places. Although the second half was much better, it was not enough to get the book up to 3 stars. I hope the rest of the series picks up or I won't continue much further.

Star Rating: 2.5/5 

Film Review: Jurassic World (2015)

A new theme park is built on the original site of Jurassic Park. Everything is going well until the park's newest attraction--a genetically modified giant stealth killing machine--escapes containment and goes on a killing spree.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369610/?ref_=nv_sr_1 
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.

My Review:
Ok, I LOVE dinosaurs. When I was about 6 or 7 I told my teacher that I wanted to be a dinosaur when I grew up. I used to run around the playground pretending to be a pterasaur  I was so excited when the original Jurassic Park films came out and I went to see the first two countless times at the cinema. Since the third film, there have rumours about another film and now FINALLY it has arrived! Would it live up to the hype?

Bet your ass it did. AWESOME!

I loved this film! When you get that first look at the actual theme park, you wistfully think it's a shame it isn't real so you can visit the attractions and see all the dinosaurs. Loved the petting zoo, the monorail, those nifty pod things that let you get close to the dinosaurs, the Seaworld setting with that scary dinocroc thing, the gift shops, visitor's centre, control room....ooh I wanted to go there and enjoy all the rides and things.

Until all hell breaks loose of course! The new genetic hybrid monster is scary and really exciting! When it escapes, the tension level is so high that it really gets the heart pounding. You thought the T Rex was a scary guy? Well you don't want to meet this thing! I really liked the idea that they were using the intelligence of the raptors to try to train them and you could see the different personalities showing through, especially Blue. Blue was brilliant! I really enjoyed all the scenes with the raptors right through the film. Did I mention how much I love those flying dinosaurs? If you like them, you are really in for a treat with this film. 

The range of dinosaurs featured is great. The special effects are brilliant and provide for some really exciting action sequences, plus we get scary moments, humour and a few emotional scenes that I wasn't expecting which made my lip quiver! 

The casting was excellent. Chris Pine is great as the action hero working with the raptors to 'tame' them. Vincent D'Onofrio is a great actor and as usual he played that smug and slimy bad guy role perfectly. Irrfan Khan and Jake Johnson provide a bit of fun to the scenes...on the whole I was pleased with the casting and nobody annoyed me which was a bonus!

So yes, I really enjoyed this film and I will be buying the dvd as soon as it is released-hopefully with lots of making of docs and things!