Bits & Pieces

Now that October is uponst us, I just want to remind everyone about All Hallow's Read!!  My post on that is here, along with links to more information about the event. 

The short version?  Give someone a (age-appropriate) scary book for Halloween!  It'll be fun!  Come on!! 
(You know you want to...)

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Also I would like to officially welcome the most recent followers, Lee from Bookish Boy, and Amie at Mom Reads My Books.  Check out both of their blogs if you get a chance, they're both quite entertaining!

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If you don't already know all about TheBloggess.com, then you are totally missing out.  She's hysterically funny.  Go check it out.  Now! 

(Seriously - she has a picture of Wil Wheaton collating paper.  Go now!!)

(But don't forget to come back when you're done, okay?)

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If you have a Nook you probably already know this, but each Friday Barnes & Noble does a "Free Friday" book on their book blog.  This week's is "Blood Safari" by South African writer Deon Meyer.  If you're interested.

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Ok, I think that's it for now!  Have a great weekend, everyone!!

Review - Movie catch-up - August & September

Conan the Barbarian * * * *
Starring: Jason Momoa, Ron Perlman and Rose McGowan

The story begins, of course, with the young Conan and the destruction of his entire way of life when his village is savagely attacked and his father murdered.  The narrative then jumps to the adult Conan, who years later discovers the identity of the men responsible for the massacre, and he sets out on a mission of revenge.

The story is mostly predictable, but that doesn't detract from the movie.  The sets and CGI work were quite good, giving Conan's world a sense of reality and history that most fantasy movies just don't have.  Jason Momoa was perfect for the part, and both Bob and I quite enjoyed this movie.

The Debt * * * * *
Starring: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington and Tom Wilkinson

I really don't know how to describe this movie in a way that makes sense, so here's the plot summary from IMDB:
"The espionage thriller begins in 1997, as shocking news reaches retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (Helen Mirren) and Stefan (Tom Wilkinson) about their former colleague David (Ciarán Hinds). All three have been venerated for decades by their country because of the mission that they undertook back in 1966, when the trio (portrayed, respectively, by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas, and Sam Worthington) tracked down Nazi war criminal Vogel (Jesper Christensen) in East Berlin. At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the team's mission was accomplished - or was it? The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations."

This movie was amazing!!  There are indeed "startling action and surprising revelations," which several times had me nearly leaping out of my seat!  This is not, however, a comfortable movie.  There were several scenes which were psychologically  uncomfortable to watch due to the references to Vogel's crimes, (nothing depicted, just talked about), but that were important to the story.  Also the female agent gets beaten on fairly severely in both timelines, which was uncomfortable for me to watch personally, but was really relevant to the plot as well. 

The ending was amazing, but left us thinking about the value of lies vs. total honesty, which was one of the major themes in the film.  Helen Mirren was, naturally, bloody brilliant, as always.  So overall the movie gets 5 stars from me, with the warning that there will be moments where you might be uncomfortable and scenes that will make you think.

Abduction * * *
Starring: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Maria Bello and Sigourney Weaver

A thriller (more like thriller lite) about a teenager (Lautner) who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website, and realizing that his parents aren't really his parents.  Completely predictable, a bit slow in some places, but overall not bad for Lautner's first post-Twilight film.  Fun and even humorous in spots, easy and light with no real thought required.  Sigourney Weaver and Maria Bello still manage to shine in their supporting roles, as they always do.  It would have been better with the romantic aspect, which felt forced and awkward, but I suppose the teenagers will enjoy the movie anyway.

Oh wait.  I enjoyed it too.  Hmmm - what does that say about me?

Moving on!! Movies I'm still looking forward to include:

In Time - (This looks A-Frickin'-Mazing!  Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Matt Bomer, Alex Pettyfer, Cillian Murphy, & Johnny Galecki)

The Three Musketeers (Milla Jovovich & Orlando Bloom)

Anonymous (Political thriller theorizing that Shakespeare didn't exist. Vanessa Redgrave & David Thewlis).

Immortals (Henry Cavill, Freida Pinto - Looks awesome!)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr. Hooray - The boys are back!!)

Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol (I am such a sucker for this theme song!)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Daniel Craig and, oh who cares? It's Daniel Craig! Hopefully this will rock!)

Teaser Tuesday - The Way of Kings

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their To Be Read (TBR) Lists if they like your teasers!

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I'm really getting into this book, and having a very difficult time putting it down long enough to do things like sleep and go to work!  In this tease, the King and his uncle are discussing what may have been an attempt on the King's life.

The Tease:

 "Well, so far we have nothing conclusive.  Nobody has taken credit for trying to kill you, even in rumor.  Nobody saw anything suspicious."

 -The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson

What's your Tease?

Teaser Tuesday - The Way of Kings

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their To Be Read (TBR) Lists if they like your teasers!

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This passage made me giggle - The ardent (sort of a holy teacher/priest, I think), has just threatened to dance a jig on the table unless Shallan stops treating him so reverently.  She begs him not to...

The Tease:

 ""Are you certain?" he glanced at the desk appraisingly.
"Yes," Shallan said, imagining the ardent teetering and making a misstep, then falling off the balcony and plunging dozens of feet to the ground below.
"Please, I promise not to respect you any longer!""

 -The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson

What's your Tease?

Book Review - The Murder at the Vicarage

Miss Marple Mysteries, by Agathe Christie
1. The Murder at the Vicarage, 09/20/2011 * * * *

From Goodreads: 

The first Miss Marple mystery, one which tests all her powers of observation and deduction.

"Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe," declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, "would be doing the world at large a favor!"

It was a careless remark for a man of the cloth. And one which was to come back and haunt the clergyman just a few hours later—when the Colonel is found shot dead in the clergyman's study. But as Miss Marple soon discovers, the whole village seems to have had a motive to kill Colonel Protheroe.

My Thoughts:
I loved it!

Period. Plain and simple. I loved it!  I've read several Miss Marple Mysteries in the past, but just randomly - never in order, and never this first one.  The mystery is viewed through the eyes of the parson as the only viewpoint character.  Miss Marple, who happens to live next door to the vicarage, observes many things, and eventually put all the unusual things together to solve the crime, but graciously allowing the bumbling inspector to take the credit.

One of the things that I found charming about the story is the way everyone just wandered in and out of the vicarage at will, constantly entering the parson's study by "stepping through the window," which I found rather odd at first.  Eventually I decided this must actually be some sort of French door, although the mental image of little old ladies and teenagers climbing over a three foot window sill stuck in my head through the end of the book!

All in all a fabulous read, enjoyable, and even though I once again failed to determine who the killer was before Miss Marple did (how does she do that!?) I still loved it, and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series in order.  4/5 stars.

Teaser Tuesday - The Murder at the Vicarage

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their To Be Read (TBR) Lists if they like your teasers!

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I'm so glad I started this Miss Marple mystery!  It's the second book I'm reading on my Nook Color, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  Except I can't quite figure out who the murderer is!

The Tease:

 "I asked her the question then that I had been meaning to put all along.
"Miss Marple," I said. "Who do you suspect?  You once said that there were seven people."
"Quite that, I should think," said Miss Marple absently.  "I expect every one of us suspects someone different.""

 -The Murder at the Vicarage, by Agathe Christie

What's your Tease?

Book Review - Ghost Story

The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher
1. Storm Front        2/3/2007
2. Fool Moon         2/5/2007
3. Grave Peril         1/23/2007
4. Summer Knight   2/14/2007
5. Death Masks      2/16/2007
6. Blood Rites         2/18/2007
7. Dead Beat           8/23/2007
8. Proven Guilty       8/26/2007
9. White Night         10/30/2007
10. Small Favor        4/2/2010
11. Turn Coat          4/8/2010
12. Changes             5/10/2011
13. Ghost Story        9/14/2011 * * * * *

***** Big-Huge-Spoiler-Alert-You-Have-Been-Warned! *****

From Goodreads:

When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn't doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin.

But being dead doesn't stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has nobody, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own.

To save his friends-and his own soul-Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic...

My Thoughts:

The 'blurb really doesn't explain the premise of this novel very well.  I mean, that is partly what the story is about, but it's also a lot more than that.  At the end of "Changes" Harry is murdered and falls into Lake Michigan.  When he awakens at the beginning of "Ghost Story" he learns that he is dead, six months have passed, and he is given the choice to go back to try to solve his murder, and help save some of his friends from dying.  Being Harry, he of course chooses to go back, and is heart-broken to learn how drastically things have changed in Chicago since his death, and the devastating effects to his friends.


Harry struggles to learn to cope and function as a ghost or spirit (although several characters comment that he isn't really a ghost and not really a spirit but something else), learning quickly about the huge supernatural threat to the city and his friends, but is so intent on saving his friends, (and in several cases, complete strangers) that he makes little headway into solving his own murder until very close to the end where several huge reveals are made.


While the story doesn't lack at all in the action department, quite a bit of the story is spent with Harry musing over past events, both the recent events told in the novel "Changes," and also several key events from his childhood.  Harry becomes very introspective in this tale, focusing on how his choices and actions in the past have shaped and affected the lives and choices of those around him, specifically his closest friends, but also the city and supernatural communities at large as well.  This 'interconnectedness' of choices and cause/effect is a recurring theme running through the story, and it's fascinating to see how his choices (both good and bad) have changed the landscape of his world, and how they will affect his future as well.


Yes, one of those huge reveals I mentioned does in fact deal with his future - basically that he will have one - but I won't say any more than that as the plot twist was surprising and thrilling (at least to me), and I wouldn't want to ruin the details for anyone.  Suffice it to say that this won't be the last Dresden File, and while this story was slower and more introspective and mental than the previous novels, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and can't wait to see what mysteries and challenges are waiting for Harry next!  "Ghost Story" gets five stars, as does the series overall.


Have you read "Ghost Story" or any of the other Dresden Files?  As always, please leave your thoughts and comments below!

Teaser Tuesday - The Way of Kings

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their To Be Read (TBR) Lists if they like your teasers!

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So now I'm reading so many books that I'm not making any progress on any of them!  I'm going to have to find a way to set some of them aside and just concentrate on one.  But which one!  Arrgh!!  So while I sort out this mess I've created for myself, why don't you just sit back and enjoy today's Tease from The Way of Kings...I think I'm going to really enjoy this one!

The Tease:

 "You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me!  While the sun is still hot, I die!"

 -The Way of Kings: Book One of The Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson

What's your Tease?

All Hollow's Read

Tor.com announced yesterday that they will be participating this year in All Hallow's Read, which is a brand new annual tradition that author Neil Gaiman started in October of 2010.

The original premise is simple - on All Hallow's Eve (or Halloween, whichever term you prefer) or the week before, give someone a scary book.

That's it.  Give someone, or multiple someones, a scary book.  Give a child a scary book that they would like and can handle (age appropriateness is a good thing!)  Give your best friend your favorite Stephen King novel, or pass along a copy of one of Dean Koontz's delightfully terrifying novels to a stranger on the bus!  It can be a new book, or a used copy - it really doesn't matter.  Just give someone a scary book!

I think this tradition sounds awesome, and I plan to participate.  When my nephew was young (4 or maybe 5?) his favorite bedtime story was The Monster at the End of this Book.  We read that thing every night for months, until the pages were falling out and the cover was trashed, and still he wanted it every night, and when it finally disintegrated we had to go buy a new copy to satisfy the little guy!  I think this will be the perfect opportunity to introduce my great-nephew to the book if I can find it, and hopefully he will love it just as much!

I also have a couple of extra copies of The Stand by Stephen King that I could easily hand off to people.  It wasn't the first Stephen King novel I ever read but it scared me the most, and I vividly remember reading it late into the night (ok, early morning) one summer and suddenly realizing I was alone in the house with the sliding glass door wide open and being too terrified to cross the living room to close and lock the door until my roommate came home!  (I often wish that I could somehow read it again for the first time to have that feeling again - delightfully and fantastically awesome!)

But if doesn't have to be a "Horror" novel!  There are scary books in every genre - Sci-Fi, Young Adult, Children's, Dark Fantasy, Paranormal and/or Romance (anyone remember Phyllis A. Whitney's adult suspense novels?), Thrillers, and Mysteries - just about any genre you can think of!

Anyway, if you'd like to read up a little more on All Hallow's Read here are some links:
Neil Gaiman's Journal - Where he writes about first coming up with the idea.
AllHallowsRead.com  - More information about the idea, including book recommendations!
Tor.com - Tor's Blog announcement listing all the ways they plan to participate, with giveaways and more!

Need more?  You can also follow and join in the conversations on Twitter by using the #AllHallowsRead hashtag.  So join in the fun and help me spread the word!  And if you plan to participate, why not leave a comment below letting us all know who you plan to terrify this year, and how!  And if you have a good scary book recommendation in an unusual genre, or just want to tell us what your favorite scary book is, leave that in the comments too - I'd love to hear it!!

Teaser Tuesday - The Murder at the Vicarage

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their To Be Read (TBR) Lists if they like your teasers!

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Hi everyone!!  I'm back from vacation, (had a lovely time, thanks for asking!) and ready to get started on posting again - soon-ish...Unfortunately as soon as I got home I got sick and haven't felt like doing much, but I'm starting to feel better and will hopefully have some new posts coming in a few days!  So this week the tease is from a new book (cuz now I'm juggling several again - does that happen to anyone else on vacation?).  Well, actually not new, and I'm sure I've read it before but I don't remember it and it's the first Miss Marple Mystery and I adore Miss Marple and it was free!  What's better than free, right?  So - onward! 


 The Tease:

 "I had just finished carving some boiled beef (remarkably tough by the way) and on resuming my seat I remarked, in a spirit most unbecoming to my cloth, that anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe would be doing the world at large a service. 
My young nephew, Dennis, said instantly: "That'll be remembered against you when the old boy is found bathed in blood.  Mary will give evidence, won't you Mary?  And describe how you brandished the carving knife in a vindictive manner.""

 -The Murder at the Vicarage, A Miss Marple Mystery, by Agathe Christie

What's your Tease?