A primer in gothic lit

That is what I needed when I decided to read Matthew Lewis's The Monk.  And I'd say I received a pretty good overview of the genre.  Hey, you can only read Bram Stoker's Dracula just so many times.  Or can you?  Back to the blood-sucking bat cave!

Disclaimer: Yes, I know vampire bats are from South America and yes, I know bats are barely in Stoker's novel.  I recall the titular count being likened to one as he clung to the side of the castle... or was that a lizard?  Yup, now I have to read it again.  But here is my review of The Monk first.

Book Review: The Monk

Source: pintrest.com

Source: epublishabook.com

Ozzy gives bats nightmares.  How droll. / Source: sanitaryum.tumblr.com

Source: Amazon.com

The Monk, by Matthew Lewis

From the book’s cover:

Set in the sinister monastery of the Capuchins in Madrid, The Monk is a violent tale of ambition, murder, and incest. The great struggle between maintaining monastic vows and fulfilling personal ambitions leads its main character, the monk Ambrosio, to temptation and the breaking of his vows, then to sexual obsession and rape, and finally to murder in order to conceal his guilt. The only edition of this key gothic novel available, The Monk now offers a new introduction and notes that make it especially accessible to the modern reader.

Talk Like A Pirate Day isn't for another four months...

...but we're talking like pirates today.  The very recent discovery of the infamous Captain Kidd treasure (well maybe it's part of his treasure, but the jury is still sharpening their cutlasses on that one) led me to remember this little review I had tucked away. 

Book Review: Pirate Latitudes

And here is the link to the Captain Kidd treasure story too, if you're curious.  Kidd's supposed habit of hiding his treasure is said to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write Treasure Island.  I already reviewed that one.  So Pirate Latitudes will have to stand in, in its stead.

Source: mjeffryes.net

Source: Amazon.com

Pirate Latitudes, by Michael Crichton

From the book’s cover:

Jamaica in 1665 is a rough outpost of the English crown, a minor colony holding out against the vast supremacy of the Spanish empire. Port Royal, Jamaica′s capital, a cut-throat town of taverns, grog shops, and bawdy houses, is devoid of London′s luxuries; life here can end swiftly with dysentery or a dagger in your back. But for Captain Edward Hunter it is a life that can also lead to riches, if he abides by the island′s code. In the name of His Majesty King Charles II of England, gold in Spanish hands is gold for the taking. And law in the New World is made by those who take it into their hands.

Word in port is that the Spanish treasure galleon El Trinidad, fresh from New Spain, is stalled in nearby Matanceros harbor awaiting repairs. Heavily fortified, the impregnable Spanish outpost is guarded by the blood-swiller Cazalla, a favorite commander of King Philip IV himself. With the governor′s backing, Hunter assembles a roughneck crew to infiltrate the enemy island and commandeer the galleon, along with its fortune in Spanish gold. The raid is as perilous as the bloody legends of Matanceros suggest, and Hunter will lose more than one man before he finds himself on the island′s shores, where dense jungle and the firepower of Spanish infantry are all that stand between him and the treasure.

With the help of his cunning crew, Hunter hijacks El Trinidad and escapes the deadly clutches of Cazalla, leaving plenty of carnage in his wake. But his troubles have just begun. . . .

Local out of a Common Ocean

That'd be the opposite to the title of today's book being reviewed. 

Book Review: Stranger in a Strange Land

And on the topic of sci-fi, here's a meme I saw today that seemed worth including.

The Most Interesting Sith Lord in the Galaxy. / Source: MSN.com

Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

Source: Amazon.com

From the book's cover:

Valentine Michael Smith is a human being raised on Mars, newly returned to Earth. Among his people for the first time, he struggles to understand the social mores and prejudices of human nature that are so alien to him, while teaching them his own fundamental beliefs in grokking, watersharing, and love. 

The review:

My first exposure to Heinlein's work, I must admit, was the movie version of Starship Troopers.  I was in living a busy but fulfilling life in Arizona when that film came out, and didn't see it, except for a minute or two glimpsed on TV after it released on home video.  In fact, I can't say as I've seen the whole film ever in my life.  Maybe I watched it once on TV, long after the fact.  I can't say.  The things I recall from my initial impression of the film was that I found Heinlein's use of Mormons as fodder for the alien bug species' wrath to be more than a little annoying (in the story, so far as I've come to understand, Mormons go off to some other planet to be weirdos, and are then attacked by the bugs aliens of the plot and nearly wiped out; the portrayal of Mormons is as askew as if an author depicted all catholics as bred, wed, and dead and the rest of the time being drunkards and dogmatics).  Also regarding Starship Troopers, I recall hearing, and perhaps later seeing for myself, that Heinlein had wrote the soldier characters who go off to fight the bugs as being very much hyper-sexualized and into a lot of "free love."

Bowing to pressure

Movie Review: Into The Woods

My most vocal reader has been complaining about the way I do the blog these days.  The jumps from the main page to the content, I mean.  And so, in an effort to give the people what they want (a quote - and not a very nice one, I might add - from one of our founding fathers about "The People," comes to mind), I will put my latest review here, below.  On the main page.  Yes, there is still a little jump to open the rest of the content, but if you can't live with that concession, then... complain some more and I'll cave on that too, I guess.  I feel like such a sell-out.

Into The Woods (2014)



A witch tasks a childless baker and his wife with procuring magical items from classic fairy tales to reverse the curse put on their family tree.  Short synopsis of Into the Woods taken from IMDb.com

I thought "This is a good idea," when Into The Woods began screening on my TV.  But what started as a good idea seemed then to drag itself to death, and bore me in the process.  First of all, I know this is based on some Broadway play or something, and the idea is good, as I said.  But really, there is WAY too much singing going on.  The lyrics are very clever, and the characterizations of the fairy tale folk works nicely, in theory.  But I got tired of the plot very fast.  I thought it was too much of a good thing in places, and so it seemed to overflow its banks and get messy.  The plot needed tightening up.  Or lose a character.  I vote we kick Rapunzel off the island.  She doesn't do anything anyway!

Aliens exist. It's conspiracy theories I'm afraid of.

A rare Op-Ed piece today.  This one has been sitting around a few years too.

Op-Ed: Little Green Men in the West Desert


Careful!  They're ruffled!

An informative look into an often maligned board game

You should really give the movie Ouija a chance to scare you silly.  It tries, darn it.  It really tries. 

Movie Review: Ouija

And (tongue firmly planted in cheek) here is another "super-scary" Ouija story, just in case you saw the film already and, like me, you found it to be more than a little wanting in the fright department.

ouija board scare

You just can't make stuff like that up.

Another board game you shouldn't let your kids play with, lest it give them bad ideas and influence them for evil. / Source: boardgamegeek.com

And the next lucky winner is...

You all may have noticed (all three of you, that is) that the blog has slowed down of late.  After such a full posting set a couple months ago, both my interest and my time have flagged somewhat.  But luckily, I still have some reviews from the by-gone times when I stacked up piles of notes to publish at some later date.  My short review of Shirley Jackson's seminal classic, The Lottery, is among those notes that have been waiting.

Book Review: The Lottery

I'll try to get some semi-fresh review material up soon.  I finished reading both Stranger in a Strange Land and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy recently, so those should be forthcoming soon.


Not that sort of lottery.  Plus I don't think Yoda believes in luck.  I could be wrong, of course.

A practical look at astrology?

Nope, just a movie review.  This time it's Jupiter Ascending.  Was it worth the cheap seats ticket price for me and my family?  You'll find out.

Movie Review: Jupiter Ascending

Source: joyreactor.com

Buried treasure just seems silly

I mean, who would bury their treasure?  I can see trying to hide it.  But why bury it?  Ben Gunn's re-arrangement of the location of the titular treasure in Treasure Island makes perfect sense.  But of course, he couldn't spend a single coin of it, so it kind of defeats the purpose of squirreling away an ill-gotten investment.

Either way, Treasure Island is worth the read.

Book Review: Treasure Island



Source: Pintrest

Source: bmj2k.com / The inestimable Bill Watterson

Philosophers hunting for buried treasure?  Nice. / Source: pintrest.com

No, it isn't like inflammable and flammable

I mean tolerance and intolerance.  Though that is pretty weird, that thing about flammable and inflammable.  English, huh?  What a language.

Tolerance Thoughts from the White Board - March 31

Source: Political-humor.org

Do you pronounce that "Fay-Ree"?

Darn.  Another question as a blog title.  I suppose I am full of questions lately.  Like if "Faerie" is the same as "Fairy," or if they are different things altogether.

Book Review: Wards of Faerie: The Dark Legacy of Shannara

Today's book review is book one from another fiction series.  However, this time I haven't read the rest of the series yet, and so what happens after the book reviewed is anyone's guess.  Well not anyone.  Not really.  Lot's of people have already read this series, I'm sure.  I guess I should say, it's my guess as to what happens next.

You know, that calls for some speculation on what happens in the follow-up books.  How about the protagonists from Wards of 'Fair-iee' all discover they are living on the surface of some sort of giant mushroom, and all that has been going on is an analogy of the politics of fungus, set to fantasy fiction themes?  No?

I'm just spit-balling here, of course.  If you haven't read the book, then you will have to read my review and then you can join in the conjecture too.  Yeah!  Conjecture party!  Is that anything like a slumber party?  Or a surprise party?  Or a party of the first part?

Source: Jantoo.com

What's the password?

The title of today's book being reviewed is Who Goes There?  That evoked the title of today's post.  So you see where I went with that.  Right?  I didn't confuse you.  No, wait, don't wander off.  Hey!  Stop!  Wait a second!

(to self) OK, so my goal is to stop asking questions in post titles.  I can achieve my goals.  I'm a big, strong, smart, blog poster.  I can achieve my goals. Deep, soothing breaths, man.

Book Review: Who Goes There?

And for more PSA on password security, click the video below.  Go on.  Click it.  Click it!

Jog World, Smog World, Dog World, Fog World...

... Blog World?  Today's book review is for a humorous little title called Mogworld.  It's by Yahtzee Croshaw of "The Escapist" online magazine, whom I've mentioned in previous posts on this blog.  A pretty good novel, all things considered, but not one I'd probably read more than just the once.  It's an older review from my moldering notes, so it's done in my "what I liked/what I didn't like/what I learned/why you should care/why is the sky blue"-type of format.  So there you go.

Book Review: Mogworld

Source: Nuklearpower.com

Speaking of video game-related humor, anyone remember sprite comics?  It's where some clever soul takes the images from a video game (usually an older system - the old NES - "Nintendo Entertainment System" for those of you too young to understand what an "NES" is - was especially popular) and marries them to some clever dialogue?  It's so last decade, as the kids say.  But the one above, 8-Bit Theater, is one I used to read regularly.  It's cleverer than clever, for the most part.  See the link here if you want to read more.  The series has been complete for years now, so you won't have to slog through 85% of the story and then be stuck in limbo from week to week 'til the thing finally crawls to its conclusion.  Like getting in on a popular cable TV series and then having to put up with the bogus later seasons that are being made now.  The Walking Dead, I'm looking your way here.

Good to great-ish?

The title of today's book being reviewed, pulled from the dusty pile and spruced up for your consideration, is Good to Great.  But as those who will peruse the review will find, not only is the review dated now (2013 was when the notes were made - the book was published before the subprime mortagage crash of 2008), but the book itself talks about companies that, for the most part, have gone by the wayside.  So I suppose the title of the book, if you look at only that side of things, would be better like I have it.  Great-ish is much more accurate.

Book Review: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

Speaking of the recent "Great Recession," here are two clever chaps who explain what all that meant.  If you haven't heard enough about it before.  Funny Brit humor.

I thought of several versions for this title

None of my title ideas seemed particularly - uh-hem - appropriate.  Let's just say there was one about how, "One good 'Screw' deserves another."  But since yesterday's post was The Screwtape Letters, and today is The Turn of the Screw, you can see why I'd go there.

Book Review: The Turn of the Screw

Source: rondotheatre.co.uk

And some added good news to those of you who like brevity in your reviews!  This one is probably a tenth the length of The Screwtape Letters review.

What do these two things have in common?

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Source: wikipedia.org

They both feature prominently in any competent repairman's tool box?

They are both adequate solutions when you're trying to put the bumper back on a 1986 Ford Taurus?

Neither is something you want to step on in the dark?

Both control the fate of human destiny as we know it?


Think harder.

Yes, that's it.  Screwtape.  That old fiend himself.  Today's review is for that seminal classic, The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis.

Book Review: The Screwtape Letters

It's always a dark half somewhere

Book Review: The Dark Half

Source: shutterstock.com

Kinda like that part of the commercial for the less-than-savory Gremlins 2 movie (see the clip below if, unlike me, you don't recall seeing this ad in 1990).  That line struck my young teenage mind as pure logic.  "It's always midnight somewhere."  See, as a kid, I wasn't allowed to watch the original Gremlins.  But I'd heard the rules.  Yes indeed.  And that whole, "can't feed them after midnight"-thing?  I recall thinking, "That's just dumb.  How does this little critter know what time it is?  And why midnight, of all times?" 

My adult self breaks in here and reminds me, "It's just a movie, dude."  Thank heavens for the adult voice, eh?

Thoughts from the White Board?

It's been since November since I published one of these.  I decided today would be worth an effort.  Though to be honest, my mind is elsewhere.  So I wouldn't call it the best Thoughts I've done in the history of time.

I was thinking...

Source: pmslweb.com

“It feels kind of cool to come back from work every day without having killed anybody.”

That is a quote from today's reviewed book, The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning, by Hallgrímur Helgason.  The novel often has that deadpan humor that you're not quite sure whether to laugh or cringe at.

Book Review: The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning

Source: plus.google.com

There's a screenplay in that picture's headline.  And while we're at it, I want that job!

Lucy! You got some splainin to do!

Whaaaaaa!!!!

Movie Review: Lucy

Source: metacolor.org

Scarlett Johansson's grandmother, perhaps?  Nope, it's actually Lucille Ball in her younger days.  Could Johansson ever pull off Ball's legendary physical comedy and be taken seriously (if you can take comedy seriously, and anyone who knows anything knows you should be very serious about your comedy)?  Somehow I doubt it.  But hey, let's see her try.

I'm feeling a touch zombie-ish today myself

Had a persistent cold or some such virus that has been hanging on awhile.  Just feeling tired.  That, or perhaps it was the third graders today that made me feel a bit thick in the gray matter.  One class got five minutes of library check-out time, and the other one - that is usually a pretty good class for me, for some reason - got no check-out time at all.  Maybe it's the cold snap and the snow we had yesterday.  Or maybe it's just one of those weeks.  Who can say?

Book Review: The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

Book Review: World War Z

Source:  Uhmm....  embarrassing as this is, I forget.  If you are the owner of this one, drop me a note and I'll rectify.

Oh I get it!

As in she's really gone.  As in Gone Girl.  Gone.  Long gone.  Way gone.  Gone around the bend.  Gone and not left a forwarding address.  A goner.  Gone.......zo.  Gone to market to buy a fine pair of monkeys.  Gone away and won't be checking her messages.  Gone with the windage.  Get up and gone.  Gonorrh-ee yeah, gonna skip that one.

Movie Review: Gone Girl

Source: pintrest.com

Could that potentially make Monday be gone too?  I'll have to try it.

Perhaps the clock is broken

If it's noon and it's dark, then that is one possibility.  Or a solar eclipse provides some level of darkness.  Or you've fallen down a mining shaft.  Or maybe the easiest one - closed eyes while indoors... perhaps in a closet to add that extra touch of real inky blackness at noontime?

But none of these refer specifically to the reasoning behind today's book review book title.  Darkness at Noon is a work darkly satirizing the Great Terror of 1930s Soviet Russia.  Calling it "satire" is almost like calling one of Stalin's show trials during the purges "a little legal difficulty."  It doesn't do the term justice, nor cover the scope involved.

Anyway, read the review for yourself and see what I mean.

Book Review: Darkness at Noon



I've posted one of these Monty Python skits before, but this one is slightly different.  Either way, poking fun at the pillars of Communist dogma always makes me grin.

Say it, but say it QUIETLY

Happy Birthday to me.

Book Review: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

It has nothing to do with either my birthday or the book review.  But man, I'd like to play this on an old-skool Nintendo emulator.

Source: LOLSnaps.com

It was a almost a coin toss

Deciding whether this post should be included in my book reviews or in my Op-Ed section was the toss, I mean.  I decided on the former, even though this is really a hybrid of the two.  As I note in the first paragraph of the actual post, I don't "review" other peoples' religious texts.  But making it an Op-Ed makes it sound like I'm passing judgement.  In truth, I simply wanted to share what I learned myself.  As my reviews are opinion pieces in and of themselves - as anyone who has read one knows - I suppose that establishes the link of semi-credibility for calling this a hybrid.

Again, if you take any offense to my words on this book, then please know I did so without malice aforethought.  I try to respect all religions.  Until God comes down and say to all of us directly and without nuance "THIS IS THE WAY," then how a person views Deity is a very personal thing, and you can disagree but mocking other peoples faith is silly and provincial.  Sure, it's also funny from time to time, if you can have a sense of humor about your faith.  But that's not the track I'm taking here.

Sadly, I feel that I've got to say such disclaimer-type things when people who speak out against the Islamic faith in any way get shot (such as the terrorist attack in France) and even people in predominantly Islamic countries get flogged for voicing their feelings (the Saudi blogger who people kept volunteering to take lashes for).  And that is sad.  If people of my own particular faith did that whenever someone got mouthy, we'd be going against what our religion teaches.  But then so do people who use rampant violence to enforce Islam, I think, if I understood the text correctly.  You be the judge.

The Quran - Some Thoughts

The Suadi blogger mentioned above, Raif Badawi.  Here is a link to a CNN story about Mr. Badawi, if you missed some of the details.  Source: BBC.com

Putting a dose of science and a smidge of sci-fi in your day

It is only day twenty-two in the month of February, and I've already posted twenty-five book reviews alone.  I'd say February is shaping up to be a big catch up month for backlog, as well as for a touch of new stuff.

Book Review: Physics of the Future

Book Review: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Book Review: Triplanetary

Math... Friend to science.  Sticking point for so many others. / Source: LOLSnaps.com

Full of martial spirit and strategy

Five books with a similar theme today.  I even tried to put them in some semblence of logical order.

Book Review: Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda

Book Review: The Hundred Years' War

Book Review: Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy's Story

Book Review: Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory

Book Review: How Great Generals Win

Source: strategypage.com

Source: strategypage.com



Source: strategypage.com

What's an antonym for "Merchandise?"

Another recent read.  I finished this rather abbreviated Star Wars novel, wrote review notes, and only a week or so after I began reading the thing, it's up on the blog.

Book Review: Hard Merchandise

Oh, and happy Lunar New Year!  I don't know what that is, but have a happy one anyway.

Source: vankaos.com

Claude to his homies

I'm talking about the emperor Claudius, who is the titular character of the book reviewed this time around.  Sadly, the thing I recall off the top of my head about this book, seeing as it has been some time since I actually read it, is sitting in the drive-thru line at Arby's, waiting to get a bite to eat, and listening to the scene in which Roman prisoners are in the wicker man effigy.  I don't know what's worse.  Listening to fictional people begging for their lives before being burned to death, or the price of Arby's food vs. what you get for your money.  Probably the former, but I still recall the whole situation distastefully.

Book Review: Claudius

But to lighten the mood, here is some Twelve Tasks of Asterix.  It's a cartoon that depicts the constant struggle between the Gauls and the Romans, with a humorous take on it.  In this particular movie, our heroes Asterix and Obelix have been challenged by Julius Caesar to complete twelve tasks and prove that they are gods, and by so doing, Rome will stop bothering them and leave them in peace.  The scene here is one of those tasks.  I didn't truly get it, as a kid when I first saw this, but having experienced bureaucracy as an adult...  Oi vey.

Isn't his birthday coming up?

Or did it just pass?  I can't remember if it's Lincoln whose birthday comes first, or Washington's.  Hey, does anybody remember when we used to get BOTH days off?  I do.  Sorta.  I was pretty young.  It was the '80s.  Ah, the '80s.  How I miss certain aspects of that decade.  Especially the TV.  TV was great in the '80s.

Book Review: Washington - A Life

In honor of President's Day, here is a group of 44 presidential impressions from Youtube semi-celebrity Mikey Bolts.  There are some bleeped out words in this, and sure, some of his impressions aren't very good, but a few are quite funny.  I like George W Bush, Richard Nixon, Franklin Roosevelt ("that rhymes with my middle name"), Calvin Coolidge, William Taft ("big, busty hips"), James A Garfield and Rutherford B Hayes ("the guy after me totally stole the beard thing!"), and Andrew Johnson.

Things a good host should do?

Not criticize guests who don't wipe their feet, remember everyone's name, allow the guest to dominate the planet through subtle invasion-of-the-body-snatcher-style tactics...

Dual Review: The Host (book and movie)

And in the category of young adult fiction-based films you MUST see, here's The Group Hopper.  Yes, I realize the link between this and The Host is tenuous.  So sue me.

The Group Hopper

Couldn't figure out Hulu's embed code thingie.  So you just have to go there.  Sorry.

Even bad opinions are still opinions

Posted my first Op-Ed piece today.  It's been on the workbench, like almost all of my writings, for some time.  And it's a pointless and long-winded rant on video games, so most of my audience will skip it (the two of you reading this will have to decide between you which of you will read a paragraph or two, and which will pass by entirely).  On the other hand, if you are curious about me as a person, there is much there that sheds light, so to speak.  Might be worth a look.

Op-Ed: Why I Don't Own a "Current-Gen" Video Game Console.


The computerized version of Van Halen's "Right Now" can turn you a trifle deaf, but the nice use of that band's classic music video, turned to video game tropes, is great.

Sports! Sports, I tell ya!

After a couple of days in a row of posts with exclamations in their titles, I decided to try to go three in a row.  I promise my next entry will be exclamation-less.

Book Review: When the Game Was Ours

And on a totally unrelated note, here is a pretty talented bunch of folks all playing one guitar and covering Gotye's, "Somebody That I Used to Know."

Fight the Grim Reaper!

Aging.  It gets us all eventually.  And some say it is due to free radicals.  Personally, I think "free radical" sounds like some sort of rock band, or a terrorist organization from an '80s action movie.  But no, its an actual thing.

Source: jeunesseantiaging.wordpress.com

But the subject of today's book review is not antioxidants.  Far from it.  It's a story by an independent author that is really quite good.  And it's...  hold your breath... based on a classic computer video game.  Yes, that often spells death for any form of entertainment that isn't in fact a video game/video game sequel (movies based on video games, I'm looking your way).  But in this instance, the story is actually pretty good stuff.  Check it out at the link below.

Book Review: Free Radical

A Cold War extravaganza!

In my ongoing effort to get a lot of my previous reviews off the desk and into the blog, here is a collection of Cold War era-related book reviews.

Book Review: A Short History of the Korean War

Book Review: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism

Book Review: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Book Review: Khrushchev: The Man and His Era

Book Review: Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb


Even hamburgers joints got into the Soviet system bashing during the Cold War.  I remember this commercial.  Guess that dates me.

She's an interesting woman

My wife is.  Not stereotypical by any means.  For instance, on a rare Friday afternoon together that we had a couple weeks back, she rented a pair of movies from Redbox.  The following reviewed film was one of them. 

Now I'd not have pegged her for such a film.  But then I underestimate her on a regular basis.  The other movie rented, some semi-romantic comedy period piece by Woody Allen (the title of which I forget, but it had Collin Firth and Emma Stone in it) seems more her speed.  But truth be told, I usually pick poorly if I rent something with her in mind, unless I've specifically heard her say "I want to see such-and-such." 

Oh well.  Fourteen years or so of marriage, and she still manages to surprise me.  Was it a good surprise?  Read on.

Movie Review: We're the Millers

Source: Wikipedia.org

In very particular order

I'm going to post my reviews for the first three Odd Thomas series of books, by Dean Koontz.  I have listed them below in a specific order for your consumption.  Yes, I know it isn't the order the books naturally fall into.  There's a reason for that.  If you read them like I have them listed here, you'll see why I did what I did.

Book Review: Brother Odd

Book Review: Odd Thomas: A Novel

Book Review: Forever Odd

Source: wordcredible.com

You know you're doing something wrong when you start reading a book and you feel... well, like the person's countenance above describes.  "OK...  I get it.  He's a super-spy.  But why does he wear a duck on his head?  Did I miss something important?  Does my copy of the book not have the first chapter in it, and I just didn't notice?  What's going on here?  Why is he speaking in Greek to Japanese people?  I'm a little lost here, but the story sure is interesting... I think."

Start of the title could be any typical Wednesday

Wednesday is my toughest day of the week, work-wise.  And yesterday was no exception.  Luckily, it's Thursday now.  A few more days and I get an actual day off from both jobs.  I could use it.

Book Review: No Easy Day: The Autobiography of a Navy Seal: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden

I had to include this book review because I just released a slew of movie reviews, and I mentioned this book in one of them.  I'm trying to fix continuity errors here, ya know.  It's gonna take awhile though.

On a totally unrelated note, my wife introduced me to this guy's humor last evening, and he is pretty funny.  Pretty clean for the most part too.  I especially got a kick out of his bit about being a Nintendo doctor when he was a kid, but I couldn't find a clip of that by itself.

Dusting off the proverbial video shelf

Here are the rest of the big pile of movie reviews from the past couple years that I've been dragging my feet on.  I finally finished sprucing them up, and decided to dump the whole lot on here at once.  So... enjoy!

Movie Review: The Wolverine

Movie Review: Transcendence

Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Movie Review: World War Z

Movie Review: Captain Phillips

Movie Review: 47 Ronin

Movie Review: Warm Bodies

Movie Review: The Monuments Men

Movie Review: The Lone Ranger

Movie Review: Lone Survivor

Movie Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Movie Review: The Internship

Movie Review: Thor - The Dark World

Source: jantoo.com

February is presidential, after all.

And so I decided to post this review of a book on a president who is rarely remembered.  Also, I'm feeling quiet lately myself, and "Silent Cal" would fit as a role-model for that.  Say little, and mean what you do say.

Book Review: Coolidge, An American Enigma

Source: political-humor.org

Crime AND Punishment?

Can't we just have one or the other?

Book Review: Crime and Punishment



Source: tumblr.net

Revenge of the Planet of the Review

Another film review today.  I'm slowly catching up on all the piled up notes I've had, but am also trying to push forward reviews of films or books I've seen/read recently.  So they don't go too stale while we wade through all the stuff I let sit in the back of the freezer for a couple years, so to speak.

Movie Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Source: Hollywoodreporter.com

If they gave Academy Awards for doing motion-capture performances, old Serkis would probably be high up in the running.  Do they give awards for that yet?

It's kind of a record for recent times

That is, getting a book done one day and turning around and posting the review for that book the next.  But that's what I'm doing here.  I finished The Last Days of the Incas on Wednesday, and I'm posting the review for it on Thursday.

Book Review: The Last Days of the Incas

And here's a bit of Inca-related humor that...  well frankly I don't quite get it.  Yes, call me dumb, but this one skipped over my head.  But you may get it, and so I'm passing it along anyway.

Source: becuo.com

A psuedo-Dual Review

I have usually done a dual review of a book and the film based upon it, when opportunity arose to do so.  But in this instance, I hadn't planned to do so, and it was only coincidentally that I had both the book and movie of Argo in my collection of notes.  Often I read the book first, and then watch the film, but in this case, I saw the movie and was so impressed, I ended up reading the book some time later.  Below are the links for both film and book.

Movie Review: Argo

Book Review: Argo

Source: zap2it.com

Parody image of Affleck as Batman and Damon as Robin.  As I think I have said before, I actually think Affleck can pull off Batman.  Or if not the Caped Crusader, then at least Bruce Wayne.  But is it true that Matt Damon will be Robin?  I sure hope not.  Nothing against the star of the Jason Bourne film films (well, most of them, that is), but the last time Robin was in a Batman film...  it went down-hill quickly from there.  All I need to do is point to Batman and Robin, for example.

King and I

If you glance over the pile of reviews linked below, you might notice what I did there with the title?  Yeah, it's a dumb joke, but then you don't come here to be highly intellectually entertained.  Do you?

Thought I'd unload the pile of Stephen King book reviews I have accumulated over the past couple of years.  And do it all at once.  Because I'm weird that way.  And if you read through all of these reviews in one sitting, you must be weird too.  Though thankfully, most of them are shorter than my average review these days.  Though not all.  I'll leave it to you to discover, or guess (probably incorrectly) which ones are shorter and which ones lack for shortness.

Book Review: Cujo

Book Review: Under the Dome - A Novel

Book Review: LT's Theory of Pets

Book Review: Firestarter

Book Review: Different Seasons

Book Review: Black House

Book Review: Blaze

Source: pintrest

Source: worddreams.wordpress.com

Run Forre- err THOMAS! Run!

The scary similarities between Forrest Gump and The Maze Runner are there, if you look for them.



Because...  like, both films had running.  And both films...  had... uhm...  folks with accents.  And both films had people with "Tom" in them.  Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump.  And Thomas...  which we all know is short for the long version of Tom.  Ergo...  The Maze Runner is Forrest Gump's sequel.

Movie Review: The Maze Runner

Book Review: American Sniper

I read this book some while ago, and thought it was timely to refresh my notes and post the review now.  Since the film version of this story recently broke a box office record with its three-day Martin Luther King Jr/Civil Rights Day weekend opening, I figured... yeah, people might be interested.

Book Review: American Sniper

Source: thenypost.files.wordpress.com

Post-script: On February 12th of this year, I came to understand that Mr. Kyle, the sniper featured in the book reviewed above, had been senselessly killed around the same time I actually read the book.  The alleged killer was a mentally unbalanced individual, and the place was a Texas shooting range.  Though I had some problems at times with the book itself, it is a true loss to see a good man go in such a terrible manner.  God Bless his family, and may justice come to the assailant who laid him low.

Sounds like an automotive part to me

Source: studeflyer.com

You know, like something you'd need to repair the water pump on a 1973 AMC Gremlin.  "Hey, did you go to the junkyard and try to find me the equalizer yet?"  "Nah, we were too busy at the swap meet."

Movie Review: The Equalizer

It'd make a great Halloween attraction



Source: hickscornmaze.com

I'm talking about part of the title from the book that is my latest review, of course.  "Body Farm."  Yep, sounds spooky.  Why grow turnips or alfalfa when you can grow ghosts and ghoulies?

Book Review: Book Review: Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science

Although, to be honest, this review is one of those that has been sitting around, collecting dust, for the longest.  It was the first book I set aside in note form and didn't post back in... oh, I think it was mid-2012 or so.  So that's awhile then, yeah?

I'd name my tank the "Shaggin Wagon"

But I suppose that wouldn't make a very good title for a war film, now would it?  No, let's name a tank something a bit more dignified. 

Like "Death Before Dishonor."

Or "Full Metal Jacket."

Or "Chariots of Fire." 

Or "Young Frankenstein."

Movie Review: Fury

The title has so many interpretations

It could be referring to the robot BayMax, since he is BIG.  Or it could be referring to Hiro, the... uhmmm...  hero.  Or it could be referring to the group of superheroes that circumstances bring together in the film.  Or it could be referring to...  well, I guess that's it.  If you can think of another one, just write a comment and include it.  Gotta be clean though!

Movie Review: Big Hero 6

Source: IMDb.com

My friends all drive Porsches

Another book review, and my first for 2015.  Of course, it's Stephen King again.  I do read other things.  I promise!  But until I finish reading The Last Days of the Incas and put my thoughts together on it, or until I shovel another review from a year or so back that has been sitting in mothballs all this time while the blog was on hiatus...  well you're stuck with what I'm serving.

Book Review: Mr. Mercedes