Sunsets, Stars, West, Wind
http://io9.com/io9-march-madness-final-four-harry-potter-vs-lord-of-1551342961
Easy voting today but the next and final round will be a tough devision.
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan
Read in November 2013
Synopsis:
The future is coming…for some, sooner than others.
Ellis Rogers is an ordinary man who is about to embark on an extraordinary journey. All his life he has played it safe and done the right thing, but when faced with a terminal illness, he’s willing to take an insane gamble. He’s built a time machine in his garage, and if it works, he’ll face a world that challenges his understanding of what it means to be human, what it takes to love, and the cost of paradise. He could find more than a cure for his illness; he might find what everyone has been searching for since time began…but only if he can survive Hollow World.
Continue reading “eBook Review: Hollow World by Sullivan (4 out of 5 stars)”
Tolkien v Martin … I know who I’m voting for. Do you?
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
Some tough decisions among these polls.
And yes I continue to vote against Game of Thrones.
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Fantasy Book Club selection August 2013
Attempted to Read/Listen: August 2013
I tried reading, or rather listening, to this in August 2013 for the GoodReads Fantasy Book Club. We previously read Prince of Thorns as a group in October 2011 and I actually liked the first book of the series. But I had to give up listening at around twenty percent. I may come back to it at a later date, but right now I need something a lot less bleak.
Continue reading “Audiobook Review: King of Thorns by Lawrence (DNF)”
io9 continues whittling down the first sixty-four entries, getting decidedly weirder, digging around in the classics for mad scientists, dystopian alternate realities, monsters and magic.
Results from the first half of the voting returned only one disappointment for me, and it’s a bittersweet one. The Princess Bride edged out The Wheel of Time in the Epic Fantasy bracket. Bit of a quibble for me as I don’t really think the former qualifies as ‘epic’ fantasy; rather, it’s more like humorous high fantasy. The latter clearly takes epic to the next level and should not have been so easily defeated. I’ve read both, though, and loved them both.
Update March 20, 2014: I missed the vote yesterday for the first half of round two. Some of the results are already in and can be found here.
Upcoming Schedule:
io9’s version of March Madness begins today with ‘Epic Fantasy v. Space Opera‘ so vote now so Gandalf won’t have to smack down Vader. It won’t be pretty.
Of course, we’re holding the Mouse in reserve in case of foul play.
Bible Stories for Adults by James K. Morrow
Read in January 2014
Anthology Synopsis:
Morrow unabashedly delves into matters both sacred and secular in this collection of short stories buoyed by his deliciously irreverent wit. Among the dozen selections is the Nebula Award-winning “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge.”
Contents:
Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge (1988)
Daughter Earth (1991)
Known but to God and Wilbur Hines (1991)
Bible Stories for Adults, No. 20: The Tower (1994)
Spelling God with the Wrong Blocks (1987)
The Assemblage of Kristin (1984)
Bible Stories for Adults, No. 31: The Covenant (1989)
Abe Lincoln in McDonald’s (1989)
The Confessions of Ebenezer Scrooge (1989)
Bible Stories for Adults No. 46: The Soap Opera (1994)
Diary of a Mad Deity (1988)
Arms and the Woman (1991)
My Thoughts:
Continue reading “Book Review: Bible Stories for Adults by Morrow (3.3 Stars)”
Watched in theater (October 2013) and at home (March 2014)
This was a great birthday gift last October. My husband and I saw this movie in theaters last fall. Absolutely amazing.
Yesterday, we invited my father over for a lazy Sunday afternoon of grilled burgers (yes, we grilled outside in March because it was sunny and in the 60s) and a movie. He brought home-made carrot cake and Sweeney Todd, but because Terry and I had just seen our daughter perform Mrs. Lovett live a couple of weeks ago in a UNT College of Music production, we passed on watching Johny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. I had two BluRays from Netflix: Parkland and Riddick, but I asked my dad if he’d seen Gravity yet. He had not, so I decided to buy it via Google Play Movies (the HD edition was only $20).
A Highly Unlikely Scenario or, a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World by Rachel Cantor
Read in February 2014
Suggested reading for the Kansas City Public Library Adult Winter Reading Program “Stop Me If You’ve Read This One”
Publisher’s Synopsis:
In the not-too-distant future, competing giant fast food factions rule the world. Leonard works for Neetsa Pizza, the Pythagorean pizza chain, in a lonely but highly surveilled home office, answering calls on his complaints hotline. It’s a boring job, but he likes it—there’s a set answer for every scenario, and he never has to leave the house. Except then he starts getting calls from Marco, who claims to be a thirteenth-century explorer just returned from Cathay. And what do you say to a caller like that? Plus, Neetsa Pizza doesn’t like it when you go off script.
Meanwhile, Leonard’s sister keeps disappearing on secret missions with her “book club,” leaving him to take care of his nephew, which means Leonard has to go outside. And outside is where the trouble starts.
My Thoughts:
I read this new novel with every intention of joining the local real-life book discussion group. I try to participate in at least one or two book discussion groups during the annual adult winter reading program at the Kansas City Public Library. Continue reading “Book Review: A Highly Unlikely Scenario by Cantor (3 Stars)”
