Tome Thursday: The Surgeon

Hello everyone!

I'm back with a book review, although granted I hadn't actually decided WHICH book I was going to talk about in this blog post tonight until the moment I sat down to type the Twitter announcement.

I'm like that sometimes. I read a lot, but I don't always write EVERYTHING down.

Which means that, sometimes, I can have a difficult moment or two cracking through the piles of information inside my brain and sifting through the lot so that I can find something that would be worth while. And I'm not evn sure I did find it, but oh well.

In any event, because I recently started rereading a few series I'd already finished back in the day, I figured I might as well talk about a book that was very close to mein terms of how well I remember what was going on inside it.

Since I never did make any notes about it, might as well get it out in the open as fast as humanly possible, right?

Right.

And, since I'd already written about one book by the same author, it makes sense. I'm talking about The Surgeon.

Talkie Tuesday: In the Heart of the Sea

"The tragedy of the Essex is the story of men.
And a Demon."

Hello everyone!

So this is going to be an upbeat blog post regardless of the rather negative downsides of the story that unfolded in the movie (and the books, of course; let's not forget the books). But the fact remains that I absolutely LOVED it, and couldn't get enough of the movie which I have to get a better copy of, potentially Blu-Ray if I can.

Although ... come to think of it, maybe I don't necessarily need that kind of high-res image of the whale in my brain. 

Hmm.

ANYWAY.

This is yet again one of the movies from my vacation hoard, although this one I watched while I was all by my lonesome at the seaside and enjoying some peaceful time away from everything. It was a very cool thing to be able to snuggle down on the veranda and enjoy the sea breeze while watching this. Gave the story some credibility.

I'm talking about In the Heart of the Sea, of course.

Saturday Snippet: Movies I Never Finished

Hello everyone!

Every once in a while, I run into something that I would call a movie wall - that is, a proverbial wall in the form of a movie I just can't watch. So I thought I'd share a few tonight!

Queen of the Desert - the trailer for this one looked SO amazing and I was looking forward to it! But then I started watching ... and not only does Nicole Kidman not have what it takes to play an explorer daughter anymore, but I wanted to fall asleep forty minutes in. Fast-forwarding didn't help, either.

Noah - I actually don't know why I didn't finish this one. I think I got distracted by something and never got back to it. I might try it again.

Wolf of Wall Street - if I wanted to fall asleep with up above, I fell asleep half an hour into this movie. I don't get the hype, I really don't. 

And on a parting note, I watched the series premiere of the MacGyver revival tonight! Not quite sure about this yet, but ... we will see.

xx

*image not mine

Tome Thursday: Dreams of Gods and Monsters

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil pressed their hands to their hearts,
and started the Apocalypse.

Hello everyone!

You know, I'm feeling quite accomplished today. Not taking into account my feeling a bit like a yo-yo in my professional life for a while there (to all good results, before anyone starts asking!) I'm coming to an end of a series of reviews which is ALWAYS satisfactory and cause for celebration. After all, I don't often get to say this.

That's because while I tend to START a series, I kind of forget to keep putting reviews up. 

I'm that bad, I know.

And for some reason I sound like Demelza from Poldark right now ... might have to lay off binge watching that one!

Anyway, it's been almost a full year since I posted the very first review of the very first book in the series, and now it's time to come full circle after the second one came along in mid-summer. And I'm insanely proud of myself for achieving as much, really! I think I should group my blog posts somewhere in one place at some point so that people can look them up quickly.

But before I go off-tangent, let's dig right into the review for Dreams of Gods and Monsters!

Talkie Tuesday: The Martian

"In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option:
I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this."

Hello everyone!

Back with another movie review, and this time I picked one that I honestly wasn't expecting to like as much as I did in the end. I mean, I try not to go into any movie prejudiced, but sometimes it's hard because you have preconceptions, or you've read the books the movies are based off of, or you've seen the trailer and it doesn't look like something you'd enjoy. 

Of course in a lot of the above-mentioned cases, you end up going in the totally opposite direction of what you expected to feel or think when you sat down to watch the chosen movie.

This was what happened to me.

I didn't see a trailer though, or hear about it from a friend, or even read the book. I didn't actually know what it was all about until I got my hands on a copy and sat through the whole thing. I noticed it mostly because the internet kept blowing up with news about it, Matt Damon seemed to be making some kind of a come-back akin to his Jason Bourne movies, and I swear every single one of the Youtube vloggers I subscribe to dedicated at least one video (if not more) to it.

I'm talking about The Martian.

Saturday Snippet: Banana Pudding Pie

Hello everyone!

So my sister can make me do just about anything. Seeing as she's my LITTLE sister, you can probably understand how this happens. This time, it was incessantly begging me to bake a pie. Not just any kind of pie, but banana and vanilla pudding pie.

Of course I had no clue how to do it, and so off to the interwebz I went to get some information. I found a recipe alright (not the one above), but the dough did NOT cooperate so I'm going to give you what I did to make it work.

The dough itself I made from my apple pie recipe; the other dough was left to "rot" although I threw it into the oven for 20 minutes after it had been left alone for hours. I think I might retry the original recipe sometime and leave the thing overnight in the fridge, then bake the next day. Might just work.

Anyway, the only difference in this apple pie dough is that I added rum and vanilla sugar into the mixture (per special request). Then I spread it into the pan (which I first rubbed with some butter) and made a rim.

For the filling, I made vanilla pudding from half the bag (or you can cook a full batch, it usually comes with instructions on the back, follow those to a T and then just take as much as you think you need), mashed three bananas (the original recipe says two, but three is better!) and mixed them in, poured it over the dough, popped it into a pre-heated oven at 175 degrees, and baked for roughly twenty-three minutes, but at twenty I started checking if it was baked. It was, I just left it a little longer since my family likes a slightly more baked pie.

And that's it!

xx

*image is mine

Tome Thursday: Mai Tai'd Up

Hello everyone!

I'm beginning to run out of books to review on here which is kind of a mystery since I do believe I haven't ever stopped reading from the last time I reviewed one! But I think the problem might be that I keep forgetting to note down my thoughts about what, exactly, I'm reading or what I've finished reading at this time, I suppose. 

I'll have to remedy that.

So between battling some bouts of insomnia that have come on me from Lord knows where, becoming addicted to Air Crash Investigation and just generally working, I needed to figure out what I was going to write today.

Turns out, at least I still have a couple of series in the works and that means that I get to pick some of the books in there to talk about.

Worse comes to worse, I can always fall back on the Black Dagger Brotherhood series (but I just started the Fallen Angels one though and it might be JUST as good; seriously, who knew Angels have this kind of warped sense of humour?).

For tonight's book, I'm going to talk about Mai Tai'd Up.

Talkie Tuesday: Allegiant

"EVERYONE is worth saving."

Hello everyone!

I debated long and hard about what I wanted to talk about tonight in this blog post, as when I browse the web, there are certain things that I don't see, but want to. Like, for instance, recaps of the Poldark episodes, because sometimes I don't have time to actually watch the episode but would still love to learn what happened ... 

So I waged an internal battle about whether or not I want to do an ep-by-ep recap of the Poldark season as I did with Game of Thrones, then decided I would compromise and do a review after the first half was over.

For tonight, I needed a different thing, then.

Going to consult my trusty sheep booklet, I perused through the notes I'd jotted down while I was watching different movies, and finally decided on one that I'm so puzzled about that I doubt I've seen the light yet.

No, scratch that, I haven't, let's be honest here.

I'm talking about Allegiant.

Saturday Snippet: Work

Lost somewhere in translation and looking up old writing I did a LONG time ago ...

Tome Thursday: The Inn at Eagle Point

Hello everyone!

Back with another book review, and I have to admit that I've been reading voraciously in the last little while. It's something I'm quite happy about considering I can definitely get into reading slumps as everyone else does, and then of course I don't always have the time or energy to actually keep my eyes open long enough to read through a book properly.

That being said, however, I can then go through periods when I will devour anything and everything that I can get my hands on, at such a rate that I almost can't keep up with my own brain.

This probably comes from my in-bred love of reading, because I've been doing it ever since I can properly remember myself. My parents used to say that I would doggedly try to get through a book when I wasn't as skilled in the art until I mastered it, or learned it by heart.

Hey, whatever worked, right?

The book I picked to talk about today is the first in a series which I came to discover only after Hallmark Channel premiered yet another intriguing series (they're really beginning to make their mark in this show-hungry world) titled Chesapeake Shores. A little Google magic later and I had thirteen new books to read, the first of thes being The Inn at Eagle Point.

Talkie Tuesday: The Lord of the Rings

"One Ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them."

Hello everyone!

Okay, so I bet you're all thinking this is some sort of weird blog post considering the fact that I've talked about Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings so much in the previous ones even when they didn't need to be talked about that it's pretty funny, I guess. And then I go and finally make a totally separate post! 

It's not that bad, I swear.

I mean, okay, yes, it's bad because my love and almost-obsession with this thing is probably something I should at some point be ashamed of, but so far I'm not (and I'm ignoring the coughs and eye rolls from people who will take the almost-obsession and strike the almost out of it!). I think it's one of those literary pieces that stay with you, if you only allow it.

Which is exactly what happened with me, of course, though I won't be talking about the book in this blog post.

I've actually seen the movies so many times so far that I probably know the scripts by heart and I can voice along with the rest of them without looking at the screen. But the movie I'm going to talk about wasn't made by Peter Jackson.

In fact, it was made decades before, in 1978 by a man named Ralph Bakshi.

Saturday Snippet: Friendship

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead.

Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow.

Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Albert Camus

Tome Thursday: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Hello everyone!

Right off the bat, I would like to warn anyone reading this blog that it's not going to be a positive entry, nor is it going to be lavish with praise or filled with the kind of commentary I've seen people gush out when it comes to the book I'm about to describe. This is, plain and simple, going to be a negative review, so if you feel like you disagree with me or if you don't want to read that kind of thing, stop now while you're ahead and come back next week when I'll be doing another, different book.

That now out of the way, allow me to say that, despite the fact that I haven't been one of Harry Potter's avid fans (I don't think I ever was), I do tend to go back to the books every once in a while, especially the first three, which remain ranked at the top of the list of the whole series.

This means that, when news broke there would be a continuation in the form of a play, and then that play was going to be published in an actual book version, I was as excited as the rest of the world to see what was about to happen.

After all, fans around the globe had banded together before to form roleplay forums, discuss ideas and questions, and come up with their own alternate storylines, among other things.

So obviously, when it came to the Cursed Child, expectations ran high.