Talkie Tuesday: The Mummy

 

"No harm ever came from reading a book."

 

Hello everyone!

 

I'm back!

 

And I have a wonderful movie for you tonight.

 

This is for all of us who've seen this one so many times it's basically like the air we breathe, who reference quotes from it in our daily lives or just to have great fun, and of course, who look forward to watching it AGAIN just as soon as we possibly can.

 

There are some movies you can watch over and over again without so much as blinking an eye.

 

Some that stay with you no matter where you go or what you do.

 

Tonight's choice is among them, possibly in the top category, because honestly, what could be better than the hot sands of Egypt, a rugged explorer, and mummies?!?

 

Nothing, that's what (or, not a lot)!

 

So arm yourselves and bring your cats - we're stepping right into The Mummy.

 

Talkie Tuesday: Death on the Nile (2)

 

"It takes two." 

Hello everyone!

 

You thought I was done with this, didn't you?

 

Think again!

 

Inevitably, it seems, whenever I end up watching one of Kenneth Branagh's remakes, I also end up digging out the good old David Suchet interpretations.

 

Now, I have nothing personally against Branagh - in fact, there are several movies of his which I thoroughly enjoy, Thor among them - but unfortunately he's trying to flex and take creative liberties in a canon setting where these liberties might in the end confuse people more than make the cases clear and presentable.

 

And after all, that's what Agatha Christie was all about, in the end.

 

Murder mysteries, or mysteries as a whole, and the rather psychological way our detective solves them.

 

So one last time then: we're on a trip to Egypt. Death on the Nile it is!

 

Tome Thursday: Death on the Nile

 

Hello everyone!

 

As I spent my Tuesday blog post talking about the recent remake of Death on the Nile, I figured it's only fair and proper if I have a look at the original book that inspired all these adaptations.

 

I'm thinking of doing the same as I did with Murder on the Orient Express and also blogging about the David Suchet version, but we'll see.

 

For now, suffice to say that there are differences between the original book and the Kenneth Branagh remake.

 

However, the differences themselves aren't a glaring problem as far as I'm concerned - well, other than the case being presented poorly without REALLY asking the pertinent questions that might help move it along, but overall it isn't BAD.

 

The BAD part comes at the end and with Branagh's desire to change canon, so without further ado let's have a look at the ACTUAL story, shall we?

 

After all, Agatha Christie devoted her whole life to writing these things.

 

Death on the Nile is just one of her many successes.

 

Death on the Nile (Booktober)

 

"Gott im Himmel! What is there now?"

 

 

 

With the new movie coming out (and by the looks of the trailer it might even be good) it's time to take a look at one of Agatha Christie's beloved mysteries again. Let's take a ride down the Nile alongside the egg-head-shaped detective who attracts problems like a magnet. And if you have the stomach for it, let's investigate the murder of a beautiful young woman - a crime of passion if there ever was one. Because when tempers run hot under the Egyptian sun, what else can you expect?

 

 

 

 

 

The tranquility of a cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful. A girl who had everything ... until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: "I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger." Yet in this exotic setting nothing is ever quite what it seems ...

(from book jacket)

xx

*image not mine

The Little White Horse (Booktober)

The Sign of Four (Booktober)

Harry Potter #2 (Booktober)

Troublemaker (Booktober)

The Lord of the Rings (Booktober)

Tome Thursday: Desert Oath

Hello everyone!

For my last "regular" sort of book review before we dive right into all the Christmas stuff next week, I chose another game-related title.

As you may or may not remember, I became a big fan of Assassin's Creed when I accidentally stumbled over a gameplay on Youtube. Since then, I've gotten to about three quarters of both Odyssey and Origins, and need to just buckle down to finish the lot.

Shouldn't be too difficult.

In the meantime, however, I was delighted to find that the original Assassin's Creed novel content creator, Oliver Bowden, had written a prequel for his series.

Now I've had the rest of the books on a back burner for a bit, and haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so I may do it now with the holidays looming up ahead. However, this one can be read as a standalone, and you don't need to know what goes on in the other books to understand it.

We do run into fan favourites and characters from the game, though.

Don't fall down into a sand dune, it's time for Assassin's Creed Origins: Desert Oath.

Tome Thursday: The Staff of Serapis

Hello everyone!

Time to continue on with what we started last week, although I only just realized that the finishing sequence of this trilogy will have to wait for JUST a little.

But before I get into that, let's head back into the world of mythos, shall we?

We're dealing with the Greeks and the Egyptians here, and if this sounds like something Blood & Treasure might have cooked up, or even straight out of history with the way Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and made it his personal province, well, you'd be right.

A lot of things you read in books have already happened throughout history, and NOTHING is weirder than actual history, let me tell you.

... There's actually nothing weirder than having huge gods run around with crocodile heads, but if people believed that and it kept them happy, I suppose we can't really argue against it, can we?

Last week, the boys got their adventure in the books.

This week it's girl time, since The Staff of Serapis is all about girl power.

Tome Thursday: The Son of Sobek

Hello everyone!

So every once in a while, as you know, I'll return to oldie but goldie books that I've either already read but never reviewed, or that I really, really enjoy and just HAVE to read again.

There are some authors that just have a grip on me like that.

And while I'm slowly packing and preparing for my vacation, I'm also gathering up books that I think I'll enjoy reading down on the beach, which is always an exciting prospect!

But for tonight's blog post, I decided on a short novella-ish type of book that was initially released as an audio recording and features some fan favourites from two different series that everyone has been DYING to see cross over.

Rick Riordan is kind of good at listening like that.

The Son of Sobek is the first in a short trilogy which features some characters that we know and love and mentions others, and of course there's always room for more where these guys are running around.

It's mythology, after all.

Tome Thursday: The Kane Chronicles

Hello everyone!

As we cheerfully start our way into October and the first week of it is drawing to a close, I figured I could probably dust off some oldie-goldies when it came to books.

Let's face it, there are some that you pick up and read again and again.

If they include hilarious teenage-god encounters, that happens even more often!

The only thing better now would be to have Lucifer on speed-dial for the sarcastic remarks, but I suppose if you can't get him then any old god will do.

In this post, I continue my trek through Rick Riordan's books, as I tend to do every once in a while when I'm feeling especially down about something, because inevitably it'll be one of his deity representations that makes me giggle like a lunatic and feel better.

Tonight, that honour falls to Horus & Co.

Please turn your pages to The Kane Chronicles.

Tome Thursday: Pyramid

Hello everyone!

So last week, if anyone remembers or if anyone read, I talked about David Gibbins and his underwater archaeology books. In a very brief summary of what I wrote then, basically, this is about a team gathered around Jack Howard, who globe-hop a lot and discover strange things left behind by our ancestors, whether this is Atlantis or a meteorite-fashioned swastika, it doesn't matter. Jack is joined in his endeavours by a lot of prominent members, notably Costas Kazantzakis, Maurice Hiebermeyer and his wife Aysha, his daughter Rebecca, and various females ranging from Spaniard Maria to Russian Katya.

Whew, that really was brief. Anyone else already feeling winded?

Anyway, last week, I talked all about the seventh book in the Jack Howard series, titled 'Pharaoh', and dealing with the hunt for Akhenaten, one of those Egyptian guys we really don't know that much about, and what we DO know is now being turned upside down by new discoveries.

History never sleeps, ladies and gentlemen.