My Two Blessings

  It's book week 9 in our 52 Books quest and the end of February.   I read 9 books, all from my own shelves and I reviewed them all except for Garden of Lies which was a reread and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry which I forgot about as soon as I finished. It was meh and I'm sorry to say I didn't like Fikry. More telling, than showing. I really didn't like the characters all that much and there were too many implausibility's with things being let go. It could have been a tear jerker but unfortunately missed the mark with me. Super Powered Year Two - Drew Hayes (Science Fiction, 720) A lesson in Secrets (#6 Maisie Dobbs) - Jacqueline Winspear (Police Procedural 1932, 321) Abandoned in Death (#54 In Death) - J.D. Robb (Futuristic Police Procedural, 356) Ancestral Night (#1 White Space) - Elizabeth Bear (Science Fiction, 499) Super Powered Year Three - Drew Hayes (Science fiction, 900 e) Garden of Lies - Amanda Quick (Historical romance, reread) Storied Life of A...

  Greetings, friends. Today, we are here to discuss... THE MASK! That's right, we're about to review the classic 1990s Jim Carrey movie based on the comics published by Dark Horse, serving as a family-friendly adaptation to a somewhat super violent comic.  So, what is The Mask about and what are my thoughts on this cheesy movie from the 90s since I've seen it twice at this point? Well, a bank clerk named Stanley Ipkiss (who is played by Mr. Jim Carrey, of course) finds a mask in a river one night and, whenever he puts it on, he turns into a living, cartoonish super-being capable of just about anything. Stanley has a crush on a club singer, whom he meets early on in the film, and, after he earns over her heart as The Mask, lands himself in hot water with a criminal who is in love with her. But in the end, Stanley saves the day and gets rid of The Mask. Now that the short synopsis is out of the way, what do I think of the movie? Its quite good, they handled the source materia...

  Oh my f''ing God. This book was so good.  This is not a spoiler free review so be fair warned.   "This is the way the world ends. Again.  Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries. Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale ...

  1989 saw the release of the first true Batman film starring the likes of Michael Keaton as the titular Dark Knight of Gotham and it was so successful, a sequel was green-lit a few years later with Tim Burton once again directing the movie and Michael playing the role of Batman again. But this time, this film was way darker and more intense, this... was BATMAN RETURNS! Welcome back, DC fans. Today, we discuss and review the sequel to the 1989 classic, the movie that sees Batman go up against Oswald "The Penguin" Cobblepot, played by Danny DeVito, and Silena "Catwoman" Kyle, played by Michelle Pfeiffer (who'd go on to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe almost a few decades later as Janet Van Dyne, the wife of Hank Pym.) Just like the first film, Batman Returns is rated PG-13. But this time, it pushes the PG-13 rating very hard as we see Catwoman claw a man's face, drawing blood, and Penguin dying a somewhat bloody death while we even see Batman kill som...

  In my web wanderings this week, I was drawn into an article about artist Rockwell Kent and his quest for solitude and inspiration in Wilderness, Solitude, and Creativity: Artist and Philosopher Rockwell Kent’s Century-Old Meditations on Art and Life During Seven Months on a Small Alaskan Island , which lead to Musings on Art: Rockwell Kent - A Champion of Peace , which lead to Kent's illustrated Moby Dick . Makes me want to read the Moby Dick, or The Whale illustrated version now as well as Kent's book, Wilderness, his journal about his time in Alaska. Rabbit trails as so much fun. Another interesting article about Author Joanne Harris turns down US book deal over censoring of ‘f-bomb’ , particularly because it was pertinent to the story. Which lead of course to her blog and her response about sensitivity readers the publishing houses have begun to employ. In her blog post On Sensitivity readers, weakness, and staying alive , Harris makes a good point. "Books all hav...

  Finished Super Powered Year Three by Drew Hayes. The paperback book tried to condense 900 pages into 600 pages so the print was really small so I read an ebook version instead. This one was packed with lots of fights, both sanctioned, and one huge non sanctioned that could have gotten the college kids thrown out of the Hero Certification school. The rest of the kids are fine tuning their skills and Vince is being watched due to his being kidnapped by George in the last book. Chad and Angela’s relationship is highlighted quite a bit and he moved into the Dorm with Mary, Alice, Vince, and Ron/Hershel. Lots of twists, humor, and team building. Nick has returned, living off campus and attending regular classes while trying to recover his memories and looks like he may be involved in a long con. A rival family’s son from Vegas is out to destroy Nick by any means. Enemies combine to attack not only Nick, but the Super Powers and rather than sit out the fight safely in lock down, they ...

Greetings, fellow movie viewers and superhero nerds. Welcome back to the superhero-verse where we once again discuss something related to DC and its brooding Dark Knight known as Batman. But its no crossover film or a comic we're discussing, its one of the biggest blockbusters of the 20th century, a piece of classic 80s cinema. That's right, we're talking about... BATMAN! However, this is not the Dark Knight's first live-action project, Batman got a TV series of his own way back in the 1940s known as Batman & Robin with the caped crusader played by Robert Lowey. Almost a few decades later, we got the 1966 show BATMAN (which was a campy and more light-hearted take on the Dark Knight) starring Adam West and that spawned a made-for-TV movie. It wouldn't be for another decade and a half until a true Batman movie came to life, one that paid respects to the Dark Knight's roots with the well-known Tim Burton at the helm. Today, we're here to discuss Batman 1989...

  J.D. Robb's 54th installment   Abandoned in Death in the In Death series released on February 8th arrived and as always, everything stopped while I read it. Once again, Robb knocks it out the ballpark.  I had no idea who the killer was throughout, going from man to woman to back again, as the clues piled up, some leading no where, until Eve managed to put it all together.   "Homicide detective Eve Dallas must untangle a twisted family history while a hostage’s life hangs in the balance—in the new In Death novel by #1 New York Times bestselling J. D. Robb. The woman’s body was found on a bench in a New York City playground. She was clean, her hair neatly arranged, her makeup carefully applied. But other things were very wrong—like the tattoo and piercings, clearly new. The clothes, decades out of date. The fatal wound hidden beneath a ribbon around her neck. And the note: Bad Mommy, written in crayon as if by a child. It seems clear the killer’s childhood...

  Welcome back to the Whoniverse, after dealing with the Revolution of The Daleks, we're now diving into Jodie Whittaker's final season and the start of her final year as The Doctor with the multi-part storyline Flux and the New Year's special Eve Of The Daleks (no, not Evil of The Daleks, that's a different tale from the other story). So, lets begin, starting with Flux. Flux is, of course, a multi-part story that makes up the entirety of Series 13 of New Who, it sees The Doctor, Yaz and a multitude of allies struggling to save the universe from The Flux, which is being engineered by The Division, which served the Time Lords and The Doctor served under well before she became the Time Lord known as The Doctor. Airing from October 31st to December 5, Flux was a massive storyline that was just as ambitious as it could get with Chris Chibnall and his team throwing everything they had at the sink to make sure this storyline was the biggest one yet. Not only did you have The ...

  The third time is the charm. I had difficulties getting into Elizabeth Bear's Ancestral Night and almost gave up on it. However, I gave it one more try and became quickly engrossed in the story.  Timing I guess is everything. The story sucked me in and I had a book hangover when I finished  My mind was full from the vastness of outer space and all that happened and I had to sit with the story for a little bit.  This was a very complex story involving philosophical, cultural, political, and psychological themes as H amiey Dz, her partner Connla, and the ship mind Singer, find evidence of a major crime, run afoul of space pirates and are chased through deep space to space stations to deep holes to the very center of the galaxy.  Mix in altered memories, a computer in your brain to regulate emotions, plenty of discussions about  right and wrong, throw in ancient sentient space whales, an anthromorphic praying mantis and other interesting creatures as well a...

Welcome back, friends. This time we are diving... into history, traveling back to the final months of a dark time in our world's history. We're turning back the clock to 1945 as World War II in Europe was ending in chaos.  This is my review of Inside Hitler's Bunker by Joachim Fest, which details the final days of the Third Reich as the Soviet army besieged the German city of Berlin.  Plus the movie that was based on it along with many other accounts by those who knew the infamous Adolf Hitler. We got INSIDE HITLER'S BUNKER back in 2015 and read the entire book from start to finish with me taking down notes as I went.  it detailed everything that  happened during those chaotic final weeks as the Soviets took Berlin and as Hitler met his fate down in that bunker with his close allies. It covers the start of the Battle of Berlin a couple days before Hitler's birthday, then talks about what happened during the last ten days from his birthday up to his death with Eva Br...

  Welcome back, everyone! Its time we dive back into the Ghostbusters universe... with the long-awaited Ghostbusters III known as Ghostbusters Afterlife, released in November of 2021 and starring Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckeena Grace, Bokeem Woodbine and Paul Rudd of Marvel Cinematic Universe fame. Original Ghostbusters actors Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver (post-credits) and Harold Ramis (posthumously) also appear in the film, reprising their roles from the original two films with J.K Simmons of Spider-Man and Terminator Genisys fame playing none other than Ivo Shandor, who was mentioned in the first movie and played a major role in the 2009 video game. Set over three decades after the events of the first two films, Egon Spengler's grandkids visit a house left behind by him after his death and find themselves taking up the Ghostbusters mantle when the threat of a supernatural apocalypse with Gozer's return becomes apparent. In the end, after quite...

  This dusty book has been on my shelves for quite a while. I was given the ARC of A Lesson in Secrets  while volunteering at Left Coast Crime in 2012 and Winspear was one of the guest speakers.  I had so much fun hearing all the different speakers and received a great many books from authors I've never read before.  Don't know why it took me so long to read, but glad I did.   "In the summer of 1932, Maisie Dobbs’s career takes an exciting new turn when she accepts an undercover assignment directed by Scotland Yard’s Special Branch and the Secret Service. Posing as a junior lecturer, she is sent to a private college in Cambridge to monitor any activities, “not in the interests of His Majesty’s Government. When the college’s controversial pacifist founder and principal, Greville Liddicote, is murdered, Maisie is directed to stand back as Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane and Detective Chief Inspector Richard Stratton spearhead the investigatio...

  Welcome back to the Sonic-verse, today, we're traveling back to the 1990s to look at another Sonic animation. We've covered the first two Sonic cartoons and Underground, but we've not yet covered another obscure part of Sonic's past, we're looking at the Sonic OVA aka Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie (which is not to be confused with the Sonic movie that came out nearly 25 years later. So, what's the story behind this anime? Well, back in 1996, Sonic was very popular in America with several games, an ongoing comic book and two shows under his belt. But meanwhile in Japan, SEGA Enterprises wanted to do a Sonic show themselves, especially as Sonic had never done an anime at this point.  So, they partnered with Studio Pierrot to work on the project with Sonic Team's Yuji Naka and Naoto Oshima supervising the project. However, since Sonic wasn't super popular in Japan, the OVA flopped and only two episodes were done. After that, it wouldn't come out in Am...

  Finished Drew Hayes Super Powereds Year Two which was just as good as Year One.  "Despite having their secret revealed, the residents of Melbrook Hall return to Lander University for another year in the Hero Certification Program. Good thing the focus of this year is teamwork, because with their origins known they’ll have to lean on each other more than ever. Now finally sophomores, their curriculum expands, allowing them to train in the majors that Heroes specialize in. The new classes will test their minds, bodies, and determination in ways never anticipated. In a year filled with the unveiling of secrets, unexpected entanglements, and, of course, super-powered battles, who will be left standing is anyone’s guess. Because if all that weren’t enough, more light is being shed on last year’s kidnapping attempt, and the results point at something far bigger than mere rogue educators." Our main characters are in Year 2 of college and their Hero Certification program. This year...

  Welcome back to that galaxy far, far away, friends. After much delay, we're finally delving into season two of STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN, which aired all the way back in 2020 from October to December. Its high time we do that, so lets not delay any longer... Just like the first season, Mandalorian season two consists of over eight episodes. Also, season two continues from where season one left off with Din D'Jarin's quest to protect The Child and help him find The Jedi after defeating Moff Gideon in the season one finale.  This season marks the live-action debut of characters such as Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars and Rebels alongside Bo-Katan as well as Cob Vanth from the Star Wars Aftermath trilogy of books. Boba Fett finally makes his return in this, having survived the Sarlacc pit when we last saw him during the events of 1983's Return of The Jedi. He even lost his armor, which ended up in the hands of Cob Vanth himself, which he wore as a sheriff on Tatooine un...

  You are in a pitch black cave so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face. You stumble about, unable to find your bearings.  Before the lights went out, you saw a cavern, a meandering walkway with rocks littering the path, leading to another cave. You listen for a voice, a laugh, a we're only kidding jest, but hear nothing.  Where are you now? Are you alone? Or are there other people lost in the dark same as you.  You stand in place and wait.  Should you turn around and seek the light?  You remember a door, but you don't have any idea where it is anymore. You were shoved through a door into the cavern before the door shut, blocking out the light, sight, sound. What is on the other other side of the cavern? Where are you going? Do you know?  They said they were giving you a test to see, ha ha, your full potential. What did any of this have to do with being a team player or a lone wolf. What did any of this have to do with being management ma...

  Greetings, supernatural nerds, we're diving into another movie review. But this one is a double feature, its the first Ghostbusters movie from 1984 and its 1989 sequel both starring Bill Murray, Rick Moranis, Dan Aykroyd and Alien's Sigourney Weaver. Both were well-received movies and went on to become pop-culture products of their era, spanning a franchise consisting of a couple video games and various comic books as well as a cartoon show. So, what's the story of all two films here? In the first film, after Peter Venkmen, Egon Spangler and Ray Stanz investigate a ghostly phenomenon in a library in New York, they go into a supernatural investigation and ghost catching buisness calling themselves the Ghostbusters. As more spooky situations start popping up, its soon discovered that an ancient god called Gozer is coming to destroy the world so its up to the Ghostbusters to stop him. And in the second movie, after going out of buisness following the battle with Gozer in the...

2021, ten years after Sonic's 20th Anniversary and five years after his twenty-fifth, SEGA and the fandom celebrated Sonic's long-awaited 30th Anniversary. The anniversary technically began a year in advance with the release of the highly-anticipated Sonic The Hedgehog movie from Paramount which was a love letter to the franchise and rejuvenated Sonic after years of declining popularity, returning him to a status of high-popularity not seen since the 1990s. And amidst all that was going on, SEGA collaborated with Dark Horse Comics and popular writer Ian Flynn, not to create a Sonic comic, but to create a book that served as a complete history guide to the decades-worth of Sonic games. This was the Sonic Encyclospeedia. I got this for Christmas after weeks of seeing other people reading it and read the entire thing in one sitting while opening up gifts on Christmas Eve. So, what do I think about it? Well, Ian is a great writer and he put a lot of effort into that research and ev...