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Showing posts from July, 2013

All's Fair in Blog and War by Chrissie Peria

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Summary from Goodreads : Five Cuevas @fivetravels Three guesses to where I'm going next. Starts with an M. Ends with a U. Has a lechon named after it. #travel Travel blogger Five thinks she has hit the jackpot when the Macau Tourism Board invites her over for an all-expense-paid blogger tour in exchange for blogging about Macau. But while she happily signs up for the trip, she didn't sign up to be travel buddies with the infuriating Jesse. Will her dream vacation turn into a nightmare junket? Or will falling in love be on the itinerary? When this novella was brought to my attention. I knew that this had a fair shot with me, despite the fact that I am not quite so big on contemporary romance. Two words: Blogging and Travelling. These are two activities that are familiar to me and which I have considerably enjoyed. The former, at a greater extent that the latter because I found myself being more of a lazy-ass of late. Lazy to pack, lazy to book the trip, lazy to haul mys

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

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Summary from Goodreads : Since Doyle created the immortal Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson, no other mystery writer has come close to eclipsing him as the standard bearer in crime fiction. A brilliant London-based "consulting detective," Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess and renowned for his skillful use of astute observation, deductive reasoning, and inference to solve difficult cases.  Twelve stories:  A scandal in Bohemia -- The adventure of the red-headed league -- A case of identity -- The Boscombe Valley mystery -- The five orange pips -- The man with the twisted lip -- The adventure of the blue carbuncle -- The adventure of the speckled band -- The adventure of the engineer's thumb -- The adventure of the noble bachelor -- The adventure of the beryl coronet -- The adventure of the copper beeches. I am happy that now, they are coming out with many movie and tv adaptations of literature, because it can encourage people to

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary E-Shorts (4-6)

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In honor of Doctor Who's 50th Aniversary, Puffin Books is launching a series of Doctor Who short stories on e-book format. The series will total 11, one for each doctor, which will be published every 23rd of every month until November.  Something Borrowed by Richelle Mead   #6  ( Summary from  Goodreads ) A wedding on the planet Koturia turns out to be a far more dangerous proposition than the Sixth Doctor and Peri ever expected. It marks the return of a formidable old foe whose genius matches the Doctor’s. Can the Doctor outwit this villain, save Peri and stop the wedding in time? Something Borrowed moves in a pace that resembles an actual Doctor Who episode on TV. But it is an exciting, fast-paced and adventurous romp through an alien planet called Koturnia, patterned after what else, but Las Vegas, the city of glitz and glamour. And of course, what is Vegas without a wedding? Or ravaging pterodactyls? Aside from the chases and captures and general running around,

A Game of Thrones by G.R.R. Martin

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Summary from Goodreads : Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy

Top Ten Best/Worst Movie Adaptations

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For More Info go to The Broke and The Bookish Best Movie Adaptations: 1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R Tolkien - Translating this epic fantasy on screen seems like a massive and impossible task but Peter Jackson did it brilliantly. Wonderful sweeping scenes of  Middle Earth, epic battles, and just overall great cinematography.    2. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - Richard Armitage! Okay, sans Armitage, I think the movie was terrific. Still has awesome cinematography but I actually enjoyed the humor that they injected into the dialogues. Even the singing and the intricate facial hairs. And I have to mention the riddle scene with Gollum and Bilbo which was the best and my absolute favorite part. 3. A Game of Thrones by G.R.R. Martin - Technically not a movie, but I have to include this on this list because it's one of the new found things that I am currently obsessing about. It was the TV series that got me to read the books (so far, I am almost done with book 1)

Lightning by Dean Koontz

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Summary from Goodreads : A storm strikes on the night Laura Shane is born in 1955, and there is a strangeness about the weather that people will remember for years. As the dazzling blue-white jagged bolts of lightning split the heavens, a stranger materialises out of the raging blizzard to guard Laura from the not so tender mercies of a drunken doctor and ensure her safe passage into the world, before disappearing back into the night. Eight years later, Laura meets her mysterious saviour again, when he saves her from the perverted and deadly intentions of a drug-crazed robber. Throughout her childhood, even more terrifying troubles beset the young girl, but with increasing courage, she finds the strength to prevail - even without the intervention of the stranger. In time she marries and has a son, while also finding success as a novelist. Gradually the memory of her strange guardian and the troubles of her youth dim in the light of her happiness. Until the lightning strikes onc

Required Reading: July 2013

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I initially lined up three reads for my June Required Reading Challenge , all under a Thriller Theme. I only managed to read two which are the ff:  1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - (5/5)  I get it why this nook seemed to be on every one of those "best picks" list. It is a great psychological thriller, it's gripping, it's tense, it's mad, it's crazy!    2. Lightning by Dean Koontz - (4/5) When I realized the length of this book, I thought I got me in for some trouble but it's surprisingly highly entertaining that the pages flew right by. It has time travel in it, a blonde blue-eyed mysterious guy, and car chases, and shoot outs, and a whole lot of lightning and thunder to shake you up. Two out of three isn't bad, plus I gave the two titles nothing below a 4 star rating, so I say June was a pretty good reading month for me.  Visit One More Page for more info. I could have finished my third book (Reality Check by Peter Abrahams) if only I

Top Ten Most Intimidating Books/Authors

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For more info on this meme go to: The Broke and the Bookish 1. Classic Literature - Classics in general, intimidate me, high on that list would be these 5: Russian Lit (Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Nabokov) - Anna Karenina and War and Peace both are massive! And there is the equally massive Lolita. As for Dostoyevsky, I started Crime and Punishment but found my brain unable to cope.    Shakespearean Lit - All the thees and doths and thous is enough to make me crazy. I am thinking of getting one of those No Fear Shakespear books though.   Les Miserables by Victor Hugo - I love love the songs in the movie musical. The story is gripping and haunting. But the movie is what, 2 hours long? While the book is HUGE, and it might take me years to plow through. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - I started this last February but ended up stopping after a few pages. The old enlish language is tough, plus, I couldn't keep track of the characters and their relationships to each other.   Mo