Month: January 2016

Top Ten 2015 Movies I Meant To See…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations4 Comments

The Broke and the Bookish, home of the Top Ten Tuesday meme, had for their topic recently 2015 books you meant to read but didn’t.  I’m actually pretty on top of book releases (there just aren’t that many new releases I want to keep track of) but movies are a completely different story.  Some time last January, I actually put a bunch of movie release dates into my calendar for the entire year.  And then…yeah.  Well.

I went to the theater three times in 2015: Age of Adaline, Inside Out and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  All of them were excellent, so in that way I made good choices!

I saw on Home on DVD, and watched Jupiter Ascending and Cinderella on a plane…didn’t love any of them, so I guess it’s just as well I didn’t go to the theater for those.  But that leaves quite a few still unknown quantities!  So, top 2015 movies I haven’t seen…

By release date order:

  1. Mortdecai
  2. Tomorrowland
  3. The Walk
  4. Victor Frankenstein
  5. The Martian
  6. The Jungle Book
  7. Suffragette
  8. The Peanuts Movie
  9. Mockingjay 2 (…and 1, actually)
  10. The Good Dinosaur

Looks like I have some DVDs to track down!  Have you seen any of these?  Any I should rush out and watch, or any I’m better off not spending two hours of my life on? 🙂

Book Review: The Shepherd’s Crown (Discworld #41)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young AdultLeave a comment

The world grew less funny last March with the death of Terry Pratchett, creator of Discworld, my go-to author during blue times, and the reigning king of my “funniest book read this year” category every year.  Honestly, it makes me want to reach for a Pratchett book–which I did near the end of 2015, when I realized that Pratchett’s final Discworld book had somehow come out without my noticing!  That was The Shepherd’s Crown, fifth book in the Tiffany Aching subseries.

This was an unusually fraught read, because the previous book, Raising Steam, just…wasn’t very good.  And it made me really, really sad.  So I am doubly pleased by how much I liked The Shepherd’s Crown!

As to the story here (there’s no way to soften this so I have to just say it) it begins with the death of Granny Weatherwax, who is not the leader of the witches (witches don’t have a leader–Granny wouldn’t allow it).  Tiffany, somewhat to her own dismay, finds herself as Granny’s successor.  She struggles with what it means to walk, not in Granny’s footsteps but in her own.  The Nac Mac Feegle also careen through at times; Tiffany has to make a decision about Geoffrey, a boy who wants to be a witch; and the witches have to deal with an incursion by the fairies (far more scary than you might think). Continue reading “Book Review: The Shepherd’s Crown (Discworld #41)” →

Blog Hop: Bookless Days

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop1 Comment

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Can you recall a time in your life when you were not reading?

Tragically, yes. Sort of. One semester in college, I was severely overloaded with reading for classes. Three out of four classes were heavy on reading, averaging roughly one Shakespearean play, one novel and one nonfiction history book every week. I read everything (I was conscientious that way), which left virtually no time for pleasure reading. So I was reading…but not anything I wanted to read (well, some of those assigned books were good, Shakespeare especially, but none were exactly light, relaxing reading).

It was miserable, and I vowed never to let that happen again. So far, so good!

Book Review: Star Wars – Survivor’s Quest

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction1 Comment

I enjoyed the new Star Wars movie quite a bit, but I still had to chant “alternate universe” a lot—because I like the Expanded Universe of the novels. As I mentioned in my movie review, the movie sent me running to read a Timothy Zahn book, just to bring some balance back. So I pretty quickly read Survivor’s Quest (and took a while to post the review…), the chronologically-last Zahn Star Wars books, after already having read the previous five he wrote. And it really did feel so nice!

By this book we’ve reached some twenty years beyond the original trilogy (not that you can tell from Luke’s face on the cover…) This one focuses exclusively on Luke and Mara Jade, now married for three years. They join an expedition to find the remains of Outbound Flight, a colony ship sent 50 years ago in an (unsuccessful) effort to reach another galaxy. It swiftly becomes clear a saboteur is aboard the expeditionary ship, with a whole host of possible suspects.

Reading this book definitely fulfilled my goal—it just felt so comfortable to read a story about Mara Jade (probably the break-out star original character of the Expanded Universe), where Luke is training up a new generation of Jedi. We didn’t get to see Han and Leia, but we know they’re out there. I loved that. Continue reading “Book Review: Star Wars – Survivor’s Quest” →

Book Review: The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus series)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young AdultLeave a comment

I finished out my read of Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series just before the end of the year with The Blood of Olympus, fifth and final book. It was dramatic and exciting and a good conclusion to the series…if not quite everything I might have hoped for.

The waking of Gaea, the terrifying Mother Earth, has been drawing closer and closer throughout the series and now is only days away. Most of our (several) heroes are aboard the flying Argo II, heading towards the Parthenon, site of Gaea’s waking, fighting monsters and questing for the ingredients of the Physician’s Cure along the way. Meanwhile, the motley band of Reyna (Roman praetor), Nico (antisocial son of Hades) and Coach Hedge (war-mongering satyr) are trying to deliver a giant, ancient statue of Athena to Camp Half-Blood in time to prevent a war between the Greek and Roman demigods.

Everything that was here was good, and my biggest disappointment was what wasn’t here. Namely, anything from Percy or Annabeth’s point of view, because they’re my favorites. I actually flipped through when I was somewhere near the beginning to see what the POVs were going to be—and it turns out to be Jason, Piper, Nico, Reyna and Leo. To be fair, Percy and Annabeth got a lot of play in the last three books, especially 2 and 4, and there is a certain appropriateness to returning to Jason, Piper and Leo in the final book, when they were the focus of book 1…but I like Percy and Annabeth. And don’t get me wrong, they are here…but not the primary focus this time around. Continue reading “Book Review: The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus series)” →