Wednesday, January 8, 2014

3 reviews

A lighthearted story about a computer tech, Lincoln, who's job is to monitor and read flagged company e-mails. He becomes fascinated with the back and forth between Jennifer and Beth and sees their communiques as too endearing to be turned in for further action. He finds himself falling in love with Beth even though he has never seen her. How does he ever have a chance with her in real life after this invasion of privacy?
A fun yet shallow story of a different sort of office romance. 3 stars.

Blockade Billy and Morality by Stephen King. I am not generally a fan of short stories since I never feel as if the story or characters are successfully developed enough for me to really care about. These were fair, I liked Morality a bit better than the baseball story. 3 stars.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. A classic, written in 1953 about a futuristic world where people are basically managed by the government. The firemen have the job of burning all books, no one is permitted to own any or really have independent thoughts or strong opinions. A bit chilling in some ways as I see so many parallels in our society today. Anything slightly offensive, no matter how mild or ridiculous, was not allowed in this dystopian world. Eventually nothing was okay and everyone was to be the same so there would be no conflict. The story holds up after five decades and I would highly recommend it. 4 stars.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Happy 2014!

Happy New Year! May the year ahead bring many beautiful blessings to you and your family. I have not made any grand resolutions this year, I just am going to try and live each day a little better than the one before. Little goals are so much easier for me. I've begun a daily written journal to see where I may have room for improvements.

We just got back from the second part of The Hobbit (in 3D). I loved it and was so immersed in Middle Earth, it felt weird walking out of the theater in broad daylight. I read this book back in 1973 and read it about 3 more times after that. One of my favorites of all time and I think they did a pretty respectable job on screen.

The book pictured above I just finished and really enjoyed. This House Is Haunted by John Boyne takes place in the late 1800's in the London area. A governess takes on a new job to care for two children in a very haunted house where the spirit of their dead mother tries to kill anyone that gets near her children. A bit of a mix of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen's styles with a strong heroine and a very well paced plot. Four stars (out of 5).