Good morning readers. I have just spent a very frustrating morning and am hoping my experiences will help some of you save some time and irritation. A few days ago, I borrowed an ebook from the library, via Overdrive. Overdrive uses Adobe DRM (digital rights management) as its system to prevent your copying/sharing the books you’ve borrowed. What it means, essentially, is that you must go through the Adobe Digital Editions software to transfer your books to your ereader. The process goes something like this: Download Adobe Digital Editions to your PC or Mac Authorise ADE with an Adobe account (on the Mac it’s under the Help menu) – you may need to set one up if you don’t have one In ADE authorize each device you wish to use (it’s one of the right click menu items) When you borrow (or in some cases buy) a book it will download an ACSM file which when clicked will open the book in ADE. Transfer the book via ADE to your device via USB. Once it’s set up, in future steps 4 and 5 are all that are needed to read the book on your device. Anyway, when I borrowed the book…
Good morning, and welcome to another reading roundup. Here are a few of the books I’ve read over the holiday season. I was recently given a copy of The Re-Awakening by the author free of charge to review. This is the second book in Vance’s Second Coming series and continues the story of Lazarus Christos, the reborn Christ who has come to battle evil in the end of days. Like its predecessor, The Return (see my review) it is a mystery thriller in the vein of say Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. Being the second in a series, The Re-Awakening is more setup and less action packed than the first book. One of the characters described the conflict as a chess match – this book is where the players are putting their pieces into place and are preparing for the final battle. That is an excellent analysis of the book. I continued to find the characters and concept interesting and will probably read the next book to see what happens next. I gave The Re-Awakening three and a half stars out of five Hobbit Lessons: A Map for Life’s Unexpected Journeys by Devin BrownGenres: General LiteratureFormat: ARC Pages: 356 pages Buy from…
Good morning, and welcome to another reading roundup. Here are a few of the books I’ve read over the holiday season. I was recently given a copy of The Re-Awakening by the author free of charge to review. This is the second book in Vance’s Second Coming series and continues the story of Lazarus Christos, the reborn Christ who has come to battle evil in the end of days. Like its predecessor, The Return (see my review) it is a mystery thriller in the vein of say Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. Being the second in a series, The Re-Awakening is more setup and less action packed than the first book. One of the characters described the conflict as a chess match – this book is where the players are putting their pieces into place and are preparing for the final battle. That is an excellent analysis of the book. I continued to find the characters and concept interesting and will probably read the next book to see what happens next. I gave The Re-Awakening three and a half stars out of five Hobbit Lessons: A Map for Life’s Unexpected Journeys by Devin BrownGenres: General LiteratureFormat: ARC Pages: 356 pages Buy from…
I had been initially reluctant to read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, despite the many positive reviews, mainly because of its subject matter. It deals with the romance between two teenage cancer survivors. I eventually relented when I saw that my local library had an e-copy, which was duly downloaded to my Kobo. From the first few pages I fell in love with these characters – it was clear that Green had put a lot of effort into creating them as unique, individuals with their own hopes, fears and desires, who just happen to be ill with cancer. I ended up purchasing my own copy of the book, as I suspect I will reread it more than once. What I liked The characters. As I mentioned, I fell in love with these characters. The beauty of Green’s writing is that Hazel and Augustus are not defined by their illnesses. They are two young people who happen to be living with cancer. Hazel is defined more by her love of the book “An Imperial Affliction”, which is a plot point in the novel, and her obsession with America’s Next Top Model. Augustus’ sharp wit and fun-loving nature is…
I had been initially reluctant to read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, despite the many positive reviews, mainly because of its subject matter. It deals with the romance between two teenage cancer survivors. I eventually relented when I saw that my local library had an e-copy, which was duly downloaded to my Kobo. From the first few pages I fell in love with these characters – it was clear that Green had put a lot of effort into creating them as unique, individuals with their own hopes, fears and desires, who just happen to be ill with cancer. I ended up purchasing my own copy of the book, as I suspect I will reread it more than once. What I liked The characters. As I mentioned, I fell in love with these characters. The beauty of Green’s writing is that Hazel and Augustus are not defined by their illnesses. They are two young people who happen to be living with cancer. Hazel is defined more by her love of the book “An Imperial Affliction”, which is a plot point in the novel, and her obsession with America’s Next Top Model. Augustus’ sharp wit and fun-loving nature is…
The Archived by Victoria Schwab is another book that has been gathering great buzz on the booktuber network, and with good reason. It is a very fresh young adult paranormal mystery with great characters and excellent worldbuilding. it tells the story of Mackenzie Bishop, a young woman who has a secret job as Keeper; in the world of The Archive, when you die, your life history is recorded and kept in the Archive, physically represented by a copy of your body. Occasionally a History will wake and try to escape to the real world and it’s a Keeper’s role to return this History to the Archive. When Mackenzie moves to a new area she finds that her Keeper territory is extremely busy and that it could be related to a series of murders that took place in her new building as well as an an internal betrayal within the Archive. She must investigate this connection as well as adapt to her new home. What I liked The supernatural murder mystery. I really enjoyed the way this was built up with various suspects and roadblocks to information. I enjoyed that Mackenzie had to use both her supernatural and her normal powers…
The Archived by Victoria Schwab is another book that has been gathering great buzz on the booktuber network, and with good reason. It is a very fresh young adult paranormal mystery with great characters and excellent worldbuilding. it tells the story of Mackenzie Bishop, a young woman who has a secret job as Keeper; in the world of The Archive, when you die, your life history is recorded and kept in the Archive, physically represented by a copy of your body. Occasionally a History will wake and try to escape to the real world and it’s a Keeper’s role to return this History to the Archive. When Mackenzie moves to a new area she finds that her Keeper territory is extremely busy and that it could be related to a series of murders that took place in her new building as well as an an internal betrayal within the Archive. She must investigate this connection as well as adapt to her new home. What I liked The supernatural murder mystery. I really enjoyed the way this was built up with various suspects and roadblocks to information. I enjoyed that Mackenzie had to use both her supernatural and her normal powers…
Following on from my post yesterday on the movies I have in my iTunes library I’d like to share with you the TV shows in which I have chosen to invest my hard earned cash. I would also like to direct your attention to a post I wrote some while ago on what I consider quality drama. In most cases the shows I have purchased fall into that category. So without further ado, let’s get on with it. Battlestar Galactica. This is Ron Moore’s updating of the classic space opera about the humane survivors of a genocidal robot attack. Moore had the good sense to ground this series in real and relatable characters who were portrayed by excellent actors. The whole drama stemmed from humans dealing with other humans and their interrelationships as well as situations well beyond their experience amidst the chaos of struggling for survival. Moore’s next project is bringing Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series to the small screen, and given how much I enjoyed Galactica I am very excited to see this. Doctor Who. Regular readers of my blog will know that I have recently gone through a real Doctor Who phase. I’ve always enjoyed the series but…
Following on from my post yesterday on the movies I have in my iTunes library I’d like to share with you the TV shows in which I have chosen to invest my hard earned cash. I would also like to direct your attention to a post I wrote some while ago on what I consider quality drama. In most cases the shows I have purchased fall into that category. So without further ado, let’s get on with it. Battlestar Galactica. This is Ron Moore’s updating of the classic space opera about the humane survivors of a genocidal robot attack. Moore had the good sense to ground this series in real and relatable characters who were portrayed by excellent actors. The whole drama stemmed from humans dealing with other humans and their interrelationships as well as situations well beyond their experience amidst the chaos of struggling for survival. Moore’s next project is bringing Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series to the small screen, and given how much I enjoyed Galactica I am very excited to see this. Doctor Who. Regular readers of my blog will know that I have recently gone through a real Doctor Who phase. I’ve always enjoyed the series but…
As most of you know, I spend a lot of my free time reading. That doesn’t mean however, that I don’t have a reasonable film and TV collection so I thought it might be nice if I took you through it. Whereas with books I’m comfortable spending $8 or so on a book about which I’m not 100% sure, as films and TV series cost between $20 and $50 I am a lot choosier about what I add to my collections. Movies My movie collection can be roughly divided into three categories: musicals (yes, I am a closet Andrew Lloyd Webber fan – so what?) great dramas with excellent scripts and acting and finally fun family movies. In terms of musicals I have: Alegria. This is one of the Montreal based Cirque du Soleil’s shows. If you have not seen CdS before, you really should check them out. There are no animals involved, just incredible human acrobatics with stunning production values and visuals. Fun fact; the founder of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte, became Canada’s first space tourist. Cats. This is a filming of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical about, well, cats. Thin on plot, some catchy tunes, but wonderful…