Review: Tangle of Need (Psy Changelling #11) by Nalini Singh

Book info:
Form: pdf
Genre: fantasy romance
Target audience: adults

Synopsis:

Riaz Delgado is a lone (were)wolf. It means he can function far away from his pack. It also means he is lonely, mainly because the woman he loves is happily married so unavailable. Adria Morgan recovers after a disastrous relationship with a weaker werewolf. It seems the last thing she needs is another badass in her life. Yet the moment she meets Riaz she can’t stop thinking of him – she is full of frustration and anger, she hates herself, she cannot help it. Some Freudians would say she needs to get laid badly. And get laid she will. Oh and there will be imminent war with the Psy in the background.

What I liked:

I do understand what is so likeable about Mrs. Singh’s novels. You can read them out of order. They are full of passion, they always end with a big HEA, they never disappoint you when it comes to THOSE steamy-hot scenes. Mrs. Singh also never forgets the characters from previous parts which is kind of nice – in this installment we get to know more about the mating/marriage of Hawke and Sienna. They are both so cute. Everybody is cute. Right.

What I didn’t like:

Let me tell you a short story. Once upon a time there was a Kingdom of Perfection. It was ruled by Queen Barbie who was married to Prince Ken. 

They rode Her Little Ponies, ate wedding cakes every day  and drank lemonade. They took care of their subjects too – cake and lemonade for everyone and a party every week!

Still there were no random subjects in the whole Kingdom. You can even say the selection criteria were harsh. All people, living there, had to be handsome or pretty; all of them had to be chivalrous and honest and kind. Several bad characters were allowed to stay in special camps just so the rightful citizens could visit them from time to time and vanquish them in a fight. It was a kind of personality exercise and a pastime. It was also good for their muscles. Unfortunately after a while all citizens looked and acted almost the same – the differences between them pretty superficial: the colour of their hair or eyes…

If anybody fell in love in that Kingdom they always did the right thing - some adultery was tolerated but the relationship had to end in a marriage or mating or whatever ceremony bonds you with the other person for life. If anybody dared act otherwise he or she was forcibly removed from their rainbow-coloured house and exiled. Who wants accidental pregnancies, deadly STDs or a permanent damage of a broken heart? Nobody, right?  Outside there was dirt and wolves and harsh reality, full of dumpsters, bad food, old cars and uglies. 

If you prefer living inside the Kingdom of Perfection, you will most likely like the book – everything in there is according to that Kingdom’s highest standards. If an alpha male is unavailable the heroine gets a lone wolf – almost as good, if not better. If they fall in love they do it with that silly, artificial passion, so funny when you try to imagine it in real life, and they will stay together forever, you can be sure of that. They have to or they will turn into ugly, dirty monsters, full of claws and teeth – most undesirable by the authors or the readers of fluffy books.

Final verdict:

No. Just no.

The LIBOR scandal explained...it concerns everybody!

Don't be surprised by the next financial crisis with such practices.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-the-libor-scandal-explained-2012-7

Movie review: Catacombs by Tomm Coker, David Elliot

Directed by: Tomm Coker,David Elliot 

Screenplay: Tomm Coker,David Elliot 

Release year:  2008  

Genre: Horror 

Cast:

Victoria: Shannyn Sossamon

Carolyn: Alecia Moore (Pink)

Jean Michel: Mihai Stanescu

Nico: Radu Micu

Henry: Emil Hostina

MPAA: Rated R ( strong violence, terror and disturbing images, language, some nudity and drug content)

Synopsis:

Victoria, a shy, young woman, is visiting her sister, Carolyn, studying in Paris. She doesn’t enjoy the trip as much as she should so Carolyn invites her to a rave party organized clandestinely in one of the biggest catacombs in Europe, straight below the lovely capital of France. It is arranged by Carolyn's Parisian friends, two guys called Jean Michel and Nico. Carolyn claims the party can change the neurotic, oversensitive Victoria’s life and she takes her sis shopping for clothes so Victoria, not wanting to be a spoilsport, decides to attend against her better judgment.

 During the party Victoria is given absinthe ('no, it's not alcohol!' ROFL) and told a kind of urban legend about a cult of dark virgin and an Antichrist living in the catacombs and hunting people for food. The story seems to be completely spurious from the very beginning but, as Vicki gazes at the classically beautiful face of Jean Michel (really, the guy must have some Greek blood in him), you get the impression she would believe anything that boy cared to tell her and then some. After a while poor Victoria feels she's had enough of the party (Jean Michel's disappeared) - she tries to get out on her own. She gets lost and witnesses her sister being attacked by a man wearing a mask of a goat. The girl, sure that Carolyn has been killed, panics and runs away helter-skelter with fatal results, not only due to an unpredictable intervention of the French Police.

My impressions:

The first line of the film is a voice-over: "My sister sent me a postcard, all it said was 'Come to Paris. It'll be good for you.' 48 hours after I arrived, she and everyone I'd met were dead." It didn't impress me at all. I thought: "another one of these mediocre B-class thrillers" and I didn't expect any fireworks or indeed much fun. Maybe because of it I was in for a nice surprise.

Despite the obviously limited budget and lack of any special effects the movie was really decent and it seemed real, not like other thrillers also allegedly based on true events. It was intelligently done as the director didn’t try to stun you with too much gore or too many horrible atrocities. Of course it is a thriller so you see a fair amount of really nasty accidents and murders but they didn’t go over the top with it (a major sin of B-class movies- too much ketchup or raspberry juice or whatever they use nowadays to imitate blood).

The ordeal of Victoria is something really scary, especially for a person who, like me, understands agoraphobia and claustrophobia pretty well. Believe me or not but even wild horses wouldn’t drag me to a catacomb party and not because I don’t like music or dancing. However it was nice to watch Vicki’s struggle – you wouldn’t believe such a delicate, sheltered wallflower to put up so much fight and to be so clever when facing an ultimate challenge – running for your life.

The catacombs of Paris really exist and they are an incredible sight to behold – even the glimpses shown in this movie might make you come out in goose pimples (and, depending on your tastes, you will love them or hate them). One thing is sure - after watching this film you will certainly change a bit your perception of Paris – it is not only a city of light or a city of love or an overpriced French tourist trap full of old stuff and rude Parisians but also a very old place with fascinating history and many mysteries. Also, like most of big cities around the world, it is a dangerous place. If you are alone you might get into all sort of troubles and not knowing the language, oh la, la, ça ne sera ni beau ni facile.

There was one stupid scene I didn’t like. Just one. Imagine yourself - right at the very end our brave Victoria emerges from the catacombs. She looks like something an old, arthritic, half-blind cat might drag in – she is dead tired, filthy, bloody, she wears just a flimsy dress covered with all kind of muck and body fluids, undoubtedly smelling of l’eau de catacombs mixed with l’eau de BO. What does she do? She jumps into a taxi and orders: ‘to the airport’. And the taxi driver, after one mistrustful look, starts the engine. Not even one single question. Oh really?

Well, just one short scene and I have several remarks. First: a filthy woman without a BAG (so most probably without money unless she keeps a stash in her combat boots) would be more or less gently asked by any experienced taxi driver to get out of his car and go to hell. Ok, out of sheer pity he might have driven her to the nearest police station or a hospital but only after some serious cajolery and pleading. Secondly: any sensible person in Victoria’s shoes would have returned to her sister’s lodgings first to rest a bit, have a shower and collect her belongings. Let’s face it - without a passport and money, not to mention at least hand luggage, you really have no business at any airport and it didn’t seem Vicki took these items to that fateful party. Not to mention the fact that with a bloody, scratched face and wearing a dirty, smelly excuse for a dress you have a cat in hell’s chance to get through any security check. Finally let me tell you that the lovely city of Paris has more than one airport in its vicinity so telling a taxi driver ‘to the airport’should have immediately elicited a logical response: ‘Which one, honey? Le Bourget, Orly or Charles de Gaulle?’

Final verdict:

A very decent psychological thriller with a slick twist at the end and Paris in the background. No rubber monsters around! Still the last cut kind of ruined it for me a bit - such a stupid blunder!

Here you have the link to a real-life rescue story of three youths lost in Paris catacombs. Yes, it can happen to the curious.

Friday Fiction Flash #40- Saturday edition ;)

Amy C at Romance Book Wyrm and Dottie atTink's Place have come up with the idea for a Monday Morning Flash Fiction challenge. Each Monday a new picture prompt will be posted and if you choose to participate - you publish your Fiction Flash  on Friday - 350 words, give or take.

It's been ages since I wrote a flash but this week's pic was so nice and dark that I decided to give it a try:

"Farewell, My Lovely One" by Anachronist

"NEVERMORE" - that's all he wanted to be written on his grave. No name or surname, no dates, not even the simplest eulogy. Why? It was too late to ask but she was sure even if she had asked before he died he wouldn't have explained. Obnoxious, conceited, irritating, beloved man. She sobbed with grief every time she thought about him and the sudden illness which ravaged his body and finished his life prematurely. She was visiting his grave day and night, hoping for some relief and finding none, just crouching by that cold marble gravestone with the mysterious caption: "NEVERMORE" and crying her eyes out.

One night she was sitting by the grave, feeling cold and empty, unable to move, hugging herself and crying hard, when she heard a strange noise. An animal? Some graverobbers or other criminals? Drunkards? Young Goths proving that they were braver than their friends had ever imagined them to be? She didn't care much but the noise was quite disturbing. She raised her head and looked in that direction. It was full moon so she had no problems with noticing a bulky shape walking on two legs,  rather squat and hunched. It keened pitifully.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice husky from hours of crying.

The creature approached with an unsteady gait.

"Don't you recognize me, my lovely one?"

She gasped. That voice - although distorted and strangely high-pitched, she would recognize it everywhere.

"Amadon?"

The creature half sobbed half laughed.

"Hello, my lovely one. Yes, it's me. Still alive but not exactly kicking. Shuffling rather. I did want to die this time. I really, truly did. I infected myself and everything was going just fine. Now take a look at me. All my efforts, all my sufferings - in vain. The only thing I managed to achieve is a new, ugly body of an ape or a miserable gargoyle. Not exactly fun, don't you think, my lovely one?"


She stood up in a flash, ran to him and threw her arms around his bulky torso, crying again but this time with relief.


"Don't you dare speak like that, Amadon. Don't you dare. I love you, no matter in what body you come, as long as it is still you inside."


"Bloody stupid, aren't you?" he murmured into her chest. He was a head shorter than she now.


She laughed - her first real laugh in months.

"I need your brains to survive - it's obvious. Never leave me again."

"It seems I can't, even if I wanted to."

"We are tied to each other. For eternity."

"It doesn't have to be like that, my lovely one."

"But I WANT it to be like that, Amadon.I want to be with you forever."

"Er...does my opinion count?"

Surprised by his question she stopped hugging him tightly and looked into his dark, shiny eyes.

"Wh...what? You are playing your games with me as usual, right? You can't possibly...Amadon I LOVE you! I will love you forever! Aren't you happy we are together again?"

He nodded, his expression suddenly very solemn and even a bit sad.

"Happy? Oh dear, such a nice girl but so stubborn and stupid. I tried to solve it in a honourable way - I really did. Luckily there is a cure for your kind of illness although there is no cure for me. Farewell, my lovely one."

She didn't feel the knife until it came out of her body. Then she was more dizzy than in pain; the night around her was turning a bit more darker with every second. Her breathing became laboured and shallow. Then she closed her eyelids. She was so tired and heavy and cold...When her body slumped to the ground she didn't feel anything anymore.

"As dead as a doornail, and so quickly" Amadon sighed. "In a matter of minutes. Some girls are lucky."

The Most Fascinating Libraries of the World 04 - Heidelberg University Library

I visited a friend's blog one day and I was literary blown over by a picture of one of the most fascinating libraries around - Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland. It also gave me an idea of a series of posts about the best, the most beautiful, the strangest and the biggest libraries there are. The libraries that can make you drool, where you would be able to spend an indefinite period of time without noticing, where you would like to live and die till the end of the world (if they only served coffee and cake that is). Perhaps you can't visit them all but what is the Internet for? I'll try to illustrate my posts as well as it is only possible, providing, I hope, a nice tour for every visitor around. Enjoy!

Heidelberg University Library

Germany´s oldest university library is considered to be one of the best scientific libraries of Germany. She dates back to the 14th century, to the year of the foundation of the Heidelberg University in 1386. The latest university ranking gave her rank two just behind the state library of Goettingen. With more than 1.6 million book lendings and about two million visitors per year the Heidelberg University is even top of the ranking.

The man responsible for   the library's first major extension was Elector Ottheinrich, an avid bibliophile – and the extension itself lasted from1556 to 1559. He donated his Castle library to the university and with this laid the foundation-stone of the Bibliotheca Palatina, which was supplemented by the extensive library of Ulrich Fugger. The Biblioteca Palatina quickly attained world fame as “scholarly Germany´s most precious treasure” and became the most important library north of the Alps.

Nowadays the Heidelberg University Library comprises of 6.02 million volumes. It possesses a collection of 6 600 manuscripts of the 9th to 17th century, going back to the foundation year of the Heidelberg University in 1386. The highlight among the manuscripts is the Codex Manesse, the “big Heidelberg song manuscript”, which originates between the years 1300 and 1340 and is the most voluminous collection of Middle High German poetry, the work of 140 poets. Page-size miniatures are devoted to 137 medieval bards.

Yes, they've digitalized some of those nice Egyptian papyri as well! In full colour!

Source:

http://guideheidelberg.de/article_single.php?lng=en&cid=13&aid=90
http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/

Review: Rape Girl by Alina Klein

Book info:

Format: Kindle e-book

Genre: contemporary fiction

Target group: older YA, adult

Synopsis:

It is a story of a teenage girl called Valerie who got raped after a party in her own house by a guy she fancied; it is narrated by the victim herself and it spans a period of several months.

What I liked:

The book was well written but firstly and foremostly I appreciated the fact that all everything rang so true - the voice of Valerie, her reactions and the reactions of people around her. I know it because not so long ago I went through a similar situation in my family, which, unable to keep quiet, I described on myblog,. A short version: my cousin was raped after her prom ball by her date and his older brother who was a designated driver. She simply agreed to stop by their house after the ball and yes, most likely she drank one drink too many but she definitely didn’t want to have sex, let alone with them both at the same time. They chose to understand her otherwise; then they claimed she didn’t fight or try to defend herself (well, she was drunk, right?). It was basically her word against their word. My aunt and uncle decided not to press charges, accusing my cousin that she’d led them on somehow. It was disgusting and harmful.

 Date rapes or party rapes do happen all too often; well, in the case of Valerie we should actually call it a post-party rape but you know the premise: a boy and a girl are having a good time; the boy thinks the girl has nothing against sex so he continues his game although he heard her saying ‘no’. Then the victim goes to the police and all of a sudden it turns out she is the aggressor, not the victim. I am yet to meet a rapist who calls himself so – instead they blame the other part for ‘leading him on’. The excuses are surprisingly repetitive: girls/women don’t know what they really want, they often say ‘no’ meaning ‘yes’, if they don’t scream like a banshee or fight or bite and scratch your face raw it means they agree (and even if they do it the rapist might always claim it was nothing but a kind of foreplay, right?). It’s so easy to blame the victim because, after all, more often than not she does feel guilty, like Valerie in this novel. She shouldn’t have drunk so much. She shouldn’t have stayed that long in bed. She shouldn’t have worn this or that piece of clothing. She shouldn't have organized that party.

Valerie undergoes several stages of a post-traumatic shock: disbelief, self-disgust, aggression, depression and guilt. Then she returns to school and attends a support group therapy so we can know how her situation is perceived by other people: other rape victims, her older brother, her mum, her best friend, Mimmi, and even Adam, the rapist. Who, of course, claims there was no foul play, everything was nice and consensual, he just had the bad luck of having sex with one mean girl who now wants to draw attention to herself and to ruin his future prospects as a Mormon missionary. A classic, don’t you think?

I also appreciated the very realistic outcome of  the lawsuit, which ensued - a spoiler, highlight to read: (the prosecutors had to drop charges against Adam because his buddies testified that during the party Valerie was gagging for it; of course it wasn’t true) and the fact that Valerie found a way to get to terms with the whole situation.

What I didn’t like:

It was too short – rather a longer novella than a novel. I read it in approximately two hours. It ended too quickly.

Final verdict:

One of these books you would like to read before anything bad happens to you or to your relatives, no matter male of female. Boys: if a girl says no, no matter how she expresses it, please always assume she means it and back off. Girls: even somebody you know and like might be a potential rapist. 


ETA: thanks, Rameau, for tweeting me a link to this one!

Movie review: The Social Network by David Fincher

Directed by: David Fincher

Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin

Cast:

Mark Zuckerberg: Jesse Eisenberg

Eduardo Saverin: Andrew Garfield

Erica Albright: Rooney Mara

Sean Parker: Justin Timberlake

Release date: 2010

MPAA rating: PG-13

Synopsis:

It is a story based on facts, telling how Mark Zuckerberg came up with the idea (or rather stole the idea) of Facebook. It really rings true.

My impressions:

This movie might have been very boring. I almost expected some boring parts, you know, it is all about one ugly lawsuit between Mr. Zuckerberg and people he allegedly cheated. Instead, the director partially showed us some flashes from the past and partially told us about the whole issue during a deposition, using also a great soundtrack to emphasize several turning points of the screenplay. The result was interesting, dynamic and fresh.

Mark Zuckerberg, the main character, is presented in a clever way – he is an underdog, a really gifted IT student at Harward who got there because he was talented, not because he was backed by rich parents or good connections. At first you want to cheer for him. BUT. Even in the opening scene, when his girlfriend breaks up with him in a pub (and let me tell you she does it for a reason), you can notice he is too ambitious, vengeful and ruthless to be a positive character. Immediately after the break-up he calls Erica (the said ex-girlfriend) a bitch on his blog, offends her and her family and then he hacks for fun into the sites of different Harward houses and creates the Face Mash - a program which intention was to find the most attractive female student. His first idea, though, was to compare those girls to animals. A lovely reaction, isn't it? 

I don’t know whether it was true but I think it might be - after all good, meek citizens don’t become the youngest billionaires ever - but even if it was false I really enjoyed the complexity of Mark's character. As the story evolves it becomes clear he is a man for whom the end ALWAYS justifies the means - he betrays his only friend (Saverin) when he thinks it can be profitable and generally breaks his word several times without any great pangs of conscience. Ok, maybe he is not exactly comfortable with himself but he never truly blames himself either. He is a genius, isn't he? Even if he steals the ideas of other people he does so only to transform them and create something fantastic and unique, right? He shouldn't be judged like the rest of dumb, unimaginative herd of ordinary men, should he?

The second issue, perhaps a secondary one in this movie but important to me, is an amazing degree of misogyny among those young, influential and educated young men. I was really surprised by the fact that in their humble opinion girls at Harward (and pretty much elsewhere) existed for three basic purposes: to be picked up and shown around, to be bedded or, in case they are not exactly pretty, to perform different tasks you wouldn't like to do yourself. None of the characters in this movie treats any of females in their proximity as their equal partners. None of the females voices any objections either.


The most blatant scene? Mark is choosing his first and most senior employees, like his CFO, and he takes into account only men, present in the room – the two girls, both lovely Asians, who hang out with them at that time are not taken into any serious consideration. When asked what they are doing there he says they do “nothing”, not even bothering to find out what subject they study (as the girls are obviously both students) or what they know. Afterwards we see the Facebook office with men and women working side by side, that’s true, but I got an impression women were there just for these stupid, repetitive, menial tasks no man would bother to do. Once again, I don’t know if this truly abhorrent approach is really prevalent among Harward students but if it is, my commiseration, dear gentlemen, as you try to ignore to your cost half of the humankind. That’s why Zuckerberg’s ex-girlfriend was my favourite character in this movie; she rejected the a*****e and she never looked back even though she's created a profile on Facebook as well.

Final verdict:

A very intelligent and surprisingly entertaining movie which speaks volumes about the Facebook founder, his methods and his real aims. Really recommendable especially if you've ever visited Facebook or have had an account there. It is good to know who manages your personal data.

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