![]() ![]() Laurel’s female insecurities and insights are so genuine, honest, relatable, and flat-out hilarious, and I just loved her character. She’s looking for some wild, no-holds-barred, no-strings-attached sex and lucky for her, hot-as-sin, testosterone-dripping cop Russ seems the perfect man to give her exactly what she needs.This is the first romance book I’ve read that featured a hearing impaired heroine, and she’s utterly adorable and funny as hell. Laurel is tired of being the perpetual “good girl” and living a somewhat sheltered life as a result of being deaf since childhood. The last thing Russ wants or needs is a relationship because between his demanding job and raising his teenage brother Sean, there’s no time left for a personal life. ![]() 5+ stars – Contemporary RomanceThis is a very cute, funny, spicy romantic read with a sexy, rugged, alpha detective who finds himself completely out of his element when he goes all soft and mushy for a woman he meets on his latest police investigation. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() Aliens first appeared on screen in 1902, in Georges Méliès' " A Trip to the Moon." After 1947-in which civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold's UFO sightings and the discovery of a mysterious "flying disc" near Roswell, New Mexico, occurred-a subculture devoted to otherworldly creatures called "ufology" emerged, leaving a lasting mark on cinema.Īs the United States dealt with the Red Scare in the 1950s, influential alien films like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "The War of the Worlds" used intergalactic characters to reflect citizens' fear of communism and other "outsiders," as well as humanity's penchant to destroy itself from within. No medium has more vividly captured and utilized scenarios of extraterrestrial life better than film. Our conception of life beyond Earth reflects our collective hopes and fears about technology and the unknown-not to mention our knowledge of the larger universe, which changes dramatically as time goes on. ![]() Humanity's ideas about alien existence often say more about us than the little green men we envision. ![]() ![]() ![]() But it helps when you’ve got a beloved comedy fixture like Larry David who managed to sell the massive venue out. Having a one-on-one conversation at the Greek Theater seems like an interesting choice, seeing as how massive the venue is. ![]() And they had a pretty stellar cast that included Rogen as Jerry, Kathryn Hahn as Elaine, Aziz Ansari as George, and Jack Black as Kramer. The night we went, they read three episodes from Seinfeld. Throughout the festival, Seth Rogen hosted a celebrity table reading of iconic 90’s films and TV, all to benefit his charity, Hilarity for Charity. To cap the night off, he ended with a concert that included Busta Rhyme, Usher, and Chris Brown. ![]() Chappelle showed off his newest hour and brought with him some friends including Jeff Ross, Deon Cole, Donnell Rawlings, and Bill Burr. But the Friday night that we were there, everything went off without a hitch. So let’s take a brief look back at some of the things we’ve seen.ĭave Chappelle’s appearance at the Hollywood Bowl has been in the news, mainly because someone in the crowd jumped up onstage and attacked the comedian last Tuesday night. The Laugh Button was on hand the last week and a half to catch a lot of the events they had to offer. But their inaugural comedy festival Netflix is a Joke took over the entire city with an epic, star-studded gathering celebrating all things comedy. Yes, the streaming giant has already taken over all of our homes and phones, and become a primary source for our media consumption. A week and a half ago, Netflix took over Los Angeles. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() There are exceptions, of course, but for the most part when a hero is disabled, it is limited to something relatively minor, in terms of affecting his ability to live independently. When it comes to debilitating disabilities, Catherine Anderson deserves some serious praise for taking risks and writing about it: in Blue Skies, the heroine is formerly blind, and at risk for becoming blind again in Phantom Waltz, the heroine is paralyzed and perhaps the most challenging, My Sunshine, in which the heroine has brain damage, and Annie’s Song, in which the heroine is thought to be mentally handicapped but is in fact deaf.ĭo you notice a theme? There aren’t too many men who are disabled in these romance novels. The heroine in Jill Barnett’s Sentimental Journey is blind. Lily in Tessa Dare’s Three Nights With a Scoundrel is deaf, as are the heroines in Suzanne Brockman’s Into the Fire and Erin McCarthy’s Mouth To Mouth. In Virna DePaul’s upcoming book Shades of Desire, the heroine is coping with her recent loss of vision. However, when I asked the staff here at AAR to brainstorm, we came up with a much longer list than I had anticipated. When I first started writing this blog, I thought it was a rare occurrence in romance novels. “Disability” can mean a whole lot of things: blindness, paralysis, amputated limbs, deafness, a chronic illness, brain damage. ![]() ![]() ![]() By the time Robert Louis Stevenson and Modestine reached that area they were tired, and they only left Florac in the afternoon. In the morning of the 10th day we left the gite – housed in the old railway station building – and climbed steadily. ![]() Mountains dominated the views all the way to Florac and leaving the town we walked through lush forest and then the GR70 trail followed the old railway line by the rocky gorge to Cassagnas. Stevenson dined in the village but he then camped beneath chestnut trees by the river not far from the village. We then descended on the broom hedged path to the charming Le Pont de Montvert, where we spent the night. Staring at the almost endless undulating hills it was not difficult to see why Stevenson was taken by the scenery. And just like Stevenson, we were greeted with sweeping views. The peak of Finiels seemed teasingly close but we only reached the summit – the highest peak of the Cévennes and the highest point of the entire trek – at around midday. Trees soon petered out and gave way to smaller shrubs, and soon we climbed the standing stone-lined path. But without a doubt the landscape there was dominated by Mt Lozére (with its highest peak, Finiels). ![]() Looking back from the ridge I could work out the mountains we traversed the day before. On the morning of the seventh day we left Le Bleymard. ![]() We walked day after day and gradually the rolling hills became higher and there were fewer hamlets to walk through as the GR70 trail entered the Cévennes. ![]() ![]() ![]() He does, however, appreciate Badger’s underground home more than Rat does, as being a mole, Mole is used to being underground and finds it invigorating. He and Rat return to Mole’s underground home once, and while it’s a fun experience, it doesn’t change Mole’s mind about where he belongs. He also decides that he loves life on the river, and that the river is his home. Through this, Mole becomes increasingly polite and loyal to Rat. But when Mole makes these mistakes and has to suffer the consequences (capsizing the boat and being terrified in the Wild Wood, respectively), Mole promptly learns his lesson and accepts Rat’s attempts to mentor him. And later, Mole becomes frustrated that Rat won’t take him into the Wild Wood and so decides to go there alone. At first, Mole is jealous and impulsive: for instance, the first time Rat takes Mole on a boat, Mole tries to take the oars and row despite not knowing how. ![]() Mole is young, and he comes of age and finds himself when he meets up with Rat and agrees to stay with Rat on the river. Mole is the first character readers meet he leaves his cozy underground home at the beginning of the novel and never looks back. ![]() ![]() Dev, the protagonist, is a private investigator (PI). ![]() (Please imagine me rubbing my hands together in a gleeful fashion). More on that below in my section about the actual story. Things are pretty loose and carefree on that point. Because the one thing the book insists is that she is certifiable but that she might also be a criminal mastermind. ![]() I think she was supposed to be a stark raving genius? I'm not sure. My biggest problem was the character development for one of the main characters, Kiki, who is the antagonist. ![]() I made allowances for I-started-with-the-third-book situation. Yes I just used fluffery and I just totally made it up.Ĭharacter development: this part of the book was inconsistent. His style is witty, concise and not given to dramatic fluffery. All in all, I enjoyed the author's writing style, if not his writing. My main problem was it lost momentum and hit it's rate of diminishing returns rather quickly as we shall see below. Although this is the third book in the series, I felt that the author took his time and properly set the story up. Readability: the book was easy to read in the regard that ample description was given for the scenery and characters. Since I have not read the first two books of the series, I'm cutting it some slack -but not much. I do not consider this a well-written crime book by any stretch of the imagination. ![]() I see that this was rated fairly high by other readers which puzzles me. ![]() ![]() ![]() The more important connection here is that The Sandman and Locke & Key are both excellent fantasy comics that work by taking a recognizable version of our world and then laying a mythology just beneath its surface. ![]() Goyer, and Gaiman himself as showrunners.įor now, at least, this crossover is strictly comics-based. The second season of Locke & Key is currently filming, while an 11-episode Sandman series is in development with Wonder Woman writer Allan Heinberg, Batman Begins writer David S. ![]() These two worlds meeting is an intriguing prospect - and, at a digital New York Comic Con panel, Locke & Key creators Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez teased a little of what we can expect from the crossover.ĭespite coming out two decades apart, and from two different publishers, the two books do have a lot in common - and not just because both are being adapted by Netflix. ![]() Crossovers are nothing new in comics, whether it’s a meeting between characters you don’t normally see together or even a collision of two different publishers’ universes - but there’s something unusual about the forthcoming Hell & Gone, a crossover between IDW Publishing’s Locke & Key series and The Sandman, the legendary DC Vertigo title that made Neil Gaiman’s name in comics back in the early ’90s. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
![]() The book ends a bit quickly, but after so much drama, readers will welcome the neat, happy conclusion. Walker, 16.99 (276pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-9812-1 When 16-year-old Katrina leaves coffee and pastries for the homeless guy sleeping behind her grandmother's coffeehouse, she. Mimi herself is an honest, savvy narrator she relates much of Shakespeare's plot to readers, and occasionally addresses them directly (e.g., “Turn the page for the grand finale”). ![]() Readers will have fun with the characters, from a womanizing teen heartthrob who inadvertently travels back with Mimi (and reworks a pop song with Mercutio) to a spirited Juliet, who starts a rumor about a boil on her bottom to try to discourage Paris. ![]() The author even plays off traditional plot points, providing original versions of the infamous balcony scene and the potion that mimics death. When she is magically transported into Shakespeare's play, she instantly connects with Juliet, who is being pressured to marry Paris to save her family's name, and she becomes determined to give Juliet a “happy ending.” There are plenty of twists as Mimi meddles with Shakespeare's characters (she begins a romance with smooth-talking Benvolio, for example). Mimi loathes her role as Juliet, but she feels pressured to continue acting in order to save her family's theater. ![]() ) injects an angst-ridden 17-year-old Manhattan actress into Shakespeare's star-crossed romance, yielding hilarious and often very clever results. ![]() |