Plot: Widowed and about 70, Flor Marte asks her family for a living wake so she can enjoy it while she’s still here. She’ll get to see everyone again, especially her three sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila. They are originally from the countryside of the Dominican Republic and immigrated to the United States at differentContinue reading “Review of “Family Lore” by Elizabeth Acevedo”
Tag Archives: fantasy
Review of “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero” (1965)
For our Saturday pizza and bad movie, we enjoyed a return to the classics—a Kaiju flick that managed to squeeze in an alien invasion. Plot: The World Space Authority is sending two astronauts, Glenn Amer (Nick Adams) and K. Fuji (Akira Takarada), to explore the newly discovered Planet X, located beyond Jupiter. (… maybe wedgedContinue reading “Review of “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero” (1965)”
Review of “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” 2009
Our Saturday pizza and bad movie night was a bit different. Plot: Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) runs a strapped-for-cash traveling acting troupe. The troupe consists of Parnassus’s daughter, Valentina (Lily Cole), the barker Anton (Andrew Garfield), and Percy (Verne Troyer), Parnassus’s assistant. They live and travel in a horse-drawn carriage that is a mash-up ofContinue reading “Review of “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” 2009″
Review of “The Little Grey Men” by B.B.
The Stuff: This is a children’s book written and illustrated by a British naturalist. It features four gnomes, reputed to be the last in Britain. They regard themselves as brothers and live under a tree root by Oak Pool. Cloudberry, the most adventurous of the four, has left to find the source of the FollyContinue reading “Review of “The Little Grey Men” by B.B.”
Review of “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” 2022
This was a different sort of Saturday night pizza and bad movie fare for us. The dearly beloved took a recommendation from The Critical Drinker (more on him at a later date), who spoke highly of the flick. Plot: The opening scenes tell a fairy tale about a star that fell to earth, scorching aContinue reading “Review of “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” 2022″
Review of “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom” (1985)
This is our Saturday pizza and bad movie offering. The pizza was yummy. We watched this insult to the nation’s youth with Mystery Science Theater 3000. Plot: The movie opens with a torchlit army marching under arches in a concrete (?) wall. “It was an age of magic,” announces the narration while a guy inContinue reading “Review of “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom” (1985)”
Review of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” (2022)
Last night, we watched this for our Saturday night pizza and bad movie offering. The pizza and wine were good. Plot:In 1932, “Magizoologist” Newton “Newt” Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) tracks a beast known as a qilin in the jungles of China. She gives birth. The newborn looks something like a fawn with long mustaches and aContinue reading “Review of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” (2022)”
Three Book Recommendations and How They Worked
Short Wave is a popular science (as opposed to a scholarly science) podcast put out by NPR I listen to occasionally. It covers a wide range of topics in 10-15 minute segments that are light, often funny, and usually quite informative. Veering off their usual foray into the natural world, the hosts on December 22Continue reading “Three Book Recommendations and How They Worked”
Spring clean: Five more books
This is the second group of books to be donated. I ‘ll miss some of them more than others, of course. I hope they all find happy homes. There is no theme. The books are arranged by alphabetic order on the shelf, so they’ll be going to donation in alphabetical order. This is sort ofContinue reading “Spring clean: Five more books”
Review of “The Beast Weeps with One Eye” by Morgan Al-Moor
Regarding PodCastle I’ve been considering adding to the media that I draw reviews from. Some time ago, I stumbled across PodCastle, which, true to its name, offers fantasy stories via podcast. They also have online text versions. They solicit paid subscriptions of various levels, but the podcast and online versions are readily available without cost.Continue reading “Review of “The Beast Weeps with One Eye” by Morgan Al-Moor”
Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old 