Saturday, January 10, 2015

Blu-ray Review - The BoxTrolls


The BoxTrolls
Directors: Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi
Voice Cast: Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Elle Fanning, Ben Kingsley, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Release Date: January 20, 2015
Retail: $49.98
ASIN: B00NFZ367Q
Running Time: 97 minutes
Rating: PG
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Arriving on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD on January 20th from Universal Studios Home Entertainment is last year  3D stop motion animated fantasy-comedy film "The BoxTrolls." Bonus Features include Dare to the Square: Behind the Scenes of the Boxtrolls, 5 Featurettes that Take You Inside the Magical World of The Boxtrolls, Feature Commentary with Directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi and the Blu-ray Exclusive - Preliminary Animatics Sequences.

Based on the children book  Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow, The BoxTrolls is set in 1809 in the fictional town of Cheesebridge and centers on a group of subterranean trolls whom live underneath the streets. The outside word believes that the trolls kidnaps and kills little children, but in reality they are kind and shy creatures that wouldn't hurt a fly. They wear boxes and draw pictures on the boxes to represent their name.

Years ago, the trolls came across a human baby and they have been raising him ever since, naming him Eggs. Like the trolls, Eggs wheres a box and crawls out of the sewers at night to find goodies  that humans leave behind in their trash cans and on the street.

The Pest exterminator Archibald Snatcher (voiced by Ben Kingsley) has been obsessed with getting a white hat as only a member of the high society receives one. He finally makes a deal with the mayor that he will receive a white hat if  he catches all of the Boxtrolls, so one by one he begins catching the trolls, including Fish, the gentle troll who is Egg's best friend.

Eggs (voiced by Isaac Hempstead-Wright) is now a young boy and begins to explore the outside world, which is where he befriends the mayor's daughter, Winnie (voiced by Elle Fanning). He unravels Snatcher's plans on destroying the trolls and sets out to find where Snatcher is keeping Fish and the other Trolls at. Somehow Eggs is going to come up with a plan to save the trolls and show the town that trolls are not the villains.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Book Blogger Hop: January 9th -15th

Book Blogger Hop

Welcome to the new Book Blogger Hop!

If you want schedule next week's post, click here to find the next prompt question. To submit a question, fill out this form.

What to do:

1. Post on your blog answering this question:

  This week's question is submitted by Billy!

If you could have dinner with your favorite character, who would it be?

2. Enter the link to your post in the linky list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in removal of your link).


3. Visit other blogs in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new follower.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
  

My Answer: 

The first character that pops into my mind is Sookie Stackhouse from the "True Blood" books, but she can read minds, so I don't think that would be a good idea. The second character that pops into my mind is the immortal Lanore McIlvrae from the Taker trilogy. She was born just before or around the beginning of the 19th Century, so surely she has a lot to talk about.



Linky List:

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Review - Masterpiece Marriage


Masterpiece Marriage
Quilts of Love Series
by Gina Welborn
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Pub. Date: December 16, 2014
Pages: 229
Buy Link: Amazon
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/gwelborn

Review:

If you follow my blog on regular basis, then you probably noticed that I have reviewed several books from the the Quilts of Love Series from Abingdon Press. Each book in the series features a different story and characters that are written by a different authors. The newest installment is titled Masterpiece Marriage and it is written by Gina Welborn.

The book is set in 1891 and centers on a man named Zenus Dane, who's textile mill was recently flooded. Due to the fact that his normal income has come to a halt, the bank has been pressuring him to pay off his loan. With no other choice, he is determined to salvage the textiles, but he will need his aunt's help as he wants to use her hand-drawn quilt patterns.

To his surprise, Mary Varrs, an Englishwoman, hires Aunt Priscilla to illustrate her prized tomato plants. Of course this is a love story, so you can pretty much guess what happens next - Zenus and Mary meet and quickly start to develop feelings for each other.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

The Best Writing Tips Wednesdays Posts of 2014


It’s a new year! Happy New Year everyone!

I thought today I would share with you my favorite Coffee-Addicted Writer Writing Tips posts from 2014. Enjoy!












Here’s to a healthy, successful writing career in 2015!

Brenda is a fellow book-lover and coffee-addict. She is a freelance writer, punctuation nerd, and grammar enthusiast. Her favorite book genres are Science Fiction, Fantasy with a Twist, and Dystopian. Brenda blogs about books, writing and more at Daily Mayo. Find her here on CaW for Writing Tips Wednesdays the first Wednesday of every month.

Follow Brenda on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to updates from Daily Mayo to keep up with all the exciting things in her life; ranging from drinking coffee to get through the day to drinking coffee just for fun.

Review - Judge Dredd: Mega-City Two


Judge Dredd: Mega-City Two
by Douglas Wolk
Illustrator: Ulises Farinas
Publisher: Diamond Book Distributors
Pub. Date: September 16, 2014
ASIN: 978-1631400803
Pages: 124
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

While I was well aware that Judge Dredd was a comic book series, I have never read a single issue that is until I read this one last year. However, I have seen both movies that have been made of the character.

Judge Dredd: Mega-City Two finds Judge Dredd being taking out of his comfort zone when he is placed in a Judge exchange program. He ends up in California, where a camera crew is constantly following him around. You can say that he is kinda upset that he is forced to carry a non-lethal gun. Los Angeles is no more, so the setting takes place in Mega-City. There are several stores in this book, even a story involving a giant mutated shrimp. Yes, I said that correctly.

Review - Doctor Who: Silhouette


Doctor Who: Silhouette
by Justin Richards
Publisher: Broadway Books
Pub. Date: September 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0804140881
Pages: 256
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Despite being over fifty-years-old, the Doctor Who franchise is bigger than ever, but fans will have to wait until the ninth series (season) premieres later this year. The good news is that there are plenty of Doctor Who novelizations fans grab their hands on to keep them preoccupied until then.

Several new titles were released this past September, including Doctor Who: Silhouette by Justin Richards, which follows the 12th Doctor and his companion Clara along with their old pals - Madame Vastra, Strax, and Jenny. 

Set in Victorian London, Silhouette finds the Doctor and his companions investigating a murder and the strange occurrences at a Frost Fair on the River Thames. As a strange figure known as the Silhouette takes center stage, their journey will take them beyond the fair to the Carnival of Curiosities to unravel the mystery.

Beginning Waltz: A Step-By-Step Guide! Volume 2 Review


Beginning Waltz: A Step-By-Step Guide! Volume 2
Studio: DanceCrazy.com
Release Date: February 23, 2007
Retail: $39.95
ASIN: B000NDEWI0
Running Time: 53 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

I hope everyone is having a great 2015 so far! A new year is a great time to learn something new, like dancing. Yes, I said dancing. If you have kept up with my blog last year, then you probably read several other dancing DVDs review posts. Due to my bad knee, I didn't want to try out any high intensity workouts, though I have now brought back a few kickboxing workouts into my routine, so I had tried out several dancing DVDs. Despite my two left feet, I have enjoyed learning how to dance.

Last month, I tried out the Beginning Waltz: A Step-By-Step Guide! Volume 2 from DanceCrazy. Even if you're not a dancer, there is a good chance that you heard about the dance called the Waltz or you have seen it in a movie with classic stars like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

This DVD runs at almost 53 minutes and features a male and a female instructors, who give a step-by-step guide on how to do the Waltz. At the end of the DVD the instructors put all the moves together for a full dance sequence.

The moves featured on this DVD are:

Monday, January 5, 2015

Review - Bound by Night & Chained by Night

Click on the cover art to buy the book!
Last fall was definitely a little chaotic with me falling behind on a few reviews. I thought I had gotten caught up on everything, but lo and behold, I happened to come across two books I forgotten to read and review - Bound by Night and Chained by Night. Both books are part of The Moon Bound Clan Vampires series and are written by Larissa Ione. Therefore since the weekend was a cold and icy, I squeezed in time for some much needed reading.

Bound by Night (Pocket Books; 978-1476700175; 400 pages) is set in a world where vampires are slaves to humans that is until an uprising occurs, resulting in the death of many humans. Nicole Martin was just eight-years-old when her entire family was murdered in front of her. Barely surviving, Nicole devotes her live to finding a cure to vampirism, but her feelings kinda change when she starts to fall for a vampire from her past - Riker.

Riker is part of the renegade vampire MoonBound Clan and seeks out to avenge his kind that were once enslaved by the Martin family by kidnapping Nicole, but his plans forrevenge change when he falls in love with her.