Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Review - Where Treetops Glistens


Where Treetops Glisten
by Tricia Goyer, Cara Putman and Sarah Sundin
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
Pub. Date: September 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-1601426482
Pages: 368
Buy Link: http://ow.ly/BwVP9
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/glisten

Review:

October won't arrive until tomorrow, but publishers are already releasing holiday titles. Now don't get me wrong, I do like reading a good Christmas story, but this time a year I'm more in the mood to read a R.L. Stine or Stephen King title. Being a blogger, I don't have any control over what books are available to review. After I already reviewed one holiday title this year, I was going to take a break until November, but once I saw Tricia Goyer, Cara Putman and Sarah Sundin were the authors of the new anthology, Where Treetops Glisten, I had to review it.

The anthology centers on the Turner family, whom are living in Lafayette, Indiana during the WWII. Cara Putman pens the first story, titled White Christmas, where college student Abigail Turner is still mourning the death of boyfriend. She has no plans on ever finding love again that is until she meets Jackson, a man that needs her help.

I'll Be Home For Christmas is written by Sarah Sundin and centers on Abigail's brother Pete, a fighter pilot returning home to try to put the war behind him. His faith seems to be a lost that is until he meets a young girl and his mother, a woman he once bullied when they were young.

DVD Review - The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill


The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill
Director: Kevin Gates, Michael Bartlett
Starring: Mark Andrews, Michael Bartlett
Studio: Image Entertainment
Release Date: September 30, 2014
Retail: $27.97
ASIN: B00KTFJ72I
Running Time: 88 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Fifteen-years ago, The Blair Witch Project jumped started the "found footage genre," and many other filmmakers had followed in its footsteps, including today's DVD release of The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill. The film is co-directed by Kevin Gates and Michael Bartlett and stars Craig Stovin, Criselda Cabitac, Kevin Gates, Michael Bartlett, Mark Jeavons and Rob Whitaker. Special features include: audio commentary with co-directors and cast and "Tales from the Graveyard" deleted scenes.

When you see the words "based on true events" on a horror DVD case, most likely the film is fictionalized or it is very loosely connected to the real events. In the case with this movie, it is a faux "ghost hunting" documentary, but if you don't know that before hand, you might be fooled into believing that the movie is actually real.

The film follows six paranormal investigators who travel to Clophill to investigate the strange occurrences that have occurred at the ruined St. Mary's Church. Over the years the area has attracted grave robbers, body snatchers, Satanists and cultists. The team is determined to unravel the mysteries of the "holy ground," but what they discover may just cost them their lives.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Review - The Sea House


The Sea House
A Novel
by Elisabeth Gifford
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pub. Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1250043344
Pages: 320
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/egifford
Buy Link: http://amzn.to/ZSbs53

Review:
 
Released earlier this year is the mystery-romance The Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford. Typically, the only romance books I read are the historical kind, but I was looking for something different to read and that is exactly what I got with this novel.

The Sea House centers a couple, Michael and Ruth, who moves into an old seaside house on the Scottish Island of Harris. At first glance the house is a dream come true, but this house has many secrets buried within it, including the remains of a baby, whose legs were fused together, as if it were a mermaid baby. As I guess you can say that the couple's plans on turning the house into a bread & breakfast are definitely put on a hold.

Being pregnant, Ruth becomes interested in the identity of the baby and the history of the house, which leads her to learn about an amateur evolutionary scientist, Reverend Alexander Ferguson, who once lived in he house during the 1800s. Alexander was investigating the legend of the selkies, a mermaid/seal people that have been sighted in the area for the centuries.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Review and Giveaway - Gunman's Tally

Gunman's Tally
by L. Ron Hubbard
Studio: Galaxy Press
Release Date: March 21, 2013
ISBN: 978-1592122752
Pages: 120
ASIN: 978-1592123780
Running Time: 125 minutes
Buy Links: Audiobook, Paperback

Review:

Besides from listening to a a few children audiobooks on cassettes when I was a kid, I have never been a fan of audiobooks until I started reviewing titles from Stories from the Golden Age, which are short stories that were written in the '30s and '40s by L. Ron Hubbard. With a banquet of 153 stories, Galaxy Press has been releasing these titles onto audiobooks and paperbacks for a new generation of readers.

Recently, I received both the audiobook and paperback of Gunman's Tally, a western short story that was originally published in the November 1937 issue of All Western Magazine. This title also includes an additional title, Ruin At Rio Piedras. The audiobook is directed by Jim Meskiman and features the voice-actors of Shane Johnson, R.F. Daley, Christina Huntington, Jim Meskimen, Phil Proctor, Enn Reitel, Josh R. Thompson and Michael Yurchak.

Gunman's Tally centers on Easy Bill Gates, the landowner of the Las Pinas ranch who has a gentle heart. He had never succumbed to violence until his brother was murdered by the outlaw Fanner Marsten. He tracked down Fanner and struck him down. Little did he know that Fanner was one of the fastest gun in the west, so now Bill has a reputation as a gunslinger.

George Barton is the villain of this story and he wants to claim Las Pinas as his own. He is afraid of Easy Bill Gates, so he hires the fastest and meanest gunslinger to either run Bill off of his land or kill him in the process, but Bill won't give up his land without a fight.

Blu-ray Review - Krull



Krull
Director: Peter Yates
Starring: Ken Marshall, Lysette Anthony, Freddie Jones, Francesca Annis and Liam Neeson
Release Date: September 30, 2014
Retail: $9.98
ASIN: B00LU4URS0
Running Time: 121 minutes
Rating: PG
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Arriving on Blu-ray for the very first time on Tuesday September 30, 2014 is the 1983 cult classic Krull. The film was directed by Peter Yates (Bullitt) and stars Ken Marshall (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Lysette Anthony (Dark Shadows), Freddie Jones (Dune), Francesca Annis (The Libertine) and Liam Nesson (Taken, Taken 2). There are no extras or special features on the Blu-ray.

There were many science-fiction adventures released during the 1980s, including Krull, which in 1983 was one of the biggest budget ($45-50 million) films ever produced. The film was critically panned and was considered a box-office flop, taking in just over $16 million. Over the years, mostly thanks to reruns on TBS and TNT in the '90s, the film now has a cult following.

The film is set on the planet Krull where The Beast and his army of Slayers arrive to wreck havoc by kidnapping Princess Lyssa (played by Lysette Anthony). Her husband-to-be, Prince Colwyn (played by Ken Marshall), is the only survivor of the wedding massacre and seeks out to save the princess and is nursed back to health by Ynyr the Old One.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

DVD Review - Witch's Night Out



Witch's Night Out
Voice Cast: Gilda Radner, Bob Church, John Leach, Naomi Leach
Tony Molesworth, Catherine O'Hara, Fiona Reid, Gerry Salsberg
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
Release Date: September 16, 2014
Retail: $9.98
ISBN: B00LU4URQM
Running Time: 124 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Arriving on DVD for the very first time is the 1978 Canadian Halloween special, titled Witch's Night Out, which is a sequel to the 1974 special The Gift of Winter. 

Witch's Night Out centers on a witch bringing two children, Small and Tender, along with their babysitter (Bazooey) to a Halloween party that is taking place at the witch's mansion. The witch decides to show them a good time by turning them into a werewolf and Frankenstein's monster. The local citizens aren't too happy about the party and they create a mob to catch any supernatural creature.

As an added bonus there are 10 bonus Halloween episodes:

Friday, September 26, 2014

Book Blogger Hop: Sept. 26th - Oct. 2nd

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 Stephanie!

How will be reading in 100 year's time? Will there be any printed books left? How about ereaders? What might they look like?

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: 

In my bleak version of the future, an apocalypse has occurred and there is no electricity, so all technology has become obsolete, including ereaders. All there is to read are the printed books that survived the destruction.


Linky List: