All tagged War

Stream-It Sunday: How I Live Now (Movie)

Stream-It Sunday: How I Live Now (Movie)

Sarah Moon
Movies

Have I mentioned that I am the unofficial Queen of Streaming?

We don't have cable or satellite television, so the majority of my television consumption is thanks to my beloved Roku box. (Note to self: Write a post about how we don't have cable & manage to watch a crap-ton of television.) I dig pretty deep into the streaming services for my screen time. 

For awhile now I've been meaning to start an irregular series with my recommendations for finds on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant, and so on. I thought I'd kick off this series by featuring a movie I watch with week on Netflix, the film adaptation of Meg Roscoff's How I Live Now. 

Review: Collateral by Ellen Hopkins

Review: Collateral by Ellen Hopkins

Sarah Moon
Books
[…] Service. Sacrifice.
      The problem with that being,
              everyone attached to those
                    soldiers must sacrifice, too.
So, as some Afghani warlord
might say,
      put that in your 
             pipe and smoke it. Okay, that
                      was actually my grandpa’s saying.
But it works, and what I mean
       is, think long and hard before
              offering your heart to someone
                      who can only accept it part time. 

It’s fitting that Ellen Hopkins’ newest novel-in-verse for adults, Collateral, shared its release day, November 6, with the United States election day. 

It’s both timely in its exploration of the effects at home of the country’s long-time military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq and in that Collateral also touches on a number of other current issues in this country, creating a heavy-handed, though still beautifully written, snapshot of American life that’s intertwined with the modern military.

Written in free verse, Collateral is mostly told from San Diego student Ashely’s point-of-view. She meets and falls in love with a Marine, Cole, a guy from rural Wyoming whom she is shocked to discover isn’t what she thought of as the stereotype of a military man.

You can tell a lot by the way
        a guy kisses. Cole kissed like

summer rain—barely wet,
          the temperature of August
              sky, thunder-punctuated. Delicious. 

Cole writes poetry, he’s smart, he’s funny. Their relationship is intense, and Collateral spans five years and four of Cole’s deployments.

The title of the book—Collateral—demonstrates the main theme of the book: collateral damage.

{Review} The Shadow Reader by Sandy Williams

Sarah Moon
Books

Warring, warring, a love triangle and more warring.

I had such high hopes for The Shadow Reader—I’d read a number of rave reviews of it and since I’m desperately seeking a new urban fantasy series, I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, Sandy Williams’ debut novel, fell flat for me despite its creative premise.

Mckenzie is a Shadow Reader. And, despite her incessant complaining (which is understandable, given all the warring she winds up involved in as a result of this job), this is a pretty sweet gig. Basically, she can read a fae’s (which is basically a magical badass fairy-type person) location when they “fissure” (move from one place to another). She’s really, really good at her job, so her services are in hot demand. She’s been at this job since she was teenage, when the Fae King’s Swordmaster (annnnnd… this is where I should have reminded myself that fae-based urban fantasy simply isn’t my thing—too much royalty) recruits her. During her decade of service with the fae court, she falls in love with the swordmaster, Kyol, though much of the time he chooses to not allow the relationship to progress. So, Mckenzie plans on quitting her job just as soon as she finishes her last exam and gets her degree. Except during that last exam, Kyol interrups her on Very Important Fae Business™ and drags her off into the middle of a fae battle, during which she is kidnapped by a fae rebel, Aren.

This all happens in the first couple chapters. 

At which point, I thought, 

This book is either going to be a badass action trip or tediously detailed as these fae battle for supremacy. 

Unfortunately, we went through Door #2.